A moment in time.

As some know, I have moved into a different home. I carefully steer away from using the word new because this house has nothing new about it, in fact, it was built in the early 1900’s and has been renovated numerous times. To make a long story short, I have temporally transplanted my family from one home to another for finical reasons. Although our transplanted home has over twice as much living space, it needed, and still needs a lot of work.

This evening, after a period of “non-renovation”, if you will, I began taking on the largest project this home needs. We’re talking about taking walls out that have been there for god knows how long, to make this home not only better for us, but moreover, a better selling point in the hopeful near future.

I was hacking at a wall this evening and came across a bundled piece of paper, stuck within a former hole in a wall. I could tell it was an old piece of newspaper. From the backside of the wall, I carefully pulled away this piece of history that, at the time of its instillation, was just another piece of paper to its user. The paper had been used to help fill a 1” diameter hole, just before putting a coat of mud on the wall. I put it aside for a later inspection, and continued with my work.

Later, this little artifact was my only focus. I carefully unfolded the newspaper, hoping to reveal it’s age. Long behold, it was from a time long ago, a time when life was simpler, or so I am told, considering I was not born yet. The price of gas was $0.31/gallon; the average new home cost $21,500; you could buy a dozen eggs for $0.53; and the population was only 194,302,963. The year was 1965. The month was either January or February, as I can tell. That doesn’t seem so long ago, but yet it is 42 years, or if you live day by day, about 15600 days ago.

I almost want to go back to that time, a time where things were hard, yet simple: or so I’m told.

Damn things!

Yesterday we took my son to what was intended to be a hot air balloon show. Unfortunately the weather kept the balloons from flying, but many aircraft were there. I took many pictures and video with my new camera, and was very much looking forward to looking at them when I got home.

When I got home, I pulled the memory card out of the camera and placed it into my new card reader. I noticed the light starting to blink, but thought nothing of it. When I tried to explore the drive, my computer froze up and I had to reboot. Open rebooting and looking at the drive, the entire memory card was empty. All the images and video from the show was gone.

I’ve spent hours today researching and attempting to recover the files with absolutely no luck. Recovery software only recovered images that had been previously removed from the drive. Everything that was on the memory card at the time was simply gone.

After a day of research and beating myself about the head, my own little CSI has come up with a theory. My card reader has a direct transfer button on it, with software to automatically transfer files to a default directory. I must have pressed this button while I was placing the card into the reader. I’ve attempted to use this button/software before and found it was one of Sandisk’s worst attempts “push button” technologies.

Anyway, I’ve finally accepted the fact that the data is gone and I’m moving on. The software has been removed from my computer.

I shouldn’t blog about this but I just can’t stop myself

There’s this kid who works for me that just drives me nuts. This kid is full of issues, but considering his upbringing, it’s almost understandable, but not quite. I don’t mean to be rude, but he is honestly the dumbest person I have ever met. I thought I had heard it all from him, but his latest story takes the cake.

Apparently he’s been having some sleeping problems so his doctor prescribed some Ambien CR. Saturday night, he takes one pill. His girlfriend goes up to bed and he sits in the living room on the couch playing video games, waiting to fall asleep. At some point, the kid nods off. A bit later, according to him, he begins to sleepwalk. He somehow makes his way to where ever the Ambien is and takes the entire bottle of pills. The overdose has a hallucinogenic effect on him, much like he’s tripping on acid. This makes him appear to see snow, and lots of it. He somehow makes it out to his truck, pulls out on the street and parks in the middle of the road, blocking traffic. The cops are called. The k-9 unit shows up and asked him what the problem is. He tells them that he’s stuck in 3 feet of snow and can’t move the truck, even in 4-wheel drive.

His girlfriend was awakened by the commotion and comes out to see what is going on. She explains to the cop that he is on a “new medication”. The cops asked her if he works, and she said yes and so does she. This fact alone was apparently enough to convince the cop to let his go without a fine. He simply said, “Get him out of my face and to the hospital.”

The doctors wanted to check him into the psyche ward, but he checked himself out.

My focus

With my free time I am out and about with my camera, looking for those images that, before now, were just logged into my memory. I almost feel desperate at this point, knowing that I now have a decent camera and I’ve left so many photo opportunities go by. Plus, I have little free time. I’ve grown to feel comfortable with that fact.

I am not a photographer, nor do I plan on becoming one. I am not an artist as I lack the vision needed to be one. Having said that, I am learning the basics of this camera and plan to re-find the moments and images that are in my head, only to share them with the rest of the world. The phrase “A picture says a thousand words’ is quite literal. Besides rebuilding my marriage after a devastating event, this is my new mission.

My images can be found here. Please check back often as my schedule may soon allow me to focus on this.

righteous!!!

Most everyone knows that I coach my son’s baseball team, or more accurately, youth baseball in general, because I am truly there for every child on every team. Most everyone also knows that I played baseball as a child. Tomorrow morning, I will take to the other side. I managed to get a fill in spot on a team for the All-Nighter, the local Mens Softball end of season tournament. Other than the charity softball game I played in, “Coaches Vs. 94KX Radio Station, a few months ago, it been a very long time since I have played the field.

This is something that I have been looking forward to for years. I cannot play in the mens softball league because of my coaching my kid’s team. Plus, this event is not as completive as the regular season. Let’s put it this way, most people will catch a buzz before they catch a ball.

Here’s the thing, it’s damn near a 24-hour event. The tournament starts tomorrow at 7am and continues until 8pm tomorrow night. At 8:30, there is a home run derby that lasts until about midnight, which is when the tournament resumes until 4am Sunday. More beer will be drank this weekend than during the entire softball season.

I have a case of water, a case of Gatorade, and a case of beer in a cooler, ready for Chris and I to have at. If I don’t pull a hamstring or something, we both have a baseball meeting on Sunday at 6pm. That’ll look just great: The league President and Safety Officer, hung over and sore as hell. Sweet!

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Nothingness for some, everything for all.

I spend a considerable about of time in places that have been long forgotten, or stagnant if you will. Places like cemeteries, old forgotten cabins, or even around our cabin road. I also spend a lot of time nature’s playground, or what some call “the woods”. So many times I have seen tiny pieces of history that go seemingly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Places and things that are considered forgotten, broken, or just plain nonexistent. When I walk up to an old broken tombstone, for example, I think of the history behind what is in front of me. This once was a focal piece for many people, or maybe just a few, or one.

I will no longer be selfish with these moments. My personal life aside, this is my new challenge (not to take anything away from extreme kickball, softball, skeet shooting, or volleyball).

Anyways, my flickr account is now linked to this blog, and hopefully will be updated regularly. We’ll see how well that works.

Just playing

Just playing with some new software.

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