enduring ike

Moving back to Houston seemed like a good idea at the time. And then there was Ike. "Hey...glad you're back...have a hurricane!" Some welcome home!

Actually, Ike's biggest impact to me so far has been a lot of inconveniences.

Some people have been without power for a couple of days now. I haven't.

Some people have trees in their roof. I don't.

Some people don't even have a roof (or a house) anymore. I do.

And on, and on...

So, when I'm sitting here in my air conditioning watching the Astros play the Cubbies in Milwaukee (weird!), I really have nothing to complain about. And I'm not. Not on the outside.

In fact, I have wept for people I've seen on the news that have lost everything. And I'm praying for the people around Houston who are growing weary of the heat (without a/c at home) and on, and on...

But on the inside I still have little frustrations about not being able to move into my new apartment this weekend to start settling in properly. Or shop for stuff for my new place. Or start to reconnect with friends. And on and on...

How ugly does pride and selfishness have to get before you do everything it takes to rid yourself of it?

desert life

Here in the desert, at what I've started calling "adult camp" (I can't bear to call it a resort for some reason, and it feels like more than that anyway), when I'm not lounging by the pool, wandering around in a robe, or getting a spa treatment...I've been doing some other things I keep wanting to do but never doing.

Today I spent some time with horses, and will be heading out on a trail ride tomorrow.

I have also taken a couple of very abbreviated photography 101 type classes. My vocabulary now includes the words (and a meager understanding) of such things as ISO setting, aperture, and f-stop. Baby steps...

These are the two best images of the 150ish shots I took. God bless the man who invented digital cameras!


I got this blurry shot during a thunderstorm-laden sunset walk. Apparently it's hard to capture lightening...and I only did it with a blurry shot, but still am happy with the photo.




On a stroll around the resort...this was my attempt at stop-action and short depth of field. Meh...better than what I'd have been able to do before, but still nowhere near fabulous.



Despite the mediocre quality, I had a BLAST.

I think I might have convinced myself that it's worth the first level of investment for a digital SLR. I don't know that I really want to carry one around with me for tourism, but the idea of grabbing my camera and going out to shoot some images for relaxation and a little more creativity in my life is REALLY appealing.