Regular Life

As I have reported in the past, we found that our local Portrait Innovations does a good job for a good price. I stop at “good” because there’s nothing groundbreaking about the poses or the photographers. They are easy to work with and our prints always look great.
While our first and second trips [...]

Benjamin and Shannon splash it up. Click for a much better look.
Although I enjoyed all the father/son time Benjamin and I spent last week while I was off work, the time we spent as a family topped my list.
They often get buried under her depression, but my wife’s sense of humor and love for life [...]

Click to enlarge.
It’s been that kind of month at work — lots of storm clouds with hope beginning to shine back through. Nothing in particular was going on; it just was busy and my schedule was unpredictable.
Conventionally translated to “storm and stress,” the German phrase “Sturm und Drang” more literally means, “storm and urge, [...]

(click to enlarge — cropped to get subject off center)
My Pic of the Week feature (on Fridays) had lapsed, and this photo seemed appropriate considering the 85-degree temps we’ve had lately. Benjamin absolutely loves water fountains and never passes one without taking a drink.
The Project Green pic I picked (below) is from the same [...]

My first (and still only) car that I got brand new was my 1989 Dodge Shadow.
In August 1992, Shannon and I got married and drove my most prized possession from Little Rock, Arkansas to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It carried us to Gatlinburg and many surrounding sites in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Condoms, [...]

On Saturday morning (still Easter weekend), Dad and I managed to sneak away to one of my favorite spots — Bridal Veil Falls. The name isn’t original, but ever since Tim Ernst used “Fuzzy Butt Falls” for a site featured in his Arkansas Waterfalls Guidebook, I’m beginning to think that re-using a title isn’t [...]

(click to enlarge and sharpen)
Herein lie (or sit, as it were) the guy who was my closest friend growing up, the guy who was my closest friend in college, and the guy who is my closest friend now (not in that order). I’m still in occasional touch with the first two (sitting), and I [...]

Those reading “Bernie” will find Part Nine picks up where Part Eight left off. Handy, eh?

Last weekend, Ben plays coming off a week’s battle with the flu.
(click to enlarge)
In this space, I often post long missives whose message might be conveyed in far fewer words. I once read an article that stated the [...]

Benjamin felt much better in this picture than he has this week. Thursday night I put him to bed with a mild fever, this flu refusing to let him go.
As I walked out his bedroom door he croaked, “Daddy, would you please rub my back?”
“Of course I will,” I said.
A few hacking coughs erupted [...]

(Readers of “Bernie” will find Part Five, a shorter section ready to take you into the weekend.)

Okay, so it’s only the bridge, but I heard the train a few times while I was inside working with the customers. I shot these pics last week on my way back from the 3rd Street Deli, a [...]