calms skies in a stormy world!, originally uploaded by freestone.

calms skies in a stormy world!
Evening, Tallahassee, Florida.

Sun undershines upon these clouds.

Not much to see but oh so calming, to me.

Uploaded by freestone on 16 Feb 08, 10.13AM EST.

a georgia belle christmas, originally uploaded by freestone.

a georgia belle christmas
I live in an Independant Living facility, Georgia Belle, here in Talllahassee.

Here was the christmas tree for the living room, the tv watching room.
[every friday night is "movie night" complete with popcorn!]


Of course this tree was only for "show", the residents did not all sit under the tree and open presents, most of the boxes were just there for decoration.
Most people, including myself, went to relatives or to friends, for christmas celebration, the 160 residents were mostly gone on the Day, which is a good thing: shows that most of the people here have relatives and friends locally.
There are a surprising number of "Yankees" here, people from New York, or Bosten! maybe there are over 10 people from New York city, alone!
Years ago they sent their kids to the local college and now they come to retire near their children, still living here after college.
So it was a good Christmas.
The staff put on a special dinner, a week before Christmas, to be sure to catch everyone to be still here. White tablecloths and silverware and a good meal with nice people.
While this place is not really a "nursing home", there are people living here that might seem, to some of the residents, to really should live in a nursing home, but the Idea of this is that these needing people have lived here for years and they Know the building, whereas if they moved, everything would be new and different; seniors cannot take very much change. So they are better off here.
i was recently told that there were two ladies living here that were about 96 years old, some man, around new years, turned 90 years old!

Uploaded by freestone on 26 Dec 07, 10.35AM EST.

summer in November's end!, originally uploaded by freestone.

summer in November's end!
Looks like a late afternoon summer's day does this not? A hint of fall folage in the background. Aha! not so, the subtropical spanish moss, alone, would give this away!
Late November, Tallahassee, florida, usa.

I have had people, who moved down from the Northern part of the country, tell me that they waited "forever' for the leaves to fall off of a tree in their front yard, they never ever did fall.
Sometimes even for the decidious trees, some of the leaves are falling and turning color just as the new leaves come out for the springtime!

Fall and spring shake hands, here!

A graveyard to the right. Looking South. Note the vines on the fence.

Uploaded by freestone on 24 Nov 07, 10.25AM EST.

Zot, originally uploaded by freestone.

Zot
lightning takes out a pine tree!

This from last summer. Note how the lightning corkscrewed downwards/upwards in a helical pattern. of course now this tree is dead. This is the fate of many many of tallahassee's pine trees, here in Florida, Tallahassee has over 85 thunderstorm days a year and pine trees have those deep deep tap roots that lightning loves!

I have heard, now, of many many people having their computers taken out too. it is NOT the electic line that lightning comes into, it is often the phone line! Surge-protect that phone/cable line NOW!

Uploaded by freestone on 24 Nov 07, 10.24AM EST.

may they rest in peace., originally uploaded by freestone.

may they rest in peace.
a cemetary scene, here in tallahassee, florida, usa.
"may they rest in peace" feels right for a title, this view felt so peaceful late in the day. The temperature must have been near 75, there was no breeze.
I can see why the first public park, in Philadelphia, pa, was designed by the person who drafted the plans for the Boston cemetary, why even then people would picnic around the stones. Thus cemetaries were the inspiration for the city parks!

Just off to the side of the image is a gravesite where a man's son
was buried, buried about three years ago. His father still comes many days a week and sits on a bench next to his son's stone, I have seen him with a bottle of wine or reading a book. He has lights that come on at dark, lights that look like candles, they are on each and every night.
Behind that large pine tree on the other side of the road is another grave where apparently a son died in late high school and his family
engraved on the stone a near-photographic pictation of his soccer gear.

But this cemetary is also for the Living; many many people jog here and walk their dogs.

yes so peaceful and lush with the subtropical plants amoungst the pine trees. So green on thanksgiving day!

Uploaded by freestone on 24 Nov 07, 10.25AM EST.

the homeless begging Place, originally uploaded by freestone.

the homeless begging Place
Here down the street from where I live, is a stoplight that lasts a long
while per turn, and here a group of homeless people make this here spot their begging place, i.e....."work for food". i walk by here a lot and see pitched food and trash. Money and maybe for drink, the Staff of life. Usually one person stands there and other sit by the abandoned building nearby, then they take turns.
a group of men, they are buddies, maybe closer in friendship than of many "succesful" men have today. often "Drink" is the bond and
once I nearly warned a young man who i sensed was new to this, to warn him that as he is with these men for a while he will become like them and just as the sign language people often never want to be cured of deafness as they want the CULTURE more than any "cure", once you sign up, it might be for life.

