Random Musing and a Lot of Pictures...

Sunflowers from under the weeping cherry

With all the shite that's going on in the world right now, I thought I'd kick back and go through some of my old photos.

And inflict them upon you.

So here we go...

Where the magic happens.
(What magic? Shh, pretend as if you know what I'm talking about...)

Once upon a sunny morning.
Both trees are, sadly, long gone.

Why not pair a sunrise with a sunset?
My old Dodge is the foreground, also long gone.

Mid-November, 2014

General Lee's old house, Arlington, VA

All your computing assets are now mine!

Aviator Memorial, NAS Lemoore, CA

Gadsby's Tavern, Alexandria, VA.
I love eating there...

The Potomac River looking towards National Harbor, MD.
Alexandria, VA.

Near The Nuke's old residence.
Alexandria, VA.

Bridge Over The Pond at Chez Sarge
That too is no longer there.
(We got a new bridge, old one was rusting out.)

Hooman, why are you taking my picture?

Old Glory snapping in the breeze on a cloudy day in Little Rhody.

Sunset. The skies in these parts are often spectacular.

View from a hospital bed. My hospital bed.
(Five years ago, I'm all better now.)

I am Groot!

Easton Beach, Little Rhody

Dad.

A January weekend in Carlsbad, CA.
Not a bad way to spend one's time!

On the way to DC.

Next time I'll try to focus better. But the sun behind/between the clouds was awesome.

The Sarge Has Landed.
Future trips won't be to here, but to BWI instead.

Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge from The Chart House, Alexandria, VA.
Another favorite place to eat! (I have a lot of those...)

Two of my granddogs, Kodi and Bear.

July evening, 2016

The other Master Sergeant at Chez Sarge
(I outrank him by time-in-grade and time-in-service)

The feline staff, Anya and Sasha.
Yes, they're sisters.

Udvar-Hazy.
There's no such thing as enough airplanes...

Hurricane, that's the Enola Gay behind her.

Phantom, Thud, and Gomer.

(MiG-21 actually.)

I like cats.
(PzKfw V, Panther)

I am smiling!
Your Humble Scribe at Udvar-Hazy.

Matilda, non-waltzing variety.

Was I ever this young?
The Missus Herself hasn't changed a bit!
(Blurry as it's a photo of a photo.)

Random old fart saluting-selfie.

Wells Harbor, Wells, ME.

Love that sky!

Favorite meal, bar none.
(Though there are quite a few which are a close second, hey, I like to eat.)

Well, not a lot of musing, but a lot of pictures.

One problem with that last photo, not nearly enough coleslaw, not nearly enough.

Life's been good to me. Really good. Even if there's never enough coleslaw...

April is done, can hardly wait to see what May will be like...

RHT447's Handiwork

Cuppla folks expressed interest in seeing some of the handiwork reader RHT447 had mentioned in a comment t' other day -

RHT447

So I am up a bit earlier than usual. A bit of heavy weather rolled through about 5 am and woke me up. Lots of thunder and lightning, some hail. Our single feline staff member does not care for this kind of weather, no not one bit. She claws at the bedroom door to be let in to hide under the bed. I couldn't go back to sleep, so got up and made coffee. Weather has moved on, feline staff has come out of hiding and wants breakfast.

Have entertained myself the last few days re-finishing and old gun rack. It's nothing fancy, just a wall mount with two uprights notched for four long guns and two cross pieces. It was gift not long after high school, and has followed me around ever since. Used these two products for the first time--

First this--

Walnut Wood Finish Restorer

Then this--

Feed-N-Wax wood polish

I stripped off the old finish first as there were some places that needed to be sanded. Wood looks great now. Like those products--just like the Karate Kid--wax on, wax off.

It has been decades since this rack held a gun. Long gone are the days when you could leave guns on display in your house. I'm going to hang the rack on a wall that can't be seen from outside, then stick an old muzzle loader rifle on it.

So here ya go!

The other side of the magazine well dust cover says "PLAN B"

Very nice work RHT447!

Nautical Art

The Great Wave off Kanagawa
神奈川沖浪裏
Hokusai
葛飾 北斎

I said to myself Tuesday night, "Self, you're wandering into the political ranting arena far too much lately. I mean that's what we 'pay' Tuna for, neh?"

(Yes, lads, pay is in quotes for the reason you surmise. It's all virtual here, I mean the rewards are intangible. We're all famous now! What? We're not? Ah well, in my mind we are.)

So really, I have ranted too much as of late (once in a quarter seems more than sufficient, perhaps even too much from my point of view). I'm not sure why people come here to read our thoughts and the like, but I like to tell stories about history, the family, the garden, music, books I've read, movies I've watched, and so on, and so forth.

Ranting can be, I dunno, tiresome for me. So I decided that I needed to take a step back and CTFD. Yes, an acronym, C for Calm, D for Down, I leave the middle bit to your imaginations. Most of you will, no doubt, figure it out fairly quickly. No, it's not in the Acronym List, seems too crude for that. Not that there aren't other crudities over there, but well, ya know. I try to keep it clean.

So yeah, nautical art, I like it. I keep looking at the opening painting from yesterday's post (which I reproduce below so you don't have to chase a link). I like pictures of ships at sea. Sometimes just a seascape by itself is good enough. Though I do like ships and boats, and what have you.

Stormy Weather at Sea
Frank William Brangwyn

That modern vessel in the foreground, is she foundering? What are the men in the small rowboat doing out and about in such filthy weather? (They are heading towards the vessel in the foreground. Ask me how I know.) Then in the background that sailing vessel looming into view. The past, reminding those sailors of their origin? I don't know. I couldn't find any explanation online for the painting, though I didn't look that hard. I'm feeling rather lethargic tonight (last night as you read this). Worth noting, I suppose, it that this painting hangs in the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. So leading off with a quintessentially Japanese painting seemed appropriate.

So paintings, nautical art, I love it.

Here are some from one of my favorite painters, Winslow Homer -

On the Beach

A Basket of Clams

Sunlight on the Coast

The Herring Net

Rembrandt did some work in this vein -

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee
Rembrandt van Rijn

Sadly, the whereabouts of this lovely work are unknown, the painting was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990. Art thieves, we hates them Precious.

Schepen aan lager wal
(Ships running aground)
Ludolf Bakhuizen

The Kearsarge and the Alabama
Xanthus Russell Smith

The Battle of Trafalgar
William Clarkson Stanfield

The Continental Navy frigate Confederacy
From the Navy Art Gallery in the Washington Navy Yard

USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere
Michel Felice Corne

A Perfect Wreck
Tom Freeman
USS Constitution vs HMS Java
(Source)

I feel better already. Nothing like a good painting to calm me down!

Who are your favorite painters. Maybe I'll do a "Readers' Choice" post.

Hey, it could happen!