Found: Seriously? Another Couch

“There’s another one around the corner,” Laura said.

Every smart answer I could think of flooded into my head. In this case, though, I knew what she was talking about. As you know, Allentown has been littered with old couches waiting to be picked up for the morning trash. This was the third in a month.

I strapped the camera around my shoulder and headed up the street. Laura had spotted it out of the corner of her eye, so she didn’t see that it was not one couch, but a loveseat jammed into a couch.

Couch on Couch CrimeSo, all tolled, we have had four sightings in The Season of the Couch. Stay tuned. I’ll probably find another one tomorrow.

Lost: Corner of a Sectional Couch

The conversation reads in my head like this:

Woman: We’ve got to get rid of this old couch. It’s so old and…
Man: I like it fine in the basement where it is.
Woman: It’s not even good enough for the basement. Honestly, I’m embarrassed to have it in the house. We’ve got to take it to Goodwill.
Man: Hmph. All right, I’ll get the truck.

Twenty minutes later:

Lost Sectional of Allentown

If you have any other thoughts as to how this could have gotten on the side of PA 309, please let me know!

Found: One Can of Whipped Cream

Things get left behind on trash day. It happens. And that’s what might have happened here, but upon closer inspection, I don’t think so. All that was left on this area between the sidewalk and the road was a) the can of whipped cream, and b) the pink cap for the can of whipped cream. Which begs the question: what’s someone doing with a can of whipped cream on Front Street in Media? Right between the Fire House and the Library?

Also, did anybody know that Cabot made whipped cream? And if so, where do you get it?

Answers to these questions are welcome. The most creative answer gets a slightly-used can of Cabot Whipped Cream.

Whipped Cream and Other Delights

Lost and Found

Lately I’ve been finding a lot of interesting stuff out on the street. So much so that I’ve decided to put together a section called Lost and Found, full of found items, and one lost dog. A dog so lost he’s missing from the poster created to find him.

The couch below is just one of the many pieces of furniture I’ve seen in places where it doesn’t belong.

Found Couch

I’ll be posting some short posts here, mainly driven by photographs. I also added a post from earlier this year, The Way that We Play, which featured a picture of a leather chair on the side of I-476 on a snowy day.

The Way That We Play

There are many things that could be said about this year’s Super Bowl, but to sum it all up: everyone outside of New England and those without ties to New England wanted to see the Patriots lose. Not only to lose, but to be embarrassed. For three quarters, we, those who could not bear another Patriot win, feasted upon the thought that our dreams would come true. The Falcons? Merely a means to an end.

But we forgot, these are the Falcons.

Once the lead was squandered, and after it was all over, the faces on the screen began to talk of how this was the greatest ever, and how He Who Must Not Be Mentioned was also the greatest ever. Patriots, Patriots, Patriots. It would take a day before we got back to the Squanderers, with those sad, painful, and somehow irresistible post-game interviews. The one that got my attention the most was the one with Matt Ryan, Falcons quarterback and Chief Among Squanderers. They asked him, predictably, if he thought the Falcons had been, and more importantly, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan had been, too aggressive. To which he said, “Too aggressive? No. I thought Kyle did a good job. I thought we played the way that we play.”

The words the way that we play have echoed in my ears ever since. That’s fine, I thought, but that’s not the way that you win, obviously. Maybe you might concentrate on the way you win more than “the way that you play.”

And here’s where it changes. We often get in this same trap in life where we “do the things that we do.” Laura once got a fortune cookie that said, “when you do what you always do, you get what you always get,” which for a fortune cookie, is ridiculously insightful, and true. I began to reflect on the way that we play, about the things I do in my own life that are the way that we play.

For three plus years I took almost nothing but sign pictures. We were at some family function, and I had brought my camera, but I somehow managed to take a sum total of zero pictures. It’s not what I’m doing right now was my excuse. It was hollow and I knew it.

But it was important to realize what I was doing. There’s so much more to life than just one thing, or two, or even a handful of things. I’ve made a conscious effort to start taking pictures of things that are different, possibly mundane, but things that reflect what we all see around us.

One day, just recently, I saw somebody had left a chair out on the side of I-476 outside of Philadelphia. I really thought it would make a great picture, but for some reason I didn’t stop. The picture I had in my head was lost. I wasn’t going to get it back again. The chair wouldn’t be there tomorrow.

But, much to my surprise, it was. This time I wouldn’t do myself out of it, so I pulled over. I was extremely careful getting out of the car, and got this shot.

The Chair

It’s moments like this that happen when when you step out of the way that we play. I put together a few of my favorite shots, outside the realm of signs or cars or (more recently) flowers, moments where I just pulled over and got out of the car, or just moments I brought my camera when I wasn’t really thinking that much of taking pictures. These are moments I will never forget:

LizardI took this picture almost as a test one day while I was in Florida, but it’s one of my favorites. It’s not much of anything on the surface, just a lizard on a wooden door. Still, I’m drawn to it.

MorningOne morning outside my parent’s home. I stepped outside, most likely in my slippers, and got this one. It was the only shot I took that morning.

Red CowI was just out driving around Montandon, Pennsylvania, because what else do you do around Montandon, Pennsylvania, when I spotted an odd little building, adjacent to a field of cows. I took a few shots of the building, and the cows wandered over to get a good look at me. This one came right up to me, so I took a shot of her. I love this picture.

Ruts are easy to fall into. I fall into them all the time. If we step out of our “the way that we play” attitudes and replace that with “the way that is effective” or “the way that changes things”, we can do so much more.