I’m sure we all could create just as many entries as there are over on Unphotographable about the pictures we didn’t take, but one I didn’t take this morning triggered a memory from years ago.

I was waiting on the light to cross 16th Street and I saw one of our neighborhood beggars. She’s a more recognizable character since she’s always on crutches and has no fear about heading out into (usually stopped) traffic to go from window to window asking for a little help. When I first saw her, she was a figure of pity, but now it’s more annoyance because she stands out in the street, sometimes blocking traffic and buses to panhandle.

So this morning I’m waiting to cross and I see her standing, on her crutches, next to the bus shelter across the road. She’s not begging from passing cars this morning, she’s fiddling with something in her hands. I look closer and she’s counting a rather sizable wad of cash. I don’t know if they were big or small bills, but with the size of that roll, it didn’t matter. I tried to get my camera on her, but cars kept passing and she kept looking up and around and the last thing I needed was a “crippled” homeless woman on my case before going to work.

It took me back…

Wow, how did I miss this? Pray at the Pump holds prayer groups at gas stations in an effort to appeal to God to bring gas prices down.

“This whole thing is a wake-up call from God to Americans, because we idolize men so much,” said Twyman, 59, a public relations consultant and Seventh-day Adventist who believes that high gas prices are a sign of the apocalypse drawing nigh. “I think through this crisis, God is trying to call us back to depend on Him more.”

–WP: Activists Keep the Faith, if Not Their Money

To quote a well known nay-sayer, “What is it? Some sort of a cosmic cash machine?”

Bah! Star Trek: The Experience is closing!

Star Trek: The Experience, Las Vegas’ premier interactive attraction will conclude its historic 11 year run at the Las Vegas Hilton on September 1, 2008.

Since 1998, millions of guests have gone boldly into the 24th century to battle Klingons, Borg, and other hostile aliens. The original complex featured the Klingon Encounter, an interactive adventure and ride. In 2004 Borg Invasion 4-D was introduced and the Secrets Unveiled Backstage Tour was unveiled in 2005, making Star Trek: the Experience the stomping grounds for fans around the galaxy.

Well that kinda sucks, but I suppose it was bound to happen. Even I’m a little weary of the faux-constancy of Star Trek. I love watching the shows and the reruns, but an exhibit that can’t really progress and is “off the strip” was doomed to eventually become unprofitable, and even the in-costume Ferengi there would tell you there’s no point in that!

pics and memories after the jump»»

A bit of a gloomy story from a few days ago, but it brings together a lot of the separate comments I’ve heard recently.

Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism.

Horatio Alger, twist in your grave.

Everything seemingly is spinning out of control

It goes on to say that our options for escapism are pretty bleak too. The US dollar is weak, the strike killed TV for over ½ a season, the newspaper and video store are dying out and sports is so rife with scandal that one can hardly enjoy it anymore.

I read this morning that the new debate of “money for gas vs money for food” has a new participant: utilities. I’m long past my days of living paycheck to paycheck, but I work with people who have small to medium-sized families and are still circling “PAY DAY” in big red ink on their desk calendars. I know they’re hesitant to call this a recession, but what else would you call what the US is going through right now? And “just desserts” is not a constructive answer.

Of course if you believe the world is going to end (or undergo a massive transformation of some sort) in 2012, it doesn’t much matter anyway. Unless, like me, you’ll happen to be turning a certain milestone age which we will not speak aloud in 2012, in which case booking my own massive transformation, perhaps at one of Europe’s finest spas, sounds like a pretty good idea.

A little joke from Sluggy Freelance that wouldn’t have felt like a joke a few months back. It’s sort of weird to not get any mail and that my daily number of phone calls has dropped about 99%, but if the trade off is that no one’s beating down my door looking for their money, so be it. I don’t see my money being siphoned off as quickly as if I had a car, but it’s clear that just as around the world, the dollar ain’t going as far at home either. I’ve been able to couple justifications for most of my changes in habit with “health.”

A $5 latte vs a $2.50 bowl of cereal plus 2 servings of milk? No brainer! (We’ll see if I still feel that way later this morning when the lack of caffeine catches up with me) I still need to get to that point where I’m packing good portions at home and bringing them in with me, but I’ve always hated office fridge-sharing. Ours is overcrowded and filthy and people think that a bag from Giant or Safeway is a proper container for their lunch. So you end up digging through a field of blue and beige plastic to try to find that container of yogurt you’re sure you put in this morning yet has miraculously vanished by lunchtime.

Still, the last time I went shopping for my usual “I’ll cook gourmet at home and save over going out to eat” meal, the savings didn’t seem as huge as they have in the past. For the most part, I think I’m just saving on the bar tab. I’ve cut back on my usual amazon habits and gadget lust has cooled for the most part, especially with a new iPhone coming out soon and the Roku Netflix Player on about 6-8 week backorder. Living in DC, it seems like it would be easy to find free fun, but finding free fun that I haven’t already done 10 or more times is the hard part. I’m still on the fence about heading out to the parade and festival this weekend as they are more or less the same as last year and I admit that I’m feeling a little dumpy to be out and about for gay pride.

But on the bright side, at least the heat wave seems to have broken… a little. 88° is merely less than 99°, it’s not necessarily comfortable.