Like mother, like daughter?

So yesterday we're driving around doing roll clean-up and we come to this one really nice house that is (of course) gated. Only this time we see a kid riding her bike in the drive way. She has three dogs out with her. So we pull in to the gate and the dogs come running down to see who we are. Friendly sorts. This kid is probably around 12 or so. She gets off her bike and marches down the driveway to the gate where I'm waiting. As she approaches, I tell her who I am and ask her if her parents are home. She reaches down, picks up the smallest dog and tells me, "Please leave now." Then she turns around and marches back to her bike.

And that was it.

I've come to expect this kind of rudeness from some adults but she's the youngest I've seen so far to have this kind of attitude. Most kids are quite friendly and curious as to what I have in my hands. Not this one.

Alan wanted to put it into the reject pile but I'm like, no, I'm not going to get some smart-assed kid dictate how I work. I'll keep coming back until I can talk to her smart-assed parents. :-P

Unusual turn down

Not all of the people who reject the photos are nasty. Many of them are as sweet as they can be but they just aren't interested. It gets interesting when one person wants the photo and the other doesn't. There's this one house in the 'hood' that when we first stopped, there was a crew of men painting the house. Of course, no one was home. A few days later, we checked back and the house was done (it looked nice -- kind of a weak tangerine color with white accents) but still no one home. After two more visits, I finally caught the home owners at home. The woman answered the door and checked out the photo. She really liked it but noted that the house was now a different color. I agreed and offered her a discount ($30 off) since it was an old picture. She took it in for her husband to see and after a few minutes came back apologizing because he didn't want to buy it. I'm like, hey, no problem and started to go. But then she felt she had to elaborate. She told me that she'd been married twice before and that her husband didn't want the photo because it looked too much like the houses she'd had before with her other husbands. That's why he painted their house orange so it would look nothing like the others.

Too much information!

Dr. Ben Dover

Today I had a man, a doctor according to the message he left on his door for the mailman. This dude was so anal I'm sure he has GOT to be a proctologist. We tried five times to catch this man at home. The fourth time his house sitter answered the door and told us to come back on Wednesday that he would be very interested in the photo. This bitch set us up. We went back this evening and dude comes out the door, "Didn't you see the No Soliciting sign on the entrance gate?" I allowed that I had but that I ignored it because I had business in the neighborhood. (my various callbacks) Then he just went off. He wanted to know who I was, who I worked for, he took down my license plate number. "This really concerns me," he said. I'm like, whatever. I apologized for bothering him and tried to make a graceful exit. But he follows me out still busting my chops. I'm guessing he probably called the cops. Like they ain't got nothing better to do than to chase down a solicitor for this guy. What an ass.

Air Photo Stories

I've been in Texas for a month now and for the most part I've decided that the people in this area are a very private bunch. EVERY one has gates so getting past them has proven to be a challenge. The responses I've gotten from the homeowners have ranged anywhere from challenges of invasion to gratefulness for being persistent. This last spent over $500 on a canvas print. But a couple have stood out.

One man flew out of his house and berated me for upsetting his dog. I had not even gotten out of the truck yet and his dog appeared to be just fine. Dude had huge bug eyes. Scary.

Another man had a beef with the helicopter and swore the pilot had flipped him off. He said the chopper had buzzed his house for days and harassed him to the point where he went out and took pictures of the chopper in order to get the pilot's license pulled. There actually was a man in the picture standing in the driveway and he said it was his son taking a picture of the chopper. So apparently SOME thing had taken place. I believe the man was definitely annoyed with the chopper hovering so long around his property but I don't believe for a second that the pilot flipped him off or that he spent days buzzing his house. Anyway, after he chewed me out for about 10 minutes, I left him a door hanger so he could vent to the people in the office and we left.

This other guy we contacted loved the picture but didn't want to commit until his wife had seen the print. We agreed to return on another day at a certain time and when we did, no one was home. It took a couple more call backs to catch the wife at home and when we finally did catch her, she looked at me like I was a Darth Vader. I explained to her who I was (since her husband obviously forgot to mention it) and when her husband came around the corner of the house she gave him a look like 'have you lost your fucking mind?????' Me, being the perceptive person that I am, made the obvious statement, "So I'm guessing you don't want the print?" "NO!" she says and then *I* get 'the look.' That's all I needed to hear. I'm out. Jeez, lady, take a chill pill.

