The week in review...

Took quite a few pics this week, and I thought I'd share a few with you...

This is Phennig, who waits in the driveway for me everyorning to say goodbye before I leave for work. I realize he doesn't look like the friendliest cat around, but he's actually a bit of a sweatheart...

As I was driving around, I saw this stand of yuccas by the side of the road and stopped to take a pic... now, here in Texas they really aren't that big a deal, unless they're blooming, then they're quite a site to see... but I remembered that there are a lot of people who stop by who've never been to Texas, so I thought maybe they'd like to see these in their natural habitat... besides, I like them growing up between the rocks...

and directly across the road, less than 30 feet away, a very thick stand of native prickly pears... these are the ones that have 2 day blooms... they're yellow the first day, then darken to orange the second. Now that I think of it, the only time I've ever seen prickly pear and yucca growing right with each other is in a garden, naturally they seem to segregate into their own communities. Interesting...

The next two pics are of an abandoned farm house by the side of the road, surrounded by native scrub oaks. Later in the year, these will lose their leaves and expose they're gnarly, twisted branches. I've always liked abandoned old houses, I don't really know why, but they really appeal to me.

I like this second pic the best of the two...

This is a Vietnamese Pot-belly pig. I took his pic when I delivered to a private school... It seems that one day he wandered onto the grounds, and he decided to stick around. Now he's the unofficial mascot... He's also totally uninterested in delivery men. The only response I got from him was an ear flip...

Anyway, that was my week. Later...

happy Halloween!

I guess we'll call it art...

well, I was cleaning out a closet and I found this... I guess we'll call it art.

I have only a vauge recollection of doing this, several years ago. I don't have any idea what it's supposed to be, or why I drew it, or why I saved it...

but here it is.

Now I'm not really a sketching kind of guy. I'm more the "find a bunch of stuff and turn it into a 'construction' " kind of guy.

And now I guess I'll have to figure out what to do with it...

Well, today was a decent day driving around.

Yesterday, not so good. The day started out well, but then the temp dropped 25 degrees in the space of an hour, and it started raining. I don't mind rain, and I don't mind cold, but the two together are almost unbearable.

Today it started out cold, but the sun was out and it warmed right up. Went to Grapevine, just north west of Dallas, and had a 30 minute wait so I went to the town square to see what I could see. Now, I realize that a lot of people really like Granbury, but I much prefer Grapevine. Any town that would put a glass building in the middle of town, and then use it to display a horse-drawn hearse and antique embalming equipment, and then string Christmas lights around it is just fine in my book.
Actually, as historic displays go, this one was really quite interesting and had alot of things to look at. Unfortunately, the sun glare kept me from taking any really good pics... And across the street, the City of Grapevine's first Municipal Jail...

Built in 1909, the structure is 10 feet deep, 8 feet wide and 8 feet tall...

The city of Grapevine is a really wonderful place to visit. In addition to slightly macabre historical displays, there are several vineyards and winery's, a restored plantation you can visit, and the Gaylord Texan resort, which is, for all practical purposes, a city unto itself...

But that was the last break I had in the day... Ended up with a rush delivery to Wichita Falls, TX, just a mere 125 miles North of Ft. Worth. Didn't have a chance to take any pics there because 1) when you're making these deliveries, they're usually to the warehouse and/or industrial districts, which aren't known for being particularly picturesque, and 2) this was an exchange delivery, which means somebody had shipped the wrong part and I had to drop off the correct part, then grab the wrong part and get it back to the original warehouse ASAP - there was just no time to explore.

Well, I have had a couple of very boring days...

Monday morning, I went to start the truck, and there was a big ka-thump.

The timing belt broke.

Luckily, the truck was sitting still when it happened, if I'd been going down the road, it would have bent up all the valves... as is, I didn't have to replace any of them. Actually, the mechanic didn't have to replace any of them, I didn't do one darned thing... except pay for it.

So I've been sitting in the house doing absolutely nothing. And whining about it.

I seriously never realized just how mind-numbingly bad daytime TV is....

but then, this afternoon, The mechanic called and the truck was ready.

So, in the space of 10 seconds, I went from "I'm so bored" to "I don't wanna go to work....."

Just can't make me happy, huh?

howdy

I hadn't written to everybody in a few days, so I thought I'd drop by.

