Month: February 2019

Why is a blue bird the symbol of happiness? It seems like a blue bird would be sad. But, even a blue bird can find some reason to be happy. This one is perched on a piece of a pedal and drinking from a spindle.

It is going to be spring soon when it is warm and the bikes are in full bloom.

Life isn’t black and white. But today I took my photo and went with a black and white version. I haven’t really talked about anything cancer related lately, but that was the whole reason that I started this project and this blog. I don’t like to think about cancer though. I run and cycle with the Huntsman Heroes to help support people that have cancer or loved ones with cancer. So it is often one of those things that lurks in the back of your mind whether you want to acknowledge it or bury it deep down under other thoughts.

I’ve been thinking about it today though. I was sitting in the lobby waiting for my dad to get out of an appointment and some people were talking. I wasn’t eavesdropping, at least not at that moment. There were some people talking in a foreign language (something slavic but not Russian) and I was eavesdropping on them to see if I could figure out the language (I couldn’t). As I was saying, I wasn’t even paying attention to them until one of them said, “Sarcoma,” or some other ‘noma’. And all of the sudden I was pulled out of what I was doing and into the mode of oh-no-not-another-one. I didn’t know these people, I didn’t even turn around to see who they were. I just had this visceral reaction to a word that I overheard when I wasn’t even paying attention.

I think that it is sometimes easy to lose track of what we are doing when we get pulled into the day to day things. I have days where I just struggle to find a picture and my focus is just on snapping a photo that I can post with nothing to say and some stupid compulsion to try to say something. But there are those days when you just get things together long enough to think about the real reason that you are doing some of the things that you are doing and trying to express that (no matter how inadequately). So I continue to try to put together a project that means something to someone other than me. Hopefully, you find something here.

Today seemed like a good day for a picture of a nice predator. Monday’s can be like that. Or we can be like that. I suppose it kind of depends on the Monday or it depends on us.

As I started the day trying to come up with a picture, I folded some pigeons. I was thinking something along the lines of The Birds but then I started thinking about how pigeons are basically just rats with wings and decided that I wanted to go a different direction.

From suspense, I made the jump to suspense. I think that all pictures tell a story. The question is what is the story that this picture tells? I think that the murder of crows on the right is definitely suspect. Of course, the crime is a murder of a crow so maybe the pigeons are in on it. The crows are definitely the first ones you might suspect, so there’s a good chance that they are the victims here. If only Hercule Parrot was here.

I was working with some clay today, trying to come up with an idea. I started with a bunch of pieces of clay with different leaf imprints that I was stitching together like Frankenstein’s monster. That wasn’t working so I went the other way and put some different pieces of clay together and then imprinted a leaf on it.

I took this picture thinking Rainbow Trout is a clever name. While I still believe that this is true, I didn’t think about what I might have to say about a picture of a fish. Maybe, “Glub, glub.”

So much for trying to be clever. Who would have thought that a play on words could backfire?

Probably not what you were expecting from the title is it. But really is it ever. Maybe this would have been a better title for yesterday.

I’m not sure what kind of bird this is though. I’d like to think based on its beautiful plumage it is a Norwegian Blue Parrot, but I think the coloring points more toward a clown hawk. You probably thought that the terrifying clown had no natural predators, but you would be wrong. Of course the clown hawk has been hunted nearly to extinction by carnival hawkers.

Happy Bir… Hey what kind of candle is that? 62, 63,64… Did you use the whole box? I’m not 64 and it’s definitely not my birthday.

I don’t know how I came up with this idea, but there it is, a crayon burning.

I think I just wanted to see how this would look. Now I know, and so do you.

Fire is an interesting thing. It can warm you up or even save your life in the right circumstances, or it can destroy. Today was a bit of a mixed bag for me so it seemed appropriate that I used a picture with some fire destroying a leaf (or is it just keeping it warm)?

I think that today could have just been one of those days if I had let my mind go there. I had a gasket blow in my hot water valve in the shower yesterday and I hadn’t had time to fix it before using it this morning. I know there are people who love cold showers; I am not one of them. And yet, that is how I began my day. Some days we let our negative thoughts get in our heads and they pursue us all day. Today was feeling like that. But I also had some good things. My car had an episode that I thought might leave me stranded but miraculously it recovered and I made it through the whole cycling class without having to stop or lower my intensity. To top it all off, I was able to fix the shower, so tomorrow morning will not be like a gatorade bath at the end of a football game.

I’m going to count today as a win. It wasn’t a rout, but I feel like I came out ahead.

Orange is the color of kidney cancer. That’s the one that got my brother.

I wasn’t thinking about that when I took the picture, but it came to mind as I sit here thinking about what to say today. In a couple of weeks it is going to be three years since he died. It feels like forever and I still miss him so much. He’s really the reason that I am doing this. Because hopefully a cure will be found for cancer and we won’t lose brothers and friends to it anymore.