Dock Lines...

As you all can see, I've been on a break from journaling.  I just wanted to let you all know that I am fine and all is well in my world at the moment.  I will be continuing this journal, but must take a break from journals for at least the first half of this summer.

With all the price increases in fuel, who would have thought that the marina is busier than it has ever been in it's history?  I think the high price of fuel may be causing folks to stay home instead of taking trips this summer, so they are using the money saved to fuel their boats.  At any rate I have my hands full at work.

On the good news front is the fact that our Grandson Trenton will be arriving by plane this afternoon around 5 PM for a visit.  We will be able to enjoy his company for six weeks before sending him back to his father.  I can't possibly tell you how excited we are and how much preparation we have been doing leading up to this visit.

Trenton is now nine years old and he has never been to Disney Land or Disney World.  We plan to remedy that by taking him to Disney World in Orlando later this month.  If we survive the trip, LOL, I'll have pictures to post when I resume this journal again in July.

We also joined the commnity pool association so that Trenton will be able to go to the swimming pool while he is here.  I just found out that he still does not know how to swim.  As a former competitive swimmer, I will not let him leave here without knowing how to swim this summer.  It could save his life!

  It was really tough for me to get some time off in the summer because its our busiest time of year.  I'm lucky that I have a very understanding boss and that I was able to hire enough help this summer to cover for me while I am gone. 

I'm going to be taking advantage of those two factors again in late August when I fly to New Orleans to attend my sister's 60th birthday party.  I haven't seen Jan in at least six years and I am really looking forward to the trip.  By the time I arrive she will have retired from the Army Reserves as a full Colonel and will be enjoying a much deserved period of rest in her life.

So, that's that!  I am fine, the family's fine, but I'm outa here for a while longer.  I can't bring myself to shut this journal down, it still means a lot to me to be a part of this community.  So, please bear with me and my eccentric writing schedules for yet another year.  I look forward to spending a great fall and winter sharing photos and news and just being here with you all once again.

I had to turn my alerts off sometime last month because my mailbox topped out a few times at 999 and I hate to just delete Journal Alerts from my friends.  I'll try and get around from time to time during my hiatus to read and comment if I can, but those instances may be sparse, so please forgive! 

I wish you all a great summer and I pray for everyone to be safe and sound until we can meet up here again.

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The famous “ Docklines …” opening:  “It’s been a while …,”  or, “I can’t believe it’s been so long since my last post.”  Take your pick; these lines seem to have become interchangeable for this journal in recent years.   I almost always have good reasons.  Never excuses, mind you, but reasons.  This time is no different.

Since my last post I have been very busy.  I lost one of my full-time employees, (my Assistant Dock Master joined the U.S. Coast Guard and gave his notice), and I hired a new hand and worked many overtime hours because I wanted to train this one myself.  I have also been attending concerts.  Yes, I said concerts, LOL.

The Savannah Music Festival kicked off on Thursday March 20th at the brand new Charles H. Morris Center with a concert by Brazilian Jazz musicians Daniel Santiago and Gabriel Grossi.  Santiago’s fluid fretwork on the guitar was matched by Grossi’s masterful technique on the chromatic harmonica.  It was a brilliant performance and, because it was the first concert ever at this new venue as well as the first event of the festival, it was heavily covered by the local media.  My picture was on the front page of the Savannah Morning News the next day as I was sitting front and center at the performance.  That’s me sitting there in the middle of the photo wearing the red and black jacket.

The next concert I attended was the following Wednesday night, also at the Charles H. Morris Center.  The first concert was by the blues trio of Eric Culbertson, followed by a concert by another blues trio fronted by Sean Costello.  Each artist was masterful in their own right, each with their different styles of the blues.  The blues doesn’t get any better than it did that night!

I was fortunate on Friday night to have the pleasure of seeing Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Skaggs in concert.  These two recorded an album together a while back and have performed together many times since the release of the CD.  I thought it was an unusual pairing, but was not prepared for the shear mastery and perfect blending of these two talents.  Ricky had his Kentucky Thunder Band on stage with him and Bruce Hornsby’s piano was another addition to the band for the evening.  They played some of Bruce’s hits and some of Ricky’s hits and some hits they did together.  Then Ricky did some of Bruce’s songs and Bruce sang some of Ricky’s songs.  The way these two voices blended you would have thought they were brothers.