Just think: no taxes, no child support, no boss to tell ya what to do, and you have buddies and drink.

problem is....I see very very few "poets" amidst the homeless. they all look "anti-social' and angry. I can feel why their anger too, as often they have to deal with the ropes, lets alone strings attached, with any help given to them! basicly society wants to make them "normal" and Domesticated! no drink. no rowdyness. no help for the Demons of vietnam either.

So here is a section of a "I am a homeless vet" sign, pitched into the trash.

Once i saw a lady in a nice car slip a man a $5 bill. Suddenly i see the Real Service that these homeless beggers do, I read once that around gainesville, florida, on the interstate ramps, nearby, the average "income" from begging is about $20,000 to $40,000 a year!!
far far FAR more than I ever made in a year!
the Service?
---Guilt-reducing!
people who feel guilty for having a nice house and a good job, give and give. people who feel that they do not deserve such a good life.
they feel better for Giving, often even as this money goes directly to Drink.

and...will these men "police the area" of the trash, the 100 bits of litter, even as there is a dumpster 50 feet away?! NO! then they will blame the pig-police for arresting them or driving them off, as the city declares this spot a health hazard! blame everyone but themselves!

no pictures of themen, even as I got this picture, a man came up to me, a man with a face of many fist-fights, to comment upon his plight.

Uploaded by freestone on 20 Sep 07, 6.06PM EDT.

rainbow cloud in the early morning, originally uploaded by freestone.

rainbow cloud in the early morning
Here I was, walking down the stairwell of my apartment building and the first window gave to me this View! A view of a thunderhead where there is a rainbow running up the cloud, nearly in line with that flagpole on top of the hotel.
Tallahassee, florida, usa; looking west.
the temperature must now be 85 degrees, with a 90% humidity, at 8 am. Tropical, of course, the cloud is moving northwards off of the Gulf, direct from the equator.

This city surely has some very pretty clouds!

Uploaded by freestone on 11 Sep 07, 9.27AM EDT.

Luscious color leaf things!, originally uploaded by freestone.

Luscious color leaf things!
"leaf galls", I think they call these things. A live oak leaf near where I live, in tallahassee, florida. The late afternoon sun cast shadows across the leaf.
Oh so pretty, good enough looking to eat, but alas only to look at.
Maybe 1/4 or 1/8 of an inch in size.

There are *so* many little things like this that few people notice, probably if an observant person were to take a one block walk, there is usually something that is unique and strange. But you have to look for it.

Uploaded by freestone on 10 Sep 07, 9.16AM EDT.

old church, originally uploaded by freestone.

www.morgueFile.com

Morguefile : Archive : Scenes : Businesses : church : Church15.jpg
Title: Church15.jpg

reference id: 173505
edouardo

=====


the old church, falling into ruin, the vines growing over it, the bricks are falling out.

a metaphor.

here was once a church, full of life, full of happy worshippers; people who Mattered and probably did wonderful things for the community, but now they are all gone and even the old women of the ex-congregation, do not come anymore, the door is open only to the squirrels and the foxes.

I live at a senior home for Independent living. last monday, i went to the laundry room to wash my clothes and when I opened the drier to put my clothes in, i noticed that the drier was full of wet clothes! someone put in their stuff, and closed the door, but did not turn this drier on, she probably was interrupted by someone and then she left the room, utterly utterly forgetting that she even had laundry!! Today, on saturday, the clothes were finally gone from the counter. six months ago someone put a pot on the stove full of raw food and began to cook it then she went grocery shopping for hours and then when the pot finally caught fire, the firemen put it out!

Alzheimers, senility.

Growing ever the older with "Senior moments", of this year, growing into senior hours, next year, and then senior days
a few more years from then!

So if you walk into the lounge, at the Memory Center, at the Home for mentally challenged seniors, here in Tallahassee, where i live, you might see older people who cannot recall anything that happens to them during the last few minutes, but they can tell you what they ate for lunch on june 7th of 1932!

they are like that old church, that i wrote of!

One cannot measure and judge a ruined old church by the moment
of your seeing the ruins, one should judge this building by the "high water mark" of its years, when their were revivals and singing and hugs and church social dinners!
people too!

So here is maybe an old man who, like of my very father, who was a Blacksmith and a story-teller, in his prime years, why he could talk for four hours and you do not say one world and when he finished talking and had to leave; when he left, someone would say out loud, for everyone around that cafe table, he spoke...."too bad he had to leave, i wanted more"!
[this really was said about my father!]
But when my father was in the Home, after five strokes, Dementia took over, and he had no memory at all of the last twenty years!
so here is an old man who drools and cannot remember your name no matter how many times you tell him, and that maybe he would not even recognize his own wife if she were to walk in; an old man who lived an Incredible life, a life that you cannot know from his own tellings. Like of seeing a dry river bed during the dry years, but this river is measured by its high water times!

