Betty's Pub 20.1
Main Menu => Old inactive posts. => Topic started by: andyg0404 on September 24, 2016, 04:05:46 PM
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
If I wasn’t aware of the season changing on the calendar I was certainly made aware of it this morning when I ventured out. It was cool. The weather lady told me that it was starting out cool but would warm up as the day progressed. She told me the same thing last week so erring on the side of caution I forwent the shorts and went out in long pants and the flannel shirt. And decided I really didn’t need either. So this week I decided on wearing the shorts and I definitely would have been happier in the long pants and flannel shirt. Although when I got home around 11:30 AM it had started to warm up nicely. But this tells me the summer really is over and I will miss the warm weather.
I just put several auction previews on my calendar for November but that’s still a couple of months away and I need exhibits to visit in the interim. I’ve been patiently waiting for the NY Times Fall Previews to be published so as to chart the new season of art exhibits. They appeared this past Sunday and I couldn’t be more disappointed. No blockbuster shows and really not much in general. Every year I read the preview and make a list of exhibits I want to see. This year there weren’t enough to make a list. The Met will always have something going on, Caravaggio, Velazquez and Fragonard to name three upcoming shows but aside from the Met it was a really weak offering. Terrorism and insurance have a lot to do with it as the museums are reluctant to trust their masterpieces to shippers when they can so easily be destroyed. I can’t say I blame them but that doesn’t make it any easier to take. Oh well, I’ll just have to see what’s available and stay alert for small shows and make sure I don’t miss them. I’ve been in touch with my museum going friend and I’m hoping we can head up to the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven in a few weeks. There’s a Dutch exhibit which I want to see and an exhibit on Wyoming with American art which looks promising. They also have a splendid permanent collection. I think I’ve only been up one time before and I know I enjoyed it.
Today I walked up to the Metropolitan Museum to see Faith and Photography: Auguste Salzmann in the Holy Land, an exhibition of photographs. This is an adjunct and precursor to the Met’s big exhibit on Jerusalem which opens Monday. This exhibit shows photographs of Jerusalem taken in the 1850’s for Salzmann’s 1856 photo album, Jerusalem: A Study and Photographic Reproduction of the Monuments of the Holy City. All of the photographs are from the Met’s permanent collection. There are no people, only structures. He shot early in the morning before the people came out. One of the cards on the wall pointed out that even if people had passed by the camera their images would not have been in the pictures due to the very long exposure time needed for this early type of photography. This primitive form of photography didn’t have the benefit of flash technology and the negatives couldn’t be exposed in low light so you have photos like this one, Tomb of the Judges, showing this eerie black space in the opening of the tomb. http://tinyurl.com/hxlng5p It’s an interesting exhibit in that you’re viewing photos taken approximately 160 years ago of what were already ancient edifices. I’d be curious to see how well they’ve held up in to the 21st Century. This is a link to a brief overview of the exhibit from the Met’s website. http://metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2016/faith-and-photography And this is a link to all the photographs http://tinyurl.com/hpc3j2t
I have flown in an airplane although it’s been many years since the last time and I don’t ever remember having a flight attendant like this one from Southwest Airlines. Read along with the video, she speaks VERY quickly. Pre-Flight Announcement It’s three minutes long and very funny.
That’s it for this week so on to the Flickrs.
Andy G.
Eurorpride Amsterdam 2016 - Amsterdam (Netherlands)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/meteorry/28559955670/
Boy Majorette
https://www.flickr.com/photos/143255575%40N07/28678792232/
secretarial
https://www.flickr.com/photos/72912672%40N00/28519742980/
1
https://www.flickr.com/photos/40014301%40N03/28808419666/
IMG_20160806_011317
https://www.flickr.com/photos/141740466%40N06/28801266045/
Freedom #genderfluid #trans #tgirl #lgbt #girlslikeus #crossdress #boywillbegirls #transgirl #transgendered #transgender #transpride #transisbeautiful #crossdresser #tranny #prisma #prismaapp
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rachel_valentine/28734859035/
this is adorable
https://www.flickr.com/photos/142570707%40N03/28643504535/
Mistress Shows her appreciation of my new outfit
https://www.flickr.com/photos/129285689%40N02/15628949368/
IMG_0039
https://www.flickr.com/photos/80351172%40N00/28539086572/
Avon Castle January 2010
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lucyhamilton/4298003904/
sissybonnet
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tallulahhh/7681973410/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
The last few days here have been grim, dark, cool and either raining or threatening to rain. Not my kind of weather so my mood has matched it, grim and dark. Anyway, here’s something to lighten things up.
I came across this website http://exitinterview.biz/lists/sexswtch.htm listing Sex Switches and Cross Dressing By Teens/Preteens in TV shows. Also films and books as well as a few adult movies. Most of it was familiar but there were a couple of things I didn’t know about.
Lockie Leonard S1 - To Cheat or Not to Cheat - look for a 30 second clip at 9 minutes 30 seconds
http://www.popcornflix.com/Lockie%20Leonard%20S1%20-%20To%20Cheat%20or%20Not%20to%20Cheat/c0fbf23e-d544-4ad4-a138-06ddfec51daf
Seth Green in Facts of Life – Not a show I ever watched and I couldn’t find the clip on Youtube. Did find it on a pay service but that’s worthless. There’s a picture of him dressed up on each of these sites.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/the-facts-of-life-famous-guest-stars-finale-25th-anniversary_n_3223836.html
http://cousingeri.blogspot.com/2015/02/its-interview-of-my-dreams-except-ew.html
No art this week, I’m headed down to the Jersey shore to spend the day with friends. That should restore my frame of mind.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Andy G.
Venus Belle ´″°³♡
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cross_dresser/28835219531/
IMG_3366
https://www.flickr.com/photos/katy-caitlin/25740462145/
6Z6A9612red
https://www.flickr.com/photos/11205186@N05/21026760189/
Été nuageux かくもり Cloudy Summer
https://www.flickr.com/photos/_johanna_joya/27913685712/
Hi, nice you stopped to visit.....
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ailananata/26065679835/
Out front
https://www.flickr.com/photos/amandarichards/27536172691/
DSCF2051
https://www.flickr.com/photos/andreaangelshibari/28271668615/
R050
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ashley_stevens/28379216134/
Kazumi Takahasi
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27401732@N05/28343506564/
Dressed and Ready for a Date ♡Full version of this video is in my Youtube Channel ♡Please subscribe ♡
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cutiemei11/28867823441/
Leopard teddy and Fishnet pantyhose_Extra_2
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trans_kyoko/26572263526/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
It was a regular Fall day today, cool but not cold and not very sunny. I needed the flannel shirt but could have worn the lighter one. I’m grateful we didn’t get any of Hurricane Matthew’s rain and wind although it looks like we’ll get some rain tonight.
This morning I walked up to the Gagosian Gallery at 980 Madison Avenue, one of many spread around the City. It’s in a big building and has lots of signage out front but when I went into the building there was nothing to tell me which floor the gallery was on and I had to ask. As it turns out the Gallery was exhibiting on three floors. The title of the exhibit was: NUDE - FROM MODIGLIANI TO CURRIN and spread throughout the three floors were paintings of nudes, modern art for the most part. The star of the exhibit, which appears in their newspaper print ads, was a very nice Modigliani entitled Venus. http://www.gagosian.com/__data/c1f6f6bc4262bc7fe4412cbca8445eb7.jpg Not quite on a par with the one that was sold at auction late last year for $170 million, but still very nice. There was also a second painting of a woman reclining on a couch which was in rougher condition, http://www.fineart-china.com/htmlimg/image-45074.html There were several paintings by Magritte, an artist with a distinct style and outlook and a sense of humor. Clairvoyance http://www.mattesonart.com/Data/Sites/1/magritte/The%20Clairvoyant%201965.jpg and L’Embellie which doesn’t actually show a nude, something I’m sure that would make Magritte laugh. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/7d/e2/f9/7de2f9752c0cecb110ce04f3577b8c4f.jpg There’s an upcoming gallery show of Magritte which I hope to visit in the near future. I like him but a large show can be a bit much, he’s much more enjoyable in small bites. Two very nice Matisse’s, the first which I see was up for auction at Christie’s in 2010. Nu aux jambes croisées http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/ZoomImage.aspx?image=/lotfinderimages/d52894/d5289400 and Nu au fauteuil https://www.artsy.net/artwork/henri-matisse-nu-au-peignoir
And I’ll close with a charcoal by Egon Schiele, someone my elder brother actively dislikes. I find him an interesting artist, I’ve seen many of his works at the Neue gallery. This is LIEGENDE (RECLINING NUDE) which sold at auction in 2013. http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2013/impressionist-and-modern-works-on-paper-l13008/lot.147.html
This is a link to the Gagosian website with a description of the exhibit http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/nude--september-20-2016 On this page you can also click on the Yves Klein painting and see a slide show of several other paintings in the exhibit, one each by John Currin and Francis Picabia among others.
