Category: sigh

She’s At It Again…

Hide your face in your hands and utter an “oh no…”

That’s right, I’m back to being a letter writing wingnut.

This time the email was sent off to a gentleman by the name of Bob Pickett who is a radio deejay for the corporate entity iheartradio.com.

They do a centralized model where one deejay broadcasts and affiliate stations pick up the feed.

If you listen to Albuquerque’s radio station 104.7, the oldies country station, then you might know who Mr. Pickett is.

I am able to listen to the station for free by streaming it on the internet, and so I listen to it every day while I work. It’s a pretty good station, especially for an old fart like me.

But here’s where I ran into a difference of opinion with Mr. Pickett.

I’ll let you read for yourself:


——————————-


Hello Mr. Pickett – My name is Karen and I just wanted to drop a line to ask a favor.

I listen to the radio station 104.7 out of Albuquerque every day at work. I listen all day long as the music is a great backdrop for getting my job done, and I can’t thank you enough for your part in all that.

Now, to get to the heart of the matter:

I gotta tell you, I love Merle Haggard. Adore him. His music is essential to my life. I even saw him in concert recently.

Well, now, here’s my request.

Out of all of ol’ Merle’s very deep song catalog, I’d have to say that “Okie from Muskogee” isn’t one of my top faves. I mean, I like it, but only sometimes.

It seems like every afternoon while I’m tip typing away at my work email I hear “Okie from Muskogee.” Sometimes I’ll sing along or tap my toes, but mostly I just wait for it to be over so I can hear what you’ll play next.

I was wondering if I might hear a few other Merle hits over the course of the week? Maybe we hear Okie once or twice, but sometimes there is a “Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Star” or a “Silver Wings” or maybe a “Mama Tried” in there to keep it interesting?

Of course, you know your job better than I and so I hope I haven’t been offensive in asking this question.

Thanks for all you do! You’re a real pleasure to listen to and I love hearing your stories and encounters with country celebrities.

Well, thanks for hearing me out.

Best to you and your family,

Karen


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I sent this little missive out on Thursday afternoon and haven’t heard a peep since.

And when I hear “Okie from Muskogee” this afternoon I’ll turn down the radio and wait for it to pass……

I don’t expect a change in their programming anytime soon, it just felt kind of good to write.






Photo by Cierpki and used royalty free from stock.xchng.


Spring? Soon.

Had a chance to visit Filoli Gardens today in celebration of my amazing and talented mom-in-law and the occasion of her birth.

She produced and nurtured The Good Man, and thus a celebration of her is *always* in order.

Filoli Gardens is one of those magical destinations where it’s almost impossible to take a bad photo. The grounds are carefully tended and the springtime brings a riot of colors to life.

It’s only just recently reopened for the season, and the grounds are simply gorgeous, so I thought I’d share a few photos.

I dedicate these lovely flowers to to the folks who are still stuck in the cold and snow who might be wondering just when in the heck Spring will arrive.

Each of these little flowers whispers to you softly, “soon…”

Enjoy!

(click any photo to see big size)



Amazing purple hyacinth, just had to capture them quickly so I could see them again and again.






I am a big fan of tulips. So hearty yet so delicate.





And daffodils hold a special place in my heart. They signal a beginning. Their yellow sunshine in the midst of dreary winter is a promise to be kept by April.



Here’s What Being Smug Will Getcha

Remember when I gloated about the sun? I frolicked, collecting all the Vitamin Dees I could while it snowed in ABQ?

Remember?



Photo originally posted February 1


Well I’ve certainly gotten my comeuppance, haven’t I?




Photo taken yesterday, Feb. 18


What a difference a few weeks make. When we had that early sun, I knew that soon the bill would come due. And it has. In a big way.

The skiers are happy, the snow has dumped on Tahoe. The people who track our water supplies are happy, lots of rain plus expected runoff means we avoid a drought for another year.

Me, I’m not as happy. Grey skies make me blue. So I sit inside, nose pressed against the window, and daydream about Spring.



