Skills workout

Joe found my mug and has been using the handle in his daily Ninja skills workout routine.  Keeps him at the top of his game--or so he tells me...

Skills workout

Basket Weaving

Life involves weaving together the many different roles and activities---work, family, personal, fun, spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, service, giving......  These things do not always come out so balanced and even as the weaves in a basket.  However, I find the most satisfied and happy persons are those who find the right weaving pattern involving a balance of these roles and activities in a way that works for them.  What does your weaving pattern look like?

Basket weaving

Worm holes?

Images come from the most unusual places.  The one for today started out as just a picture of the carpet on the floor of my office--dull, drab colors and boring.  Then the "apping" started.  After playing around with several different post-processing apps I began to come up with several abstract arrangements.  This is one of the results that I liked.  Looks a little like worms standing at attention.....or a microscope view of some cellular structure.

Worm holes?

My Little Pony

When I saw the ad for my current job position I noticed that one of the promised benefits for the new hire was a "pony."  Needless to say I got the job.  True to the ad, I soon thereafter received my very own "pony."  This pony has since stood faithfully on the back corner of my desk as a reminder of the ageless widsom in the saying "do what you say you will do."

My Little Pony

Time to go home

Window shade down, parking lot empty, sun setting, must be time to go home.  Time to leave the office and head home alright....

Time to go home

Up close and personal with Joe

Now that I have my Olloclip lens with a macro feature, I can do some otherwise unavailable close-up images.  Of course, my Lego friend Joe has been begging me for days now to take a good portrait of him with my new equipment.  Well, I finally relented and, after including Joe in some 40+ images on this blog, Joe finally gets up close and personal with today's picture.

Up close and personal with Joe

African Violet close-up

My new close-up lens for the iPhone camera is opening up some different image opportunities.  When I can focus within just a few millimeters of a subject, even the tiniest of flower blossoms fill the image.  This African Violet flower sitting in our kitchen window is one good example.

African Violet close-up

Marriage saver...

Cruise control for my ski boat.  Perfect Pass is just what the previous owner of this boat said--"a marriage saver."  For those who live to ski, wakeboard, kneeboard, hydrofoil and surf Perfect Pass is exactly that.  One of the best inventions for water play boats.  I have seen both sides--owned a boat without it and now own a boat with it.  No comparison.  Makes life much easier for the driver and for the person at the end of the tow rope.  Hot water shower, forced air heater, nice stereo with music blasting speakers and sub-woofers--all nice amenities but Perfect Pass is definitely a necessity.  

Marriage saver

Summer is here-garden view

Longest days of the year.  Lots of sunshine.  Neighbor's garden is growing strong.  Nice view from kitchen table.

Summer is here--garden view

Tipsy

An abstract of what the bar stool looks like on the way down.  Not that I am going down mind you--just looks like the point of view of one who is going down.

Tipsy

Pre-flight wing check

Getting up close and personal with my new Olloclip macro lens.  Just a little pre-flight wing check before the critter is off and annoying someone.  The lens is not the sharpest and the focus is fixed and done by moving the camera back and forth but even with its limitations it does open up a new world of images.  Stay tuned over the next days and weeks for some more close-up images.  In the meantime, ponder the miracle of flight mechanics inherent in this wing set-up.....

Pre-flight wing check

Purple Power

I was visiting a friend at their home and noticed a basket of these purple flowers on their front porch.  The deep, saturated color was refreshing beautiful on a hot summer afternoon.  It just begged to be photographed.  How could I not?  Well, I couldn't "not" and so I did.  And here it is in it's summer afternoon glory....

Purple Power

Movin' Up

Moving day for one of the kids and everyone is getting work out.  Piece-by-piece it all goes up to the third floor in this new apartment that has no elevators.  It was warm, we were all covered with sweat and completely exhausted by the time we emptied the U-Haul truck and filled the apartment.  In the end though everything got there.  Step-by-step, load-by-load.  Isn't that just how we move up in every aspect of our lives?  Step-by-step like the old Chinese proverb says (I think it's Chinese), "The journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step."

Movin' Up

On the move

Helping family move.  Loaded up and on the road.  Driving is the easy part.  It's the hauling everything up to the third floor that wore us all out.

On the move

Homemade honey wheat

Whole wheat grains, ground into flour just a few short hours ago.  Mix in some honey for sweetness, flour, yeast and a bit of salt.  A bit of mixing, some rising, some baking and here you have it.  Fresh from the oven.  Can't you just smell the aroma?  Well, no you can't because it is only a photo on the internet.  Even if you could it would not be nearly as nice as you can imagine...  The real aroma is better than that!  But your mouth should be watering.  Mine is.  For good reason though....I get to partake!