I got my first dog bite last week. It was a Lhasa Apso. I had been to the house twice before and the homeowners weren't home. They had three dogs. Two Lhasas and a lab. I've had Lhasas before and I know they can be VERY territorial and I was bitten by one many years ago (when I was trying to groom it). These dogs were threatening but I went calmly about my business of knocking on the door. The third time at the house we caught the homeowner at home. I was invited in and waited while he showed the photo to his wife. The dogs were watchful but relatively calm. Ultimately, they decided not to buy. As I was walking back to my truck, the female Lhasa zoomed up behind me and bit me on the back of my leg. My jeans took most of the bite but she still managed to break the skin and I had a bruise there for a few days. Oh well. Not much I can do about that. I am an uninvited guest after all.

I have more but I'll post them later.

A sad month

Alan and I have been working very hard trying to make a living selling pictures. The money is good but it's either feast or famine. Some days we do really well, and some days we don't sell any. Then life has a way of rearranging your priorities.

My dad has been ill for a long time and he finally passed away on the 21st. It was an event my family has been expecting for months now but it was still difficult to deal with. I have nothing but total admiration for my mom as she nursed him, dealt with his pain and constant struggle to breathe, and then stayed right by his side during his final two weeks of life in the hospice house. And all this time she had been dealing with her own health issues as the doctors kept chopping chunks of skin from her scalp all the way down to her skull. My mom has always been a strong woman and I know that during these past few months she has been bone tired and many times felt like giving up. But she hung in there and with the help of several people in the neighborhood and my aunt and uncle, she managed to help Daddy die with as much dignity as possible considering how a disease like emphysema robs you of all your self respect.

So I took a week off from work and made the trip up to Mississippi to be with Mom during the funeral. She and Daddy had already made all the arrangements so it was just a matter of going through the motions. I had already said my goodbyes to Daddy when I was there in October. He and I had a long talk on the porch and he knew his days were numbered. He was ready to call it a day. I have to say the funeral director did a hell of a job on Daddy in that he looked better in death than he did in life. He looked like he was just sleeping.

Daddy was buried on Thursday. Lots of people came to pay their last respects and Tammie and I struggled to remember who some of them were. It had been so long since we had seen them and folks get old. Daddy's pall bearers were his brother-in-law Jerry McGath; Jerry's son-in-law, Terry Duckworth; Daddy's nephews, David and Richard Clouse; Daddy's cousin Rodney Turner (Judy and Dale's son); and Cory's dad, Bill Fritz. Judy said something at the viewing that really struck me. She simply said, "Thing are going to be different." And I knew exactly what she meant. Eighty years ago, James was born in the house that still stands (barely) at the intersection of Murphy and Fawn Grove Roads. Back then, the roads didn't even have names. When he was in his 20's, Daddy moved up north to find work. He sent money back to his folks to help them pay for the 80 acres that Daniel Clouse had bought. Then he met my mom and in 1967 they moved back to the place where he grew up. For 40 years, James and Alice Clouse have lived on that road. A couple times they moved away, but not for long. Three generations have grown up on that road and everybody knew James Clouse. He was like a cornerstone for that road living within sight of the house he was born in. Everybody liked James. And now, after 80 years on Murphy Road, he's gone. Murphy road has lost it's anchor. Things are sure going to be different.

My first husband, Rick and his wife, Virginia, came to the viewing. I was touched and so was my mom. Rick and I caught up on our lives since the last time we spoke several years ago. He arranged for me to see some of our old friends again and I had a very nice time with Chuck Redwood and Jim and Karen Brown Friday night. It was great seeing them again but it's hard to pick up a friendship where you left off and it has been too many years. You lose that commonality. Even so, I got Chuck's phone number and promised to call him the next time I was in Tupelo and we'll go have a few beers together. Then I went over to Rick and Virginia's on Sunday. Rick had gotten out some of the old photo albums and I can't believe that I don't remember some of our old friends that we used to party with. I also can't believe that he STILL has that old-ass reel-to-reel and that it STILL works and that he STILL listens to those old-ass tapes. UNbelievable. Anyway, that was a nice visit and the food was good. :)

Tuesday I dropped Tammie and Cory off at the airport in Memphis on my way back to San Antonio. It was a long drive -- 14 hours and 830 miles. Back in my younger days a trip like that would have been cake. But now? By the time I got back I was (in Alan's words) just knackered.

Well, I have a few Air Photo stories to tell but I'll save those for my next post.

James Hamilton Clouse - 1928-2008
He had a good life.