Furlough Weekend

Welcome to the humdrum life of a state employee. Come with me on a journey of enlightenment where we explore what its like to spend a day out of work on our own dime, because the powers that be in state guv'ment decreed that (at least for me) the other eighteen thousand three hundred ninety-nine dimes and one nickel with three cents should be given back so as to help COUGH! COUGH! balance the budget.

Anywho, this entire series of posts, which will be spanning five weeks, was taken over the course of the July 4th weekend. Scratch that, it was taken on July 2nd through July 6th (which is when I got back to work). So we shall begin at the beginning.

Oh, did I mention that I was stupidly carrying a folder of blank paper and a notebook filled with my latest story that day? So not only was I carrying the camera, I was prior to the squirrel pics, carrying a folder of blank paper, a notebook, a bottle water and a bag of chips.

This and the following pics were taken on Friday morning during my now legendary 8+ mile walk to the credit union (which I started at around 8:30) and back (mapquest stated that the driving route was 2.3 miles but the walking route that I took was at least an extra .8 of a mile). Anyways, this little statue of a fireman (with a functional fire hose I might add), is located directly behind the old firehouse that was featured in this post. The main reason as to why I took this picture is simple: I needed to find out once and for all, which picture was numero uno once my disposable camera got developed. Turns out that number 27 on the picture disc is numero uno.

You'll have to enlarge this picture to see the squirrel standing on the hill just to the right of the tree. He was gathering nuts (I think) and was taking a breather underneath the shady portion of the tree (it was in the lo 90's I believe). Very rarely do I get the opportunity to get this up close and personal to a squirrel, so of the opportunity did I take advantage thereof.

Another view of the same squirrel, and let me tell you, I took full advantage of that particular section of shade. As a matter of fact, I was very fortunate that my entire route of Main Street was shady that day, because it got to be hotter than frying pan that day.

Traffic was incredibly heavy that Friday morning (trust me, the phrase "playing in traffic" was the topic of choice that day), so after dodging all kinds of cars, I crossed the street to the local firehouse to take this picture of a old fashioned fire hose/fire truck memorial.

If you enlarge the picture, you'll see that its a memorial dedicated to those volunteer firemen who made the supreme sacrifice. And yes, that shadow at the bottom is me, which is due to the fact that I wanted to get a detailed shot of the memorial plaque, thus I had to get up close and personal.

Round & Round (4)

And finally, we come to the final part of this latest series. So let's begin at the ending and see what we shall see. And as always, the journey starts after you take that initial step.

The weather was definitely more agreeable this time around as the tiger lilies were in full bloom around the pond. With the way the sun was breaking through the trees in the backyard, I would venture to guess that this shot was taken around 6 in the evening (remember, we're still in the beginning of summer here, so the days are super duper long).

The Keeney Manufacturing plant (they make plumbing parts and supplies) has always been one of my favorite subjects for photographing since I started blogging back in 2008. They have the funkiest water sculpture that I've seen in quite sometime and the landscaping is second to none. I think the reason as to why it looks so immaculate and inviting, is that all the parades that happen here (Memorial day and Veteran's day) take place right on this particular section of Main Street. And I can always get a fantastic shot of those two majestic flags flapping away in the breeze.

Now, you'll probably have to click on the picture to enlarge it, but that is a helicopter in the upper middle of this photo. Apparently some kind of celebration was going on (not sure what, but it definitely wasn't the Extravaganza that will be popping up here in a couple of months), but there were a lot cars and of course, the helicopter, which I thought was pretty neat. Yeah, that is TD Bank(north) to your left.

Now, this is another one of those pictures that I took that I don't have a clue as to why I did. But, let's try to narrow it down, shall we? It could be that I like taking pictures of white picket fences. Or, it could be that I enjoy taking pictures of flowers and trees in bloom. Or....well, I don't know what the third "or" is, but in any event, you gotta admit that its a great picture of what a typical homeowner here in Newington does with their property.

