Joe gets it...

Homeless Joe and Dog

Joe agrees with Dog, he should have something more to keep himself warm too. Perhaps they should go to the Time Warp place where he found Dog and see if anything has appeared.

 

Joe gestures down into the giant rusty artifact. He still isn't sure if Humans actually existed but this is a very curious metallic thing. This is where Dog appeared so ... maybe...

They climb down and discover something that could be useful.

Dog smells it and bites a hole in it.

They leave this place quickly before Time changes again. They don't want to be swept into another place.

OH! So that is why Dog bit a hole in the blanket! 

Joe is pleased, this feels pretty comfortable.

They head back to camp. Joe hears himself laugh. Dog licks his face.

Life certainly feels pretty good for Joe and Dog.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh...here is how Charlie helped with this series.

Honestly, Charlie has now learned not to tip figures over while I am photographing them. He has become quite the assistant. These figures are small and easy to carry in a small plastic case. 

The 'cape' is a piece of material that I hand stitched some floral wire into so I can 'pose' the cape. Pretty cool, huh?

Joe

The last we saw of Joe, he'd found Dog.

That was just before two big snow storms. So I wonder what exactly have they been up too lately? How have they been doing? 

Did they survive the deep freeze? What's going on?

~~~~~~~

Joe cooks up some vegetables and offers some to Dog. He feels something strange going on. He doesn't know why, but he CARES about Dog. At one point in his life he was determined not to care for anything.

Dog shares with Joe and helps him gather more sticks for the stove along with some nice warm moss to sit in.

Joe notices Dog is shivering even though he is close to the stove. 

Maybe this could help? 

Dog receives the gift and jumps up and down in the snow. 

Joe looks down at Dog and feels another strange thing happening aside from the warmth in his chest.
He feels like jumping up and down with Dog. What feeling could this be? 

Joe doesn't understand the smile on his face. He has never smiled, not that he can recall.

This world may be much better than the one he left. 

Perhaps this is not The End?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Homeless Joe is a concept created by Zhi Park. Joe has a back story that I wasn't even really aware of until I was sent a link to the creator's Instagram account. The story is vague but at the same time I felt everything that was written just by posing and using this figure. I found this after I wrote the above. 
Interesting.

Joe and Dog keep giving me endless places to go in their story. 

https://www.instagram.com/zhi.park/?hl=en

About Homeless Joe ：As for Joe, the world is covering in gray. Ever since aliens captured Joe’s family, he got away from the crowd to observe the sky and extinct volcanoes. No one knows exactly how long Joe was in the wilderness, he changed, became loving life, and looking forward to the end of the world, expecting an end to give himself an answer passively. He likes to sit in the tent and soliloquize oddly, listening to his shabby no-signal radio with the rustle sound current or just lying down in the tent floor scribbling.

Rudolph and Christmas Eve

Rudolph: Well, the deer said I should go into the dark woods and look for magic mushrooms. 

These look pretty magical, do I eat them 
all?

Whoops....
 

The Reindeer King:  Awaken Rudolph! You have been transformed 

and can now do your duty on 

Santa's Sleigh!

Rudolph: Wait, wow! What? Hey look at my big red glowing nose! It worked! It worked

                 But I feel like I am in a dream!

The Reindeer King: No dream, but you didn't have to have so many mushrooms.

Rudolph: Wow, I feel magnificent. I can see things too. Wow Dude!

King: It's Christmas eve my son. Time to get back to Santa and the other Reindeer. So many have
been searching for you.
Go now!
No time to lose!

Not Weather

I intended to complain about the heat and humidity again, but decided that we all know what was going on and how nasty it was. I was entertained by the posts on FB regarding the temperatures. 

How many people took photos of the temperature reading in their cars??? Lots! Others took photos of their weather station thingies. One even posted a photo of herself with an outdoor thermometer on a tree. Hmmm.

Well.

Me? I got up early and went to CrossFit. I know. Nuts, right? But it was the coolest part of the second day of the heat dome. It was a rowing and burpee work out. Who doesn't love burpees? 

When I got home I decided to put together my fun little 'story'. 

These are the Kenner toy versions which are not very posable but very suitable for kids [or in my case??? Big kids.] 

They came from another second hand shop a good find for a couple of dollars....

I have taken an instant liking to them. Last week I carried them around on my hikes and adventures so I could look for spontaneous fun with them.

This blue one is called PZ-C4O or Peazy. I looked up what this droid was supposed to be and found out that it was a 'she' droid and she handled communications and other difficult tasks. She seems charming in a way.

I thought she should meet the other Droid I had called NED-B. Or NED for short. Apparently he worked moving shipments and off loading and loading things to ships. He also like to Bonk bad guys on the head. 
What a great Droid!

NED meets Peazy in the forest and hands her an Oak Gall. A romance ensues. I mean come on! Who saw that coming?

I'm going to explain something here. I have a very vivid imagination which I suppose one day will get me into a lot of trouble. At my age, should I have such an imagination? I don't really know.

Imagine me telling my caregiver that I want to play with my Legos or that my stuffed animals on the bed are talking to me. Right? That is when they carry me off to another ward.

