Month: July 2007

Photography

Peppers and Chilies

Shelly

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I have way more to do this weekend than I would like. And, in between everything else, I’m trying to get laundry done. I thought I’d take a minute to photograph some more beautiful peppers from my coworker, though. Next week, she’s bringing me green tomatoes. I can’t wait!

I also had to run some errands this morning, which means I finally found Hobby Lobby. This is not good, folks. It’s right around the corner from me. But, they had the black paper photo corners I wanted, as well as ink, fat glue sticks, and a few other odds and ends. Boy, is there ever a lot of junk there, though! It’s not quite as bad as Big [and] Lots, but it also is lacking in Big [and] Lots’ festive garage sale atmosphere.

Oh, and the UberKroger is next to Hobby Lobby, as well as Showplace East, which is where the new Harry Potter movie is playing. I was way better off not knowing where anything was.

Photography

Landscapes and Time

Shelly

During one of my many recent midnight wakings, I started thinking about landscapes and time. Specifically, time and the places I’ve lived. Whenever I’m asked where I grew up, I have to stop and think. When I was really young, we lived in southern Indiana. When I was five, we moved to a house on Lake Michigan, staying in that area for a few years, before returning to southern Indiana. Of course, the moves seem more frequent than they really were, and the time spans in each location seem lengthier. That’s the magic of childhood memories, I suppose. They are forever compressing and expanding.

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Aqueduct, Metamora, Indiana, where we used to swim

We moved to Metamora when I was nine, and to Brookville when I was 13. We were only in Franklin County for five years, but sometimes it seems like we lived there forever. It doesn’t seem possible that so much living could be packed into such a small, finite compartment of time.

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Along Patricksburg Road, Owen County, Indiana, a spot I used to pass every day

And then I started thinking about moving back to southern Indiana a few years ago. Six, to be exact; I left Muncie in the spring of 2001. After 18 years of flat earth, I just couldn’t stand it any longer. Every time I visited southern Indiana, I felt like I was coming home, and every time I returned to Muncie, I felt homesick. I missed the hills and trees of my childhood.

I stayed in Owen County five years before moving to Bloomington, where I’ve been for nearly a year. It doesn’t seem possible that I’ve been in back in southern Indiana for six years–a year longer than the time I lived here as a child.

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Sunrise, Owen County, Indiana, January 2006

Crankypantsing

O Ick

Shelly

I woke up this morning with a sore throat. I think it’s just allergies, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying. Ugh. And, I don’t imagine that the lack of sleep, from which I am only slowly recovering, has helped one little bit. Even though I tried to go to bed at a reasonable hour on Sunday night, there were so many fireworks (still!) that it was a lost cause. It started with the Bumpasses, who were lighting bottle rockets in the back field, and ended up with someone from the other side of the court setting off ginormous wads of firecrackers in the parking lot. Every 30 minutes. Until 2am. When I went out to walk the dog Monday morning, there was a mass of red firecracker debris in the parking lot, mounded up right behind my car.

Now, tell me, what sort of jerk sets off firecrackers in the middle of the night, in a densely populated area, right next to someone’s car? I’d be seriously pissed off if my car were damaged by fireworks.

And then, of course, because I only got a couple of hours of sleep on Sunday night, Mr. Upstairs kept me up most of Monday night. Aieee! He does seem to be getting a little better, though, so I’m trying not to let myself get too irritated with him. He’s not blasting his television quite so loudly, and when he does have it on, it’s during sane hours. He’s also stopped jogging on the treadmill at 3am, for which I am deeply grateful. That said, he spent most of last night stomping around, and even with a box fan on high for white noise, he woke me up several times.

Which brings me to my amusing link of the day: The Astoria Notes. I read these awhile back, when I stumbled across a link to them on another blog. They were mentioned again, in comments at Passive Aggressive Notes, so I thought I’d share.

Altered Photos, Art, Collage, Letters to Esther

The Terrible Hours: Uncertain Orbits

Shelly

The Terrible Hours: Uncertain Orbits
The Terrible Hours: Uncertain Orbits
collage (child’s dress pattern, altered Polaroid, magazine and dictionary illustrations, and anatomical illustration)
9 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches

I found the diagram of the solar system in an old dictionary. Ironically, it was published before Pluto was made the ninth planet.

I’ve been struggling with this one off and on all day. Aside from having a headache, I was preoccupied with having been contacted by two of Esther’s nieces. I’m still mentally processing information, and I won’t know how things are going to proceed until they’ve had a chance to talk to the rest of the family. Obviously, I’ll return the letters to them, but I’m hoping that they will let me digitize and transcribe the remaining ones first. And, of course, I’d like to keep the letters online, where they will be accessible to everyone.

The internet, it doth amaze!

Pets, Photography

Cats and Dogs Livin’ in Sin

Shelly

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Pandora loves to sleep by the patio door, where it’s nice and bright.

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Harriet kept digging the cushion out of her dog bed. After the umpteenth time, I gave up and put the cushion in the living room, inside the patio door. Mostly, Pandora sleeps on it, but Harriet has stolen it back a couple of times.

Without the bumper sides to hold her in, the bed is ridiculously small for even a miniature Boxer like Harriet.