Jah Love

Wall art in Los Angeles, CA.

The Plaid Brothers

 Jonnie and Todd Gilliom: The Plaid Brothers.

“We’re on a mission from mom.”

Willow Weaving

When you're making rustic furniture, it's a fine line between looking really good and looking really crappy.

                                                           - Rustic willow-weaving instructor 

Ours both looked really good.

Glorious Green Urinals

Breathtaking green urinals at the Los Angeles Theater. 

They don’t make them like this anymore. 

Bozeman Radiator Disaster

Here's a good radiator disaster pic:

Catching our antifreeze leakage in cooking pans.

It was in Bozeman, Montana, during our 1994 drive from Indiana to Alaska, when we sprang a radiator leak. We managed to limp into a Napa auto parts parking lot just before the engine overheated completely. We parked and let everything cool down, catching the leaking antifreeze in pans because we were afraid Napa might kick us off their lot if we flooded it with coolant.

As bad as that seemed, things only got worse from there. Among other disasters, our camp stove decided to give up on us too.

Laura with our faulty camp stove.

Things escalated fast after that. I was trying to help Laura with the stove when I managed to set a can of kerosene on fire. I looked down and saw the fluid around the spout starting to ignite. Without thinking, I hurled the can—straight at the Napa store building. It exploded almost immediately on impact.

Here's the result:

Fire at the Napa store.

I guess I was just thinking in terms of throwing it AWAY from the van and opposite of the van was Napa.

That got the store staff riled up more than antifreeze in their parking lot ever could have. Multiple staff members immediately came pouring out of the building wielding fire extinguishers. My first thought was to take a picture (above).

When brother Todd saw the explosion in his rear-view mirror, he just threw the van in neutral - coasted right over all those pans of antifreeze.

Laura fell down and peed her pants from laughing so hard.

It was freaking hilarious.

[Originally posted on I'm Nacho Steppinstone, Feb. 10, 2004]

Life, Jim Thompson

 “Life is a bucket of shit with a barbed wire handle.”

– Jim Thompson, Texas By The Tail

Jonnie the Clever Child

In 1970, I got my hand stuck in a chair and couldn't figure out how to pull it out. Instead of helping me, my parents took a picture and captioned it, “Jonnie the clever child." wtf.

Jonnie the clever child.

Melted or Meltdown?

Ambiguous cravings. Ice cream or nuke? Thanks AI!

Happy New Year, 2018

 Out with the old, in with the new. 

First Santa

Anikka’s first visit with Santa Claus; Dec 2021. 

Santa wasn’t actually being scary immediately. Anikka just started crying like crazy when he welcomed her. He did the scary pose real quickly and on the fly for the benefit of a photo when her back was turned to him. He just did that for a second and I’m glad Ericka was ready with the camera.

Pyramid of Force

I found this carved into the road; I think in Laguna Beach in 2013.

I used to call it the pyramid of death, but I think it is actually the pyramid of force.

Pyramid of Force.

Force

Kill All Police.

Kill All the people. All seven billion.

Death all Police.

wtf?

Mesa Verde

With Ericka at awe-inspiring Mesa Verde National Park, home of the cliff dwellers; May, 2015.

Found: Marilyn

Found while browsing one of my mother's old yearbooks.

Marilyn was apparently hell on wheels at Lancaster (Indiana) High School in the late 1960s.

Easter, 1992

Sitting across the street from a church, eating easter candy.

Easter, 1992.

(L to R: Johanns, me, Jason S., Brother Todd).

Trash Talk: A Wallet's Misadventure at Panda Express

Once, in Panda Express, while I was enjoying a meal brimming with flavor, I noticed a teenage couple sitting nearby. One of them had laid their wallet on their food tray and apparently forgot about it because when they left and proceeded to tidy up their table, the wallet was dumped into the trash along with the rest of their meal debris. The pair then exited the restaurant.

My friend exclaimed, “Hey! He just threw his wallet in the trash!”  

Soon after, the teenage duo raced back into the restaurant, panic etched across their faces. The boy, in a moment of brilliant deduction, glanced at the trash can but decided he wasn't the wallet-in-the-trash kind of guy.

A.I. recreation.

Looking back, maybe I should have told them their wallet was in the trash, but, in the moment, I let fate take its course.

The moral of the story? Life's got a twisted sense of humor, and sometimes, wallets just need a little adventure in the trash can.

A.I. recreation.

Supplement to "My Experience Falling Through a Bathroom Ceiling"

Referring back to my earlier post, My Experience Falling Through a Bathroom Ceiling, I’ve always wished someone had taken a photo of the moment. Thanks to the magic of A.I., I’ve now created a rough approximation of what it might have looked like to see me crashing through the ceiling of a high school restroom.

1.) First try - I look like Gary Neuman, but thought this image suffered from the lack of  falling ceiling debris. It also missed the detail that I was wearing a suit jacket.

2.) This is more like it. It included the broken ceiling and showed me coming down on top of a toilet. Also, I look like Ryan.

3.) I look like Brother Todd in this one - kick open the door!

4.) This one captures my confusion pretty well, though the toilet is halfway up the wall.

Anyway, I guess you would have had to have been there.

Dreaming of a Plaid Christmas

 Jonnie and Todd, the Gilliom Bros. - Christmas in the 1970s.

Birth Announcements

Baby announcements for Anikka and Llyr, posted on social media:

Anikka Kathalyn.

Llyr Liev.

Beach Pokemon

While I was catching pokemon on the beach before work, I looked up from my phone and saw this:

Every Meximelt

Personal ad placed in the Valentine's Day edition of a local newspaper (Bloomington, IN; Feb. 1992). It is a message from Larry to Laura Lynn. I'm guessing Larry was a Taco Bell employee and Laura Lynn was a customer.

At one point, Larry had apparently taken a photograph of Laura Lynn during one of her visits to his establishment & published it in the local newspaper along with a personal message of love. 

Laura Lynn,

You don't know me, but I love you.

I work at Taco Bell.

I was thinking maybe you love me too,

because you're there so much.

It's your smile I see when I melt the cheese on every Meximelt.

Please be mine.

Larry

[Originally posted on I'm Nacho Steppinstone, Mar. 9, 2004]