Where's the revolution, Fidel?

Where's the revolution, Fidel?
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

Yup... that was the reaction I got from my husband when I came home wearing my new hat! Love you too, Honey! LOL

Fun with the Electric Company...

Ok... I admit it.. I forgot to pay my electric bill... HEY.. you work 71 hours a week and see if you remember everything that needs doing... So.. to avoid a cold dark house I had to make a payment THAT day or suffer the consequences of my faulty memory... I tried to call to make the payment.. nope.. they don't do that.. I tried logging onto the internet to do a payment... nope.. they don't do that either... my only choice... pay in person... and to add to the mess, there isn't even a payment office here in town, I had to choose between Palmer and Belchertown... SHEESH... So... after a run to Palmer, I not only kept the home fires burnin' bright but I fired off an email to that lovely National Grid... it was fun.... here it is:

Subject: the Dark Ages

Message: Your living in the Dark Ages...

When are you going to institute online payments? Your website for Massachusetts was also down for the last 2 days... You don't even accept payments over the phone by check or by credit/debit card.

Pretty funny... an Electric Company that is totally in the dark when it comes to technology that the rest of the world has been using for YEARS! Sheesh! Are you ever gonna see the light and catch up with the rest of the world? Or maybe you can't afford the electric rates for running a computer system EITHER!

HEH... I rather enjoyed that... However.. their reply was nowhere near as fun... just: The online payment, paperless billing, and credit card payment transactions are currently under review. We are waiting to hear on target dates for either, at which time, we will notify our customers of their availability.

Apparently they are not only living in the Dark Ages, but they also have no sense of humor whatsoever... "under review"... HA... like it isn't 'common practice' for doing business today! I bet they have a whole "Team" of Electric Heads doing a feasibility study... And I bet the cost of the 10 year study is included in our next bill...

Later...
ok.. ok... I can't find the time to pay the freakin' bill.. but I can find the time to email them and let them know their stupid... it's a matter of priorities people! :)

No Time for a Picnic...

No Time for a Picnic...
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

Another from the archives... The flooding was insane... this was from the beginning of December...

4 10 A gift for my brother...

4 10 A gift for my brother...
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

I actually took this before Christmas as a "host & hostess gift" for my brother and his wife and forgot all about uploading it till now.. they have a really cool billiards room in the cellar of their home and the 4 and 10 balls... well.. it's the phonetic of thier last name "Fortin"... My maiden name...

I just got the coolest email evah'

The most awesome bake shop...
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

It's not definite as yet ... BUT... I got contacted via my Etsy store email about a publication perhaps wanting to use this photo of mine on a map of the region page of the magazine and/or for the cover... yes.. I said COVER... of their Spring Guide... I'm off the wall thrilled just to be considered... it'll be a week or so before I know for sure, and nope, I'm not gonna reveal the name of the guide till I'm sure that they are gonna use it... (or one or more of my other photos)... Have I mentioned lately that I love Flickr? Yep.. that's where she found me... We had a lovely conversation on the phone... such a nice lady... and of course it's always wonderful to get some great feedback on my stuff!

So yeah... my day (and perhaps my week) has just been MADE!

Later...

Statuesque

Statuesque
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

One from the archives - Stockbridge, MA

The 3 Amigos

The 3 Amigos
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

Out for a ride on their trusty steeds!

Quabbin Picnic

Quabbin Picnic
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

It's way too cold for a picnic but the new dusting of snow is certainly nice to look at.

Sorry Ladies!

Sorry Ladies!
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

So.. if you were waiting for your Prince... Your Knight in Shining Armour - I'm very sorry to tell you this.. but he died in 1861! Bummer!

Belchertown State School

Belchertown State School
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

I spent a quick hour photographing up around the old State School in Belchertown on Saturday... Damn.. it was frickin' freezing! Soon these old building will be gone forever as there is a "Spa" looking to either purchase or lease the land... I hope I get some warmer weather before they start demolishing the many, many old buildings so I can document them properly before they are gone forever!

I had every intention of going out again on Sunday, I was actually up at 5am to go pee and made the mistake of going back to bed, the next thing I knew it was almost 9:30! DAMN! Oh well.. I guess I needed the sleep... but by the time I got up about all I had time for was a little coffee... a shower.. some brunch... and processing the shots from Saturday and it was off to Wally World again... next week is going to be even worse, for some reason they changed my shift so all my daylight hours will be spent in the store... CRAP!