All in all an interesting exhibit.
Now we’ll move on to the links you’ve come here for.
Andy G.
DSC08560c
https://www.flickr.com/photos/51104241%40N08/29938998032/
When I was little
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mayatoronto/29494178584/
DSC07877
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mimo-momo/27911175762/
Office Lady of Holiday_02
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mika_ayukawa/27456258874/
You're not going out dressed like that!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/91219737%40N08/28587198300/
Impromptu
https://www.flickr.com/photos/laurenclose/28773425512/
Blast From The Past %40bftpshow Fri 19 Aug 9.15pm %40GatehouseLondon Photographer: Simon Annand
https://www.flickr.com/photos/camdenfringe/28969243632/
照片 070
https://www.flickr.com/photos/yammy_chow/5718503854/
_20160819_132254
https://www.flickr.com/photos/142489994%40N07/28818474000/
anna brighteyes
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138580735%40N03/28133550494/
aIMG_6638
https://www.flickr.com/photos/99656544%40N07/28503444663/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Today started out chilly, in the low forties, but has warmed up nicely and it’s a beautiful day. I don’t enjoy when it rains but we’ve had so little rain that we are now dangerously close to drought conditions, the reservoirs are about half full. And I see my neighbors relentlessly watering their lawns not to mention the sidewalks which really annoys me as I have to go into the road on my walks if I don’t want to take an unwanted bath.
I made the mistake this past week of letting the Internet be my doctor. I don’t mean that literally but I did what everybody does when they have some sort of physical complaint, they Google their symptoms. And it’s always a dire story we pick up. I suffer from nail fungus and have for many years. I haven’t done anything about it as the cure can be dangerous to your liver. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned a number of times I have a tendency to be oblivious and not notice things. One of the things I hadn’t noticed was that my thumbnail had turned black. When I Googled it, one possible answer was melanoma which really unsettled me as I had just seen a story online about a woman who developed melanoma of the thumb and had to have it amputated. After obsessing about it for a number of days I was able to see the dermatologist who assured me it was an infection. Consequently three times a day I soak my thumb in vinegar and water and then apply a topical ointment. A very expensive topical ointment in my opinion, $47 for a small tube. We won’t have a discussion on healthcare. The doctor told me there is a new topical ointment I can use for the nail fungus as well but you have to apply it for a year and I’m not sure I’m prepared to do that. I’ll definitely have to think about it. But we are so susceptible to thinking frightening thoughts when it comes to our health, if someone complains about something inevitably we start to think that we’re experiencing the same thing, at least I do. I still hew to Woody Allen’s comments on death, “I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.”
On to more pleasant topics. This morning I walked uptown to Sotheby’s for their American art auction preview. I had forgotten about it and planned on visiting the Ronin Gallery for Japanese woodblock prints but I’ll do that next week which is the last day for that exhibit. This auction preview was very low key, no million dollar paintings or blockbuster pieces of art but still there were lots of nice things to see.
There were several oil paintings of magazine ads by Norman Rockwell, all from the collection of George Parker, grandson of the founder of the Parker Pen Company. Three of them were ads for the Parker pen. Here’s one.
SHE GAVE ME A PARKER 61 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAD)
http://tinyurl.com/zm77ksl
I liked this ad for Coke as well. Those old Coke bottles were works of art themselves.
YOUNG GIRL HOLDING A COKE
http://tinyurl.com/gpej5nl
There were some Hudson river painters represented, THOMAS WORTHINGTON WHITTREDGE for one. Here is his:
VIEW OF KAATERSKILL FALLS
http://tinyurl.com/hqvaxdq
This is a magnificent landscape and if you look closely, right in the middle, you can see a tiny little boat with a figure in it. The colorful foliage surrounding the lake really shows off America the beautiful.
And Edward Moran, elder brother to Tomas Moran the Hudson river painter, who painted maritime scenes. Here we see:
FISHING BOATS IN THE MOONLIGHT
http://tinyurl.com/zzuorzk
I like this for the obscured moon and consequently the darkness of the scene. Conjures Bulwar Lytton’s, It was a dark and stormy night.
I’ve commented many times on my appreciation of a show of Charles Demuth’s watercolors of fruits and vegetables that I saw many years ago. I’m happy to say there is a Demuth in this auction:
CUCUMBERS AND A FLASK OF DAISIES
http://tinyurl.com/zq8j25d
If I had a few hundred thousand dollars of disposable income I would be tempted to bid.
And this wonderful painting by Alfred Thompson Bricher of the waves rolling into shore, with remarkably tiny little birds flying in the air.
ON THE COAST
http://tinyurl.com/h6nxptn
And I’ll close with this portrait of Mark Twain by Everett Shinn, a member of the Ashcan school of art. This really is reasonable, $5-$7K not that I plan to bid on it though.
http://tinyurl.com/hbr7px4
This is a link to the full catalog http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2016/american-art-property-collection-george-s-parker-ii-n09563.html
And so, what’s left but the Flickrs.
Andy G.
little red dress
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69894302@N08/22701710122/
IMG_8339
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rafiats/27968749396/
I was in Tokyo, I had to dress like a Japanese schoolgirl, right?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/29846043@N07/28452323833/
A pink princess of the sunshine filtering through foliage_3
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mika_ayukawa/3114199045/
PDsexy3
https://www.flickr.com/photos/yuka_aoi/5656402094/
HK GRAND HYATT
https://www.flickr.com/photos/im-cindy/28171698823/
DSC09044
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mimo-momo/29205030665/
Guessing game. Like it? Did I buy this?
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Not a very nice day today, cool and damp. It was raining when I went out to the store but despite the weather site calling for rain all morning with showers in the afternoon I was able to get in and out of the City without getting caught in rain. Just as I got home it started to rain but it didn’t last long.
I finally had my annual physical this week. It was delayed for five months as a pipe burst in the doctor’s office building destroying 8 floors and it took a very long time for repairs to be done allowing the office to reopen. And I wasn’t especially pleased with what the doctor had to say. The first thing he mentioned was my low pulse rate, something we’ve discussed in the past. I have a low pulse rate, it was 41 when he took it, and I’ve seen a cardiologist and he found nothing to be concerned about. I wore the heart monitor for 24 hours and it showed my pulse went up when I exercised and remained at the low level when I wasn’t active. But we agreed I would schedule another appointment. Then, after our session was over and I was dressing, he came back in the room and said that my EKG showed atrial fibrillation, in layman’s terms, my heart skipped a beat. I have a vague recollection that when I saw the cardiologist the last time this came up and again he did not think it indicated anything. I have no symptoms, I eat properly, exercise daily and walk at least five miles a day. I’m also due for a colonoscopy since it’s been five years and he definitely wanted me to see the cardiologist before the procedure due to the anesthesia I will be put under. I don’t mind the procedure itself as I’m unconscious when it takes place but the prep is terrible. Fasting is one thing but then having to drink a quart of the vile liquid is not something I’m looking forward to.
Then a few days later the doctor called with the results of my bloodwork and told me my liver levels were a little above the outside range. This really came as a surprise as I have no symptoms. I don’t drink alcohol and never was much of a social drinker. I confess I inhaled and did other things hewing to the motto, better living through chemistry but that was literally 40 years ago. I asked to be tested for hepatitis, something that all baby boomers need to undergo so perhaps that may show something. I take generic Lipitor and one of the side effects of that drug may be liver damage. Of course if you look at the list of possible side effects from the drugs you take, they can fill pages as the manufacturer is just looking to avoid culpability. So I’m going for a sonogram on Monday. I imagine this is what it will be like to be retired, doctor’s visits to keep me busy. I’ve always been someone who suffers from anxiety and allows myself to get stressed out so this little encounter with health issues isn’t making me feel any calmer. Hopefully it will amount to nothing. I certainly hope to avoid taking any new medications if I can. I’m having the doctor go back and look at the MRI I took a few years ago which prompted the neurologist to prescribe the Lipitor. I’d like to cut back on that or give it up.
