kitchen - hallway

Looking from the foyer down the hallway toward the kitchen; back door visible all the way at the, um...back. Originally the hallway wall was fitted with white metal cabinets from the floor to about a foot or so shy of the ceiling, with a yellow laminate countertop running the length of it. The area in the kitchen, where the cabinets were later added, was bare; for many years the dinner table was there. The floor was tiled for years, until the tile was finally removed to reveal the wood underneath. It wasn't in the best shape, but they sanded and varnished it to the point where it looked decent.

stairway railing - detail

The sturdy railings at the bottom of the stairs. How many times did we bump against them, sit on them, climb over those railings while chasing each other up and down? They were like pillars sunk into the earth; they never budged. The woodwork detail is not unique; I have seen it in at least one other house (I don't remember exactly where, though). Originally, the wood was stained darker, but my parents carefully stripped the varnish and sanded it to reveal a lighter shade that better delineated the texture of the wood.

living room - detail

The original light fixture(?) in the living room. It was painted a few times; it ended up a sort of metallic blue, but it was also gold for a long time. It added a little character to a room that was generally rather plain, with the exception of the x-mas season when the tree would go up and dominate the space.

this old house - intro

The next few posts will be a photographic journey through the rooms of the house in which I grew up. It was in my family's possession from 1977-today. It was big enough, had a good yard to play in, was built sometime in the 1920's (we think), and survived all attempts by myself and my siblings to destroy it. I'll miss this house.

magma

First Tuesday of the month, 10:00 a.m., time to do the tornado siren test. But in my head, I thought "volcano siren". Is this a sign that natural disasters have become so pervasive that I immediately think the worst? Do we actually need a volcano siren here? I would hope not, but the way things have been going, I'm not taking anything for granted.

and then two

Two political posts in a row? Not typical for me. Two open seats on the Supreme Court? During the tenure of Bush the Lesser? Our civil rights are about to go "poof".

Hindsight

Hindsight. They say it's a bitch. I say it's a Bush. To me, the best hindsight will be the ass of our fearless leader in January 2009, officially removed from his throne room in the (white) frathouse. It's a tragedy when you don't see it coming; it's negligent manslaughter when you do. Yes, people should have gotten out of New Orleans, but some just couldn't. So thanks for cutting the funding for flood management, dismantling FEMA, and depriving the country of the personnel to handle such an emergency, you arrogant asshat. The word "quagmire" seems even more appropriate now as we view the pictures of an historic marshland crumbling away. Was it folly for New Orleans to even exist? Maybe, but that is the triumph and potential tragedy of the human spirit; the Panama Canal was folly; reversing the Chicago river was as well, but they were big dreams that worked and in the end we celebrated our ability to conquer nature for our own benefit. So it seems hypocritical to criticize the existence of the place, though I suspect that if more of its' inhabitants were upper class and white there would be far less of such talk.
Go back to the ranch, Georgie-boy. Get on your bike, and the next time you crash it, try to impale yourself on something. It's the Christian thing to do.

captured moments

"Summer Skin" - Death Cab for Cutie (2005)

Squeaky swings and tall grass
The longest shadows ever cast
The water's warm and children swim
And we frolicked about in our summer skin

I don't recall a single care
Just greenery and humid air
Then Labor day came and went
And we shed what was left of our summer skin

On the night you left I came over
And we peeled the freckles from our shoulders
Our brand new coats so flushed and pink
And I knew your heart I couldn't win
Cause the seasons change was a conduit
And we left our love in our summer skin