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umor nature photography trees walking writing which is your fave art on wheels part seventeen april 7 2026 yeah another blogger 151 comments hello one and all the story now staring you in the face is part of a long running whimsical project i haven t lost interest in at all one i hope i ll continue to pursue for as long as yeah another blogger remains an active enterprise yes i barely can believe i ve now published accounts of seventeen art on wheels expeditions just goes to show you what can happen when you re having fun for the uninitiated let me explain that art on wheels stories detail my outdoor searches for artistically adorned wheeled objects i photograph the ones i spot trucks and vans comprise the vast majority of the specimens whose portraits i ve taken food carts have made appearances on these pages too as has a heavy construction vehicle in the early and middle eras of art on wheels i sought my prey in various suburbs of philadelphia i reside in those burbs for a number of years now though i ve dealt strictly with philadelphia itself my previous aow ventures in philly took place in downtown and near downtown areas of the city for number seventeen however i decided to go far afield by paying a visit to philadelphia s mayfair neighborhood which is part of the absolutely huge city sub section known as northeast philadelphia i did the deed two thursdays ago mayfair is a working class community located about nine miles from downtown philly there s nothing fancy about mayfair and it s congested as hell loaded with rowhouses and small businesses of all kinds from the looks of things a fair number of those businesses are having a pretty hard time of it in that respect they have company all over the world i have a connection to mayfair my periodontist whose services other than occasional checkups i haven t needed in many years has been in business there for decades about 30 years ago he successfully performed extensive and intensive surgeries on my gums and teeth so besieged was i by periodontal disease what bloody messes those frigging procedures were while doing my aow thing i was tempted to drop in on him hi doctor i d have said how about slicing open cleaning and re attaching my gums again just for old time s sake i mean i m in the mood he would have responded perhaps by saying to me great idea neil i specialize in catering to masochists ease yourself into this chair and let s get started okay then i walked for an hour and a half in mayfair mostly on frankford avenue which is the main business drag and i had good success i wasn t surprised about that seeing that i noticed a gorgeous truck parked on leon street when i was in my car looking for a parking spot two minutes before my on foot adventure began the truck belonging to freshpoint a produce distributor was still there when i exited my car a block and a half away the truck smiled innocently when i approached to take its picture photos of what i deem to be the top five wheeled objects i encountered are on this page do you have a favorite or favorites as luscious as freshpoint is i like best the fritolay chips truck it pulled into a wawa convenience store s parking lot a few seconds after a future finish van was pulling out i waited till the fritolay driver delivery guy wheeled his load of boxes of chips into the store then i photographed the vehicle its mural s color choices dreamy shades of gold and orange startle me but in a gentle way and intriguingly the product names seem to be afloat inviting us to loosen up and allow our minds to take wing i m down with that message it is excellent advice boys and girls i believe that s a wrap i am all mayfaired out it s time for this old boy to get his beauty rest on second thought screw that i think i ll have a beer instead adios till next time share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin like loading art on wheels philadelphia photography and or art adventure art dentistry philadelphia photography trucks walking beautiful march 17 2026 yeah another blogger 169 comments i tip my hat to the philadelphia horticultural society phs for it is the producer and director of the wonderful philadelphia flower show an event first staged in 1829 when phs was two years old and mounted almost every year since then i m very much into the show something that wasn t always the case pre 2016 i pooh poohed it certain that i d have zero interest in its presentations were i to attend which only goes to prove i truly can be a dumb f ck anyway in 2016 i woke up a little and decided to give the exhibition a shot that year i went with my wife sandy to the pennsylvania convention center the show s downtown philadelphia home and was wowed i ve now been to seven editions of the extravaganza most recently on the first friday of this month though possibly not quite as enthralling as last year s version the 2026 flower show which ran for nine days damn well was more than good enough imaginative horticultural displays from local national and international exhibitors abounded proof of the event s high quality is that i more or less forgot i was inside a monstrously huge cement floored venue that in and of itself is completely devoid of charm for two hours sandy and i wandered from one display to another doubling back and circling around to re examine the sights and then sated we bade farewell to the show exited the building and disappeared into the fast approaching night it s too late in the game for phs to change the name of the show but theoretically it wouldn t be a bad idea because for decades and decades probably numerous displays have not been flower centric that is other forms of flora non flowering trees shrubs vines you name it also have starred and man made elements some as whimsical as can be have raised the excitement and enticement levels of countless exhibits considerably still the display that grabbed me the most this year was all flowers a wedge shaped bed of primarily tulips its creator jacques amand international a british firm arranged the tulips by color groups all of them snazzy man the energy radiated by this exhibit was palpable the flowers were bursting with life proud of their vibrant hues and eager to share their happiness with members of the human race i soaked up the tulips good vibes and good will while hungrily looking them over they were just so beautiful you never know when you ll encounter beauty that takes your breath away and in our troubled world we need as much beauty of that sort as we can get the tulips certainly did that to me as did many passages in baumgartner a novel by the late paul auster that i read this year a writing machine for decades pumping out novels memoirs essays poems and screenplays like there was no tomorrow auster passed away in 2024 about six months after baumgartner was published and so strictly by chance the first auster novel i read turns out to have been his last i whole heartedly recommend baumgartner it tells the tale of one seymour sy baumgartner a retired philosophy professor age 70 when the book begins sy s world was upended by the accidental death of his wife anna the utmost love of his life some years earlier at book s start he has yet to recover as the next couple of years unfold though sy