So everyone had an incredible life, of some sort, once, a "high water mark" of their years; one cannot see this in the Sunset of their years, though.

But the soul lives after death: in heaven only the right answers Count, thus every Good Thing that this man did, during his life, is there in heaven for him when he arrives, soon.

so here i have yet more respect and sympathy for the Alzheimers elderly, especially when I see the Sun Setting right before my eyes, month by month, year by year.

do not put off until tomorrow, your Dreams of today, please. Not only are *you* growing older, but our culture is too, let alone this Global Warming world! Our "good times" may come to an end soon, and that trip to, say, England, will not be possible then due to not only maybe your failing health, but to the Politics of war or the sheer Cost of a ticket during Depression-times!
Even our Planet grows old, Yellowstone could erupt, the vertable End Times could come soon, 2012 lurks!
so dance you dance of life, NOW, before it is too too late! grow your soul now, before the "soul-drought" times come!

do all of the worsipping, praying, church socials, huggings, singings, now, when the Church is still in good condition, get the very Most out of this church, before everyone leaves and the janitor sweeps the floor for the very last time!!

freestone
Posted 3 min

Nothing Is In The Way, originally uploaded by freestone.

Nothing Is In The Way

here is a cloud, looks like maybe any other cloud except that there seems to be nothing in the way, the air is so clear of haze and smoke and pollutions! This air probably comes off of the Gulf, being just south of Tallahassee, florida, usa, where this photo was taken.
The temperature probably, here at about 4 pm, was about 95 degrees. Most people in the Northern latitudes see haze and "stickyness" in the air, on hot days as this air probably traveled half way across the countrysides. Those images of south sea islands and the other tropical places have this translucentness too. Probably the air, here, comes directly from the equator.
Makes this ordinary cloud "extra-ordinary"!

Uploaded by freestone on 21 Aug 07, 7.19PM EDT.
spacer image

lightningcropped, originally uploaded by freestone.

lightningcropped
a cropped image of the lightning strike from

www.flickr.com/photos/freestone/1279231511/

the video, itself, is here....
blip.tv/file/357013/

Here is a cropped version from an extracted still from a video from my canon a610 camera. A clever way to "find" an image, out of many images, from an event of a second long in time: take a video of this event then extract the still out of the video. Works with a good quality source-video, of course!

Uploaded by freestone on 31 Aug 07, 10.06AM EDT.

light coming through a hole, originally uploaded by freestone.

light coming through a hole

a hole in the cloud with light coming through. Otherwise, a "plain" stormcloud with lots of powerlines!
Tallahassee, florida, usa.
Taken in the late evening, just before sunset.

However....I like this image, as I see this shaft of light coming through the clouds, as if Spirit were Illuminating something on the ground behind my back, far far away. As if God shown down upon the earth!

I like this "peachy" light too, a bit of peach colored hue, here.

I like the Zoom, on my canon a610, even a t the "max" still the image looks good.

Uploaded by freestone on 24 Aug 07, 10.37AM EDT.

"street prophet" image, sharpened, you can read it, originally uploaded by freestone.

"street prophet" image, sharpened, you can read it
hi all...

here is another image of that poster on a power pole, from

www.flickr.com/photos/freestone/1142160430/

and a bit sharpened, you can now read the whole thing, especially if you go to the "all sizes", then click on the "large" or the "original" size.

This particular poster was yet another, in the series, on a "fatter" pole, so that I could take a picture of the whole thing. This one is on the very corner where I live, he posted this about 300 foot from my bedroom! There are at least four others, in my neighborhood.

a Homeless person?

Several people have commented that a homeless person would not carry a typewriter around with him.

Tallahassee, Florida, usa. Tallahassee is about 20 miles just south of the georgia border. This poster has a flavor of "deep south country cracker\redneck young man" who comes to the big city of Tallahassee, and is a bit overwhelmed by the urban setting, compared to his hometown.

his imagination only?
a series of dreams?
a psychic?
---you make the call.

many homeless people are living a bit like of this condition, now and today!!

Anyway, you all might be able to read the whole thing, now. Too too bad he had to run the lines across the drawing, makes it hard to read, as you have to scan across the palm on every line. But he had to fit this all in, i guess.

????
I have no idea who this is.

Uploaded by freestone on 18 Aug 07, 10.28AM EDT.

street prophet!, originally uploaded by freestone.

street prophet!
this appeared, this morning, the 16th, on a side street in tallahassee, florida, usa, next to rt 90, the main east/west road from Miami to L. A. for many many travelers.
Here is a Genuine street prophet's poster, and if you click on the "original size" section, in the options under "all sizes" one can actually read this poster.
if you want to, some of the words are cuss words, on the size, here, they are not visible.

