Finding Passion

Everyone struggles with issues in life.  I've had my share of struggles, bouts of what I guess you'd call depression because I just lost enthusiasm for most things.  It's not easy to get back into the swing of things, but as long as we keep trying, somehow it will all work out.  

And for the last couple of weeks, I've felt a lot better lately.  I just needed to find something that helps me get past the struggles.  Writing here has been a big help.  But I've also located a photography challenge, a word assigned every day as a topic for a photo.  Sometimes they're easier to consider than other times, but that's the part that I like most.  Something I can think about and then something I can do that makes me feel creative again.

On Forbes, I found "A creative act such as crafting can help focus the mind, and has even been compared to meditation due to its calming effects on the brain and body.  Even just gardening or sewing releases dopamine, a natural anti-depressant.  Creativity reduces anxiety, depression, and stress ... And it can also help you process trauma."

Here's a small sample of the recent challenge words:   Waiting.   Keys.  Six pm.   Road Sign.  While these aren't particularly artsy, it's been fun thinking about something I enjoy doing!   So if you've been feeling a little off, try a little bit of creativity!!! 

Family, Spring Break and Memories

Dear Brian,

What a bittersweet weekend this has been. 

Tee and family is here for spring break. 

We did a bunch of touristy things yesterday,

with our last stop at Hole in the Rock.







It was one of the places you and I would

dash off to when there was a need to get out,

and brought up so many thoughts of you.


But I came,  I saw,  I conquered


The sunset was amazing!

Life Balance

Trying to find a good life balance when you add up all the things a person wants to accomplish in a day or a week, it's not an easy task! 

My work life consumes 10 hours a day, then there's walking the dog, finding time to do a few chores and squeeze in a little exercise as well, and before you know it, it's bedtime!  And there's paperwork that didn't completed, maybe a few bills needed to be paid, then add in the creative stuff that I enjoy doing. 

Where did I find all the time to do those things in the past ?????

And how will I create time for myself to do those things now ?

With everything that's been going on, sometimes just getting through the work day is the only struggle I can get through.  Other days, it goes a little better and I feel like I get a few things accomplished.  I am in awe over how much I can get done just on my phone, and yet, it still doesn't seem like it's enough some days. 

One day at a time

It helps to make a list

I like the feeling I get when I can actually check something OFF my list!

Which reminds me, I need to make a "Honey Do" list for my son in law when he's here next week.
(He doesn't know it yet, though. haha)

Because today was a better day than most,
here's a photo of the flowers I planted last week
using the new Canon camera and filter I shopped for today!

On Doing More

Since my son died, doing things has become something that I do out of necessity, not because it's enjoyable or gives me pleasure.  It's SO much easier to be a watcher than it is a do-er.  Watching takes little energy, and that's about the speed I've been running lately - little energy.  It's coming back slowly, and I still have days where it's easier to do nothing, but at least it's better than it was.

On Friday, I took a stroll through Riparian Preserve, and took about three dozen photos.  But I think my camera battery died in the middle of it, and I ended up with only 5 good photos.  But it was a 37 minute walk according to my FitBit so that's something!

When I uploaded to my computer and got a good look at them, I realized that there is usually only one subject in the photo, and that many of them seem to be suited to black and white - dark and a little edgy.  Perfect description of my moods.  And then I had another thought:  maybe I needed to take them a little dark and edgy and get it out of my system.







It was an overcast day,
so maybe that was a part of it.

Hello, 2019!

It's my goal this year to get outdoors and take more photos.  I've been lacking in the "getting out" part of my life this past year, and that needs to change.

It's not easy, because I always feel guilty leaving Sadie at home.  But taking her with me in the car causes me a lot of anxiety because she doesn't travel well.  The minute we're in the car, she's bouncing off the walls like a 2 year old who's just had a bottle of sugar water!  On the days when I take off for some photo ops, I make sure to take her on two extra long walks so she doesn't feel so left out.  Ugh.  That's a lot of effort because I have dog! 

The other reason for not getting out as much is due to health issues.  When the need for a bathroom arises, there isn't much time to dash -- and you can't always take a dog into a restroom with you, so where does that leave me?  Dashing to the car to lock her away, then dashing back toward a bathroom!!  The fear of not making it on time has kept me home the past year, and with the help of meds, I'm overcoming most of it, sans dog.  

