150/365-2 A Vision of the Present

"Why Be Normal?"

No explanation necessary...

149/365-2 A Vision of Safety

"A Man, A Plan, A Hat"

We are wrapping up May and Healthy Vision Month.  Today's reference to safety was directed towards eye safety and the importance of wearing sunglasses.  Weber is very good about wearing his sunglasses.  He also is good about wearing his hat in the winter to keep his bald head warm and in the summer to keep it from getting sunburned.  I, on the other hand, should wear a hat and sunglasses all the time, but don't.  I never have.  It is not a vanity thing.  After fifty years I finally figured out what my aversion to hats and sunglasses really is.

Claustrophobia...that is why I don't like sunglasses.  They make me feel boxed in, a feeling I can't stand.  Just ask the tech who tried to strap my head down and shove me in a tube to do a CT scan.  Or the dentist who tried to put an oxygen mask over my face when prepping to take my wisdom teeth out.  I learned that I was claustrophobic the hard way and lots of people learned right along with me.  It was nice of that CT scan person to pull me quickly out of that tube and give me those nice little white pills. They cure claustrophobia and lots of other things with one little swallow.

When I was a teenager my mother would always gripe at me because I wore my clothes too big.  Actually I think she was still nagging me about that up until the point that she died eight years ago.  I have always been, and still am, a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl.  As Brooke say, "That's how I roll."  I could never quite figure out what her objection was to my comfortable attire.  At least I wasn't wearing clothes that were too tight.  My requisite body parts were always appropriately covered.

It wasn't until fairly recently that I realized that my personal style of oversized clothing is also the result of my serious disdain of feeling closed in.  I don't like anything tight or binding - not jeans, or shoes, or shirts, or even socks.  I don't care what others think about the way I dress.  The fact that this also included my mom when she was alive was the point of departure for many arguments.  

I am so lucky that I have a career that doesn't require me to wear tight clothes to get the job done.  You know what I'm talking about - primarily women in sales who are not appealing to a customer's intellect but rather to their...well...you know.  Or the news anchors who are hired so that audiences will watch the news rather than listen to it.  Academia is OK with personal style.  Jeans and tennis shoes are acceptable.  It is one of the few places where how you do your job is more important than what you dress like when you are teaching. 

So I will continue to dress in such a way as to keep me free of claustrophobia.  Trust me, that is better for everyone around me...unless you happen to carry those little white pills around with you and then I'll put on anything you want, wear sunglasses and let you shove my head in that tube!

All that to say that because Weber is a better sport with his sunglasses than I am, he got tagged for today's picture.

148/365-2 Soul

'Soulful Squirrel"

Today's photo was an object lesson in sometimes you do the best you can with what you have at the moment.  

This furry little guy was sitting on his branch looking in the back door at the dogs.  I know most people consider squirrels to be a nuisance, but I think they are cute.  We constantly fill the bird feeders only to see squirrels swinging from them like trapeze artists.  That's OK.  Plenty of seeds end up on the ground and the birds happily clean up the mess left behind by the squirrels.

Back to today...I grabbed my camera, which had the wrong lens on it for this, and starting shooting.  I had no idea what my settings were.  I figured I would miss the shot for sure if I took the time to change lenses and settings so I took my chances.  I was also shooting through the glass on the back door.  Fortunately I was high enough that the photo was not made any worse by dog nose smudges on the glass.  I also had to do some serious cropping to get any kind of composition here.

It is what it is.  I think he's a soulful squirrel!

147/365-2 Monochromatic

"Spilled Milk"

I have always loved black and white images.  I have learned recently that what I really like is mono -chromaticism.  Black and white just happens to be the most common manifestation of that.  This one was a lot of fun to play with.

I could have inserted "beer" for "coffee" and the text would have been equally meaningful, but I took this shot early in the day and was still drinking coffee.  I also had a debate with myself over "spilt" or "spilled."  I think that the former is more archaic and in modern language has been replaced by the latter.

146/365-2 A Vision of Freedom

"Freedom"

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. 

If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. " 

Abraham Lincoln

The greatest number of American lives lost in a single war, 650,000, were lost in the Civil war, a war fought on our own soil 
Today I am thankful for all the freedom that I have - that which I am given because of the sacrifices of others and which I have because I had nothing scheduled for the day.  We slept late.  Boy did that feel good!  The sky was overcast and there were light showers.  It was a perfect morning to sleep in!  Once we got up and I managed to get all of the animals off the bed,  I  decided that today was a good day to wash all of the bed linens, which reminds me that I still need to remake the bed.

Weber and I went to one of our city's parks to take photos.  On past Memorial Days they have had a field of flags, but not this year.  I had to settle for a photo of the flag on the tall pole.  This gave me an opportunity to play with my new lens.  I was hoping for some pretty birds or something, but no such luck.  There were a few grackles around, but that was it.

The park, Liberty Park, also has some very cool statues honoring those who have sacrificed for our freedom.  I also had time to work my Lensbaby as well.  I haven't used it much out in public.  I feel like I am getting a little better with it.  It was fun to use it to photograph something other than flowers.  I am getting close to trying it for some portraits...maybe.

Statues are certainly good subjects on which to practice!

This one was taken with my regular Nifty Fifty lens.

This statue really speaks to me.  Sometimes we forget just how many lives are impacted by the time given and sacrifices made by those who serve in our armed forces.

145/365-2 A Vision of Twilight

"Twilight Showers"

Today's photo prompt asked us to photograph twilight with a phone camera.  Once a month, we are asked to use our phone cameras to achieve the daily prompt.  I have not fully embraced this yet because I usually get terrible pictures with my phone.  Most of the time they are blurry and grainy.  I don't know what I do wrong, but it annoys me!  I did, however, follow the guidelines of the day and took these with my phone.

It was an evening marked by rain showers so the twilight sky was not not terribly spectacular.  I did do the best I could in, what I consider to be, less than optimal circumstances.

I kind of like the abstract nature of the image below of raindrops in a puddle.  This too was shot with my phone and then I upped the saturation of blue 

"Blue Raindrops"

144/365-2 A Vision of Finished

"Moving On Up"

Though she turned twenty-one in December and legally became an adult then, today Erin really "finished" her childhood.  She moved into her first apartment where she signed the lease and is responsible for all of her own bills.  The move is because she has a "real" job with a real salary as a spatial analyst.  

We went over for dinner tonight.  It was funny to see all of the things that she has taken for granted while living at home - a shower curtain, kitchen sponges, spices for the hamburgers.  She, Edgar and Leo are living on the third floor.  This made moving in fun:-)  Leo thinks it is pretty exciting to get to go up and down the stairs to go outside, but his mom and dad didn't like hauling all of the grocery sacks up three flights of stairs.

"Booking It"

Brooke is also about to start a new full-time job.  She has been working part-time at the public library and has just been offered a full-time job with benefits!  She seems to enjoy what she is doing even though it involves interacting with the public all day long.

I am happy that both girls are settling in to new and exciting adventures!