But something tells me that this person did indeed have these dreams. whether these dreams merely reflect a homeless person's anger toward society, or maybe a real Vision series that infers that
our culture will soon become Toast, very very soon: you make the call, I report what I see that is interesting, on the streets.
Yes this spot is where many homeless people gather to beg for change and bills. the Shelters are four blocks away.

In a sense, the homeless, NOW, are living a bit like of this future seen, the woods around here are full of Camps of homeless and often there are fights and killings, events that escape the seeing eye of the police. many of them *want* to see Babylon burn down, and too, many of the hands that reach out to help them, merely have strings attached, or even Ropes attached!
1...take thoughbenzidrine every day, yes you will walk around in a daze and also gain 40 lbs, but You Are Being Helped!
2...report to job training and placement every day even as it is located ten miles out of town, and if you do not come every day for most of the day, you will fail; of course there is no time to apply for work!
3...necktie and suit and live indoors and give up ye Indian ways.
Become White man Now.
[would you like to be kidnapped and flown to afgan to be converted against your will to fundamentalism? would you Go Down Screaming?!]

many of them would like to see this poster vision[s] to come true.
have Us all live like they do now!

Uploaded by freestone on 16 Aug 07, 6.22PM EDT.

a nice tallahassee day before the rains came., originally uploaded by freestone.

a nice tallahassee day before the rains came.
Yes, a nice day, dry, a week before the rains began.
Just a "snap" of a dirt parking lot, in a subtropical city

tallahassee, florida usa

I live across the street from here.

not the spanish moss in the oak tree to the right.

Uploaded by freestone on 5 Jun 07, 5.36PM EDT.

extreme wind shear!, originally uploaded by freestone.

extreme wind shear!
Off in the disatance, you can see a thunderhead cloud. But as this cloud grows upwards into the upper atmosphere, the upper air winds are so strong that the top is blown off sideways! In fact the top of this coud extends to way way beyond the upper frame of this image, this image that I took on my 5th floor windowsill!
tallahassee, florida, usa, about 6 PM, july 29th.

the Camera is facing to the North, a little to the northeast.

If you look closely at the image, you can see some more extremely blown off tops from other thunderstorms.

This indicates that the upper air winds are VERY strong! As tallahassee is about 30 degrees North, this is very very unusual for this time of year at this latitiude. I looked at the "jet stream wind pattern", on www.intellicast.com, and i see that basicly the upper winds are in a "winter pattern" and nearly as strong!

In other words: the upper winds blow the tops of the high clouds, off to a distance, this one might be torn about 80 miles!

*This* is why there are no hurricanes or even tropical depressions, in the Gulf or Atlantic, as of now, July 30th! If this pattern continues, and i think it will, there will be ZERO hurricnes this year, and fall will begin for the Northlands, by middle of August.


[I took a second photo, a photo from the west stairwell, looking at
another thunderstorm. This other storm is "new" and the top is only blown off to the south just a little bit. But one can see this process a bit better, as one looks at the side of the storm.
www.flickr.com/photos/freestone/951499484/
by an hour, this western storm had a cloudtop that was pulled about 100 miles, to the south!!]

Uploaded by freestone on 30 Jul 07, 9.06AM EDT.

overwhelming majestic thunderhead!, originally uploaded by freestone.

overwhelming majestic thunderhead!
this is a *big* one, folks!

a very late afternoon thunderstorm, taken where the sun is shining through a hole in the clouds so that this thunderstorm is bathed in light in only a part of the cloud, the rest in shadows.

Miles tall, the topic moisture runs amock. This cloud grew to this size in minutes.

Oh the beauty of the clouds, here in Tallahassee, florida, during the rainy season!

Uploaded by freestone on 23 Jul 07, 9.09AM EDT.

the storm, originally uploaded by freestone.

the storm
Awesome, isn't it?!
the "bark looks worse than its bite".
Late afternoon.
This cloud died out and never made it to where I stand, in fron of my apartment house.

This is what I see nearly every day, if the rainy season is "on", during the summer, here, at...

tallahassee, florida, usa.

The Season begins in late may and runs till early October, but in many years the pattern is spotty, this year, so far, the rains have been scarce.
From 3 to 20 month of rains, the dewpoint is above 70 and the high temp for the day, if sunny, is over 90 to 95 degrees.

85 thunderstorm days a year, ya gotta like storms to live here!

Uploaded by freestone on 23 Jul 07, 9.09AM EDT.

Mr. Oak, originally uploaded by freestone.

Mr. Oak
See and meet Mr. Oak! his face is one the tree.

tallahassee florida usa.

Uploaded by freestone on 7 Jul 07, 10.22AM EDT.