In the Spirit of the Season (December 2025)

Happy New Year! Our holiday season was busy and full of spirit for sure!

The Waco Jazz Orchestra always puts on a great show. Their Christmas Holiday Spectacular was wonderful.

My wife and I joined a book club and our host held a end of year get-together at her home. I spotted this there. 

I spent a few days in Tulsa for our office festivities up there. I met this cheerful guy looking for his home.

Penney joined in on Christmas dinner.

And now there's nothing left but the cleanup!

I hope you all had a wonderful and safe holiday season. I'm looking forward to another year of fun prompts to keep us all going in 2026!

Thankful (November 2025)

I'll get some words in here soon. I'm travelling and at least wanted to get my photos in place. But allow these to be a place holder. 

I have a lot to be thankful for and appreciate the reminder to do so occasionally.

I'm thankful for warm sunny mornings in a place I love and thankful that my grandfather decided 57 or so years ago to buy some land for us all to enjoy for four generations now.

I'm thankful for this group of friends that started as a way to stay connected during COVID still get together twice a week in person or on Zoom to talk and learn.

I'm  thankful that I get to live in a small city that, through both Baylor and MCC, bring in fabulous music and arts. Winton Marsalis giving a free concert was really something!

And while our table is sadly getting less crowded, I'm thankful for the time we were given to spend with our loved ones. Hold on tight while you can.

And another thank you to my ancestors! My dad made a great decision to buy some land outside of town and I'm lucky enough to get to live there now. There is nothing like waking up in wilderness every day but still be close enough to town to get stuff done.

I'm also super thankful to be part of this group that PJ started so long ago now. It's fantastic to be connected even long distance to a group of people that share a love of photography and so many other things! I hope you have a great Christmas or a happy Holiday of your choosing!!!

Maybe I won't write anymore after all. Love y'all dearly!

One Word (October 2025)

I decided to go literal with this month's prompt: "One Word". I think it's quite evident and let's just dive in.

October brings Formula 1 to Texas. There is lots of fun stuff between the races. Pinata Protest is a band I've followed for a while. We were given the opportunity to fight for our favorite salsa. I'm a salsa rojo stan. 

(Bonus)Alas, salsa verde won. But, it's a really close second for me anyway!

That was easy!

Are we not men? (We are DEVO)

I try really hard not to let my gas get this low. I did make it to the station though.

Man, I Love Fall!

There we go, 5+1 photos of one word. For the most part...

Join us if you can next month! 

Life Enjoyed (September 2025)

September was a busy month! But it was a good busy. Let's take a look at some of my sights:

The ham radio club provided communication support again this year for the Waco Wild West 100 bike ride. I spent the morning "out standing in the field" and then went downtown to finish the ride in our net control trailer. It was a pretty day with no serious injuries.

Charlie was going crazy one morning and I couldn't figure out why. This high fence escapee was eating bird seed in the back garden. We don't typically have deer this big around here.

I found out a few of my old friends had gone back to acting with our local civic theater. They put on a really enjoyable To Kill A Mockingbird.

Spent a weekend out at the ranch doing some odd jobs with my dad and my boys now that it's a little cooler.

I ended the month with an early morning flight out to North Carolina for some business golf with friends and coworkers. 

That's my five. Like I said, it was a great month, ready for some cooler weather here though!

What Makes Me Smile (August 2025)

August has come and gone and we are almost to the middle of September. August's theme is What Makes Me Smile. Here are some things.

Birds

Baseball

Live music. (Hello Vermont!)

Bambi!

Did I mention live music???

August was full of animals, music, friends, and fun. I hope you had a great month as well. 

Visit a lil hoohaa to see how others spent August!

Self Care (July 2025)

 We took a little trip to Colorado with some friends and family. Mountain air and good music is the best kind of self care.

Our rental was sprawling and comfortable for the 8 of us.

Golden, CO tubing.

The Denver Botanical Gardens were beautiful.

There was a trailhead about 1/10 mile from our rental.

Red Rocks is always magical. Mumford and Sons provided a soundtrack for a beautiful evening.

Be Present (June 2025)

I've been trying to spend more time in town this summer; seeing and doing things offered locally. Here's some sights around home and my home town from June.

The Downtown Farmer's Market moved across the river earlier this year. While visiting one Saturday, I took the opportunity to capture two of our landmarks in one shot. The Waco Suspension Bridge was the first span across the Brazos and once the longest suspension bridge west of the Mississippi. The ALICO building in the background is famous also for once being the tallest building West of the Mississippi.

We've seen a lot of rain this summer, keeping the lakes and ponds full.

Our summer concert series ended with Digable Planets. A little 90's nostalgia. DJ Spinderella, from Salt n Peppa opened. 

