had to be there, and humor helps, as does the unexpected

post #401
       Am starting on my eighth year of posting on this blog!  Once a week for most of the time! I say bravo to my crazy self, and to all the pleasure I get from focusing on story telling, with photos, each time. Tonight I am going to hunt up some of the images that I just happened to see. Just happened to have my camera with me. Just had to be there. No Photoshop. Just luck and a thrill and eyes open.

A favorite -- I had returned to my car after visiting with Sandy, my neighbor and friend.  After getting into my car, I looked around to prepare myself for backing up on a hill and a curve.  This is what I saw instead! Just sitting there next to me, on the truck tire. Waiting for me, I presume. My camera was on the front seat next to me. I slowly lowered my window and equally slowly picked up my camera and faced it out of the window. She never moved. It turns out she was pregnant at the time, so maybe she was just enough slowed down not to be bothered by me. I title this photo "on the way."

This is somewhere between a found photo and a quick snapshot. My writers group was meeting at a Panera's, and sometimes I just can't resist. Two poets at work, a quick moment saved, and some fun.

This cracked me up. All these people coming to the Louvre Museum, in Paris, to see the Mona Lisa, and this was how the scene presented itself. I was almost embarrassed to add my cell phone to the collection. All that mystery in the painting, a bulletproof glass in front of it, and no opportunity to connect with the art itself. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Mon Dieu!

 

Talk about the unexpected! Why I noticed this when about to get in my car, in the shed, I will never know.  My eyes at the ready, as they say. I had never before seen such a big snake in the wild, and I had no idea what he or she was up to. Well, up to the rafters, of course. I risked taking the time for a photo, with my handy camera, thinking the snake looked very comfortable up there and wasn't about to get activated.  I decided it was big and black enough not to be a copperhead -- a big black snake or a cow snake -- and I lucked out.

Well, this photo is being included because this birthday card showed up in my mailbox, hand delivered, and I thought it hilarious. What a lot of careful work!  Thanks again, Jean!!

     This photo has also been on my blog before, but I thought it a good example of what happens when you set the remote for a group picture, run to get into the photo, and have no idea what crazy whatever your beloved family members are plotting. 

 

This is from the summer before. I got to the pond just as J. was able to pull off one last throwing--three--cousins--into--the--air in the pond.... This photo still makes me laugh. The kids are too big anymore for this to happen again. I feel lucky to have caught this quick and happy moment.  

experimenting under the Denver Christmas tree. What would happen if.... How would it work.... I love how it turned out.

        This British sign is still there. I saw it again a month ago. I hadn't gone out looking for a sign, or something quirky, or something humorous, but there it was, and the eyes got it. 

        I've managed to use up this day already, so I will do another similar post soon.  Next week I get to share some Halloween ones.  And an outdoors wedding from last night.  This is all by way of trying to stay grounded as our midterm elections get ever closer to happening. I want so badly for things to turn around for the USA. I want to see the American can-do spirit show its power. I want some concentrated attention spent on taking our changing climate situation very, very seriously. I'm so tired of lies, lies, lies, and not just the president's. I don't see anything good about separating young kids from their families. And then losing them. Please vote and stand up against all the attempts to make voting harder rather than more universal. 
        As the ACLU says, vote like your rights depend on it.  Ain't that the truth.