WWC Sign & Graffiti

It is Tuesday once again which means time for the Weekly Word Challenge. Our beautiful host Tink at Pickled Beef will probably be absent this week due to a death in the family. I am sure everyone joins me in sending condolences her way.


The words she left us with for this week are Sign & Graffiti. Some of these are from my cell camera, some from my Olympus. I had a hard time finding graffiti, I thought I might have to make some!


I like the shadow play on this SIGN.



Some of the neon is burned out on this old SIGN.


If you look closely, the Buddha has a Martini glass in his hand on this SIGN.

These SIGNS are also GRAFFITI.


SIGN and GRAFFITI in one.

GRAFFITI was hard to find here, this is on a bus bench.


I have no idea what this used to have mounted on it, but it is now the home of GRAFFITI.


The back door of this store has a cute frog for GRAFFITI.


This is actual art work, but is still GRAFFITI.


Well, there we have it. If you would like to see more work, we have a Flickr group site here.

Have a good day all.

What a weekend!

In fact my weekend was so packed with excitement, that I am going to have to break this up into at least two posts.

We started Saturday morning off by going to the farmers market and spending atrocious amounts of money on fresh veggies. We discovered while we were in the neighbourhood that it was time for the Art Walk. Local artisans set up on the sidewalks in front of willing businesses and show off their art and sell stuff and you can even watch some of them work. My friend though it would be a good idea for me to sit in the blazing sun and have a caricature drawn, so here it is.




It only took her about 10 minutes to do this and it is a fairly good representation. I think I might use this as my avatar for awhile.

We wore ourselves out walking around and looking at art, then I had to rush home to go to work. About 2.00 p.m., I stepped outside to run back to my suite for a minute and could smell propane. I spent the next few minutes going from patio to patio at the back of the office building, checking barbecues. Nothing, then it went away. Well, it is windy, I wonder how far that smell will travel on the wind? (By this time, it was getting very urgent that I return to my suite.)

10 minutes later going back to the office building I can smell it again! I check some of the patios on the other buildings, then decide the fire department is better equipped to find a leak if there should be one. Our Fire Department cannot be reached unless you call 911 - which in this case is rather stupid. I had been hearing sirens and kinda thought they might be attending whatever was causing the smell and didn't want them rushing to respond to nothing. I did search a bit on the web to see how far the smell could travel, but got nothing. I called the non-emergency line for the police and barely got out that I was smelling propane or something, but wasn't sure, when the Cst. (sorry, Constable) informed me that the construction crew for the LRT * had hit the gas line and we might be evacuated soon.

As it turns out, they didn't have to evacuate us, we were far enough away, we just happened to be downwind. I finished my shift, went home had supper and headed out about 7.00 p.m. to go to my friends place and fix my bike tires. They had only just finished fixing the line.

I have a short cut that I take along the greensward that cuts directly to the avenue that my friend lives on, if I went by surface streets, I would have an extra 4 blocks to walk. This picture is at maximum zoom from where they have cut off my shortcut, back to my parking lot, my bldg is at the far end of the lot. The driveway is on 108 St.

Click to enlarge

This sign pretty much tells you where I am going with this.

This is probably the culprit! (this is 111St)

That idiot could have blown up houses for miles! Not to mention two schools and a community centre and my apartment bldg.

That is about a half mile from my place or less as it is about a mile to my friends (by this shortcut). Um, yes, that is a garbage can beside the bike trail.

I figured that as they made me smell gas for 5 hours and then had the nerve to cut off my shortcut, I would blog about it. I had to add 6 blocks to my walk after having walked around all morning! (Yes, it adds 2 blocks, because I had to backtrack a bit) But, we got my tires changed with no problems and tightened my brakes and greased my chain and I can change gears much better now!

So, for Monday, I am grateful to be here, to have my bike fixed, a still have a roof over my head!
I will have to tell you about Sunday on Wednesday as Tuesday is WWC.

Have a good Monday everyone.

* Light Rail Transit

Little quickie

Hi, for the few of you that don't already read my sisters blog, if you are curious and want to hear my sister & I sing pop over to her blog. This was recorded at a family reunion in 1988. I'm the alto btw.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Friday Fog

Fog in my brain, none outside. They are testing the fire alarms in the building this morning.

We have had an interesting weather week here, rain, hot temperatures, high humidity a couple of storms. It was actually nice and cool the last couple of days, but the humidity is in the 60's yuck!

