Today's Encounter with Thieves

An interesting old mug shot from the Jane Thompson
AKA Gordon by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museum

This morning I was in the garden department of a local "big box store".  I was wandering inside amongst the live plants and could hear and see two women outside through the thick foliage.  The thick plants were all that separated us when I heard one say to the other, "Won't-che git ye a yeller 'un."  I kinda smile a little to myself when I hear this dialect around here.  My smile soon turned to a grimace when I realized the woman were stealing plants!  Their car was pulled up next to the sidewalk and they were making a haul.  I realize sometimes you pre-pay such as when you get mulch, etc.  It seemed evident to me these two characters had not prepaid and had no intention of paying.  Imagine this in broad and bright Sunday morning sunlight!  I went inside the actual store building and mentioned to the garden department cashier what I had witnessed and she said no one had come through to pre-pay.  She summons another employee to go outside and check on the matter.

Meanwhile, I walk through the store and have to go to the front lobby.  I glanced outside and see the two thieves have driven down to another large plant display and are still loading it up.  I am not kidding when I tell you the trunk was open and the back seat was full of plants!  There was no sign of the garden department guy.  I reentered the store and repeated my story to a male greeter.  I go to get my cart and the greeter reenters the store but by this time the thieves had made their getaway. 

I am a little jittery after witnessing this stealing. The greeter told me last year the "shrinkage" (STOLEN GOODS) amounted to over $890,000 from that store alone.  He said the employees were rewarded with a pizza party for keeping the number lower than the previous year.  I was astonished!  He also shared that it was a hassle with the court dates and the employees having to take off from work to testify that it is easier to just let the shoplifters go. Sigh, sigh.

After shopping my plan was to put the cold items in the cooler, go to the gym and work out and then head home. I realized I had forgotten my card to swipe at the gym to open the door.  About five minutes later on my way home a car was exiting off the interstate, I was very aware that he looked as though he was not going to stop.  He did not stop and yield, he pulled right in front of me and then crossed over to the other lane!  I had heard on the radio a few days ago that more red lights are run on Memorial Day weekend than any other time of the year.

By this time I had experienced just too much of the world for one bright sunny morning.  I forgot about working out and decided to just stay home.  Surely I can escape some of the world's perils by just staying in my little world here at home ... alone with Clint, the birds, my art and books.

The Black Keys Lonely Boy Dancer Video

My sister posts music videos on Facebook and I admit I don't always look at them.  "Have you seen the dancer yet on the Black Keys' video?", she kept asking me.  After a few days I watched the video and was laughing, not at the dancer and "singer".  I was laughing as I was sitting here thinking of how well my sister knows me. I appreciate good dancing, as a matter of fact I can say that about several of my family members.  She knew I would love this video and she was right!  I wonder how many times I have watched it.  Apparently I am not alone, a few weeks ago the views were around thirteen and a half million.  Today as I type this, the views are at 14,105,000!  Not bad for an "accident".  Only the footage of Tuggle dancing was used as the Lonely Boy video, the rest of the video was not used for some "unknown reason".   If you only have mere seconds to spare on this video, at least watch from 2:24 and have the volume up!

The following info came from a MTV website:


The real Internet dancing sensation may very well be Derrick T. Tuggle, the 48-year-old actor/musician/part-time security guard currently setting the web ablaze with his smooth moves in the Black Keys' "Lonely Boy" video.




For the uninitiated, the clip stars Tuggle — and only Tuggle — as a herky-jerky dance machine who grooves to the Keys' new single while standing outside a motel room. Over the course of three-plus minutes, as the sleeves of his dress shirt become increasingly unrolled, he cycles through a series of rather amazing moves (and even mimics a few of the lyrics) before triumphantly thrusting his fist skyward as the song comes to a close. It is a decidedly odd, strangely compelling performance, and because of it, the "Lonely Boy" video — the first clip from the Keys' El Camino album — has racked up nearly 400,000 views in less than 24 hours.




In Tuggle's words:




"I was cast as an extra, and there were maybe six or seven other people who were supposedly going to be in the Black Keys video. ... I was the first one to perform in the video. It was a motel shot where the guys from the Black Keys come and give me the keys to their motel room," he said. "The director just sort of noticed me dancing and asked me, 'Can you perform?' I said, 'I can dance, anybody can dance".






The end result is most definitely crazy — not to mention rather incredible, considering Tuggle nailed the routine in a single take ("As an actor, you have to know your lines, you have to be ready, so I was," he explained.



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The Skeletal Remains

The skeletal remains of a prehistoric
Acrophyseter sea creature discovered in the Open Polar Sea.

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities. ~Theodore Geisel 

I confess I made up the story that goes with the top photo.  In reality it is another photo of light and shadows in our house.  Clint called my attention to the shadows cast on the wall from a tiny sliver of  evening sunlight as it peeked through the window treatment and illuminated a fern in the living room.

I cropped the original photo, sharpened it, did a little saturation on it, worked on the contrast, inverted the color and recropped it again.  Suddenly my demented mind saw the skeletal remains.

The "before" photo, the reality.

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I Didn't Want To Do It



Clint helping me off the Wild Eagle Winged Roller Coaster
Ride at Dollywood.





"The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida."  Never will I forget this first sentence of one of my favorite short stories, Flannery O'Conner's A Good Man is Hard to Find.  This grandmother's lament came to mind for me yesterday when for days Clint knew I didn't want to ride a roller coaster.  I am not talking about just any old run-of-the mill roller coaster, I am talking about the new Wild Eagle Winged Roller Coaster which debuted in March at Dollywood, the first winged roller coaster in America.  My husband Clint loves roller coasters!

The last roller coaster I rode about ten years ago, the New York, New
York coaster in Las Vegas.  Clint strongly "encouraged" me to ride
this one, too.

Drawing of the new Wild Eagle Winged Roller Coaster at Dollywood.

Thursday was the big day and I was excited and psyched up.  My how the mighty fall!  I had read about the inversions and the 4G force and the requirement that the ride was "appropriate for only the most healthy and physically able riders".  I walk two miles daily and rarely miss a day at the gym.  I figured for my age I was in good shape.  All I remember was totally losing it when the "drop" began and I blinked and never opened my eyes until the thing stopped. It was all I could do to keep breathing and stay alive!  I ended up with motion sickness and felt poorly for hours afterwards. I still wonder about the couple in line who appeared to be in at least their mid 70s and not in the best shape. Yes, I am glad I rode it and had the experience but there are times I need to remind myself, "Cindy, you are not twenty-one anymore, you are not twenty-one anymore ...



Anyone out there brave enough to go on a virtual Wild Eagle ride?







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All This in Forty Minutes

 All this spectacular beauty recently in my morning walk.  This had to be one of my most memorable walks. 

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Morning Gently Tiptoes

Through the blackest night, morning

gently tiptoes, feeling its way to dawn.

~Robert Brault~

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The Flower in the Crainned Wall

Flower in the Crannied Wall

I pluck you out of the crannies,

I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,

Little flower—but if I could understand

What you are, root and all, all in all,

I should know what God and man is.

~ Alfred Lord Tennyson ~

Two recent flowers I found in crannied "walls" during my morning walk near Atlanta.

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