TSA, Trouble Serving America

It was hotter than heck in New York this past week. I took a ton of photos, none of which are very impressive, but here are some hidden treasures in Central Park.

I bought a new lens yesterday. I'm very excited about it. My old zoom has just not been performing to the way it used to and had already had my lenses in the shop. I was either switching everything over to Nikon, or giving a new lens a shot. Excuse the pun.

It's actually not new, but a used lens. Canon EF 80-200mm.

The only negative that I see so far is the weight of the lens. It is one heavy appendage. I won't be flinging this one over my shoulder. And dropping it? Yikes, I could break concrete with it.

So that brings me to an interesting TSA story. Come to find out, you are not allowed to carry weights onto a plane that weigh more than 2 1/2 pounds each. My daughter wanted to continue her weight training during our trip, so she brought her hand weights with her. At LAX, as we went through the scanners, the weights triggered a luggage search of her carry-on. They found them, looked at them, and said they were fine. They were 5 pounds each. (Yes, my daughter carted 10 pounds of weights to New York) On the return, I told her to just take them out and put them in the bin with her shoes so they wouldn't have to do a search. Well, that didn't go well. This power hungry jerk grabbed them and said they couldn't go, quickly demanded that she follow him as he was walking out of the scanning area. It all happened so fast and she had a panicked look. I leaped into action and called to the man. "Excuse me" wouldn't get him to turn around or even give me the time of day. First of all, he had no idea of how old she was. How dare he just take MY kid. NO WAY! He wouldn't speak. Wouldn't say where he was going, what he was doing, nothing. So-- I made her stay there and I followed. No one is allowed to just demand that my kid follow them. Sorry folks. Mother Bear is here. As he was all in his huff and stuff, he handed me the weights and said they couldn't come on the plane. I knew it was worthless to try with him so I asked for a supervisor. He just walked away. Another TSA guy flagged me over and said to just put them through again. That it was fine. Oh, OK. lol That created this other power hungry woman (very vocal) to go nuts. "Not on my shift!" lol

I finally got a supervisor to come over. She was so willing to listen and discuss the issue. She gave me a solution and had one of her people (not the jerk or the vocalist) stay with me through the process to get them checked in. However, he didn't stay with me long enough and as I walked back in, (only shoes/wallet in bin), I got body searched. I got yelled at for trying to take my wallet out of the bin so it sat there until I mentioned I didn't want it stolen. She ran the pad that she patted me down with through the machine to make sure I didn't have any explosive residue on me and I was done. Her words: "You're done". No thank you for the pat down, no thanks for patience and understanding. No hug or kiss for the tender moment I had to endure being touched by another human-being other than my husband. I think these TSA people need to be trained better. I have a serious problem with them.

My observation is that they are minimum wage employees and aren't required to have continued education. I don't know, but give a minimalist power, and you get TSA employees. It wouldn't have taken much to have a dialog. Regardless of how many times they have to say, no liquids, no this, no that, that is their job. That's what they're paid to do. So if they have a problem, they're in the wrong job. Be nice TSA people. Oh-- by the way, the TSA who said it's OK, run them through again, he got reprimanded. Just wait (weight) till I bring my new lens through. LOL. It weighs much more. Yes people, I won't be able to hit anyone over the head with a five pound hand weight, but my lens?? Yes. None of it makes any sense to me.

Go Pro or Go Home

I thought I would post some of my son's photos from his last few mornings at 17th street in HB and the Wedge in Newport. He wears a "Go-Pro" on his head and then begins shooting. He says one of the down falls of the Go-Pro is that he can't take the photo when he wants to. He sets it to begin shooting and it takes a still pic every so many seconds. There are times when he misses the shot he wished he could have gotten. His videos are hysterical. I love to watch them. He gets pounded by the wave and then he comes up, swipes the lens, takes it off, points it at himself and then gives some crazy smirk into the camera. I think I need to buy him a good underwater camera. (with a buoy on it!) He loves taking photos. Imagine that!

Not sure which direction he was in these!

Deb's Art Blog Header

This week I was given the job of changing out a few things on my sister's blog. She wanted to give it a fresh new look so we took off the doggy header and I added in a gator header. I was able to use her art from one of her new releases "Underpants Thunderpants!" published by Parragon. On one of the spreads is this adorable gator with a monkey hiding behind a pair of boxers in a tree. Click here to see the book. I thought it would be cute to have him eating her blogging words. My what big teeth - Better go eat!

Deb's Art Blog

July Brings June Bugs?

Here is a sample of a calendar page that I did for a client this last month. It is so fun to do different things. Last week I was in San Fran (with my artist rep. hat on) assisting my sister in her studio. She has been offered a phenomenal children's book job from a client that we sent her marketing info to last year. I can't spill the beans yet as the contract has not been signed. And I'll let her do that. Three of her new children's books are out. Check it out here!

http://debmelmonstudio.com/

http://blogdebsart.blogspot.com/

I'm very proud of her.

And my other sister and I set up a wedding on Sunday at the Strawberry Farms in Irvine. Transformed the bathrooms from sterile to stylish and the check-in table made you look for sure!! Fun times. We always seem to laugh at something. Mostly ourselves.

PS: Yesterday we had all the doors open. There were at least a dozen June bugs flying around later that night. All trying to get into the television screen. Don't go to the light!!! Anyhow, we've re-named them "July Bugs".