Robert Pence

According to the poll results so far, the forums are 100 percent gay. :-D

I especially like night shots, because I'm not allowed outside unsupervised after dark. I keep telling them there's only a problem when the moon is full.

Livin' in the lap of luxury!

The Carroll County courthouse looks like a reasonably imposing building, but someone sure has committed some unnatural acts upon it with those windows and the antenna. A shot from Lisbon, 1985:

Beautiful place. It's gratifying to see that, although it's been in disuse for some time, it hasn't been destroyed by vandals. It's exciting that it will be returned to use.

Cool. It sounds like you're more familiar with the hazards than I am. Keep posting your urban exploration photos!

There does seem to be a renewed interest in bringing back downtown vitality, and some of the small towns have been quicker to show progress than some of the larger cities. Less inertia to overcome, I suppose. In my hometown of Bluffton, Indiana, about a half dozen owners of downtown business have rehabbed the living spaces on the upper floors in their late-nineteenth-century buildings and made them their homes. For years those places had been low-rent, low-quality apartments, storage, or vacant. A lot of the retail revival I've seen in the small towns, especially the ones that have become refuges for workers in nearby larger cities, is made up of boutiques, coffee shops, antique shops, Hallmark stores and ice cream parlors, and I think their world may be threatened by increasing commuting inconvenience and cost. I don't dislike any of those things, but I'll be more encouraged when I see hardware stores, drug stores, groceries, clothing stores selling professional and blue-collar work attire, and restaurants where you can get a good tenderloin or cheeseburger at the counter, or fried chicken or a good steak for dinner. I consider myself fortunate that I can still go to a barber in Bluffton who gives a good haircut, doesn't sell cosmetics and doesn't display posters of improbably handsome young models with improbably perfect skin and hair. He and his wife have done a very high-quality rehab of the long-vacant apartment above the shop, and made it their home. It's light and spacious with 12-foot ceilings, and absolutely wonderful. </babble>

Nice shots. Detroit seems to provide a wealth of angles and views, because every forumer who posts photos has something unique to offer. I'm fascinated with the Guardian Building. I haven't been to Detroit in many years, and back then I wasn't really tuned in to the wonderfulness of downtown architecture.

Interesting; abandoned industrial sites like the grain silos offer some good photo material. It's potentially a very dangerous place, though. The feces on the steps more likely comes from pigeons and rats. It's probably a good idea to wear some respiratory protection in places like that, because bird and rodent feces and moldy grain all release substances that can cause very serious respiratory illness. Don't go into storage areas with old grain, especially if it's gotten wet, unless there's lots of air moving through. They can sometimes contain toxic or suffocating gases; people have died in them.

Nice shots. Keep up the good work!

The Heifer Project provides cattle to farmers in developing countries to help them start dairy herds.

Isn't Georgetown the birthplace of Ulysses S. Grant?

Might pretty! Those are nifty streetlights. Isn't Maysville a railroad town?

I thought that was why they put that gawd-awful high fence atop the sides of the Detroit-Superior Bridge! :-D

Ironic that the intro ad is for a law firm :-D The incident is a message from God. No more Wal-Marts! They will bring doom to America! :whip:

Drivers who endanger pedestrians are not an exclusively Cincinnati phenomenon. Right-turn-on-red creates a potentially dangerous situation for pedestrians because drivers sitting at a light and waiting to make a right turn will often look only to the left for approaching traffic, and not to the right for pedestrians in the crosswalk. One morning walking to work, I had to throw myself on the hood of a car to avoid being run down by an inattentive driver. She looked pretty freaked out, so I enhanced her experience by screaming obscenities at her. I hope it was as much a learning experience for her as it was for me. Another time, I was crossing the street at lunchtime when a woman making a turn cut me off in the crosswalk. I was carrying a cup of vile vending-machine coffee and had little to lose, so as I yelled at her, I threw the cup. The coffee splattered across the rear window of her car as she sped away. She pulled into the parking lot at the post office nearby and in the time it took her to gather her stuff, check her hair in the mirror, etc., I walked over and stood by the door to the P.O.. She started to get out of her car, saw me, got back in and locked the doors. I stood, and she sat, until she left. I figure she was on a lunchtime errand and had to get back to work. So did I, but my work was just across the street. Had I seen her pick up a cell phone, I would have made myself scarce in an instant. I'm not really mean. I have benevolent intentions to educate drivers for their own good.

Looks pleasant enough.

In fact, there's a stop for South Shore (weekends and auto show only) and Metra Electric trains under McCormick Place (23rd Street). Damn cold open-platform wind tunnel in winter, too, let me tell you!

I read something a while back - maybe it was on SSP - that I think said SSC was going on a hiatus that they hoped would be temporary. I can't remember the details, and as SSP no longer has "search", I can't find the post.

That's almost always a trap. It's the same statement a new Chief Information Officer made when I worked for the insurance company. He even formed an advisory group and asked the various managers to send employees who would speak up and be forthright about the important issues. It was his way of quickly identifying the troublemakers, and I made it onto his shitlist at the very first meeting. He asked me my opinion on changing operating systems (to one he was more comfortable with, it later turned out) and when I pointed out that it would mean scrapping or reengineering an important productivity tool that had cost a lot to implement and that a few hundred users had just learned (I said it respectfully and politely and stuck to facts), his tone let me know that I should have said convincingly, "Yes Sir, Mr. Wright, you're absolutely correct in your assessment of the situation." He said he was a quick study, too. Quick study, my ass! He couldn't have poured pee out of a boot if the instructions had been printed on the heel!

The longer the delay, the greater the cost.

Democracy in action! The people expressed their preference, and Our Leader responded! ColDay for President in 2008!

Demon cats are not to be taken lightly! I had one; fear them!

Public Art meets bike rack in Pittsburgh: Actually, these look nice for short-term parking in a highly-visible public area, but I don't think I'd trust them for long-term parking in a place not subject to public view; it looks like it would be too easy for a reasonably strong, determined thief to bend one back and forth until it breaks loose from the base, and then steal the bike with the rack still attached. I think even a geezer like me could probably do the job in two minutes or less.

Gorgeous photos!