Christmas color

It's Christmas day and I am wishing all (like there are millions) of those who might be reading or looking at my blog,  Merry Christmas to you and yours.  I hope that your day and the season is what you wish it to be.

Today was a quiet day.  I went for a drive today, and looked hard for color in my world.  I mentioned this in an earlier post that unexpected color could some times make your day.  I did not find today an exception to that rule.  It is difficult sometimes to celebrate a holiday alone, even after some significant experience doing just that.  I am not sure why that is.  But no matter.  Soon it won't be the holiday.

My wish to the friends and family who do read this is that you all find the unexpected color in your worlds and celebrate it.  Merry Christmas, and enjoy your day.

Trees

Today it snowed again, a wet, sticky snow that while pretty, was also a mess to shovel and to drive in.  My drive was pretty lonesome--here, in both cases, I just stopped the car in the middle of the road, and took several photos.  It wasn't like I needed to dodge traffic.  I have no doubt that people were sharing the day with their families, and not driving about.  It was fun to take some photos in black and white--the world has seemed to be in black and white lately with all of the snow.  

There is a photographer from Prague named Josef Sudak who mostly made his career from photos that he took either in his house, out of his window, or within a mile or two of his house.  Sometimes I feel that I am following this lead--you all have seen a lot of photos from my world that have been taken within a few minutes walk or drive from my house.  This is is my neighbor's "gate to no particular place."  Fairly Zen-like with all the snow.

Trees

I have mentioned the trees and their coating of snow, and had to add this photo. This is from my deck, and it captures the trees that tower over the houses below mine. I will post a happy Christmas blog, but this should do for a happy Christmas Eve blog.

morning vision...

So most mornings this is my first real vision, other than me in the way too big mirror after the shower. We won't go there... Of course, in the Midwest, we would be lucky to say that we have a "local" neighborhood Starbucks. In Bellingham, people ask "where the heck do you live?" if you DON'T have a local Starbucks. Thankfully, I have one, and this is mine...on a cold, snowy, slushy, winter morning, it is a nice site (thing?) to see, especially compared to the one I just saw in the mirror!

More snow...

There was more snow today, and even more in what they call around here "the County," which is every where else but the city of Bellingham. Here are two shots of the campus. Alas, the ball fountain is hardly a fountain but merely a place to pile on more snow.

decks

Last night we received another 2-3 inches of snow, and we are "enjoying" our third snow day with the school closed.  You can see from the photo on the left how much snow we have had, and remember the one snowplow in town.  It is pretty and there are no decorated Christmas trees that I have ever seen that can match a 75 foot tall stand of trees that were decorated by snow.  Of course, I took these basically through windows--I am not going out in all of that!  I will, though, and may even take a photo beyond a "drive-by" shot.  You know, an intentional, planned photo.

Color

So sometimes you drive around and then you see something that makes you stop.  It was almost a monochrome day today, with gray sky and lots of white snow.  On my way to my favorite used book store, I noticed this wall, an unexpected burst of yellow orange.  Nothing significant, and really not a great photo.  But the color struck me and made the day considerably warmer.

People have asked what I am doing for Christmas, and the answer is not much.  I am finding this Christmas season to be considerably harder than I suspected it might be.   I am still thinking about why that might be.  A bit lonesome, I am sure.  I miss my Dad--very certainly I was far from a perfect son, but I am also pretty certain that there not many years in the past 15 that I would not have been planning, no matter where I was, a way to see him in Eau Claire.  I miss him, is all, and while that will ease, it still hurts today.  I am uncertain about this season.  So I think that I will be wandering around, and maybe looking for that occasional blotch of color.  I am sure that it is there.

Winter...

I am certain that if anyone is looking at this blog from the Midwest, they are laughing at this photo.  And making fun of me whining about the snow.  I know, it was -22 today, etc etc.  But put this in a NW perspective.  The other day, I was at Village Books, a great bookstore in Fairhaven.  The owner is a trustee at Whatcom and a really good guy.  He pointed out that his home town in central Illinois has 3,000 citizens, and he reminded me that his little town back east has more snow removal equipment than Whatcom County has.   Honestly, it has a few snow plows and a few sand trucks.  That is it.  My street has not been plowed nor will it be plowed.  Any street smaller than say, Main Street in Findlay, or Bracket Ave. in Eau Claire is not plowed.  That means that roads remain snow covered and slippery way longer than any decent Midwesterner would stand for.

A water photo

I have been here what, four months or more and I have spent very little time near the water.  On Thanksgiving day, I wandered through the harbors, and found this scene.  I was amazed by the boats--Bellingham is home port to a significant fishing fleet, and these boats fish from from Puget Sound to far away Alaska, for salmon, halibut, and crab.  Alas, it is mostly mothballed for much of the year--seasons for different catches are sometimes measured in hours and days.  I have no idea of the economic model of this industry, other than it must be a tough way to make a living.

me

OK, how vain is this that I post a photo of me, hat head, chubby self and all.  Still, as that famous philosopher, Pop-Eye, said, "I yam what I yam."  And, I am afraid,  that I do look like this.  

sunset #2

Despite the snow, we have had amazing sunsets (good for that perspective thing).  It also points out why I love where I live...this was taken when I stepped out of my car the other night, and I promise that this is an almost untouched photo--no photoshop.

Sunset

I know, no more sunsets.  What can I say.  This was taken at one of the local parks on Friday afternoon.  It is such a different thing to have an ocean as a visual component of photos.

It has been a difficult time at work these past few weeks.  We are planning for a major budget cut, and my job is changing in a direction that not only do I not like, but in a way that is very different from what I signed on for.  I don't know what to think about that at all.  I am trying to work through this--I like so much of my job and many of the people that I work with and I love the area.  But I want to do what I was hired to do or thought I was hired to do.  It has been difficult, as I have found out that I am very emotional about this, and it has made for some interesting meetings--as I have said to others, it is personal, and my personality is part of the larger discussion. It has made me think about what I have been upset about, and it really is that I am angry about the change in responsibility, not in the diminishment of authority.  Career wise, if this goes the way it is being described right now, I will be a director, basically reporting to or at least on an org chart below a chair.  Much more difficult to lead from that level.  Not impossible, but certainly more difficult.

So I get frustrated by that, but then I simply run across a scene like the above photo.  Perspective is a funny thing, eh?  Especially when it comes up and smacks you in the head...

it is winter...

It is winter here--it came with a roar and with snow this past week, and while expected, it still came as somewhat as a surprise to me.  I remember it snowing once when I lived here before, and it was a huge snowstorm, with several feet of snow.  Oddly, for me as a Wisconsinite, was that it was gone in a few days.  I do not think we are that lucky this time--its cold, and this photo, taken a day after the first snow last weekend, is just indicative of what we have experienced.  Here, the Spinks' hand-carry their tree home, as roads were all but impassible, even with only a few inches of snow.  Ahh, you have to love Norman Rockwell...

It's been a while...

My single task for tonight is to update my blog--its been far too long and it seems as if a great deal has changed.  I look at the last photo that I posted and laugh--if only there were just falling leaves...more soon!

One thing that you have to check out is my sister Janet's blog--it is thoughtful and well written and she has a good perspective on life and "things."  Here is the link, but I will add it to the menu bar as well.  http://ponderings-limbj.blogspot.com