Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

adventures / cycling / memories / Monday / photo — Comments Off
22
Jun 26

The memory, the bike, the bush, the lightning

We celebrated 17 years of marriage this weekend. I put on the same shirt I wear every year. Her mother gifted it to me years ago. It’s the shirt I was wearing when we got engaged. It was the shirt I wore the night I took this photo, the night before our wedding.

We hired a friend who is a photographer to shoot the big day, and she did a great job with our engagement photos, in a nor’easter, and on our wedding day, just about the hottest place in the country on the hottest weekend of the year. There is no such thing as summer wool.

I made reservations at a local farm-to-table sort of place. There were two whole tables occupied, and by the end of the evening we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It was a nice, quiet dinner to mark the passage of time. Too much time. And not enough. All of it moving so fast. None of it slowing down, which would be the polite thing for time to do.

Seventeen years is really 21. I’ve been counting the days, each one a blessing, but ya know, maybe I should have been counting the laughs and the memories, both of which mean more with every passing … day.

Got back on the bike this weekend. It’s only been, I dunno, a month, which explains a lot. But I had a perfect afternoon for it. The water was low, the clouds high, the breeze in my face, and so on.

It’s good to see that the local farming has continued neatly since I’ve been out this way. Whoever is working this field hasn’t been working in my yard!

Which would be a silly thing to do, but a thing I would appreciate.

Today we went out for a ride together and I get well and thoroughly dropped. The nice thing about it was that this was an out-and-back route, so when she turned around, because she was ahead of me, and came back the other direction it didn’t seem like I was that far behind after all.

But after I turned around, chased back on, caught up, and got dropped again, I was Dropped. And then the clouds rolled in. At least they were in front of me, which means I could monitor my progress, or judge when I was going to get wet.

It was a race, of course. Sometimes you’re determined to win, and sometimes you’re defeated by meteorology.

But, sometimes, it is a draw. I was standing in the driveway, putting things away, when it started to rain.

We have an oversized bush by the garage, and it’ll get trimmed back soon, but the wind and the weight of the rain showed that some of them needed to be cut back sooner. They were in the way of progress, or parking the car. So I grabbed the old hedge shears, and that’s when the lightning and thunder moved in.

I only needed to cut two branches, no, that one, too. Three branches. I only needed to cut three branches. Lightning, rumbling, rolling in from the north. This is how I stayed safe. I waited in between lightning bolts. Then I leaned out, one foot in the drive, one foot in the garage, snip, and then duck back in the garage. Three times, thinking, with a grin, Out here, on the edge of the driveway, si where I’ll do something foolish and hurt myself one day.

But not today. Or tomorrow. I’ll find something to do on the other side of the house tomorrow.

Friday / memories / safari / South Africa / video — Comments Off
19
Jun 26

Two elephants at play

This was our last day on the safari, earlier this month. I shot this video on my Canon, and we’ll see how that looks on the video player now. I have other videos on my phone, which I’ll upload in due time. If I’d left in the natural audio you would hear our tour guide narrating this little mating dance. (The male was being rebuffed.) I only, just now, noticed the bird in the foreground tree branches.

There’s a lesson in that, I’m sure. But it is easy to be distracted by these other powerful, giant creatures.

I’m going to add this as boilerplate to the rest of the safari memory posts, but it is true and useful.

I was, initially, a bit ambivalent about the idea of a safari, but found myself won over on the first day. The views were lovely, the animals we encountered were outstanding and each one felt unique, and our guide was top notch. The entire experience was stress free, aside from early morning wake ups. If we ever find ourselves in South Africa again, and going on a safari again, it’ll be with Wild Wings. And if you’re considering doing such a thing, do it. And book it with Wild Wings. They were terrific.

photo / safari / South Africa / Thursday — Comments Off
18
Jun 26

A little slowdown ahead

Well, the cats are settled back into things. Routines are easy to slip into, and thank goodness for that. And there’s nothing in the world more habitual than a cat, except maybe for me. Phoebe enjoyed a nice nap in one of the scratching boxes.

Poseidon took the opportunity to sneak into the dryer. It’s a cave and dark and warm? It must belong to him.

