Random Acts of Gratitude 030813

Downtown Raleighwood
March 2013

Three Bits o' Gratitude for Today

1. My boss left at noon for a week's vacation. This made many of us smile.

2. Finding an unexpected stash of Tommy Keene* music/videos on The YouTubes.

3. Making the best of missing the first bus from downtown Raleighwood to home and wandering around the area taking photographs with my iPhone. Nothing earth-shattering, but at least I kept active and engaged in my surroundings.

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* I was a HUGE Tommy Keene fan back in the early 80s. WHFS played his music and I went out and bought his first album, Strange Alliance, as soon as it was released. He put out a number of EPs after that -- all of which I bought as well -- before moving out to LA where he hoped to Make It Big.

One afternoon I was working at The Kite Site and, looking out the windows behind the counter, I saw him crossing the street with a friend. "THAT'S TOMMY KEENE!" I said. And while my co-werkers wondered what the heck I was on about, I rushed out of the store to meet my local progressive rock hero.

"You're Tommy Keene!" I shouted.

Keene and his friend turned around. He smiled in a slightly embarrassed way. His friend smiled in one of those "I bet you wish this was some hot chick instead of some geeky guy" kinda ways.

There was that split second where I realized I needed to say something else. Something intelligent. Something, you know, cool.

"I have all of your albums," I managed to blurt out.

I think he thanked me, but I was already slinking back to the safety of The Kite Site to continue beating myself up for being such a dorky idiot.

Random Acts of Gratitude 030913

Self Portrait, Double-Processed*
Clyde Cooper's Barbecue Alley
Downtown Raleighwood
March 8, 2013

1. Bonn made me a mighty fine Moroccan Orange Cake with Chocolate icing today for my birthday. Serious yum.

2. She also got me a new wedding ring to replace the old, thin gold band that broke well over a decade ago. This new one is titanium and gold with a celtic knot design. Very cool, indeed.

3. A good day spent sleeping late, driving around running errands, and ending with a salmon dinner. (And, of course, a big slice of orange cake with chocolate icing.)

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* The original shot was taken with, and the initial post-processing work done through Camera Awesome! on my iPhone 4. A second image, created off of the post-processed image, was created through AutoPainter. I layered the two in Photoshop (on my Mac) and brought up just enough detail so my face is somewhat recognizable. I'm rather pleased with the overall effect.