Flickr photo by bitzi
Isn't that the most beautiful picture of straws you've ever seen? Great job, bitzi!
Here's another sucky thing. It's the one that inspired this post.
Flickr photo by skippy haha
Just in case you live in a country where people actually use their legs and walk into a bank instead of living in their cars, allow me to introduce this to you. This, my friend, is a vacuum tube machine (sorry, I don't know the official word for this thingamajig) for making deposits and withdrawals from the bank drive through.
Not too long ago, someone asked my nine year old what kind of things he likes.
Did he say throwing baseball, or riding his bike, or spying on his older brother and sister when they had their teenage friends over?
No.
Sam said, "You know those sucky things at the drive through's at banks? The things that they put your money in and send them over to you in a tube? I LOVE those things!"
It got me thinking how unique Sammy is.
It also got me thinking about tubes.
I'm the daughter of a drainage engineer, and I'm married to a Michelin man, so I've got to like tubes! (Think drainage pipes and inner tubes.)
But you know what my favorite tube is?
Flickr photo by langnewspaper
Yum! Oh man. I want some now.
I will try to distract myself with other tubes that I like.
I'm also crazy about this flower, now that I've discovered it.
Flickr photo by Rainer Fritz
Look carefully. The petals are all tubes!
I used to be a chemistry teacher. So naturally I like test tubes.
These days I like them best holding flowers!
Flickr photo by ryansmintheus
I also like tubing!
Flickr photo by bearfont
But I'm a little scared to ride a tube like this.
Flickr photo by metalsnowski
Although if I got washed up on the shore, maybe I'd find one of these. Even with decorated with the artful workings of a tube worm!
Flickr photo by Perk's Pics
After all I do love scallops. I wouldn't let a little tube worm scare me.
And besides, when I was in London in college, I went underground through my own little tunnels. As in The Tube! When I think of it that way, I was kind of like a tube worm.
Flickr photo by London SLR
I also enjoy remembering tube tops.
Flickr photo by babyburd
No, not those! Although they are kind of pretty.
I meant a tube top like this:
Flickr photo by senoritahollywood
Apparently they're back now! And you know what tube tops remind me of?
The boob tube!
Flickr photo by The Nixer
Sorry! That's what we always called it in my house growing up.
Maybe because if you watch it too much, it turns you into a complete boob.
Unless you're watching Project Runway, or Ace of Cakes, or The Next Food Network Star, of course!
Can you think of any other tubes you like? Ones you see in food, art, nature, or whatever?
Oh! I know another! Those tubular ducts in my house that carry my air conditioning! It's supposed to be 98 degrees today, so I'm LOVING them!
Have a totally tubular Tuesday y'all!
Love, Becky
28 comments:
Hi Becky,
I don't think I've EVER seen the word "tube" used so many times in one writing...nor have I ever thought so much about tubes. Your technical term, "Sucky things" is more along the lines of what I'm thinking about these days. My printer broke yesterday. Gave up the ghost...utterly and completely. THAT was totally "sucky." THEN my air conditioner (oh yes, I DID say it) went DOA last night. Indeed, a "sucky" scenario. At 10 pm the heat index is STILL 104. Need I say how sucky THAT is?
I could go on, but why belabor the point? My life, at this juncture, seems to be part of some cosmic conspiracy to either a)get me to lose my will to live or b)strengthen my faith. While I suspect the latter, the former is beginning to loom on the horizon!
Thanks for your tubular and sucky reflections!
Blessings!
Paula Clare
All things tubular - love it !
Just last night I came out with the word "tubular" and was telling Linda - don't you remember that word, how it was used back in the 60's and 70's, like "cool", "groovy", "far-out", "tubular", etc. She didn't remember that word being used in that sense. However to my surprise you have used "tubular" in your post today, so this means (just kidding)- you have synchronicity, and like ESP, you have to appreciate it when recognized.
Love geometry of all kinds - in art, design, nature, and man-made. Where would we be without tubes?
I'll bet a lot of people don't know that straws (your top pic) can minimize stained teeth because the colored liquid you're drinking bypasses your teeth.
You probably heard this term from hubby "Cathode Ray Tube", which is reduced to CRT, as in the pre-LCD televisions and computer monitors - they all used CRT's. Amazingly popular ever since the first days of TV. I have an angique TV (DuMont - same name as the Chateau we stayed at in Normandy in 2005), that has a CRT even when it was built in the 1930's, one of the very first TV's - hope the folks haven't tossed it out! And the old radios & TV's all used "tubes" that glowed and got hot too. They all got replaced by solid-state electronics.
Torus is the geometric term for a ring shaped object, so a tire or tube would be a torus.
From Jekyll Island ($$$) I remember some of the beaches having those tube worms - you just see them, luckily you don't feel anything when walking over them.
I have never done one of those water-slide tubes - I guess it came after my generation grew-up, and I just have never tried it. Looks like tons of fun though.
Now inflated tubes in a lake or river I have done. And you guessed it, most rafts are made of tubes, quite often just the outer rim of the raft, and sometimes the floor. The Nantahala river rafting experience is very awesome if you-all get a chance.
Oh, and I think your young one will be an engineer one day - I can see his line of thinking with the bank machine.
Very nice blog and you always go to a lot of effort to post these. Good for you to veer into the world of geometry in this blog.
Randy
Love it! What a FUN post Becky!
Think I go find my tube top and sip my coffee through a straw now!
