the shutters of leisure mountain road

there's a road in north asheville/weaverville with the craziest cutest funkiest shutters i've ever seen assembled in one place.

the road is called leisure mountain road.

without further ado, behold the shutters:

we have circles:



we have diamond paddles:



we have traditional paddles:



we have leaves:



we have star trek arrows:



we have stars:



we have primary shapes:



we have slightly unusual shapes:



we have tulips:



we have white diamonds:



we have red diamonds:



last but not least, my personal favorite, we have pine tree moons:



about 3/4 of the houses on the street are currently participating in this ongoing shutterfest.

i bet when they were first built in the 70's they ALL had fun shutters.

way to keep it funky, leisure mountain road!

scenes from a thrift store

designed for bouffant hairstyles. what a fabulous word. 

bouffant. 

*****

scene: an elderly woman puttering around the goodwill store. she has a shopping cart. the only thing in the cart is a panini maker in a box.  her very elderly husband joins her.

he: what's 'at?

she: a pantini maker.

he: pantini maker? what's it fer?

she: it mashes bread together and gits hot.

he: fer makin sandwiches?

she: yeah, pantinis.

he: how much it cost?

she: seven dollar.

he: aight then.

more from pouncey

in conjunction with the previous post, if your summer is not fun or cool enough, pouncey and his drool can help with that. 
 

sports requiring helmets

for the second time in two weeks i broke my own rule about avoiding helmet sports.

i put on that helmet right there, complete with face mask, and smacked some slow softballs.


kevin put on a helmet of his own and smacked some very fast baseballs.

he was very good at this

then we went to kenya to play 18 holes of putt putt. 

the course features life sized elephants, zebras, giraffes, volcanoes and waterfalls.

tropical gardens mini golf and batting cages - YESSSSS!

brevard labrador vintage t-shirt with eli, nacho & pouncey!

the dogs were happy to help model a 80's vintage t-shirt from brevard nc featuring one of their cousins with a duck in his mouth.

2 minutes after this picture was taken our buddy the black bear came down the hill, headed towards us - there was a 4 foot chain link fence between us and him, though.

the dogs started barking like crazy and charged him, and i followed them also yelling at the bear. he made a quick turn and scurried to the neighbor's. 

garbage day!

happy father's day!

i hope all dads are having great days! 

here's pouncey this morning hopping through the hay like a white tail deer 

is that a dildo?

the river is kind of a trash can. especially after heavy rains, it's easy to find things like plastic bags, nerf balls, socks, hubcaps, and makeup brushes washed upon the banks.

the other night we were down there throwing balls for the dogs and saw what looked like a dildo bobbing around in a little cove. it was skin colored. it was phallic. it was floating. what the hell else could it be? a paint roller? we were flummoxed.

reenactment featuring curious pouncey as a puppy

do you want to know what it was?

it wasn't a dildo!




it looked like a dildo though, didn't it?










do you really want to know?










okay!






it was a baby doll arm!

extreme kayaking

saturday morning we went to walmart to buy another kayak.

kevin bought a kayak for himself last weekend, drove up the river a mile or two, and kayaked home. it only took about 30 minutes.

he thought it was easy enough that i would like it too.

i have never been in a kayak. i was wary of the whole thing but after some cajoling and adventure-shaming, off we went with 2 kayaks in the car.

at first it was great. it was a lazy river. not too deep. not too many rocks.

then after less than 10 minutes we came upon rocks and rapids, and i fell out of my kayak.

i was a drowned rat. my kayak was swamped and sinking. the river rocks were slippery. i managed to get to the side, get most of the water out of the kayak, found my paddle and got back in.

i only screamed "I HATE THIS!" one time. kevin paddled over to help me and fell out of his kayak. this was helpful.

back in the slightly swamped kayaks,  we headed downriver again. more rapids ahead, kevin yelled "ROCK" and there was nothing i could do (that i knew of) so i let my kayak hit the rock where it flipped me over and out and got stuck.

there are no pitcures of this, but we can assume it looked like this.

the kayak was wrapped around the rock, stuck. i was waist deep in a rapid trying to get it loose. it was not budging. my paddle floated downriver, gone.

i screamed "I CAN'T FUCKING DO THIS!," waded down to where kevin was waiting for me and said "i broke my kayak."

he went back, dislodged the kayak (not broken after all!), stashed it in the woods, gave me the key to his car and paddled his kayak home.

i scrambled out of the woods completely soaking wet,  i passed an older couple of tourists on the trail and as i scurried by she said "oh...OH!" and i said "i fell in the river." she laughed. i cried.

i soppingly walked a mile back to the car and drove home.


 
this is where i left my pants and shoes. 

an hour later a jehova's witness knocked on the door, i'm sure she was thinking the people who live here need some jesus in their life!

bear in the driveway

2 minutes ago! smallish bear, probably only 150 lbs.  moseying, and i do mean moseying down the driveway.

the dogs went berserk.

it's garbage day and the bears like garbage!

pink evening primrose

blooming in a pot on the deck.

