I Love Taking Pictures (February Love Series)

I forgot all about this photo in my gazillion files. Gene recently moved most of my collection from my old, virus infected computer to a temporary home in a great little laptop our friend Bob gave us. I shot this pic one day while our grandson was visiting for a week. I had never done a panoramic with people in it before. Here's how you do it:

Put your people in the first shot. Move your camera to the right and have your people move and make sure they do a different pose, and then do it again if you are snapping 3 frames to "stitch" together. My camera automatically stitches the photos together and I'm sure it works that way with most digital cameras.

I liked the way this one turned out and I'm glad I found it. It gives me ideas for future panos!

What's your favorite photo technique?

love, susan

I Love the Sun (February Love Series)

"To love and be loved is to feel 

the sun from both sides." ~ David Viscott

Sunset on Waikiki Beach ~ 2010

 

I Love Mornings (February Love Series)

Sunrise in Seattle, Washington

Are you crazy? That's the response I get when I tell people I get up at 3:30 a.m.  People! You are missing the very best part of the day when you sleep til 7.

I was in Seattle last weekend and Saturday morning I slept in til about 5:30 a.m., waking up with a caffeine headache. I looked around for some coffee and was delighted to find some Starbuck singles on the counter. I'd have to wonder about my Seattle friend if she didn't have Starbucks. By the time I heated up the water and took care of other business, I peeked outside her patio window and a form of giddiness washed over me when I saw the beginning of a new day in Seattle. Sunshine in Seattle is an anomaly and I felt lucky to be there for it. I sat in the quietness of my friend's apartment with my camera and watched as sunrise made it's rare debut. I was not disappointed.  I never am first thing in the morning.

I searched my blog for the word "morning" and it came up so many times I can't list all my posts but my favorite post is "Who's To Blame". 

What's your favorite part of the day and why?

love, susan

I Love Blogging (February Love Series)

I started this blog a year and a half ago after I took a hiatus from my Facebook account. I was so distracted by FB that I spent hours and hours of time on it and each time I shut my computer down I felt empty and disconnected. Deactivating left me time to start writing some things that had been floating around in my head for a long time.

Writing this blog helps make room for new thoughts and ideas and it allows me to connect those old stories with the new ones. After writing everyday for most of the first year, I found I could link something I had written before into my new post. Connect the dots, so to speak.

Besides blogging, I love snapping photos. I was in Seattle recently and took this photo at the fish market. I was looking a little closer at this pic and noticed this fishmonger is holding a Starbucks coffee cup. I also noticed the signs touting their fish is 100% Sustainable. I wonder what that means.

In the back of my mind, I'm thinking someday I'll make a book of my blog posts and leave it behind for my son. I'm not sure if he reads me now but maybe he will want to read these one day. I don't write for that purpose. I write because I feel better when I do. And, I love feeling better.

love, susan 

I Love Signs (February Love Series)

This post is self-explanatory. All signs I shot while out and about. 
There are signs everywhere you look!

When I drank wine, I became a dumb blonde for sure!

If I was branded, I'd want this one!

It was ironic that Gene had his tye-dye shirt on when we drove past this sign in Reedsport!

I Love Containers (February Love Series)

I have an obsession with containers.  Sometimes I have to de-contain my home and it's hard to let go of some of the treasures I've hung on to, hoping I'd have an occasion to use them. 

I know I'm not the only one who loves containers. There is a whole store devoted to them called The Container Store. I've never been to one.

My love of containers doesn't stop with just the normal shoebox kind. I love those fancy bags you get when you shop at places like Macy's or Starbucks. I love anything that comes in a sturdy box.  A couple of months ago, I found a box sitting on a ledge near the grocery store that once had held an iPhone. (The grocery store is right next to AT&T). I picked it up to see what was inside. The person apparently only needed the phone because they left the earbuds and manual inside.  Score! While I love my new iPod earphones very much, the box was just as much of a gift from the universe for me. Apple does not put their product in any cheap old box. No. It's a sturdy, handsome white container. When you hold this box, you know you've got something of value.

Our grandaughter, Ava, loves containers too. She collects jewelry boxes and purses. When we go to garage sales and thrift stores, her eyes light up when she finds a nice handbag or container. I get her!

I love recycle bags, too.  What do you love?

love, susan

I Love Parades (February Love Series)

Our friend, Rosemary on the white horse!

There is nothing like a small-town parade. I don't care where you live ... if your town has a parade you should go see it.

When I was growing up, we attended quite a few parades. My favorite will always be 4th of July parades for no other reason than I just really like the weather in July! Don't be raining on my parades.

Last summer we were passing through Sheridan, Oregon and made an unplanned stop to see my peeps who live there.  It just so happened to be the same day as the Phil Sheridan Days Parade. Everybody that came by the house to say hello to us kept saying, "you're staying for the parade, right?" Well, we hadn't planned on it but couldn't say no. My 2nd cousin invited us up to her place for a pre-parade bbq and then we walked a half a block with our lawn chairs to watch the parade go by.  Who knew I'd see members from my other side of the family at her house? It was an impromptu family reunion with free entertainment.  Nice.

I always get goosebumps when I see certain favorite things. There is nothing that does it more for me than a marching band! If you've ever played an instrument, you must have an appreciation for how hard it is to play and walk at the same time, much less march for what must seem like miles.  Yeah, think about that the next time you see a marching band.

The horses. I can't forget the gigantic horses. Last summer I watched my friend Rosemary  (pictured here) help train a friend's horse to get it ready to ride in the parade. They put the horses through all kinds of tests so when they ride they don't get spooked by little kids running around, loud noises, sirens, etc. Horses are sensitive. 