Well, that was therapeutic for me if not for all of you. This morning I took a very long walk, first up to 78th Street and Third Avenue to run an errand for my business and then back down to 425 Madison Avenue which is by 49th Street, before walking back to the Port Authority. The stop on 49th Street was the Ronin Gallery and I’m very glad I went. It was the last day for their exhibit, 100 Views of the Moon by the artist Yoshitoshi, and there were many beautiful prints to see. The Ronin Gallery is a wonderful place, the employees are very welcoming and are just as glad to see people who are there only for the exhibition as for the people who are there to purchase the items. When I arrived and was allowed in, the woman in charge apologized for the leanness of the exhibit saying that as it was the last day, many items had been removed in preparation for the next exhibit. Still there was lots to see. Here are a few:
Cassia-tree Moon: Wu Gang - http://www.roningallery.com/exhibitions/100-views-of-the-moon/the-cassia-tree-moon-wu-gang - Each picture was accompanied by a card explaining the situation in the picture. All of the explanations are on the website. In this case the story is from Chinese mythology which believes that eight ten-thousand-foot cassia trees grow on the moon. Wu Gang, the axe wielder, exploited his magic for evil ends and was condemned to hew down the ever-growing boughs of the trees until the end of the world. It’s a wonderful image, Wu, with his giant axe, pointing at the enormous moon.
Reading by Moonlight: Zi Luo - http://www.roningallery.com/exhibitions/100-views-of-the-moon/reading-by-moonlight-zi-luo - This shows Zi on his journey home to his family, rice sack on his shoulder, reading to better himself, walking under a golden moon.
Moon of Kintoki's Mountain - http://www.roningallery.com/exhibitions/100-views-of-the-moon/moon-of-kintoki-s-mountain - This shows Kintoki as a child officiating at a wrestling match between a monkey and a hare, animals were his playmates. Here the moon looms overhead partially hidden by the mountain.
A Glimpse of the Moon: Kahoyo - http://www.roningallery.com/exhibitions/100-views-of-the-moon/a-glimpse-of-the-moon-kahoyo - This is a sad story of voyeurism and murder as the perpetrator hides behind the fence to steal a glance at Kahoyo as she steps out of her bath. All this takes place under a crescent moon.
This is a link to the all of the prints in the exhibit. http://www.roningallery.com/exhibitions/100-views-of-the-moon
Once again, these are very tempting to me and I’m wondering if at some point down the road I am going to give in and buy one to hang on my wall. My fear is that one won’t be enough as I find them exceedingly attractive.
Well, so much for our tour of the Far East, now let’s tour this week’s Flickrs.
Andy G.
So funny! It's the boys fourth last of school ...... forever! Dress up theme for today - gender bender!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/contactphotographyy/29751484114/
Fitz outgrew his Elsa dress, so we ordered him a new one. He very specifically wanted a crown this time.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rustytanton/29762347633/
Dance your troubles away
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rachel_valentine/29148076820/
Red dress again
https://www.flickr.com/photos/135749866@N08/29287744216/
12540
https://www.flickr.com/photos/129919732@N03/18247619340/
Output club with a friend.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23509681@N02/29389278841/
Twice! !
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Love the oriental prints and like you I would love to own a few. Yes Andy this is what retirement boils down to, doctors appointments and dentist appointments and blood tests, scans and lots of meds if you can afford them. My prescriptions cost almost $1000.00 per month and I am lucky to have a plan that covers all my drugs and the many specialists appointments and tests, as well as my dental care. I worked for a pretty good company and had some great minds looking after our health plans and pensions. Don't spend too much time getting worked up about test results sometimes they are faulty as the Lab assistants do make mistakes sometimes and if it is serious there are more tests. I keep trying to reduce my meds list each time I visit my doctors and if I read the side effects list it can give you a heart attack by itself. I think I have an appointment almost every month, with my family doctor every three months, my urologist every six months, rheumatologist every six months, my dentist every six months and my eyes tested every three months due to the strong meds I am taking for arthritis that can hurt my eyes. It keeps one very busy throughout the year. Good luck with your tests and many happy years of retirement ahead of you (when you do I mean).
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Hi Angela,
Thanks, my friends tell me the same thing and I try not to get too worked up but it's hard to change your pattern of behavior when you're old. I have to laugh, as if I wasn't already stressed, last night I was chewing gum and reading and a cap fell off a back tooth. When it rains it pours.
Andy G.
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i am lucky in uk as over 60s get free prescriptions and over 70s gets free teeth checks and repairs and eye tests
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No money for health insurance, doctors, or medicine. Whatever goes wrong, I have to pray for the best, or use home remedies.
Whatever is wrong that only a doctor would find out about, I won't know about until it's probably too late.
The only medicine in the house is coffee, tea, grapefruit juice, aspirin, vitamins, a few spices, & herbs. There's a little vodka around for toothaches, pulling teeth, & as a non-toxic disinfectant. Up until 80 years ago, most people treated toothaches, & got their teeth pulled at home or at the local barber shop for 25 cents.
Need new reading glasses. My glasses are almost 10 years old & starting to fall apart. Non-prescription, I got them for about $3 off the store shelf. I wish I could find a good durable set like them again. The ones I see in the stores now all look like garbage, & the lenses are really poor quality.
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Hey Andy, I had the same thing happen to me once so I stopped chewing gum. I can barely get through a dental check up but when needing work done like a repair, I hate it and like you I do worry about it a little. I try my best to look after my teeth and health in general as I don't like all these visits and check ups that come with the years. The year I retired to look after my mother was the most stressful I ever had. I got shingles due to the stress, a broken tooth due to not looking after them, I banged my head on the upper car door twice in a week giving myself headaches for weeks ( no concussion after a scan ) thankfully. All due to running around and not being careful I suppose. I was not eating right, sleeping right or thinking right, just trying to put up with a mother getting dementia and not fully taking time to understand what was really going on. Well those days are behind me now but I still can't forget them easily. Betty, I feel bad for your situation and wish you had a government plan like Canada or Britain. It does take the strain off but not everything is covered up here. After paying taxes to a government for your working life you should be entitled to some benefits to give you a quality lifestyle after age 60. I guess you have to be a government employee to get premier benefits in all our countries.
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I hope you do understand that Free Prescriptions and Free dental are not really free. Those who work are paying for it. I am 70 and semiretired and If I can't pay for it then it doesn't get done. I prepared for retirement the best I could but I still work part time to meet expenses. I live in the US, and I don't expect anybody else paying for my medical or dental. They have enough trying to make ends meet for themselves.
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In uk i paid for it in the way i pay my taxes.at 75 you get free tv licence.In scotland prescriptions are free for every one
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Although there are plenty of males 75 or over, statistically most males don't live past their 70s. Most women live a little longer than men but not by much.
Hardly anybody makes it 100, it's rare for a male to make it to 90. You're very lucky to make it to 80, & only average if you reach 70.
That's one of the frustrating things we don't like to think or talk about much when we turn 60. Odds are that within a few years something is gonna knock us down or take us out. You've reached that age where your pets may actually outlive you, & the time suddenly flies by.
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it is strange that as you get older times appear to go faster
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Hi Samantha,
This is something a friend told me many years ago and I believe it to be true.
The amount of time passed relative to one’s age varies. For a 5-year-old, one year is 20% of their entire life. For a 50-year-old, however, one year is only 2% of their life. This “ratio theory,” proposed by Janet in 1877, suggests that we are constantly comparing time intervals with the total amount of time we’ve already lived.
It's from Scientific American and there are other reasons as well. You can see the whole article here. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/why-does-time-fly-as-we-get-older/
I was just talking with my brother about an article that had appeared in the New Yorker. When I went to find it I saw that it had happened more than five years ago. All I could think was, really, five years ago!
When I would visit my ancient Aunt on the first day of my vacation she would inevitably tell me it will be over before you know it, which was true but not what I really wanted to here. And I will close with something a friend told me. He called me up on a Monday and said, gosh I wish it was Friday. I told him not to rush my life. He said, ok, I wish it was last Friday.
Andy G.
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I thought it had more to do with relativity -- The slower the mind & body gets, the faster the world seems to go. Anybody over 50 who thinks they're still as sharp & quick as they were when they were young, is fooling themselves. No matter how fit, quick, & smart you are by 50, not as much as 20 years ago.
I would regularly take real IQ tests at least once a year. In my early 50s, the scores I was getting dropped a few points. I used to be quite hyperactive & time seem to take forever. After the flu brought on a heart attack & ruined my lungs, I slowed down a lot. IQ dropped even more significantly too. Still above average, but not remarkable anymore. It was right after that I noticed time suddenly flies by too.
At 50, I could run, jump, climb, swim, & bicycle faster & better than most people half my age. Suddenly I'm in worse shape than most my age.
BTW, I'm "freeloading" to eat rhe cheapest junk, pay the cheapest rent for a crap place in a bad area surrounded by hoodlums, criminals, & addicts, while I pay for 3 hybrid cloud, safe, & secure servers at $115 EACH per month! I work round the clock every day just to keep it all running, secure, safe, & keep the nasty buggers out (even unfriendly corporations, organizations, & governments). I do get stuff in to fix or rebuild, & still make stuff to sell, but it's not nearly enough. Some days I have a hard time just walking to the bathroom or making those cheap meals. I try very hard to do whatever I can, when I can.
