Month: June 2026

Lady Friend Visits

The Viburnum by my apt. window is reaching full bloom. I trim it by hand, protected from the weekly “Landscaping Crew” and their “Two-Cycle Symphony”. Its density provides nesting for Chipping Sparrows and shade relief for Rabbits. Bees discovered it week ago. Today, hiding out “a la Paris”, from heat & humidity due to an errant Jet Stream, while enjoying a libation, had a visitor, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Feeding, “She” (Blue Spots on Tail) , allowed me time to fetch a camera and my favorite portrait lens.

103 in Paris! Mon Dieu!

Shocked by the news today! My memory of Paris in mid September through October is wonderful! Open the windows! And the beginning of the Paris Opera Season! Ballet! This is from our 4th floor apt. (they start at 0 which explained the 52, 300 year old oak steps) on Rue Ferdinand Duval in the Marais.

Seeing the news today, while in the comfort of my apt., in Caroline du Nord, where air conditioning is a given and rare in Paris – how awful with no relief for Le Parisien. Tar Heels know! We’d be nude! Okay, maybe that would work 😉

View from our apartment window

Eureka II! Another Use!

My apt. complex announced mandatory and new Parking Permit Window Decals. They required proof of current vehicle registration and return of the previous Decal. That part worried me. How to remove an adhesive decal that had been baked on by the Sun for two years?

But again, inspired by the recent events at the Reflecting Pool In D.C., I used this and a Q-Tip. Worked! Clean windshield too! Glue be gone! Tow Truck be gone!

PSA: News You Can Use!

Crypto Currency – It’s the latest thing! Pig Butchered – Man Scammed Out of $700,000

And maybe, a stock to avoid: “Trump Media & Technology Group continues to navigate significant challenges, including a $406 million Q1 loss largely from crypto investments and a 69% decline in stock value over the past year”

Eureka! It works!

Unable to remove gummed adhesive stickers from used Books & DVDs with a fingernail, I was inspired by the recent events at the Reflecting Pool In D.C.. I use this and baking soda to brush & gargle with – works well and cheap.

Not the 4x stronger 12% that the National Park Service dumped gallons of into the Reflecting Pool to kill algae, but what I had. Thought, if it could dissolve the bond between industrial coating and concrete, it might work! Sprinkled on the gummed labels and voila -they come right off – with a Q-Tip, no scrubbing or pulling or tearing! Good for dental hygiene, good for mild wounds, good for dissolving glue bonds! And it’s cheap!

Juneteenth Revisited

This image is newly printed, framed and part of my apt. living room gallery. If I get the Exhibit Application to Town of Cary by next August and my proposal accepted, it may be on public display next year.

Studio Session with Willie Hinton at Cary Ballet Conservatory – 12 June 2021

Old Man Fun – Part Quatre!

Dragging today from ugly upset tummy inhibiting sleep. Mostly better now, nursing a Pabst and some Evan Williams. Begged off my daily visit with neighbor dog (below) but left treats outside my door.

But, while Phone scammer calls, have gone to near zero, got one today from a spoofed / unassigned local DID number. Pick up on speaker and blow quasi-duck call noise maker (origin was previously described)! A boiler room soul answers and they get another blast! No voice recording! Then they hang up! Mission accomplished! Double treats tomorrow! Improved my mood!

Not AI ;-)

Yesterday was BBQ & Collards & Rice – well stocked now for a few more meals. Today was Rowing Machine, Shower, Shopping and Cooking. Found this at my favorite used book shop for $5 vs $20+ on Amazon. Plus replenish Dog Treats supply (next Saturday young neighbor moving – dog sitting commitment). In the same shopping center, bought my current kitchen & pantry needs: Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Cucumber, Shallots, Mustard, Half & Half and Sweet Potato Fries. The days are just packed!

All New and Silly Unnecessary.

Bought this new in May of 2005, with the bed liner, for $13,600. Got me back and forth to work and hauled everything I needed without trashing the family bus, my late sweetheart’s Dodge Grand Caravan. Promo marketing e-Mail tonight for the All New 2027 Silverado”! Touting the size and number of it’s screens and more, more, more – V-8 engines, etc, etc, etc. Photo shows silly, way too high ride height and size – “Mine is bigger then yours!” syndrome.

Last trip for service at Hendrick Chevrolet, parked this in a slot next to some new trucks. Glanced at the window sticker for the Tahoe I parked next to – $90K! Almost needed CPR.

Real BBQ

Had one of these, three addresses ago. It’s essentially, 19″ oil pipe adapted to make barbecue. Gave to neighbor before a move to two addresses ago.

I used a steel cookie sheet “donated” by my late sweetheart as a baffle from the side box with lump hardwood charcoal, made ready with a chimney a la Stamey’s in Greensboro (shovelful of white coals from their burn barrel of the hickory axe handle scraps piled up in the parking lot). Unlike Stamey’s, whose owner graciously showed me their pits with maybe 35 or 40 shoulders each. I could fit about 4 – of course from Nahunta at the Raleigh State Farmers Market. 12 hours at 225 – and fill a 3 lb coffee can underneath with the drippings (fat cap up). Today, it’s an oven. The collards have been in slow cooker with smashed garlic cloves, diced shallot. chicken stock and a little apple cider vinegar for eight hours. Rice cooker on, 1/2 Brown, 1/2 White in more homemade chicken stock. I’ll be good for a few days. Except for the mark down bargain, grass fed NY strip dry brining in Kosher salt in the frig. But that’s tomorrow.

Discovery

Working on a retrospective for a dancer, digging through a decade of programs, the light bulb went on!

These two images are 20 x 16 full bleed prints, Fuji Deep Matte Paper on Standout Mounts in Nielsen Float Frames hanging in my apt. living room gallery.

