Blink!

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The past is passed

A former colleague of mine and I got in touch recently and have been exchanging some photos from our past. These two, that I received today, are of a going away party when my friend went across town to become my competitor. In the first photo, I have surprised him with a small gift of some kind. In the second photo he is being gracious and saying goodbye.
Two things stand out to me. #1, look how skinny we are! I've put on close to a hundred pounds since those days. #2, notice I am not without a cigarette in either photo. And that was inside of our studio, on the second floor. Nearly everyone smoked in those days and there were no laws about it. "Those days" - this was in 1968, some 41 years ago! (Incidentally, I stopped smoking, finally, 18 years ago but I still had to have a pacemaker installed a few years ago.)

Autumnal Beauty

So, okay. My last trip north to see the fall colors was a failure. But that was several weeks ago. Friday we went to Flagstaff to visit a friend. Saturday morning we came back down Oak Creek Canyon. (As I have said before, it is a place of great beauty on the earth.) And this time we got lucky. The colors were magnificent.

Doesn't this shot, with its apples for sale, look like New England. (I've never been there but I have a very good imagination.)

Governor Kinky?

Let's see . . . Bob Luzius is soon off the Prescott City Council, Steve Blair is back on, along with Tammy Linn and John Hanna. Paul Katan, as expected, finished a distant last. The voters approved an initiative to put any expenditure by the city over 40 million dollars to their approval in special elections. (Read: an attempt to stop the city's plan to pump needed water from the water ranch they bought.)

On the national scene, Republicans elected governors in Virginia and New Jersey (so long, Jon Corzine), Mayor Bloomberg's 100 million dollar gamble to win a third term in the Big Apple was successful, and the voters of Maine turned their backs on a significant part of their population as they reversed same sex marriage. But there was some good news nationally: Whackos Sarah Palin and (my old college pal) Dick Armey and their stooge were defeated in upstate New York as Democrat Bill Owens was elected to Congress.

But the best news of all? Kinky Friedman is running for governor of Texas again. This time he's decided to do it as a Democrat. (As he put it, the last independent elected governor in Texas was Sam Houston and that was a long time ago.) Politico has the full story.

What's that smoke?

This smoke is up on top of Mingus Mountain. It's yet another prescribed burn. The Prescott Daily Courier has all the details.

Halloween - Prescott - 2009

Some say Halloween is the biggest holiday of the year in Prescott. I may agree. Costumes are amazing.

But this guy may just be "normal" for the day.

But close behind the costumes began.

My wife tells me dead celebrities are big this year. Like Michael Jackson.

Some are traditional (the cat in the hat), others are showing the zombie look.

Then there's the . . . transsexual look?

Ladies seem to like the sexual look . . even when accompanying their teensy children.

Or not.

And then, the zombies are back.

And the kids.

A pirate? Wasn't that last year?

There was "the Wild Gang".

Bat-er up!

And finishing up . . . the zombies again.

I talked to a cab driver. She said most people were having dinner. The "action" didn't really start until about 9 p.m. The bars have their costume contests beginning at 10.

I'm too old for this!

Have a scary day!