March 29, 2008 ~ Happy Birthday to ME!!!

46 years. Time flies when you're having fun. I was actually due the end of February/first of March. Seems that somewhere along the way, I got turned sideways and stayed there. They tried inducing labor several times to no avail. Finally, it was decided Mom would have to have a C-Section. I guess back in "those days" it was a little more risky than now. My dad told me one time that before they did the surgery, he had to sign a paper stating which one of us (Mom or me) he wanted the doctors to save if they could only help one of us. Of course he chose Mom and luckily the doctors didn't have to make a choice. With a little luck and the good Lord's blessing I will be here another 46 years. By the way, the cake is delicious!!! Wish you could have been here to enjoy it with us...

March 27, 2008 ~ Playing around

This is a picture from 2005. The last year we took my mom and 2 aunts on a wildfower tour. This was taken around Concan along the Frio River. Was just messing around tonight in Photoshop and came up w/this. I like the way it turned out.

Here is the original for anyone that is interested...

March 21, 2008 ~ Macro photography

We spent several days in Stephenville this last week. While we were at Cory's house I decided to get the camera out and play around w/my macro lens. I was experimenting w/different settings and just trying to learn a few things via trial and error. It was only as I was looking at the pictures on the camera that I noticed in one of the pictures that I had captured an aphid on one of the iris petals. It's the little surprise findings like this that make me happy.

March 13, 2008 ~ Part II

I actually had other reasons for going toward Thomas/Fay today. I was in search of an interesting photo-op for my class. There was a field of old dead tractors along the road and then someone had stuck the hubcap between the strands of wire. I "tweaked" it w/textures and a filter in Photoshop. I kind of like the way it turned out.

March 13, 2008 ~ Coldest Pop in Town

You know why Red's Grocery has the coldest pop in town? Because it's the ONLY pop in town! Red's Grocery is in a little community called Fay, which is about 8 miles east of Thomas, which is about 17 miles north of Weatherford. Don and I travel through that area going to basketball games. One day he pointed out the sign to me and also that it was the only place in Fay to get "pop" (as it is called here in OK). I was sleeping or reading or just generally not paying attention when we passed the sign. But ever since then I have wanted to go back and take a picture. Well, in my mind I had envisioned a sign w/a little more character. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed today when I got to Red's and saw it. But after driving about 25 miles to get there, I was taking the picture!!! Here's your sign...

March 12, 2008 ~ More Turbines

I am taking another online photography class and had to get out and search for something interesting to photograph for this weeks lesson. He gave us 3 categories to pick from and really none of them suit me for what I have around here. So I opted for the landscape category. The other two were your kids/grandkids or a single building. The only interesting building here burned down a few months ago (see previous blog about procrastination). However, I really like the shot that I got this evening. After I got home and looked at it on the computer I saw that not only did I get the helipcopter (which I DID know), but also what appears to be a hawk is in the picture. It's always fun to find something in a picture that you didn't see when you took it. *Side note: After uploading the image, it is distorted for some reason. The ring like effect you see in the sky is NOT in the picture when I view it in another program. Not sure why that is happening. Just an fyi.

March 11, 2008 ~ Wishing for spring

Took a walk around Sand Plum Trail a few days ago on a photography mission. I am taking some online photography courses and needed to take a few pictures for the class. This turned out to be one of my favorites. Nothing fancy, just pretty blue sky and trees starting to bud out. Just about 10 days ago, we had tornadoes in the evening and then snow the next day! We are having some warmer days now. Ready for spring and summer.

March 8, 2008 ~ At the "Big House"

This past weekend was the last of High School basketball. We watched about 18 games from Thursday thru Saturday. Guess you could say we got our money's worth. I think my eyes have finally stopped bouncing up and down! In Oklahoma, when a team makes it to the state tournament they say, "You've made it to "The Big House". Before EVERY game they play "Oklahoma" and everyone stands up and claps along. After 14 times, I'm pretty sure I don't have to hear it again for a while. We watched the boys and girls from class 2A-4A at the Fairgounds on Friday and Saturday. Saw some pretty good games. One of the girls game was really exciting. Walters went ahead with 7 tenths of a second left in the game, but there was technical called on the bench. Pocola was down by 2. The girl shooting the technicals missed the first free throw, made the second and they get the ball out of bounds. Now they are down by 1 with .7 seconds on the clock. They throw the ball in just past mid-court and the girl turns and shoots and swishes the net as the buzzer sounds! The boys and girls teams from Tallequah-Sequoya played in the finals. It's a private/boarding school for the Indians. I always enjoy looking through the program at the names. For example: Fourkiller, Nofire, Panther, Bear, Sukey Deer and one that I can't even begin to remember how to spell. On Saturday during the games that involved Tallequah-Sequoya there was standing room only. Evidently, Indians from near and far come to support the teams. They actually have their own buses to bring them to the games. I've never seen anything like it. They even got Don's "regular" seats. He sits in the same place, year in and year out. Section 311, row H. Obviously, they didn't get the memo. We had to sit on the opposite side of the arena this weekend. He wasn't too happy about all of that. But the games went on as usual. Maybe they were getting back at the white man for taking their land....

March 2, 2008 ~ Procrastination

Have you ever wondered what procrastination might look like? Well, here is one example. This picture is what is left of an old, abandoned church here in Weatherford. I always drive past it on my way to the college. One day last summer I noticed there was a baseball that had been thrown through one of the top windows and was resting on a ledge just inside. I always thought it would make for an interesting picture and had every intention of taking one. But usually the only time I thought about it was when I was driving by and didn't have my camera or the time to go back and get my camera. Then as luck would have it, the church burned down sometime this past fall. So I thought to myself, wouldn't it be funny to take a picture of the crumpled church to show what procrastination would get you? Or, what you could miss. Again, I only thought about taking the picture when it wasn't convenient for me to do so. The next thing I know, they have cleaned up the burnt remains of the church! So what you have here is procrastination at it's finest, procrastination on top of procrastination on top of procrastination. I hope everyone sees as much humor in this as I do.