The rain finally broke Tuesday afternoon, the sun came out and things finally looked like Spring.
But driving home Tuesday night, the approaching clouds looked ominous. More rain? Yep, along with freezing rain in a few areas.
Looking outside the studio, I see snow flakes.
Snow? All right. Who pissed God off?
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While picking up new county stickers for our cars, I asked Dorinda Thomas, the county treasurer: “Do I need a county sticker for an ark?” She laughed.
Third straight day of hard rain. Burks Fork at its banks. Slick roads, cooler than normal temperatures.
This is Spring.
They keep claiming better weather is coming.
We can hope.
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OK, I realize that in this commercial age, no opportunity for advertizing must be lost (just watch any NASCAR race to understand that) but when exactly did the butt become a billboard? 
Take a look at the posterior side of shorts these days and you will find them emblazoned with brand names, school names or whatnot.
Label identification has come a long way (or short way). When even school stadiums now carry sponsor’s names, the age of commercialization is complete.
Or is it? In Taiwan, prostitutes sell space on their bodies for tattoo ads (condoms are a popular commodity for such art) and police cars in cash-strapped East St. Louis, Illinois, carry sponsor names.
And sponsors, knowing that any healthy heterosexual male is going to look at a nice butt in tight shorts, knows this is the way to sell the product, so to speak.
But what happens when the butt ain’t all that tight and the sponsor’s name is stretched across a broad expanse of backside that qualifies as a small country?
When it comes to butt ads, is bigger better? Should the butt be the size of a roadside billboard? Or is less what we need to see in ass-ver-tizing?
Stumbled across just such an example not long ago — a pair of shorts with the Abercrombe & Fitch logo. 
Abercrombe pitches its line of clothes to nubile young things whose figures are usually just this side of emaciated.
Not sure this view is quite what the retailer had in mind, although anyone who’s ever looked at Abercombe and Fitch’s now-defunct catalog knows a distinct lack of clothing fits more into their image.
Are we being sexist in even asking the question? Should we place so much emphasis on a lithe young body when most of the real world is a big broader in size and structure? Guilty as charged.
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Yep, Spring is coming. As soon as the sun came out last week and the temperature climbled into the high 60s, the crowds came out of the shadows and packed the tourist locales. 
Drove up to Harper’s Ferry, WVa, about an hour from Washington and the touristas had already packed the streets.
The entire downtown section of Harper’s Ferry is a National Historical Park.
The main street climbs a long hill lined with historical buildings, many of which have become overpriced antique shops and stores that offer the standard tourist fare.
Most of these shops are owned not by locals but newcomers who moved to Harper’s Ferry and then had to find a way to make a living. From the downtown area, the park follows the Shenandoah River for a couple of miles.
The river becomes a favorite for tubers, crazies who ride downstream in an inner-tube. Often, they have a second tube to hold the cooler and beer.
But Harper’s Ferry, like so many rural areas, faces the onslaught of city folk seeking a "country lifestyle."
However, once the newcomers escape the city, they start missing some of the amenities of urban life and the country charm is quickly lost, replaced by strip malls, chain stores and coffee shops. Doesn’t take long.
But what is the proper balance when it comes to quality of life versus quantity of life? Do we need more amenities when it comes to life in the country?
In Floyd County, I know people who swear they will never set foot in the new Food Lion grocery store when it opens yet they will shop at a Food Lion or Kroger in Christiansburg. Life, as we know it in Floyd, will not end when Food Lion opens but there will be changes — some good, some bad. In time, and only in time, we will know if the good outweighs the bad.
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Whenever Amy and I see a carnival, we have to stop: she for the funnel cakes, me for the chance to pull out my camera and photograph kids.
Carnivals bring out the kid in all of us. I’m not talking about the over-produced (and over-priced) theme parks like Kings Dominion or Busch Gardens, but the weekend carnivals that set up in vacant lots and strip shopping centers — the old-time carnivals that travel from town to town during the spring, summer and fall months.
They offer more value for the buck and the hint of sleaziness that should always be part of a visit to a carnival.
Carnivals are distinctly American (even though the roots of carnivals date back to the Middle Ages in Europe).
The first ferris wheel turned at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1892 and many of the carnival "games" like foosball are American creations. More than once, we’ve left a carnival with some huge stuffed creature lashed to the top of our Jeep.
Once, we had several, including one lashed to the hood like a prize deer captured in hunting seasons.
Put a kid on a carny ride and the smile turns on and doesn’t stop. I’ve got hundreds of images of kids at carnivals and hope to add hundreds more in the years to come. The next time you see a ferris wheel on the horizon, head for it. It will be worth your while.
Continue reading …Number of questions on Monday’s moon shot. Did I use a tripod? How did I meter it?
Tripods? We don’t need no stinkin’ tripods. The shot was handheld, at a 60th of a second, with a Nikon D2H and an 80-200 mm AFS lens shooting at F:2.8. I metered it with the matrix metering system on the camera and then bracketed the shot.
Have some others taken that morning. Will post later.
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Saw the setting moon first while driving out of my driveway this morning, then again along Buffalo Mountain Road. Stopped several times to shoot it. Later, heading north on U.S. 221, saw this sight in my rear view mirror. Stopped again. Shot another series. Call it “Moonset.” As I head back to Arlington today, that [...]
Continue reading …April 1. April Fools Day. Just 15 days to go before tax time.
Every April 1, I remember back to 1996 when Taco Bell announced it had purchased the Liberty Bell from the National Park Service and the historical artiface would be renamed the “Taco Liberty Bell.”
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