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Borg Trash – Photo 52 Project [Week 27]

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Hollywood Casino, near St. Louis, sent me free room nights so I made it into a half birthday celebration for Mari Ann.  I am not a high roller but I think since they are remodeling, they are giving out rooms until it is all complete. The next day we headed out into St. Louis. We ate at Pappy’s Smokehouse, went to the Galleria, got a drink at the Silver Ballroom, and ate dinner at Hwy 61.

Afterward, we decided to head home around 6:30pm. Before we got out of the city I remembered that I wanted to take Mari Ann to the Big Bang Bar. They are a dueling piano bar and put on a great show. I decided to put in directions on my phone to the landing but I didn’t remember the name of the bar just then. I figured if we put in the Drunken Fish, at least that would get us to the landing.  On the way, Mari Ann saw this really cool painted dumpster. I pulled a quick U-Turn and got out to snap some pictures. The sun was starting to go down and it looked great.

Apparently, either there are two drunken fish restaurants, or Apple just wanted to screw with us. Now we pull into a church parking lot and look up the name of the bar and put it in manually. We were off again and realize we are heading way out of St. Louis. We pull into a gas station and I look at the overview. It was taking us to the wrong place again. Now, I enter Big Bang Bar into Google maps and confirm that indeed we are on our way to the landing. With our route confirmed, surely nothing could possibly go wrong.

As we see the lights of the city once again coming into focus, some fireworks start going off over the river. Having the top down made this a really great experience. We are nearly at the landing only to see that it was closed down due to the fireworks display. We ended up on the MLK bridge toward Illinois. With the fireworks still going on, people are just stopping on the bridge taking up a lane of staffing. I stop at well but not wanting the unfortunate caboose; I get in the left lane and start again on my way. Then, I see a gap in the cars and say what the hell and pull to a stop again. Mari Ann and I watched the fireworks literally right above the river. As the not too distant shells burst against the buildings, and the water, we have the best seats in the world. It was as loud as a war zone and the finally was spectacular.

 

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Ferrari – Photo 52 Project [Week 26]

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On Sunday, there was a charity event going on at the Brandt Consolidated building for the Ronald McDonald House. About a dozen Ferraris were on display. For a measly $20 donation, you could ride in one around the block. I ponied up the dough and when it came my turn I got to ride in the Ferrari California. They had even more powerful ones there but this was still the most beautiful car I have ever been inside.

This machine was equipped with a double clutch operated via paddle shifters. When the driver wanted to change gears it just happened instantly with no shutter to be felt. The police were out clocking people to make sure none of the Italian stallions got out of line, but it was still a great experience without breaking into triple digit speeds.

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Moon – Photo 52 Project [Week 25]

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Last night was the “Supermoon” of 2013 and I had no idea until our friends and neighbors Brandon and June came over to bring back some dishes. They were going to look at the moon but it was too cloudy. I popped my head out of our back window and say a bright and obscured moon so I grabbed the gear and got to it.

I setup the tripod and started to shoot away. We have some trees covering the bike trail out behind the house and the moon was just low enough to get me some sweet silhouette action. I am firing away about to go inside when someone at the neighbor’s the next house over starting peering over the fence. They have a hot tub and often have their college age friends over to use it. This girl starts yelling, “Hey! Hey, you with the camera! What do you think you are doing? Why do you have the big lens on your camera?” I told her that I was shooting the moon because it was so bright. She didn’t believe me and accused me of being a peeping Tom. There is a fence between our yard and theirs so I couldn’t even see over there anyway.

I quickly realized that she had been drinking a lot and just wanted to stir something up. She grabs her boyfriend and start telling him he should kick my “pervy ass.” I don’t do well with confrontation so I grabbed the tripod and headed inside. My heart was racing at this point and I didn’t know what to do. I could hear these people shouting at me through the door while I was getting the gear packed up.  Mari Ann came in and asked what the hell was going on. After a couple of minutes, they stopped. I watched TV with Mari Ann until about 1am, and then we went to bed. By this time it sounded like the party was over or they had all gone inside.

There I am sleeping soundly in my bed when I hear something hit the window. I don’t know if it was a rock or a bird or what it was. I am still kind of asleep and not really processing things well and I see an orange flickering out of the window. It looked like a scarecrow or something they had thrown over the fence and set on fire. I immediately went into full-fledged panic mode. I was like a light switch was flipped. I hear our back door being pounded on very hard. They boyfriend was kicking it down. I froze with there in the kitchen. I could see the wood frame splintering and then the door flung open and this sweaty buzz cut guy in a Denver Broncos jersey come into my house shouting about how he is going to kill me because his girlfriend left the party and broke up with him for not standing up for her.

I can barely remember the rest, but the fight response must have been stronger then the flight so I grabbed a kitchen knife thinking that seeing an 8 inch pointed knife would make him back down and go home. It didn’t, and started towards me. As he moved into the light I now could see why this was happening. He was a Superwerewolf! He pulled out a set on ninja stars and began throwing them at me 2 at a time. I dodged them like a cat, threw my knife down and started using my skills in karate I had learned from my youth and disarmed him. I mean literally, I pulled his arms off of his torso and began beating him in the face with them. I them smeared his blood on my face and yelped out a Comanche war cry while tearing of my t-shirt. As my rock hard abs glistened in the moonlight, I lit up a cigar and began to think about the crazy mixed up world we live in. I leaned down to him and I said “What do you want from us monster?!” He peered up at me and said, “I need about tree fiddy.”