All photographs by Karen Fayeth and subject to the creative commons license as seen in the far right column of this page.


I’m So Pulling out my Textbooks

Back in 1890, they passed into law this little ol’ thing called the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

From the wiki: “The purpose of the act was to oppose the combination of entities that could potentially harm competition, such as monopolies or cartels.”

Yes, this is a good thing. Boon to a free economy and such.

Well I’m ready to invoke that act on a little institution known as Getty Images.

If you look around the web and you see an image you like, look closer…odds are Getty already owns it. And don’t both trying to “borrow” it, Getty wants their money and they want it bad.

Oh, and they are large enough to bring a whole passel of lawyers along for the ride.

Getty owns most shots from any professional sporting event. Getty owns the photos of most individual players too.

Getty has hoovered up many of the great images on Flickr, too. In many cases, photographers *gladly* gave over rights to their photos in hopes of making a little money or at least getting a little exposure.

Understandable, but I don’t have to like it.

Ever visited iStockPhoto, a place where you can find a lot of for-pay great stock images? Getty.

And now, oh now, my fave royalty free photo site, stock.xchng is under new management.

You guessed it, Getty has booted the original team (ok, they probably received a nice sum for their time and trouble) and is now in charge.

I’ll betcha some cold hard cash that many of these formerly free images will no longer be free. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that stock.xchng will soon be blended entirely into iStockPhoto and s’long high quality royalty free photos.

This make Hulk maaaad.

I’m just a little personal blog. I don’t make big ad bucks. I make no bucks from my blog. I do it for the satisfaction. And oh so sorry, can’t pay for high quality photos with just my sense of satisfaction.

Bah!

Photo below, found by searching “greedy” on stock.xchng.








Photo by Svilen Milev and used royalty free (for the time being) from stock.xchng.


Gravity is a Cruel, Cruel Mistress

As I was growing up, my mom, bless her soul, had some pretty strong aspirations for her daughters. Mainly, she wanted both my sister and me to be strong, healthy and graceful girls.

This is an admirable wish.

So to that end, both my sissy and I attended dance classes regularly, learning ballet, tap and jazz (yes, I learned how to make perfect jazz hands).

Blessed from an early age with sturdy thighs and broad German hips, I was what might be called “stocky.” This whole dancing thing was a bit tougher for me than it was for the lithe little girls who also attended the dance classes.

That said, I danced and it was not so bad. I was a damn fine tap dancer in my day, actually. I could shuffle-off-to-buffalo like nobody’s business! (Google it, that’s actually a tap dancing term)

At some point, I don’t know how it came about, but it was agreed that I would start taking gymnastics classes at the local YMCA.

Well, this was quite a step up in the game. Gymnastics! Whoa!

Ok, let’s go back to the sturdy thighs and broad German hips thing…my center of gravity is rather low. This is a good thing for lifting things and staying on the planet.

However, that “staying on the planet” aspect is quite the hindrance to the goal of gymnastics activities which often involve leaving the ground.

In hindsight, I did ok on balance beam. I was actually not that bad on the uneven bars.

But the floor routines were another story entirely.

Cartwheels? Yes!

Backbends. Sure. I’m all over them.

Flips? Er. Not so much.

I’d come thundering down the mat, do the hop, attempt to flip forward and wind up lying on the mat in a tangled mess of limbs and lycra spandex.

Next I’d try to do that big hop and tuck to make a back flip work, and would end up in a similar state.

A back flip on the balance beam? Oh please, I never even tried.

It was kind of hard on the ol’ self esteem back then that all these other girls could flip through the air with the greatest of ease while I stayed firmly grounded.

Over the years I’ve become a bit more circumspect. Gravity is one of those laws that, unless you are an astronaut, you just can’t break. These days I tend to allow all due deference to that bitchy Mistress Gravity. She’s always going to win.






Today’s theme for Theme Thursday is flip.

Photo by Charlie Balch and used royalty free from stock.xchng.