No smoking please

Taken from my phone cam the morning of Sept.4. Preparations for student fire safety training.

Scrabble

Crystal has had the Scrabble bug lately. We've played 8 games over the last week or so... we've both won 4. She almost had a really good proper name.... almost.

Boxman...

Found on the back of a walk/dont walk lightbox in Cambridge. Reminds me of the Boxman or Dr.Boxhead from Kaiju Big Battle. Curious about the boxcutter/exacto blade in his hand. Box on box crime?

Lego trucks from the past

August evening Scusset beach

Taken on August 4th, 2007. A very nice hot, humid and hazy evening at Scusset beach. Lots of people still on the beach as the sun went down and the lifeguards went home. There is a girl skim boarding in the center of the bottom pic. Crystal is in 2 of them... talking on the phone to Amanda while walking up the beach. Cool summery feel.

Lego Police Station 381 cira '79

Found the directions to this set #381 from 1979 online and decided to build it for Justin. He helped out looking for pieces in our massive bucket but I ended up doing most of the construction myself after he went to bed. We have almost all of the pieces for the set, still in good condition. The only stuff I was short was one complete window setup and parts of another. But one is complete. There were also not enough of the blue cylinders used for lights... I had to substitute green for the lights next to the door. Justin was psyched. We've been playing with it for about a week now. I have some other old sets... to follow in later posts

Lego Cargo Ship

Justin and I built this cargo ship last week. His new Lego magazine came in with the brand new Maersk Container Ship in it and Justin decided we should build one out of our own stuff. So we did. He had a great time loading it up with stuff, mostly the small cars he had won at the Jugleplex food/fun day. I made the hatches detachable and later hinged. There is another shot without the yellow railings. I like it without, but once I found more of the railings we added them all the way down the deck.
This ship is now gone... a victim of the old lego set renaissance that followed. I found the instructions online for a number of my old sets and immediatly set to work rebuilding them. More on that in the next few posts.

taking on water...

Justin and I (with help from Shane) pulled the Whaler yesterday morning. Dad had been nervous about the bilge pump not working and the forcast for rain all day and for later this week. With he and Chris in France there was no one around (who doesn't have a job to go to...other than Goldilocks) so it came down to you know who. Rather than fight the crowds at 6-7pm on Sunday we grabbed Walter's truck and pulled it in the rain on Monday morning.
When we got there I was worried we wouldn't have enough water but the ramp is in pretty good shape at the club. Shane had no problem driving it out.
I floated the boat onto the trailer after getting a half-assed tow from the lauch driver. His seamanship was definitly in question (take the stern line off first...what?). Despite him spinning me the wrong way I was able to turn the beast with the small paddle on board and turn it right onto the trailer as the wind set us down toward the ramp.
Given the possible complications it was amazing the whole thing went as well as it did....
Still made it to work by noon....
Now hopefully we will spend some time on the water....once the new engine comes in.

Fearless Fosdick

An old metal sign that still hangs in the window of a barber shop in Cambridge. I used to get the Fearless Fosdick comments from teachers or older folks when I was growing up. I don't get that very often any more, in fact, not in a long time. The generation that knew Lil'Abner has moved along, maybe even passed along and soon it will dissapear completely. I get a chuckle every time I walk by this place.

"Get Wildroot Cream-Oil Charlie!"

drawing small

A doodle from a staff meeting. Seems my artistic expression only comes out on tiny, little peices of paper. Seems I'm more comfortable drawing small...

I'll have to post some of the coffee cup collection.

cellphone camera

Had a great day Saturday out on the whaler. Took this from my new cellphone cam (Razor). This is with full resolution, and I think it really looks great. I've noticed that on a few occasions (like this one) I've been less likely to take the Cannon along when I know I have this cam in the phone. I like the quality but I dont want to get in that habit.

He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston...

More Phone Cam fun.
Redline pics from July 3rd. about 330pm at the Harvard Station. The smoke let me know that the train was on fire, and my commute home just became hell. It took me another 4 hours to get home from the time I took the pics.
The Commuter Rail Engine was from last week when this train had "mechanical failure" in Halifax and we had to all load onto the next train to finish the trip to Kingston.

before the new age...

Sailing in New York harbor in the fall of '99. We filmed a commercial on board Rugosa from the Herreshoff Museum. Chris and I and his friend Chris Ruth (who took the photo)ran the boat while the film crew worked. A long day but good fun. Never thought I'd feel so strangley about this snapshot...

Crab Creek Sunset

Grace would be proud. I can't help but think of her and the beautiful colors of her Shelter Island sunsets. It was certainly one of her most favorite things. I think of her whenever the sun dips to the horizon over the creek.
Took this pic on the evening of July 6th from right at the edge of the creek.
This image is unaltered or cropped.

Railroad bridge in the fog

Father's Day 2007.
From Junet at the west end of the canal.
Bridges in fog... and the cold slip of the water past the bouys.