Oenothera speciosa- UT austin wildflower center native plant database

caught a big one!

went on a hike last weekend and came to a spot of pure beauty and kevin said to pouncey and me, 'you two go over there and do something.'

voila!

pouncey gets in front of it

happy happy!

keeping with tradition, yesterday was the most beautiful weather day of the year! 75 and sunny!

had a great walk with pouncey & kevin.

went downtown & had malaga paella and mojitos at chorizo. muy delicioso!



went to a friend's house and saw the cutest little miniboots. laughing laughing laughing with awesome people.
 
we all went to the civic center and saw bob dylan! behold the splendor!

 

it was a great day!

time flies...

...when you're taking oatmeal baths every 3 hours! 

my case of poison ivy is definitely on its way out the door.

as somebody who doesn't like to take baths, this whole oatmeal bath thing has been a real eye-opener. they work!  i feel like a blueberry floating in a bowl of cream of wheat, but they work!

they have me in good enough shape to avoid steriods and still enjoy today! the weather is lovely, i plan on working this morning, going for an afternoon hike with pounceters, going to dinner downtown, and then going to see dawes and bob dylan at the civic center tonight with calvin my love, and my two best girlfriends lindsay and michelle!

if you're lucky and you know it, clap your hands! (clap clap)

poison ivy

i am covered in poison ivy. all over my torso. ALL OVER my torso. itchy blisters. increasing intensity. appeared on monday, they are still getting worse 4 days later.

spent a half hour pulling weeds last weekend and will now spend the next 2 weeks in pure unadulterated urushiol hell.

the first time in my life i got poison ivy was last year after doing yard work. i've hiked and camped all over in and out of the woods for 36 years in shorts and short sleeves and never got poison ivy a single time. as soon as yard work entered the picture last year i've been plagued to some degree.

 i am politely recusing myself from doing any yardwork for the rest of my life.

i will plant food in the garden, and tend to the plants, but i am never pulling weeds again. chopping down unspecified jungle growth is not happening again. absolutely is not worth it.

i love doing yard work. i love making the yard look nice. i love watching the progress. i love how immediate the gratification is.

i cannot live 6 months of every year in itchy pain.

i have a friend tyler in california who told me a few years ago he could not move to asheville because of the poison ivy. at the time i thought he was kind of nutty. now i understand. all this beautiful bountiful natural wonder with hidden shiny red blistering biting side effects.

kevin is calling me 'bubble boy' and i feel like a whining, complaining wuss, but god DAMN this shit is terrible.

any poison ivy cures, natural or unnatural, lay em on me. i would much rather the rash hurt than itch. i can handle pain, it's the itchiness that is waking me up at night and generally driving me batty. 2+ weeks is a long harsh payment for 30 minutes of yard work.

jesus of puppies

we are still working on the trick where he turns this water into wine

spinart by kevin

for some fun arts &crafts, take a paper towel, pens and magic markers, and a lazy susan. add water and spin!

inside the skippy haha vintage warehouse

new post today on my vintage blog with photos of where and how i keep all the vintage clothing:

A Look Inside the Skippy Haha Vintage Warehouse

rainbows!

this is fuzzy

i was cleaning my only pair of glasses yesterday and they snapped in half. 

no combination of pipe cleaners, twist ties, scotch tape, and/or medical tape could get them back together again.

i called the eye doctor where i had been only one time in september of 2010 for these glasses, and they had no open appointments all week, but were so kind as to come in and open the store 15 minutes early for me this morning. how nice is that!?

they did the whole eye exam at 815AM, everything is fine, and i picked out new glasses, and also prescription sunglasses for the first time.  they put a rush on the glasses which should be ready tomorrow. 

until then, everything's slightly hazy, computing is giving me a headache, and i can't see the wrinkles on faces.

i recommend envision eyecare on charlotte street. flexible friendly people, great choice of frames!

pouncey at the insane asylum

for those following along at home with the pouncey calendar - it's time to flip to april!

you may notice this picture, of pouncey 7 weeks old in front of a crumbling building.

that building is the old VA hospital.

it has been closed since the 60's, though they used it in the 80s-90s as a halloween haunted house.

i've been told that it is still standing because it's full of asbestos and the cost to properly demolish is prohibitive.

more information and photos: abandoned places livejournal

the new VA hospital is functioning across the street.

easter walk in the woods