Ruby Tuesday - Merry mechanics

1960 Ford F-350 tow vehicle, Sardo's Ansonia CT. Photo by Patti

Ruby Tuesday 2 is back as the Christmas holiday season moves toward January 6. Patti captured an old tow truck at Sardo's Automotive in Ansonia, the maintainer of our vehicles. It is a 1960 Ford F-350 with strings of colorful LED holiday lights. An antique work vehicle likes to relax and celebrate too...Happy New Year to all!

Whimsical Windows - Champs-Élysées in sequence

Toby as always hosts the fun architectural meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors where we look for portals of style, interest or whimsy - and not necessarily in that order...

This is during a high school trip, Allegra the 10th grade student, mom Patti a chaperone, the place along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris.The camera date stamp shows 19 Feb 04 at 11:39 (not adjusted from home).  As I understand it, Allegra and a friend were allowed to sightsee minus the entire group, and she took a sequence of photos  that feel like stop motion along the stylish street. I like the feeling of motion in that one minute - cool. See Toby's meme for more portals of cool...Happy 2013!

Shadow Shot Sunday - Birthday girls...

Shadow Shot Sunday arrives on the quite special day of 29 December - the birthday of my two favorite ladies, Patti and daughter Allegra. It appears that the baby chose to be exactly one week later than the due date of 22 December 1988 - which made her, of course, the ultimate birthday present. The glow of the happy birthday girls might overpower many a shadow - smiles usually do that...happy birthday!

Ruby Tuesday - Christmas past in ruby

25 Dec 1993 - Christmas surprises

25 Dec 2002 - Broken but usable... 

For RT2, Christmas rubies remembered...are Little kids in sleepers and robes marvel at a Radio Flyer, Snow White, seven dwarfs, plastic bowling sets and tool kits. The joy of receiving is matched by the joy of parental/Santa giving...

On the right, what was to be a tree shaped lawn light decoration - however when the cheap mount broke and it would not stand in the yard, it could be stood upside down on the ramp to equal ruby effect in the swirls of snow. Christmas is made of memories...merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Whimsical Windows - Ralph at play

In 1955, Ralph looks to be ready for a round of golf

It is not this Ralph as the subject for Toby's Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors...

Actually it is my grandfather who this day is not at his normal business of leasing and fixing police and fire department radios in local towns in OH and WV. In his play clothes looking as if he was about to attack the front nine at the Steubenville Golf Club even though he didn't play. Windows involved are in his 1955 Plymouth work vehicle and the 1920s houses along Oregon Avenue. He looks like a million amid the neighborhood windows and doors...

SOOC - Tinsel (and then some)

SOOC - Straight out of the Camera - takes me back to the days of yore and that steelmaking city of Steubenville. Grandpa liked big Christmas trees full of tinsel - this example that sits in the middle of the living room certainly describes the big tinsel-y tree quite well...Given the picture of Aunt Terry on the modern for the day television, I'll guess this was taken around 1957 or so. I believe this view is straight out from his German Exa SLR camera - a proud tree decorator he! A merry and happy Christmas to all!

Shadow Shot Sunday - Merry 1993

3-year-old Cam, 24 Dec 1993

Nearly 5-year-old Allegra, 24 Dec 1993

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 this week falls within the Christmas holiday - and this is a holiday that really inspires parents giving - and children receiving. As ours have grown nicely these days, I'll return to the old days of 1993 and the extended family Christmas Eve at my sister's home in East Hartford. The kids were ready I'd say...

Ruby Tuesday - Merry 1975

Clan Villers of Wickham Drive, 24 December 1975

Ruby Tuesday 2 returns us to Christmas Eve 1975 at the family homestead in East Hartford, CT. It includes all seven of us kids and a niece and nephew and now-ex. Plenty of ruby worn in this nice memory of holidays past... 

Whimsical Windows - Curvaceous Chapel

Chapel, Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio. July, 1999

Toby hosts the fun architectural meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors. Today, I am using a scanned print from 1999, and it is the chapel at my alma mater, Franciscan University in Steubenville. The building has few doors and windows but has a dramatic curvy shape that stands out on the hill of this old coal and steel city on a hot day. On top, I see a rowboat of sorts aiming up - to the heavens perhaps? Opened in 1968, the elliptical house of worship catches our eyes looking upward and outward...

SOOC - Lucky is as lucky does

SOOC - Straight out of the Camera - returns us to June 2006 and Allegra's graduation from Ansonia High School. Held outside, before the ceremony it was sunny - during it, there were gray clouds portending rain. However, a mere sprinkle was the precipitation. Yet, a rainbow fell upon Nolan Field and the lucky graduate...straight out of the heavens!

