Downtown Omaha's Leahy Park.
June 02, 2008
Well hello! I know I haven't posted anything of note for the last few days, and I'm sure you've been simply dying to hear from me, but you know, got busy. Was in the process of finalizing the spiffy CSS bits on the site that now makes it go (try turning the style on and off and see how neat that is), and of course, I hadn't quite completed the site's Imagery thing just yet.
Anyway, so for about a year now, I've had this digital camera thing. I bought it back when I had like, money, and right before a series of calamities put me from 'just slightly in debt' to 'drowning in it'. I got it as a sort of indulgence for myself, since I'd always wanted to do the photography thing - even if in an amateur sort of way. Well, the odd thing is I never really did much with it.
I blame the calamities for that. I had a horrible surgery for one thing, which basically blunted my desire to do much of anything for a very long time. I am told that my condition screwed with my mind, so much so that people thought I was 'off' for a while. I never really noticed this myself, right up until the actual operation I had to get, but when it was only days away I noticed problems thinking.
Everything was fuzzy and all, mostly likely from the almost terminal blood poisoning, but you know. I guess that sort of thing sneaks up on you gradually or something, which is why I hadn't felt a difference. Of course I am a fully trained and qualified medical doctor or something, so I'm sure I'm underestimating just how messed up I was. And here, as usual, I'm digressing - imagine that.
So the thing is I just felt like having something I could randomly take pictures with when the urge hit me. Well, that and I had uses for a sexy digital camera for my other web site when the motivation finally hit me, so I bought me a Panasonic digital thingie. And hey, yesterday the urge to take some pictures finally struck, so I went ahead and went somewhere I could do just that.
This involved a trek down to the 'historic' Old Market in downtown Omaha. I felt like heading down there because it was actually a pretty good weather day here in Omaha - an astounding circumstance in its own right - so after I got out of the torment that is my job on Sunday, I drove down there. This took a bit longer than I expected, mind you, 'cause I had to fight twenty miles of construction en route.
But that was all right, 'cause hey, I was off for the day. Well, at least until I had to work for Job Two, which involved finishing up a sort of 'emergency' marketing task - and I couldn't do that since there was an Issue I had to work out with my co-worker on Monday. But eh, details. I had some time for myself and I took full advantage. And drove downtown so I could break out the camera.
As it turned out, the city was being amazingly photogenic that day. Which was cool, because I had a fully loaded camera and I wasn't afraid to use it. I basically spent a whole hour walking around in the park downtown, a sort of weird peaceful spot in the middle of all the buildings and 'historic' bits here and there that have been converted into lofts and/or weirdo businesses.
Now, 'walking around' the park involves trekking about the lake at the heart of the thing, which, if you check out that first picture, isn't gigantic - but it's not like you want to go wading in that stuff. I've done that as part of a gag for our show once, and trust me... that's not something you want to repeat. I swear I still have horrible germs from exposure to that hobowater. Egad was it sticky.
So I basically just walked around a lot taking pictures, I guess. A bunch presented themselves totally by accident. Once I got done I just sort of fell into a few random 'photo opportunities' here and there, as you can see by several of these images. I don't know why but the weird 'tree tunnel' effect of the one just said 'save me' and stuff. So I clicked a bunch of those.
And of course there was the Slide. I always enjoyed that dangerous thing as a kid, and it's weird how many people were hanging out and just enjoying it with their kids. When not slamming into each other since they took too long getting off the thing. I just missed an awesome picture of some guy getting steamrolled by another at the bottom of that thing. But still, good times.
The odd thing is that I was hearing music being piped into the area there, so I starting walking around a bit again before leaving, and ran across a bunch of people just... dancing out in the park. My strange 'people watching' tendencies took hold (one of my Second Life bad habits) and I just sort of ogled at this spectacle before snapping a picture or two of the weird deal.
Well, I guess it wasn't a bunch of furry perverts dancing to techno, but what can you expect from a spontaneous dance-out? Anyway, I spent a good hour-ish down there watching folks just having fun, a strange occurrence for me, particularly since I never seem to have fun here in town myself (whether at home or otherwise). Though I didn't do do anything, per se, I enjoyed a whole lot.
A frighteningly stress-free afternoon. I could use some more of those, so I may have to head downtown again one of these days and see if I can repeat the experience. Naturally my innate pessimism doesn't think I'd be quite so lucky, but I wouldn't mind a bit more 'relaxation' and blah blah. But wrapping the afternoon up, I finally left the Old Market and sought out some tasty lunch.
This particular quest saw me headed down 13th street, eventually passing the one and only King Kong. Doing a U-Turn, I flipped around and stopped in as I hadn't actually been to that particular one before. I figured they'd just built it in order to milk the whole 'College World Series' thing for all it was worth, which when you get down to it, isn't a bad idea at all. Mmm moneys.
Nothing on this earth beats a Double Bacon Kong Burger wif Cheese. Nothing. Mmm... not a ton of carbs and so much madcap meat that it's just a big bag of awesomes. If you ever find your way to Omaha, you definitely have to hit the Kong. After you eat at the Bronco's. Yes, I am totally hooked on the local burger joints, as you may have already gathered from my rambles here. But they're so good!