Picture Day goes back to PA

In November 1999 Krys and I went back to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Pennsylvania in the autumn is very neat, but by late November it's pretty much winter, but that doesn't mean things are any less picturesque! Luckily (for whom, I don't know), I brought my camera!

There are lots of cool road names around where I grew up. Here are some of them!






And, of course, along the Delaware River sits the village of ...

Devil's Half Acre!!!!

Also along the Delaware is the town of New Hope. New Hope is known primarily for its, well, gayness. It's an artists' colony, and there are plenty of very neat places to shop and eat and hang out, but these days it's known as a place where those gay people can go and be fabulous. It's in New Hope that I experienced my only gay bar! It's a beautiful town, with lots of old buildings and neat streets and the river and the Delaware Canal, of which this is a picture:


The world-famous Bucks County Playhouse is in New Hope, too!


Here's another typical New Hope scene: a nice stream leading down to the river.


One of the nice things about going back East is the feeling of age. Around where I grew up, there are a ton of places that are shameless in proclaiming that George Washington slept there. I just like the look of these old houses. They look sturdy, unlike the crap people build these days.


Finally, there's Krys, my friend Ken, and my mother. We had a very nice day in New Hope.


That's it for today. I hope you enjoy checking out early winter scenes in Pennsylvania!

Picture Day returns from exotic locales and gives us some good photos of friends

Yes, we're back from Venezuela and back in Portland for today's edition of Picture Day. These pictures are from late August 1999, when my friend Ken and his significant other Jim came out to visit us. We had a grand old time. I liked to use Ken and Jim as examples when my students would talk about gay people and how they would kick the shit out of any they ever met. As you will see, Ken and Jim are big dudes, and would easily beat the hell out of my bigoted students! But that's neither here nor there - we're all about peace here at the blog! So enjoy the pictures!

My mom actually took this first one, out of the airplane window when she was leaving Portland. That's Mt. Hood in the foreground and Mt. Jefferson in the background. This is a cool picture.



In 1999, Portland was home to the Single-A baseball team of the Colorado Rockies, and we went to see a game. From front to back, that's Charlotte, Krys, Gaetana, Ken, and Jim. It was quite the fun night.


Ken had to visit the world's smallest park, so we did. I've shown a picture of it before, but this was fun because there were three of us in it.


Portland has a really wonderful Japanese garden. This is just one of the idyllic scenes.


The Rose Garden is also a nice place, with neat views of the downtown area.

They grow a lot of different kinds of roses in the garden. Krys is just pointing out a few of them!


We had a very nice time with our visitors. Now that we live in Arizona, no one wants to come and see us. And we're sad!

More pictures of people you don't know

Every once in a while I come across a bunch of photographs in my albums and I debate whether to post them. It's not that they're bad pictures, it's just that they're pictures of people, and if you don't know them, who cares, right? But today, at least, I forged on. You may like them. Who knows? And only six or seven people are reading this anyway, so I can do what I want! Bwah-ha-ha-ha!

So: in September 1994 Krys and I went back to Pennsylvania for our "official" wedding parties. We had one in Pottsville, where Krys grew up, and one in Doylestown, where my parents live. Krys took no pictures of the one her family threw her (perhaps because her family is a bunch of horrible mutants, like those people in The Hills Have Eyes), but I was camera-happy at the one my family had. So these are people I'm related to or were friendly with. Deal with it.


This is my good friend Dave. Yes, the same Dave whose wedding I missed in October. He and his brother thought long, stringy hair was "cool" back then. Thank God he finally cut it.


This is my Dad's brother, Uncle Rob (I don't think the "uncle" was officially part of his name). He died not too long after this party - I'm not sure when, but my sister got married in 1997 and he had already died. Cancer. I'm 99% it was bone marrow cancer, which is apparently very nasty. He was a swell guy - he was eight years younger than my father, which means he was in his musical prime in the late 1960s, so he always had interesting records while my Mom and Dad had Herb Alpert stuff. It's weird looking at pictures of people who should be alive but aren't - he should only be in his mid-50s now, but he's gone. His daughter, my cousin, is the one who went to Dubai last year and is now modeling occasionally while she's in college. I have posted her picture before, most recently in this post.


This is Jennifer, the daughter of my Mom's cousin. Does that make her my second cousin or my first cousin once removed? Beats me. Does anyone know? She's a cool chick, even though I don't know her that well. I haven't seen her since this party. It's always interesting to move away from family, because you go decades without seeing them, even though there's always a connection.


John lived next door to me in college, and he's a very interesting guy. Bizarre, but interesting. This was the last time I saw him until earlier this year, when he showed up unannounced on my doorstep. He lives in San Diego but he was in Gilbert, AZ, looking at a bird. He's big into birds. He's married now and presumably his wife is as strange as he is. She'd have to be.


This is my best friend Ken. I'm not exactly sure what he is doing. Probably grimacing wildly in an attempt to mess up my picture. Damn you, Ken!


Not too long before the party, Ken had gotten his first tattoo. He was very proud of it - he took a long time to decide what kind he should get and where he should get it. I think it's a very cool tattoo, even though there is no way in hell I'd ever get one. I'm not sure if he ever got another one or if he regrets getting this one - the subject has never come up. It's pretty neat, isn't it?

That's all for this week. Sorry if they were boring this time around. Next week we're back in Oregon and ready to travel, so the pictures will be all filled with nature and stuff!