"V" For Victory

 

Came across this on one of my walks.  A somewhat ironically defeated-looking victory sign if you ask me, but still.

A Double Find

Two errant disposable plastic gloves found on one afternoon's walk.

This one

and this one

After finding the second one I wondered for an instant if they were a matched pair, even though the discoveries were separated by more than half an hour's walk, but of course that's not possible -- disposable plastic gloves are chirality-neutral.

Errant Glove(s)... Plus

Today I was just ambling along, on my usual afternoon walk around the neighborhood, when I spotted a glove in the road.

Its placement was a bit unusual, as it was not on the sidewalk but in the traffic lanes.

Anyway, I went up to it, first checking to see no vehicles were coming (of course), for the obligatory closeup.

Then, this pair of old ladies sitting at a bus stop called out to me, saying the other glove was "over there", pointing a little ways back up the street.  Evidently they had been watching me going through my little ritual, and were intrigued.  I looked, and yes, it was the other glove all right, lying a short distance away in the very center of the road, back in the direction I had come from.  I had missed it on my first pass because, well, because I just wasn't looking, not expecting a glove would be lying in the middle of traffic.

So I went and took my shots, came back to thank the babushkas for bringing it to my attention, then went back to take these closing shots:

 

I have to say, it was pretty odd.  Why would anyone do this?  Did someone belatedly realize, while driving, they are allergic to the material of the gloves and throw them out?  Did some fortune teller tell her client the gloves are cursed and must needs be got rid of in traffic so that lots of other cars would drive over them and thereby dilute their power to do evil?  Weird.

Errant Plastic Glove x2

The day before yesterday, I set out on yet another of my peripatetic photo-jaunts.  And while ambling down a quiet back lane I came across a crumpled plastic glove.  And of course I photographed it;  lost or abandoned gloves have come to form a kind of sub-sub-theme under the sub-theme of "errant" objects on this blog. 

The day's haul of imagery was not particularly interesting, and after a couple of hours I decided to come home.  Then, on the way back I came across another crumpled plastic glove.

I wonder if they were mates^.

Gloves Set Out To Dry

outside a fried chicken place.

I could be overthinking it, but this could be a subtle form of rodomontade:  "See, we run a hygenic joint here -- we always wear gloves when handling our chicken!"

Or maybe I AM overthinking it.

More Errant Gloves

Presenting three more recent finds, in grayscale order.

Yet Another Errant Glove

Found in the gallery-ridden, artsy craftsy part of Insadong, Seoul.

Not that that has anything to do with it (presumably)...

Genius

Why didn't I think of this before?

On the way home from grocery shopping I stopped at this stand with various kinds of gloves displayed -- knit gloves, fabric gloves, leather ones, etc.  I absently checked out a knit pair in grey... and look at this!  How simple, direct, yet brilliant is that?

(Reminds me of cat paws^^)

To be sure, the holes seemed a little small, and I was worried that the thickness of the material might prevent efficient skin contact, but when I tried it with my phone it worked just fine.  It's probably a recent design, because I don't recall seeing anything like this last winter.  Or maybe I just didn't look enough.

[To think that only last month I went so far as to do this...!]

More About Gloves

So yesterday I came across yet another "errant glove" on the sidewalk. 

Over the years I have lost several gloves myself, but always the left glove only.  Never the right glove -- why would that be?

Somewhere there could be other bloggers posting photos of lost left gloves... mine.

This morning I found an old pair that I had forgotten about (in fact I couldn't remember them at all even after finding them);  they did not have conductive fingertips for touchscreen functions, so after some hesitation I decided to cut the tip off the right index finger.

I tried it on my phone and it was comfortable, and so I was about to cut the tip off the thumb as well, but then I realized I could expand and shrink photos with the thumb intact😐  Too late, I checked the print on the back of the glove, and realized these were "smart gloves", made of conductive material that made the use of special fingertips unnecessary.  Oh well.

I'll just pretend it was still worth it to open up the index finger;  that, for example, the naked fingertip is more precise for selecting words on the small phone screen to look up online and such😁

Another Rather Startling Sight

Related post:  A Butcher With A Sense Of Humor

Errant Glove

On a wet afternoon.

Related posts:  Errant

A Butcher With A Sense Of Humor

I have to admit I was just a tad startled.

"How You Doin',"

...said he, as he extended a bloodied hand.

Interesting. Wow...

Today is August 14, 2024.  Just now I was again rummaging through old folders, mining for previously overlooked photos, when I came upon this image of a glove sticking out of a pond.  It was quite striking, and fairly surreal-looking as well.  It evoked de Chirico and others of his ilk from the early decades of the last century.  Maybe someone had marked a spot with it, to do some maintenance work later?  I played with it a while, trying this and that with editing software, then got the bright idea to turn it upside down.  It turned out to be a winning move, as the glove was crumpled in an unnatural way and turning it upside down made it somewhat less conspicuous;  and it also made its striking reflection stand out even more.  So then, after some more work I felt it was finally ready for posting, and I opened this blog and clicked on "hand" in the sidebar to link to related prior posts.  The first post that popped up was the one with the shadow of my hand, which was kind of like the yin to this yang, I thought.  The hand shadow was reaching out from darkness, whereas this reflection seemed to be reaching into the water.  So they complement each other -- O.K., good.  Then I looked at its date -- August 14, 2023, same date, exactly a year ago!

And it's happened before:  The Very Next Dream Log Entry

Related posts:  Suddenly Sad (the hand shadow), Glove

The Glove Is Finally Gone

Some eight months later, building maintenance finally removed it from the awning.  Now I actually feel kind of wistful, having grown used to checking up on it every time I go out.

Related Posts:  I Found A Glove;  That Glove

Other "Glove" Posts:  Glove; Lost & Found;  Another Glove

Giant's Hand Imprint:  Giant's Handprint

That Glove

Six months later, it's still there on top of the awning.  It hasn't moved at all through all the rains and winds.  It is, however, looking rather the worse for wear.  The color's almost completely faded.  It's a little saddening to see the gradual deterioration of something that, at the beginning, looked like something out of a tale told by the brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen.  Or -- maybe the story is still being told, and the ending is yet long in coming.

Related post: "I Found A Glove"

I Found A Glove

Eleven stories down.

How in the world did a glove land on top of an awning?  And not at some random angle, either.  It looks as if it was deliberately laid down.  It's been there for weeks - now every time I go out I check to see if it's still there.  Wonder if it will survive the monsoon rains, which will arrive in a month or so.

Another Glove

THE SUBJECT OF "THE OBJECT"

My creative writing teacher once said that in writing fiction 'what' you say is not as important as 'how' you say it.  I believe the same rule applies in visual arts as well.  Grand topics and universal themes are great, they have their roles, but one of my favorite things to do is to take humble, common things in everyday life - little trivialities noticed by no one else but me - and modify or present them in ways that imbue them with special significance - or "dignity", as I call it.

(Made with a straw cover)

Leaf David standing in my way, automatically putting me in the

Goliath position - or maybe it thinks it's a midget Sumo wrestler

Glove

Lost & Found

I wear gloves for driving.  And I keep losing the right glove. Which is why, in the top drawer of my dresser, there are several left gloves.  A month or so ago I lost the latest right glove.  Then yesterday I found this 2-year old photo of a right glove somebody lost.  There was a trail leading right up to it.