Homemade honey wheat

Roadside resting place

Joe took a part-time job working on a road crew.  He thought the pay was great for a job requiring him just to stand around all day working on tanning his face and holding the "Stop" and "Slow" sign.  Little did he realize just how much energy it takes to  stand in the sunshine all day long.  By evening he was so exhausted that he could not even make it back to his car.  So he found the closest roadside resting place available and took a short nap.  His supervisor found him, fired him and now that job is just another line on his resume.

Roadside resting place

Twisted

This is what you call a family of trees.  Trees that have bonded, grown together and want to stay together.  They have so intertwined that they would be lost without each other.  Hmmm, maybe there is lesson to be learned here...

Twisted

It's all about perspective

I keep telling Joe he has to control his ego or his head gets too big.  He found one of my helmets and now doesn't believe a thing I tell him.  All I get now is "Who's head is big?"

It's all about perspective...

It's all about perspective...

Morning greeting

Good morning greeting.  Time to log-in and get to work.

Morning Greeting

Where is the love?

Today is the birthday of one of my grandsons.  He lives half a world away.  In fact, where he lives it is already tomorrow--the day after his birthday.  None of my grandchildren live any closer than a 12 hour drive.  So we take my daughter's hands, create a heart in the sky as a token of our love and send it half way around the world through the airwaves.  Happy birthday boy!

Where is the love?

Fry with your ketchup?

The staple of fast food.  The item that makes almost everything taste better.  The food item classified as a vegetable in government school lunch programs.  The one that contains ingredients damaging to your health.  Yep, I am talking about the ketchup.  Can't live without it.  Gonna die sooner with it.  But I love it anyway.  Fry with your ketchup?

Fry with your ketchup?

Wedding Cake Reflections

Tis the season....the season of wedding bells, wedding ceremonies and wedding receptions.  School is out, gardens are in full bloom, the sun is shining and the young kids are getting married.  They look so young and innocent and think they are so much in love.

Little to they realize what is ahead of them.  Life will be different and it will be what they make of it.

After almost 35 years of marriage I realize just how much I did not know back then.  As I reflect back I realize that I am more in love now then ever before and have lived the best 35 years of my life with my sweetheart beside me.  Our love when married was a drop in the huge bucket that now runneth over so many years later.  I wish the newlyweds the same....

Wedding Cake Reflections

The all-seeing-eye

I have always maintained that one of the greatest inventions known to mankind is indoor plumbing.  We get pretty spoiled in our society and often take this concept for granted.  No so for so many people on our planet.  I am constantly thanking my lucky stars that this is one thing about which I do not have live without.  The basics have been the same for a long time although little improvements are made along the way.  The touchless, all-seeing-eye flusher is one of those great improvements.  However, don't give Big Brother any ideas....they might figure out how to monitor your comings and goings through yet another electronic eye--the one that flushes the toilets everywhere.  First cell phone monitoring, next camera feeds from toilet flushers....????

The important all-seeing-eye

Last Graduate

Last high school graduate of the household is finally a reality.  We are on the path to soon join the ranks of so many or our peers as official empty nesters.  It's a proud parent time of year to see this phase of life in our last child at home.  What a great group of friends and peers she has had all through high school.  We are going to miss them all.  Congratulations girl!  You did it well!

Last graduate

Teeing it up...

Joe is working on his summer golf game.  Today's skill--teeing up the ball.

Teeing it up...

Friends, Romans, Countrymen.....

I found Joe polishing his public speaking skills--standing high above the crowd speaking down to his subjects.  He tells me that his bucket list includes holding a very high political office someday and he feels his opportunity is imminent.  Already his grass roots organizations are coming together, the polls are beginning to turn his way and no scandals have come out of the closet yet.  Now where is that teleprompter....

Friends, Romans, Countrymen....

Handicapped parking

Meet my new friend for the next two months.  No wheel chair but doc says crutches, foot boot and about a year and I will be healed.  In the meantime he graciously signed off on a temporary two month, up front, parking pass. By then I should be well enough along the way to limp a little farther.

Handicapped parking

We are all Hobbits

When standing in a crowd with a person who is 7 feet, 4 inches tall we all feel like Hobbits in the Shire.

Even the Big and Tall stores would not have items in stock to fit this man....

We are all Hobbits

In the shadow of greatness

A little pine tree sprouts on its own in my yard under the massive tree that towers in the neighborhood.

Isn't that how we all started?  No one is immune.  We all started the same way--as babes in the arms of our parents.  Small, tender, subject to the whims of those around us.  Then we started to grow, to learn, to mature.  Along the way we find ourselves in the shadow of greatness as we absorb life lessons from the stellar examples in our own lives.  Before we know it we are the old and mature ones and the cycle begins again.  Now it is our turn to make a difference in the lives of others....

In the shadow of greatness

Cleansing Spring Rain

Love the spring rain storms.  They cleanse the earth, nourish the new spring growth and even make everything smell refreshing.  Love, love, love it!

Cleansing Spring Rain