Illustration Friday - Train

I havent posted on IF in a while...this is Paddington Station, London 1913.

Illustration Friday - Space

Space is still the Final Frontier

Illustration Friday - Heights

Arthur C. Clarke wrote a book about a tower so tall that it reached into space...

Illustration Friday - Fluid

During WWII, crossing the Atlantic was always a fluid situation...

Illustration Friday - Sink

Back in days of pirate ships, a cannonball attack would seldom sink a ship, but damage it beyond repair, destroying their masts and rigging.

Illustration Friday - Vanity

Portrait of Fay Wray from a vanity shot in 1933, when she starred in 'King Kong'.

Illustration Friday - Stay

In 1611, explorer Henry Hudson tried to find the Northwest Passage above Canada aboard the Half Moon...he never found it. Somewhere in Hudson Bay, his crew mutinied and he and his teenage son, and a few others were cast adrift in lifeboats, and there they stayed.

Illustration Friday - Remedy

A sure remedy when you're feeling down is the smile on a dog, ready to play ball!

Illustration Friday - Midsummer Night

The moon rising over the Sierra Nevada on a midsummer night is a spectacular sight, as the snowcapped peaks seem to glow from the moonlight...

Illustration Friday - Launch

In his heyday, Mickey Mantle would launch tape measure home runs...one was almost hit out of Yankee Stadium, another went out of Griffith Park in DC into the neighborhood, probably over 600 feet.

Illustration Friday - Shadows

When the Apollo astronauts walked on the moon, they cast harsh shadows with the unfiltered sun...it was about 250 degrees cooler in the shade!

I'm Sorry Son, No One By That Name Lives Here.

Last night I had another one of those dreams that stay with you, long after you wake up. The kind where you get a glimpse of the things you try to suppress or ignore in waking life. I dreamed I was in my old neighborhood in Rohnert Park, but it must have been years later, because the trees were huge, and the street was shaded, like 'old' neighborhoods are. Then I saw a small white and gray cat, she looked familiar...it was Simone! my old kitty who lived with me for 12 years...she ran up to me and I picked her up, so happy to see her as she was purring, I realized then it must be a 'visit' and therefore this must be a dream, but in any case, here she was, and I was glad.

As I walked while I was carrying her, we went by my old house. She struggled and then jumped down and ran up to the front door. It was ajar, so she went in! "Simone! Nooo that's not our house now!" So I went up to the door and knocked "Hello??" and peered in. No one seemed to be home. Simone was sitting on a large chair, looking around as if disoriented, because it was disorienting to see my old house with unfamiliar furniture, kids' toys on the floor, and different pictures on the wall. "Come on Simone, we have to leave." But she didn't want to leave, and she ran down the hall toward the bedrooms.

"Simone! No! this isn't our house anymore!" And as I said that, I was suddenly filled with tremendous sadness and loss. I went into the room that was my office with a built-in desk and shelves, Simone was sitting on the desk, staring at me and I could sense what she was saying, "We're home now!"

"No Simone, we're not home...this used to be home, but not now." Then I began to sob, extremely...The sense of loss, regret, sadness...I never did in waking life, because I was too busy dealing with the logistics, but now I was here in my old house, overflowing with grief and the neverending wonder of 'what might have been'...As I looked around, I could see that this was certainly my old room, but with other peoples' stuff in it, which was very incongruous, disorienting...then I began to notice particular objects, like my old tv, my old printer, old pictures, some of the stuff was mine!

Then I heard a car pull in to the driveway, "Oh nooo, they're home!" I tried to grab Simone but she jumped down and dashed into the bedroom, so I chased her in there. She ducked under the bed, so I went under there too, to hide...I could her two womens' voices as they entered through the front door. They went into the kitchen, and as I peered out from under the bed I noticed a door, a new door to the garage they must have put in. "that's our way out." ...I picked up Simone and quietly made for the door, as we went out, I saw that the garage had been converted into a playroom/den, with the washer and dryer, and extra fridge, etc...I also noticed my old clock radio, and my old record albums I hadn't seen in years. You know, these are mine, I'm gonna take them. So I let Simone out the side door and went back and grabbed the radio and a handful of albums...Outside, I saw that my old green Honda was parked on the street, so I put the stuff in the Honda and went back to get more of MY things. As I went back in, I picked up and old cd player that was mine...as I did, a woman of about 40 came into the room. "Who are you, what are you doing with my cd player??"

