This thing can’t be working correctly.
Down to Kentucky
Maybe I should look into being a truck driver, because I really do enjoy being on the road.
This trip was a quick one: down to Cumberland Kentucky to help friends get an old family condo back into working order.
Step one was de-cluttering, step two was hooking up the internet.
Hangers on
In this IKEA West Chester parking lot, the trees hold on to their leaves into the cool months.
Red white and blue
The only thing that would make this more American is if there was a Chevy in the mix.
Appointment
Yearly checkup.
Not born from concern, just regularly scheduled diagnostics.
I’ll find out results next Monday.
Entryway
Folks sometimes wonder when meeting me, “Where do you live?”
They see glimpses of our studio, or snapshots from all over tarnation, and a big heaping of the midwest.
It gets confusing.
I live in Cincinnati. (In fact, I’ve been in Ohio my entire life.)
Moved to this joint a little over a year ago after living in Dayton for a piece.
It’s not perfect. The walls are too thin, neighbors too noisy, and drafts hard to stop. But I was drawn to the space and the light.
And though the calendar has flipped, there are still pictures to hang. I’ve only started to put away the haphazard stacks of things in the closets. Each attempt is an overwhelming exercise in “Do I really need this (thing)?”
I usually end up with a pile for the thrift store (which eventually gets there),
and a pile for eBay or Craigslist (which gets shoved back in a corner for another day).
A dog walks into a bar
Happy Hour at Milton’s Tavern, Prospect Hill
She bowls with those nails too
Spent all morning in the business center of the car dealership getting my ride put back into tip top shape. Luckily there was wireless internet so I was able to keep productive and on the clock. Heard a car dealer remark on the fingernails of the woman beside me and I was in the zone and didn’t look over.
That was, until it was time to leave and then, I was amazed.
Asked for a photo and she was super gracious and all kinds of awesome.
And she does apparently bowl with those nails. Right handed, hence the shorter length.
Folks ask her how she can deal with ’em day in and day out, and she says she manages just fine.
I told her some folks feel the same way about a beard.
11/11
I turned the car around for this one because, well, there just aren’t that many leaves left with vibrant color.
Same view, different time
Previously: A similar snapshot from January 2010.
Kelley and the scarves
POST NOTE: This journal entry was written on November 9, 2023... Thirteen years after the photos were taken.
Back in the year of 2010, British-Irish boyband One Direction is formed and selling stuff online was kind of complicated. You could have a janky PayPal button fairly easily, but to have a cart and credit card processing? It was an ordeal.
We had that all figured out at Wire & Twine and helped Kelley Deal start selling her lovely handmade felted scarves online. It was always a joy when she dropped off a new batch to add to the inventory. She’d hang around the studio and use Tom’s old typewriter to make custom cards for each one with their name.
Yup. Each scarf had a name, just like Cabbage Patch Kids.
In alphabetical order: (Left) 20 Eyes, Alumni, Animal Farm, Artifacts, Bitch Seat, Bonneville, Broad Highway, Cheerwine, Cold War, Crazy About Ballerinas, Dewey Decimal, Dr. Rhythym, Eastern Bloc, Finch, Fjord, Galaga, Habit, Hoarders, Hoarfrost, Horn Rimmed
(Right) Illegal Shift, Nantucket, Night Train, Parker Bros, Pepper Mill, Pilkington, Pop!, Shame Spiral, Sign For It, Skunktrain, Snow Plow, Squash, Stretch Out and Wait, Strunk and White, The 45 King, Thoreau, Topiary, Uzbekistan, Winter Dawn, and Work Week.
—
I would later adopt shame spiral into my vernacular.
And on this day we did a photoshoot to feature Kelley on the website, resulting in the image above where she’s covered in scarves. I forget whose idea that was, but it is a among my favorite snaps of all time.
And here’s a bonus shot of Tom being funny behind Kelley as she sorts through all the scarves.
Fingernail moon
It doesn’t feel like we’re saving daylight these days, but then again, I’m not an early riser.