I was invited by Brashley Photography to participate in the Five By Five challenge which involves submitting five of your favorite photos and answering five questions. I’ve sent my five photos and answers to the questions today so let’s see how this goes. Here are my submissions for the Five By Five.
I’ve been collecting photos of old stuff like you see in the photos, how many can you identify? There must be a few visitors to my humble blog that won’t know what some of the items are! Today is the first time I’ve been back to church since the final divorce. I attended the same church that she and I attended. It was difficult. It was painful but also joyous because He Is Risen! I had a wonderful chat with a woman that I have never met before who must have been there by His design, more I can add but I’ll spare you, and no, not what your thinking. She is married! She can help me with my diet and more things I need to change. Happy Easter!
Here are a few more iPhone photos from today. The photo with the Costa Rica graffiti just grinds my gears. Does this person miss home? Then just go home! We won’t miss ya. Nobody is going to stop them I assume… I have my own ideas on how to stop graffiti but I’m sure Y’all would not like to hear them.
Here are some photos from my bike ride today. I did the full 15 miles including a pass-through of Tivoli Village. That place is always super busy and the food smells so good as I slowly ride along. The first photo, or top-left, is where the homeless man named Bruce was sleeping for several weeks. Yesterday, I took another bag of goodies to him via the truck and found that he had left this place. I sincerely hope that he has a proper place to sleep now, a home with someone, and good food. Everyone deserves this. It was nice to meet you, Bruce. 🙏🏻
Heading for the grocery store yesterday, I pulled up next to this beautiful fire truck with its very shiny paint and chrome. There were three men, I thanked them for their service to the community and grabbed these iPhone photos. Sunny, windy, and 75 degrees are forecast for today. Not bad but nowhere near the 90 degrees we had yesterday. I hope you have had a great weekend, friends!
Every other day or so recently, I have been dropping food and water off for a homeless man living on one of the pedestrian/bike bridges I cross on my rides. He was not there today but his blankets were so I pulled one down off of the rail and used it to cover up the bag of goodies I dropped off and then I left.
I’ve spoken with him a couple of times now and he seems a very nice man who is way down on his luck. I wish that I could do so much more for him but it’s not really possible. There is more I can say on this but I’ll leave it there. This country is ridiculous.
Our loser government is wasting billions on weapons and so much more while its citizens go hungry and die on the streets. Piss me off. I’ll stop right there before I get really angry here.
The other thing I want to vent about is that the last two, perhaps three times I’ve been out riding the bike I have been cut off and nearly avoided incursions with cars. I’m becoming very frustrated with this BS. Last week, I was even cut off in my own neighborhood!
I followed the driver down to the traffic light and gave them a good ass-chewing. Today, an ugly four-door pickup did the same thing just down the road from my home, and, I know who the SOB is too, he lives on my street! I am considering taking some time away from riding to let myself simmer down.
The bike needs another tune-up anyway, the brake system is acting up and something is out of alignment too. I’ll take the bike to the shop tomorrow. At least nobody can run me over while I’m behind the wheel of a 4000-pound pickup truck…
I took the Tivoli Village photos a few days ago, they have been in my Process folder since, and during processing, I thought that these two photos are exceptionally good for a mobile phone. The sharpness and vibrancy of the colors seem a little better than usual. What do you think?
I hope that the images don’t degrade after being uploaded, maybe WP does a little image compression of its own? The other photo was taken with the Nikon yesterday I think. I read a blog post earlier today that was about the many online friends that she has made over the years using WordPress.
My comment spoke about the many friends I have made on WordPress over the years.
Some of which I have followed literally for years and some in different countries like the United Kingdom and Australia as well as Canada. My first blog was launched in 2010 back in Michigan and was about Michigan politics which I shut down pretty quickly. The next blog was self-hosted which is nice.
Long story short, LVPB went live in 2016 and has added so many new friends to my life and blogging experience. Here’s the question she asked: are your online friends actually friends? I have considered my blog friends as actual friends for a long time now and always will. Thanks so much for being my friends, people!
I appreciate you so much. 😎
I’m old school. My parents taught my sister and me to respect others and always be helpful too just like the image suggests. America seriously needs to return to this way of thinking and conducting ourselves when in public. I always enjoy helping people, do you?
Yesterday when walking out of the bank, I passed a car in the handicap spot that was obviously leaking air quickly from its left rear tire. I went to the driver’s door and got the elderly woman’s attention. I explained why I was bothering her, she hopped out of the car and clearly heard the tire hissing.
I suggested that she head for a tire store or garage that can help her. She headed out very quickly for a repair garage. She was very grateful for my letting her know and left quickly. That’s one way you can be helpful and nice to others. America is still full of good people (not patting me on the back here).
You sometimes have to look a little deeper to see or find them. Now, go do something nice for others today!
My old buddy back in Michigan sent me this video a couple of days ago, I don’t understand why anyone would attempt this, it’s crazy!! 😂 I got 14 miles in on the bike today, but none of this!
