In a world of so many great photographers and writers, I am venturing into some unknown territories, leaving comfort zones, finally very willing to practice the art of seeing. By maintaining the practice of posting daily photos, I hope to continue learning about the possibilities that I trust are out there for the taking.
Home sweet home.
Hallowed Black filter applied to a SJ sunset.
I seem to be stuck in a daze from too many sleepless nights last week and from my sadness over the newly installed desktop computer acting way too unstable. I’m spending lots of the day trying to trouble shoot problems I have no business trouble shooting. Clayton had come and worked on formating my computer the day after I returned from the Photography workshop. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. I believe I even said, “Wow, this is going too well.” I called him the next day because of the computer crashing I kept experiencing. He came right over on his lunch break. I was impressed.
But then I had more problems occur.
Clayton couldn’t get off work at 3pm today to work for me as planned. Then on his way home around 6:45pm said he was beat (understandably) and couldn’t focus. He’ll be coming to help me tomorrow morning. (Katya and Tina arrive right around the same time Clayton is supposed to work for me.) Hmmmm. Maybe this is a good thing for the two single ladies and single guy.
Changing computers even when everything goes great (which I actually have never experienced) is difficult. I’m so used to my plugins, presets, filters etc. Each day I realize what else I’m missing, not where I expect them to be on the new computer.
I wish I had a full time techie assistant here all day. Anyone interested?
Ray probably thought he was safe going out for a walk at night with me. You see, during the day I usually stop and take way too many photos and Ray usually just walks on leaving me to whatever it is that has my attention.
Today it was near 100 here. We knew this morning we’d be doing our exercise after the sun went down.
The night was so balmy. The walk went by so fast. I was fascinated with shooting hand held photos of the night lighting when the shutter was open for a full minute. Trying to get an in focus shot was out of the question but I still was curious what the photos would look like. I had the ISO set to 800.
We’re walking on Inverness Drive and I’m shooting back across the 15th fairway lake to our home (the house with the palm tree growing out of it!). I used a 100% sepia photo filter in Photoshop to hide a tiny bit of the noise or excessive graininess.
Ray is already back home when I shot this photo of our street. Our home is at the end of this cul-de-sac. I actually sat down on the street pavement trying to get as much as I could of the lighted tall palm trees.
I entered our courtyard and began shooting the lit cactus. Almost ready to go inside, I noticed my shadow. I never pass up a shadow photo op. I even posed, turning my head to the right to get a good shadow outline of my profile, while I’m holding the camera out away from me with my left hand, trying to check to see if I’m actually framing myself properly in the LCD. I’m glad the neighbors can’t see into our courtyard. On more than one occasion I have been accused of self obsession. But the neighbors don’t need to see it. After I got this shot and I came out of my shooting blackout, I looked to see if Ray had been watching me. Nope. He was at work on his new Lenovo Thinkpad T500 probably shopping for, yes, another putter. ‘Cause you know, like a new camera will make me a better photographer, Ray is on a never ending search for the newest and bestest putter. Every day! Oh, Ray isn’t going to like that I wrote this. 
Look how long my pony tail is getting.
Work in progress on the fountain bowl we’ve procrastinated on finishing. Yesterday a man came and we discussed how to place the stones. All the stones initially looked too round and similar in color and size. I asked him to add 5 rocks I had collected while on the Colorado River in 2005.
Today a worker came by and added the pebbled bottom. Tomorrow the bottom gets acid washed. Then the large center rock is placed in the center and hooked up to pipes that will deliver a water fall through the center of the rock. A light fixture will also be added.
Kudos to Karen at Common Pools who has been extremely conscientious and accountable. Thanks Sandi, for the referral from your networking group.
I’m thrilled we will soon have a finished pond/fountain outside our front door.
p.s. So LR, this is where some of the large chunks of money I’ve been spending have been going!
While packing up my camera gear for Mammoth, I picked up the Canon 40D and went out looking for a photo. Even the geese think it’s too hot. Most of the geese were all standing in the water cooling off before I got too close for this photo and scared the geese closest off.
On 6.16.07 I bought the book Moving On by Sarah Ban Breathnach because some 17 years ago I experienced such awareness and change while reading and following suggested actions in her book – Simple Abundance. I valued Simple Abundance so much, I gifted it to my sponsees (this, of course, was before I stopped recognizing Xmas with gifts).
