A clear head and efficient living comes from throwing away.

A clear head and efficient living comes from throwing away. My mom is a mini hoarder and passed a little of that on to me. Most of life, even now, I feel like every little thing has sentimental value and must be saved. I do this with tickets, weekend magazines, and with clothing especially.

I'm finding I save things I may wear once a year. The clothing thing has paid off  numerous times. Often I've found things laying around my room that I pull out that just woos everyone (those suspenders with my khaki pants the girls drool over). Or, I find an old article of clothing will fit nicely with my new haircut or new piece of clothing I've found. It's also a curse though.

Much of the mess in my room goes back to clothing. I'd say about 77.2% of it to be exact. This has given me many ideas. I once thought of getting rid of everything except striped things (stripes are thining). Or, keeping only Dickies pants (since then, I've found Dickie's aren't as flattering for my God-given ass - though I'll still wear them).

Recently, I assume cause of warm weather and good Vitamin D I've been making slightly positive steps. Just yesterday I donated a bunch of stuff. I did that a few weeks ago too. These are tough decisions, but decisions that must be made! The overall result is a plus. A good clean spacious room uncluttered sends good vibes throughout the place and increases chances of nookie if I ever manipulate a young trollop back to the pad.

(I still have another bag to rid myself of)

Dungeons and Dragons?

What's up with the D&D kids? A few come to the bar every now and again. It's something I can't put my finger on.

In gradeschool a D&D kid moved in next door. He had no friends. My parents felt compassion on him and encouraged me to play with him. Eventually I did.

One summer night he was swinging a wiffle bat as the sun was going down in the back alley. I saw the bat, wiffle ball always gets me going, so I went out and proceeded with some caution as I was kind of shy and about to meet a new kid.

I asked him, "what's going on?"

He replied, "..playin' fire fly baseball."

(How the fuck do you play firefly baseball????-I thought)

He handed me the bat and told me I had to swing at lighting bugs. There was no score keeping. WTF?

I killed about three of them, but felt like a complete ass doing so. This "sport" was fun to this child. I faked enthusiasm and tried to be supportive. I'm not sure if my older brother was in town then, but if he was I'm sure him and my dad had a good laugh together watching from the kitchen window.

I eventually said I had to go inside and got a bit angry at my parents for suggesting I play with such a weird kid.

Moving forward, if the kid survived high school and everything else, I'm sure he is probably putting together some awesome music.

Having said all this, there is weird similarity, I believe it's in the eyes, of those who partake in such role playing games. May Lord have mercy on those who judge and those who are judged. One love. Dainty bones.

Down the Mon' in depressed Brownsville.

I remember as a kid heading south from Pittsburgh, when crossing the Mon' river, that a sense of darkness and depression would come over me. At one point this area was booming with industry, now there are only few mills working, if that. I often drive this way, if I'm coming from Pittsburgh, towards the eastern part of the state. And, every time I do, the same feelings cloud my mind.

Monongahela River, Brownsville, PA, much of the River looks and feels like this shot.

Thoughts arise as I drive through these run down pathetic little towns of abandon buildings, shut down bars and rusted out infrastructure. Is the area cursed? How many numbers of immigrants died here while on the job being exploited? What kind of horrible unhealthy lives did these mill workers live? Maybe their spirits are still haunting the area giving it the "vibe" it has today. Whatever it is, I felt it early on and it's still with me. (forgive this last paragraph for being extremely cheesy/cliche....i sort of wanted to delete, but I'll leave it up so you all can shake your heads in disgust, if not anger at the utter sappiness of this)

Today I made the same trip and actually got out of my car to take a few photos.

I kept going south on the Mon' River. Passed some rusted bridges, housing projects, shady bars, and the amusement park, Kennywood. Cruising further down towards Dravosburg and some other factories, there was a skanky "woman" dressed in high heels hitchhiking. I drove by and was wondering if it was really a man in drag with a gun in his/her purse. It was tough to tell, I hope he/she got home to their destination safely. This was on Rt 837 if anyone reading is interested in trying to find her next week on that road to pick "it" up.

Something made in or around Brownsville, I assume.

Eventually, sticking to roads that followed the river I came across this strange run down place called Brownsville. The place is pretty much a ghost town. There are functioning businesses here and there but for the most part its empty. What was open and surprisingly well put together was an art gallery for a local artist named, Frank Melega. He did much of his work on the steel workers/miners and the local area. I was going to buy a print of an etching he did of a steel worker but they were all out. The man working the gallery was polite but somewhat creepy. He had less social skills than I do. Below is shot of the town and the gallery sign, enjoy. Here's a link to the gallery/bio webpage.

Museum, on the main drag of Brownsville.

So, while walking the street, I noticed the town came up with a nifty idea about how to handle empty store fronts. They put some brown board on a lot these store windows and painted brightly colored silhouttes of different types of people. Maybe this is done in other abandon towns but this is the first time I saw it. Below is an example. Kind of scary. Who thought of this?

I found out later I was parked in the "elegant" Historical District of Brownsville. I guess it was an off day for tourism. Below is the parking sign and I believe that middle building is the library.

The following photos are just other shots of buildings and businesses gone tits up. I hope you find these as uplifting as I do. This is our future if things keep going the way they do. Look at it!

Come Armageddon, come Armageddon come!

nifty walkway thingy

Even bats have it rough in this town....lifes hard lil guy.

These guys could've used a bail out.

As I left town, it wasn't all negativity. Some neighborhood's looked quite liveable, at least for me, and I saw a little league practice going on.  So, there are still signs of life and no reason to completely torch the place. If you have a bunch of friends with money, looking to take over a town and start businesses for pretty cheap it might be a place to go. Of course, you would always need people with enough spending money to support your businesses so it could still be a big risk. If the place has one thing, it is lots of potential.

I continued south on my journey and eventually I got to Morgantown, WV. I liked their football team years ago and was sort of curious what the town looked like. This was in complete contrast to what I felt in Brownsville as Morgantown is a lively college town with tons of young flesh walking the streets. It was a warm day and there were lots of good choices to eat. I settled on a Mediterranean Deli on the Main St. and inhaled a gyro with stuffed grape leaves as an appetizer. I did one short walk up and down the street and headed back home.

It would be another 5 hours before I'd reach my destination. Not a bad way to spend a warm spring day.

I'm going to tip my hat to a chain restaurant.

I'm going to tip my hat to a chain restaurant. For the record, I don't attend a lot of chain restaurants. I don't  hate them either. I take a nuetral approach. If it's a good product at a decent price I'll endorse it.

Located about five minutes from where I work there is an ugly strip mall. There is a Chipotle restaurnat located there. It has "trendy" signage, about what you'd expect from a place like that. The design of it is really nice, sort of industrial looking. The place prides themselves on using the best products for their burritos.

The burritos are quite fat and flavorful. And, you'll get your food quicker than at a Wendy's or McDonald's. I enjoy the speed and consistency of everything as well as getting a full meal. Beans, Chicken, Rice, Peppers/Onions, and a decent little hot sauce is what I get. I leave feeling full and okay. It's under seven bucks.

In this age of American decline, where from the top down we're conditioned on shit, it's good see at least one business stepping it up and giving the public something good and healthy and affordable. I forgot to mention the music they play is quite tolerable and sometimes good and it seems to be a place where hot professional women go.

If you're one in fear chains and believe them all to be demonic, Chipotle might change your mind. At least DaintyBones thinks so. I'm not above it.

Here's their own link on the nutritional value of their foods, please contribute if feel the same way or feel otherwise:
http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/menu/nutritional_information/nutritional_information.aspx