I was going through my birdy phase this summer when mother dearest moved the birdbath from the side of the yard to the front yard. So I took it upon myself to make sure that it was filled with clean water every day this past summer (every day boys and girls. M-F I filled it up once I pulled into the driveway after work and S & S before I took off for my morning and afternoon errands respectively). And as you can see, I had some fantastic feathered friends visit the bird bath. Once I added birdseed, I pretty much had a constant steady stream from May thru early September.

A shot of a solitary bird taken after its companions flew the coop. I did have some fantastic looking birds partake of the refreshments for the summer in great quantities. And yes, that is my hunk o' junk car that you see just off to the right, and my neighbor's house was for sale, but he eventually took it off the market. That little stump is all that remains of the hedge that used to clutter up the front yard for the past forty odd years or so. And if the birdbath looks crooked, you're right. Because the front yard slopes downwards, I had to eventually level off the birdbath with a piece of metal. This is prior to the leveling.

Round & Round (3)

After a ton of problems trying to upload these seven photos the way I wanted to do it but Blogger didn't want to let me do it the way I wanted (mainly, trying to upload one at time as opposed to all in one shot), I now bring to you the end of the middle.

I would like to say that this is one of my stock shots of the mountain that I took over a year ago, but it isn't. It is a current photo that was taken for this particular set of photos. Note the lush greeness of the mountain and the trees that line both sides of the street. This was taken on the tail end of the incredible long walk that was highlighted in last week's post, and let me tell you, my dogs were barking and growling by the time I got home....

....to this lovely front yard image. This is the bay window on the left side of the porch (the right side was shown last week, which featured my cat Holly. In this photo, you can see the thingamabob from last week, along with a teddy, a electronic parrot (trust me, we don't need an electronic parrot), a drawing of a potato head, another teddy bear and the reflection of the trees from across the street.

The world famous looking-up-into-the-tree-canopy shot. This one came about in much the same way as the one from a couple of weeks ago. A little while after I got home from my long walk and after the previous picture, I decided to sit in my backyard and write (HA!!). In addition to the pen, paper, lap desk and whatever story I happen to be working on, I also have my camera. Because nothing of note was bleeding from my brain to the paper, I decided to sit back and vegetate for a while. This shot came from that one hour's worth of vegetating.

This picture was taken while I was driving back from Middletown one Friday afternoon, which of course was during rush hour. Anyways, I decided to take a crack at taking a few shots of the boats that were sailing down the Connecticut river. However, a small problem quickly emerged. In addition to having no manual dexterity to speak of anymore, I also can't hold a camera and press the button with the same hand. End result is what you see here: a guardrail, a couple of trees, a few boats, my side mirror and my very dirty and worn out interior of the passenger door.

Another one of my world famous redundantly non-stock photo of the main intersection of downtown Newington. I say redundant because this one features the the flag at half staff, which most of you know is for when a U.S. soldier from Connecticut dies overseas in either Iraq or Afghanistan. I'm pretty sure that this is the reason as to why, simply because of the blue sign that you see in the center trumpeting the fact that one stream recycling is coming to town (which hit us in late July) and these photos were taken in late May/early June.

Another one of my world famous (redundant, ain't it?) non-stock photos of the backyard pond. Not sure why I took this one, other than the background weather looks a tad gloomy, which turn gives the photo a particular gloomy feel, especially around the edges of the photo. Anywho, you can see a great shot of the shed and a few of the wind chimes.

And a shot of my young two year old nephew Bryce. I would like to give a status update as it applies to our relationship. Previously I mentioned that whenever Bryce sees me, he flips out and runs to the nearest relative screaming his tiny little head off. I am happy to announce that he no long flips out and goes screaming off into the night whenever he sees me. Now when he sees me, he says, "Uh-oh!" then goes back to whatever it was that he was doing prior to me walking into the room.

Not sure if this "Uh-oh!" is an improvement over the screaming anxiety attacks, but I'll take the tiny little victories wherever I can grab them.