There is Always Excitement Around Here!

 Well I saw no naked men since Monday but that doesn't mean we had no excitement here. 8-)

I went out Tuesday to Kroger and I passed this location which we often pass(this was a photo from a previous day when Hubs was driving not from Tuesday).......

There was a man with a cargo van parked at this abandoned location setting up wooden plank shelves.  When I came back through he had one of those wing signs on a pole and his whole display in place.  He was selling BONSAI.  Now this being Louisiana I thought that was the most random thing! lolz  We often see people set up with a tent and table in various abandoned commercial locations right before holidays(Xmas, Easter, etc.)selling gift baskets, but I guess he thinks there is a booming market for bonsai trees for Mother's Day?? ;-)

I also go through an area known as MLK town on the way to Kroger.  At this light on the far right side of the intersection as pictured.......

There usually stands a guy we have dubbed "Hatman".  Hatman creates as you'd assume "creative hats", made out of found items, with messages, usually religious but some political.  He is just trying to inform the masses about the state of the world and heaven.  He might be crazy or not.  I have never stopped to "chat" with him but I do wave as I go by.

On Tuesday Hatman has on a new chapeau.  I don't know what the actual hat was made out of but he had attached a long strip of cardboard to the front(might have been backed with balsa or some other lightweight wood)and on it was written "300 Trillion......".  I couldn't read the whole thing as I passed but 300 Trillion is/was the amount of the US Debt.  Hmmm.

Then when I came back through this intersection to get home, Hatman wasn't at his post(lunch break in the convenience store nearby maybe?)but he had left this in his stead..........

I was stopped at the light so could snap a photo of it, though I couldn't read the wording fully until I started driving when the light turned green.  He took an empty blue city trash can, turned it upside down and had fashioned white Styrofoam letters that spelled out "CHINA".  Me thinks Hatman is a very deep thinker and if I didn't sense he was a little "touched" in the head, I'd enjoy talking with him. ;-)

Tuesday evening our power went out again!  I was composing a letter on my computer keyboard Tuesday night and BAM!  The power went out.  There were no storms raging anywhere around here, not even windy.  I swear we are at the far outer edge of this power company's grid(operating somewhere in Texas).  But come to find out their service territory is Northwest and Central Louisiana, East Texas and the Texas Panhandle and Western Arkansas.  Their customers are divided thusly--552,665, including 235,287 in Louisiana, 191,296 in Texas and 126,082 in Arkansas.

This outage makes FOUR service disruptions in FIVE weeks!  The power went out in early April before we left for the cruise, Hubs got alerts on his phone that the power was out for hours while we were in Europe, the 2+ day outage at the end of April and now a shorter 4 hour outage this past Tuesday.  Had I known the electrical infrastructure was so vulnerable in this town I never would have moved here.  And it's not something we could have ascertained before moving into this house.  Our daughter is on another company even though she is only 7 miles away so we couldn't know from her experience.

My big worry in this house is keeping the fridge/freezer going in a power failure(as is most people's worry, outside of a/c in the Summer).  I have expensive drugs that have to be kept cold/cool in that fridge.  You see, we can't use a generator during a power failure to keep the fridge cold.  Our fridge/freezer is hard wired into the electrical panel.  The appliance doesn't have a plug we can connect to a generator. sigh  

So Wednesday I had PT for my shoulders.  Nice therapist.  Gave me some exercises to do at home and I go back next week and begin twice a week sessions with her for 4 weeks.  Most concerning to her is the partial tear in a muscle in my right shoulder.  Most concerning to me is not being able to sleep in my favorite/use-to be comfortable position with my left arm under my pillow/over my head.  It seems to be a balance of exercising these muscles and tendons but not too much.  So we'll see if this helps. ;-)

We passed the ramshackle house of "Rockman" on the way to therapy.(The house pictured is next door as the shot was taken from an angle.)  There is a guy who stacks rocks in front of a shabby dwelling(trim is painted purple and there is a tarp covering part of the roof).  If I am not driving I try to get a photo of his latest creations........

This was snapped in early April and you can see what I mean.  Yesterday it looked like this.........

The problem is this isn't a good part of town and people up to no good come through at night and knock his creations down.  But he will rebuild as he always does.

I have yet to get a good photo of some of his "nice" creations.......

I listed one of the two abandoned boats w/trailers that are on the property on FB Marketplace on Tuesday for FREE.  Getting lots of "is this still available?" messages but we'll see if anyone actually comes to takes it.  Hubs is handling the rest of this project(answering the messages and dealing with people part).  I only got involved in this because I have a FB account and know how to put stuff on various local FB free/for sale message boards.  I've got 14 asks so far on the boat for Hubs to deal with.

I'll be going to Kroger on Friday to get 4 x Fuel Pts. on any purchase I make.  Not sure what I'll be buying but I am sure I'll see some interesting stuff along the way. 8-))

Sluggy