Since it’s absolutely pouring — thundering & lightening — I’ll consider it a blessing and catch up with my posts.  So, instead of complaining about the weather, let me whine for a minute about some brainless sign installations.

First candidate:  the Faucet Parts Center.  There is just no way to get a clear shot of this one.  I assume this was earlier on a pole by the road.  Maybe road widening.  And then moved here between these posts.  Dammit!  I’m big on faucet signs — for more see this page:
http://www.agilitynut.com/sca/plumbing.html

Next up.  When Beverly’s moved, they were kind enough to bring along this incredible Chicken in the Rough sign (still animated) — but did they have to shove it in the window like this?  I understand they probably weren’t allowed to display it outside (cities are funny like that — any plastic LED crap you want — but not neon fer godsakes).  But couldn’t they have made it a solid sheet of glass — or put the damn sign somewhere else inside where you can actually photograph it & see it clearly?  And if you want to experience the heartbreak of what the whole sign used to look like in its old location:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonbondy/24227773/

OK, now that I’ve vented.  Here’s one of the most memorable stops of the day.  I noticed this hawk (don’t know what kind) on top of a gas station canopy.  He/she let me get fairly close.  I wondered if maybe it was a female with chicks up there:

But after a couple of minutes, I realized he/she had some poor animal up there.  Maybe a pigeon?

A fancy shape — but a cheap, disrespectful reuse.  Not to say that maybe one day, if left in place, it might be done up better.  Does anyone have a vintage-ish photo of what this sign once looked like?

OKC seems to have had a love affair with rocks for a while.  Seemed to be all the rage to use them as building material — or as fill-in altering material.  Here are a couple pretty skanky fill-in examples:

And this poor, magnificent Borden’s Dairy building that I shot the day before the rest of the photos in this post (ah, remember the sun?).  Imagine how beautiful it was with windows instead:

A forlorn, former Fotomat (film developing drive-thru store for those of you too young to remember).  The windows are broken.  I don’t think anything good or bad will happen with this one any time soon.  Not exactly an area being overrun with new development.

A car wash cutie:

This must have been another cute one.   Does anybody know or have a photo of what this sign looked like before the cheap alteration?

A couple other former beauties:

An incredible Streamline Moderne building with that sign above which I’m not including here (you’ll have to check in the website later for that photo & thousands of others).

While this sign is not in use, it’s in perfect condition and has at least been painted an optimistic yellow.  It’s really a work of art just like this!

A nice mix of eras here:

A couple of photos from cities west of OKC.  This modern sign is in Mustang:

And this impressive grain elevator with great bulb signs front and back — in Yukon.  I’m glad they haven’t slapped on the bit about Yukon being the hometown of Garth Brooks — which is mentioned everywhere else in town:

And since today is Easter…. sadly, this was the best I could come up with — a Quik Print rabbit sign in Oklahoma City:

And one more modern sign — from the Stockyards in OKC.  You needed another cowboy sign, right?

With that, I’ll all caught up!  OK pardners — I’m about to saddle up here in Edmond and head north.   Get ‘er done.  Whatever I can come up with in this miserable weather.  Rain is still coming down still but skies a bit brighter & lightening has stopped  Time to stall a bit — with a fried pie for breakfast.   A lemon one just waiting in the pantry (dog crate).