As you can see in the somewhat redundant photos, I had a great 14-mile ride today in just a T-shirt. No jacket or sweater, nice! The bike ran perfectly as usual and will get its every third ride cleanup tonight when it’s done recharging. Now, about that Russian vodka: I was on the way home and came upon two older, very chubby men that were loud and boisterous.
The biggest guy was on the left and was waving his arms everywhere as he kept yapping about Russian vodka. OK, go find some, big boy! I think the man was actually Russian though based on his very sharp accent, English is not his first language. I rang the little bell as I approached the men, a courtesy I like to follow while riding so as to not scare the shit out of people as I pass.
I passed the drunken Russian to his left, and he damn near bumped into me as he waddled and wabbled along. Now here’s the pisser – He shouted at me that I am lazy because I ride an electric bike! Seriously, round boy? I thought to myself, who’s riding the bike and getting exercise and not drunk on anything?
I can understand why some folks will assume that riders of eBikes are lazy but frankly, I don’t believe that. These bikes are way way more fun to ride than a standard bicycle. I am not lazy and actually do need the assistance because of medical conditions. Something that rude people such as round boy here are incapable of understanding, especially when all sauced up on alcohol.
I’m the kind of person who very much dislikes loud, boisterous people. More so when a drunken asswipe. So, what was my response after passing them and hearing this crap being shouted at me? The middle finger on my left hand rose skyward which prompted one or both of these guys to shout even more. Stupidity begets stupidity, boys… No, I shouldn’t have flipped them off but it was so offensive!
At the high risk of being redundant again, here are a couple of clicks from the iPhone showing how busy the village was today with a huge craft show in progress. It’s really easy to get there from my place following a route that is all paved too. It’s become mostly overcast this afternoon which prompted me to head home and racking up another thirteen miles on the bike bringing the total miles to 645. Not bad for an electric bike, eh!
Just three iPhone photos from today’s sixteen-mile ride on the Bonanza and Lone Mountain trails. It looks like I’ll be off of the Bonanza trail for a few days though. Today was another great day for biking with full sunshine and almost zero wind with 75 degrees. Basically, the same forecast is up for tomorrow but with more clouds.
Tuesday will see highs only in the upper fifties though. In one of three tunnels today, I saw one homeless tent which really sucks. climbing upward on the ramp out of one tunnel, an old fart headed right at me and turned right just before we collided. Dumbass! And I really think he meant to do it too.
And, coming down the ramp from a bridge crossing over the road, another guy damn near rammed me. What the hell? Wake the heck up and pay attention or get off the bike paths! Las Vegas is full of idiots both on the road driving and while riding bikes too! In Michigan, it’s car-deer collisions, here it’s dumbbell humans!
Here are some photos and one short video of the very busy 215 freeway which is a beltway that wraps around the city. The iPhone photos of the rocks were taken on the one-mile loop around Lone Mountain, some very ancient rock. I may be three-for-three on this, but heading home I came across yet another homeless person.
This time, it was an elderly woman just laying on the concrete very close to a four-lane road. I swung the bike around and carefully approached. I asked if she was OK. She sat up and said yes, she is OK, just getting some sleep. I thought about calling the police but didn’t since this person seemed coherent.
Once again, it’s such a damn sad thing to see happening to these people. Only they know how they ended up in these situations. Mental illness, alcohol abuse, or a combination of several things, we will never know. I’ve seen three homeless people in about as many days, there must hundreds if not thousands of homeless in Las Vegas.
Today I added twenty miles to the new bike, a record for me you can say. I’ve been pushing the outbound distance from home out further a bit at a time. I’ve been riding the Bonanza Trail. Sadly, I came upon this tent and another sleeping place beyond it on the left. The tent appeared to be empty, I feel so sad for these people.
Only they know how they landed in this situation. I also feel a bit angry because this shit shouldn’t be happening in this country, should it? Further on down the trail and not in a tunnel, I came upon a young woman who was all wrapped up in a large comforter and sound asleep very directly next to the concrete trail I was riding.
People were walking their dogs and so forth as they passed by this woman. Again, it’s so sad! I sincerely wish that I could do something for these people that would really, actually help them. A Hand Up, Not a Hand Out! I’m sure that the homeless choose Las Vegas for its very mild year-round climate too.
All of this sad stuff aside, today was a perfect day for a long bike ride, and the bike performed perfectly the entire trip. Tonight, it will get a good spiffing up!
This makes me sad. I was on a six-mile bike ride this afternoon since it’s so beautiful today and saw this woman pushing the shopping cart across a large parking lot. To get the shot, I waited behind a minivan for her to come from behind it. This should not be happening in this country!
I believe that if our government and entities such as NASA which I don’t think is a government entity, stopped spending billions to go to a damn dead world called Mars, and stopped spending billions on better ways to kill people on planet Earth, our sad homeless problem could either be eliminated or at the least, these people around our country could get a Hand Up, not a Hand Out.
The sickening, skewed priorities of those in high places of authority in this country need to be shoved off of their thrones. All people matter no matter their skin color. A dead world billions of miles away from us has zero value to humanity, so what is the point of going there? There is no point!
