Burr! Very Cold Sunrise.

Taken with my LGVX8600 1.3Megapixel phone.
From RMStringer

Mack: A Man's Not Dressed Without His Pocket Knife

 

Thanks to Mack Hall for letting me publish this.

 

A Man's Not Dressed Without His Pocket Knife

 

This last Christmas certain environmentalist groups advertised meaningful green gifts – instead of giving your child a bicycle or a football for Christmas you could donate the money you would have spent on your own kid to some stranger who's shown you a picture of a polar bear allegedly drowning.

 

It's a polar bear, citizens; it swims in the water and eats harp seals, you know, the cute widdy-biddy harp seals with the big ol' eyes.  The polar bear rips screaming baby harp seals apart with its fangs and claws, and the baby harp seals die far more horribly than if they got whacked in the back of the head, and then they get eaten.  How's that for a bedtime story, PETA? 

 

When I was a child there was nothing I would have wanted more than to stumble sleepily but excitedly into the living room to find a card (printed on recycled paper with recycled soy-based ink) giving me glad tidings that a penguin had the new cap pistol I wanted.  Sadly, my parents weren't green, and so gave me cap pistols and baseball gloves and toy trains and an ant farm.

 

Although not as exciting as a new bicycle, a good pocket knife is a far better gift than being bullied into pretending to feel good about a fish or a ground squirrel.  Giving a boy his first pocket knife is a traditional rite of passage, and having it taken away a day or two later for misuse is another traditional rite of passage.  A knife, after all, is a tool, not a toy, and owning one is a grown-up thing.

 

My ol' daddy said that a man's not fully dressed without his pocket knife; experience demonstrates that this is true.  The knife was perhaps the first tool used by humans, probably beginning with a sharp flint, and necessary for skinning a rabbit, slicing veggies, building a fire, eating, building, mending, opening, slicing, dicing, picking your teeth, and cleaning your fingernails.  Mind the order of usage, of course!  No one who lives close to the land or the sea or the workshop can function without a good knife to hand at all times.

 

Thomas Jefferson is often credited for inventing the first folding knife, which, while not as strong as a one-piece, is certainly easier to carry about.  Manufacturers began adding extra blades, and then the Swiss got the idea of adding specific tools in miniature, resulting in the Swiss Army Knife.  Where or not the Swiss Army carries Swiss Army Knives is a good topic of conversation. While these gadgets are fun, I'll bet your old grandpa could accomplish with his single-bladed pocket knife whatever task was necessary before you could find and unlimber the designated thingie out of a Swiss Army Knife or a multi-tool.

 

A friend gave me a nice little lock-back with a single blade with saw-teeth.  I found this knife so useful that a few weeks later I bought a larger model, made-in-America, even while thinking to myself that the last thing I needed was another pocket knife.  And then a few weeks after that Hurricane Rita did not hit New Orleans, and that big ol' American knife with its one large blade and saw-teeth paid for itself many times over with its survival utility.

 

Shiny things under the tree or for a birthday are fun: little plastic boxes that light up and make noise, and other little boxes that allow you to hear The Immortal Words of Our Time – "Can you hear me now?" and "She all up in my face!"  But when you are long-gone, your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will not treasure your MePod or your cell 'phone or your Brickberry, because those dinky disposables will have long since been recycled into beer cans or Chinese cars.  But they will treasure your old pocket knife, its edge well-worn from good, honest use and from many sharpenings around a winter's fire when the stories are told.

 

Sturdy, American-made pocket knives are great, traditional gifts for men and boys.  They are also perfect for skinning baby harp seals.

 

-30-

 

Hercule Poirot: I wouldn't know. I am not French, I am Belgian.
Hastings: Well it's the same thing, you both eat horsemeat.

DSC05717: Fog 1.3

DSC05717: Fog 1.3, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Taken off of Milburn School Road

Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture: f/10
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 200

DSC05678: Tractor 1.0

DSC05678: Tractor 1.0, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

I wonder what the story is about this tractor? To me, it looks like it was driven to this spot and that is where it stated. It really did not look in that bad of shape, but there must be something wrong with it to be left out like this. It is strange how the grass and brush is only growing in some places around it but not others. Will it rust like so many of the other items on this piece of land?


Exposure: 0.167 sec (1/6)
Aperture: f/22
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 200

DSC05706: Fallen Barn 1.0

DSC05706: Fallen Barn 1.0, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

This was a neat old barn on the property today. The barn's rood had totally fallen in and collapsed to the floor.I love the perspective that i used to take this photo. I was using the 18-70mm Kit Lens that came with the camera due to the wide angle that i could get with it. It was a gloomy, cold day taking the photos today.

Exposure: 0.167 sec (1/6)
Aperture: f/18
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 200

DSC05681: Old Truck 1.0

DSC05681: Old Truck 1.0, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

I went out today with Todd Shaak and we went to a very old house that is falling down. There were lots of neat old things to shoot all over the property. This old truck was just one of many items to shoot.

I decided to use the 18-70mm lens so i could get better angles than if i had used the 50mm lens. It was about 40 degrees and very cold with lots of fog in the area.

Exposure: 0.167 sec (1/6)
Aperture: f/22
Focal Length: 45 mm
ISO Speed: 200

South on IH255

Taken with my LGVX8600 1.3Megapixel phone.
From RMStringer