Category: photography

13-08-27manpray_8444-Recovered

Oh how we say time flies, but then there are those days that just seem to stay frozen in time. It was just about two years ago that I had to put my good friend down. I still feel a little lost without him. I miss his fierce protection of all under my roof. I miss his smell. Probably only true dog folks can follow that, but every dog I have owned had their own distinctive smell along with their own pedigree of personality:

Samantha (the sweetest), Pork Chop (the happiest), Midnight (a troubled black lab I could never quite follow), Clovis (the only dog we ever paid for, unconditionally the smartest and who was so tight with his pack) and then comes Grace (our blue-eyed deaf rescue found abandoned at a West Texas railroad station and who is now my only four-legged shadow).

I have loved each of them greatly and differently. Each one has brought me their lifetime of joy and buckets of tears upon leaving. Clovis was my poser dog. Whenever I got out my Nikon, he was quick to notice and quicker to upstage anyone and anything.

Since I lost Clovis, I have not, with any degree of seriousness, picked up a camera. He just took that out of me. I have tried to shoot at some images, but every time I pick up a camera I hear his tags a jingle, a bump on the leg wanting to know where he should pose. My heart goes adrift and the camera back in the backpack.

I am a sentimental old coot and damn but I miss them all and can pull up many a tearful memory. I have to ask, how can a dog steal my vision? Hey, if they can steal your heart, vision is pretty much a simple task.

Get busy living or get busy dying!…”Red”…aka S. King

Peace Out,   jasL

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Red Rover Red Rover, let Butterfly come over. Year, I know pretty cheesy. Everyone around here gets kind of excited over this red clover that blooms for a short two weeks or so. I got to admit, it is a pretty plant with a real draw to the flying insects.

Enjoy the eye feast…...RESIST HATE……en theos †††……..jasL

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Growing up in West Texas I would be more inclined to find a Horned Toad (“Horny Toad”) playing the part of a road pancake. The road killed Horny Toad would always pull at my heart. I don’t so much find that feeling with the amphibians here in Northeast TX. Perhaps it is my age or the sheer quantity of them that breeds my indifference. Whereas my dog Grace loves to find and nose around the toads that sit under our backyard lights. Grace will take the time to actually search them out. Where the horny toads were avoided by dogs, the horned toad was an unavoidable attraction for little boys.

I found this frog/toad shortly after a recent rain. After being flattened several times by passing autos, the sun then worked on drying him out and into his fossil appearing state.

Peace out….monos en theos ††† jasL

 

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It seems a bit of an oxymoron have to work so hard at taking it easy, but I am having to do just that. Trying to find those thermals to drift upon. That downhill part of the hike, but any hiker will tell you the downhill portions are the killers.

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” Marie Curie

Don’t get me started on the search for the gift, that can be a real uphill hike.

Peace out….monos en theos ††† jasL

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Following my recent panic attack, that was probably one of the worst I have ever had, I am working hard to get that peaceful easy feeling. To rest in the comfort of me.

I had someone email me a great story about panic attacks that gave me a chuckle so here is a share:

A man once had panic attacks, but eventually, with much struggle, stopped having them. Years later, he ended up in a hospital, pain in his chest, and his doctor comes in to explain that he had had a heart attack. The man says, “Thanks God! I thought the panic attacks had come back!”

You just gotta  find a way to find comfort in your discomfort!

monos en theos ††† jasL

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Crossing back to Texas

A late afternoon crossing of the Red River into Texas via Carpenters Bluff bridge.

Thought it very fitting to have and orange truck show up!

Sorry for the delay in posting. Same old fighting nagging health problems. Cross my fingers I am feeling better and am getting around a bit better. Last series of injections in my back were slow to provide relief, but the drugs seems to have finally found the right area.

Peace out, a special blessing to all our fighting men & women providing for our freedom. Not an advocate of war, but these folks are doing work I didn’t have to do and I thank them for my safe and warm sleep…….monos en theos†††jasL

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We headed out to Hagerman once again yesterday. The ground was a flood of Snow Geese. They would at some unknown to me signal to take flight. They seemed to be doing practice flight patterns whereby they would fly in circles and sometimes a gaggle would form a loose “V” formation. Just as quickly they would break up and all slowly without any pattern or plan all land once again. Then repeat the process again in thirty minutes or so.

With the current degree of turmoil in the world, It was majestic and to say the least, peaceful to watch nature’s mystery.

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Just as I find the outside flower pickin’s on the slim and fading away side. I discover the $5.00 bouquets of flowers from Albertsons provide not only a source of beauty for a good week or so. But give me a pretty and kind subject that sits still and poses for as long as needed.

Then the afternoon setting sun rays become reflected off the petals through the vision of a Lensbaby, and all is good.

Beauty feast through my eyes, life slows and becomes almost without season.

enjoy, monos en theos †† jasL

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Rainy days are made for:

A. Read a book

B. Movies

C. Naps

D. Play with old images in Photoshop

As the weather cools and our rainy season is upon us, my body is healing and now I wish I had some flowers to photograph. So, the second best thing is to pull up a summer made image and play around in Photoshop. Rainy day friend and all that.

Peace out.††† jas L

Shades of Gray from Grayson Co, TX #915 – In for a closer look.

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I have been having some lower intestinal issues now for a few weeks. Several tests looking for the problem. I am beginning to feel like a car going to a mechanic for diagnosis. You go in and the doc plugs into your circuitry and runs a machine to diagnose the problem. Only problem is, it doesn’t show up on the computer, so the doc shakes his head and sends you to another doc who repeats the process with a different apparatus only to have the same “can’t find anything” answer

So today it is off for another “procedure” for a closer look into my lower GI system. I can’t help but always be reminded of Billy Crystal in City Slickers delivering his monologue to a class of elementary age kids about how as we get older we have a lot procedures.

Anyhow, I have also been “irregular” on posting and will probably continue with that trend until we get to the “bottom” of it all.

Peace out & monos en theos ††† jas L