Six More Weeks

Sorry, I have no groundhog pictures for you today. Somehow that big rat saw his shadow, don't ask how, but he did. Someday I ought to run up to Gobbler's Knob and see the seer of seers, the prognosticator of prognosticators, Phil. Heck, after Cooperstown last summer Punxutawny would seem like a piece of cake.

"As I look around me, a bright sky I see, and a shadow beside me.Six more weeks of winter it will be!" Punxutawny Phil, 2/2/08.

Check it out.

Number 5

This is Westphal Hose Company #5 in Martinsburg, Berkeley County, West Virginia. Located on North Queen Street they are one of the two stations that make up the Martinsburg Fire Department. I took this picture in April of 1988, yes, 20 years ago. When I first uncovered it in an album in the basement I thought, "Hey, I can use this as an Old School picture", but the little I could find out about them I did find out this is still an active station.

Martinsburg is now on my list of places I need to go back too. That list is getting long.

Abandoned (part 4)

More pictures from the abandoned farmstead series. I think this will be it with this place for a while, I have more but it's time to move on. Maybe this weekend I can find another subject. Don't get me wrong, I totally enjoyed this and I think I would like to revisit it, maybe after a snowfall, maybe stop back in the spring to see if there is still signs of life. I could see if I could make something happen if I were to find the first crocuses of spring blooming amongst the decay, maybe a family of cottontails or a nest of robins. Oh, I think for sure I'll check back, now you'll have to stop back to see if I actually do.

Gutterball Zone (PG XLV)

Park Lanes has been the scene of so many birthday parties in my kids' lives that I don't know how a town could survive without a bowling alley. At one time there were two alleys in Shippensburg, Park Lanes and Jay Wrights. But, of course, Jay had a roller rink in the basement. Oh yeah, roller rinks, we'll save that for another time. Bowling and Rolling, in my opinion, were staples growing up, usually reserved for special occasions but so much better than playing games with the TV.

I liked the way the spotlight shined on the building, so I ran up late last week in the dark and fired off some pictures. Froze my butt off while I was at it. I also thought as I was processing it that I liked to over-processed grainy look to this. Hope you do too.

"It all comes down to this roll. Roy Munson, a man-child, with a dream to topple bowling giant Ernie McCracken. If he strikes, he's the 1979 Odor-Eaters Champion. He's got one foot in the frying pan and one in the pressure cooker." Ernie McCraken (Bill Murray) Kingpin 1996

It's Fun to Stay...

...at the YMCA (raise your hands), It's fun to stay at the YMCA (come on, raise your hands, I know to want to). OK, maybe you don't want to.

This is the Y on the 700 block of North Front Street in Harrisburg, PA. A beautiful building, maybe next time I'll get some details of the doorways. (WEBSITE). The Harrisburg Y was founded in 1854 to keep young men off the streets and out of trouble. This building was built in 1932 with many additions throughout the years.

The Crew and The Crue

January 28, 1986. What were you doing? Me? I had tickets to a Motley Crue concert at the Rhein-Neckar Halle in Eppelheim, West Germany. There was probably 6 or 7 of us from my dorm back in Ramstein, 4 of us were in my friend John's car. This was their Theatre of Pain tour and I don't remember who opened for them anymore, but I remember that before the concert started John returned from the restroom with the news. Yes, it was that day, that January 28th, 1986. John told us he heard from a US soldier that the Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded on take-off and that there were no survivors. Our response was skepticism, that we would have heard if it were true. Do the math, though, we were 6 hours ahead of the East Coast which would have put us outside the concert hall at 11:38 AM eastern standard time. Later, after the concert, on our way back to the base we heard the news report on AFN Radio, it was real, it really happened. We pulled to the side of the road so we could hear every word they said and I remember thinking out loud, "What Now?" Well, 22 years have gone by now, the Shuttle Columbia exploded on re-entry 5 years ago this Friday and the Space Shuttle program goes on with most people not even blinking an eye or even knowing, or caring. That's what now.

These pictures are from the Motley Crue concert, the top is Nikki Sixx and Vince Neil, the bottom picture would be Tommy Lee's rotating drum stand, this is the one that only rotated 90 degrees not the one that later would spin 180 degrees. The pictures are from scans, the camera was my first 35mm, the Olympus XA2.

Ponies of Black Duck Marsh

Assateague Island, VA. December 22, 2007.