Monthly Archives: January 2010

Patterns/ Designing Bloggers

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I didn’t make it downtown today to visit Zachary and take some photos of his crew. But B and I did take a long walk through the neighborhood and I have some photos to share with everyone. These are photos I have taken in the last ten days or so and some of them reflect a world that existed before the snow started to fall.

So B and I went for a long walk today and we were very appreciative of the wheel ruts left on the road by Yuppee SUV’s. I understand that everyone has to get to their Pilates classes on a Saturday morning. God bless them for leaving these narrow little paths in the snow.

Tomorrow hopefully the roads will be better and I can venture downtown to examine the younger generation and take some photos of them that will be interesting in some way.

There’s just not a lot of color in these photos. I tried injecting some saturation into them but that doesn’t really seem to help. I would love to get a photo of a vibrantly red mailbox surrounded by a snowstorm but it just doesn’t seem to be happening. I really need to take a photography course at the University of Richmond this spring.

So B and I did take an hour long walk and it was very enjoyable. I love B so much and just seeing her go down the road in her Pittsburg Steeler’s jacket warmed me up in the sub 20 degree weather. At one point she wanted to go down into the woods to visit a creek that she played around as a child. We also hoped to see an owl that lives down there but he wasn’t up for visitors apparently and didn’t show his feathery face.

This creek really is a magical place. Besides the owl who makes it his home it is also B’s childhood haunt AND a place that my first wife played as a child. They did not know each other and the odds of this happening must be truly one in a million. Think about it. If you have been married more than once what are the odds that both your ex and present mate played in the same creek as children. If we all grew up in a small town that would not be so remarkable. But our playground was the United States of America.

This is just an example of something that convinces me that there is an unseen design in our lives that explains a great deal if we are able to figure it out. I’m big on designs. I can see them everywhere when I pick up a camera. I see them in words and phrases. I see them in our neighborhood as we go out for a walk in the middle of a snowstorm. I see them in life.

I love discovering them and I am very happy because they are here.


Adventures In River City

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The snow is supposed to start downloading tonight. And the good news is that it’s not supposed to be laden with ice. We are getting the fluffy stuff that doesn’t sit on the power grid and weigh it down. Things will not start snapping off and leaving your blogging buddy in the dark.

It’s going to be fluffy. And that means (possibly) that we will have a good photo opportunity without a lot of pain. Because I hate walking in deep snow that is not fluffy. It requires far too much effort.

I spoke with Zachary my younger son earlier and I may be going downtown tomorrow to take some photos in the area of his new apartment. He has a friend who is majoring in media to include photography and I hope to connect with him at some point. But who knows? It’s going to be very cold and messy. I could just end up staying home in the warmth and comfort of our nice home. No slipping and sliding.

No opportunity to find oneself stuck somewhere. I’m nearly 60 years old after all. Why should I go out and possibly have a problem when I can sit here and play Lord of the Rings Online?

I think of my good friend Robin Easton at moments like this. Her blog is an inspirational resource for many and she might suggest that I should go out and play in the snow with my camera. Mingle with the young college students. Collapse on one of their flea-bitten couches if necessary but take this opportunity to explore the Richmond scene in the middle of a snow storm.

Zachary’s apartment is right across the street from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. It has been going through a major renovation and I wait impatiently for the day it opens again to display splendor and priceless art work more grand than anything we have ever seen here in our small city.

It really is going to be quite marvelous and all of it will be across the avenue from all the seedy apartments occupied by all the sleepy students like my son who spend all their waking hours working, studying, going to class and drinking beer.

A wonderful environment for someone like me who doesn’t really enjoy or fit in to your average 60 year old world. So let’s start early. Dawn perhaps. Wish me luck and don’t let us forget the AAA card.

 


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Let It Snow In Virginia

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It’s probably going to snow this weekend. In preparation for this delightful event the temperature of the air outside has plummeted from the balmy fifties and sixties down to the frisky thirties and forties. Maybe it’s even going down to the frigid tens and twenties before Saturday. I don’t know. And stop laughing if you are living in Alaska or the Arctic Circle. I understand that you live in an area that allows you to see a steamy yellow stream of something freeze in midair before it hits the ground. You may have viewed this event from the distance or from up close and overhead but either way I’m sure that you are not impressed with our little weather down here in Virginia.

Because I’m not very impressed with it either. It’s just a bunch of unique crystals coming together in amazing ways to cover the landscape that we were pretty much tired of anyway. Dead leaves on the ground. They should have been removed but I was too busy sitting here and so they got comfortable on the ground. Now they will be covered by a glimmering sheet of snow.

All is well. Providing the winds of March blow the leaves away. Then the green will return and the butterflies will wander into the yard. What is a butterfly?

A butterfly is a small object with wings that is designed by God to remind us that we have souls most delicate and colorful that fly around freely if we let them. Imagination is simply the act of allowing our souls to fly around freely without the irritating and redundant action of the mind continually trying to stop them.

Did I say that? Sorry. It just slipped out. But I do love snow and especially the occasional sparkle that reminds me so much of heaven.

Let it snow. Let it  snow.


Looking Out The Window/ Birds And Squirrels / Avatar

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The squirrels and the birds are playing with my Christmas present. Santa dropped off a bird feeder a few weeks ago and it’s hanging in a tree outside the window next to my desk and computer monitor.

So as the day progresses there’s something usually going on out there. Here are a few photos of some of my new friends:

Snow Birds

Do you ever wish that you were a bird? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to fly over the trees? B and I went to see Avatar this evening. We went to the five o’clock show and there were four people in the theater including us. B didn’t think she would enjoy it but every year we go see the movies that will probably turn up on Academy Awards night. Avatar is sure to show up and garner an Oscar or two. It’s a very entertaining movie and B enjoyed it very much.

I don’t want to indulge in any spoilers so let’s just say an important part of the film involves flight. A former marine who is confined to a wheelchair with paralyzed legs is given the opportunity to inhabit the body of an avatar. And then the avatar captures a large prehistoric-looking creature with wings and learns to fly.

He’s a fearless guy too. So my favorite moments in the movie involve him flying around this gorgeous planet on a giant prehistoric bird.

I have no doubt that someday we will experience something like this when we leave this world. We will fly. We will leave these troubled bodies behind. We will inhabit astral worlds of great beauty. Maybe there won’t be exotic animals of one sort or another but who knows?

I’m pretty sure about the flying part. And freedom. Flight and freedom are tied together. If you can fly then you are free to move great distances on an impulse. I’m looking forward to that.

I want to rise above the trees as a sun rises and one of several moons begins to fade in the western sky. As the cool air rushes by my face I will realize that this is home. I am home. I was distracted for a moment by a movement down below.

What had I seen? It was this lifetime. It was decades of living on the ground in slow forgetful motion.

Always trying to remember and now knowing the endless nature of life. Now remembering as loved ones converge in flight towards a mountain shimmering in the light.