Grateful for Family & Friends...

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

~ By Ralph Waldo Emerson

 and kittehs (sez Gwyn)!

(Both photos courtesy of my wonderful SIL who I had fun with yesterday :D )

Chopper Part II

So, about a week ago I shared some pix of a guy working on the power lines from a helicopter. The pictures I took then were taken with my cell phone...while I was moving....let's not discuss that anymore! One day last week I was pulling into my office and realized they were working at the end of the street. Fortunately I had my "good" camera with me (trusty Nikon). I parked, called upstairs to tell them I was close by but not walking in yet, and walked the four or so blocks to the end of the street...and took these pix:

Above: note the cars passing over the draw-bridge...and the reflection of the clouds in the water. Below: those are seagulls flying by...bet they wonder about that *big* bird!

This just fascinates me!

More soon!

Flight (p. 82)

Seen Around Town

I took a stroll yesterday. These were just a few of the sights that caught my eye:

Spike take-over

Like he's not getting enough time on the blog already! (I do promise to get back to Gwyn and dogs soon! Really!!) This was Willow on my lap and Spike getting ready to go after her tail:

And, like all kittens, he's sleeps well!

And here's sweet Willow:

Back to sleeping (growing) kitten:

Did I share this one before? This one was taken by Spike's "auntie" back when she was taking care of him, having saved him from anti-freeze poisoning. She'd woken up and "lost" him...it's sometimes tough to find him since he falls asleep in small, different places and what with being deaf you can't call him and have him respond. Anyway, this is where she found him:

The same ole, same ole

This is a common sight around here these days:

Xander, aka The Orange Menace, grabs Spike, aka the White Menace of Destruction (as opposed to weapon of mass destruction) in a bear hug (cat hug?). It starts off with Xander licking Spike (as shown in previous videos) and then deteriorates into biting and rabbit-kicking :D

The box. Best. Toy. Ever. Sometimes Xander's in it...sometimes Spike takes over...

Great fun with action shots where one's a blur and the other in sharp relief.

Chopper!

And I think my job is exciting and stressful! I don't know what this guy gets paid...but am pretty sure it's not enough. Ran errands yesterday at lunch and was wondering why traffic was backed up trying to get back to my office. That involves crossing a high-rise bridge from where I was. As I was coming up the bridge I realized why everyone was backing up.

 

  

 

Some way to work on power lines, eh?

Mystic Two-by-Fours

I've taken some creative license with the phrase (borrowed from a friend)....but it's meant to be an expression of the principle that sometimes you are given the messages you need to receive in a somewhat abrupt and loud fashion...leaving little room to doubt from whence they come. (By the way, I'm having to type this one-handed as Smoochie, aka The Orange Menace, is curled up in my lap and on my left arm; also, if anyone is worried about staying warm this winter might I recommend a cat?)

Here are the quotes that drew my attention this week:

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. -- Calvin Coolidge

 "Here's a thing I think," she said, then paused as if to make sure that she found the most apt words. "Sometimes in life a thing happens, sometimes it's a person, and you know that what happens next and for some time, maybe for minutes or hours, will not be common, will not be just life moving on how it usually does. You know that those minutes or hours will be a gift of clarity; that the truth of the world will reveal itself if you care to look. Day after day, everything we see that seems real is only apparition, a ghost reality that we have conjured up in our self-delusion. Then the clarifying thing happens, and what you need to do, what you must do, is not question it, not demand more revelation than what is given, be quiet in the face of it, quiet and grateful that it has been given to you to see this, to be for even a short time aware of the extraordinary layered depths and profound beauty of the world to which we mostly blind ourselves." -- an excerpt from  Deeply Odd, Dean Koontz

My own version of "Where's Waldo"...where's Spike?

 And, lest I leave you thinking I'm being too serious, or metaphysical, or just downright weird (which, admittedly, I am), I leave you with this:

In fact, although it isn't profound, there are worse mottoes to live by than "We might as well eat." Say your neighbor's secret meth lab blows up, destroying your house along with his. We might as well eat. The secretary of defense announces from Sweden that he is having a sex-change operation, is in love with the prime minister of Russia, and has given his lover our nuclear launch codes. We might as well eat. -- an excerpt from  Deeply Odd, Dean Koontz

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

Calvin Coolidge

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/calvincool414555.html#EsxMfMyYQ0VS5xPw.99

K9 Videos

I posted a few pix in October of some local law enforcement canines. I've had the privilege of watching most of these particular dogs train a number of times. They're awesome! The New Bern Police Department puts on a demonstration every year at Mumfest. I edited a few of the videos I took at this year's event:







Impressive, eh?

Friday Fun Video

Working the Water

I have lots I was going to tell you about these pictures and the rich heritage of life here....but I don't have time this morning and wanted to post something anyway....so, I'll share these pictures and (maybe) tell you more about them later!

 

 

 

 

Fun With Editing

I spent some time Monday playing with a couple of my new Windows 8.1 editing apps. One is Movie Moments. It lets you create projects like this:



The other is Fotor. It has fun effects you can easily use on pictures to create things like this:

Veterans Day

I suppose I'm not unique in that the older I get, the more conscious I am of the importance of things like patriotism, community, honor. Like so many, when I was younger Veterans Day was a good thing because it meant I didn't have to go to work that day. That's still nice, but I try very hard to spend time on Veterans Day being actively thoughtful about why this is a holiday...what it means. While no one in my immediate family (i.e. parents/siblings/spouse) are in the armed services, there are a lot of people that are super-important to me that are or have been. I don't ever want to lose sight of the great sacrifices people have made to maintain the freedoms that I enjoy every single day.

THANK YOU VETERANS. THANK YOU ACTIVE-DUTY SERVICEMEN AND SERVICEWOMEN. THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO GAVE ALL IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY. MAY YOU NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.

Photo courtesy of J. Frazz Photography, all rights belong to him!