October 2010 at Cary Ballet Conservatory and December 2010 at Meredith College, Jones Auditorium. Finally realized the two young dancers and friends in the middle of the first image are the same two on the right of the second image. Vitamins for an old, world weary heart. The best of us.

Sunday Ruminations – Part Deux

My previous post was written with the idea of “Ruminant” as “chewing cud” or mulling something over. Had no idea I was, AI wrong: “Rumination is the act of endlessly replaying or dwelling on negative thoughts without reaching a resolution

Nah. It’s thinking – which AI never does. Wonder how it defines “mull”? Or ponder? Or Wish List?

Sunday Ruminations

It is a great luxury to be disassociated from modern manic madness: Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Cable TV, Chat GPT, Door Dash, Facebook, Google Gemini, Instacart, Instagram, LinkedIn, Lyft, Meta, Open AI, SpaceX, Tik Tok, Uber (weekly phishing scams) and WhatsApp – nah.

My “I’ve had it with I/T” post IBM PC-Lenovo merger decision to take early Social Security has now achieved financial parity vs waiting for “full retirement age”. And gave me and my sweet heart most of a decade we wouldn’t have had together. And Paris.

Mac aka Melanchetes “MacGyver” AKC CGC

Got a roof, rack, good chow and peace. No dental or medical or money issues. Full frig, freezer and pantry. Balanced meal plans (old guys can cook). Pile of TBR (To Be Read) books, good music, an I/T Pro’s low cost, robust Internet connection. A book to write and 12 years of photographs to curate without the time pressure of commerce. Mac knew.

Brooke Can Cook!

Lazy, lazy, hot, hot weekend. Tonight, it’s:

  1. Butterflied pork chops (.75lbs), Lowe’s Foods discount case, $1.64 total. Overnight wet salt brine, brush with Duke’s Mayo, Shake & Bake with leftover Mi Nina Tortilla Chip Crumbs, Wondra & Bread Crumbs – NC ABC Paper Sack.
  2. Portion of diced Yellow Squash/Zucchini/Tomato with pepper, salt & olive oil.
  3. Grains (Millet, Lentils, Barley and Brown Rice) in homemade chicken broth.
  4. Chunk of LaFarm Bread.
  5. Water with lemon slice & ice.
  6. White Wine

Raleigh State Farmers Market – 2013

Mentor

Hiding out from record heat, needing no supplies and zero commitments, allows time for the Muse. This is in transit from my favorite Used Bookstore. Discovered his work in 2012. That summer, was an epiphany. This explained it- Kodak Essential Reference Guide for Filmmakers – Pages 135 to 140 – epiphany. And realized why I was home in the theater.

Cary Ballet Company Rehearsal, Cary Arts Center – 12 December 2012

Scottish Wisdom, American Whiskey

Scottish Wisdom: “8 or 9 is reasonable refreshment, but after that, you’re inta drinkin!

Long ago, business took me to Glasgow, with my late Sweetheart & Boss Lady. We stayed (not making this up) at a Ramada Inn! On the weekend we’d planned a trip to Edinburgh, she had a tummy bug. So leaving her in peace in our room, I went to the hotel bar with it’s chalk board of “Single Malts” from Islay, Syke, et al. Worked my way through the list. And longed for American Bourbon.

My pay back was getting the tummy bug in London, in a B&B near Buckingham Palace – so she didn’t get to see it. A taxi took us to Heathrow under a giant orange moon, at zero dark thirty, where I was saved by an overbooked flight upgrade to Business Class. And, missing her, I am very near “inta drinkin”!

Evening Remembrance – 6 June 2026

My apartment is on a East to West axis. Late afternoon sun back lights clouds on an azure sky. I never planned to make a photograph of cirrus clouds like I see today, but I did. On a country road in Belleau, France. For “Teufel Hunden”.

1% -Meh

Unlike my departing adoptive granddaughter and her rescue dog, I didn’t get the “$250 Rent Discount Offer For Paying On The 1st of Each Month” as advertised in the apartment complex laundromat and included with a Lease Proposal in an Envelope slipped in her door. This was before the notice about the property becoming “Income Restricted”. No worries on my part as essentially, a pensioner aka USA Social Security with some Interest Income and Cash who is no longer required to file Tax Returns. It is, I think, a sweet spot for an aging artist who relishes the lack of timeline pressure and the luxury of time to think and write. And having successfully defended my wildly blossoming Viburnum that separates me from a Neon Green Dumpster, I can absorb a 1% rent increase. I figure my cost to move would pre-pay my Cremation and Remains Disposition ( 3 miles off Hatteras). Making life and death simple. Six month routine Doctor appointment tomorrow. My only concern is a new joke for the young lady who checks me out, she’s heard all my old ones i.e. “The Doctor recommended I only buy one roll of toilet paper at a time”. 😉

June 2025

Cutting Fool – Politely*

*I’ve lived in the American South a total of 37 years. I know collards, shrimp, grits and boiled peanuts (just establishing my Bubba Bona Fides).

Monday, 1st of month: Budget update, pay rent, shop for kitchen Post-It lists. Expected a Lease Renewal Proposal. Envelope in door was a xeroxed broadcast admonition to provide income confirmation with the disclaimer of “even if you had” – which I had. The young lady in the leasing office explained they hadn’t gotten info from ( I’m guessing here) corporate somewhere. Which explains how this place has become “Income Restricted” – which is no problem as I am, “Income Restricted”! Bless their Tax Credit and Depreciation Schedule Hearts!

Sooooo – I took the same documents and statements and ‘splained – again. We’ll see. Moving is a pain but yeah, corporate somewhere, go ahead and increase your non-performing vacancy rate.