Spring Air

Winter wasn't that bad, right? We're now completely immersed in spring. The temperature is even flirting with 80 at the moment. So the bike has once again taken its rightful place on the back porch. New shoes have been purchased and there must've been 5000 tulip bulbs buried in our yard. They're everywhere.

So are people. People on bikes, people running, people walking unruly dogs, people in 4000 lbs of steel getting pissed because they think their car as well as the a-hole in it has some greater right to the road . There are A LOT of driving instructors not instructing. I hate people in cars, but kudos to the big auto companies... they've made us all think that we can't live without the automobile. And in the hot topic of gas, no one seems to think that a company who has mass-produced a machine that uses a non-renewable resource and has done so with fervor in the name of a larger profit margin shouldn't be held accountable. It's because we love them for what they've given us... the idea of personal freedom... and shame on anyone for getting in our way. We'll kill each other yet... then there'll be no one around to enjoy all those tulips.

Again, More Bored

This here's the final stand. I don't know why they saved the elevator shaft for the end. Maybe all demolition specialists maintain this standard... maybe not. It's kind of amazing to watch something like this come down. So many wires and soooo much rebar... and concrete. There was a lot of that, too.

Erica inquired whether they were tearing it down so they could build a bigger and better parking garage. She had a bird's eye view from the 32nd floor of the LaVeque Tower which is just off the left side of this shot. Big old gothic thing.

I'm Bored

I'm bored and at somewhat of a standstill with work, so I'll talk about kitchens. I know I'm not the first to say that the kitchen is the heart of a house. If you break down our basic necessities, we really only need food, water and shelter. A kitchen provides you with all three. I'm leery of families that don't naturally congregate to the kitchen. It makes me feel like they're hiding things from each other. It's gives me a general feeling of distrust.

This was last night. I ran in the morning and didn't have to pick Erica up from school until 8:15, so I laid everything out all nice & neat like so that once we got home, we could immediately start dinner. It's like those cooking shows where it's all laid out for them. It makes me think that I might like cooking too if all the preparation was taken care of and I didn't have to wash any dishes. Lazy ass cooking show hosts.

But the sun was setting on another surprisingly beautiful day in central Ohio and standing there gave me a warm fuzzy feeling all over... so I took a picture. It reminded me of my kitchen at the Stratford. It too had a window and door that faced west and in the rare occurrence that it was clean, the same sun would fill the room with a warm glow. And if anyone wondered, spaghetti was the dish. A personal favorite.

Worthless

Today, while walking to work, I caught site of a behemoth street vacuuming but not really vacuuming cart appartus. I could go on and on about these damn things. I can't stand them. I hate that it makes the city that employs them as well as operators at the wheel look lazy, stupid and wasteful. Do yourself a favor the next time you see one downtown... follow it. Follow it and see just how much trash they don't pick up. Follow it to see the process involved with picking up a cigarette butt. Mind blowing.

I happened to follow this waste of space on the left for about seven blocks. I was rewarded when it met up with a fellow waste of space on the right... and even more rewarded that the demolition of a parking garage was taking place across the street. I probably could've taken their pictures outright, but felt better about faking them out.

What bothers me the most are those that must've felt like this was such a good idea or the people working for the city are cool with running through the gas and oil required to keep these running... so long as it keeps the street sweepers off their asses right? Maybe I'm wrong, but they're not giving me much of a reason to think otherwise. Not only that, but what does one of these things cost? I can't imagine they're all that cheap. Even when morals skipped town in the U.S. long ago, you would've thought common sense would've hung in there... put up the good fight. Not so friends. This is just a fraction of the proof.

Coffee Shoppin'

This is a Monday morning ritual... coffee at the Starbucks downtown. Erica and I hop on the 7:56 and arrive down at Broad and High around 8:30, grab two cups, a couple of chairs and settle in for the next 25 minutes. It's a good opportunity to get the day started without being immediately thrown into it. 

My only problem with it is that, of course, it's a Starbucks... but when mom & pop aren't within walking distance and the building Erica works in is accessible without going outside, it makes it a tough locale to pass on... especially in the winter when the wind at that intersection tends to whip more than in most places. Plus, I'm old and tired of putting up a useless fight. It's just too bad that it's Starbucks, Einstein Bagels or Potbelly's... which the thought of the latter serving coffee is about as appealing as a solid week of their sandwiches. People don't think it's a big deal, but one day, that's all that'll be left. That's the way these places want it. Their insatiable appetite to sell coffee not just to you but to everyone, has driven out those that might've been cool with selling cups at a reasonable price to friends and friends of friends. And some might make the argument that everyone is in business so as to drive the competitors out of business, but I don't think that's true. I think there are a lot people in business that are content with providing a great product at an honest price. And then there are those that are only interested in the amount of product they can sell.

And this is usually why 25 minutes is the perfect amount of time. As nice as the conversation may start, I usually regress to complaining about something and Erica apparently doesn't want to hear it in the mornings. But by that time, we're both ready to worry about other things.

Hardly Workin'

This is my dad, TNT, up in the ceiling of the garage of my parent's house on Saturday night. Over some time, and apparently unnoticed, a very large section of the ceiling began to separate from the joists in the garage, pulling other sections off their joists along with it. 

Luckily, I was heading home this past weekend and my dad and I were up until 1 am tearing down very heavy drywall... all the while balancing on ladders. It was hard work and I was thoroughly beat by the end of it. And then we woke up the following morning at 6, went to church, breakfast and then played a round of golf with his friend, Don. It was a beautiful day, sunrise to sunset. 

Erica drove in from Columbus for dinner... my mom's chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes. It was a belated birthday gift. I don't care if I'm 45 and have 20 kids, I'll still look forward to my birthday dinner... and I can't say it would ever be anything other than the chicken and noodles. So it was a good weekend spent in Piqua. Not exactly restful, but when we get a stretch of days like we're having, it's hard to justify laying around. The run around the bike loop was worth it as well. Not sure how I did, but it was a nice, steady relaxing run. I wish I had the time to run it more often. I wish I had the time to do a lot of things more often.

Not Much Happenin'

I haven't taken any pictures lately which was kind of the self-imposed stipulation I've put on myself concerning this blog. It's not that I haven't had anything to talk about, but I just haven't had the imagery to go along with it.

The race Sunday went better than expected. The weather was overcast and cool. Perfect. The route wasn't as bad as what I thought it was going to be... although running that little offshoot up Torrence sucked bad. I think there could be a more reasonable alternative to accomplishing a 15K route. Final number was 1:09:35. Friends and family were there to see us finish which always makes the experience that much better. I was hoping Erica would be more excited about taking pictures of my sister and I making our way down the stretch... but... uhhh... that never happened. And just for that, she gets her mug pasted up there instead. I had to scan some sketches in for a logo and decided that while I was at it, I'd scan one of my favorite pictures of her in, which just so happens to be over some sketches that I'd recently done of her... oh, how weird.

There were also a couple of birthday celebrations over the weekend that didn't seem to warrant a single photo. My sister-in-law, Leslie turned 30. Erica's dad turned 60. It was quite the weekend. This week has sucked. I've worn my raincoat to work three days this week. And one of these days, I'm going to just start taking pictures of the people I encounter. For instance, a man, young woman and her 2-year old son got on the bus yesterday and were cussing like it was their native language. The bus driver pulled the bus over and asked them not to curse. Offended, the young woman got her son to sing the lyrics to a song that contained such expletives as "motherf***er", "s**t" and some others that a young child might still have trouble pronouncing... because as she said over and over, "It's my kid." Indeed it was.