Tomorrow night after work, I get to see The Derek Trucks Band.  Derek is one of today’s foremost guitar players and just got back from his tour with Eric Clapton.  He is also married to Blues guitar artist and star, Susan Tedeshi.  It promises to be one heck of a concert.  Thursday night I will see a performance by slide guitarists from around the world.  Derek Trucks will be one of the four performing artists in that show; he is one of the most respected slide guitarists in our nation.

So, there you have it.  The stress of losing an employee, the hiring and training of a new one, the burning the candle at both ends by indulging my passion for music at night, and reporting to a regular job by day.   Oh, and add to that the fact I had to go in on my day off yesterday due to the fact that it was the last day of the month and I had to do the month end inventory for the Ship’s Store and the monthly walk-through of my wet and dry boat storage areas.

When I got home from work yesterday, I was in my bedroom changing back into shorts and tee shirt to kick around the house in and I noticed some activity out on the porch.  I did a double take when I peeked out there.  There was a full grown peacock staring at little Miss Emmie through the glass door on the other end of the porch.  I quickly made my way out there with camera in hand.  The peacock, a female, was not fazed by my presence and continued to examine Emmie as though she might be a future meal, LOL.

Emmie held her ground and did some championship staring right back:

I went into the kitchen to get a shot of the bird from a different angle and was able to catch a shot of the only time the peacock spread her tail feathers:

After a while, the peacock wandered around the yard a bit and then just moseyed on off:

In what spare time I have had, I have also been practicing my guitar and trying to do the extra credit Photo Challenge presented by Marie last month.  The challenge was to do a photo project that you had never tried before and, after learning how to do it, present a tutorial on what you started with, what you ended up with, and what you did to get that result.  I have finished my project, now I just have to figure out how to present the tutorial.  I’ll get back to Ya’ll on that one.

I’m sorry I have not been around to read journal these past two weeks, but my whole sleep schedule has been thrown off and I find myself over sleeping in the mornings and I have not been home a lot at night.  I usually don’t get out much, so these night time forays are taking their toll on me.  I hope to get back to normal by the end of this week.  Until next time, take care!

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ADVANCED CATEGORY - MARCH INTO SPRING

This week's challenge is MARCH INTO SPRING...Is spring popping up in your neighborhood? Daffodils and crocuses popping up through the snow? However spring is arriving (or did in the past, if you're still snowbound), share it with us!

This week's Photo Challenge made me take a close look around and, sure enough, there it was!  Spring popping up right there in my yard.  Here is my entry for the March Into Spring Photo Challenge.  The top pic is the official entry, the second one I included because I thought it was a good shot and deserved to be seen, too.  There is still plenty of time to join the Challenge, all are welcome to participate.  Click the Photo Challenge banner above, or right here:  Community Photo Challenge.

I used a new set of close up filters that I recently purchased.  This is the first time I have tried using them.  There are three in the set with a magnification of 1X, 2X, and 4X.  They are stackable, so you could have the equivalent of 7X if you cared to.  For these two shots I stacked the 4X and the 2X.  I found I cold get closer and more detail with these filters than I could with the macro setting on my camera.  I shot some with that setting two, for later comparison, and I really did like the new filters better.  I did not crop these at all they are framed just as they were in my viewfinder.  I also played with contrast, color temperature and saturation when I developed the raw files.

The trip to Athens came and went without incident.  I did not get to shoot any pictures while I was there.  My fault more than anything else, but I'll blame horrible weather on the second day.  I spent the first day driving around the town and walking around the campus of the University of Georgia.  I fully expected to come back the next day and shoot anything of interest I had noted.  However, the skies opened up on that second day and it was not fit for man or beast outside.  I'll plan and execute better next year when we go to the same training seminar.

Well, I'm looking forward to getting around and seeing all the other entries in this week's Challenge.  I'm sure I'll be treated to a lot of good photography!

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Creative Challenge-Collage

We have a new extra credit Challenge going right now:

Another Creative Challenge-COLLAGE

The Self Portrait Challenge seemed fun & successful, so I wanted to add another this
 week.  Again, you can enter anytime you want. 

The collage can be of anything...you decide, post it on your blog, come back here &
 leave a link. You can add a little explanation on what you did & why.   PLEASE
 follow GUIDELINES (use permalinks).  Like the last creative challenge, there will
 be no judging.

I have posted these collages in past entries, years apart.  I won't make you go back through the archives to find them, I am putting all three collage examples up here for this extra credit.  I have done other collages of sailboat regattas, too, but hey, that would just be overkill, LOL. 

