I bought my best guitar.....

at Pittsburgh Guitars!


------------

In the summer of 1979, not too long after they opened!

Congratulations on 30 years!!

A Trio from the BP archives

Tomorrow is my last day as a member at BetterPhoto, it'll be interesting to see what happens to my gallery.... Here's a couple more from the still massive task of posting the archives...

North Georgia, where my in-laws used to live...

A living-history tobacco farm, in the Land Between the Lakes area of western KY...

Wading in Rend Lake, southern IL

Flag and Crosses

High contrast treament....

R.I.P. B.D.!

I found out yesterday that my favorite teacher from High School passed away last week. John (Jack) S. Thorpe, better known as Big Daddy, or simply "B.D." has moved on to greener pastures. I could go on for many pages about BD, but suffice to say that he was one of only a few teachers to make a big impact on me, and by far the biggest. From teaching math (and especially statistics) to "coaching" backpacking; BD was a great guy, and made a difference in countless kids.

This is a photo from spring of 1977, my Junior year, scanned from a faded print. Taken on a backpacking trip along the C&O Canal, BD kicking back after a bit of a walk.

COWABUNGA, BD!

Wading In The Lake

High contrast treament....

Leaf, Lakeshore

Sunset on the Prairie

Powerlines, Late Afternoon

Barb

Close-up of some old barbed wire, along Kamiak Butte, Wa. From May 2008,this one has been hiding out on my hard drive for a year.

Coiled Clay

Funky Funky but Chic

Another from the BetterPhoto archive...

Over the years, I've made many many trips between St.Louis area and points-north (usually on business). A bit south of Bloomington, and north of Lincoln, Funk's Grove sits along old Rt. 66. Unfortunately, like the mythical town of Radiator Springs, it is bypassed by the Interstate. About 5 miles south of the Shirley exit and about 5 miles north of the McLean exit.... Anyway, with a name like Funk's Grove, I had to check it out!! Not a lot there, at least these days. But next time I'll have to pick up some Maple Sirip!

Other Puppy, Brother Puppy....

To follow yesterday's photo of Chuckie, here's Stu. Enjoying a flop in the yard on a sunny day.

Puppy!

I was playing around with my camera a bit this weekend, getting some examples for a talk on photoghraphy that I'll be giving this week at my son's scout troop. This is one of our dogs, Chuckie. Maybe not officially a puppy: He's 2 years old almost 80 pounds. But he'll be a a good puppy forever!

Open Hole

Just a close up of a flute I noticed during my son's piano recital last week....

Curbside

Not much to be said, just a little slice of life...

Pedal Power

I made it out for a bike ride this afternoon, 14.37 miles (accoring to my trusty Garmin). That's a good start to May. I managed 32.8 miles in April, after only 8.7 in March. I know that my 56 miles ytd is an easy weekend for a lot of folks, but I'm OK with it.... If only I didn't have that pesky "working for a living" thing. Remember, May is May is National Bike Month!

Tree In Lake

Still plowing through the BetterPhoto archive, still LOTS and LOTS of images to go. Meanwhile, my membership there expires at the end of this month, and I don't plan to renew.

This is Silver Lake Park, in Highland IL. Long time readers will remember SLP as a favorite spot of mine back when I worked in Highland. I spend many a lunch-time there.

Soccer

A couple of years ago, my son is 2nd from the left...