PHOTO BLOGGING CHALLENGE (JULY 2019): PATRIOTIC

The days keep ticking away; moving faster and faster. Here we are in August already. But, let's talk about July and the Photo Blogging Challenge theme of: Patriotic.

We had a family get together on the 4th. Plenty of food, family, friends, and fun.


That evening we went down to the river for the city fireworks display. I was just going to enjoy the show so didn't even bring a camera. So these were taken with my phone and merged together.


Mr. Medart is the gentleman that is responsible for restoration of the old Pearl Community Center and getting the monthly bluegrass shindig together 20 years ago. What was impossible to capture on camera is that every musician there had circled the entire auditorium and were playing while he sang.


I live outside the city limits and our little community volunteer fire department puts on a top notch fireworks display themselves for a fundraiser. I'd not ever used my GoPro for stills and not even though about Fireworks but I had just watched a tutorial on how to do it so gave it a shot.


The Helen Marie Taylor Museum of Waco History is a bit of an enigma in Waco. It has been closed to the public for regular tours since 1998, but available by appointment. Ms. Taylor is in her 90's and lives in Virginia and rarely comes back to Waco. Some folks got a hold of her and convinced her to hold an open house recently. It was a treat as I had not been in there since grade school. It is in an old school and this is the auditorium. It was well attended and the hope is that she saw enough people to try to get it open regular again.

Photo Challenge June 2019 - Get Out and Play

It's been unseasonably pleasant in Texas this spring. It's been cool and wet so we've been outside quite a bit.

June started off with Cheap trick paying a visit to Waco. We were able to get up close.


I finally also got the chance to see Weird Al live and in person!


We left town for a little bit to spend some time with Scouts at the Florida Sea Base.


Our week there ended with a big luau with plenty of food and games.


Then back to music at home with Texas legend Little Joe y la Familia.

Photo Blogging Challenge (MAY 2019): Your Month, Your Choice

I think I'm starting to sound like a broken record. May was busy, like the last few months. It was also hard to pick just 5 put here we go:

May is prom time around here. Will and a few of his friends came to our house for dinner and photos before. This is their album cover shot.

Uh oh, I used that prom pic last month. So go look there. Here is a picture of the Biltmore instead, from my trip to North Carolina.

It's also travel time. Some work and some pleasure. First trip was a conference in Florida. We skipped the host hotel and stayed at an Airbnb. I'll do that again.


Next up is North Carolina. This one was all fun. We did some hiking in the Dupont State Forest.


And along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Pisgah National Forest.


My friends family had a great house along the Green River. Soaking in it was a great way to both start and end our days.


That was May. June is stacking up to be busy too. I hope the picks show up. Flickr has been quite funky since the new owners have taken over.

Photo Blogging Challenge (April 2019): Color makes the world go round

Another month has come and gone. We had plenty of rain for Texas so the colors were quite vivid this year.

It's not spring in Texas until the bluebonnets arrive.


We were treated to many colorful skies.


I spent a few days at a music festival out in the woods. It was quite colorful.


As were the bands. It was cool to get up close to some of these groups. This is one of Will's favorites, Wild Child.


Will is just a junior but they are invited to Senior Prom. He went with a group of his friends.
April was also the month that I finally met up with the HooHaa in person. PJ came through town and we shared a bite to eat. I think it's funny that two guys that met doing photo challenges didn't take a photo of our meet up. It happened we just can't prove it!

Photo Blogging Challenge (February 2019): Glasses

I had a great plan for this month's challenge then I forgot. Oh, well. I improvised and managed to cull out 5 that I could almost argue equals glasses. I took a lot of photos this month, just not the theme.

Enjoy!



Chocolate Ale - It was good!


Plastic cup will have to pass as a glass. The pizza was delicious.

Texas sunsets...


National Margarita Day

Photo Blogging Challenge (January 2019): Books

I'm traveling and present a relatively uninspired submission for the challenge. Here's hoping for a better time in February.

This is my first Diver's Logbook. I filled it up two years ago. It's fun to go back and look at our adventures.

My Great Uncle was a published author. Whenever I find a copy of one of his books, now all out of print, I buy it.


They were translated into different languages and sometimes renamed and rebranded into pulp novels to help sales.

This is one of my favorites. PJ might have some interest in it as it was set on the D&H Canal near Cuddebackville, NY.

This is my journal/notebook/daily carry. I've got backpacking trips, shopping lists, a little of everything in this recycled firehose covered journal.


This is the way I read most my books now. It's just easier when traveling. Until the batteries die...

Photo Blogging Challenge (December 2018): Feliz Navidad

Another day, another month, another year has come to a close. And another photo project. December was a good, but busy, filled with friends and family. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.

Amy had found these angels at an estate sale. They needed something big to go with them. The star filled the bill.


John had his Jeep decked out for the holidays as well.


Angel detail in some fantastic morning sun.


Candlelight service



Tables are ready for Christmas dinner.


I wish you all a Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you photos this year!

Photo Blogging Challenge (November 2018): Nom Nom Nom

Nom nom nom, I like food. A lot of times it's the prettiest photo I have for my daily selection so I have a lot of 'em. Now's the time to share!

Soft Shell Crab Po'boy


A dog's gotta eat. Check out her tongue!


Beef Pho, from the same place as the Po'boy. They do it all and do it well.


Pecan Pie ready for Thanksgiving.


My dad cooks a mean steak.


Happy Onion approves!

Photo Blogging Challenge (October 2018) Oh the places you’ve been!

Y'all, October was busy. Our drought broke with almost 12" of rain for the month. But we were still able to get out and about some.

October is fair month and I love the fair. We started it out with our county fair. Heart of Texas Fair and Rodeo suffered a bit due to rain but was fun nevertheless.

I had given up hope of making it to the State Fair of Texas this year. Every weekend saw rain. We finally caught a break on the closing weekend and got to enjoy a corny dog with my mom, sis, and niece as well.

I got out of the crummy weather for some business golf in Southern Pines, NC. It was perfect weather for a couple of days.


I followed that up with a quick trip to Tulsa.


And ended the month at Miami Beach. This is the Fontainebleu. James Bond was here in Goldfinger, Jerry Lewis was The Bellboy here. Neil Young wrote a song about it. It was nice. It was expensive. And I may be too old to hang out at Miami Beach. I was in bed long before the club opened.


There is October in a nutshell. November will be mostly home but the end of the year still come hard and fast.

Photo Blogging Challenge (September 2018): Colorful

September brought some unique and many very colorful Skies of Texas. Please enjoy a few:



I'm not sure what these are but they always seem to pop up after the first good rain after a long dry spell.