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Monday, July 22, 2013

Odds and Ends, Part 2

In my last post I slapped together a bunch of random photos Id taken with the intent of blogging them. This is part two. Back to real posts soon, I promise. 

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TEXAS
There are some very odd/oddly cool things about rural Texas. Or just Texas in general.

Texas
Hieroglyphics
Texas
Hieroglyphics Texas Hieroglyphics
(cattle brands)
From a visit to Texas A&M. This wall caught my eye…at first I thought, being on a college campus, it was hieroglyphics or similar historic markings. It’s actually a wall of all the cattle brands of Texas. Which is oddly very cool.

Pork Hall of Honor!
From the same building, the Pork Hall of Honor!!

Westward
Ho!
Sadly, this was a dead-end road, I think.

Sexing
Industries.
At first I thought I misread the sign, but this is indeed “Sexing Technologies”. Better yet, it is Sexing Technologies for livestock.

2012-09-26
10.03.41
This abandoned Walmart was the flagship abandoned store in a small town full of abandoned stores.

2012-09-26
10.11.26
Texas Counties have old school, ornate big limestone county courthouses. Always cool to drive through the non-metro counties and see the old architecture.
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BABY SHOPPING
We’ve been doing a lot of baby-shopping recently. Some of it is just…odd.

2013-06-09
16.18.06 2013-06-09
16.21.39
2013-06-09
16.18.20 2013-06-09 16.21.07
I think these are from the “Baby Never Sleeps” line. (Actually they’re from a line designed by Heidi Klum, whose name and face are prominent on the packaging. I guess she needs to associate herself with hating children for some reason. Or maybe it’s just that the world is a scary place, might as well break them in young.) I guess the monkey isn’t really scary, it’s just odd to have a giant, vaguely sad monkey head staring at your kid while they sleep.

2013-06-16
14.55.32
This has to be the most pimped out stroller I have ever seen. It’s like if Cadillac made a stroller. Safety ratings be damned, I want this thing.

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FURNITURE, TECHNICALLY
I posted previously about the bizarre contents of noveau-riche Houston furniture outlets. What’s most amazing to me are the prices. They are not, as one would expect, the amount of money that they’re paying you to haul away these monstrosities. They actually want you to PAY, and pay dearly, for these things.

2013-04-14
18.14.05
There is nothing Zebra print can’t make fancier. It’s like if New Jersey and Texas had a baby and it was a chair.

2013-04-14
18.14.16
“Who are you???” “I’m BAT-CHAIR.”

2013-04-14
18.14.37
$6000? Hey, this amount of ugly doesn’t come cheap.

2013-04-14
18.14.53
I was trying to decide between buying a couch or a Sharpei…

2013-04-14
18.15.31
Made from the shiniest cows on earth.

2013-04-14
18.33.442013-04-14
18.15.46
Much like a mullet…business up front, party in the back.

2013-04-14
18.16.04
Decahedron! What does it do? It costs $200, that’s what it does.

2013-04-14
18.19.44
It’s like I’m on Safari every time I look in the mirror!

2013-04-14
18.29.15
Horror Horse sees what you’re doing and is very disappointed in you.

Texas
furniture
Like the Native Americans, there is not part of the steer we do not use. As furniture.

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“SUMMERTIME/AND MY LIVER’S UNEASY…”[i]
One of the only good things about Texas summer is the opportunity to go float the Guadalupe River in a tube.  When my buddy Scott Smizik came down, we did just that.

2013-06-21
13.14.02
With a separate tube to carry your cooler of beer. Tragically, we ran out of beer prior to the end of the float.

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NATURAL BITS
Some natural bits and pieces that didn’t make it into other posts…

Nerodia sp. Coastal Plain
toad
2012-09-20
18.28.23
A couple of local species seen around the area: A Nerodia sp. Water Snake, a Coastal Plains Toad, and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird that smacked into my work building (one of many).

Morning
Creek
Picture from a beautiful morning on a small local creek.

Odd
Rainbow
Weird half-rainbow, Brazos Bend State Park.

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ENDS
Lastly, the miscellany of a miscellany post.

Cool
building
This is just a cool building I pass on the way to a project area[ii].


2013-04-15
19.36.06
This pimped out oldsmobile had a large decal declaring it “Tha Panty Dropper”.




[i] With apologies to Mr. Gershwin, Porgy, and/or Bess.
[ii] Most of Houston architecture is a mix of boring faux-tuscan villas and pseudo modern townhomes, or just old 60’s style ranches, all in bland tones. It’s great to see color and art now and again. I’m sure it will be demolished soon to make way for a Trader Joe’s or something.