Mom wanted to buy me dinner for my birthday, so we went to a Mexican restaraunt, and I had some great steak tacos. I also had a couple of margaritas, but don't worry, I wasn't driving.

Anyway, I didn't have a very exciting week... did have a long haul out to Granbury. I've never been a big fan of Granbury, it's a nice enough town I suppose, on a nice lake, but it's been built up for the tourist industry, and it's all a little too quaint for my taste. On the way back, in a wide spot in the road called Cresson, a train was blocking the road so I turned off and found this... A historical marker. The old Cresson school, a nice example of Mission Revival architecture, which, according to the plaque, was built in 1931.


And here's another pic, a little closer. And that's the front of my truck...

and here's the historical marker plaque, if you want any more information...
This is easily the most impressive building in Cresson, in age, architecture, and size. And as nice and Texan as this building is, I'm not sure I would recomend taking any special trips out to see it. But if you're driving through on Hwy 377, it's a good excuse to stop and stretch your legs.

And that was the highlight of my week.

happy birthday to me...

Well, I'm 45 today.


Woo Hoo.

Last of the Stapeliad blooms, & ID help please

This is the last of the Stapeliad blooms for the year... most probably. Pretty soon, we'll be looking at bringing it in for the winter, and there is no way I'm letting this plant stink up the house , so any further buds will be picked before they develop.

As you can see, it has a couple of flies attracted....


Now, some of you may remember this plant from a previous post... http://lpfleamarket.blogspot.com/2008/07/curse-you-wal-mart.html

well, it's back...
Now, I know it's a Mammilaria, and that it divides dichotomously, meaning that it splits at the growing point rather than growing branches or pups. The thing is that it bloomed last week, you can see what's left of the blooms if you look closely. They were small, about a quarter inch across, and dark "Hot" pink, and I cannot, for the life of me, find a plant that divides this way with a bloom that color. Any ideas anybody? Or any resources on the web that might be able to help me out? I've exhausted most of my resources...
UPDATE: possibly this plant is Mammillaria crucigera ssp. crucigera, which divides dichotomously at maturity, and also produces pups and offsets at the base, or, it may be M. perbella...

I changed the blog name.

I went ahead and did it... Although, I must say I've been leaning more towards the Random Rants part of the name lately... need to get back to the plants.

Eventually, not today...

Will be changing the booth in the flea market to one closer to the front, where there are some dealers who are in there all the time, and everything will just be a little more secure.

As for the store blog... soon. I've got to get some other things organized first... I've got to figure out the pricing and keywords on the google ads, things like that... Don't worry, I'll announce the opening here so you can all go see just what kind of stuff I sell, and tell me what an awful job I'm doing...

OK.

I've discovered something that is very interesting.

I've discovered that aquiring a 3 foot tall gargoyle may be extrememly satisfying, but trying to figure out what to do with the blasted thing after you get it home is another matter entirely...

of course, answering fun questions about said gargoyle is interesting too:

"Do we NEED a gargoyle?"

Well, of course not. Nobody needs a 3 foot tall gargoyle, except maybe a monastary in the Ukraine, but that's not the point.

"Then, what's the point?"

The point is I want it.

"Well, isn't it kind of tacky?"

Tacky is relative... it's not half as tacky as a larger than life size vulture...

"And just what do you think you're going to do with that?""

I'm going to bolt it to the hood of your car if you don't stop asking annoying questions...

And well, you can probably imagine the rest...

Hope everybody had a great week...

Well, I did it and I'm not gonna apologize for it...

Anyway, I had a seriously bad day yesterday. It was one of those bright, sunshiney beautiful days, the temperature was good, and I was in such a foul mood that I couldn't bring myself to enjoy any of it. I don't know exactly what put me in a mood, but I was just driving around, wanting it to be as hideous outside as I felt inside.

This morning I woke up, and I felt a lot better.

But my last delivery was to Dallas Love Field Airport, at 5:15 pm and I was not, under any circumstances, going to drive home in the middle of rush hour. Fortunately, I was close to one of the bars I used to work in, so I stopped by to see some old friends and relax until I could make it home. Well, next door, there is this store. They had a whole bunch of stuff on 75% of the lowest price. I am now the proud owner of a 3 foot tall gargoyle and a larger than life size vulture. Why? They appealed to the used-to-be-gothic me.