I also love just about everything else in the parade except during election year. I mean really. Don't the politicians have any pride at all?  Apparently not. This will be one of those years. I'd love to see some of my not so favorite politicians poop scooping behind the horses. Wouldn't that be great!

I rode in a parade once when we lived in Yuma, Arizona. I was working for hospice and we had a float called "hospice angels". I wore angel wings and gave out candy. I felt like a giddy child and couldn't stop smiling and waving "Miss America style" as we passed blocks and blocks of snowbirds who came out to see the parade. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

What's your favorite parade? Have you ever been in a parade?  Come on ... let me hear about it!

love, susan 

"What I Love" February

February, although technically still considered winter with its weird, cold weather and dark days, is the "love" month. I was looking back at my blog from last year where I wrote several posts in February about a few things I love.  Seems like it cheered me up back then so I think I'll try it again. 

For grins and giggles, here are the posts from February 2011.  If you are new to my blog, I hope you read something that makes you smile.  Just click on the link.  I'll see ya tomorrow!

love, susan

• Motel Kitty
• The Death of An Idea
• Phoenix, Arizona
• Hearing My Dad Laugh
• Blue Skies
• Coffee .... I love it.
• My Funny Valentine
• Love in a Grange Hall
• Heart Everything
• The Perfect Valentine's Gift
• When Nancy Cooks
• I'd Love to Kiss Ya But I Just Washed My Hair
• Good Friends & Big Clocks
• Unplanned Road Trips
• Like a Dog on a Bone!
• Horse Puckey
• Life is Just a Chair of Bowlies
• Clouds in My Coffee
• Nature's Prozac
• Cast Iron Skillets

 

Never Can Say Goodbye

I do a lot of thinking when I'm sitting my at desk working. Lately I've been jotting things down on a little notepad so I can move it from my head to paper, trying to form a little more space for other things.

The other day when a co-worker announced she and her husband will be traveling to China to pick up their new baby in 8 weeks, I told her a brief version of how my sister and I came to be adopted. She asked if I remembered being adopted and since I was only 18 months old, the answer is no. 

However, some years ago when I was working for an attorney who represented the Dept of Health and Social Service with the Dept. of Law, I read a study about the effects of moving children from home to home in their early years. While very small children can't say the words to express what happens to them when they are taken from one situation to another, I don't think anyone could doubt that it effects them.  I am living proof.

I never can say goodbye. Hey, did you just think about Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 singing that song right now? It has been my theme song my whole life!

I can remember back to about age 5 or 6. My folks would take us over to see my favorite grandma for the weekend. I loved her so much that even now there is not a day that goes by that I don't think about her. When we visited, there was nothing more important to her than paying attention to my sister and me. She was love with skin. 

On Sunday afternoon, about an hour before I knew we had to pack up the car and head back to Roseburg, I would go missing. I hated saying goodbye and my emotions would just overwhelm me and I was embarrassed to have my family see me crying. I could not turn it off.

I am still that way today, although I am not quite so embarrassed by it. Do I have abandonment issues?  You bet I do. I wish I could keep all the people I love in one place so I never have to say goodbye. But since that's not possible, it's the best I can do to pick up the phone and call or write a letter.   

In closing, I never say goodbye.  See you again soon .....

love, susan

Road Trips

February is stacking up to be a month to look forward to. I've planned a weekend trip over to see my good friend, Jane!  She moved to Seattle a couple of months ago from Alaska and it's been on my to-do list to get over there to see her. It has been a very long time since I have been to Seattle so I'm really excited about going. I'm taking the Greyhound over and back.

A long President's Day weekend means we'll be going somewhere. I have my pet sitter all lined up and now if the weather cooperates, we most likely will go to the coast. I'm not sure I've ever been to the Oregon coast in February but if it is even half as beautiful as it was in November, it will be spectacular.

Some things to look forward to .....

love, susan

The Sweater

Did you ever hear somebody say something and you just knew there was so much more you had to know about it? Do you ever see an object and wish it could tell you all the stories it holds?  Well, that's exactly what happened to me a couple of weeks ago in a brief moment. 

 

She wore the sweater to work one day. I overheard her say she knitted it for her husband. He wore it when he went out to minister to folks in the winter time. I was afraid to ask more but I pushed past that fear and sat down with my co-worker to ask her about "the sweater" and the person she lovingly made it for.

He was her best friend and husband. She told me they did everything together. They spent many years traveling all over the United States spreading the gospel, often times in very cold places.  They owned a fruit farm and spent many years working side-by-side, day after day. I got the sense they had a lot of fun together. 

She had knitted him a different sweater than the one I saw her wearing that day at work. The first one was superior in its warmth but she explained he had given it away to a man he had been working with who had commented how much he liked it. Her husband took off the sweater and gave it to him.

A couple of years ago, he had to go in for surgery and the doctor discovered he had a disease that had laid dormant many years. He was sick for nearly three years before he died. When his life was nearing the end, she told me she opened the bible and read to him from Revelations.  She told me she was there, holding his hand the moment he died and it was beautiful.   She knows he is in heaven.  He spoke of heaven before he died.

She only kept the sweater and his large collection of hats after he died.  Whenever they would go into town to do business, he would negotiate having the merchant throw in a hat, saying "well gee, I bought all this stuff, the least you could do is throw in a hat". She laughed when she told me that. I imagine she was there when he got most of those hats and each of them would have a story to tell if hats could talk.

He was her second husband. She never expected to find her forever best friend. We agreed that not everyone does but we're really lucky when we do!

love, susan