Among the highlights, a Canadian biker gang, authorities insisting I give them my memory card as I'm now an assumed terrorist, meeting a world famous artist (I guess) Michael J Mayosky and taking photos of him at work, buying ANOTHER disk for 18 holes of disk golf and losing my car in the process (well, I was lost, the car wasn't), and almost getting hit by lightning on the highway (there was no separation between the bolt and thunder which seemed to be directly in front of my car - I KNOW the truck driver I was passing jumped).
I'll skip right to the part where I was almost arrested.
For excitement I took my mom with me and we went to a little boat landing where I got my tripod out and was snapping some photos and waiting for ducks to pass and I moved to get one more shot and a white SUV pulls up and a guy says "Can I help you?".
I said "no thanks" I was fine and then he asks "What are you doing". I thought it was rather obvious what I was doing but in case he was ignorant I said I was taking photos.
He said "sorry, but I will have to confiscate your memory card" . . . . . WHAT?? OK, several things were going through my mind like memory cards cost money and I had photos on the card I wanted and does this stranger actually have any authority to do this and how long will I be in jail.
He explained that normally the police would be here and I thought, well, why are they not here NOW, oddly I was a little disappointed I got a back-up. The word terrorist came into play and my mom jumps in saying why would a terrorist bring his mom with him and the guy said you would be surprised. Yes - I WOULD be surprised. Has a terrorist every been arrested WITH HIS MOM?
I was still in the "stay calm and reasonable" mode but the other part of my brain was getting ready to be stubborn and thinking how far will I go with this chicken shit crap.
I went to my car to get business cards and a business postcard which my terrorist cell made for me and when I got back he was on the phone.
I mentioned my brothers name and while on the phone he was looking at my cards and said "Melotte, he's an architect". YEA - an important one and he will throw your ass in jail buddy" I was thinking but then he decided that since I looked like "I" was not going to back down like a normal sheep that maybe if I just deleted all the images of the power plant on my card that would be fine.
I mentioned that the shots were GREAT that I was taking and he said "You should see it at night" sigh!! YEA - maybe I could take some pictures!!!
So I pretended to delete some shots and he took off. My mom had a great time!! Quite exciting. I explained to her that that was not the first time I had to talk myself out of trouble. It's actually happened a few times now and I was getting goo at it. This did not make her feel wonderful.
Of course she said that the problem I was mistaken for a terrorist was because of my hair and tattoos. A dead giveaway.
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Saturday night I was walking around Springfield looking for images and I set up for some shots and I SWEAR this cop card kept going around the block watching me!! WAS IT MY HAIR?? Maybe I was just being paranoid!
Well I heard awesome classical music playing and was attracted and walked that direction and turned a corner. On top of some scaffolding was an artist working on a mural that I had driven past a few times the day earlier.
I stopped to take a few shots and a friend of his climbed down and explained who he was. His name is Michael J Mayosky and he was working on mural #109 of his 111 Lincolns.
He's done some pretty awesome things all around the world.
So I went back to my car to get more equipment and take some good shots.
He came down and was talking to me and fans and he actually introduced ME to people and I'm hoping to get him to come up to Columbus and maybe paint a wall somewhere. Perhaps a great 1930ish mural somewhere. The bulging building??? I'll have to ask Bryon Dopkins!! We have been doing a lot of talking lately! Weird ain't it.
Putting barricades really sort of screwed the city because NOW, if anyone hurts themselves it's the city's fault and not the building owner. The city recognizes that there is a danger so it's now in their lap to get the owner to fix it and if he does not fix it then the city can either HOPE no one sues them for millions of dollars, OR go into a couple year lawsuit as we just take the building "imminent domain" which would be MUCH MUCH cheaper the a injury lawsuit.
I'll leave the rest of the stories for another blog.
Rod
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