I’ve never understood why other countries don’t have pretty fire trucks, as they do in the United States. I took this snap in western Louisiana
Author: kenritley
Lighthouse
OK, not a functioning lighthouse, but a lighthouse none-the-less, just north of Galveston, on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Coastal houses in Texas – 4
Continuing the series,
Coastal houses in Texas – 3
Continuing the series,
Coastal houses in Texas – 2
Continuing the series,
Breakfast of champions
At a Waffle House, somewhere in western Louisiana
Coastal houses in Texas
Texans may be a lot of things, but they ain’t stupid. If they build houses along the Gulf Coast, they build them like this!
Scanning in Louisiana
Louisiana is not exactly the high tech capital of the US. In fact, most people would say its downright “backwards.” Anyway, you can imagine my surprise when I found this very high-tech check-out counter at a gas station in very rural Louisiana. It works not by RFID or barcode scanning, but rather by image recognition:
Barbeque in Texas
It’s hard for Europeans to fathom how important barbeques are in Texas. Here is the aisle of a normal supermarket – NOT a do-it-yourself-center – and you can see how much space is devoted to this!
When backs are better than fronts – 7
Continuing the series, I took this snap just outside of the railyards in Biel / Bienne,
Interestingly, there is a link in the mural to the artist: https://www.seyo.ch/
Frustrating Futility – 2
Continuing the previous post, here’s a snap that does a better job of driving the point home:
Frustrating Futility
Living in Switzerland is at times strange. There is no palpable evidence of Global Warming here, consequently the public here has no sense or urgency.
Fair enough. I can’t fault the well-meaning people here who do work on so-called “sustainability” measures.
But while I respect the people and their goodwill, I am a non-expert in this area so I can’t help but find the word “sustainable” to be somewhat silly in view of (1) the tremendous environmental debt that must be repaid (in other words, are we not responsible for the prior damage done?), and (2) the tremendous global warming momentum (in other words, if CO2 levels were frozen now, the planet would continue to heat). Don’t get me wrong: I’m happy if we replace a plastic bag with a paper one — but that hardly makes a difference to our situation.
Here are some interesting snaps from a place where the effects of Global Warming are palpable, and where many family, friends, and colleagues have now suffered real losses due to this effect.
Global Reddening – Stylized by Google
I recently took a snap of the effect of Global Warming, in which the hot Texas air was filled with dust from the Sahara. Google decided it was worth stylizing for me!
Texas Manners
Texas is the only place on Earth that I’ve ever seen where EVERYONE on the airplane remains seated, until it is their turn to stand up and leave.
Halloween – in August
I took this snap at a do-it-yourself store in Lake Charles, Louisiana. In August!!!
And here it is from a bit further back. The tall figures are close to 3 meters tall!
Robostore @ ORD
I honestly don’t understand it. Here is a “robostore” in which you can select something you want and just walk out with it – apparently Amazon technology will scan it and charge you for it. But what is the advantage of this approach, if they must hire a person to guard the store?
ORD
That’s the IATA code. In ICAO it is KORD.
Chicago-style hot dog
You have never eaten a hot dog until you have eaten a Chicago style hot dog! Here I am, on my way to get one:
Now here I am at the counter, ready to order one:
And now here it is!
The ship that Google stretched
This ship didn’t really exist – but Google Photos did a fabulous job of stitching together two photos of the same ship!
The German heritage of Texas
Huge numbers of Germans migrated to Texas in the mid 1800s – so much so, that even today you’ll find German villages in Texas, and a number of Americans who have been born here but speak German — not English — as their first language!
You can still see this German heritage everywhere around San Antonio, such as shown in this snap here:
Parking place for police in San Antonio
As far as I can tell, countries like Switzerland treat their police just like everyone else. Not so in the US, where companies do their best to encourage police to shop at their stores and eat at their restaurants.
This snap from San Antonio, Texas, shows a parking place reserved for police officers at the local grocery store – just to make it a bit easier for them to come in and do some shopping.
Global reddening
Not only has San Antonio had (at the time of this writing) more than 100 days with temperatures above 100 deg F, but the skies are filled with red sand from the Sahara. What should be a blue sky with clear air looks like this:
Canola and Swiss Tennis
A canola field in front of the Swiss Tennis center. Interestingly that road in the foreground is “Rue de Roger Federer” – but as many times as I have been on it, I’ve never seen him.
Odd entrance
I spotted this entrance to an apartment building in Bern.
It really makes one stop and wonder . . . . why? Was this part of a building under historical protection? But if you look closely you’ll see it’s actually no entrance at all. What used to be an entrance lacks any stairs or steps up to it.
Bus wash
I guess big, long buses need big, long carwashes!