I saw in another entry on this Extra Credit Challenge some editing techniques that are new to me and I want to spend some time learning how to create in a similar fashion.  Don't be surprised if you see more collage samples in the future.

This is the first collage I ever attempted with my digital camera which, at the time, was a Fujinon.  I was inspired by our newly acquired kittens.

Most of my long time readers have come to know about our cat Emmie and the special bond that developed between the two of us.  This collage was inpired by Emmie.

This final collage was done over two years ago to demostrate the process of removing huge items of debris that gets trapped in our marina from time to time.  These items, if left in the river, would prove to be a danger to any boat.  They are hard to see and easy to hit.

I wish I had the time right now to experiment with the new techniques I have observed, but I must finish two loads of laundry that are both in progress and get ready for a road trip tomorrow.

Paulette has to attend a training seminar in Athens, Georgia, about a four and a half hour drive from here.  I have taken a few vacation days to drive her there.  I will take my PC with me, (the hotel advertises wireless internet), and my guitar as well as my camera.  I'll amuse myself each day while she is in her training sessions and I hope to return with some good photos.  The hotel is on the grounds of the University of Georgia, so I am gauranteed some interesting sights right off the bat!  We will return home on Wednesday.  For all the thieves and burglars out there, Sandy will be remaining at home.  (Just kidding J-Land, I have more trust in you than that, LOL).

If you see a guy on a street corner in Athens, Georgia over the next few days playing guitar with a cup on the ground in front of him, toss in a coin or two, it could be me and you know what the price of gas is these days.  (WINK)!

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The gang that is hosting the AOL Community Photo Challenge has challenged us to do a self portrait for extra credit.  This is just for fun so that we might get a glimpse of  those that are joining in on the Challenges.  Its fun to put a face to a screen name. 

At any rate, I am going to submit my self portrait, presented here in collage form.  All the shots in this collage were taken yesterday, 2/15/08.  I used a tripod and the timer setting on my camera and took off or put on different work jackets for the different colors.

I encourage everyone to click on this link to the challenge and go to the comments section to get the links to all the other self portraits of the Challenge Gang!  There are some really creative responses to this one and it is fun to see how each photographer responded.

AOL Community Photo Challenge:  Self Portrait 

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First of all, I just want to say how excited I was to learn that Monica and I won first place awards for the recent AOL Community Photo Challenge.  I am humbled by the judges choices and I also want to say thank you to all who left me such nice comments about my photo.  I must say, Monica's photo was great, too, and I'm glad we are getting to share the award.  Interesting that a winner in the advanced Challenge and Nancy, the winner in the Beginners Challenge had a cat in the shot, LOL.  For a complete list of winners and links to see their entries click on this link:  AOL Community Photo Advanced Challenge. 

While I'm at it, let me add that I was really impressed with the photos in the Beginners Challenge.  We have some great photographers here in J-Land at all levels!  Click on this link to see the winners of the Beginners Challenge:  AOL Community Photo Beginners Challenge.

Now, while we are on the subject of awards.  There has been an award being passed around J-Land sinced the beginning of the month.  It is the Nice Matters award and it is really a great way to tell each other that we think they are nice and that someone appreciates them.  I want to thank those that have sent this award on to me and apologize about taking so long to post on the subject.  You will see my award proudly displayed now in my sidebar on the left.  There are two versions of the award, one for the ladies and one for the gents.

As I traveled around J-Land these last ten days or so, I have noticed that almost everyone already has recieved one of these.  So nice to see the widespread show of kindness.  Here are some very deserving folks who need to have one of these on their sidebar, too. First the ladies:

SUSAN:  http://journals.aol.com/rjet33/CountryLivingSouthernStyle/

 

Catherine:  http://journals.aol.com/chatzeekay/LifeandLessons/

 

Sharon:   http://journals.aol.com/tpiez4me/just4me/

 

Barb:  http://journals.aol.com/bvaneps834/LaughterandTearsintheLast50Years/

 

I have chosen one male to recieve this award from me.  He actually sent me one, but that is not why I chose to send him one back.  There is no one quite like Guido here in J-Land.  He has a heart big enough to fill two continents.  His compassion towards his fellow man is evident in almost all he writes.  He is ever vigilant to alert us to visit those who might need a little encouragement or comfort.  His sidebar should be filled with these awards.

