keeping my head in the clouds

3:44pm: the gray skies broke apart and left us with this scene. ~ 11.30.05

I have yet to figure out what is with me lately, but i'm intrigued with the clouds. Mostly while driving too. I'm sort of like a child who won't go to sleep without her blankie. Gotta shoot the clouds. Really it's a wonder I've resisted posting them daily. Anyway, my hope is that you will enjoy the images ... while my head floats around in the clouds.

increase the odds

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized." ~ SunTzu

"There is only one reason why you are not experiencing bliss at this present moment, and it's because you are thinking or focusing on what you don't have." ~ Anthony DeMelloittle

what a blessing

Nice day to play ~ 11.27.05

Can't believe how nice it is out there today. Wow. ~ 11.27.05

It's a rare blue-skied November day here in Seattle. I'm feeling a bit puny ... a cold is trying to bring me down, but the view from my window is reminding me how freaking blessed I am to live where I do. Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.

it's a mystery

"Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand." ~ Neil Armstrong

"There comes that mysterious meeting in life when someone acknowledges who we are and what we can be, igniting the circuits of our highest potential." ~ Rusty Berkus

giving thanks

1:38am
About twenty minutes ago ... I was gathered up in my bed clothes. Preparing to fall off into slumber when I heard a very loud clamoring. Metal and heavy objects falling to the ground. Then the sound of my mom, "Katherine! Katherine!". I run out to the kitchen, where I find her on the floor, the hot oven teetering out of the counter seemingly about to fall on her. Turkey upside down on the floor, behind her.

I grab the oven to insure it doesn't fall. Push it back some, it won't go easily back into it's original position, so I don't force it. I just turn my attention to my mother, now that I know the heavy metal object isn't going to crush her. Mom isn't quite ready to be helped up and insists she's fine. So, I turn to the turkey, surely it needs my assistance. Luckily it's wrapped in foil and not laying on the tile floor. Salvageable, if I can figure out how to get the oven to work again.

I help mom up, she's limping ... I'm full of questions but trying not to pester her. My mind goes back, thinking about Thanksgivings past. This is her way, stay up until all hours of the night and get the next days dinner started. She loves to cook the turkey slowly in the oven, overnight. It's her way, it's the way I've always known her to be.

I return to my bed, knowing getting the oven back in place is going to be a monumental task. And one I could really use help with. And since it's after one in the morning and I don't have any friends I can call, much less at this hour. I say a prayer, ask for guidance in getting the oven back in place on my own. Thoughts about my mom and the worries of her independence forefront in my mind.

I come back out to the kitchen, questions flying out of my mouth at the speed of light. "How did this happen?" "Are you sure you're okay?" "Where does it hurt?" So, finally without many details I get the gist that she fell on the oven door. She says she had a cramp in her leg, but my instinct says she lost her balance. I'm not going to accuse her of lying, but I'm skeptical. It is possible a cramp in her leg could have caused her to lose her balance. Anyway, that's how the 425 degree oven came to be perched over her as she sat on the kitchen floor.

Her question, "how do you microwave a turkey?" I'm not laughing. Then confesses, "I don't know what happened".

Thanks to help from above, the oven did not fall and is now back in place. Certainly not my genius that could have maneuvered that hunk of metal back into place. Cooking has now resumed, but I'm as nervous about it as I can be.

The smoke alarm just went off, I can see I won't be sleeping very soundly tonight.

Then again, Thanksgiving is about giving thanks. right? Maybe I should rethink. I am thankful for many things, at the moment ... I'm most thankful that oven didn't come crashing down on my mom. Though, I still haven't figured out how the turkey landed behind her.

as i drove along

Tree-lined curves along US Hwy 101 near Lake Crescent on the Olympic Peninsula.
10.31.05

instant replay

Working a conversation around in my mind. do you ever do this? Take a perfectly good conversation and replay it in your mind so many times, until you suddenly realize something was said that you wish you hadn't. Grrrrrrrrr. Initially, the intention is positive. I'm replaying it because something was so right about it, until I run across something so wrong. Reminds me I should listen more and talk less. Not that I necessarily run off at the mouth, but on occasion I can get carried away. So, I'm playing the thought over and over in my mind, and it doesn't take me long to realize I must let it go. But in that interim, I mentally thrash myself. Sigh, you'd think I'd learn.

your fair share

"An unshared life is not living. He who shares does not lessen, but greatens, his life." ~ Stephen Wise

no pass go

Clouds @ sunset ~ 11.07.05

Something about clouds and sunsets lately. Can't seem to pass up shooting a photo of either.

in a blur

6:53am, motion blur on Hwy. 99 -- Seattle, WA -- 10.31.05

In my eyes, the best thing about this photo is the motion blur. That's what it's got going for it. They say photography is painting with light ... this kind of image makes it feel that way. Plus, it really hit the mark on my mood that moment.