Saturday, January 11, 2014

More Reflections From The Winter Road


While on the road over the holiday, I had my phone with me, of course, and I snapped away with the little camera.  You've got to love the new phones.  You have a decent little camera with you wherever you go.  I included this selfie largely because I have never written the word before.  It is such a new word (although now about as overused as a word can be) that it is underlined with a red squiggly as it is not in the dictionary of this 5 year old computer.  Here I am, taking a selfie, in the New Mexico mountains. That was a river of ice behind me coming down a chilly mountainside as I took this selfie.  We were on our way to a hot springs up on the mountainside.  I've got selfie out of my system now.


When we were doing some last minute shopping we stopped by a grocery store and who do you think we saw in the beer section?  Yep, the jolly old elf himself.  I would have thought of Santa as a Chivas Regal man, or maybe an expensive port.  Nope.  Beer.  Guess what he picked out.  I'll show you at the end of this post.

When we were eating in this cool little out-of-the-way restaurant in New Mexico, on the way to the above hot springs area, I took this picture of a sign above the eating area.  You know, when you work in the restaurant business, the customer's always right.  No matter what kind of demanding fools they are.  They are always right.  "My burger's overdone [I found out after eating about a third of it] please take it back and I expect this one MEDIUM well."  "The lettuce on this sandwich is too wilted...  This soup is too cold...  My beer is not cold enough..."  I believe this little sign reminds patrons of their role.


New Mexico is sort of the nuclear weapons capitol.  They test nuclear weapons, store nuclear waste, develop and research nuclear weapons.  Of course there were lots of bumper stickers about that.  Not everyone is proud of it.  Many make their livelihood at it.  My favorite was NUKE A GAY WHALE FOR JESUS.  Just because it's so silly.  One had a dark photo of a mushroom cloud.  Desert.  A few scrubby trees getting whipped back by the blast.  The caption read GONE FISSION!

The opposite side of the issue was illustrated by a sticker that showed a white peace sign on a black background.  the lines inside the peace sign were formed by some kind of plane.  A bomber I suppose.  The accompanying words were PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.  There you go.  Of course another one in the same parking lot read PEACE THROUGH ANNIHILATION.  It takes all kinds to make this wacky world go round.  

One showed a big fat jet.  A bomber?  Under the picture were the words FIGHTER PILOTS MAKE MOVIES.  HEAVY PILOTS MAKE HISTORY.  I'm just guessing here that heavy pilots carry BIG BOMBS.  

Here are a couple of random ones...

Probably some kind of inside joke.  Although from the looks of this car's bumper and the amount of dents all over the rest of it, someone didn't heed the message and let their friend drive under the influence of something...  






The two above were on the same truck as the one below.


Just an interesting combination is all.  The little sticker below NOBAMA reads YES, THIS IS MY TRUCK.  NO, I WON'T HELP YOU MOVE.

There is a large military presence in NM.  With all those nukes around, I HOPE so!  Somebody better be minding the store.  There were many pro-military stickers as well as some peaceniks.




People plaster bumper stickers all over their cars for lots of reasons.  Attention seeking, proclaiming their deepest convictions, self-expression, weird and unusual beliefs, to express their likes/dislikes, to rub others' noses in their ideas.  However, I am very glad that I live in a society where a PROWOMAN/OBAMAVOTER sticker can ride down the road right next to OBAMA SO LOVED THE POOR! HE CREATED MILLIONS MORE!

Freedom of speech rocks.  Hey, maybe that could be a bumper sticker!  Anyway...


... It was COORS ("The coldest tasting beer in the world!").  Next Santa moved on to the pastry section where he loaded up on cream filled donuts and bear claws.  He has an image to maintain, after all.

2 comments:

Ruth Anne O'Keefe said...

Oh, thank you for teaching me about bumper stickers right here in my own town! You are the best. And because you are such a good writer, you see the most. I have this sticker on my computer, where TSA can read it every time it goes through the x-ray machine:
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION:
IRAQ & IRAN: 0
ALBUQUERQUE: 1900

Tim O'Keefe said...

I thought of your bumper sticker. Should have written it down. It fits in here perfectly.