Carpenter's Bluff Bridge

I hate mornings. I hate traffic. I also hate the Texas summer heat. I hate Oklahoma summer heat too. So, here I am, first thing in the morning, standing on the border of Texas and Oklahoma, avoiding the heat, and traffic. No traffic on this road. This is one of the cooler ways to cross the Red River, as long as you are on foot (or a motorcycle, so I've been told😇). Go find it sometime when you need a little road trip out in the country. I'm just happy they did not tear it down. BTW, there is a new bridge next door if you get skeert.

...THEN SOMEDAY...

Ok, January 1, 2020. I've been waiting for this year for a long time. I used to work for this cheesy little garage start-up called Amazon. Started working there in 2008. Immediately opened a 401k and joined the 2020 investment. Seemed like a lifetime away at that moment, but lo and behold, IT'S HERE!
On one of my early lunch breaks, I ran down to JimmyJohns to grab a sandwich. I saw this sign on the wall while I was waiting for my #16 Club Lulu with cheese cut in half.

This sign became my mantra for the next eleven years. And you know what? It worked. In fact, today marks the beginning of a work sabbatical I am taking for all of 2020, if everything works out. THEN SOMEDAY is today!

Stay tuned for some updates. I have quite a few 'things I want to do when I want to do them' coming up.

Who the....What the....

Ok, it's been 8 YEARS since I entered a blogpost. I don't even remember how to do this! But big changes are fixxin' to happen in my life, and I would like to document some of them. Don't really want to mess with the YouTube deal, because, well, I'm too lazy. So, this is just a test to see if these guys are still functional and all that crap.

Ok, here we go!

Love this guy's brain waves.

Winding Down and Winding Up

Well, it's been a pretty quiet year. Not a ton of photography going on, but I did get out and shoot infinitely more than years past. Here is a link to my top 10 for 2011. I'm sure there are some more cool pics in my folder, but these are the top ten EDITED pics. I'll do more when I retire. Gotta have something to do while sitting in that Airstream after dark!

Plastic. Where?

Why can I not buy a box of knives? My eating habits somehow use up more spoons and knives than forks. I can get spoons. But not knives! So I end up with no knives, a few spoons and tons of forks. Have you ever tried to spread mayonnaise with a fork?

Before the iPhone:

Bet you haven't seen one of these in a while. Maybe you've never seen one of these. In the spirit of trashing 365 things, and the end of the year coming up, I decided to dig this out of the closet and liquidate it.

As I flipped through all the cards, deciding which ones to trash(all), I had quite a trip down memory lane. This unit covered 20+ years of owning a print shop.

I'll bet my iPhone won't last this long(although I'm still operating a 3), but fits better in my pocket.

Days Are Getting Longer

Thank GOD we are past the Winter Solstice. I hate getting home from work when it is pitch black. It irks me to no end to think I spend the entire daylight session sitting in my office. But, alas, that is the way it must be for now...

Thirty Years Ago Today...

... I was tragically sucked into the Imprinted Sportswear Industry. Yeah, without my knowing it, I suddenly became self employed. And even though I had no knowledge of the industry, no business savvy, no capitlal and no motivation, somehow I weathered the storm and have cranked out over 60,000 projects. So far.

That was 1981, back before the Right To Know Law, and the working conditions were crap: lead based ink, bad ventilation, solvents that made the Fire Marshal cry.

Visualize running a business without: Computers, cell phones, internet, on line banking, debit cards, accounting programs, email, printers, digital cameras. FedEx only delivered documents, and UPS didn't even operate in Texas!

On the plus side, I never had to chew out my employees for gabbing on their cell phones or texting all day. And I lost zero productivity to surfing. Actually, today I don't have that problem either, because I have no employees. I work for someone now and I'm in a 'position of influence' rather than owner or manager. Much nicer.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like... Uhhhhhh...

Hmmmmmmmm...These pics were shot at almost noon on a Saturday, 22 days before Christmas. Maybe a lot of people on the 'naughty' list this year? Or maybe it's because we just finished a $6 Billion week of on line shopping.
Scary.