Today was a quick jaunt over to Riparian Preserve.  Because the weather was 20 degrees warmer than it had been all week, the park was full of people and dogs.  I'm happy they were all outdoors, but it chases away the birds and animals ..... so photos were few.  I'm never sure if people care when their photo gets accidentally taken.  There were some little girls playing follow the leader, and that could have been a wonderful photo, but these days you can never be too careful when photographing kids.  So I didn't.  I just watched as they all followed the bravest girl, who led them up, over, down all the cement climbing opportunities she could!  Oh to be so carefree again!!

Hello, 2019, I hope it's a terrific year!

Avid Photographer

I consider myself an avid photographer - I love to take photos!!   I'm also an amateur, I take them purely for my own pleasure.

But lately, the inspiration seems to be taking a backseat.  And I'm trying to figure out why.

Did I miss something?
Am I missing something?
Perhaps I'm bored.

Sometimes it seems as if all I am taking are photos of birds, sunrise/set or cactus.  Then again, I *DO* live in the desert.





I guess it's all a matter of ... inspiration. 
Or finding what inspires me.

A few years back, I found a small group of folks like me, and the leaders who ran it would create a different topic every day.  It became a lot of work to force a photo out every single day, but that's part of what makes us grow.  I haven't found anything like that again, but every now and then, I run a search to see if there's something similar.



I was a bit inspired on a recent trip to the Bay Area:
a yellow rose peeking through the cyclone fence
and the red on this tree against the brilliant blue!

Maybe with cooler weather, I can get out and
find a few things to shoot again.

Amateur Photography

I like photographs, but I like *taking* photographs even more!  And some days I'm torn.  Go somewhere special and just take photos?  Or ... making a photograph out of something ordinary?  It's never an easy choice.  Either one of them takes some kind of effort.  And it takes practice to engage yourself, and sometimes in many ways you're putting yourself into the photograph. 


With camera phones and all the other technology available these days, it's easy to take some pretty amazing photos, but it's an effort when you're trying to create a photo of something out of an ordinary thing.  Last weekend I stopped off at my local park and was just snapping photos. 


I was attempting to get a few things that were a little more eclectic than the usual of finding something to focus on and take a photo.  Like, if there's a bird on a pond, it's an obvious choice to take a photo. 

Here's an example of one that I might have tossed, but as I looked at it, I liked the whimsical angle of the cactus reaching for the sky - not as if they're standing tall, but as if they were ... perhaps, dancing in the wind?   Ok, maybe that's a stretch, or my fanciful imagination, but not all photos should look ... hmmm... staged.









And this second photo,
while there's nothing really
in the photo - no bird -
I was fascinated by the way
they sky and clouds were
reflected in the
(not so clean) water.





Another thing I like to do is make comparisons.  Take this old fence post.  You can see in the color photo that it has a little age, and some rusty barbed wire.  But convert it to black and white, it can take on a whole different look.  I'm not sure which is my favorite of these; I tend to favor black and white photos, but the soft green in the color photo gives it a nice look!

























So if you enjoy taking photos, try new things,
explore, even get a little edgy if you want. 
To me, it makes life just a little bit more interesting!

Papago Park

Each day just before sunset, this place called Hole in the Rock

(at Papago Park) fills up with people ready to view 

the sunset.  It's a hippy vibe as everyone is there for

the same reason.  As the sun sinks lower in the sky,

once it's dropped to the horizon, everyone claps,

appreciating Mother Nature and all her splendor!

It's joyous!

Just a quick stroll in Papago Park,

I was in the mood to catch the sunset.

Black and White

 

I have an affinity

for black and white photography

There's something elegant about it.

Or maybe it's that taking the color out of a photo

makes the person seeing the photo

have to do more than just glance at it.

then again, maybe I'm just ... weird that way.

Even the rain drops show up in this black and white version

and the reflection of the bird in each photo .... 

Pretty neat, but that's just me!

Rainy Day Photos

After the recent warming trend, we have a surprising dreary day on our hands.  Dreary I can take, but I got everything ready to head out the door with Sadie for a walk in the park and discovered it started raining!   Ahh well..... we waited 30 minutes until it let up and then headed over to the park. 

I've become fascinated with trying to capture photos of people around Arizona, along with a black and white format.   As I look at them, I wonder "What's their story?"  and try to discover details captured in the photo for clues. 

