Added Photo's

Sorry, apparently I had a technical issue yesterday and many of the attached photo's  to the previous post did not display! They are there now!

Enjoy!

A blizzard of thoughts

I love a good storm, snow, wind, rain, thunder, lava. Maybe not lava but definitely the others! Due to work this years blizzard was experienced mostly at a hotel and in a plow truck at Boch Honda! I did get out to take a few photo's during my stay. I struggle with being able to take quality shots in the snow, I am, after all a novice, an amateur only about a year into my first "real" camera. One of the shots is of a hotel worker that had never seen snow before and wanted her picture taken, a first for me for someone to want to be photographed by me! It felt good!
I have also included some shots of the birds enjoying a post blizzard snack. I hope you enjoy!

Restless

I am restless today. I'm anxious. My head has a thousand thoughts and my body is not interested in any of them.  I'm feeling like I am wasting time on my days off. I just finished working Thursday - Friday 7 AM-9 PM ( if I leave on time ) and Sunday 7 AM-5 PM all with an hour commute each way. It was a taxing 4 days that started with month end and not leaving the dealership until 11 PM. That added up to 63.5 hours working or driving in a 96 hour span. Leaving 32.5 hours for getting ready to go to work and sleeping.

I have found myself lately, not turning off the store while I am home. That is my precious free time, to be a Dad, a husband, to be a person outside of work. I sit here typing with the sun cascading through the window and flowing over me and I keep glancing outside and wishing it was summer so I could get some "therapy" working in my yard. I feel like it is a metaphor for my life with the weeds being my personal demons and the flowers being me, as simple as a seed and yet as complicated as their many varieties.

Do not get me wrong, I love my job, love where I work, and, a little self congratulation, I am damn good at it! But it is a highly demanding and stressful job that starts over and over again each month.  Awesome job, you hit your projections for January and as you read this email congratulating you on that accomplishment you begin to fall behind for February!

Balance is the thing I feel I am lacking lately. I have a job I love, a family life that is awesome and an overall life that I cannot complain about. I need to learn to let go of work and engulf myself in home while I am there. I am trying.

I shut off my work email on my phone today. The place survived 9 years without me I'm pretty sure it can survive a day more!

I'm going to go and have some of my photos printed today, I will enjoy the camera shop and browse equipment I long for. I am really enjoying Twitter and all the artists I have connected with. I continue to evolve everyday, Hopefully growing to sun and not being choked out by the weeds.

Journey of a thousand steps

The journey of a thousand steps still requires one step at a time. It still requires continuing step after step.
Starting the journey is easy, finishing it takes persistence. I have started a journey to be of better health, to move more, to enjoy my free time more, to photograph more. I feel I've reached that tipping point in my life where I need to actually work being well, for me, for my wife, for my kids.
 Thanks for peeking in on my journey.

Life imitates life

Thanks to @davidsandumart and @paul_steele for inspiration to get out and walk in the woods today. As I saw David's pictures today I was amazed that it looked so similar to here, and yet was so far away. 

I enjoyed every bit of that walk today. Watching Will  and Max play "tag", hearing the snow fall through the trees, hearing my footsteps on the crunchy earth, and as Will astutely pointed out "It's so quiet out here." 

Just us and our thoughts Will!

My new inspiration for fitness!

http://www.baldhiker.com/


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1387627/The-Bald-Hiker-Paul-Steele-voted-worlds-influential-travel-writer.html


Mt Washington is my goal! Now it is out there on the internet so there is no going back !!!

Twitter Inspiration

Sometimes life delivers things to you that perplex you. This week I was delivered several new followers that are all artists. I have enjoyed looking at their work, tweeting with some of them and generally the parts of my brain that it stimulated!

I look forward to all my travels!

Old Barns

I love old barns. So much character, I can feel the work they have sheltered. Times past, effort not often seen anymore.

Hiatus

So, I've found that I am not a great blogger! My inner monologue seems to want to stay that way. I will try and at least let my photos speak for me, no promises.

