UPMC vs Highmark

Sketch during a health benefits meeting about the UPMC / Highmark squabble.

Pic-a-day Down! (again)

So with my recent incident involving my bike bag being stolen off of the back of my bike (WHILE riding up a hill), one of the many things taken was my camera.

(BIG sad face)

This means that once again, my pic-a-day has screeched to a grinding halt. I did not even make the one-year mark, so this makes me very sad indeed.

I still like the idea of doing one small creative thing a day so I'm kicking around new ideas that wouldn't include a camera. Sketch-a-day? Random thought of the day? Quick story or poem a day? In the meantime, I'll be on hiatus, so I will try to think of something to replace my daily photo posting.

I'll start with this perspective of the day:
Even though I had a lot of important stuff taken from me, I still have my physical health and I will actually be OK. The kid who took my stuff is actually in worse shape...on the path to jail or worse. So, no matter what you are going through, it's good to remember, there's always another side to a story, and there's always someone worse off than you.

View of My Aching Feet

Wednesday Feb 2

Camera Down = Blog Down

Tuesday


So in case you didn't hear, my camera broke at the Pens game a few weeks ago. I had the lens open and it fell out of my lap as I was letting someone into the aisle and then the lens got stuck in the extended position. :( Major bummer. It's getting fixed at a camera shop, but it won't be ready for another week. So until then, I don't expect to get many still images with my sucky camera phone.

8-1 Pens, RIP my camera

Wednesday
One of the last good pics I took with my Canon Powershot SX2100 before it got dropped... Hope I can get it fixed!

Needless packaging...

This was the box that my ONE bottle of medicine came in.
Talk about a waste... :P

Note to self: take non-drowsy Benadryl during work....

Late Night, yeesh

Hooliganism

On my ride home tonight: I am going across the Hot Metal Bridge when I happen upon two people, a black male and a while female, probably in their early 20's. Not much of a big deal, but the guy starts to move over to the left as I call out, "on your left....uh nevermind, in between you."

I go between them and about a few seconds later I feel something tugging on my hand and bike... I look down and see a red thread being pulled by my front handlebars. I try to get it off but realize I have to stop and find myself at the other end of the bridge at that point. I think perhaps it is my shirt since it's red and I start to worry that my shirt is unraveling in front of everyone.

"If you would like to destroy my sweater...get it caught on my bike I as ride away..."

I start gathering up the thread and realize that there is way too much thread and it isn't the same shade of red as my shirt. I look up and see that those two I passed between are stealing glances at me from where they are nonchalantly looking out at the city skyline. Then I remember they might have been laughing at me before...or something.

"The bastards...they tried to clothesline me.....uh, with a piece of thread??"

Shortly after I took the above picture, I considered going to take a picture of them and then asking them if they wanted their thread back, but decided against it. I'm just glad they didn't use fishing line that could have caused more harm than a little bit of "thread burn". Actually they didn't have gloves on, so if anything they probably would have harmed themselves more than me.

Douche bags. Oh well.

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Update: the next evening I found a bunch of that same thread all over the bridge. What punks.