Looking At Taillights For the Year

I'm so very ready for this year to be over. It's been a pisser of a year - we've lost so many people, famous or personal friends. It's a year I will be happy to put behind me as we accelerate into 2017. My time for posting today is quite limited, so I'm reaching into my magic hat of irrelevance and choosing: taillights as my subject because they are interesting and rather fun.

This Corvette has dual eyes above a frown. With the small nose
between the eyes (the Corvette logo), it has a true face-like look. 

When you drive, you are looking at the traffic ahead of you and oncoming traffic all the time. Keeping alert to changing conditions and your own position within the flow allows safe passage for all. I've always loved looking at the headlights and taillights of the cars around me. It's these little pieces of colored or clear glass and their shapes that bring a semblance of life to each car.

I love the triple tree lights of the 1950's vintage Ford Fairlane cars. This
light design wasn't made for many years. It's stunning at night. 

Look at the Ford Fairlane above. With its triple-bank of lights moving up the sides of those fins, this is a car who makes a statement on the road. Add the horizontal chrome base below and it's rather like a rocket ship waiting to take off. Really cool!

Here is a 1959 Ford Fairlane. Look at how different the lights were
treated in this later model. Things are more streamlined and the
lights are set so and much larger so that they show more drama. 

Here's a 1959 Ford Fairlane. By this time they were texturing the exterior ring of the light's setting, allowing a greater reflection of the colored light, they also were beginning to play with the actual light cover and here it was domed into a rounded point instead of flat. The designers replaced the chrome platform with angles and small side-curled fins to bring interest to the car. Interest equaled attention and attention cut down on accidents.

Look at these curves. Instead of the car's framework providing
the visual interest, the attention point is switching over to the
variety of LED and specialty bulbs used for the taillights. I'm
loving this new look. 

Today's modern LED lights have freed designers from incandescent light bulbs and allowed swoops and curves within the light array itself. Both headlights and taillights are becoming more interesting now. Take a look at the Toyota Camray above. This type of taillight design would have been impossible even ten years ago.

So as I begin to wrap up 2016, I'm happily waving goodbye to a year that was really crummy in so many, many ways. I'm looking for the headlights of 2017 to appear in my line of sight. Here's hoping your Thursday is excellent and that we won't have any more newsworthy deaths for the remainder of the year. At the rate we're going, however, I'm not holding my breath.

It's the End of July

It's the end of July and it's time for a wrap-up along with other miscellaneous things. To start, something that made me smile. After I got home from work yesterday, I picked up DH and we went over to Total Wine. I wanted some more Redd's Apple Ale and assorted craft beers, he wanted some Angry Orchard and a variety of fruity ales. Getting back into my car after our outing, I noticed a note under my windshield wiper. Pulling it out, I read the following: "I like your Minion on the dash :-) It put a smile on my face! Have a great night." I don't know who wrote it, but her note put a smile onto my face. My car has a fan club - LOL.

My car has a small figurine of Dave from Despicable Me 2 on my
dashboard (soon to be joined by one of King Bob). It's this
small Minion that was referred to in the note. 

I'm down five pounds for the month and I'm pretty happy about that. Slow and steady seems to be working well for me and I'm still loving going to the gym six days a week. When I don't go, I really miss it. DH complains about how he just doesn't have the time to run on the treadmill, but I refuse to allow myself excuses. Today is a guppy day and I'm already looking forward to being in the pool in an hour. Yippee!

I plug in my music and start swimming. Before I know it, I've put
in my mile. Guppy Days are my happy days. 

Today is the last day of July and that means the summer is 2/3 over (at least in my head). August is a busy month. Renaissance Festival will start, the State Fair will start, and I'll be going totally crazy trying to get things back together for Sharon's visit in early September. I have a ton of stuff to move back into cases and cabinets that we had to move for the carpeting install. The house is still in total disarray and, unfortunately, the wall paper won't be installed until after Sharon has come and gone, requiring a re-do for some items. But, that's OK. It's worth it just to see my BFF once more.

One of my favorite pictures from Renaissance Festival. Sharon is
on the left, I'm in the center and Chickie is on the right. All's
fair in Elizabethan England, right? 

Chickie is pathetically sick but is soldiering on at work. She can't stop coughing, and yesterday had such a bad coughing fit in the afternoon that she barely was able to catch her breath for more than 15 minutes. I insisted that she see her doctor, so she'll leave in the afternoon today for a quick look-over by her physician and Jim will have to work a couple of hours while she's out of the shop. That's life - that's doing what you need to do for others.

Chickie will see the doctor today and, hopefully, get something
seriously stronger than what she's already taking to allow
her to recover from this really nasty cold. Ick! 

Did more happen in July? Of course it did. But I want the post to have a reasonable length, so I'm cutting things off here. Have a wonderful Friday and look back on July as a month of accomplishment in the height of summer (or winter for my friends south of the equator).

June Wrap-up

What a busy month June was. By the end of it, I had lost one pound *sigh*, but had accomplished so very much more that I think it was a good trade-off.

I was a very busy bee in June. 

I started the month out by spending a week at the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee. It was the show's 15th Anniversary, but I had been attending far longer than that - since long before they were called the Bead & Button Show. I estimate I have been attending this show for at least twenty years now. It was great fun, as always.

I came back to face intensive work before the remodel. In fact, my house is still in storage and disarray - I can't put things back until the wall covering is completed and that might be very tight before Sharon returns for her annual vacation. But ...

The carpeting and kitchen laminate are installed and I'm totally in love. The new curtains arrived and were hung and the living room finally looks elegant once more. I am deliriously happy with both the flooring and the carpeting.

We cleared trees, got rid of storm damage, hauled loads to the county compost, and generally worked hard around the house both inside and outside.

I took a day and had a terrifically fun afternoon with my LJ friend Huinare, pedaling around Lake Calhoun and getting lost numerous times between the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

And last night, the final night of the month, we spent at a local taproom with friends sharing great food and craft beer.

All in all - June was a good month. I may have only lost one pound, but I'm still at the gym 5-6 days a week and I'm feeling good. Maybe I'll lose more weight in July - we'll have to wait and see. But in terms of "fabulous", June was quite excellent. Onwards!!!!