Shadow Shot Sunday - Sad day...

First day of school, 1995, Ansonia, CT

The news of today defies logic - that indescribable events touched today the innocent is what is so sad. As parents, we don't sit in a vacuum - I chose for this SSS2 post a picture of our children - Cameron on the first day of kindergarten in 1995, Allegra the first day of second grade, the ages of the affected today. Shadows fall over the two who were ready to discover more...

The thought of course is what if the worst occurred in our town in our safe schools - we send them off every day not considering and certainly not expecting the very worst. For SSS2, the look of innocence is what I see on a sad day in a nice town 20 miles away...

Patti's former Register colleague lives in Sandy Hook, has a child at that school (not harmed thankfully) - Read her harrowing account of today - it is gripping...

Ruby Tuesday - Sail on, sailor...

Ruby Tuesday 2 returns and I again look to the past for ruby, a lot or not. I'll go with the minimal red returns us the year 1983. These are sisters Christina and Julie and often the case with siblings close in age for special occasions, moms chose matching outfits. 

That occasion was the baptism of their new baby brother Bobby in which many relatives would celebrate...and every attendee did so! Hints of ruby are in their 'uniforms'...cute is a cute does!

(Yes, for those of a certain age, that is a Ford Pinto, clad not in ruby but in that not so attractive brown that cars of the 1970s wore. You had to be there to appreciate what passed for style in the day...

Whimsical Windows - Bucolic Green

Derby CT town green seen from Fifth Street

Toby hosts the fun Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors in which we look for architectural gems. This is the green of the small (12,500) city of Derby Connecticut. In the northeast of the USA, a white clapboard congregational church sitting near the green is oft repeated. What we see is the the Second Congregational Church (1845). The Civil War monument adds to the historic aura. Note that the pointed steeple is missing - lost in Hurricane Gloria in 1985. If not for the parking meter, this possibly is what the past may have looked like in its day...

SOOC - All I want for Christmas is...

A cat? It appears that Santa left us Sir Humphrey... unwrapped!

Shadow Shot Sunday - Aerospace place shadows

Office Buildings at Pratt and Whitney Aircraft from 1000 ft, East Hartford, CT, August 1984

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 reappears, and given my recent scanning frenzy I found this view that transports me back to August 1984 seated in a single engine to Piper Cherokee. I was invited in my walking days to take a ride with a pilot acquaintance. 

At this point, we are at about 1000 ft (305 M) flying over my then employer, big jet engine maker Pratt and Whitney Aircraft in East Hartford. In the foreground is the building where I worked in purchasing. Normally filled with cars, this was a Sunday with most workers away. Outside shadows and cockpit reflections emanate...

We are about to make a 180° turn to land on Runway 2 at Hartford's Brainard Field. On this warm day the workplace looked and felt way different than Monday to Friday...

Ruby Tuesday - Graduate

University of Hartford - Alumnae (2010) and Graduate, 12 Dec 2012

Ruby Tuesday 2 is back as I return to yesterday and a special event - the graduation ceremony of son Cameron. This is a perfect ruby as the colors of the University of Hartford are Red and white. The programs and gown details have that brilliant cover. I chose the view of Cameron and Allegra, she also a graduate of the same U of H. The prints were taken on the on-campus Lincoln Theater...Cam gets his degree in computer science and he will do well with those software development - however, he is a person of character and honor and will do even better with those. Congratulations!

Whimsical Windows - Olde world

Toby hosts the fun architectural meme Whimsical Windows/Delirious Doors where we look for the unique. As I have been scanning many old prints, I chose these as different in character than we may be used to. The time is August 1982, the place the charming town of Stadthagen, 40 or so km from Hanover. The buildings date back hundreds of years and look it...I assume that on the left is a tavern - the keg over the door indicates beer is sold - Schaumburger is the local brew, but guess that symbols spoke to those who could not read. To the right is a building of indeterminate use - what appeals here is the date on the building of 1743; I like the herringbone styles upstairs. Windows and doors from long ago were functional when made and stylish now!

Shadow Shot Sunday / SOOC - Olympics by day

Swim stadium, USC, L.A., August 1984

The past is back at Shadow Shot Sunday 2 - and given the amount of prints from the past scanned, I revert to August 1984 and the Olympics held in Los Angeles. This is the swimming venue is on the campus of USC. This print was buried in a box and in good shape for scanning and as it appears a nice day in the LA basin - not too hot, nor humid and kind of smog free. If only winter in the Northeast US were this nice, sunny and shadowy...

As I have not edited this old print (save for cropping it), I am also adding it to the new SOOC Sunday (Straight out of the Camera), hosted by MMT and Gemma. I like multitasking...