I opened this account back in December solely for the purpose of being able to leave comments on the Live Journal page of a comic creator whose work I admire (Kate Beaton, whose "Hark, A Vagrant" page is highly recommended). Now that I have the account, I've been meaning to do something with it, though God knows that world would be better off without another anonymous internet journaler spilling their guts into the electronic void. But I am bored and in need of a hobby, and this Live Journal is free and readily accessible, so here I am.
     Like everyone else, I often see things that amuse or stimulate curiosity.  My job has had me in three different work locations in the past year - Long Island, New York, Ashburn, Virginia and Kankakee, Illinois.  To further complicate the picture, my home and family (wife and three grown children) are in the Buffalo, New York area. I used to be a Federal Civil Servant, but when my job was contracted out to private industry, the closing of facilities began and I began my nomadic lifestyle to stay employed. For the last two and a half years I have lived as the stranger in town, bringing a tourists eye to various parts of of the country. These entries are meant to be a chronicle of my travels. We'll see how that works out.
     I travel with my camera in my pocket, ready to snap at whatever bit of bizarreness I come upon. The Kankakee area has been a goldmine in that regard. I guess I'll finish this, my maiden post, with a picture I took of the Crawford Barbershop here in town, that a few months back, featured a stuffed black bear in its front widow. It was enough to make me stop the car and take a picture, and enough to get me to stop in for a haircut the next time I needed one. It's a rather cool, old fashioned place, with friendly, skilled barbers, and decently priced. And a bear. Well, no more for the bear. He was just on loan until the owner completed his den. But he used to reside there in the front window.