The kitties, are spoiled rotten. They get better heath care, & better food than I get. We live in a system where if you're poor, have or adopt a pet, it's easier to get free or cheap professional excellent heath care for them than it is for people. Their food is not much of an expense & worth it. The entertainment value, cuddling, & adventure is cheaper than cable TV, going out, or spending money on frivolous things for fun. If I'm down, sick, or tired, they're always there for support, cuddles, & comfort. Even when we run out of kitty food, I gladly give up a portion of my own food to give them, as long as it's safe & healthy for them.
I still eat Ramen at $2 for a 12-pack, or rice & beans almost every day for every meal since 2012. On a good month, oatmeal with sugar for breakfast -- the milk comes powdered in bulk cheap.
Priorities are coffee. Nothing treats my COPD & breathing better than coffee. I tried raw caffiene. Although it helped, not as good as coffee, so there's something more than just the caffeine working in coffee. After a few years with COPD, I noticed turkey & grapefruit also helps my breathing. But due to other expenses to survive, & keep working, they became too expesive on a tight budget. It's been almost a year since I had anything with turkey in it, & much longer since I had anything with grapefruit in it.
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Hey Betty and Andy, I think when we are young we take life for granted. We never expect that one day age or disease will catch up to us in such a big way. Before I retired I would put in a very active 8 to 10 hour day and then go home and work around the house or in my workshop sometimes until late. It never seemed to bother me much and I was getting away with only 4 to 6 hours sleep as well. I never considered early retirement until my dear old mom started getting dementia and not looking after herself. After forty two years on the job I thought OK I can do this quite easily and enjoy life as well. WOW, big surprise for me. Nobody can prepare you for looking after an aging relative with dementia as it is a real challenge. With all the hours and all the stress, my blood pressure went through the roof and then I got Shingles. Another big challenge besides mom but I got through it with some lasting effects but nothing like you have Betty. Well these things sure slowed me down and now it seems I need 8 to 12 hours sleep just to feel normal again. Like I said before I am lucky in that I have a good health plan and some very good friends in the health field getting me through my issues one day at a time. I was always a pretty sharp minded guy but now I am slowing down and my memory sure is not what it once was. They say Time Marches On but it seems to fly by for us. Still we are the fortunate ones, as there are many names missing from this site that were once our friends and partners in crime and we miss them and in some cases wonder what became of them.
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hi Angela,Andy and Betty
I always thought my body would never die and would feel like I was when i was 16. But boy, how much I was wrong.
I am now 63 retired, and i still help in my friends shop and also help too look after their dad who has had a few strokes. Now I am starting to feel young outside, but the inside of my body not like this. I had a slipped disc when I was doing nursing, but still miss trying to help people.
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Believe it or not, I am doing more hours working than when i used too do full time work many years ago
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Today started out fairly chilly but it turned into an absolutely beautiful day and it may reach 70 degrees tomorrow. Clearly softening me up for the brutal cold which can’t be too far away now.
My adventure with doctors continues. I got the results of the hepatitis bloodwork and it showed a positive in one instance. In itself this doesn’t mean anything as you need to have two positives to make a diagnosis, that is, this is probably a false positive. So I go back on Monday for a different blood test which hopefully will rule this out. My sonogram showed nothing wrong with any of my organs but there was a spot on my common bile duct which connects the liver to the intestine. So I will go for a Cat scan to look into that. One good thing is that the doctor did go back and look at the MRI the neurologist prescribed and he told me I can stop taking the generic statin which pleased me as I never fully believed I needed to be on it and it’s a possible cause for the high number on my liver blood test. The doctor hasn’t expressed any urgency in any of this so on the whole I think I’m in pretty good shape. But I’ll be happy when this battery of tests is over which won’t be for another three weeks.
I told my boss I was retiring at the end of the year and he took it well so that’s something I can stop obsessing about which also pleases me.
This morning I took the long walk up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see, Valentin de Boulogne: Beyond Caravaggio. As I just said in an email to my brother about it, Wow! What an exhibit, really spectacular. He had seen it when it opened and told me it was wonderful and he was right. I was completely unfamiliar with him as I think many people who visit the exhibit will be but he clearly was a major talent. He was born 20 years after Caravaggio and died at an early age, 10 years after Caravaggio passed away. He was considered one of three artists to be his heir, along with Jusepe de Ribera and Bartolomeo Manfredi, both of whom have paintings at the beginning of the show. It’s a large exhibit, 45 of his 60 known paintings, with all of his works from the Louvre on display. Many of them are enormous wall size depictions of biblical tales or musical scenes or card playing, fortune telling and chicanery. The people in his paintings are real people with real emotions, innovatively he worked from live models and they appear and reappear in the paintings. I will certainly go back for a second look as like so many of the exhibits I’ve enjoyed this is really a once in a lifetime opportunity to see many of these works.
This is a link to the NY Times article on the exhibit with a number of illustrations. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/arts/design/review-valentin-de-boulogne-bright-star-in-caravaggios-orbit.html?_r=0
A few paintings I especially enjoyed are:
Samson, in which he painted himself as the strongman, he was a very good looking man. http://tinyurl.com/zo4js9l
Fortune-Teller with soldiers, his paintings can be very dark and there’s really a lot to see in this one. The man having his fortune read while a little boy is picking the pocket of a cloaked man who simultaneously is stealing from the gypsy fortune teller, while the man’s friends look on http://tinyurl.com/zd88lvo
Christ Driving the Merchants from the Temple, a threatening Christ overturning the table and causing chaos and fear among the men, women and children. As the note on the site says, the two men at the bottom seem to fall out of the picture. http://tinyurl.com/za54jbo
Cardsharps, the naïve young man staring at his cards not realizing the man behind him is giving away his cards and you can see the other trickster palming cards in his other hand. http://tinyurl.com/jo2zsez
This is a link to all the pictures in the exhibit http://tinyurl.com/jncxwpc Click on 100 at the bottom to see all pictures on one page. Right click to open each picture in a new tab or when you click back the site reverts back to 20 pictures on a page.
I wish the images on the web more faithfully depicted the paintings hanging on the wall but I think you can appreciate the greatness of the artist.
And so, off to the Flickrs.
Andy G.
Collage14
https://www.flickr.com/photos/maryanncd/30404720562/
Trying different wigs!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rgaines/30440841622/
wow is it 2016
https://www.flickr.com/photos/124219044@N07/24103776795/
amandadrag
https://www.flickr.com/photos/75757976@N06/22470706959/
IMG_0103
https://www.flickr.com/photos/72514936@N08/29469069351/
Amie Harwood
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boyswillbegirls/29167435340/
Juliette054
https://www.flickr.com/photos/noirjuliette/25715842713/
New upload
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferwhite2/3152524230/
DragonCon 2016 Costumes
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rgaines/29510464935/
jk collection 2
https://www.flickr.com/photos/105806004@N05/28662469633/
Purity Schoolgirl MISAKKY 002
https://www.flickr.com/photos/misakky/28254915513/
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Hi Andy,
So now you will retire at end of year.What will you do with all the time you will have.Will you still visit the places that you do now,or will you take it easy on your body.How old are you now
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Hi Samantha,
I'll be 66 in April. I expect to continue visiting all the places I've written about and hopefully many others. While I'm working I've only had Saturdays to visit the museums, galleries and auction houses. Once I retire I'll be able to go any time. That will be very useful when Sotheby's and Christie's both have their auctions during the same week. Also there are galleries that don't open on Saturday. I'm also hoping to keep my health as long as possible. I eat right, exercise and walk at least 5 miles a day. That's why I'm a little perturbed by this current blip from my physical. But I think I'll be alright.
Thanks for asking.
Andy G.
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Hey Andy, it is nice that you can finally retire and you do have your health. I thought I would have more time for galleries and museums too but it seems I am always doing something around the house. The key I guess is to schedule your visits and keep to it. I write lists of things to do but somehow only seem to get through half. I am also a bit like my dad, he could not resist saving money on things like groceries and would plan his daily trips to include stops at the locations with things on sale that they used often. He never went out of his way because that would not be saving, just wasting gas but he was a fanatic near the end. After he passed away I found a pantry shelf downstairs full of tins of Tuna, Salmon, Crab and salad Shrimp as well as jars of Jams and Marmalade and toilet paper and towels. It looked like two years worth for two people but for mom only it would last five at least. I am not quite like that, keeping a couple of months supply of things we use quite a bit.
Anyway our local museum has just done a revamp of it's displays and I will attempt to get their as it has been years and I just discovered a new coffee shop gallery at the train station. I have not been near either of them for some time so it could be an adventure. I have also been trying to get to Toronto to the museum there but with traffic these days I may just get a train ticket to add to the fun and lessen the stress driving in the daily mess they call rush hour.
