Kids' Mural Update

Well, yesterday morning was not very fun. I had a dental appointment to replace an old filling and get another cleaning. My dentist's office is near where I work, so I found myself walking that same old stretch of Abbey Road -- with the "Kids Painting Summer 1978" mural on the bridge over the railroad tracks.

The mural has seen better days. Since I first blogged it ten years ago, the images on the eastern side of the bridge have been overpainted and graffitied, so there's very little still intact. On the western side, though, there's only been some minor tagging, so images like this lion (?) above are still visible.

Here's the weightlifter (R), flanked by diaper pins or punk safety pins or whatever they are. I've blogged him before. I'm not sure what that character on the left is supposed to be. Martial arts, maybe? He seems to be flexing a muscular arm.

Here's a pano shot of the same wall. There's a third figure on the right, as you can see.

A little farther along, there's this winter skiing scene -- a cross-country skier at left, a downhill skier at right.

There's more to it, but you get the idea. Pretty amazing that all of this has survived 47 years.

Anyway, the dentist went smoothly and even the filling replacement was easy enough. I walked home and spent the afternoon in the garden, reading and waiting for my novocaine (or whatever they use nowadays) to wear off. It took all day. I wasn't back to feeling normal until about 5 p.m. In the meantime, I listened to Mrs. K berating her gardener again. She was really giving it with both barrels yesterday and dropped the F bomb a few times. If I were that gardener I'd walk away singing "Take this job and shove it."

I carefully trimmed our own hedges, which I think are finally past the point where they might be housing birds' nests. I haven't seen any sign of baby birds in a while.

Oh, and the Russians' moving van showed up, with a couple of Russian movers who loaded up a lot of very bland blond-wood furniture, and they departed in late afternoon. Mr. Russia stayed behind, though, painting his front door and part of the front wall of the house -- doing home improvements right up to the last minute! Unfortunately, he pulled up the little snapdragon I blogged yesterday. Honestly, just GO AWAY.

They've left all their balcony plants behind, which I assume they'll come back for. They have some very expensive shrubbery out there and I can't imagine they'd abandon it.

They also threw a stack of virtually brand-new philosophy books in the recycling bin -- stuff by Bertrand Russell, Freud, Wittgenstein and others. Was Mrs. Russia taking a philosophy and ethics course in her spare time? I grabbed the books for the school library. I'm not sure how much our students would use them but I'm sure whatever Freud books we have are much older and yellower than these. Or I can save them for our annual book swap.