Very Funny

I was flicking through some blogs this evening and came across this. A great example of "intelligent humor". You've gotta watch 'til the end.

Tuesday Morning

Brownie

I took my antique Brownie to Merrill Photo and my friend Jim Orr got the film out for me. It is a roll of Kodak 116 B&W film. It produces a negative size of 2 7/8 in. by 4 7/8 in. He didn't know where I could get it processed. I've sent Kodak an email hoping they can help me. There might not be any photos on the film but we want to find out. Jim showed me a couple of things about the camera that I didn't know (he's an antique camera expert). The reason it's called an Autographic is because there is a small door on the back of the camera you can open and use the stylus provided to write something (date, names or whatever) on the back of the film. It actually scratches the emulsion and when it's processed whatever you wrote shows up on the photo. Stay tuned to find out what might be on the film.

Look Up!

What else...

...can be said? Hey, if you look real close you can see my reflection.

Brownie

My wife bought me a "new" camera for Christmas to add to my antique camera collection (I'm up to 5). It's a Kodak Folding Autographic Brownie. It was considered a pocket camera back in 1916 when it was brought onto the market. She got it at Stray Dog Antiques on Hale St. It still has film in it. I'm gonna take it to Merrill Photo on Saturday and see if they can get it out and develop it. It'll be interesting to see what might be on the film.

Frosty

That's a big...

...chocolate chip headquarters!

Laker

I found this name carved into a rock this morning. There are a lot of names and dates from the 1800's carved in the rocks above route 25 in Nitro but this is one of the clearest ones.

Copperhead Ridge

I wait all year for days like today. It was 10.1 degrees when I left for my run in the woods this morning and 15 when I got home. The only thing that would've made it better is if there had been about an inch or two of snow. It's like running in a Christmas card.

Behind the School

There's some nice looking farm land behind my daughter's new school. It will make for some nice photos when there's a snow on.

G. Horton Kitty

We got a new kitten back in November. My wife's dad has a cat and it had a litter of kittens and my daughter said, that I said, "we could bring one home" when we went down to SC to visit him. I don't remember that. I thought I said maybe. Anyway, we brought him home and we were having a hard time coming up with a name for it. We like to have unusual names for our pets. My wife liked the name Horton and I wanted to name him Gary, after Sponge Bob's cat. We'd just been callin' him Kitty while we were tryin' to figure out a name. I used to love to listen to G. Gordon Liddy (I'm a right wing nut job) when his radio talk show was on WVTS Super Talk 950. All of a sudden a light came on! It was my daughter turning on the kitchen light, but about that time I thought of G. Horton Kitty or G Man for short. It was a cat naming miracle. As you can see, he's a handful.

Saint Albans Fire Department Christmas Dinner

We had our annual Christmas dinner on Saturday at Saint Francis Church. We had around 50 people come this year. There were a lot of people missing because some were sick and some were out of town. There were a few guys that didn't get to come because they were on an extended call during the time of the dinner. I think those that were able to attend had a great time and ate some good food! I had to take the picture of the kids fast because all the little ones were tryin' to get away. The guy on the left (Matt Poff) in the picture above was the main organizer for the dinner and his cousin (Jeff Davidson) helped out too. Both of their dad's retired from Saint Albans Fire Dept.

Jolo

My daughter, my brother and I went on the Art Walk the night after Thanksgiving. The Good News Mountaineer Garage on Hale St. had a photo documentary on small church in Jolo, WV. Very interesting.

Lincoln County Sunset

A Couple of Pictures I Like

Christmas Tree

We went out to our friend Brad's Christmas tree farm in Ranger, WV today to cut our tree. We hadn't seen Brad in a while and we had a nice afternoon with him.

West Main Street

I was at work this morning, but was still in bed (isn't that cool, at work, but still in bed?). Anyway, I heard the guys that had just come on duty talking out in the day room about a fire on West Main St. They were thinking they might call us (SAFD) because no one from West Side Fire Dept had marked en route yet. I was gonna go with them when I heard several of the volunteer fire departments were on their way, so I just went over for a little bit to watch and get some photos. It was 20 degrees this morning. Fighting fire when it's that cold isn't much fun.

"Cool" Graffiti

Table For One

Clay Center Shadows

Thanksgiving Fun!

My daughter had built a ginger bread house several years ago for my mom. It had recently begun to fall apart and collect quite a bit of dust. I had the idea that we should take it out in the street and run over it. Everybody thought that would be really fun. I had my wife do the driving since she likes to drive "aggressively" anyway. Check it out.

Flying Puzzle

Merrill Photo Supply

Test

I've been trying to figure out how to post larger photos on my blog for a while and I think I got it. Since I'm a fireman and I don't have a part time job (my wife has a good job too) I have loads of free time to do whatever I want to do - e.g., work on my blog, take naps, spend time with my family and friends, enjoy my hobbies and generally just fart around. This doesn't mean I don't do anything. I keep the house nice and neat, do minor household repairs, cut the grass, shovel the snow, take care of the vehicles, pay the bills, usually fix supper or go get it. You know, things like that. One thing I don't do is laundry. It's not that I don't want to, but man did I ever get in trouble one time for not doin' my wife's uniforms just right. Mercy!

Anyway, back to the big picture. Here's one.

I probably won't do every picture as big as this one. Just ones I really like.

Pictures of Pictures

We went to our families house in Clay county for Thanksgiving. While we were there my cousin got out some photos that she knew I'd be interested in (I love looking at pictures). The photo is of three of her dad's (Addison Crouse) friends, who served with him in the Army during the Korean War.

If you can't make it out the back of the photo reads, "This is my 3 buddies from W.Va. They all got killed on hill 317. And we ain't took this hill yet and we have been fighting for 3 months for it."

Red Roof Inn

Linx

TLR

This is a photo of one of my old cameras. It's a Yashica Mat 124 G. I took the photo with my newest camera, a Fuji F100fd. I bought the Yashica in 1979 at Merrill Photo when I was a junior in high school. It's had a lot of film go through it. I had it with me when my wife and I went on our first date on October 20th, 1980.

A couple more from Beaufort, SC

Olivia

I ran across this photo of an Osprey that I had taken some time ago. The owners of a tour boat company had named her Olivia. I took this photo standing in a moving boat. I got lucky!

Amos

Polly Hollow

Henry Chambers Waterfront Park, Beaufort, SC