Later...

Finally a little snow

Finally a little snow
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

This is from a couple days ago, when we finally had a little dusting of snow here in Massachusetts - it's gone now - except for those spots in the deepest shadows.. **sigh** - I have heard a rumor about a Nor'easter for Thursday - I can only hope!

Make sure you get my best side...

Make sure you get my best side...
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

OH.. here's one that made the Flickr site but not the blog... so here you go... Happy Feathery Friday!

Quabbin Tower Ice Fog 2

Quabbin Tower Ice Fog 2
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

Ok... so this was from my day off on Monday... but whatever... I actually did get some kind of decent shots of today's dusting of snow but no time to process them as yet... You'll probably see them eventually... I really do need to go back thru all my stuff and pull out those hidden gems.. sometimes I get 3 or 4 good shots of a certain subject but I'll only upload one or two... I think it's time to go back thru and take another look... OH.. and I should get the etsy store revamped... and my regular home page... and my company website.. and.. and.. and... *sigh** OK.. so maybe I'll just shoot for going back thru my old images!

Later...

Ok.. so I'm gonna come clean... Your all being tracked... Yes.. YOU.. Dear Readers... my stupid "free" hit counter at the bottom of my page quit working on me several months ago and it's been making me crazy... Is anyone reading? Is there a way to find out where people are coming from? HELP... Enter MixMap.com... it's awesome.. You can create a Google Map of visitors on any web page that you have control of the code of... so.. A month or so ago I added one to the blog... hidden quietly in the template code, it's been churning away giving me the information I've been wanting... The results... here's the last couple of days...

Anonymous User
Location: Bronx, NY
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Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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Location: Worcester, MA
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Location: West Springfield, MA
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Location: Melrose, MA
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As you can see.. Your all "Anonymous Users" so I'm not getting that much info on you, but I'm just thrilled with all the varied locations! Italy.. France.. Yemen.. Australia... Sweden... Lithuania... WOW! Well.. I just wanted to say a BIG Thanks to each and every one of you... I'll keep posting.. if you all keep reading... OH.. and drop me a note.. let me know how the heck you found my little blog in this great wide world!

Later...

Berries on Ice...

Berries on Ice...
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

Another from the ice fog at the Quabbin Tower yesterday....

Crystal Chandelier

Crystal Chandelier
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

One day off in a month and this is the weather I get! SHEESH... Actually it wasn't that bad... just rain and drizzle for the most part, but as I went thru the Quabbin, the higher I went, the more ice I encountered... at the top of the mountain, at the tower, the ice fog was incredible... it coated everything except for the road (luckily!)...

Pink Skulls

Pink Skulls
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

The Stupid Little Angry Dog™ is sporting a new collar... Pink Skulls... the perfect combination of "girly girl" and "evil b4st4rd"! :)

The Magic Donkey laughed at me...

The Magic Donkey laughed at me...
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

Because someone got blocked...

My Title on this post from a couple days ago got my sister blocked from the blog... so I've deleted the old story and readded it here..

So you knew it was inevitable... I got into it with one of my fellow associates at Wally World... Let me set this up for you... Saturday was wicked busy... people everywhere... there are huge clearance sales on clothing going on, so the fitting rooms are packed with scoffers looking for deals... and the phones are ringing off the hook... I had been on duty for 2 hours and still hadn't made it away from the desk to check my 'zone'... Well.. the phone rings and someon wants the infants dept..... so I page for an Associate in or around infants... no answer... I page again... no answer.... So... being the nice person I am.. I ask the caller what they are looking for... "a crib".. great.. the fartherest corner of the store... so... I stick her on hold, along with the 4 other lines that are on hold... go find Fran from Men's to cover the phones for me... and head off at a trot for infants... as I round the corner and head down action alley.. 20 feet from the Infants department.. what do I see... an associate slowly adding shirts to a rack... WFT! She was freakin 20 feet away and she couldnt take the call! Apparently, according to her... "This is the GIRLS department, Infants is NOT my job!" GGRRR.... So I pulled in all the meager supervisory training I've had... When she tried to change the subject to how hard she had it 2 weeks ago, I cut her off at the pass and said "I'm not talking about what happened 2 weeks ago, I'm talking about what JUST happened... Let's stay on topic.. shall we?" When she again said "it's not my job!" I used "Well, I am new here.. and maybe it isn't your job, Management should be able to tell me who is supposed to be doing what, I'll just ask the assistant manager and she should be able to give me the information on EXACTLY what people are supposed to be doing!" Her reply... "She'll just tell you that it's YOUR job!" my reply... maybe so, but it can't hurt to ask, I am kind of confused.. after all, I was told to page using "in or AROUND" the different departments, and if 20 feet away isn't "around" then I need someone to explain exactly what they mean by "around" because to me... 20 FEET is AROUND... When she tried to argue further I'd had enough and went with "That's ok, I'll talk to the Manager about it.. don't worry about it... I'll let you know what I find out tho... OH.. wait... maybe that's the manager's job... either way.. I'll make sure you get the same info I do, so there aren't any other misunderstandings..." So.. that was the end of it... she stomped off with a "whatever"... I haven't decided if I'm really gonna bring this up with management.... I have a feeling I got my answer on Sunday, when this same associate showed up at the desk,, grabbed the returns for INFANTS, looked at me and said "I'll take these to the infants department, is there anything else that needs to go over there?" Biting back the urge to say "Don't worry about it after all, didn't you say Infants wasn't your job!"... and instead I handed her some booties and said "yes, this needs to go too, thanks!" Apology accepted... for now!

