Images

I haven’t done any running since April. Tomorrow I start training again so snails seemed appropriate.

When I woke up just after midnight I thought, “I’ll just got back to sleep now.” Two hours later I decided that sleep was overrated for the day and got up. Needless to say, it has been a long day.

I could say a bunch of stuff about the sheep here, and the negative sheep (reversed colors like in old-timey photography) but think I won’t. I’m just going to leave the picture up and you can all wonder how long it’s been since I got any sleep, because this picture is just weird.

I stand by my use of old-timey, however. And I hate that spell check keeps trying to change it.

 

After visiting the cemetery yesterday, I thought this seemed like an appropriate picture.

Today I went back to where I started this project, the cemetery. It is strange for me to go to Matt’s grave when I have things on my mind that I would like to talk to him about. It used to be that he was the talkative one and I was taciturn. Now, I talk and he listens. It sucks when I just want him to give me some advice that he isn’t talking.

But the cemetery is an odd place. Silent, and still. So unlike Matt. I reminded him once about how he used to drive me to school, blasting the Alarm. He responded that it was when we were young and the world was ours.  Those were good times. That was Matt though — big plans, always something going on. And he could talk, about lots of things, often about bikes, sometimes about more serious things — if there are any.

Matt made me feel daring, whether it was holding his wheel on a descent or taking out his car solo, which hated going slow mind you, when I could barely drive a manual. I think how much easier this would seem if he was still around. Instead I do it for him, with much less courage than when he was around. And even though he usually beat me on the bike (but I still have the best marathon time) I still miss him.

It’s always hard to know what to say, I’m not really a writer.  And I prefer to let people decide what they think about my photos, and what they think they mean. But it also seems weird to just put a picture here without saying anything.

So this is what I will say. I tried to fold the same type of bird twice, and as you can see they turned out very different. We all have our own stories and even though cancer somehow touches all our lives, the same disease can fold us up very differently.

However you look at it, we are in this thing together. Hopefully, we can be there for others when they need us.

 

With leaves changing and the weather getting cooler it looks like winter is on its way. I was wondering what I could take a picture of today and I noticed that acorns were falling off the tree next door (not my tree) and I thought… Squirrel!. Yes, I actually got a bit distracted and totally got squirreled but I came back to the thought and decided that maybe a squirrel gathering acorns would be a good picture for the day. Since I couldn’t get a real squirrel, I had to fold one out of paper.

When I started this project, I didn’t realize just how much time it would take. I never really wanted to do a blog, but somehow it just didn’t seem like the project was complete without some way to document it as it went on.  I thought that from time to time I would explain why I chose the picture that I did, but it seems weird to post a picture on a blog site without saying something, even if it isn’t really important or enlightening.

This week has been a bit frustrating. I want to put together a set of good pictures, and I felt like I was falling short this week. I’m no sculptor, as you have been able to determine from some of this week’s pictures. While I knew that some days I might be fishing for ideas and I might have to accept a crappy picture from time to time, this week was feeling like a string of failed attempts. I suppose, that depending on the opinion of the viewer one might feel that way about all of the pictures, but there are several that I am pleased with. Anyway, I hope that you like this one.

 

A few days ago, I posted a picture of a balding sunflower. I picked up a packet of googley eyes, which I used a pair of on said sunflower and then ended up with a bag of eyes.

It seemed such a waste just to use two eyes from a whole bag of them and I felt somewhat obligated to do something with the rest of them.

There really aren’t a great deal of options with a bag of eyes, some magazines, a mason jar and some clay animals. I did have a really creepy picture of faces with googley eyes on them, but I didn’t want to give anyone nightmares. Maybe when Halloween gets closer, but not today.

So, instead of night terrors, I have opted for well earned groans as I say, I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Hey, just be grateful that I didn’t run completely out of ideas and post a selfie.

I was trying to write a nice ransom note, but I couldn’t find any large numbers or the words small unmarked bills in the free magazines I found at the grocery store. I’m pretty sure that people who cut up magazines to make real ransom notes must buy or shoplift better magazines. Oh well, so much for blackmail, I guess I just have to leave a positive note today.