begins to make headway as he thinks back upon his life gaining not only insights into himself but also an expanded appreciation for anna s abilities and talents slowly a meaningful future opens up auster s use of language is enviable throughout the novel his word choices and their rhythms and flows often stunned me the first time a book affected me this way since i don t know when such as this passage from early on in the story it is the trope baumgartner has been searching for ever since anna s sudden unexpected death ten years ago the most persuasive and compelling analogue to describe what has happened to him since that hot windy afternoon in august 2008 when the gods saw fit to steal his wife from him in the full vigor of her still youthful self and just like that his limbs were ripped off his body all four of them arms and legs together at the same time and if his head and heart were spared from the onslaught it was only because the perverse snickering gods had granted him the dubious right to go on living without her he is a human stump now a half man who has lost the half of himself that had made him whole and yes the missing limbs are still there and they still hurt hurt so much that he sometimes feels his body is about to catch fire and consume him on the spot see what i mean auster truly had a way with words beautiful share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin like loading books and reading nature and or the great outdoors philadelphia photography and or art beauty books flowers horticulture nature novels photography a real old story february 24 2026 yeah another blogger 163 comments as some of you know my previous opus it will pop up on your screen if you click here examines the travel bug that bit me when i was a young adult and highlights a few of the trips and destinations i ve been most taken with over the course of my life at the tippy top of the most taken with list is a three week trek in november 1982 through the himalaya mountains in nepal i d never done anything as demanding or adventurous as that endeavor turned out to be and i haven t come close to equaling it i think about the trek fairly often it made a huge impression on me bringing me nearly face to face with some of the world s tallest peaks including numero uno itself mount everest i cherish my himalayan memories and i ll never add to them because it would be physically impossible for me to ascend high into the himalayas at this point in my life my legs would give out after two or three days on the trail for sure or far worse my ticker might stop ticking before my legs cried uncle hell the trek took place 43 and a half years ago i was 35 at the time fully feeling my oats i m 78 now and though i m extremely fortunate to be in decent shape a whole lot of the oats i feel nowadays are literally oats in the form of oatmeal which i spoon into my mouth for breakfast about once a week in other words decent shape is relative and i definitely ain t what i used to be nobody in my age bracket is seventy eight are you shitting me how is this possible how did time flow by so quickly man by just about anyone s definition i m real old that s why completely unsurprisingly i now and then ponder my eventual demise what will get me in the end the possibilities are more than many as with everything time will tell the crazy thing about it though is that i can t fully wrap my head around the fact that an expiration date is stamped in invisible ink somewhere on my body by the way my guess is that it s on my ass on both cheeks probably i mean i still think of myself as being kind of immortal just as i did decades ago basically i want to keep going on and on and on and for everyone of like mind on the subject to keep going on and on and on too and let me assure you serious bodily ailments would be no more for those of us choosing non ending sojourns on planet earth yeah you better believe that a major restructuring of earthly realities would be instituted pronto if i were in charge vote for me damn straight i d set matters straight in autumn 2025 my wife sandy and i gathered with family in hawaii to attend the bar mitzvah of one of our three great nephews as hawaii is where the bar mitvah boy resides we stayed with a bunch of other family members in a rented house for a week on the grounds was a huge swimming pool the pool was a magnet for the great nephews who at the time ranged in age from six to thirteen and for most of the adults too one afternoon sandy and i were standing in the house with our sister in law sara who was regarding through windows the three youngsters splashing away in the pool sara turned to me and sandy and said something to us that has stuck in my mind our lives are ending and theirs are beginning wistfulness and wonder were in her voice well sara meant ending in a broader sense not in the imminent sense nevertheless she was right she sandy and i are in our 70s even if we each hang in there for another 20 or more years that won t be all that much compared to the number of years we ve already said goodbye to on the other hand the future is wide open for my great nephews and i hope it treats them well so that s life we come and we go and hopefully we live productively and lovingly during our stays my wishful thinking described above isn t about to change the way things roll here on our orb though i d be delighted if it did share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin like loading me and or my family somewhat deep thoughts aging death earth health life nature old age time youth traveling through the years february 10 2026 yeah another blogger 150 comments i m not exactly sure when the urge to travel first hit me but a good guess would be 1969 in the summer of that year soon after graduating from college i bumped into a childhood friend mike whom i hadn t seen in a long long while that encounter took place inside a restaurant in roslyn the long island town he and i had grown up in and to which we had returned when our collegiate careers reached their conclusions long island is near new york city mike and i immediately hit it off at the restaurant to the extent that he asked me if i d be interested in joining him on a road trip to canada which he was eager to embark on with no employment plans or any kind of plans in place i said yes off we went then maybe a couple of weeks later in mike s bright red ford mustang convertible our journey lasted for two weeks or so i think we got as far north as canada s gaspé peninsula where we began the southward drive back to the states mike and i had a blast throughout our expedition we ve palled around regularly ever since that time partly because as fate would have it we ended up living not far from each other in pennsylvania the state each of us moved to a few years after our canadian journey we remain pennsylvanians and close friends having been bitten by the travel bug and still uncertain about what to do with my life employment wise i scratched the bug by exploring many states of the usa on two separate month long occasions during the early 1970s and in 1977 right before beginning what would become a lengthy career in government i wandered through europe for six weeks accompanied by a backpack with little money to my name i specialized in low payin...