And I Started a Blog

So, I finally did it. I started a blog. I’ve wanted to for awhile, but making it happen was purely accidental. Well, kind of. It started with a couple of facebook notes (the more-accidental part). That was fun. So I expanded (the not-very-accidental-at-all part). It took awhile. And now here I am on blogspot. I know. It’s like magic. Very slow magic. 

I’m going to blog daily. I expect this to last about 13 days. Just short of it becoming a habit, and just long enough to run out of stuff to say. So take a look around ‘cause it might not last…and you won’t want to miss it. Really. And thank you, all three of you, for checking it out. :-)

Here is a picture. It doesn't really have anything to do with anything. Except for summer. I snapped this photo when my camera knew a lot more about taking pictures than I did. That's not really saying much, because my camera still knows a lot more about taking pictures than I do. 

Summer, oh, how I miss thee! Sweet, sweet summer.

Which reminds me...  Wait. I'll save it for later. Just in case I make it to day 14.

Reflections: In and Out

The other night I picked up my camera to distract my attention from a family game that I was losing horribly.

     I started with pics of game pieces.
                                                              

                           

my cellular device,

and the boys.

But I soon turned my attention to the reflection of a plant in our back sliding door. 

The reflective photo was intriguing to me so as soon as the game was over (which was none to soon!) 

I put on some great music and played around. 

It was about 10pm and dark outside with low light inside. It took one shot for me to realize that using a flash would only result in a very dark pane of glass with a very bright reflection of the flash. (Umm...duh!) 

So I turned up the ISO and used slow shutter speeds (between 3 and 10 seconds, depending on the shot). 

I was too lazy to pull out the tripod and just stabilized the camera on my arm, thus, lots of noise and blur. 

But I still thought the results were interesting enough to share.

 (Disclaimer: I am in all of the photos. I apologize. Honestly.)

This was the first shot out of the camera. I didn't like how my brow was all squinched up so I kept on trying,

not even realizing till later what I was actually getting in the background - like the quilt.

Once I figured that out I really started to have fun! 

I learned that depending on where I placed my focus I would get too much reflection of what was inside, 

and not enough of what was outside...

 ...or the opposite - too much of what was outside and not enough of what was inside.

 

Then I got on the floor to take a shot or two and realized that the glass desperately needed cleaning from where our little dog nudges his nose, paws and tongue to let know us he wants out...or in. EW!! 

I promise it did not look that bad in real life. And I cleaned it right after that. 

With a few more shots, I found the balance I was looking for and came up with this. 

This photo is straight out of the camera, completely unedited, except for cropping out a door handle.

On the inside, reflecting in the glass: me; the chair I sat in; decorative railings that separate our kitchen from our great room; the hallway behind me; and sitting in the great room, my guitar in its stand. Outside, on the other side of the glass: the tree in our neighbor's backyard; the heavy wooden posts that are part of our deck; the deck railing (reflected against the chair I'm sitting in); the neighbor's house; snow on the ground; and a sky that looks blue, even though it really was 10pm. 

This  next photo was my favorite, with the only edit being a slight decrease in saturation to take out some of the orange tint and pop the snow a little. 

To me it represents the perfect balance of what was inside and what was outside that night.

Now if only I could find that same clarity, focus, and  balance in my life. 

And keep it. 

Like a photograph.

Treadmill Training = ICK!

So, last fall I registered for an April Half Marathon. It seemed like a good idea at the time and I was super excited to add a third race to my 2011 calendar. But then winter settled in and it took exactly less than one run to remember that cold weather running is hard for me! My lungs burn (this gets better after two or three weeks), my muscles never completely loosen up (this has yet to get better), and the fast (for me) running times that I enjoy on perfect fall days come to a screeching halt. In fact, after about 2 weeks of winter running I changed my goals from running for time to just logging miles. This worked just fine till January. Since then we have had this...

and this...

and this...

"This" came in not one, not two, but three big rounds of snow and ice, one of top of the other, with temperatures too frigid to fully melt it off. I can handle cold running (10+ degrees), I can handle sloppy, slushy running, and I actually enjoy snow running. But I'm a wimp when it comes to the icy and slick running we have had for the past few weeks.

Enter treadmill training.

I do not like the treadmill. I really, really don't. However, mid-January marked the start of "real training" for that April race. And by real I mean focused and purposeful, not just logging miles. So I got my treadmill serviced and calibrated (yay!) and went to work.

And this is what I have learned:

Treadmill Training = ICK!!!!

Yup. That just about covers it. And you can stop reading here...unless you are interested in particulars, in which case, I have broken it down into three easy steps.

1. Track repeats on a treadmill are HARD! (My most difficult to date - 3 (2x1200) repeats. Hideous.)

2. Long runs on a treadmill are HARDER!! (My longest to date - 9 miles. It's like going nowhere fast. Only not nearly fast enough.)

