Today ended on a bit of a sour note. I was off from work so I slept in and got up pretty late. It was all dark and rainy outside so I played guitar for a couple of hours. I’ve been working on learning all of David Gilmour’s Pink Floyd solos. I learned a few of them in the past but I never really focused on them, especially the less popular songs. It’s good stuff. Anyhow by the time my wife and I got out the door to run some errands it was already late afternoon. Still dark and rainy we did what we needed to do and had a relaxing 5:00 “lunch”. After lunch we were going to do a little light shopping and we spotted the pumpkins on the way. Since it was still lousy weather, I didn’t feel like walking or driving around looking for a photo, so I figured the pumpkins are a nice subject, considering the season. I grabbed a few shots and we went on our way. It was on the way home from what was a generally relaxing day, on a dark stretch of a four-lane suburban road, that I hit a massive pothole and quickly realized I had a flat tire. Since it was dark and wet and the road is pretty fast and busy I drove to the next side road. As I made the turn I pulled behind a family in a minivan out looking at their van. Yep, same thing – a flat tire. We both called the police since we were hanging on a blind turn and to let them know about the road hazard. The nice officer mentioned that the water company was working there earlier in the day. I guess they forgot to backfill the hole! The officer said since there were 2 vehicles at the same time with the same predicament we may have a case for reimbursement. They’ll be getting a call from me on Monday. It’ll probably run me close to $200 to replace my tire and I hope the rim is OK.
As for the photo. I thought since this is October I need to have an obligatory October pumpkin photo (OOPP). Since I couldn’t do any too creative considering the environment, I thought I would to a textural treatment. I did a black and white conversion with Nik Silver Efex, since I don’t think anyone needs to know that they are orange, and layered on a few textures. It’s no masterpiece but I think it fits the season well enough.
Click on pic for larger view
OOPP
© David Guidas
What I Pic 
Fantastic processing. I really notice the details of the pumpkins more than if it were in color.
Thanks. I like this version way better than the original color. I mean, a color picture of pumpkins for sale? Not very interesting, so I had to do something!