~~~

The toys develop their own stories, I rarely have to think up the next progression. It just seemed natural ... that they would become good friends.

And they'd go on hikes...

And spend time quietly together talking about being droids and other droid things like ... well, who knows?

And then this happened...

Hmmm, they seem to be making a story of their own and I just am along for the ride.

Regarding 'play'.

and creativity in older adults---

I see those who are creative with cooking, sewing, knitting, crocheting, baking, drawing, singing, gardening...., just to name a few things. Anything in my mind is better than sitting and channel surfing on the couch. [These activities along with being sociable seem to keep a person younger at heart perhaps??]

I find strange joy in using my imagination in what may be called Childish Play. But my love of photography always leads me to make a story even if it is very short story.

--- It started with Morris and his toys years ago. 

The stories were written for my Grandkids. When they visited, they usually took a walk in the woods with me. On the walks they'd name parts of the forest. The Big Woods, The Big Creek, and so forth. So I revisited our walks with Morris and his toys and let an adventure happen.

The kids loved it and I wrote a few short books about what happened on their walks. The joy of making up the stories stuck with me. I used photos of Morris with his toys. Sometimes it was impossible to get a shot I wanted and sometimes more interesting things happened when Morris did his own thing and didn't follow the script.

In other words, we just let things happen and had a LOT of fun.

When Morris died, I couldn't bring myself to try anything like that again. His toys were dormant, they wouldn't 'speak' to me. 

Give me cast off toys and things seem to happen.

I go with the flow and don't think too hard about it. 
It just happens.

Our adventures were always fun and we never knew what was going to happen!

Enjoy the next few days if the heat has passed!

Stories from kids and whatnot

I didn't check my mail on Saturday afternoon. But Monday morning I found a stuffed envelope from Charlie's young friends in Missouri. The boys had drawn pictures for us and the 3rd grader who reads at 6th grade or above had written a story for us!
The story included Poop Rocks [I'll explain later], Charlie, magic crystals, and saving the world! 
Of course I read the story and took the challenge of trying to take photos to match the story. 

On top of the mailbox was a large box from my childhood friend. She'd said something about sending a care package on Friday, so of course I was not expecting it at all on Saturday.

Inside the package was two tubs of cookies [she is an excellent baker and cook!] and several small items wrapped in tissue paper. There were a couple of notes and a card.
Her note said: 

PS: My childhood zoo voted to go too. They want to meet Lil Bear and all of his buddies. I promise they won't eat much.
Hugs.

I immediately set aside the cookies and unwrapped the 'zoo'. You would have sworn that I was opening gifts at Christmas time. I felt like a child as I slowly unwound the tissue papers. Each toy gave me a squeak of glee and I marveled at the tiny wooden zoo animals. A Weiner dog, donkey, monkey, elephant, deer, and squirrel. 

I was out on Monday afternoon with a couple of the toys. Charlie and I took a walk to the mailbox and detoured past my favorite rock to set out toys.

And then we worked on photos for the story that was sent to us.

ValBarbie and RichKen make a return from the drawer
they were sitting in for the story!
Note the 'little' Charlie dog too!

The endangered Crystal and the Poop rock. 

These are actually iron concretions found in my creek bottom 

and the kids found some. 

They were fascinated by the forms of the rocks and 

dubbed the long bumpy ones as ... you guessed it, Poop Rocks.

~~~~

My friend called me Monday afternoon and we talked about my love of toys combined with photography. I told her maybe I was just a silly old fool. And she replied that she loved that I still was able to exercise my 12 year old mind.

After all, it has been going on a long time. I can't help myself. 

I was always considered the odd one.... Points Down.....

Bear and Rabbit

Hello Bear, I am Rabbit.

Rabbit to Bear: Don't be so sad. I will always be here for you.

Rabbit to Bear: I wish I could fix it.

Rabbit to Bear: Isn't it nice being outside?