 

 

Guido:  http://journals.aol.co.uk/pharmolo/NorthernTrip/

Well, I'm off now to go on a little photo adventure.  If I'm successful at shooting the event I am about to go witness, I'm sure you will be seeing the results here in some future post.  I need to stop and get a haircut on the way there, so I'd better get a move on.  Take care everyone, I'll see you all next Monday or Tuesday for sure.

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The subject of this week's AOL Community Photo Challenge is:  Love

With Valentine's day upon us this month, our next challenge was suggested by Betty.
Of course, this can be of anything that represents love.  There are many forms of love, so this should be an easy challenge. 
Love is all around us......so find it, capture it, or just use a photo from the past, that says it!

I had no idea how few photos I've snapped over the past couple of years that really demonstrate this subject.  I finally found this shot taken two years ago of my grandson, Trenton and our kittie, Emmie.  There was a lot of affection between these two during the time that Trenton was living with us.  Here is the shot:

I did enjoy this opportunity to go back through my archives and I hope you enjoy this cute shot of the two of them.  Now its off to visit the other entires in this challenge to see what the rest of you have come up with.

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It's that time again! Judith Heartsong's Artsey Essay is wrapping up for this month and I am sneaking in under the deadline with but one full day left to compete.  Here is this months challenge:

An Ode to Your Favorite Gadget

Weave a story about your favorite gadget.... something from the kitchen, the car, the garage, the living room, tool shed or your favorite styling tool. Who knows? It could be anything. Surprise us! Be creative and show us in words or pictures just why your stupendous gadget is the very best. Make sure you spell-check, use colorful and descriptive language, and tell your tale in an engaging way!

You have until the very last minute of the last hour of the last day of this month to spin a yarn to share about your favorite gadget. 

It's not too late for any of you out there to enter, here's the link:  Artsey Essay Contest, and here's my latest effort:

Favorite gadgets, you ask?  I’ve had more than a few over the years and I really had to think long and hard as to which one I’d pick and call my favorite. 

My current camera would have to be given consideration.  It has a dark, black, and mysterious finish to it.  The body is curvaceous and snuggles neatly into my hands as I caress it and coax out its secrets.  I can push buttons and turn knobs for an endless- seeming array of options and settings.  I can make this gadget seem brand new with the simple purchase of a myriad assortment of accessories.  That’s right, put this baby in your hands and feel its sleek design and enticing curves.  Try not to fall for it, go ahead, I dare you!

What really is a gadget, though?  The North America English Edition of the Encarta Dictionary defines gadget as:

1.        Ingenious device

A small device that performs or aids a simple task

2.       trivial device

A small device that appears useful but is often unnecessary or superfluous

 

Now, my camera is an ingenious device, however, taking a good picture is no simple task, and if one is going to take a picture, a camera is certainly necessary and not superfluous.  I think something along the lines of the 3 foot long thingy with the claw grabber that opens when you push the button on the end of it may qualify as a gadget.  One uses it to reach behind or underneath something to retrieve an object.  It is very useful but, if you move the object that you are reaching behind or underneath, it becomes unnecessary or superfluous.  I really enjoyed getting one of these years ago, but needed to use it only rarely.

Now, when I think of gadgets, one name comes to mind.  That name would be Popeil, as in Ron Popeil who, according to Wikipedia, is the master salesman who won the Nobel Prize in 1993 for Consumer Engineering.  He was described by the awards committee as the “incessant inventor and perpetual pitchman of late night television.”  The only problem with that statement is that there is no such thing as a Nobel Prize for Consumer Engineering.  The IG people named their fun prize awards the IG Nobel Prizes and that is what Ron Popeil actually won.  I thought it was a hoot that someone had written that on Wikipedia and thought I’d let you know it just wasn’t so.  Ron Popeil was, however, honored for all posterity with a display in the Smithsonian Museum.  

I never knew his name until I was an adult, but Ron Popeil had me at a very early age.  I’ll never forget the Pocket Fisherman my Mother gave me as a present one time.  At first, I thought it was cute but unpractical.  I still owned it when I started riding motorcycles with my friend Ken in St. Petersburg, Fl. in 1978.  We loved riding around Tampa Bay and exploring off-the-beaten-road beaches and coves.  We’d stop and admirethe water and wish we had a fishing pole with which to try our luck.  I had never used it before, but remembered this gadget was stored in the closet in a box.  One time, before one of our rides, I took it out and threw it on the bike.