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as i said i retired early ,but then went to help my friends in a shop and i am only 63 ,but feel like a 30 yrs old,at least outside ,but the inside of my body is telling me too slow down.my pensions is enough too keep me going ,but money is not what is keeping me going,it is my experience of nusing and helping their dad which i enjoy.His problems are what i like to help with.
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Today was a pretty standard Fall day, chilly in the morning, then warming up into the 50’s.
I had a Cat scan scheduled for Monday morning prior to my visit to the cardiologist but luckily in talking with a friend he pointed out that the Cat scan can take a long time. So I switched it to this morning at 8AM which turned out to be a very good thing to do since it took an hour and three quarters to complete. If I did it on Monday I would have completely missed the cardiologist’s appointment. The reason this one took so long is I had to drink the contrast and wait an hour to let it course through my body before they ran the scan. So now I’m waiting for the results of this and the blood test I took last week. Welcome to senior citizen village.
I’m a remarkably routine person and I hate having my routine disrupted. Whenever I have to do something outside of my routine and I mention it to a friend, I’ll say that I’m not pleased and then add, with a smile, not that I’m rigid. Which is of course a joke as I am the most rigid person I know. So instead of doing my week’s shopping this morning I had to do it yesterday morning and subsequently head into NYC this morning at 6:30 AM so as to be at the radiologist’s at 8AM. But it’s only a few blocks from the Metropolitan Museum so once I was discharged I walked over to the museum and saw their latest drawings exhibit, Fragonard Drawing Triumphant -- Works From New York Collections. Fragonard was an 18th Century artist and I’ve written about visiting the Fragonard room at the Frick. It’s quite an experience, the panels were painted by Fragonard for Madame DuBarry and Mr. Frick acquired them at the auction of JP Morgan’s collection. He had DuBarry’s room recreated completely. This current exhibit is roughly 100 drawings and etchings of his, nearly half of which come from private collections and are being seen for the first time. Happily the New York Times reviewed the exhibit in yesterday’s edition which you can read here. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/arts/design/rococo-bad-boy-rebels-in-fragonard-drawing-triumphant.html?_r=0 There are two illustrations in the article, the first is definitely my favorite, it belongs to the Met and I had seen it hanging in the corridor not that long ago. It’s called The Armoire and shows a very abashed looking young man stepping out of the armoire where he had hidden himself when his lover’s parents showed up unexpectedly. It’s tragic and also drawing room farce all at the same time. There are landscapes, rural studies, scenes of ancient days and mythology. He was a fine draftsman with a delicate touch.
This is Draftsman in a Trellised Garden – it depicts the artist at his board taking in his surroundings as he contemplates what he will be drawing. There’s a lot to see and consider for him and for us the viewer. http://tinyurl.com/zg2xacy
He repeated scenes although not always in exactly the same manner. Here are two versions of The Little Park. This one is pen and brown ink http://tinyurl.com/huyazye while this one is done in color http://tinyurl.com/j4qk4hy You can see that in the latter he has added the figures in the foreground but what I first noticed was that in the first version, the lion sculptures are facing us while in the colored version they are facing each other. I like the illusion of the lions changing their posture for the second sitting.
I like this Portrait of a Neapolitan Woman http://tinyurl.com/hz8vy4c and it strikes me that the artist Ingres, who came along 50 years later, was probably influenced by Fragonard which you can see in his many drawing portraits which are among my favorites.
This is a link to the museum website with all the pictures in the exhibit. http://tinyurl.com/zh738dp
And now it’s off to the Flickrs.
Andy G.
Fluffy sissy
https://www.flickr.com/photos/112581963%40N05/26782062000/
Tracey in full sissy regalia
https://www.flickr.com/photos/frillyknicks/26148817155/
TM_H2011_Witch01
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tiffmich_2000/6309037496/
Belle at Halloween
https://www.flickr.com/photos/melissa11520/2883721901/
IMG_8841a++
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133564312%40N02/29405830534/
Alice
https://www.flickr.com/photos/blackietv/22278499370/
Collage14
https://www.flickr.com/photos/maryanncd/30404720562/
Halloween 2016
https://www.flickr.com/photos/29794930%40N06/29990917414/
French Maid costume
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rgaines/30557298761/
A picture taken out of the movie
https://www.flickr.com/photos/celiahmorgan/29666682121/
I'll be back soon!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/emmatv/29450414760/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Looks to be another pleasant Fall day, it’s in the 30’s now but should get up to 50 degrees. This will be brief today; I’m heading down to the shore to celebrate my friend’s son’s 18th birthday. We discussed time recently and everyone will understand when I say how hard it is to believe this little boy is now a man. Let me add that while having just said he’s a man, he is really is good kid. I’m fortunate to have such a good friend with nice children and I’m looking forward to the visit. I’ve baked a Devils Food birthday cake and my cinnamon almond sugar cookies for the event.
I visited the cardiologist and got the final results back from my tests and I’m happy to say I appear to be healthy. The only thing left is the colonoscopy on Wednesday which I’m not looking forward to but have resigned myself to.
So without further ado, let’s visit the Flickrs.
Andy G.
The Calcium Club theatrics all male at GW Univ. ca1910 LOC16200u
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ssave/30207649554/
Baby let's rock!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/natalia_femina/18019128228/
R050
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ashley_stevens/28379216134/
September 1st
https://www.flickr.com/photos/91894461@N07/28756903464/
Chantelle Taylor
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boyswillbegirls/28610606723/
DSC_0251
https://www.flickr.com/photos/swisstabby/25477198723/
Looking for sisters in nyc local area
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28411168@N08/20576583515/
DSC_0040
https://www.flickr.com/photos/44815144@N07/7967211758/
#mtf #ts #tg #tgirl #transgender #transition #hrt #trap #lgbt #cute #girly
https://www.flickr.com/photos/136788097@N02/29894311165/
2016-09-20 15.33.30
https://www.flickr.com/photos/abbylauren6/29197109123/
AshleyAnn
https://www.flickr.com/photos/43125899@N04/29832118631/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
I don’t want to get into an argument about global warming but it’s November 19th and the temperature is in the 60’s here which I think we can all agree is unusual. But the cold weather is coming and I hope to hear from my plumber soon as several of my radiators don’t heat up across the bars from one end to the other. It’s been tolerable while the weather is mild but once we actually hit Winter weather I’m definitely going to want the radiators to cooperate across the board.
As I haven’t retired yet I had to choose whether to visit Sotheby’s or Christie’s this morning as both are having their American art previews. While Sotheby’s has the larger selection I chose Christie’s. First because they have a painting I especially wanted to see which I will describe shortly and secondly by proximity, the way I chose my college actually. Christie’s is just closer to the Port Authority and I wanted to get back home early so as to put my free Shop-Rite turkey in the oven. As I live alone Thanksgiving has never been a big holiday for me; when my elderly relatives were alive we got together for the Jewish holidays and no one made a big deal about Thanksgiving. And I periodically cook a turkey for dinner during the year which then gives me a bunch of lunches as well. You have to spend $400 during the more or less five week period prior to the end of the promotion. It had been $300 and I remember having trouble reaching it. Then they raised it and I figured I would never be able to do it. But I’ve managed to do it each year, sometimes helped by the need to buy Nexium for my acid reflux which is not an inexpensive item, even with the coupons I usually have to lower the cost. This year I was helped considerably by being able to buy the Saturday and Sunday newspapers in the store which helped to the point that I didn’t need the Nexium to qualify. And when I’m retired it really will be easy because then I will be able to buy the newspapers during the week as well and I’ll qualify with ease. My friend was surprised that I qualified since I live alone but aside from what I’ve explained I can also add that everything I eat during the month comes from the Shop-Rite, that is, I don’t eat out and I don’t shop for food anywhere else. So even though I live alone it’s still not unreasonable to spend that much over the course of five weeks for the meals I eat.
Anyway, now that we’ve discussed my grocery shopping let’s turn to art.
I walked over to Christie’s this morning and saw some wonderful things. The painting I especially wanted to see was Southwest Entrance to Camden Harbor by the 19th Century maritime painter Fitz Henry Lane. http://tinyurl.com/jpqslu6
Lane is someone my brother came across some time in the last fifteen years and he’s someone we both really enjoy. For some odd reason he was known as Fitz Hugh until 2005 when historians discovered it was Fitz Henry. He was born in Gloucester Massachusetts in Cape Ann and there is a museum there devoted mostly to his art. I’m pleased to say that my brother and I had occasion to visit the museum which is filled with his paintings as well as a few by protégé’s and other American artists. It was really a treat. Be sure to enlarge the images and remember the Internet really doesn’t do them justice.