Besides. I wanted them. I tried to get the people in the bar to talk me out of it... but they were no help what-so-ever, so blame them. I've had a bad couple of weeks, and next week is my birthday, and I deserve them.

Now, I just have to talk myself out of the guilt I get every time I spend money on myself.

I'll get pics soon... maybe we'll have a name the vulture contest.

And to top it all off... remember the house I was talking about back in this post... http://lpfleamarket.blogspot.com/2008/08/meandering-around.html
well, I drove by it again today, and it's for rent. I'm dying to find out how much. I don't think I'd actually move in, but the possibilites... there's absolutely no garden there now, think what I could do with agave's and those purple black sweet potato vines...

anyway, I'll talk to you later...

new blog title...

I mentioned that I was thinking about changing the title of the blog a while ago. Primarily, because it was named after a store that I used to own, but is now closed down... however, since I still have the Tax ID number, the store name is still valid and I was kinda thinking about using blogspot to set up a site to sell some stuff online. Ebay no longer being a viable option for the collectables market, I do see that many people are using blogger to sell things, and I don't see why not... I'd just have to put paypal tabs and adwords. And I'm not neccesarily trying to get rich or turn things over super quick...

Really I'm just talking about selling things that are hard to sell at the flea market, or are going to be stolen there... (see the last 2 posts. Grrrrrrr... no, I'm gonna get over it. Honest...)

How about:

Random Rants and Prickly Plants

That kind of gets my point across...

Really, I'm open to suggestions. And I'm just kinda thinking on the keyboard anyway...

Thanks to all for the sympathy on the theft.

I talked it over with my animals, and Charcoal Briquette Cat says that if I find out who the thief is, she will gleefully scratch his eyes out. The other cat, Phennig, will concentrate on ripping his ankles to shreds (ankles are, after all, his specialty.) Then, blinded and lame, Moonpiepug will move in and do his absolute best to drown him with Pug-dog drool (he want's to help but he's not good with enemies who can actually run away.) They then all trooped into the back yard and proceeded to practice their attack strategies on each other. The neighbors thought they were just playing... if they only knew...

I know none of this is likely to happen, but it's nice to see them cooperating for a change.

meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I'm taking a day off of work, which I have to do periodically just to get some regular stuff done. There really isn't enough time in the day. Besides, I've found that driving a truck when you're in a generally foul mood isn't usually productive. And it's raining.

Feeling a little hacked off...

But then, that seems to be a semi-permanent condition around here... but what set me off this time is the Flea Market...

So I go in to take in some pocket knives. Really nice ones, if you're into them... but in a flea market situation they absolutely, positively have to be locked up. They'll walk away or someone will let a four year old play with them. So I get to my showcase and it has been broken into. And someone managed to shoplift a $100 Hull vase. I had it marked a hundred, actually it's worth a little bit more, but this is a flea market.

Now, how somebody managed to get a 15 inch tall piece of pottery out the front door after splitting the wood on a showcase without attracting any attention is beyond me... actually, I have a pretty good idea, but we'll get to that later.

The point is, that I cannot take 100 dollar losses. I will not tolerate them.

Now, the really interesting thing about all this is, that in that showcase, there are turquoise and sterling rings, several really nice sterling and silver plate pieces, and a couple of good watches. In other words, several things that are much more likely to tempt the average drug addict who's looking for something to hock than Hull pottery. Hull is a rather specialized collectible, and not readily hock-able. Which means there was a really really avid collector with a really really large purse, or there is another dealer in there who was packing something extra in their "empty" boxes when they left after restocking their boothl. I'm afraid the latter is more likely.

I have informed the owners that they either need to get security cameras, or they can put me in a new booth by the cash register where they can keep an eye on it. Either that, or I'm going to have to move out. They don't want that, as I have some of the best stuff in there. My eye for the unique and unusual keeps that booth full of fun stuff.

But anyway, I've spent the day wanting to rip somebodies throat out with my teeth...

Thanks for letting me get it off my chest. I feel much better now...

I'm BACK

That's right, I'm back to terrify the online community.

Hide your children.

The computer is up and running, and I've still got to re-install a few things, but here we are and aren't you lucky... I really missed keeping up with what everybody was doing out there.

See y'all later...