I only started reading this book Moving On I’d bought back in June. This is what Sarah writes on her intro page to this book: “As a passionate reader, I’m hard on books and other writers. Since I spend most of my waking hours in the company of words, I need books (my own included) to knock my socks off. Ravish my resistance with the first paragraph, or seduce me slowly through the introduction; as long as the feeling is intimate and immediate, I’m yours. I long to be bowled over by an author’s insight, to wonder how I lived before her book explained it all to me or how the author knew me so well.”
I started reading Moving On, not at the beginning, but in the middle of the book. I was trying to get a sense of whether I wanted to take it with me on an upcoming vacation as a daily meditation book. Well, from the first reading Sarah knocked my socks off. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how right on she is AND how succinctly and flawlessly she says what I think and feel. She tells the story of my life in a few selected pages I’ve included from her book below. While reading these pages, just substitute her buying and keeping her NY apartment for me buying and keeping my Dixie Cyn house and my ranch. Not bad choices, just wrong choices. Sarah says, “The apartment represented something far more than shelter: To my eye it was what success looked like.” Bingo.
I’m living my choice now living here in Rancho Mirage. Sarah writes, “Unfortunately, there’s no sure way of knowing the tab until we’ve lived the choice; we can’t see in advance whether the choice was a wise or wrong one. But at least it was ours to make. We also can’t really know where a choice will take us, although we might sense its directions.” I’ve been contemplating how long I think I’ll be happy living down here in the desert. But I see that’s silly. Right now, I am happy. When I’m not, I trust I’ll know it and have the willingness to “Move ON” to another place.
So, for me to re-read at some point and time, and for anyone of you who might be interested, the following pages are what spoke to me this morning:
(Clicking on the page will enlarge it enough for you to read.)
What was your “apartment”?
This is where I initially fantasized I’d take all the MHCC members that just signed up on the hiking sign up sheet below. I am their fearful leader. 
I photographed the sign up list on my way out of the MHCC Fitness Club Committee Meeting tonight. There is another half page of members who signed up to go hiking under this top sheet. That makes about 48 in total. Hmmm. This is going to be interesting. I am the hiking coordinator (before tonight, previously referred to as the hiking leader). I am worried, very worried about my $$$ liability taking these hikers out on the trail. We decided at the committee meeting being a coordinator is not really a leader. Well, that’s fine for those who head up the running club, the walking club, the biking club (which rides in the MHCC complex, not on the streets). But I am taking people out of MHCC, not up to Mt San Jacinto, but out onto the trails where lots of things can happen to young, experienced hikers. Am I crazy?
Last night while on my hands and knees with Ray, mopping up rain water from the kitchen/dining room floor, the electricity went out. Our first storm lasted most of the night. Thank goodness the pot of chili I’d made earlier in the day was still on the stove top. I lit candles, set the table and we dined at the dry end of the dining room and ate the chili. Ummm good.
But neither Ray nor I are very good when the electricity goes out. We’ve experienced this many times and every time we freak out with the discomfort of…what do we do now that all our normal distractions are no longer available: computer, TV, well lit reading. What did people do before the days of computer and TV? Being still and being quiet are the boogie men. Ray and I ate our dinner and then finally just got in bed.I guess people slept a lot more in the “old days”.
The lights did finally come back on an hour later and we got up out of bed. It was only 8pm for goodness sake. I went to my computer. Ray went into the TV room.
The rain continued through out the night. Towels sopped up the rain water (now also coming in through the large office windows staining parts of the new wallpaper).
But, this morning, while at my desk, I looked up and out through the office windows and noticed the sun beginning to shine on first-snow-topped Mount San Jacinto. Beautiful!
While out photographing the first snow I noticed this little bird apparently taking in his own particularly special view this sunny drier morning.
I know you’ll read this blog today Ray, so, Happy Birthday again!
This is a view of outside our home around 4pm today.
Spent way too much time trying to figure out how to video blog in case I want to post a video while we are back in Virginia visiting my family for Thanksgiving.
click on the player for a little tour.
Ray checking in – Mission Hills Country Club Fitness Center.
I fired off a shot just as we started working out this morning with Dr. Mark.
This is not me reading the newspaper!
Taylor Sherrill took these photos of our master bedroom and living room.
Sherrill & Associates Inc.
Cathedral City, CA 92234-7255
Our home designer, Roberta Clark, will run these two photos in both the Palm Desert (92260 Magazine) and La Quinta (L.Q. Magazine) magazines which are inserts placed in our local newspaper the Desert Sun the 2nd week of every month. These home photos (without our names and address listed) will be displayed in the Nov and Dec 07 magazine issues.