"Actually, I used to live here, and this is MY old cd player."

"No it's not, it's mine."

"No I can tell it's mine, it's got the same old scratch, I remember."

"It stopped being yours when you gave it away to Goodwill, and then I bought it, so that makes it mine now... just like this house stopped being yours when you sold it."

She was right of course..."Well, I have a radio and some records out in the car..."

"That's okay, that's our car too."

I was deflated, bewildered..."But it still feels like mine, what it represented..."

"It's what it represented for that time, but that time is past...like a spirit that passes through many lives, many lives can pass through one spirit, in one lifetime...this house was one."

As I looked around, I realized that yes, the house was just a chunk of wood and masonry, but it represented a life back then...and, like Simone, still remains a part of my spirit.

Illustration Friday - Asleep

Picture 110, a photo by danguerra444 on Flickr.

When you're on top of the food chain, you can fall asleep anywhere you like...

Illustration Friday - Soaked

0ships, a photo by danguerra444 on Flickr.

This was in my 'alternate history' series, "We Told You So"

Illustration Friday - Journey

goldenhinde, a photo by danguerra444 on Flickr.

In his journey around the world aboard the Golden Hinde, Francis Drake and his crew stopped off the coast of California in 1579, in what is now Point Reyes in Marin County.

Illustration Friday - Bottled

21club, a photo by danguerra444 on Flickr.

The end of Prohibition must have been a holiday in itself, when bottled booze had labels again, at least domestically...

Illustration Friday - Duet

dannyspics 116, a photo by danguerra444 on Flickr.

Torvill and Dean were a magnificent duet on the ice.

Illustration Friday - Cultivate

Dry Creek Vinyard a photo by danguerra444 on Flickr.

Grapes are cultivated in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys, one of my favorite places on Earth.

How ya Doing Dean?

I've been volunteering at the library for over 6 months now and I'm pleased to say I still enjoy it. Maybe it's the atmosphere of being among all those books. Just walking up and down the aisles with all those volumes just aching to be read...and I do, I pluck one off the shelf and try not to get lost in it...

And the people there are very nice. The senior librarians are mostly older ladies who would pretty much fit the description of 'librarian' with the cashmere sweater draped over their shoulders and the horn-rimmed glasses they peer over. One of them is a dead-ringer for Miss Hathaway of 'Beverly Hillbillies' fame, right down to the voice and mannerisms.

And they give me a warm hello when I come in. Though for some reason, one of them calls me 'Dean'...which is no big deal, but after six months it's become a comical dilemma. I'm dreading the day when she learns she's been calling me by the wrong name all this time...and it doesn't help that I answer to Dean.

"How ya doin' Dean! stayin' outta trouble?"

"Oh hi Joan! yeah I'm always outta trouble."

"Haha!"

So it's probably too late to say, "Oh by the way, it's Dan, not Dean." I should have said that way back when. And it's odd that others call me Dan within earshot of Joan, but I guess her attention is focused elsewhere. I worry that she'll be utterly embarrassed and maybe even mad when she finds out I'm Dan, that I didn't correct her sooner. But there came a point of no return after I just started answering to 'Dean'...

Actually, I'm prepared for the eventuality...I'll just shrug and say something like, "Oh it's close enough, it's just an extra E." And that will be that, I hope...because after six months it may be hard to start calling someone by a different name, and answering to it for that matter. But until that day comes, 'Dean' it is...

Illustration Friday - Warning

0robot a photo by danguerra444 on Flickr.

"Warning! Warning! You are already 97 astro-degrees off course Dr. Smith!"
"Silence! you cackling cacophony..."