A beginning

This was September 1975.

Newlyweds Wes and Eileen.

Wes and I were both 22.

Wes is the talk drink of water with red hair on the left.

Behind him is my older brother George.

Then me.

Then my Dad, Burton and my Mom, Eunice.

The picture was taken at my Grandma Otillie's house

in Clintonville, WI.

Seems like a long time ago, but you all know how fast life goes by.

My family are all gone now.

But we gained Oli and Dave,

and that's a very good thing. :)

Life, eh?

Cheers,

:: me ::

A very pretty morning

I opened the window blinds, saw the clouds reflecting in the water

and knew I had to take a picture.
And a video.

So pretty.
6.45am
A bluejay was scolding.

There was a chipmunk chipping somewhere to my right.

Perfect.

Cheers :)

Eek. This is the first video I've uploaded to my YouTube.

::

Fall fashion

I know it isn't nice to laugh at other people's misfortunes,

but I'm not always nice,

and this one makes me laugh out loud every time I see it.

Cheers :)

Running hot and cold

Been debating with myself whether to keep going here.

I don't have too much of a life these days, so I don't have much to say.

I've been feeling kind of down. Can you tell? I can. Sorry.

Any road, as they say.

These two photos were taken by my Wes today, out in 105 degrees.

They show the little man-made lake, the lower of two, at

the apartment complex where we live.

By the way, it got up to 108 today, breaking a Little Rock record.

Ho hum. It has been so hot so much this year,

that even something as unnatural as that doesn't seem to faze anymore.

I wanted to have a few pictures to send to the kids to let them see

how the 2012 drought is affecting our neck of the woods.

This little lake is not big or deep, but it is host to some

local turtles and a few small fish and frogs,

and some 'decorative' ducks

which apartment complexes in this state seem to love to stock.

The pictures show where the shoreline should be at normal times,

and just how much the drought has affected this small eco-system.

The water level is down well over 3 feet, and

I wonder about how concentrated and mucky the lake must be

and how that is affecting all those little creatures who call it home.

The little 'x' is where our little upper floor apartment is.

Yes, compared to a lot of people, I guess we live like kings.

But it isn't posh.

The lake just makes it look that way. :/

You can see that it has been dry for so long that plants

have been able to grow where the water is no more.

Here's the other photo, showing more of the same.

The green line I added to the bottom right shows

where the normal shoreline is. It drops down a foot at that point,

and then you can see how far the lake has dropped.

That is the lowest we have seen in the seven years we have lived here.

So, thanks to Wes for this bit of photo documentation.

I hope things are doing well in your neck of the woods,

wherever that may be.

Cyber waves to a wise blogland friend, Oldfool, should he see this.

He was born and bred in Little Rock, and

I should imagine he can cope with this beastly heat

a mite better than this old girl from Milwaukee.

::

Gravity works

I dropped something heavy

on my left thumb

and

on the big and second toes of my right foot.

No pictures, because my digits

are not photogenic.

Ouch, ouch and ouch.

A new creed

I gave up religion a few years ago.

Long, long story.

Also, I like American Chinese food.

And I like our little neighborhood take away,

and the people who own it.

The fortune cookies that they randomly

throw in with your order

aren't usually fortunes. They're more like

good thoughts. And some of them

might even improve your mind

and your life, if you let them.

This one, which I got the other day,

I give 20 stars out of 10.

It's that good.

So good in fact, that I'd like to

adopt it as a creed.

Something to try to live by.

It aligns with my liberal sense that

my time here is not just about me.

For me, it's about 'us'.

Community.

A lot of people don't see it that way.

I tried to take an artsy kind of photo

of this fortune cookie.

Sounds like a good creed to me.

Morning ain't broken

Just some pictures of our pretty morning here,

the small man-made lake,
taken from the little balcony of our apartment.

Cheers