Haul Ash, 2013

Did the 42 mile bike tour which started at Redhook, marked its midpoint at Fremont's LTD Bar+Grill, and ended back at Redhook.  The rain stayed away and the tour utilized the flat and pleasant Burke-Gilman Trail.  I really enjoyed the ride, but would not have otherwise had friends disjoined.

From L-R: Sarah, Keith (above), Dane (below), Erica, Kelly, KT, and me.  

Germinate

I have numerous hopes for the children of today.  Among the most important is that their imaginations do not slip far into the sunset.  I want them to grow curious, and appreciative of the arts; music, literature, and the pursuit of knowledge.  Because if they can do that, the possibilities for them become endless; that's freedom!  There are numerous distractions arising from all sides of the world that force many of us to become passive observers.  The idea is to overcome that.

Note:  One day,  as a young adult, Cheryl (pictured here) will see this image of her and wonder what Annie Dillard is all about.  As Cheryl reads her books, I expect that her thoughts be filled with admiration and respect for nature at its most beautiful, magical, and poetic state, in much the same way Henry David Thoreau instilled the same in me.

A Not So Very Trivial Afternoon

I'm at a brisk walk noticing that every vacant lot is a field blanketed by lupines and cattails.  The creek is loud; it sounds like splintering shards of gems echoing omnipresently in endless succession.  There are numerous goldenrod bushes at the horizon painting the indiscernible distances from which they come a succulent wisp of yellow.

Aaron's 1st Birthday

I took Derya and Richard's son Aaron's pictures when he was a couple of months old.  Now he's 1 and looks like this:

Self-Awareness VII

I overestimate my abilities all the time.  Must learn not to do that!

Going to Arizona

My friend Randi planned a weekend backpacking trip to Havasupai next month.  There's no way in hell I'd turn down her invitation so I bought a ticket to go.  I feel super excited, and now trying to rekindle landscape and macro photography to best capture the Grand Canyon's full majesty.  Here are some shots from this morning:

Sifting Through Things

Franz Kafka wrote to a friend

"The books we need are the kind that act upon us like a misfortune, that make us suffer like the death of someone we love more than ourselves, that make us feel as though we were on the verge of suicide, or lost in a forest remote from all human habitation — a book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us."