Among other things I especially liked:
Two Petunias by Georgia O'Keeffe – a very simple pencil on paper drawing of the flowers, simple but very beautiful. The provenance shows it only passing from the artist to two individuals, the latter putting it up for auction now. http://tinyurl.com/j4vf5rm It sat right next to a magnificent oil painting of hers - Sand Hill, Alcalde http://tinyurl.com/zgmdnbk
The Old Mill by Maxfield Parrish – Again, this doesn’t look like much on the screen but standing in front of it in the gallery it really glows. The colors are like neon they shine brightly off the canvas, it’s not a surprise that his work was in great favor during the 60’s psychedelic era, these are paintings to fall into. http://tinyurl.com/hqqp4h8
It sat right next to paintings by Norman Rockwell and David Brega. The Rockwell, The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter, is a sentimental portrait of the old lighthouse keeper sitting next to his little girl as she mends his coat. http://tinyurl.com/zt4ps4f while the Brega is a Saturday Evening Post cover of a young woman asking a Gendarme for directions in French while looking at her phrase book. The cover is dog eared and pinned to a trunk with labels around it in a trompe l’oeil effect. http://tinyurl.com/zy2jnl7
A wonderful Jasper Cropsey, Sunset on Greenwood Lake. http://tinyurl.com/gm2uu8f It shows a cottage on a lakefront surrounded by beautiful Fall foliage with someone in a boat on the lake. If you look very carefully you can see someone sitting on the front porch of the cottage.
This picture by Rockwell Kent, Iceberg; Sledge Dogs, Greenland tickled me as it shows a team of dogs as seen from the perspective of the driver moving along the snow leaving their paw prints as they pass. The vast whiteness of the plain and the snow mountains set off against the deep blue sky is grandiose. http://tinyurl.com/jh4om9s
There was a portrait by John Singer Sargent which was typical of his work for hire but there was also a lovely watercolor which he did for a friend, the painter Dwight Blaney, as the inscription shows. The Piazza; On the Verandah shows Blaney and his wife and two daughters lounging on the veranda. Very relaxed and it explains on the website, “far more sympathetic, both humanly and artistically, than his commissioned portraits of the rich and fashionable.”
http://tinyurl.com/z2pnvny
Asher Brown Durand, After a Summer Shower. A lovely serene landscape in a bucolic setting with the farmer bringing the cows home while several are still grazing by the water. The green trees set against the blue sky with the white clouds, a very peaceful scene. http://tinyurl.com/jg6xtwl
And I’ll close with one of my favorite Hudson River painters, Sanford Robinson Gifford, Sunrise on the Seashore. A beach scene with the waves rolling in, the sun just starting to peak out behind the brown clouds while off to the side you see a very small and slender quarter moon. http://tinyurl.com/zyn6bwx
This is a link to all the paintings in the auction, many other beautiful things to be seen. http://www.christies.com/salelanding/index.aspx?lid=1&intsaleid=26089&saletitle=&pg=all
And so, on to the Flickrs.
Andy G.
IMG_5315
https://www.flickr.com/photos/katy-caitlin/29727973892/
45EV5681
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125427358@N02/14949661564/
Caroline Cossey
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trannilicious2011/26399535950/
Haute Couture de EBAY
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25488909@N03/16561430497/
BlackLeatherDress
https://www.flickr.com/photos/celiahmorgan/12995186153/
amandadrag
https://www.flickr.com/photos/75757976@N06/16366690506/
wendy175
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wendy_tgnj/24082886624/
Blonde Bombshell
https://www.flickr.com/photos/103977268@N06/29195373373/
IMG_2370
https://www.flickr.com/photos/143021864@N05/29155026056/
IMG_0530
https://www.flickr.com/photos/145721948@N08/29402515114/
Kazumi Takahasi
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27401732@N05/28502655433/
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Thank you Andy this is a nice collection of art and some I know like Georgia O'keeffe and of course Rockwell but also Fitz Hugh and I visited the museum in Gloucester, Mass. but as you can tell by the name I know it was before 2005. I have several Rockwell collector plates inherited from my father but as of now they are stored away for lack of a good place to display. They are nice but not really my taste in art. I like the Maxfield Parrish "The Old Mill" also. I like coming here and enjoying your forays into the art world as my way of visiting and would love to join you someday in person.
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Hi Angela,
I'm pleased that you enjoy the art visits. I'm doubly pleased that you were able to visit the Cape Ann Museum as my visit is one of my fondest art memories. Walls and walls of wonderful paintings. I don't even mind the parking ticket I received for being oblivious.
Andy G.
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
It’s been a very pleasant long weekend so far, more practice for when I become permanently idle in a month or so. Yesterday I watched some hockey on television, something I haven’t done in quite some time. I follow both the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders, although my number one team is the Islanders. I came aboard for hockey in the late 70’s at a time when the Islanders were still a weak new team and I very much enjoyed their glory years in the early 80’s which unfortunately have led to a very mediocre time pretty much ever since. It was also fun to see the Rangers finally win the Stanley Cup after a 53 year lapse although things have been quiet on that front for some time now as well. Currently the Rangers have, I believe, the second best record in the League while the Islanders are either the worst or close to it. When they play each other I generally root for a tie.
I haven’t celebrated Thanksgiving with family since the days my ancient relatives were alive and my brother had us all over to his apartment, so the day holds no special meaning for me anymore, I had my turkey last week. I do look forward to Xmas and visiting with my friends down the Jersey shore, that’s always something I look forward to with great anticipation. Usually I just stay home on Thanksgiving, I’ve never much cared for crowds and the thought of being in the City while the Parade is going on was something I always avoided. Until this past Thursday. I did something else I haven’t done in a very long time, I went into the City to the movies. I had just read A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman and very much enjoyed it. It’s about a 59 year old curmudgeon whose wife has recently passed away and who has decided to kill himself. If it sounds dark it’s not, as the director said, it’s really a love story. It’s Swedish and the movie opened in the City on September 29th and surprisingly was still running. I walked up to the Paris Theater on 58th just off Fifth. I had trouble crossing the parade in the lower streets but finally got across on 56th Street. I got to the theater at 11:05 AM for an 11:30 AM showing. The box office didn’t open until about 11:25 AM so I stood and read my newspaper, grateful that it wasn’t bitter cold and windy. I took my seat and counted the crowd. I can’t be exact but I’d venture to say we were about a dozen or so. When I went to the movies on a regular basis I always caught the early show and sometimes it was very close to a private showing. I enjoyed the film which ran close to two hours; it was fairly faithful to the book aside from nuances and no narrative. Although in retrospect, as I remembered things, I realize that for a movie that long they really left a lot out. There’s a scene close to the end which they weakened in my estimation by leaving something out. But I was glad I went. I walked back to the Port Authority and caught the bus and was home at 2:35 PM. No one could be more surprised that I did this than me, very out of character. Because it was the first show of the day admission was only $8.00 which was nice as even with the senior discount later showings would be $12.50. Movies, like everything else in life have become expensive.
And this morning I walked up to the Metropolitan museum for their exhibition, Max Beckmann in New York. Beckmann was an expressionist artist; art which displays emotions or so Wikipedia tells me. And for Beckmann the emotions are very raw as he was German and painted in the period before the second World War. His art was denounced by the Nazis as degenerate and banned from being exhibited. Beckmann had to leave Germany and spent ten years in Holland which not long after he arrived was occupied by the Nazis putting him in the uncomfortable position of seeking asylum in a land his people had subjugated. He finally was able to come to the United States in 1947 and lived happily until he died of a heart attack on his way to the Museum of Modern Art to see one of his paintings. Expressionism, for me, is a difficult genre. I enjoy realism and impressionism for different reasons but I find the rawness of expressionism sometimes can be off putting. These paintings are not what one would call beautiful. But this was a fairly enjoyable exhibit.
It opens with a number of self-portraits; this one puts me in mind of the Threepenny Opera. I thought I might have seen it used in an advertisement but Googling it I find that my memory may be misleading me. http://tinyurl.com/j6moner
A painting I especially liked was The Old Actress, http://tinyurl.com/h4wdfe8 which I see is from a private collection. I wouldn’t be surprised if the owner was Ronald Lauder, the man behind the Neue museum which specializes ini Expressionism.
I also enjoyed the paintings he did of his second wife and widow, Quappi, they were married 25 years until his death in 1950. Here are two. Quappi in Grey http://tinyurl.com/z9ewyq3 and Quappi with fur http://tinyurl.com/h79y3oa
The Museum of Modern Art took a lot of heat for deaccessioning three of his paintings, one of which, Self-Portrait with a cigarette (the ubiquitous cigarette) http://tinyurl.com/gurrp73 is in the exhibit and another that they tried to unload but luckily for them were unsuccessful at the attemp is Beginning, one of his triptychs, which in three panels looks back at his childhood with, as it says on the website, fondness and humor. His image in the third panel is shown in class holding a pornographic picture he had drawn. http://tinyurl.com/j8voro2
This is a link to all the objects in the exhibit. http://tinyurl.com/zb7322s
And this is a link to a review in the NY Times with many illustrations. http://tinyurl.com/hb44xle It speaks about the deaccessioning and how Quappi never forgave MOMA and left two of his paintings, which she had kept, to the National Gallery.
