Decoy

Posted by jdg | 12:56 PM |



About a year ago I wanted to give Wendell his own little corner of the living room. I built him a new dog bed and wanted to put a little something on the wall to make him feel at home. I found a taxidermist on eBay who sells these little stuffed squirrels holding machine guns or wearing tiny versions of those hats with beer can holders. I asked him if he could make me a simple trophy head, given our dog's reputation as the mighty neighborhood squirrel hunter. He agreed and sold it to me for $18. That was all fine and good until a few weeks ago during the 12th inning of the 163rd game of the Tigers' season, I looked over and saw him gnawing on the stuffed squirrel head. "What a waste of $18 I shouted!" and my wife rolled her eyes.

So now Wendell just sits there with it on his head, hoping the squirrels will mistake him for one of their own. So far it has had the opposite effect (I guess it's sort of like a cannibal wearing a necklace of shrunken heads). I need to have a talk with him about hunting strategies (he's a little rusty since his feral days).


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The Great Pumpkin

Posted by jdg | 11:08 AM | ,



I think it weighed more than she did. The adorableness of the whole thing nearly knocked the breath out of me. I'll bet she really looks forward to the trick-or-treaters every year.



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Oh, Detroit. . .

Posted by jdg | 9:28 AM | , ,



The crazy thing about this is actually that there's not some guy actively working on it with a forty next to his tool set.


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I have written about this house before, and it's still something I see every day and find incredibly fascinating. It's right next to a liquor store, the only form of commerce for many, many blocks in any direction, so there's always a lot of activity around it. Back when I wrote that post, I was concerned that the occupied half would become, like the unoccupied half, a haven for drunks and drug addicts, but apparently new renters have moved in and the one half is still well-maintained, while the door to the other half remains wide open.  I wanted to get one last photo of the summer growth to highlight it's weird symmetry. The woman in the dress seemed to have some emotional problems and the gentleman with the hat stopped to talk to her, very gentle, and it was quite touching.

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Salvage

Posted by jdg | 9:50 AM |



"Did it just burn?"
"I'm watching it for the owner. A white guy just like you. With a big truck. You know him?"
"It's none of my business. I don't own any houses."
"He gives me change sometimes. You got a cigarette?"
"I don't smoke. Here's a couple bucks though. Good luck, man."
"My name's Tyrone, what's yours?"
"Jim."
"All right, Jim. See you 'round."

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Country House

Posted by jdg | 4:41 PM



It was raining hard and getting late in the afternoon, Gram was sleeping so we were shunpikin' down dirt roads between Lenawee and Washtenaw counties to kill time after visiting my grandfather. Then we saw this house in the middle of nowhere.

I pulled into someone else's driveway to turn around and make another pass to see it again, wondering about whenever it was they built houses like this far from any town, on dirt roads where few might even see them. Not a great photo, but a decent reminder that sometimes it's worth it to take the back roads.

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I like that the Good Times Bulldog is already obviously nursing a hangover, but still committed enough to a good time to light up the pipe.

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Glass House

Posted by jdg | 10:24 AM | ,



I've shared photos of this building before, but I was driving around it the other day and could not figure out what was going on inside. There's this giant sculpted pile of garbage in there that reminded me of that weird nest thing in the new Where the Wild Things Are movie. I was also curious about what this building even was designed to be. It's just one giant room with a whole lot of tinted windows.

I loved the sign, too: ANYONE CAUGHT BREAKING WINDOWS will be prosecuted. That's practically an invitation!


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Harvest Time

Posted by jdg | 9:55 AM | , , ,



I took the kids to the country the other day and we tried to make our way back to the city by taking every dirt road we came across. When we found this spot it felt like we were surrounded by miles and miles of corn.


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Awesome

Posted by jdg | 1:34 AM



I was driving with the kids and I slammed on the brakes and we all just kind of stared out the window in silent awe. There was little that needed to be said. Awesome will always be awesome.

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