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The skies over Pittsburgh don’t change much, but the things in the skies change.
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Well, for the past 4 years or so I have been living in a certain building that has an awesome lobby and in the lobby is a table and on the table people often put items out “for free”. That is, they take items they would like to discard and put them on the table in the hopes that some other resident of the building will adopt them. I like to take photos of these items. Occasionally, it’s not free stuff on the table but rather other notable stuff, like festive holiday displays. I take photos of these things as well. For ages I’ve been meaning to post these photos but I have accumulated so many, it doesn’t make sense to make a separate posting for each. So, I have provided this nifty flickr slide show in an attempt to condense the presentation somewhat. Enjoy!
Take note of such gems as:
- Twine, some cords, a padlock, and some metal forks/skewers in a plastic box.
- Christmas offerings - cookies, tree, and peanuts with plastic spoon.
- Pink love bear.
- Wall Street Journal & small elephant head.
- Magazines, with address label blacked out. No one will be able to guess the address, especially not since we all live in the same building.
- Two CDs by popular music group “The Hatters”.
- Assorted DVDs.
- Printer and extra paper.
- Note stating “Please return my USA Paper - someone stole it this AM” along with an empty vase tied with a bow.
- One pair of white athletic socks.
- Flowers in bottle.
- Note stating “Happy Halloween Help Yourself” along with two (2) tins of candy and one (1) Romance & Mystery paperback book.
- Christmas offerings - two candles, mini Christmas tree, and plastic tub of mints.
- Holly (I think) in vase.
In April of 2005 I moved into my apartment. Today, I picked my toolbox up off the floor where it has been living for the past two and a half years and put it away in the closet.
This is a painting titled “The Field” by T. Peters. It was painted in 1987. I know this because it is written on the back of the canvas, in pen. I think it is a very beautiful painting. I bought it from an old woman (T. Peters, I assume) in New York City. 
She had a small display set up along the wall that divides Central Park from 5th Avenue. Assuming I purchased it the same year it was painted, I would have been 10 or 11. I don’t know how old the old woman was, but I guess I wanted to encourage her artistic endeavors. She told me that the building in the painting is not a house, but a shed, because it does not have any windows. The painting had a white mat around it and instead of having a piece of glass or plastic protecting its front, it was covered carefully in saran wrap. For many years, it hung on the wall next to my bed. Just recently I had a new, proper mat cut for it and framed it in a proper frame. It is hanging by my bed again.
Sadly, the Waynesboro wildlife center just called to tell me that Hebron, the little Easter bat, passed away this morning. Apparently he was too cold and dehydrated to make it. Poor Hebron. Perhaps one day he will rise again since he was, after all, an Easter bat.
R.I.P. Hebron.
Hayley was kind enough to make this lovely daisy hat for Paco.
Today, Hayley and Liz and I went to the Hebron Baptist Church for Easter services. Before the service started I found a small brown bat lying in the parking lot. It was freezing cold out and at first I thougth he was dead, but then I noticed he was breathing. Hayley scooped him up with a piece of plastic and deposited him in an old Ugg shoe box that Liz had in her car (ha ha, Liz has Uggs). After church, we took the bat to the wildlife center in Waynesboro. They said he seemed OK and that they would fatten him up and then release him. Apprently, the weather we are having (really warm out and then suddenly really cold) causes a lot of problems for bats, because they unhibernate, innocently enjoy the high temperatures, and then turn into little bat popsicles when the temperature unexpectedly drops. Poor bats.
I have named the bat Hebron. Here is a picture:
Interestingly, or not, depending on your point of view, Hebron is not the first bat I have found.
Once when I was little I was walking in Central Park with my mom and I saw a small brown bat lying on the ground. He seemed hurt and we did not know what to do. My mom wanted to kill him, because she thought he was suffering, but by this time a small crowd had gathered and they were against any type of bat murder. It was decided that my mom and I would stay with the bat while another man went to find a park ranger. As we were sitting there, watching the bat, he suddenly got up, scampered a few feet, and then flew away. We were quite happy at this turn of events, but soon grew concerened that when the man and the park ranger returned, they would think we had killed the bat against their wishes. We waited a while but soon became bored (because there was no longer a bat to look at) and wanted to leave. So, we left a note on the ground that said “Mr., the bat flew away.” I think we also drew a picture of a flying bat.
I have no idea if the man ever returned and found that note, but if he did, I hope he believed it.