I guess it’s time now to leave Expressionism and head over to Flickrdom to see what’s at the Flickrs this week.
Andy G.
Loving my girlie holiday in Spain
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr,
I just got off the phone with one of my nonagenarian friends; he’s the man who hired me for the my first real job at the age of 26. Prior to that I had worked for my father in his grocery stores and when he passed away I did a series of temporary jobs before I took the position of purchasing agent with the manufacturing Company I was with for 20 years. My friend, who I had never met before my interview, was my boss at the Company and after he left, about five years into my employment, we stayed in touch and became good friends. When I was younger I always let my hair grow out, usually for a year before cutting it, and I had it cut for the interview as I knew I would never get the job looking the way I did. I also shaved my beard and mustache, or what passed for my beard and mustache, neither has ever grown especially thick although I grew it back right away and have kept it ever since. When I showed up for the interview I was amused to see that almost every employee, aside from my future boss, had a beard. As purchasing agent I was responsible for inventory control and when we walked through the parts department I thought to myself, how on earth am I ever going to remember all of these part numbers. Well, I did a good job of it as I still remember them to this day, 20 years after the sale of the Company. I also changed my lunch habits when I took the position. With previous jobs I had no responsibility and didn’t need a clear head, it was donkey work for lack of a better word, and so I would go out every day at lunch and get high. My first day at the job I sat down with my predecessor, who had stayed on to train me, and he showed me how to do inventory control. It involved, cardboard inventory cards, time cards, pencils and an adding machine to do calculations. (I still have the adding machine upstairs in my attic.) This was well before the computer age. I took one look at this and immediately realized I was no longer going to get high at lunch, I clearly needed my wits about me to do this job. And now it’s many years later and I’m at the end of my working life and I find myself in the position of getting ready to train my replacement who will arrive in a week. Little does he know what’s in store for him. It’s always hard to believe where you are in life when you look back. So I guess it’s good policy to only look ahead which is what I plan to do going forward.
Well, so much for philosophy. I visited the cardiologist on Monday and he completely ruled out atrial fibrillation saying that my Internist’s machine didn’t actually show it either, so that was a relief. We decided I would take one more test, a coronary calcium cat scan, which will determine if I have plaque in my coronary arteries and need to go back on the statin. If the results are negative then I will be able to continue controlling my cholesterol through diet and exercise which is what I want. As I always say, the less drugs I take now the better, I certainly took enough of them when I was younger. And my ongoing saga with my teeth continues. My big crown came loose again as my dentist had predicted and this time it took more of the tooth away. So on Monday I have to see an oral surgeon for root canal after which I have to go back to dentist for a post, although not the same day. I’m really not pleased as the root canal is going to be another big expense although my dentist told me she wouldn’t charge me for rest of the work based on the prior work and payments. I’m hoping this is it concerning my teeth, at least for a while.
Not really a lot going on to report on otherwise. I walked up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see “Jerusalem 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven.” I could damn it with faint praise and say it was “interesting,” and I guess it was but I confess to being underwhelmed. I knew it wasn’t really my cup of tea but felt I should see it. Lots of gold, jewelry, bibles, vessels, sculptures, etc. but nothing especially memorable. Right at the opening there was a display case filled with gold coins which would have made their owner a fabulously wealthy man. You can see that here at the Met twitter feed. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvztONrWIAAvDhI.jpg And towards the end there was a fabulous silver belt which I had just seen in the Met’s catalog of new acquisitions that I received on Friday. http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/683988 This is a link to the New York Times review of the exhibit. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/arts/design/jerusalem-as-a-place-of-desire-and-death-at-the-metropolitan-museum.html?_r=0 More than likely my next report will be on paintings of one sort or another.
I guess that’s it for this week, let’s tiptoe over to the Flickrs.
Andy G.
Angélica Castro ♥
https://www.flickr.com/photos/divacarioca/6616976447/
MISAKKY with Sexy White Dress 001
https://www.flickr.com/photos/misakky/28742982872/
Dash of purple*, Princess Megan of July
https://www.flickr.com/photos/meagancrickett/27764484073/
照片 047
https://www.flickr.com/photos/yammy_chow/5799702167/
IMG_0729
https://www.flickr.com/photos/144616764%40N04/29066081436/
When you are such a tough guy that you are not embarrassed to wear a skirt ( a tree skirt to be specific).
https://www.flickr.com/photos/arablue/31168236216/
IMG_20150505_204109_mr1430885942439.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/87588681%40N02/17384902822/
2016-02-23-22-40-49
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mondgg8338/25122061521/
Dressy Lady of Red_01
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mika_ayukawa/26120357726/
Los Angeles
https://www.flickr.com/photos/65226966%40N05/27569059184/
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Hey Andy, hope you have better luck training your replacement than I did. I spent over a year and he just wanted the paycheck and prestige of being in charge but did not learn any of the technical aspects of the job. He just was not interested. There was no other candidate for the job so they kept him on after I left and I heard the department came to a stand still for almost a month. Our former general manager has become my new best friend even though we often clashed at work, but we email and meet for coffee sometimes with another former work friend who retired suddenly just before me. He basically had enough of the BS and told them he was done at the end of a week and signed his paperwork and never went back. After I gave the company a date for leaving I went back to doing Inventory control and time sheets etc. I even filled in for the Shipper / Receiver for a week just to leave the young trainee on his own so he would need to sink or swim in my job with out relying on me all the time. As you say I still have hundreds of part numbers in my head even after almost four years of retirement. You may still miss the people but not the work I bet.
Anyway glad you seem to be keeping healthy and still getting your walking in. That is something I need to do more of but as winter is on it's way I tend to stay in by the fireside and do a bit of exercise there.
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Cold weather has reared its ugly head as we draw closer to the actual Winter. Last week it was in the low twenties on a few mornings. And in the sports section of today’s newspaper they are discussing the inclement weather that will be affecting the Giants football game tomorrow in the Meadowlands, snow, rain and sleet. Oh boy! I’m grateful I don’t have to go out in that aside from my daily walks which will not be overly pleasant I’m sure. I’m hoping the Monday morning commute will not be more irritating than usual as well. Just a few more, I’d like them to not be memorable for the wrong reasons.
It took me a week to get the results of my coronary calcium scan and while it’s not bad it wasn’t the result I wanted. It came in low, what might be expected in a 65 year old man but because I have a history of moderately high cholesterol. which I have been able to control through diet, my cardiologist said I should go back on the statin. It’s my choice to make but despite not being happy about it I’m not going to disregard what my doctor tells me. People who do that seem to have early expiration dates. I’m going to talk to my internist about lowering the dose since I don’t think I need the 20mg I had been taking. I’m still going to do what I can to avoid taking any other drugs.
And my tooth continues to bedevil me. I had the root canal on Monday which was surprisingly pain free but the dentist had to take some more of the tooth off so the cap really has nothing to adhere to and is always in danger of coming loose. But on Wednesday I’ll go back and start the rest of the procedure getting a temporary implant which will at least keep the cap in place until the permanent post is inserted. The old adage, be true to your teeth and they’ll never be false to you has a lot of truth to it.
And despite the cold weather I put on my warm clothes and walked up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art this morning. They had what I can’t even really call an exhibition although the Met does. The Met has a nice selection of paintings by Velazquez and recently the Hispanic Society sent two of theirs to the Met for cleaning. Now that they have been cleaned and restored they’re on display in the gallery with the Met’s. And they’re splendid. I’ve spoken of the Hispanic Society many times, they have an extraordinary collection most of which is never on display. With a new curator and the possibility of a new building I’m hoping this changes at some point. Here are links to the two paintings, Young Girl, http://tinyurl.com/h5axpug and Cardinal Camillo Astalli-Pamphili (1616/19–1663) http://tinyurl.com/jhrtvdv Wonderful portraits, the girl is the only painting he did of a child who was not of Royal lineage. As it says on the website, the tenderness of her skin and silkiness of her hair transcend illusion. The Cardinal in his red cassock and slightly tilting biretta makes for a vibrant portrait. Also in the exhibition, from the Met’s collection, is the painting he did of his slave and assistant, Juan de Pareja (1606–1670) http://tinyurl.com/gvhebnn. You see a very proud and confident individual. Months after this was painted de Pareja was freed and went on to become a painter in his own right.