In an odd way, it reminds me of my childhood.  We ate dinner at the table together as a family each day at 5pm.  Our dining room has a window that looks out, and our view is an entire neighborhood street with about 20 houses on it.  Which gave us lots to talk about .... we'd see someone loading something in a car and begin a little story about what's going on.  Another neighbor would get a visitor -- is that a relative?  Oh look, same color hair, maybe that's so-and-so....  lol  Yes, we were quite odd in that way.  And so the fascination with stories continues.....

Here, a couple strolls in the rain, heading home perhaps.

He's wearing shorts, and she is barefoot.  

Did the rain catch them unexpected?

These four intrigued me.  Part of a wedding party?

The two boys in front are wearing matching outfits right down to the shoes!

I'm Craaaazy ....

had a bit of a bout of cabin fever

today.  Grabbed my camera and

headed out to Papago Park to do

some walking around.

Yep, it's 112, but there was a

breeze and a few clouds for

the sun to hide behind.

With a bottle of water in

one hand, camera in the other, I

braved the heat for an hour or so

taking some photos.  

It sure is easy to say

"Maybe tomorrow .... "

and I've said it often enough.

I knew I needed to get out and

about today.  Sans Sadie, she

doesn't do well in this heat,

even in the car with the AC

full blast.

Got Nature?

It's so easy to take things for granted, to look at things that are always there and not really notice them.  Sometimes our lives are so busy, we move from work to home to chores to bed and forget there's more out there.

Like this flock of geese
honking noisily .......






I've been guilty of that for more than a month. It's much easier to walk Sadie around the neighborhood than hop in the car and head for our favorite park.  But we miss out on so much when we take the easy way out!

Even on a cloudy day, the sun breaks through and shines a bit of evening light on the pond.....





Golden Ball Lead Tree, they have a dreamy scent to me, light and elusive at times.











and of course,  #AzSadieThePug!

she just LOVES going to this park

and we walked for an hour!

"In every walk with nature, 

one receives far more than he seeks."

-John Muir

Walking

Sadie is my pug and constant companion .... sometimes TOO constant for my tastes!  But I love her just the same.  She's my walking pal.  Even when I don't feel like walking, she insists that we go.  We walk each morning around the block (1/2 mile) before I leave for work.  When I get home, it's "the long walk" - usually takes about 45 minutes, mostly because she tends to meander.  It's about a mile, which I could walk in under 20 minutes by myself!

Sadie is a social dog, most pugs are.  When we walk during busy afternoons at the park, it takes a long time - she likes to stop and greet every person, every dog, and is very patient with the kids who want to pet her as well.

Today's walk took us an hour, but it's good for her, and good for me as well.  I love watching people, and there are always plenty of those at Riparian Preserve in Gilbert.

It's a great place to walk, lots of different things to see!

We saw many hummingbirds, like this one; perhaps some of them are migrating back to their own locales.

Neighborhood Decorations

My little corner of the world

has lots of decorations up

and they're so fun

to see

as Sadie and I

are on our daily walks!

Weird Days

I don't know if you do this or not, but I'm the type who likes to have a plan for the day.  It may not always be specific, and is ALWAYS subject to change, but a plan to start the day helps.


Yesterday was our "one trip shopping" discount at my BigBox store:  25% off one entire purchase, and this year I went all out:  a new TV and entertainment center for the living room!  It's way past time for the 12 year old TV to take a hike. haha  After pulling two shopping carts through the store in order to get all the stuff I wanted - and needed - I had the task of loading it all into my car.  The hardest piece was the entertainment center.   Being too big for the back seat, it had to go in the trunk, with the lid tied down.  I tacked on this little Santa Hat as my "red flag" to other drivers. hehehehe


After getting it all in the house and unloaded, I moved furniture, emptied out the old entertainment center and figured that Saturday morning would be a perfect time to start Assembling.  But once the pieces were all laid out, I found out that I was short 8 compression dowels.   Ugh.  I called the company (as the instructions read to do) and found the company isn't open on weekends.  After pondering for all of 10 seconds, I hopped in the car and headed to Home Depot.  They had dowels, the right diameter, but an inch too short.  I headed for Lowes, right length, but too fat.  Looks like I will have all these parts scattered all over until I can get more dowels shipped to me.   Which means I didn't take out and inspect my new TV and give that a whirl either!

So much for Saturday's Plan A.   Turns out that my Plan B was to clean the garage out a bit.  My son hasn't been home in over 5 days, and frankly, all the "stuff" he has in there is slowly encroaching on what little space I use in the garage:  the washer and dryer!  I didn't move TOO many things (after all, if I move things, as a man, he will never find them again! hahahah), and I got the floor swept and the corners vacuumed out.  At least I was productive in that area!

