Oh dear, it looks like the Fall Flickr has snuck up on us already!

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr,

I just got off the phone with one of my nonagenarian friends; heā€™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 didnā€™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 itā€™s many years later and Iā€™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 whatā€™s in store for him. Itā€™s always hard to believe where you are in life when you look back. So I guess itā€™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 Internistā€™s machine didnā€™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. Iā€™m really not pleased as the root canal is going to be another big expense although my dentist told me she wouldnā€™t charge me for rest of the work based on the prior work and payments. Iā€™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 ā€œJerusalem 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven.ā€ I could damn it with faint praise and say it was ā€œinteresting,ā€ and I guess it was but I confess to being underwhelmed. I knew it wasnā€™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 Metā€™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 thatā€™s it for this week, letā€™s tiptoe over to the Flickrs.

Andy G.

AngĆ©lica Castro ā™„

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/

ē…§ē‰‡ 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/

[Angela M...]

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.   

[andyg0404]

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 todayā€™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! Iā€™m grateful I donā€™t have to go out in that aside from my daily walks which will not be overly pleasant Iā€™m sure. Iā€™m hoping the Monday morning commute will not be more irritating than usual as well. Just a few more, Iā€™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 itā€™s not bad it wasnā€™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. Itā€™s my choice to make but despite not being happy about it Iā€™m not going to disregard what my doctor tells me. People who do that seem to have early expiration dates. Iā€™m going to talk to my internist about lowering the dose since I donā€™t think I need the 20mg I had been taking. Iā€™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 Iā€™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 theyā€™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 canā€™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 theyā€™re on display in the gallery with the Metā€™s. And theyā€™re splendid. Iā€™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 Iā€™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 (1616/19ā€“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 Metā€™s collection, is the painting he did of his slave and assistant, Juan de Pareja (1606ā€“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 Metā€™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 Iā€™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 artistā€™s sister and favorite model, Marguerite. Itā€™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 Seuratā€™s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte ā€” 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 itā€™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.

Letā€™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?

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

A couple of days short of Winter and weā€™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 canā€™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 donā€™t do much for my stamina but they certainly made my legs feel heavy. This first glance of winter doesnā€™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. Iā€™ve spent the week training him and will continue to do so until my final day, December 30th . Heā€™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 Iā€™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 donā€™t get involved much with the clients but this is one that Iā€™ve played an active role in accommodating through the years and I really like them, theyā€™re exceedingly nice people. I hadnā€™t realized it had been more than three years since we saw each other. I know itā€™s more than three years as my co-worker was stunned to see me in a jacket and tie. Itā€™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? Itā€™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 didnā€™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 doesnā€™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 wasnā€™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 itā€™s difficult to hear the conversation from the other end so most of the time I chatted with the young woman. Sheā€™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 thatā€™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 isnā€™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. Itā€™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 thereā€™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 donā€™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 thereā€™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 cutiesā™” #cutiemei #crossdresser #crossdress #trap #beauty #model #mtf #ē”·ć®åؘ #å„³č£…ē”· #ä¼Ŗåؘ

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cutiemei11/29847006773/

FavIMG_2567

https://www.flickr.com/photos/36227588@N02/30454421825/

[samantha1]

bet you are looking forward to your retirement and can then start visiting more places

[andyg0404]

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.