Now why are you taking a picture of that?

otherwise sometimes stated as:

 

What are you taking a picture of now?

 

What on earth are you doing lying on the sidewalk?

 

What in the world are you doing?

 

Do you always take a picture of your ketchup?

I provided the theme for the headbangers this week, and as we will be camping I am scheduling this post and early posting the header.

 We were stopped for lunch a hundred miles from home. I had a new camera. I was testing out the settings while waiting for my fish and chips. And I hear the voice of Ernie--just as far from home. "Do you always take a picture of your ketchup, Kathy?"

It made me laugh a couple of years later when we were lunching in San Francisco and we had these tiny ketchup bottles. I had to take a picture for Ernie.

 

 I often take pictures of architectural detail -- airport floors, restroom tiles, this stonework in San Francisco -- I see quilt designs everywhere.

 

 

Of course I had to take a picture of the odometer of my Honda when we traded it.

 

Maybe my best what on earth are you doing shot was taken in Scotland on our first day of hiking in the summer of 2010. The group had really not gotten beyond the first getting to know each other, and our guide, Sean, may have been a bit exasperated with my lagging behind. He saw me down on my knees with my camera.

 

"WHAT. ON. EARTH. ARE. YOU.

TAKING. A. PICTURE. OF. NOW?"

No one else had noticed this.

 

We all were a bit more aware of the large and small of our surroundings for the rest of the trip.

 

On Wednesday afternoon take a look at the other members of our competition who are linked in my sidebar and see what they have been doing when asked a similar question.



Headbangers go underground this week

And so did we when we were in Arizona last month when we visited the Titan Missile Museum outside Tucson. It was pretty much ALL underground.

Here we are looking down at a genuine piece of America's cold war defense. There were several Titan Missile bases in the southeast Arizona area, and this one was preserved to show us the details of life and security in the cold war.

And down down down we go.

Through the corridors and double locks and super sealing doors to the control room where we saw the room sized computer space of the original system which was reduced in size through the years of the missile readiness. Another part of the readiness was something some of the younger members of the tour had never seen--a phone with  a rotary dial.

After a mock launch we returned to the silo--now looking up.

Now, you may be wondering exactly what the header image is. It is a view of the missile's first stage engine.  Now to be frank, it was not down in the silo but was on display on the grounds before we reached the silo, but it is by far too great a visual to pass by.

Did the others manage to go underground?

Check from their links in my sidebar to see how they managed.
Look back to previous posts to see how my search for underground went this week.

Oh, dear, what will I do for this week's theme?

UNDERGROUND.  That's what our theme is for this week.  And more than one of the headbangers expressed the same sentiment. Thank you, Lew. You must have an idea for this theme of yours.

As we traveled to Idaho this last weekend, I was searching for an idea for underground. It isn't exactly the easiest thing to take a picture of. I remembered the tour of the Seattle Underground years ago. My pictures did not exactly turn out so well, and no idea where they might be to scan anyway. Pendleton Oregon offers an underground tour--that might be interesting sometime, but wasn't to be on this particular trip.

We camped overnight--testing out whether we would remember everything for our campout with grandkids next week. There were a few sorry possibilities for underground. There are quite a few critters who live underground. The hole above was the largest we saw--about a foot across. Not sure what lives there, And not sure I want to know.

This hole in the side of the firepit seems to be a bit of an iffy location. Of course, there is probably more than one entrance.

Under the tree might be better. I wonder who lives here.

And a warning of what lies below prevents some danger and a blackout. I wonder if the critters follow the rules.

This might have been a possible underground shot, had I got the other side where there are two tunnel entrances. It is a puzzle that I wonder about each time we pass this way.

 

Well, if you should happen to be looking at this before the new header goes up, let me tell you that I have just now decided that the header post will be totally separate from this one. These follow my search for the underground, but then both my husband and I had an aha! moment. He knew I had pictures, and I knew I had pictures and you will see late tomorrow what we found underground. (Headbanger day is Wednesday, but that is often problematical as it is usually a doctor day for himself. )

So as birthdays go...

It was good news bad news good news bad news good news again.

We celebrated yesterday with Dads and my granddaughter--hers was yesterday and mine today and that was all great.

And then other Grandma went to the hospital (not because of the celebration.)

So this morning I got a birthday greeting from Google. Did you know they did this? I don't think I have googled anything on my birthday recently and apparently  if you go to Google's homepage while logged in on your Google account they present you with a birthday greeting. They've been doing it for almost four years, so I have missed at least three of them.

And birthday breakfast from McDonald's. Yum. Breakfast is my favorite thing at McD's.

So then we set out to hook up our little trailer--we had camped along the way for a "shakedown" trip. And I threw out my back. We almost had two Grandmas in the hospital, but I lay down in the driveway and asked for ice.

Rested a bit inside and after a while we got the boys to help us roll the trailer onto the level. We still had trouble. Then, after at least a half an hour messing with it on the level (we had spent as much on the slope of the driveway before I went "twang") Grandson #2 discovered the problem.

This is not the one, but a wasp nest this same size was jammed into the mechanism of the hitch, preventing it from  grabbing the ball. You wouldn't think, would you...


Note to self for future shakedown tours--first order of business--remove wasp nests, especially those built inside the hitch.

Once we were on the road I was able to alternate heat (heated seats) and ice on my back and the good news is that I am much better. Just got a text that other Grandma is also feeling much better, but will be kept in the hospital for a few days.

And we got home and himself went and got the mail and I had a birthday card.

...from the bank.

Header Challenge

Theme: Sun

 

nuff said

 

You will find the other headbangers participating listed and linked in my sidebar.

Our theme this week is bottles.

I will not put this line-up of pill bottles in the header.

Instead these antique bottles on a dusty shelf.

Well, the bottles are dusty, too, but I have to go wake my husband for today's trek to the doctors.

The headbangers address a new theme in the header each week. You will find links to the others near the top of my sidebar. They may have more interesting bottles than mine, which were gathered in haste. (Otherwise I might have done a better job of dusting.)