Income Tax $5 – Midwest City, OK

This has got to be one of my favorite signs. It is on the back of a garage of a private residence. I’ve never gotten up the nerve to ask about the age or history of this sign.

Uptown Center – Midwest City, OK

Yet another Midwest City sign. Not a great piece of work, but since the nearby shopping center is being updated, I assume that it will be vanishing soon.

Celebrity Club, Midwest City, OK

On Air Depot Blvd in Midwest City, this sign has the wildest font I have ever seen. I asked how old the sign is and was told that it dates back to the 60’s or 70’s

Lockheed Shopping Center, Midwest City, OK

The neon on this one is busted all to pieces, but it one of the largest remaining boomerang arrows that I have seen. Midwest City is the home of Tinker AFB, explaining the name Lockheed for the shopping center. Note the revolving red light on the right-most support post. They are currently updating the center and I fear that this sign will be torn down and replaced. It is on SE 15th east of Air Depot Blvd.

UPDATED 11/02/08: I’ve added a closeup of the other side of the sign.

Out of town and catching up – Hik-ry Pit, Oklahoma City

I’m out of town on work travel and while I’m cooped up in the hotel room, I thought that I would catch up and post the pics I have in Flickr.

This one is on 10th street & just east of May in Oklahoma City. I believe the business is closed.

Quite a week

It’s been a heck of a week. Monday, Lovely Wife & I put up 8 quarts of apples, 6 casseroles, several jars of salsa and packed 15 lbs of hamburger she got on sale. We also froze 21 stuffed peppers (thanks sis!)

Wednesday was puppets again and Friday & Saturday is Stamp Camp for Lovely Wife. Saturday is my fixit day, toliet, house-trim.

Sunday is Canadian Thanksgiving with a friend of Eldest Son (it was actually the 13th, but this was when we could get together)

So it’s run run run, which is fairly typical around here.

A day in the kitchen

We spent the weekend with my mom for her birthday, plowing through a to-do list as a way of giving her a b-day present. Came home yesterday and today we are hard at work freezing up a half truckload of tomatoes, pepper, & zucchini that my Delightful Sister gave us from her garden. Today is a festival of making stuffed peppers for freezing, zucchini casserole for freezing, salsa for eating. Lots of cutting & cooking.

Life on the Riviera

The Riviera restaurant on Route 66 between Braidwood and Dwight is still in business. It used to be a famous restaurant with an even more famous speakeasy in the basement that was only accessed by going through a hidden stairway in the pantry. Today, the restaurant is in the basement.

It ain’t easy being green

I’ve been volunteering at church to work puppets for some childrens videos that are shooting. All the scenery is digital so that means I’m working with puppets on a green screen (the same technology that weathermen use to stand in from of their maps).

We have live action actors talking to the puppets so for me to not appear I have to wear green…. all over. They started with a spandex suit that really didn’t fit, so they made me a gown that had too many wrinkles. Therefore I get to wear the gown with a cut-up spandex suit on top of it.

Anyway, here is a photo of the puppet

And here’s a photo of me with the puppet.

For your information, I am kneeling, I’m not that short.

John’s Modern Cabins – 2008

On the trip back from Illinois, we made a stop at John’s Modern Cabins in Missouri. Route 66 goes right past this old place and I-44 used to as well before they moved it a few years ago. John’s has been abandoned for years and the buildings have been slowly falling apart, but that momentum seems to have picked up.

Last time we came through, this original cabin was still standing.

As was this newer model

I braved the poison ivy to snap a shot in back of and then inside one of the cabins.

I’m amazed that thse cabins were built on small stacks of cinderblock!

I couldn’t get this refrigerator open. That’s probably a good thing.