A Master’s Degree in Pictures (Day 17:675)

Ah, the end of an exhaustive Fourth of July. We had a busy time at Mary’s mother’s house both Saturday – cleaning, dusting, organizing, and enjoying company until 2 am – and on Sunday – singing the national anthem at the parade and meeting many people afterward at the house…setting off a nice display of fireworks in the backyard as we munched on fruit, fish, chicken, cheesecake and fresh baked bread. On Saturday, we went on a creek walk as well – a creek that apparently had been formally paved with big blocks of stone over shale, creating a one-fifth mile glistening road of water – along with her brother Clarkie and his roommates Kyle and Ben. What an awesome time!

Today, we met my mom for a nice casual lunch and talked in air conditioning… ooh, blessed cold and nice conversation & company. I am blessed that this weekend has been full of such things. The heat, I feel, is the test for surviving North Carolina weather. Matthew 1, heat 0. Plenty of more scoring opportunities during the next 1 year, 10 months, 5 days!

Today’s Note: I’d like to remember…

- that a person can hear without listening, see without perceiving, and think without understanding, and act without actualization. To do all four well is to fully live a life worth living.

- how happy I am that this weekend was one of love: for family and country.

- that this is getting harder to do… getting to the familiar stage where all good things push through to their roots.

- “zealous crop” as an option for my picture editor. GIMP… you strike fear into my heart by its name alone: the destroyer of digital memories has come. (either that or it the name for some poor bird that has a very active metabolism)

A Master’s Degree in Pictures (Day 16:676)

Gotta run!! Cleaning for the fourth! Only 1 year, 10 months, 6 days to go!

Today’s Note: I’d like to remember…

- “…aaare you achin’? (yep yep) Foooor some bacon? (yep yep) Heeee’s a big pig! (yep yep) You could be a big pig too! Oye! “

A Master’s Degree in Pictures (Day 4:688)

A wonderful day all round. Was in shop today for work, keeping the priorities in line and making some progress with the statistics work for the IAP/WIC grant. Going to get some sleep after a nice dinner with my sister Renee and her boyfriend Nick at Melt Bar & Grilled, Lakewood.

Read up on some refresher statistics today as well, and that sure was swell!

1 year, 10 months, 18 days to go!

Today’s Note: I’d like to remember…

- to always carry a folding chair in the trunk of your car. You never know when a tree may invite you to share in its gift of shade, and frankly, not to accept “under-pines” the gentleman’s code.

- loving every moment of being together with the people you care about : caring about the people who by being together bring moments so lovely.

A Master’s Degree in Pictures (Day 2:690)

Another amazing blue-sky day. Spent this Father’s Day visiting good ole grandpa, laying the smack-down on a couple dozen fruit flies, and cooking out with my family alongside the jacuzzi.

I also had a someday-father’s day message from my love delivered on the collar of Barret, one of our rather corpulent cats. Very touching…

1 year, 10 months, 20 days to go!

Today’s Note:
Things I would like to remember…

-The worth of taking the time to put a heartfelt message into a card for your father, and seeing the moist eyes of love hitting home.

-How grown up my sisters and brother are becoming, and how the past – well worn by the years – always seems to show a more quaint, inviting, and purer example of life than the present from which it came; yet how vested those same attributes are in the only moment we have to cherish them in – and perhaps the greatest loss of truly living being the ignorance of that reality.

- Fruit & Alcohol = Win

- Fruit & Alcohol & Moderation = Epic