The Pocket Fisherman was only about nine or ten inches long and was a complete spin casting system in one handy unit.  It featured a hinged rod that folded up, a smooth reel with anti-reverse and adjustable drag and a mini-tackle box in the handle.  The best part of all was that Ken had no idea I had it with me.   We found one of the best spots on the water yet and, as Ken and I were admiring the view, I was just waiting for him to say, “Boy, I wish we had a rod and reel with us.”    I didn’t have to wait long.

You should have seen the look on Ken’s face when I pulled out my Pocket Fisherman.  He had seen these advertised on television but could not believe I had one with me that day.  I fished a lure out of the handle and tied it on the line.  I got a strike on my first cast and actually landed a fish on my second one.  We were hooked and carried that gadget with us until we finally wore it slap out.  I’m here to tell you folks, it really worked as advertised!  Reminiscing about the Pocket Fisherman brings me closer to what would have to be my all time favorite gadget.

 First I have to comment on another one of Popeil’s inventions my family owned.  It was the Chop-O-Matic.  Yes,theChop-O-Matic was a little jar with a screw-on lid.  The lid had a hole in the center with a set of blades attached to a shaft going through the lid.  Outside the jar, above the lid, a small round ball-like handle was attached.  Underneath the lid, between the lid and the blade, was a spring system.  You would fill the jar with nuts or an onion or anything else you wanted to chop, screw the lid on, and start pumping the handled up and down thus chopping up whatever might be in the jar.  It was cute, quick to use, but it was superfluous and unnecessary when you considered the time you took to load it, chop, empty, and wash.  I could dice a whole onion with a sharp knife in the amount of time I would spend just cleaning up and washing this little contraption.   Fortunately I did not go out and purchase it, my mother had one and I could use it anytime I wanted to.

I came by my love of gadgets honestly; I inherited this trait from my father.  Dad couldn’t pass up a gadget he took a fancy to, and believe me; he fancied a lot of them in his day.  Every other year my mother would have to completely clean out and reorganize the drawers in the kitchen because of all the gadgets my father would drag home.  There were peelers, scrapers, and corers.  You could find slicers and dicers and knifes.  He had pickers, clippers and chippers.  I’d see pitters, and presses, and all kinds of things that made messes.  I sure do miss him and all of his gadgets!

My all-time favorite gadget was owned by my father and I was not allowed to touch it.  The problem was that when he purchased it I was still but a boy and into everything at the time.  This gadget had sharp blades and I was liable to cut one of my fingers off if I wasn’t careful, so I was just plain old forbidden to use it.  Of course, forbidding me to use it added greatly to the mystique!  You see, this product could slice it and dice it and cut a tomato paper thin with all the seeds still intact.  This product could cut a whole potato into French fries in one second flat, and it is so easy to clean.  But wait, there’s more!  Yes, my favorite gadget of all time is the Veg-O-Matic, invented by Samuel Popeil, and sold and marketed by his famous son, Ron Popeil. 

All of America remembers those incessant TV commercials of the sixties and seventies describing the magic of the Veg-O-Matic and how this gadget would make your life easier.  We would wake up to see Ron Popeil on TV with his Veg-O-Matic and, if you stayed up to watch late night TV, then you were continually bombarded with this sales pitch.  Popeil was the first to buy an extra minute of time for his pitches and his two minute commercials are the forerunner of the modern infomercials.

Dad purchased one of the early models and demonstrated it at home one night when he decided to make hamburgers and French fries.  This contraption had a plastic base that consisted of four legs supporting a center that was high enough off the counter to leave room for the finished product beneath it.  The midsection was square with a round hole in the center.  Different slicing and dicing blades that were round in shape could be fitted into the round center to cutthe desired shape.  I really should saythat the blade holders were round, the blades themselves crossed or crisscrossed the round holder allowing thick slices or thin slices, with the crisscrossed blades producing French fries or diced produce.  The top of the gadget was raised above the circular cutting hole and the supports for the top were fed through holes in the base that kept it perfectly lined up with the cutting area.  Dad would put the potato between the top and the center of the base, aligned directly over the cutting area, and push down on the top, which pushed the produce directly through the circular cutting hole in the midsection.  I was amazed to watch a whole potato be pushed through and come out as French fries.  The tomato slices were so thin as to be impossible.  His diced onions were, like the potatoes, instant and efficient.  I was enthralled by this gadget and was promptly forbidden not to touch it.  Ever!  There are pictures of the Veg-O-Matic on the Internet, but I didn’t have permission to use any of them, so I did not insert one here.