On the way to the gallery I passed another gallery which had some of the Met’s recent acquisitions. I spoke last week of receiving the catalog of new acquisitions from the Met and this gave me a chance to see some of them in place. These are artists I had never come across before. First Joachim Beuckelaer, Fish Market. Beuckelaer is a Dutch artist of the 16th Century and this is a large depiction of a fishmonger displaying his wares to a clearly not impressed customer. http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/679844 He happens to be cutting salmon which is my favorite fish dinner so I’m surprised at her reluctance to purchase it. Next, Guido Cagnacci, The Death of Cleopatra. http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/670765 Cagnacci was a 17th Century Italian artist. This is a fine depiction of Cleopatra in a state of mourning and despair after the death of Marc Antony as she holds the serpent to her bosom. Ample bosom I might add. Her emotional gaze upwards, the red dress from which she has bared her bosom and the coiling asp around her arm make this quite a picture. And Fernand Khnopff, Hortensia, http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/679686 Khnopff is 19th Century Belgian. This is a lovely study of a potted plant in the foreground with a portrait of what is thought to be the artist’s sister and favorite model, Marguerite. It’s a wonderful composition with the one red flower laying on the table, what appears to be a patterned towel under the pot, the way you see the sitter, through the doorway in the distance behind the plant and the door itself with the thick black handle and keyhole below. Leaving these galleries I walked back through the museum to the 19th Century galleries and saw the last new acquisition of my trip, Chrysanthemums in the Garden at Petit-Gennevilliers by Gustave Caillebotte. I was very surprised to discover that this is the first painting by the artist in the collection. http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/671456 Many years ago my brother and I visited the Art Institute of Chicago and one of the first things we saw when we entered was his wonderful masterpiece, Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877 http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/20684 a large, magnificent street scene. As with all the paintings you should definitely enlarge this one to really enjoy it. It hangs not that far from Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884, 1884/86 (or Sunday in the Park with George from the musical of the same name) http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/27992 another brilliant, large painting.
I also visited the current drawing exhibit which was pleasant but had no real blockbusters. There were a number of lithographs by Maynard Dixon of Sunset Magazine covers. Sunset Magazine was published at the turn of the 20th Century by the Southern Pacific Railroad and was devoted to the states of the West Coast. Wikipedia tells me it’s still being published. This is the October 1902 edition http://tinyurl.com/jqqqk4e It was a remarkably successful and popular image as you can see from this website description, http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2371+++++380+&refno=++692049&saletype= The website was auctioning the actual magazine and it went for $4,000, well above the estimates and a pretty good return on the ten cents it originally cost.
And so ends our visit to the Met.
Let’s catch the Flickrs.
Andy G.
Joan Davis and Jack Haley dressed as little girls
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10379538%40N05/29527188570/
Kazumi Takahasi
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27401732%40N05/26180495824/
HK GRAND HYATT
https://www.flickr.com/photos/im-cindy/28168730404/
PICT0007
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mysteytv/4450251831/
OOTD New Mango blouse, skirt & belt! What does everyone think?
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
A couple of days short of Winter and we’ve been experiencing very winter like weather here in the Northeast. It was bitter cold during the week, ten degrees on the thermometer in my back yard one morning. I dress in layers and one morning I went out in six layers, the fifth being a thick ski sweater. I looked somewhat like the Michelin man as well as the little boy whose mother dresses him up so thickly that when he falls he can’t get up. I still felt like the frozen vegetables I used to buy. Then late last night it started to snow and I woke up to several inches of snow and 20 degree temperatures. It turned to rain and warmed up some but traveling was unpleasant. Normally I say I walked up to the Met but this morning it was more like I trudged up. The sidewalks and streets were slush with rivers of water at the intersections as the snow melted and the rain came. I was wearing my heavy rain shoes which feel similar to the two pound weights runners wear to increase their stamina. They don’t do much for my stamina but they certainly made my legs feel heavy. This first glance of winter doesn’t make me very optimistic about what the actual season is going to bring.
The young man we hired to take my place at my office started this past Monday. I’ve spent the week training him and will continue to do so until my final day, December 30th . He’s in a better position than I was as I created an enormous amount of back-up material for him as to what I do and how I do it. When I joined the Company all I was told was, this is your desk, answer the phones. Normally I’m only in the office physically on Mondays but I went into the office on Wednesday and had lunch with one of our clients. I don’t get involved much with the clients but this is one that I’ve played an active role in accommodating through the years and I really like them, they’re exceedingly nice people. I hadn’t realized it had been more than three years since we saw each other. I know it’s more than three years as my co-worker was stunned to see me in a jacket and tie. It’s a very rare sighting. I mentioned the previous lunch and he said he had never seen me dressed up hence the time frame as he is in his third year with the Company. I jokingly said to my boss it was my Bar Mitzvah suit and he laughed then said, is it? It’s not although it could have been. If it was it would have been too big for me based on how fat I was as a child. I told them it was the suit I bought for my interview with my first real employer back in 1977. They then said it was so old that it had gone out of style and come back. I confess I didn’t understand, I pointed out it was a pin striped suit and was surprised it would go out of style. They said that the cut is what would have changed. Anyway, it certainly doesn’t get a lot of use.
The lunch was very pleasant, I had a mozzarella cheeseburger which I had to eat with a knife and fork as my tooth wasn’t up to the task. There were three individuals, two men and a young woman. As in all restaurant settings where I sit with a number of people it’s difficult to hear the conversation from the other end so most of the time I chatted with the young woman. She’s a reader and we filled up the time talking about books, my favorite topic, and I also told her a little more about me. My boss announced my retirement and they were very nice about it saying how much they will miss me.
Afterwards I visited the dentist and she installed my temporary post. I had no idea how this would be done and had heard various explanations involving screwing something into my mouth and also needing to have the tooth extracted. Neither of them turned out to be the solution she chose. When I had my root canal the other dentist left an opening in the base of the tooth and that’s where the post will be installed. The tooth will be built up and then the cap will be placed over that. I was also surprised that there was no pain involved in the root canal and this procedure is painless as well. She put in a temporary post and put the crown back in more solidly so I can eat and not have to worry about it falling right out even though I still have to be careful. I have an appointment for January 6th for the next step. The temp is a little long and it was affecting my bite so I wound up filing it down a little. Although my bite isn’t as bad as my bark.
As I mentioned I went back to the Met this morning, this time to see their current Chinese exhibit, Show and Tell: Stories in Chinese Painting. It’s a beautiful exhibition filled with long scrolls that tell a story, some of which I confess were a little incomprehensible to me. Demons figure in many of the scrolls and hangings. Such as this small section from Searching the Mountains for Demons http://tinyurl.com/hwdkrh9 This section actually shows one of the demons. http://www.ipernity.com/doc/laurieannie/24719745 Then there’s Ten Kings of Hell, a set of ten hanging scrolls of which five are in the collection. The Chinese had a rather fatalistic view of life after death. You were judged by ten demons over a period of time to learn your eternal fate and wicked doers were doomed to eternal torture which you can see in the foreground of this this scroll. http://tinyurl.com/h7zlnvz You can click on the images to enlarge and then grab them to move up and down. I don’t remember seeing actual portraits before but this life size painting, Portrait of the Imperial Bodyguard Zhanyinbao was truly striking. http://tinyurl.com/gm3tz96 And I enjoyed this long scroll, Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao Entering the Tiantai Mountains, another story about entering an enchanted forest and finding a group of immortals who entice two men to stay for a bit. They stay six months and when they return to their home they discover ages have passed. They try to go back but never do find the magic forest again. Very delicate figure paintings and very beautiful. http://tinyurl.com/her2d6o I found this very nice three minute video about the exhibit on Youtube, well worth watching for the narrative and images https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prz_sIYZ5MU You can see all of the images in the exhibit here. http://tinyurl.com/ze9o8ge
Well, I guess there’s nothing left but to go to the Flickrs.
Andy G.
98
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chiaratalley/22342075372/
Garden party dress
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22813843@N06/30397646352/
IMG_2604
https://www.flickr.com/photos/95108651@N08/29907550453/
purple dragon
https://www.flickr.com/photos/80033576@N05/29708531601/
Halloween Costume 2016
https://www.flickr.com/photos/amnesiasparkles/29893496434/
20161022_134714
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mondgg8338/30485025505/
Its only a mock wedding
https://www.flickr.com/photos/suziecdtv/2800323715/
Pin-up 50's
https://www.flickr.com/photos/105651494@N07/30460741696/
Double cuties♡ #cutiemei #crossdresser #crossdress #trap #beauty #model #mtf #男の娘 #女装男 #伪娘
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cutiemei11/29847006773/
FavIMG_2567
https://www.flickr.com/photos/36227588@N02/30454421825/
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bet you are looking forward to your retirement and can then start visiting more places
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Hi Samantha,
I am looking forward to retirement. I don't know how much more art I will get to see but the key is that if something does arise I don't have to put it off until a Saturday. And I won't have to choose between two venues if I want to see both.
Andy G.