After all that, I decided that Sadie needed another walk, and I wasn't in the mood to walk the streets, so we headed to the local riparian preserve and circled around some of our favorite areas.  Lots of people out enjoying this beautiful day in the Valley of the Sun - and many of them dressed up for holiday photo shoots!   Always fun :)

Saturday Morning!

It's been a helluva week here .... too many working days in a row, and no matter how much I tried to get out of work early, they kept asking me to do things.  When they had their morning meeting, I took the opportunity to slip on out.   :)

Hit the gym 3 times this week, so I'm happy with myself over that.  It's a hard habit to get back into, but I know in the long run it's worth it, so I shall keep on trying.

My poor kid, Brian, seems to have a rough time of it from every angle.  On Monday, his bicycle was stolen from in front of the store while he was at work.  Imagine working a 7 hour shift, coming out at 10pm to find your bike gone, and then the "how will I get home" thoughts???   (Of course he can always call me!!)  but lucky one of his co-workers with some compassion gave him a lift home.  Our work-families can be just as good as our real families at times!  As for finding a replacement bike... yeah, that'll be fun, as his bike was custom built by him.

This morning, after a long 20 day stretch of getting up for work, Sadie and I went to Riparian Preserve for a morning walk.  It's a beautiful morning!

Front Porches

I love the idea of a front porch, all the stories you read where families sit on the front porch and greet each other - yes, I know, back in the 50s, but still a great concept!  We've moved away from that, but I think people still have a longing for it.  Why do I think that?  Because there are many great front porches out there, and most of them have places to sit  ....

here's a couple that caught my eye on today's walk:

Love the retro look with the orange door!
Makes you want to curl up in a chair with a glass of lemonade
and watch the rest of the neighbors stroll past!!

Oink!

Here's something

you don't see every day!

I knew I had to do some waiting before my kids' plane touched down, so I thought "why not take this bit of time for a walk in a new park?"

I headed over to Riverview Park in Mesa, and found a woman walking her pig.  hehehe  He walked right along just like a pet dog!!

Ahh the amusing sights you see, if you're paying attention :)

I happened to be there at sunset, and Mother Nature didn't let me down.  Such beautiful light and colors.

Did you walk today?

With my extra efforts,
I've made over 10k steps
every day for the last 3 out of 4 days
(Saturday was jammie day for me!)
*giggles*

V-Formation

I am challenging myself to two things this month:  

more walking, and less griping.

It's so easy to gripe about how bad things are at work:  it IS the hell-iday season, we're extremely busy, customers are short on patience, bosses are short on patience, and employees are short on everything in between!   But I keep realizing that the more I gripe, the more I see the things that are wrong.  To combat that, I'm forcing myself to write something about a picture I take on one of my walks.  Sadie and I have taken to walking twice a day -  and that's good for both of us!

At Riparian Preserve, in Gilbert, I glanced up and found a V-formation of ducks flying toward me.  And with the sunset painting a gorgeous shade on the smattering of clouds, well.... you just have to shoot!  At least, I do.   Mother Nature in all her grandeur is ours for the taking, if only we'll stop our busy selves and take a few minutes to look around us and really notice the little things.  Maybe that's my calling in life:  recording those little things for those who don't take the time to do it on their own.  *ponders*

May the rest of your week be a blessed one!

Moanin' Monday Blues

One of the hardest things for me to do is take a couple of days off. For the holiday, I flew home to see family.  It doesn't happen often for those of us who work retail, so I was grateful for the chance.  But that means that 50% of what I do at work gets backed up and waits for me.  Most times there aren't too any issues.  Today was not one of those times.

Processing a claim means scanning the barcode, adding the item to a claim, boxing up the items, then finalizing the claim.  My helper got a little confused, and there was a missing claim.  What he remembered doing wasn't what we ended up finding.  We had to downstack a pallet and check every box on it, trying to find the missing items.  Yes, we ended up finding them, but it wasted an hour for each of us.  Being in catchup mode, I truly didn't have time, but I smiled my way through it.

On top of that, a surprise audit by our HazMat inspection company.  Gee will I ever catch a break today???

I am anxious to find time to edit some pix to share.  I took more than I expected to, but not nearly enough either.  But I always feel that way. ~grin~  

Here's one ....  

A simple tree with a path that leads  .... 

...  somewhere  ... 

shall we find out where??