Dad was a pilot in the Air Force and flew a lot.  That meant that he was away quite often during those years and I rarely got to see the gadget in action.  The mystique never died, though, and on those occasions when we was home and pulled it out, I’d hover around and Dad would have a captivated audience as he made short work of all those vegetables.  Because they were afraid I’d hurt myself if I tried to use it, Mom and Dad hid it pretty darn well when he was not using it.

Time passed and the Veg-O-Matic was used less and less.  Part of it was the out of sight, out of mind syndrome and part of it was a reluctance to have to clean up all the individual parts once Dad was finished with it.  I truly thought it had fallen out of the family inventory until either shortly before or shortly after my mother’s death many, many years later.  I was living on our boat at the time and did not have room for any more gadgets and let it out of my grasp. 

I did find a few Veg-O-Matics on sale at Ebay for a very reasonable price, so who knows, I may get to play with one yet.  Paulette is well aware of my proclivity for gadgets, though, and I doubt I would be allowed to consummate any deal on one.  That’s a shame.  Another gadget I would love to get my hands on is the Popeil Showtime Rotisserie.  I’ve been asking for one of those since they first came out and to this day Paulette says absolutely not!  But a man can dream, can’t he?  But wait, there’s more… (wink)!  Y’all have a great week!

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The new year has been a busy one and I am ashamed I have not been back sooner.  I've been trying to keep current with everyone and have not always commented when I was in a hurry, but I've tried to let just about everyone know I was arround.  I hope the new year is being good to all of you.

I've decided to start doing the weekly photo challenge.  After the Blog Father departed AOL, Marie decided to keep the tradition of the weekly Photo Challenge alive and is graciously hosting this friendly competition. 

The theme for this week's challenge will be Hometown, suggested by Donna.

Select a photo that best represents "Hometown"
This could be something you love about where you live, either your hometown, home state, country....anything that shows your home.  It is your interpretation of "Hometown" or "Home"

Repeat from another post....
[Marie: "Examples; NYC, the city skyline at night.  or  Could be a seaside cottage, or country home.....  I recently was part of a photo challenge & was asked to suggest a theme.
This was mine "Home is where the Heart is"]

You may add something about why you chose this photo.
All entries must have a description of the photo, including when it was taken (the year) & where.   Anything that would be of interest to visitors checking out your image.

There are two catagories, beginner and advanced.  I wanted to enter in the beginner catagory, but I've posted enough pictures over the last three years that I fear I'd get booed out of J-Land.  I swear, this is true:  When I went out this afternoon to shoot the picture for this challenge, I had to read the manual all over again for my camera.  I decided to shoot in a file format I've never tried before and it has taken all afternoon and evening to get to the point of posting a final result.

So, My entry is in the advanced catagory and it is a waterfront scene on the Savannah River.

This is a picture of the Convention Center as seen from River Street on the waterfront of the Savannah River taken today, January 22, 2008 at approximately 3:30pm.  I wanted to take a shot of River Street, but the sun was at the wrong angle for a great shot and I suddenly realized that most of the visitors to our city go to River Street, not Hutchinson Island where the Convention Center is located.  That means that the view they take home of Savannah in their minds is of the Convention Center as seen from River Street.  The tall buliding to the right of the frame is the Westin Hotel.

There are some tugboats docked on a River Street warf in the lower left hand corner of the picture.  These belong to the Moran Company.  There are only two tugboat companies on this river so these boats are a very familiar sight to native residents.

Given my track record, I know you won't believe that I am going to post each and every week now to do this photo challenge.  You know, you may be wrong there.  It was fun getting out and shooting today.  I wanted to enter last week's challenge but events conspired against that happening.  I'm glad I put things aside today and got out there.  I had a blast.

I'll be posting again in a day or two because I have chosen a topic for Judy's Artsey Essay Contest and will be entering that this week as well.

Until then, take care and get out and have some fun with your camera if you have one.

gaboatman at 10:13:00 PM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 58 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

                                 

                     

My gracious thanks to Donna at D's Designs for these great graphics!  Wishing you all a great new year and all the best in 2008! 

 

 

gaboatman at 7:52:25 PM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 42 comments: Show Recent | Add your own