Thank you for writing this!
It makes me smile!
xo
Constance
Hey Paula! My sympathies, especially on the air conditioning! That is AWFUL! I hope it gets fixed fast!
Randy, I love geometry--and not just because Mr. Weiger, my teacher in jr. high, had dreamy eyes and great hair. I've thought about using a straw with my coffee, but I think I'll just brush my teeth more often. I just can't do it. :)
Hey Constance! I want to see a picture of you doing that! I bet you could make even a tube top look elegant!
I know I've never seen so many tubes--the only others I think of are hummingbirds with their straw-like tongues and reeds in swamps.
Crazy-cool-totally tubular post!
Hi Becky,
I think you covered the tube word thoroughly. What a fun post. Tell Sam, when I was kid I worked in a store that had the tube system for money. They were no registers. You just stuck the money in the tube and it went down to the cash office and sent your change back.
Take care my friend.
hugs,
Barb
We called it the boob tube too. How funny. Love the straw pic
That was fun!!!! You are just so creative. :)
I got the chance to watch some "tubes" last week on a monitor during a very uncomfortable ultrasound of the arteries in my neck. Started out with a pain in my head & then 8 hours of amnesia. All is OK now. Hopefully if the condition ever returns (unlikely they say), it will happen during my mother-in-law's visit next month.
Oh my goodness! The cookie dough tube would get my vote. Yum!
Tara
Cool Becky!!!
I never think of things like you do.
You amaze me with the things you come up with. I guess that's why you are a writer, and I'm not.
Great post as usual!
Have a wonderful day!
Rosemary
Green girl, those are great examples. Hummingbirds amaze me!
Barb, I told him, and his eyes got big. Sounds like a dream job to Sammy!
Hi Suzie and Kathryn, glad you enjoyed it. And Suzie, the boob tube takes on new meaning with some shows. There's a little too much plastic surgery going on. Yikes.
Jaxpop, you are hilarious.
But seriously, that's a little scary. I'm glad you're okay. Good luck with the visit!
Tara, glad you're with me on raiding the cookie dough tube!
Hey Rosemary, you're pretty amazing yourself, crown queen!
Hi Becky. Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit....I love having your over.
Love your tubular post..we use to call our tv..the boob tube too!!!
:)Have a great day
Doreen
Hey...I want some pillsbury, too!!! :)
What a funny post - would never have thought to pick a word and search for it on flickr - may just steal the idea sometime when I'm tapped out for post ideas. (with the proper linky love, of course!)
Thanks for the entertainment - and you're right - that pic of the straws was way cool!
Totally, totally tubular.
I've always loved trombones! Does that count?
The first time I heard about a fax machine, I thought it was like a nation vacuum tube machine. Funny, right?
Hi Doreen, I was glad to stop by! Your blog is fun! Plus I felt I needed to check on you after that lawn mower exploded into flames!
Alex, I would save you some, but I'm afraid cookie dough doesn't last long around here.:)
Colleen, it's a lot of fun, and I'd love some linky love! A word to the wise: if you just search on a word, it's be a little overwhelming--there are millions of pics out there. Usually I daydream about a word or an idea for a few days, then come up with a list of directions to take it, and then search out specific things, looking through my own photos first. Enjoy! It's a blast!
Hey May! Sure trombones work! That is funny! Wouldn't it be fun if we did have a national vacuum tube system! I can just see Stuart Little taking a wild ride in that thing!
"it's be a little overwhelming"? Sorry, I've been wrestling with my sewing machine all afternoon when I'm not feeding kids, and my brain is a little scrambled.
When does school start again?
Just kidding. Sort of.
Oh, that was very cool.
Especially the straws. Maybe it's some sort of disorder, but I find it difficult to toss paper towel tubes. Not sure why...they just seem like they'd be useful.
Now that we use primarily dishtowels, it's not so much of a conundrum. And then my two year old is happy to mess with 'em a bit...adaptive reuse and all.
The thing at the bank is a pneumatic tube.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3799/is_200404/ai_n9401036
You should get him one for his birthday. You could set it up between his room and the kitchen. Message him his breakfast.
What a very cool picture of those straws -- such wonderful colors!
Susan
xo
As always, SO creative!!!!!
I'm from a small town originally and I have to say there's nothing like going tubin' in the creek (we pronounced it "crick" LOL) to cool you off on a hot summer day! One of my fondest childhood memories!
P.Price, I know! I also find it hard to throw those tubes away. Maybe because my mom is a preschool teacher and always saved them. When the kids were little I kept them around for art projects. Now it's into the recycling bin...
Thank you Susan! A pneumatic tube. And he would LOVE that. Like a hamster tube running all over our house!
Hi Susan and Sherry!
Tattingchic, I never went tubing in our creek growing up, but I did spend an awful lot of time "falling" in it and exploring. We have a river near our house that is more like a creek in places. I wish I could just let Sam wander down there and play like I did as I child. These days I feel like I have to come along, and it's not the same for kids with mom over their shoulder!
Totally tubular man!
And that pink ring for tubing? Grace has one just like it...we plan on using it this very afternoon! But first I must head up and grab a tube of toothpaste and brush my pearly whites!
Love,
Sue
Ha ha! What a great melange of tubes! You are a very clever girl. xo
Those straws are super cool!
I was a biology teacher for one brief year... but me and test tubes never became the best of friends.
I've never used one of those bank tube thingies. I'm a little scared of them!
Post a Comment