Ken Ritley

Texas Manners

October 22, 2023October 14, 2023kenritley

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

October 20, 2023October 14, 2023kenritley

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

October 18, 2023October 14, 2023kenritley

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

October 16, 2023October 14, 2023kenritley

That’s the IATA code. In ICAO it is KORD.

Chicago-style hot dog

October 14, 2023kenritley

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

September 26, 2023October 4, 2023kenritley

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

September 10, 2023kenritley

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

September 1, 2023kenritley

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

August 26, 2023August 26, 2023kenritley

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

August 19, 2023kenritley

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

July 25, 2023July 23, 2023kenritley

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.