We just had a crew here to reattach our service line. It had come loose from the side of the house when a branch fell on it, but not from the meter, and we actually still had power.

The crew supervisor told me that when they get to the little jobs like this, things are winding down.

It was good to thank some of the guys personally. I know that sometimes customers can be less than appreciative and sometimes downright obnoxious and it’s important to thank the linemen if you can.

These guys were from Louisiana. Thanks, again, guys!

And thanks to all the workers, both in the field and support, who are working through this outage. You ARE appreciated.

Note: This post is, for the most part, the comment that I left on the Entergy Arkansas Facebook page after the crew left.

An offering of vintage holiday images.

Rural Letter Carrier’s Christmas Card
Smithsonian Institution on The Commons (Flickr)

“Description: Christmas postcard from Pittstown, New Jersey rural carrier John S. MacIlroy to William Taylor dated December 21, 1915. The back of the postcard has a printed five stanza poem titled “If” that includes the verse, “when packages due don’t come on time / And those who are sending don’t raise their sign / it sure would save anxiety / if I knew you and you knew me.” Many rural letter carriers left holiday postcards for their patrons, though few went as far as Mr. MacIlroy in creating specialty cards such as this one. Fortunately for MacIlroy, he remembered to place a stamp on this postcard. Carriers who simply placed postcards in their patrons’ mailboxes without stamps were subject to disciplinary measures for misuse of the mailbox.”

Father Christmas promotes Whitcombe & Tombs, 1886
The National Library of NZ on The Commons (Flickr)
Whitcombe & Tombs, Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, Cashel St, Christchurch, 1886, Lithograph

“The 1880s saw an increase in the use of illustration and colour. This delightful image is the earliest advertisement in the Ephemera Collection to show the figure of Father Christmas. The little fliers or signs fluttering around advertise the products and processes offered by this printing company: handpainted Christmas cards, picture books, hand painted pocket books, Christmas cards of New Zealand scenery, photographic albums, purses, gold and silver pencil cases.”

Vader en kind met kerstboom
Father and child with Christmas tree
National Archives of the Netherlands on The Commons (Flickr)

Yuletide: silhouette of father and son who walk the streets in the dark with newly purchased Christmas tree, [1949]. Haarlem, Damstraat. (Google translation)

No known copyright restrictions on any of these images.

An offering of vintage holiday images.

Santa Claus and models: Sarasota, Florida
Taken some time in 1965
Florida Memory on Flickr
State Library and Archives of Florida

British Empire Postal Greeting Card.
State Library of Queensland, Australia on Flickr.

Glædelig Jul, ca 1919
(Joyful Christmas)
Nasjonalbiblioteket on Flickr
National Library of Norway

No known copyright restrictions on any of these images.

[continue reading…]

We visited Louisiana, Missouri, in June 2007, while staying in a campground nearby.  We discovered a number of interesting murals there.

Comparing a modern day image from Georgia Street with a mural depicting the same street from the early 20th century, you can identify some buildings that still exist.

In the image below, I blended the two photos above, juxtaposing the now with the then.

Three from the Road – no. 2 (with an extra)

Places that we’ve visited.

Lake Dardanelle State Park, Arkansas, January 3, 2007.

Three from the Road – no. 1

Three from the Road is my newest series of images from places we’ve visited.  I have a large number of digital images preselected for sharing.  One image will be randomly selected – or, in some cases, semi-randomly – and then two other related images will be selected.

In some instances, it may make sense because of the number of photos available or because of the subject of the images to use more or less than three images.  These will still be part of the series, but will be annotated by , for example, plus two or minus one, to delineate that it’s still the same series, just modified.

Along East Battery, Charleston, South Carolina, June 12, 2012

(1000 words no. 98)

Summerville, South Carolina, June 13, 2012

(1000 words no. 97)

It’s now 365 days since I first published the image below – 365 days with at least one post on each and every day.

Marry Christmas!  Hands UP!

I didn’t start out to accomplish a post every day for a year.  Initially, I was simply posting holiday related images and other material through the Christmas holidays – which I then pushed out until after January 1, 2013 with New Year’s related material.

At some point, I decided to try to extend the continuous string of posts out over a full year.  I didn’t announce it, so any publication pressure was purely self-induced.

And, now, it’s done.

A great majority of these posts have been images, but that is largely what I do, take pictures and share them, find images and share them.  I may do more writing of blog posts now that this extended run is done, but I will continue to share images.  I haven’t created any new videos to share since February so there may be more of those in the future to share – or not.