31 years with this special lady, officially, 35-ish in real time. Enjoying a new downtown dining spot for our anniversary.

June wrapped up with our annual ARRL Field Day where ham radio operators across North America unplug from commercial power and operate 24 hours in the field off of solar, batteries, and generators. We had a decent crowd this year. 

That's June in a nutshell! I don't know if I've convinced myself I followed the theme but I tried. I've certainly been more present to the present!!!

Explore the World (May 2025)

How could I not take this months theme literal with a trip planned to one of the few states I have yet to visit? We've had this family cruise to Alaska planned for quite some time. It almost didn't happen but that's a story for another time. The hardest thing I have to do this month is narrow it down to five examples of Exploring the World!

There were waterfalls and glaciers.

Abundant wildlife, of course. Sea otters.

 

Bald Eagles

 

and Orcas to name a few. This pod came up alongside the ship just as I was settling into a deck chair for a nap. I'm sure I yelled, 'Oh $#!+, Orcas!' because the people around me looked over at me then followed me to the railing.

There were bears, puffins, whales, both humpback and grey, sealions, more bears, too much to cover with five photos. We also spent a very short time in Victoria, BC. My first legal entry into Canada, but that's another story too. :)  We were in Seattle for two days as well...so much to see. You can find the entire wonderful trip here at my Flickr album. You can follow along with others at a lil hoohaa.

Sidewalks and Roads (April 2025)

Spring brings longer days and the evenings are still a little cool to allow us to get out and walk after dinner. It also brings home projects, wild flowers, and some weekend music. 

If you've followed me for any length of time, you know I'm a sucker for our Texas bluebonnets. The boys aren't posing for me anymore but I found this one popping up out of a drive way, fighting back the asphalt.

The spring projects I spoke of often need several trips, often on the same day. 

My aunt (in-law) just moved into an independent living facility that happens to be about 200 yards from my office so occasionally I'll walk over and take her dog Houdini out for a quick walk around the block. 

Some street art found in Tulsa.

Spring into Summer brings the Brazos Nights concert series along the river. The city shuts down University Parks Dr at the park and offers us free entertainment. This year opened with Bowling for Soup and another great Texas band Two Tons of Steel. It was a fun night.

That's April for me. fitting it in the theme as best I can. I've been enjoying birding with a Sigma 300-600mm zoom I bought last year. The birds have been plentiful for me this Spring. They didn't fit the theme so they aren't here. You can find them on my fllickr. And you can find more Sidewalks and Roads over at A lil Hoohaa.

Why did I quit Duolingo after 1500 days? Let’s start by what I learned. I think I picked up a good deal of vocabulary in those four years and a little bit of the concept of German language. What I didn’t learn was why the verb went here sometimes, why is die, das, or der, why do I need to add an n or an r to that word now. I didn’t learn that because that costs extra. SuperDuo now gets you ad free learning but you need MaxDuo to learn why what you got wrong was wrong. That is the main reason I quit. I almost quit a year or so ago because Duolingo kept changing the lesson plan. Last week, one of my new words was kartofel. That was one of the first words I learned 4 years ago so now I understand why I’m presented with vocabulary I’ve never seen; those are now in lessons I’ve already completed. Next came DuoMax or MaxDuo, I can’t remember. That took where a practice lesson had been and made it a permanent ad for DuoMax. I no longer had the option to work on a unit review. DuoMax added a new “video chat” in my list of lessons that, fortunately, they allowed me to continue the unit without having to do the video chat. Lately, I grew tired of the app for its non-stop notifications. I haven’t figured out what they get out of making sure you opened the app every day when you were ad free, but man, they expected you to. “Theresa is hoping you continue that friend streak.” No she’s not, because I did 4 hours ago. The bottom line is it’s a game first. Did I learn something? I think so. Was it worth the money? Probably. It kept my mind active during covid and gave me something to do to give it a work out. Am I done with German, or learning any language? No, I’ve already downloaded Babbel and I’m going to see what it’s about. Why do I think you care? I don’t, I just needed to get it off my mind! ETA: I hadn’t planned on quitting cold turkey but the free version is so limited and so full of ads that I don’t know how I got into the game in the first place.

Free for all! (February 2025)

For this months Free For All theme, I've chosen no real deep meaning to my selection. These are just five photos that I enjoyed from my collection taken this month. Without further ado...

This guy had just told a joke he particularly enjoyed.

Chinese New Year celebration. 

Crossing the Brazos at Waco.

Yampa Valley Sunset

We've been going to Steamboat Springs for more than 20 years and always pass this little cabin. I always think I should stop and capture it. I finally did this year. Then played with some creative editing.

There's my five. Next month marks 12 years, I think, of this group. I can't believe it's been that long. Check out the others over at A 'lil Hoohaa and then join us, won't you?