3. Tempo runs on a treadmill = DEATH (Or vomit. Whichever comes first.)

And that fully covers it.

Don't get me wrong. I am SUPER grateful to even be able to run, and to have a treadmill to train on, especially since it is less than 10 feet from my side of the bed. But this weekend I have a10-miler on the training calendar. So please, can the snow just melt already? Last week I had a dream that it did...that every bit of it melted in just one gloriously warm and sunny day!

I am still waiting for dreams to come true. ; )

Cold Play

As most of the Continental US knows, we've been having just a touch of inclement weather here in the Midwest. It's February, which to me usually means ALMOST March - the one month that can never come quickly enough! But yesterday's storm blew in with enough force to cancel school (again!) and leave my husband to work from home (again!).  I'm not a cold weather girl and do not enjoy building snowmen, or making snow angels, or shoveling snow. I do not play in the snow. So when decadent dreams of 70.. or 80... or 90 degree days give way to wind chills of -6, what's a warm weather girl to do? Grab the camera, of course! 

It started when I woke up and saw frost on a few of our windows. Window people would tell us it's time to get the windows replaced (yes, I know this), but I say it's an opportunity for some really fun frosty shots. :-)

I decided I like photography as a cold weather activity when I get to stay inside all bundled up. But alas, George eventually had to get to shoveling the drive, and as soon as he walked out the door he was calling me to put on shoes and a coat and get outside...now! I did not like this idea at all - until he asked me to grab the camera - not the shovel. And this is what I found.

Above is the view from our front door. That hazy stuff is not blur. It is blowing snow.

This is snow build up right outside our garage door.

Check out this crazy little drift on top of Danica's car!

And our front door - in case you were wondering. ; )

I seriously only lasted about 5 minutes before my fingers were the kind of numb that makes you think it would be less painful to just have them fall off, and my coat and hair were filled with little frosty flakes, not to mention the wet camera. So, I happily went inside to read about "bokeh" (photographic blur) while George shoveled our drive, our sidewalk, our street entrance, the neighbor's drive, the other neighbor's drive, and both of their sidewalks as well. He likes to shovel and we all like that about him. :-)

And while there was no hot chocolate yesterday, there was...SNOW ICE CREAM!! = )

I like this kind of cold play.

Strings and Things

I have an old guitar that my parents gave me for Christmas when I was in the sixth grade. When I got it I loved it! So I took some lessons, learned a few chords, sang and strummed in public a few times, and then abandoned it to be a teenager. But I never, ever parted with it. 

Now my son is playing that very guitar and every time he brings it out I can feel my heart smile. I love the sound of an acoustic guitar, and while mine may not be the nicest, or the prettiest, or carry the richest sound, I think I might always love mine the most. Why? Because through my parents it links me to the past, and through my son, it links me to the future.

Today it needed restringing. I usually pay someone to do this, but Landon's teacher taught him how (Thanks, Dave!!) and he needed a little help completing the job. So I got to learn how to restring a guitar!

I also learned a few more things along the way:

1. The biggest gauge "E" string is hard because it is thick and difficult to wrap tightly around the whatever-the-thing-you-wrap-it-around is. (Pretty sure there is a technical name out there. Help anyone?) And I annihilated both thumbnails trying to hold the coiled string in a neat little stack while Landon tightened it up.

2. The smallest gauge also "E" string is hard because it is thin, and slick, and also difficult to wrap tightly. And it bit me, which I didn't even feel until I saw the blood.

3. Until we have a little more experience, this will probably be a two person job. I'm okay with that!

4. A newly strung guitar needs tuning. Again. And again. And again!

5. You can tune to the piano or other instrument, or guitar tuner, or you can tune to the other strings. But I found I got the most accurate tuning from tuning each string to itself, using the octave fret. This gave me a sweet, sweet result. I have no idea if this is a for real method, but for me it worked great. Yay!

6. Landon loves guitar! He doesn't say this, but I know because every time I try to mess around with it he takes it away to show me something he's learned. This is super fun- - - and super frustrating, all at once. But he gave a me one of his sweet picks to call my own. So 'sall good. : )

7. I can play scales up the neck of the guitar using each string individually. This is easy to learn, but challenging to do (for me, anyway). But there's another way to play scales. I honestly had no idea of this! Landon showed me. It looks harder to learn, but easier to do. I'm going to learn it.

8. Obviously, I remember next to nothing from my sixth grade guitar lessons. And the daily 15 minutes I decided at the beginning of the year to devote to relearning guitar will probably have to be lengthened. A lot!

9. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you spend your time doing with your kids. Time spent with your kids is time well spent.

10. And I will probably never, EVER part with this guitar.