Logo!

I found this fun logo generator over at my friend Frothy's blog, and gen-ed one up. I plugged in one of my leaf shots rather than one of their "emblems"....

Now I'll need to figure out how to put it on my sidebar!

Photo Challenge

From my Yahoo group, the assignment is “Shadow”. Here’s my response:

Let The Mind Create The Tree
"Every man has a different idea of what's beautiful, and it's best to take the gesture, the shadow of the branch, and let the mind create the tree" William Faulkner.
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More Shadow Shots

Some previous shots that fit the theme:

Leaves!

I have a sort of “thing” for leaves, and Autumn is my favorite season. Here’s some leaf portraits, in reverse chronological order, from yesterday back through Fall 2004:

Quickie, Pt. 2

Last week (Tuesday 9/5), I promised some semi-random shots from the slush pile.... until Blogger choked. Let's try it again:

Not much to say... The sun behind a cloud, momentarily.

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The Keys to the Highway. with subtle reference to my birthplace, Charleston, WV

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The last one is the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, just a few miles north of St. Louis. Looking across the Missouri, with the Mississippi in the background. Not quite as dramatic as the confluence in Pittsburgh....

What Are You Listening To?

Here's the 10 most recent from my itunes:
* Oh I Wept - Free (now playing)
* Crossfire - Stevie Ray Vaughn
* Old Love - Eric Clapton
* Don't Think Twice - Gatemouth Brown
* Losing Kind - Kenny Wayne Shepherd
* Underway - Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green era)
* Too Young - John Lee Hooker
* Filthy Teddy - Roy Buchanan
* Alseep In The Desert - ZZ Top
* Funky Music - Rick Derringer
What're y'all listening to?

Kicks (Just Keep Gettin' Harder To Find)

YMCA scoocer is in full swing, my son’s team had their first game last weekend! A couple of changes as they move into first grade: First, it’s no longer co-ed. That drops a couple friends from the team, but is all part of life, I suppose. At least they're still playing, too. Second, GOALIES! For the past 2 sessions (Fall & Spring of Kindergarden), they played with an open goal. Now they have goalies, and molst of the kids want to be there! My son played a quarter “in the pipes”, and didn’t give up any goals (phew!). He even made a save, of sorts.

Of course, the next best great thing is getting chosen team captain (on a per game basis, not all season or anything), see below…. This year the team is sponsored by a local Pizza joint, sounds like an “end=of=season” party will be in order! It'll be fun to see how they progress this year, it's starting to look more like soccer and less like a shifting herd!

The Sky Is Crying

A grey Monday here in the heartland, but only a few drizzles. No drought-buster yet, but the weather channel is still saying 80% chance of thunderstoms today and tonight. We need it. Here's an old photo, from last November. And a setlist of "rainy" songs, now playing on my iTunes...

Pray For Rain - Guadicanal Diary * * * * The Rain Song - Led Zeppelin * * * * Rainy Day Crossroad Blues - Doobie Brothers * * * * Alabama Rain - Jim Crocce * * * * Kentucky Rain - Elvis Presley * * * * * Cold Rain - CSN * * * * Let It Rain - Eric Clapton * * * * All Night Rain - Atlanta Rhythm Section * * * * Mandolin Rain - Bruce Hornsby * * * * Buckets Of Rain - Bob Dylan * * * * Buy For Me The Rain - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band * * * * Ashes The Rain and I - James Gang * * * * Everytime It Rains - Kenny Wayne Shepherd * * * * The Rain Came Down - Thompson Brothers * * * * Have You Ever Seen The Rain? - Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Never Forget...

5 Years ago today, 9/11/2001, terrorists struck a series of coordinated attacks against the United States. Between the World Trade Center, The Pentagon and Flight 93 (which crashed in SW Pennsylvania), around 3,000 people were killed. Much like Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 (12/7), this day will go down in infamy. And much like the attack on Pearl Harbor, the attacks of 9/11 awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve. The resulting War on Terror continues, time will test our resolve.

I was supposed to be on an airplane from St. Louis to Seattle that morning, should've been in the air at the same time as those planes. But a last minute glitch cancelled my trip. I was very thankful on that day that my wife didn't have to worry about "my flight" during all the confusion of that day.

Meanwhile, I was only in the WTC once, while on a business trip to NYC. I arrived by the subway, late afternoon, while most people were leaving. I was blown away by the swell of people, more people than live in my small suburb of St.Louis. On 9-11, as we all watched the towers fall, I kept thinking about "all those people". It's franky a miracle that only 3,000 were killed.

Friday Night Lights

Friday night in middle America, time for High School football! Our main reason for being there is to watch my daughter in the marching band / color guard, but the game is usually fun, too. My 6/yo son was really getting into it, he’s starting to catch on to what's happening. It helps that the home team did well; it was 42-6 when we left (1 possession into the 2nd half). Here’s an extra point, with Edwardsville making the kick…. .

What're You Listening To?

Here's the 10 recent songs from my itunes:
* Love, Building On Fire - Talking Heads
* Jet Fighter - The 3 O'Clock
* We Walk - R.E.M.
* Nobody - The Doobie Brothers
* Milkshake - Peter Tork
* Give It Up - ZZ Top
* I Just Wanna Have Something To Do - Ramones
* Don't Cry No Tears - Neil Young
* Doolin' Dalton - Eagles
* Mama Told Me Not To Come - Three Dog Night
What're y'all listening to?

HHR

On a recent business trip, I needed to rent a car. Avis gave me a Chevy HHR, their response to the Chrysler PT Cruiser… In review? Let’s just say I won’t be rushing off to buy one. On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of the PT Cruiser, so I’m not exactly the target demographic. It’s not a bad little car, overall, but just didn’t “wow” me. One GLARING problem, from my standpoint, was the sloping roof. Now I’m not exactly a giant (6’0” on a good day), but sitting in the driver’s seat, the top of the windshield seemed to be just about at eye level. So I felt like I was looking DOWN through the windshield, and had the urge to hunch down to see out. And the rearview mirror seemed to be really in the way of normal vision. I’ll bet this sucker would really be a pain on a long drive, my neck hurts just thinking about it! I tried to figure out how to lower the seat, but couldn’t. Maybe lean it way back and drive like a 16 year old (in full recline)?

New Toy!

I finally broke down today, and bought a new “point ‘n’ shoot” digital camera!! No, I won’t be retiring my Nikon D70 DSLR, but there’s a lot to be said for a camera that can easily fit in a pocket or briefcase. Especially for work related phots. SOOOOO, I’m no the proud owner of a Nikon Coolpix L2. With the same 6Mpx resolution as my D70, it ought to do pretty well. And the price was under $200! Here’s one of the first shots, straight from the camera, with no post-processing. Hope y’all approve!!

Quickie

On the run, running behind.... But here's something, semi-random shots from the slush pile....

at leat it was supposed to nbe. 'Till blogger choked. sorry!

Fence Posts

With yesterday’s fence theme entries, I decided to browse my archives. So here’s a handful of previous images that feature fences as significant elements:

Antietam Battle Field, Antietam, MD
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Overlooking Lewiston, ID
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Here in humble Glen Carbon, IL
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Not far from Iowa City, IA
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My son, playing T-Ball
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Lake Little Grassy, near Carbondale, IL
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