Alien Sky Day

 Another collection of pictures I got, from kind of a while ago.

Got an early-morning call from a friend who asked if I knew what was going on. They were being playfully vague encouraging me to check out... outside. Um... What planet am I on?! This is not digitally altered with a sepia tone filter, this was what the sky looked like that day! I couldn't get a good picture inside the apartment of the strange orange glow peeking around the edges of the curtained windows. Did aliens take over the world while I was asleep?

The odd orange haze in the air was so thick, you could look at the sun! Not for too long, of course, it's still THE SUN. It was similar to a snow day, when everybody was huddled inside, with less traffic, so it was that kind of silence outside. It really contributed to the apocalypse dread. It was seriously creepy. What kind of thing could cause the whole sky to turn orange? And it's REALLY happening.

The camera couldn't quite capture the orange glow of the sun that was going on. But I tried zooming-in to see if I could get a better picture of that.

There was a noticeable "burn" to the air. Like... maybe I shouldn't be outside, breathing this in. There was nobody else out here, I already mentioned the eerie quiet-ness. Probably everybody else knew to stay inside. So after a minute or so, I wised-up and went back inside.

The news report confirmed there was massive forest fires in Canada, and the smoke was so much that it was blowing south into New Jersey! They said even Washington DC was getting a little bit of it. The sky was super-orange today, but the effect lingered for about a week, getting better each passing day. 

Whew! That was weird! Back to some fun pictures, here's some amazing memories in car form. The Brady Bunch had the classic-est station wagon, an early example of something normally "lame" but somehow elevated itself to "cool". And who doesn't remember the cop car from Beverly Hills Cop? It sounds like an obvious thing, cop car from a cop movie, but as you're reading this, surely you've had the quote running through your mind... about putting a banana in the tailpipe!

Saw the Transformers Rise of the Beasts movie in the theatre. Not bad. Probably about what you'd expect from a modern day Transformers movie. Sure, I could nit-pick a few things that didn't quite make sense, but if you're smart enough to notice those things, you're also smart enough to know... you're not watching this kind of movie to care about those things. Enjoy the explosions and robot carnage. I won't spoil it, but the very-end of the movie surprise was the best part. I can't wait for the sequel!

Laughed on the way out of the theatre, this guy was here to see the Spiderman movie! Should I let it bite me? Would I get superpowers?!!

Only $85 at the thrift shop! That thing looks sooooo comfy! But there's no way it's not haunted. That's got to be the reason it's here, right? What a work of art, though. It might be worth the risk.

Saw a couple of chase figures at the flea market. There's an autographed Ted Dibiase! Known as the "Million Dollar Man" I'm sure he loved signing things and making them more valuable, and there is no doubt that he charges fans for that service. He was a villain, after all. 

What an awesome amount of ridiculous things crammed into a toy. Like, can you imagine the discussion involved? What do kids like? Oh! Skateboards! Yes! French fries! Thumbs-up! Yes! All of that! Let's make it! It's so silly but looking at this, I can't help but think that kid-me would have loved it.

Still at the flea market, I recognized this sword from the show RWBY. I showed this picture to my friend later, who is a much bigger RWBY fan, he said it's name is Myrtenaster and reminded me that it flips open and you can change the dust charges in it like a wild west revolver. I don't think the flea market version would do that.

What is going on with this Amish furniture? Even for pets I think this is too much. It's more funny to imagine this is a punishment threat for unruly children. Behave or you get the cage!

I saw this wall of Bingo Markers and had a thought that it's been such a long time since I've done any Bingo. If there is a wall of this, there must be somewhere around here where they play Bingo, you think?

Swirling blades for your lawn! Mwa-ha-ha! Take that, bugs! Or birds, or whatever is foolish enough to wander into this monstrosity.

Every kid has a favorite marble, right? Let's try and make figures for that? Eh, gotta give them points for giving it a try. I thought it looked neat.

Wow. $6 for a Wyvern Starter Deck, from 1994, With a price printed on the box of $7.95. Shouldn't it be more expensive than what the price shows? That's the flea market for ya. I can say that I DID play this game back in the 90's, and I remember it was very good. They made a couple of expansion sets for it, and I got a lot of cards. Somewhere in a closet around here. Also, prior to this game, we always pronounced it "wih-vern" and then found out it's "WHY-vern" and we were humble enough to use the correct pronunciation from then on.

Wow, this was a while ago; I saw these little treasure chest blind boxes, and took this picture so I would remember to look up what was in them, but now I realized I never did that. Oops. Is it easier to just spend a couple dollars in the moment? I would have known right then and there.

So funny that this character is actually named Stupid Sexy Flanders. His suit is so tight it feels like he's wearing nothing at all! They reference this moment a lot in the actual show. And they always say that whole name. Woo-Hoo!

Prior to our Disney trip, and our Galactic Starcruiser experience, we were looking for outfits to wear that would fit in Star Wars. So we would not look like simple t-shirt'd Earth tourists and would be costumed into the universe. This old vest at the thrift shop looked cool! It was so dirty and brittle. And still priced at $40, which seemed a little outrageous. We passed, but it did look very "Star Wars". Who would want to wear that in the hot Florida weather, anyway?

What a mesmerizing frog. Am I being hypnotized right now? Look away! Before I buy this! I escaped, but it was tempting.

Mind blown. There was an estate sale I went to several years ago, it was "the cool house" we always passed up in New York. After wandering around the cool house, I took home a hand saw with this exact handle design. The saw I got was more of a solid rectangle, not this thin. What a coincidence to see part of a set here, so far away.

My friend can do hot sauce all day, the hotter the better. But sour is his kryptonite. So this is about right, cry baby tears for sure.

Got in my car with a rolled-up window. There's a family chatting away in that van parked next to us. It was hilarious, did they know... there's a diaper on the roof? How long has that been there? So gross! I did walk right past it on my way inside my car, but luckily I was not punched in the face with a bad smell.

Is it just me, or does this feel a little like I could just buy the game instead? Not everybody has a Nintendo system, I guess. 

Well this is a fortunate flipping of picture times. I took this picture before our trip to Disney World. While at Epcot, in the China gift shop, I saw these dragon figures, that I had remembered seeing at the flea market. And here they are. Again. Or before? Eh, you get it.

There was some kind of funny irony coming from this Soap sign at the flea market where everything was so filthy.

This art caught my eye on this album cover. It says Science Fiction, but clearly it's Fantasy with a dragon, until you notice she's got some kind of gun, so I guess that counts as Sci-Fi now.

You remind me of the babe.

What babe?

Babe with the power.

What power?

Power of voodoo.

Who do.

You do.

Do what?

Remind me of the babe!

Another blast from the past, my friend saw these google-eyed rocks in a Las Vegas gift shop in... 2001. I think... When did he go to Vegas? Anyway, he still has the one he got, and it was fun to see them again.