A good read

I am a great Dad! Always putting myself second, letting my boy have that bite I was saving (I may be a bit OCD when it comes to food, well everything!). I play soccer, army guys, Mousetrap, chase, ride bikes, baseball, Angry Birds, and push him on a swing he perfectly capable of pumping himself!
I know he can do it himself because I spent countless hours coaching him, legs out, legs in!
There are times that I want to just be alone! This book was much more relevant when the kids were much younger, but, it can really strike a chord with parents no matter how old the kids are.
It sounds awful at first but as you read it that turns into aha moments and laughter!

Returning Robin

Every year for the past maybe 5 years there is a Robin that builds a nest in a stick wreath that hangs on the front of our house.
This year she built on top of the wreath, penthouse nest I guess! It is so interesting to watch her work so hard to collect all the materials to put that well built little nest together. Back and forth she goes, piece of ornamental grass, some clippings from the lawn, other pieces of gone by plant material. All of these things expertly put together into a little bowl shaped next that this year is home to 3 eggs.
I've never done any research on it but my guess is she has several "litters" every year.
After the eggs hatch it is amazing the to watch Momma Robin collect food to bring back to the babies. She does
Not stop! I leave for work at 5:30 every morning and she is already up gathering worms.
On the days when I am home I can see her fly by the front window over and over again bringing home a nice fresh worm for the newly hatched little birds.
It's so
Amazing to watch this process, from
Nest building, to eggs in the nest, to
little birds incapable of living on their own to one day an empty nest. I see them as they grow, their little beaks stick upward, open, cheeping away for food. Eventually their heads are up above the top of the nest, as I approach they slowly lower themselves down into the nest and become quiet. Then one day, silence. They have left the nest. I always hope they enjoyed where they grew up and will return to build their own nest in my yard.
Red breasted robin
With the eggs of blue
Hatched in a nest
How quickly you grew
Fly away fly away
Enjoy your quest
Come back next year
And build your own nest

My yard

I love landscaping. I wish everything came as naturally to me as it does.
This love was passed down to me by my Dad. As long as I can remember he was working in the yard.
I remember being awakened at ungodly hours of the morning ( 8 AM is ungodly to a 12 year old! ) to go out and help him weed beds, transplant plants, edge beds or mow the lawn.
How I hated it! And at the same time loved it! Those are times I will carry with me forever, I start to tear up just typing this.
Many of the plants in my yard came from transplanting "splits" from his house. I love that. I love that people love my yard, although I am terrible at showing that!
My yard is a place I can go to be alone, play with Will, sit by a fire with Lys, enjoy the company of friends and sometimes all of those things at the same time.

He's so fuzzy!

My backyard is a nature preserve worth of activity! The photo isn't perfect but out a window it is pretty good.
This squirrel was running back and forth from a decomposing pumpkin, collecting seeds and burrying them.I watched him scurry back and forth to different parts of the yard.
Then he changed his path and ran past the little statue of the kids and it just seemed too cute to pass up.

Random

No dissertation, just some photos I'm proud of.

Early America

I really can't think of anything that totally embodies the United States of America any more than a stone wall. I won't try to hide the fact that I am a rock guy, I love them.
When I see a stone wall built by early settlers and early Americans it takes me back to a time that I truly cannot imagine how hard it must have been.
Here is what I see in a stone wall from old New England:
Incredible hard work and perseverance
A willingness to claim what was theirs and stand up for it
Rocks and stones that came from all over the world and were deposited by the glaciers
A creation they had to figure out, no directions, no pictures, no help button, no FAQ section
No machines - just manpower, animals and ingenuity
Pride
These walls have stood for hundreds of years. They are a testament to the families that built them. They were not put up to last for a few years. They knew it was the start of something great. They had great pride in everything they did.
A Stone wall is so much more to me than a bunch of rocks stacked and lined up. It is a thing of beauty, a creation rooted in pride, just like America.