Working humor

Nothing much out of the ordinary about this shot that admittedly I snapped while following this work van from an electrical company in our area. Distracted driving? Well, I was already distracted.

 I tried to catch him at the next light, but had to settle for zooming this one in so you could see what it says on the back.

Funny signs are fair game for Odd Shots. Join us coming up each Monday starting February 7.

working--glad it's them not me

 When we stopped in at the post office the other day, we encountered this sign. I don't know that I've ever seen on like it.

 And indeed! There they were, men above making roof repairs before our mail gets inundated.


Although we were able to pick up our mail from the post office box, for a few days service at the counter was closed and package pickup limited to an hour each day at the window. My hubby had to go to the next town to mail off a couple of small packages.



Better them up there than me!

Working--will it ever open?

You may remember my posting here and here about out new McDonald's remodel. After being closed for at least two months, it was scheduled to open November 5 and didn't. When I drove by on the morning of Monday, November 15, the prospect of opening looked closer, but still questionable.

But I drove by again in the early afternoon and they were open once again, and judging by the number of cars in the two drive through lanes, two months of closure did not hurt business any.

I know, it's not showing anyone working in these photos, but obviously, the work was getting done.

Working on a deadline

McDonald's remodel--scheduled to open day after tomorrow. What do you think?

Working--Shadows of the Past

 Last month we attended a workshop in historic interpretation. (I haven't mentioned it because it was where we were the weekend our house was robbed and it kind of faded into the inventory lists for a while.)

Our presenter, (whose name eludes me because it was in the files on my stolen computer) was a consummate actress, storyteller, historian, teacher, seamstress in combination. She did a shortened version for us of her presentation of four women of Pacific Northwest history which was fascination.

Historical interpreters might dress and act in a presentation as a character, or they might go about the day in the life of a person of a time period in a living history museum. (Colonial Williamsburg is an example of that.) They might also simply explain events or styles or daily life of the past.

 Mt. Rainier National Park has presented an annual evening program Shadows of the Past where guests are guided along the Trail of the Shadows in the historic Longmire area of the park and encounter characters from the area's history as they step out of the forest to tell their story. We had the surprise of gathering outside after lunch and seeing James Longmire (as played by one of the workshop attendees) step out of the forest for a visit.

Working

London Bobbies


Ever watchful

It's a job! Somebody has to do it!

When I started doing Men and Women at Work most Thursdays, I was looking for ordinary people doing ordinary jobs. It didn't occur to me the variety of both ordinary jobs and unusual jobs that ordinary people do. In another couple of weeks I will run out of picturesque jobs in British royal or historical (or both) locations.

We did not see the official changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace when a whole platoon exchange duties, but as individual guards change shift it is almost better.



Palace Guards at Buckingham Palace and at St. James Palace, London--men at work.

It's a job!

Street performers

on the Embankment

south of the Thames in London
go to great lengths to display their varied and considerable talents.

I promised to show them for Men Working Thursday.

...and he doesn't even have to share the change.

Working?

I was looking through the files looking for a Men Working picture for Thursday, but still thinking we ought to go on to Wales. So how, you may wonder,  is this Men Working in Wales?

It's surfing school at the beach near Worm's Head, on the Gower Peninsula.

It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

More from Worm's Head in the next few days.

Oops! Just checking something in Liz's blog and find that this is Rhossili Beach--one of the finest beaches in the UK.

But it is near Worm's Head.

It's Working Thursday

Perhaps not everyone would find glamour and grace in using a street sweeping machine.






But then, not everyone sweeps a castle.

Men at Work appears on Thursdays.

At Gairloch Loch

Up the hill behind the teashop (I think the white building at the near left is it) we looked back down at Gairloch Loch. Men at work is early this week--maybe I'll have another by Thursday.

Look closer and you will see the men at work--the fishermen and their nets.

I wonder what they will catch.

It's not my world every day, but it is the everyday world for those fishermen, and it was ours for that day less than four weeks ago. We've been home just two weeks. On Tuesday, Bloggers around the world show their part of the world, you can find them here.

Guide at Work

Can you imagine a job where you get to hike every day in your favorite places and share them with people from all over the world? We get a bit of that as volunteers at Mt. Rainier. Shaun gets to do it for a living.

I love this picture of him. Why is he puzzling over that map? That was the day we were climbing Beinn Dampf. It was extremely foggy, and I believe Shaun was verifying how much farther it was to the top since we couldn't see it from there.

The perfect guide, Shaun learned quickly how far to push each of us. On that day, I was dragging. I would have been happy to give up and wait down the mountain. Shaun knew I could go farther, and when I just couldn't handle another bit of up, he set us up for a safe and comfortable wait while the others claimed the peak. Here they come back down again.

And below getting pictures of each of us at the waterfall on Beinn Eighe--another part of the job: official photographer for the trip (until he met me and my camera.)

Part medic (here he's making quick use of his first aid kit--we won't mention who stabbed herself in the knee) and part mountain goat checking the trail ahead.

He knew just when to guide us to the tea shop--TEA? that's hot chocolate and an awful lot of whipped cream.


And when his family stopped  in the area and he got a visit with his dog, we got to see a different side of Shaun. He misses the kids and the dog when he's out on a guiding job.



Shaun was guiding us for Walkabout Scotland on this trip, and has his own guiding company TreadinGround where he specializes in really tailoring the trip to the group. If you want an outdoor experience in Scotland, you can't go wrong with either of them.

Not everything is a thousand years old.

The Scottish Parliament, establishd in 1293, was dissolved by the English in 1707. It was officially reopened in 1999 to deal with all matters of home rule--matters other than defense, foreign affairs, and taxation. Fitting that a new parliament should have a new building, and here is one side of it. New architecture--it was controversial--and 900% over budget--but here it is near the end of the Royal Mile across from Holyrood Palace.



I found this man suspicious. What is he doing standing there with climbing gear--ropes and carabiners, gloves, climbing hardhat, everything necessary for rappelling--and gazing up the side of the new parliament building? I suspected mischief, some sort of a prank. Wouldn't you?



The side of the building is oddly amorphous. See those stones up the side--look perfect for climbing. It is the location of the Gerard Manley Hopkins quote from an earlier post along with lots of others. This one seems apropos of the theme:

Here is  the other side facing Holyrood Palace. Those attachments over the windows look like handguns. I didn't notice that before. There is a lot of wood on this side--oddly shaped.

Now, are you wondering about the the potential building climber? Well, he was exactly that, but legitimately. He was the spotter for these guys up there rappelling down the side of the building as they did some exterior cleaning.

Men at Work.

Working

When you spend fifteen hours in a single day on a series of airplanes, you learn to appreciate the work of the flight crew.












I think that my body has finally accepted Pacific Time again.