While we were on safari I mistimed a few of the early photos and the joke from our new English friends was that I should take a bunch of animal bum photos and decorate a room of the house with them. Before long, the joke became that we should do a bathroom in that style. And maybe we will. To continue the joke I kept taking photos of wildlife bums.

And then, on our last day, on Table Mountain in Cape Town, I wandered into the gift shop and saw this.

You know, I said to my lovely bride, I’ve been thinking about expanding my small lapel pin collection just a bit. Should I get these?

“Absolutely,” she said. So I did. And for six dollars, American, I added five new pins. I figure I’ll find a way to wear one or two of them, at least.

And that is the 201st photograph I’ve put up in June alone. Which is to say that things are going to slow down around here for a while. I’ll try to keep the regular Monday-Friday space filled with … something … but if I miss a day or two here or there, don’t be too surprised. And, eventually, we’ll slip back into high volume content. But, for now, summertime.

adventures / family / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
17
Jun 26

And now all back at home

We have made it back home this evening, the cats are getting settled back in, all went according to plan. This was today’s plan.

This morning I worked on cutting back some shrub-turned-trees at my in-law’s house. Then we visited the local hardware store where a guy sold us some equipment so that we could fashion additional handholds in the basement. This we did with brisk efficiency.

We celebrated with lunch, going to one of those seafood walk up places that looks out over the water. My lovely bride grew up going to this place, and we go there whenever we are there and the weather is nice. You walk to the window, place your order, receive a tray and then walk around the back to a bunch of picnic tables and boats docked to piers. Its all sandwich-based, and all fried. I get a shrimp sandwich and dose it with fresh cut lemon.

Back at the childhood manse, we packed up our things and, finally the kitties. We said our “see you soons” and set out for home. The cats had a lot to say about that. For about 90 minutes they let us have it. They were still singing the mighty chorus when we passed by the George Washington Bridge.

That’s the world’s busiest bridge, and more than 100 million vehicles go over it in a year. It is almost a mile long, and has 14 lanes, which is some sort of record or something. It was, for a time, the longest main bridge span in the world, until the Gold Gate Bridge took the title in 1937. But, you know, I think that bridge was misnamed. I don’t think George Washington ever went over that bridge.

We saw a lot of World Cup signage. Here’s some of that.

Those two photographs were taken just 17 minutes apart, but look how different the sky is.

Soon after the asphalt of the highway smoothed out and the cats settled down. When we took our exit, they noticed the big turn and the change of speed and perked back up. They’ve done that trip maybe three or four times. No way they knew where they were until I carried them in the house, right?

adventures / family / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
16
Jun 26

Reunited with the kitties

We arrived last night, having been American again for about 55 hours. I find that the older I get the more time I need to reset. At this rate, my whole reset thing may take months. Sometimes circumstances don’t allow, though, which is probably for the best.

Anyway, we’re at my in-laws, picking up the kitties. They’ve had a great time here. Poseidon adjusted to our return pretty easily and, by today, he’s been eager for pets and to tell us about the fun he’s had.

He’s easy to win over. Give him a little attention, a good pet or two, and all is forgiven, or you’ll become famous friends.

Phoebe, on the other hand, takes a little more time. She has a lot of closets and hiding places here and she’s not ready to forgive us just yet.

She’ll come around. I’ve learned that you just have to let her do it in her own time.

And, in the meantime, I helped out a little bit. My mother-in-law has this huge holly and it needed some trimming. So I brought the shears and the pruners and a few other things and went to it this morning. There’s a bird nest in the back, but no one was home. Happily, I was able to leave it undisturbed. I cut back limbs from the house, cleared a path to the water spigot and cleaned up around the dryer vent. It was a productive morning. Here it is before the final trim.

Only after that did she come out and tell me the story of the bush. It was a special gift, and I’m glad I didn’t hear all of the details beforehand, I might not have cut a single leaf off of the thing.

My lovely bride went fishing with her father today. So after I did my part helping out around here, I petted Poe and read awhile. My mother-in-law and I went out for dinner. I drove us to one of their regular haunts and she told everyone she knew there that she’d traded in for a newer model. Had a delicious burger, lovely conversation, and now back here, waiting to hear tall tales of the big one that got away.