Pretty lucky guy

I'm lucky... blessed.... fortunate to have a wife like I have. 21 years married come August, and now 25 years together.

In addition to having a wonderful wife I got some unbelievably great friends. One is a dear dear friend of mine Kristi Hedberg, photographer extraordinary!

Yesterday at lunch Annette and I ran into Kristi and her girls at Tupelo Honey. Annette just got her hair done, which looks great! Kristi loved it also and latter in the day called and said come on over lets play around with some lighting and photograph her and that new hair do. We had a great time and I learned a lot from what I refer to her as the master. ;)

So here is one of the shots. Unprocessed much, quick tone controls in ACR.

I'm bored

Sophia! One of my favorite models and next door neighbors kid. I had the opportunity to keep her and her brother Bradley today. Was suppose to keep only Sophia, but schools were out so I got him too. Hard to entertain 2 kids, Sophia at 4 and Bradley at 7, Joseph my son at 14 and me at 45. What ever should we do.... Movies, McDonalds play land, and hide and seek from my camera seemed to be the course of the day.

Had to run a few errands with them, not real excited about driving around with me. Sophia kept telling me she was bored. I'm bored!... Paul, I'm bored.... I'm bored. Of course me and my smart ass ways play along to say the least. So, I decided that I would give Sophia "I'm Bored" a friend!

Sophia and her friend the board.

She didnt find the humor as Joseph and I did. ;)

My little princess!

Abused my son as a test dummy for some photo shots I am wanting to do with the neighbors kid. I will post them when I get them shot.

Weather, as usual, sucked. Gray skies, blowing snow and windy. And who wears shorts? Thats right, my little princess.

He actually has a princess shirt he wears as a joke in school. I wonder where he gets that humor from?

What are they keeping in or out

Makes you wonder what they are keeping in or out?

Thought it was a cool composition from a photo standpoint.

Humor today is the weather 2/20/10

Not really humor, just a put a smile on my face :)

When you go for 2 months of lousy winter weather and you have not only 1 nice weekend day but 2 in a row it makes me smile.

Out on the bike both days. Roads are a mess and bike was filthy along with me but well worth it.

I guess the humor of the day came from my trip to Chucky Cheese with the neighbors daughter Sophia. I am pretty sure they were at capacity with people INSIDE the building, and then of course there was smokers alley coming to the front door.

I made it about 45 minutes.

Sophia at her birthday last month

Whats so funny about this?

Something as a kid that was everywhere, on every corner, in every store, restaurant, gas station, you name it there was a phone or both.

Now, its a rarity. Was waiting on a friend to go teach the cyclist portion of drivers education today and low and behold there was a phone. What was even funnier was someone, came to the phone and used it while I was sitting there. Opted not to take her picture.

Now we all have cell phones. The days of the phone booth are long gone.

Updated humor for 2/18/2010

I guess some lessons are never learned. Havent been able to snap a shot of this one yet....

So I am sitting in Starbucks, around lunchtime. Came by for a quick place to do some work, and its turned out to be a longer stay than originally thought. That unto itself is rather funny...

But:

I am sitting here and I look outside at this guy smoking. Grossly overweight, I'd guess 400lbs and about 5-5 in height. As I pay a bit more attentions I notice a portable oxygen pack with him. Now, portable oxygen isnt flammable, but its an accelerate, but thats okay he's outside.

What strikes me as odd, or the lessons never learned is 1) he's overweight, BAD 2) he is smoking, which as most of us know isnt a good thing 3) he is on portable oxygen.

See the pattern here?

This sums up my feelings!

Sent to me by a freind, and it sums my feelings up pretty well.

Hate it when that happens

No humor today, 2/16/2010

Well, bad news ended the day. A good freind of Annette and I's has been diagnoised, and operated upon the previous day with a pretty bad brain tumor. The tumor is a gliblastomas and from what we understand a stage IV, which is pretty bad. I think the life expectancy is less than 2 years.