I am nothing if not consistent...

I am nothing if not consistent...
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

yes... it's official.. I've turned into my mother... I spent many an hour as a child in the bra department of various stores... it made me the half insane adult that I am today... Now... as a part time job... I work in the Intimates Department and spend hours surrounded by the damn things... This is the result..

Time.. and a half...

Time.. and a half...
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

Well... Wally World is surprising me at every turn... I have my check direct deposited, but I was able to go online and get my stub... What a nice surprise... no one mentioned anything about Time and a Half... seems those 8 hour Sunday's and New Years' Day were worth working... At least that is all I can figure out is going on... My first check didn't have a Sunday or a Holiday so it was just straight time.. this one had "overtime" pay.. WOOHOO... NICE! I can't help but wonder if maybe it's a mistake tho and somewhere down the line they are gonna figure it out and I'll end up working for the Company Store for the next 6 months for free... Heh... I suppose I'll worry about that when it happens...

Later...

Rotten Berries....

Rotten Berries....
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

One little label with "for INDOOR use ONLY" would have saved this horrible massacre of my lovely red berry wreath... that will put an end to a nice series of photo's for ya'... at least I made enough off the prints to have paid for the wreath itself... I'M MAD....

Weather gone nuts...

Weather gone nuts...
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

49 degrees at 5 of 10 in the am... on 1/5/07.... CRAZY... We may not have to move south for the winter afterall...

Let's act like animals...

IN the animal kingdom, the male peacock carries around a giant feathery tail to intice the female peacock into mating... the male lion has a giant tuft of fur around his neck simply to impress... the male cardinal takes his chances being bright red and sticking out like a sore thumb in the cruel cruel forest just to make his lady happy... so WTF happened to people???

Do men jam a piece of string up their butt crack and call it a "jock thong"? Do they bend over and have their underwire t-shirt jam a pointy piece of metal into their armpit? Do they suffer with the four inch heel on their work boots? Do they remove almost every bit of body hair for that clean polished look? NO... NO THEY DON'T!! We do!

So I say, Women of the World Unite! Stop dressing for men... Let's just dress for ourselves... Do you really care if your legs look like tree trunks in those comfortable Dr. Scholl's nurses shoes? Do you care if your Mom's boobs touch her belly button?? How about your sister?? Do you really care if you can see her panty lines? Let's just chuck it all... I have a feeling that the men will still be comin' around, even if you are wearing a house dress that contains enough material to make a decent car cover out of when you get sick of the color of it... Testosterone will see to that...

So let's take a lesson from the animal kingdom and get a little balance back in our wardrobes... OH... and no... I'm not just saying this cause I'm sick of picking those freakin' thongs up off the Wally World floor... well... ok.. so maybe I am... but... whatever... JUST SAY NO!!!

Later...

The Birthday Boy!

The Birthday Boy!
Originally uploaded by BayRoadPhoto/Laura.

75 Years Young and still looking great! I think we managed to surprise him with his birthday party yesterday either that or he should start a new career in acting! I doubt if he would want to give up his new job of "Deck Designer - All Around Architech" for my brother's house, all Mike has to do is mention he's thinking of adding another deck/bathroom/finished room in the cellar... and within a couple days Dad arrives with complete blueprints and a shopping list for Home Depot! HEH...