This storm was Tuesday evening, the thunder was great, the sky was so dark, but the sun was shining away.


We even had a double rainbow, but there was operator trouble with the camera so I only have a picture of one of them.

The sidewalk here shows how much rain we got, but my friend was having coffee about 4 or 5 blocks north and east of my place (where the dark clouds are) and it came down in buckets with hail. They got to see the rainbow too though.

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Wednesday, the couple that does maintenance and cleaning left for holiday and I am looking after their cats and doing a bit of the cleaning while they are gone. I will get photos of the cats and post them later as they are very pretty.

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It was discovered on Monday that some guests of one of our tenants are a bit of a con couple. They have been asking other tenants for money with various excuses and so far have probably gotten about $100.00 - that we know of. I happened to be on the same bus as they were (and right across the aisle), so got out my phone (amazed that I had it with me) and snapped a pretty good photo. The manager had called the police and there is nothing they can do with that paltry sum, but if she could get photo &/or names, they would check them out. I emailed the photo and the names she got, but I doubt that anything will happen.

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I had a mammogram on Tuesday - 6 month check for the calcification they found last time. The woman on the phone when they called to make the appointment was very funny, although I don't think she meant to be. She said "we will only be doing the left breast" in a manner that left me thinking "Great, I can leave the right one at home then." All is good, nothing changed, back in 6 months again, next time for both.

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We have an amazingly clean city here. The words for next weeks WWC are signs and graffiti and I'll be damned if I can find any graffiti. I guess I will have to wander into the less desirable neighbourhoods - or at least take the bus through them. *shudder*

Well, that is about it, the fog is lifting, so I should go and get some cleaning done and then go change the tubes on my tires so I can ride my bike again.

Have a good weekend all.

WWC - Age & Beauty

Tuesday, again! That means time for the Weekly Word Challenge hosted by the oh so busy Tink over at Pickled Beef. If you would like to join in the fun drop by and she will give you all the details.

This weeks words are AGE & BEAUTY and I didn't get out much this week, so I have resorted to my archives. Obviously a couple of these I did not take, unless I was a professional photographer in a former life - no, even that wouldn't work for a couple.

Actually all of these meet the requirements for both age and beauty, so I'll let the viewer decide.

This is my paternal great-grandfather.

My paternal grandmother (at age 16).

Wedding photo of my paternal grandparents.


Age 11 months (me).

Almost three!


Rocky Mountains (circa 1988)


Waterfall - same trip in '88


When it's springtime in the Rockies (Banff, maybe '86?)


There was no snow when we left Edmonton, all that dumped overnight.

Sharing a cabin with 4 adults, one teen, one cat and this dog.


But we got to whoop and holler at the army boys as they went back and forth practicing maneuvers.

If you would like to see more WWC photos, you can drop by our Flickr Group site.

Have a good day all.

P.S. Sis, Cousin, feel free to correct me if I am wrong about those photos.

Monday, as Saturday.

Yes, I work weekends and have Monday and Tuesday as days off. So, today, I am doing very little, I need to go and get some groceries and a tube for my bicycle tire. Exciting stuff eh?

During the thunderstorm on Thursday evening, I had a hawk land on the tree outside my apartment. I was lucky to get a shot of it, I happened to be outside trying to film the little wrens at their bird house when he landed. I say trying, because I could not keep the camera steady at all. No film due to my shaking hands, but I did manage to get one bad photo.



Near as I can tell it is a Red Tailed Hawk. He stayed there for a few minutes and I tried to film him too, but no luck. I saw another bird in my peripheral vision come from over the roof of the building and then bank and take off back over the building. That hawk was after it in the blink of an eye. I think it was a raven or magpie, but it could have been this ones mate for all I saw of it.

I think it is strange to see hawks in the city, but after all we do have Peregrine Falcons that nest downtown, so why not hawks. After all, we are eating up their territory by expanding the city boundaries so rapidly.

Well, I am off to shop. Have a good day all.

Friday Funk!

HAPPY JULY 4TH

TO ALL MY AMERICAN READERS

This is the latest addition to my friends back yard. She hasn't found out his name yet, but I am sure he has a wonderful name. He was originally to go into the front yard that we are re-doing, but, was put in the back for safe keeping. It has been decided that he will stay there.



I mean, can you blame her? Isn't he beautiful? It is where she spends most time and she will be able to see him from the kitchen window too.



These were taken from my cell phone, so are not a clear as they could be.

So, that's it, have a good weekend everyone.