He is a great guy! Clay Tucker. Has had a pretty hard end of life but came through it as tough as could be. His previous wife, whom I used to have no respect for (more on this later) separated from him and then divorced. Clay, waited on her hand and foot as long as we knew them, which has been 10+ years. They other end of Mt Royal Drive, where we used to live a few years ago. Got where we did a lot with them, dinner a couple times a week and in general good friends. That was until they separated... His previous wife decided she wanted more, the way Annette and I saw it she had plenty, too much. Long Clay loved her tremendously, and it showed daily in all he did for her, and that was the thanks he got. Needless to say I HAD a poor opinion of her, honestly it was never great because I used to listen to her bash him all the time, and not in the joking way.

Well, Clay was left with the kids, both adopted from Russia. The dogs and the house and I am sure much more of a burden than she experienced.

The kids are who I feel for the most. They've been through some tough times. Adoption, at a early age, separation and divorce and now soon to lose their Dad. Kids stay with Clay 90% of the time, and he has always been the one caring for them. Its going to be a tough life for them the next few years. Not sure what I can do for them in life, but I will at least offer to be there.

Back to his previous wife, whom I had a very low opinion of... She has redemed herself somewhat with me now. Last night, Annette told me she is caring for him in the hospital, and wants to move him into her house to care for him. She told Annette she still loves him but just couldnt be satisfied with what she had during marriage.

I am impressed with the compassion she is showing now, in the time of need for him. I just hope he finds peace and happiness in his remaining time on earth.

Static Model

Well, he was static..... I guess after I hit him a couple dozen times with a camera flash, even off camera it was bound to awake the sleeping beast.

Poor kids out of school again due to weather. We had sunshine today, but thanks to our technological advancements in weather predictions they just called off school in case. Now its down to losing days spring break week, Saturday classes, and I am sure extended final day of school.

He's a good kid! :)

Daily Humor 2/14/10

Looks like Va. is blessed with them also! Actually 2 days in a row I've ran across a vehicle parked as such at the same Wal-Mart.

Daily Humor from 2/13/10

I think this is self explanatory!
Local tags, and where else but Wal-Mart!
To me explains the driving habits of the area in snow.

It will take more than a plant.

Ahhh, another very cold and very windy day here in the Mtns, and another day the kids are out of school. Poor kids, no spring break and they will be going to school on Saturdays and later in the year based on the weather pattern forcing days out.

On to the big news of the day, the plant! As always I am up early and at Starbucks working and surfing. As I walk into the establishment this chilly morning I see they have placed a plant on my table. I say my table, because this is where I sit every morning. Why? Well, bigger table, I can see the door (old western thing) and its got a power outlet on the wall next to me.

Back to the plant. Guess Starbucks is making what I would say is a feeble attempt at improving their look by improving mine. Nice plant, its several cactus's or would that be catui). Are they trying to say I am dry?

Oh well it will take more than a nice cactus to knock the edge off of me.

Cold, but no snow!

I think even the kids in school are glad to not have snow.

Missed getting hit by this last snow storm!! As it often happens, the storm moves in from the west and when it hits the mountains it gets pushed north and south of Asheville. We seem to always get our best snow when things come up from the south. More snow in the forecast later in the week, guess time will tell.

Speaking of weather, snow, rain, etc. As someone who enjoys the outside its been tough this year with all the precipitation. Roads have lingering snow mounds and the temps have been less than conducive to road riding. The Mtn bikers are suffering too, the woods are still snow covered and the few days that warm up it becomes a muddy mess for riding. Most of the guys I know try and keep off the trails to keep from damaging them for future use. Running is the same way, too sloppy to trail run. I am SURE the Mtns to Sea is snow covered still. So, with me getting back into running, specifically trail running, well...... Its been the damn treadmill, no fun. Throw on top of that the fact I have ridden inside on the trainer for the past what seems like 2 months and well it gets old.

Been a while

Been a while since I updated the blog..... Going to try and make this more routine, even just for the fact of getting stuff out of my head and onto here.

As always sitting in Starbucks as my morning routine. I am now a gold card holder, guess that means either Starbucks likes me, or I drink to much coffee, LOL. Well, its about 2 cups a day, in the mornings, is that too much?

Lots going on.... no real complaints