Hey, I'm walkin' here!

If you are headed somewhere, hope you get there safe, and enjoy the trip.

Google Street View find.

Also pays cash for houses and will mow your lawn.

Seen on roadside. Call this number at your own risk.

Drive-by Lumbergh

*******

Hello Peter. Whaaat's happening? Ummm, I'm gonna need you to go ahead come in tomorrow... so if you could be here around 9... that would be greaaat, mmkay? Oh oh, and I almost forgot ahh, I'm also gonna need you to go ahead and come in on.. Sunday too.. okay. We ahh lost some people this week and ah, we sorta need to play catch up.

*******

Hello Peter. Whaaat's happening? Uhhh... we have sort of a problem here. Yeaaah, you apparently didn't put one of the new cover sheets on your TPS reports before they go out. Did you SEE the memo on this?
--yeah, yeah, I have the memo right here. I just forgot. But it's not shipping out until tomorrow, so it's no problem.
Yeeaaah, if you could just go ahead and make sure you so that from now on, that would be greaaat, and, uh, I make sure you go ahead and get another copy of that memo. Mmkay?

*******

Happy Friday.

(photo taken while in the heavy traffic of evening rush hour)

Raaaid!!

On Sunday, when driving home from shopping I saw some cop cars with flashing lights parked on the opposite side of the road. As I got closer I saw that they were all getting out of their cars and running towards the someone's back gate with guns drawn. Then they were all there at the gate, ready to shoot if necessary. One was pointing a rifle [UPDATE: or more likely it was a shotgun, I am told]. My head was spinning at the sight of this, thinking I don't really want to be anywhere close by there for whatever happens next, so I pushed down on the gas a little more.

Now you might be picturing a city scene here, bricks, sidewalks, the most common visual we have for police raids thanks to TV and movies, but this was a nice, quiet suburban street and the alley behind the house was more of a greenspace... and neatly mowed too. The backyard was enclosed in a typical Texas cedar plank fence. It was a stark contrast to the pointed guns and it's hard to get the image of it out of my head now.

I figured this would eventually be in the news, but so far I have seen no mention of it. False call? Maybe. Probably.

Putting on some miles

Pulled into a parking space and just happened to notice that my car was RIGHT THEN rolling past 140,000 miles! Mr B has the same year and model (2000) and his has about 155,000 on it. I've never had a car that went this far!

And speaking of going a long ways, check out this hitchhiker I picked up on Friday. I was driving home in rush hour (and it IS an hour long commute but there's not much RUSH about it or I would get home in half that time) and I see this bold grasshopper riding outside on the passenger side. He moved around quite a bit, despite being blasted with winds as high as 50mph. Look at his antennae blown back by the wind. I started worrying about him (which seems to be my main pastime - worrying about stuff), because I was afraid he was going to be dislodged to meet with a sudden splat behind me, so I started driving more carefully - like having a baby on board. ;-)

He rode the car all the way home to the driveway after riding at least 5-6 miles, then flew away after I nudged him with a leaf.

I wonder if this was a joy ride or absolute terror for this awesome little dude?

How do I look?

[Seen in parking lot last Friday.]

Death, warmed-over

Seen today on South Congress Avenue, always a good place for people-watching, day or night... it's a real person in that getup, which isn't that strange except for the fact that it got up to 102°F today (38.8°C) with a heat index of 107° - and he/she did it voluntarily and not as part of one of those "dress up as a mascot and wave to people driving by" jobs.

What does it all mean?

So many new murals! This one is enhancing an otherwise ugly alleyway.

Rock Star vs. Zombie

Bessie's lost weight

This cow is always there and is not part of the Art Cow exhibit.

Roadside fish, very frightening

I didn't stop and get any Bondo Fish because pulling over to the side of the road in heavy traffic and shopping outdoors while it's over 100° is not pleasant. That's probably why these fish are so snarly...

... but cute.

(NOT) VERY FRIGHTENING

Wisdom from the BS Saloon

ummmm hmmmm.

Drive-by bubbling

Hey! I found your dentures!

Couldn't resist this logo seen on the trailer of "Big Jon Plumbing." And you thought you were having a shitty day at work.

Beep beep

Do you think they called each other before going to the store?

On a side note, you can tell just how small these parking places are. This is the right size car for them. I think they are really cute little cars but haven't driven one.

Om sweet om

Seen during tonight's commute:

Woodrow's Wits

Always a pleasure to drive by Little Woodrow's and see what the sign says this time.

Seen on Saturday

A gorgeous, perfect day in Austin, Texas. We had nothing planned so decided to go downtown and ride the new MetroRail in its debut week while it's still free, then have lunch at Cafe Mundi before it closes down. Started out stopping by the Library, where a yucca stem pressed itself against the eave and a bird built a nest at the top.

Also on the yucca was this green anole (which is brown for some reason)

Downtown at the train stop, the recorded voice informed us that MetroRail does not run on the weekend. OK. Drove over to Cafe Mundi and were sad to discover that it is already closed (apparently last week was it) and workers were there hauling stuff out of the building. Another favorite place bites the dust. {bummer}

Here's a person with a job that I hope I never have to do. On a day like today (80°) it's not horrible but in the summer it would suck.

MrB couldn't resist snapping this billboard. He is a sucker for cute animals or things that look like them. I guess this whisky-maker knows that.

Moving on from the Cafe Mundi disappointment, we went to this Lebanese restaurant that is located in a re-purposed Taco Bell. I love to see that! If you are local, this place is located right next to the Curra's Grill on Oltorf, and is a hell of a lot less crowded.

We stopped by the Farmer's Market and saw this car parked there. Something you don't see every day. To be honest, I barely took notice of it at first, just thinking somebody was pulling their boat (something to expect on a beautiful day).

How great is this thing? Pretty great.

Bumper Truth

I can only verify your parking skills

A city truck can park halfway up on the curb if it wants to. Wanna make a big deal out of it??

I guess they couldn't fit that on the bumper sticker.