Wednesday 10.26.11
The bridge is done. It is not opened for travel yet though. The blacktop guys finished up this morning. The sod guys finished up as well. Some other guys did a little site clean up.
They started working on this thing on August 6th. One month and one day after the original start date… not considering they were going to build it last year and maybe even before that. City projects happen in mysterious ways I guess.
As the bridge was being built, many people came by on a regular basis to watch their tax dollars being spent. I imagine some were coming to see how they were being spent. Traffic during this construction was diverted around the blocks to the North and to the South. For those who wanted to avoid that huge inconvenience of actually driving around the detour, they just came though my property as well as the property of the VFW and the sandblaster guy out back. We all madde minor attempts to place obstacles in the way so these jokers would slow down a little. For some, this just became more of a challenge to see how fast they could blow through them all. Now that this thing is almost done, we’ll see if there’s a difference in the traffic flow on private property.
One of the engineers mentioned today that he’d like to see it stay closed another week to let the black top harden up. This is the time of year that many tractors with grain wagon trains come down the street and over the bridge on their way to the grain elevator and rail spur.
I will say that these bridge guys seemed to stay on task every day. There were maybe 2 days where rain might have been a problem. The only other times they were slow was when the City had to come in to do something. Imagine that… the City is actually here IN the City but it takes them a long time to get around to doing something sometimes.
Friday 10.21.11
The big negative ad campaign.
Seems to be working. Here are some of my random ads which are pretty much me spitting at other people who have a camera and are able to document your life with a unique vision available only through their own eyes, or lens.
Tuesday 10.18.11
Revisiting the post on Saturday 10.15.11…
I try to stay halfway informed about some of the political things going on in the area and elsewhere. I don’t ever claim to have a firm grip on a lot of it. There are things I completely miss, never hear about or understand. Yesterday I received a comment from someone on my Saturday post. I responded with a smart ass comment that was kind of in keeping with the joking around I was attempting to do in the original entry.
As I was doing that and since then, I’ve been wondering if I was a complete idiot. Ok, I labeled it “Occupy Wall Street”, even though I was in Madison, Wisconsin. In my head, I was under the impression that there was a global “Occupy” day going on in solidarity with the actual “Occupy Wall Street” protests that are about a month old. I do know that MoveOn.org had the scheduled rally for the time and place. I also know that they changed gears to work in conjunction with the OCCUPY movement. This, they did. So, sorry for the confusion. I should not have titled it Occupy Wall Street. For more info… here’s a better source.
Saturday 10.15.11
Occupy Wall Street…
It has been about 7 months since I attended some of the Madison protests. Today there was another one in Madison in keeping with the now global protests on the widening income disparity. In a nutshell, that is it… the widening income disparity. 1% of the people in the world make more than the entire remaining 99%. 1% of the people of the world control the other 99%. Some people don’t like this math.
Thinking about all of this as I read about it or watch reports about it on the news, it seems as if sometimes some of the people protest to protest and don’t have a firm understanding of what any of it means. I’m not sure that I do either. I’ve always thought that if these politicians would just get to the point when they are trying to make a point, we could all save a lot of time and go find something to eat. But no, they have to speak in words that may or not mean what they say or have anything at all to do with the original topic. The unfortunate result of listening to these people fuck with our language is that everyone else begins to speak the same way – and in the end we are supposed to understand what is said and meant. Based on what we THINK we heard and understood, we are expected to act or react. I remain confused.
There was a speaker in Madison today who made the following statement:
“If we don’t learn to walk and chew gum at the same time, we will be in an awful pickle.” Really…? Suppose we examine what this means. Evidently, we have been lacking in our ability to learn an important skill: walking and chewing gum at the same time. I can walk. I’ve probably been doing it since I was around 1 year old. Gum probably came later. I don’t really recall when I was introduced to the fine art of gum chewing although I do remember not being able to blow bubbles for quite a while… yet, I was able to explain the theory of blowing bubbles with gum to others with satisfactory results. There they would go… happily blowing bubbles as they walked home and I would remain unable to do the very thing I had just explained. Later in life, I would overcome this obstacle.
If I do not learn to do both of those things at the same time, I will be “in an awful pickle.” Okay, I don’t know why not being able to multi-task those things puts me in that place. I know I’m not a very huge person but I know I’m much larger than most of the pickles I’ve encountered in my lifetime. How would I fit inside one of those pickles – even the really large ones you get on a stick are still too small. And then, why is it an awful pickle? Why not a regular pickle? Why not a really delicious pickle?
In reality, this guy was using cliché phrases to express a point. This can be good or satisfactory or a unique and humorous way to make a point but it also could mean anything about anything. Why don’t you just say what you really mean?
“If we don’t learn to walk and chew gum at the same time, we will be in an awful pickle.”
1. The economy is in poor condition due to the fact that the mega rich control the rest of us. If we don’t do something about this, we will suffer more while they continue to manipulate the rest of us. Our will to grow and prosper on our own will diminish and we will be at the mercy of a select group of individuals.
2. If you don’t perform the correct amount of foreplay during sex, the entire experience may not be as delightful as it could have been for those involved.
3. Waiting to make coffee after you have already made bacon and eggs could result in your breakfast becoming unpleasantly cool while waiting for the coffee to brew.
4. I did not learn to say what I meant so instead, I spoke in vague random terms and phrases. The result was: no one knew what I was talking about.
5. I did not learn how to walk while chewing gum. I could do both, but not at the same time. I was doing fine with the walking part, then I attempted to chew gum. I fell over, scraped my knee and ripped my jeans. The shock of this also sent me over a railing, down a flight of stairs and into an open vat of giant rancid pickles.
See, it could mean anything and everything. Please speak clearly. Well, speak clearly to me. If I understand what you mean then I can rephrase it to someone else. I could tell them:
In order for you to get a leg up and not beat around the bush while speaking off the cuff, I invite you to let your hair down and face the music. At the end of the day, you’ll be fit as a fiddle.
Now you understand exactly what I mean. Congratulations.
Wednesday 10.12.11
My announcement.
After no speculation at all from the media and not even a random thought from any of my constituents, I take this moment on the blog to make the announcement that I will not seek the nomination and will not run for President of the United States in 2012. Despite being old enough and being able to speak in a clear and open voice as well as the likelihood that I could probably stay on the current pile of talking points, I know that now is not my time.
I will, in fact, be spending this time at home with my family. Some of that time will be devoted to complaining about people not cleaning up after themselves in the kitchen. The remainder of my time will be spent figuring out unique Shibari, working and taking the occasional picture.
Please, no write in votes.
Monday 10.10.11
Columbus Day. I have discovered nothing of great importance today.
Saturday was a different story. Thursday or Friday last week I was moving things around in the shop and found my son’s old skateboard. Of course, every time I see anything I have to consider how I could use it in an image. Sometimes it goes like… how could I use this in an image with bondage? One of my good bondage pals happens to own one of those rubber gas mask deals. Ah-ha… a silly idea pops into my head. I contacted GBP (good bondage pal) and asked her if she was interested in experimenting with such a crazy idea. Lucky for me, some of my peeps are as crazy as I am. Here are some results…
Earlier in the week, another model named Emily came in to do a little biking…
