Night Reflection (290/366)

TIME: 9:08 pm

PLACE: Germantown, IL
SUBJECT: Germantown Lake Park

*~*~*

HH and I met some friends for supper this evening in Centralia.

We drove in the Miata with the top down on the way there - it was slightly chilly, but we had the heater on and the sun was out so it wasn't too bad.

We had to put the top up on the way back - it was much colder.

We pass through Germantown on the way there and back.

The Lake Park looks pretty at night.

Ornament (144/365)

TIME:  1:49 PM
PLACE: End of the bike trail, South Side Park
SUBJECT:  Christmas ornament

James and I joined my dad on the bike trail today.
Damn. I’m out of shape.
But I did it – 15.5 miles!

No Swimming/No Skating (062/365)

In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

TIME:  4:38 PM
PLACE:  Bicentennial Park
SUBJECT:  Sign and fountain

I saw fog rising from the melting snow on my way home from work.
I stopped at the park and took a couple of pictures.
I didn’t really capture what I wanted…but these photos will do.

 
SUBJECT: Sculpture

I can’t wait until the trees are full of green leaves again.

Which Way Is Up? (184/365)

“The eye sees not itself
But by reflection.”
 
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist, poet. Brutus, in Julius Caesar, act 1, sc. 2, l. 52-3.

TIME:  9:30 AM
PLACE:  Foley Park
SUBJECT:  Lake shoreline

StellaDella wanted to go fishing this weekend, so HandsomeHusband bought her a fishing pole and this morning, MonkeyBoy and I went with them to fish.  It. was. hot.  And as you can see, the lake was extremely still.  I didn’t think it would be a good morning for fishing and it wasn’t.  They had a few nibbles, but no bites.  SD was upset that we didn’t catch anything, but we told her that she would go again.  She asked if we could go again tomorrow.  Not that soon sweetie.
~*~*~
Did you guess correctly?  The bottom picture is right-side up.

Peeking Out (174/365)

Vampire: [about Jack Skellington, who is missing] I peeked behind the Cyclops' eye - I did! - But he wasn't there.

The Nightmare Before Christmas. Writ. Tim Burton. 1993. Touchstone Pictures

TIME:  10:28 AM
PLACE:  South Lawn, Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO
SUBJECT:  StellaDella & MonkeyBoy in Vito Acconci’s “Face of the Earth #3” 1988

I had my cast/splint removed this morning and am now in a brace for the next 4-6 weeks.  Physical therapy, 2-3 times a week, has also been prescribed.  After my appointment, as we were driving to Costco, I impulsively decided to stop for a quick visit to Laumeier Sculpture Park.  We (SD, MB & I) had never been before and it was a gorgeous day to go.  We were not there for long and didn’t see everything, but they really enjoyed the sculptures we did get to see.

 
TIME:  10:24 AM
PLACE:  Way Field, Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO
SUBJECT:  Alexander Liberman, The Way, 1972-80

Isn’t that ginormous?  It’s made from eighteen salvaged steel oil tanks.  Can you see MB wearing the green t-shirt and SD standing by him under the middle of the sculpture?  They want to go back.

A Goose And A Steer Walk Into A Park…(090/365)

“Why didn't the baby goose believe anything his father said?…He thought it was all papagander.”

Bad animal joke


”Why shouldn’t you tell jokes about cows?…Because nobody likes a cattle-tale.”

Even worse animal joke.

TIME:  2:01 and 2:10 PM
PLACE:  Park
SUBJECT:  A Canadian goose and a steer (I think)

The HH and I went out to lunch today at our favorite sushi place.  Afterwards, we went for a little drive and stopped at a county park to see what there was to photograph.  We found this goose by a pond with its companion, while the steer was in the wooden part of a field adjacent to the park road.

Great White Egret (158/365)

 
“the small white blacklegged egret, how beautiful, quietly stalks and spears the shallows, darts to shore to stab—”

Archie Randolph Ammons (b. 1926), U.S. poet. Corsons Inlet (l. 74). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.

TIME:  6:42 PM
PLACE:  North Municipal Gateway Park
SUBJECT:  Common or Great White Egret

After supper, I rode my bike on the trail.  There was a plethora of animals to be seen this evening – rabbits (too many to count), groundhogs (I spied 3 of these guys), a snake (almost ran over him) and this egret.  These birds are pretty common in our area during the summer months.  I noticed this fellow by a pond that is located in a park on the trail.  There is a fountain in the middle of the pond – that’s its water spray you see on the left side of the photo.  It’s been almost 2 weeks since I’ve been able to ride…my legs felt the burn tonight.  Great feeling.

The Bucket List (190/365)

 
I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, no just for tomorrow, but in the here and now. Keep moving and forget the post mortems; and remember, no one can get the jump on the future.

Carl Sandburg (American writer & editor, 1878–1967) 

TIME:  8:16 PM
PLACE:  Longacre Park
SUBJECT:  Bucket truck booms

Another day of painting the front porch steps.  The final coat will go on tomorrow.  I had a haircut at high noon; StellaDella had her bangs trimmed as well.  Then a stop at the grocery store – which happened to have a $10 off your $50 purchase today – for today’s and tomorrow’s dinners.  At 4pm, I attended a memorial service for a friend who had passed away unexpectedly last week.  After dinner, it was my turn to take MonkeyBoy to the batting cages so he could get some practice in for the games this weekend.  He didn’t do as well as he wanted and was a little upset about it, so I suggested we go to the park and walk around the lake to shake it off.  These bucket trucks were parked across the street and I liked how they looked silhouetted against the sky.

A View From The Top (152/365)

 
"I can't forget
How she stood at the top of that long marble stair
Amazed, and then with a sleepy pirouette
Went dancing slowly down to the fountain-quieted square;"

Richard Wilbur (b. 1921), U.S. poet. Piazza di Spagna, Early Morning (l. 1-4). . . Oxford Book of Short Poems, The. P. J. Kavanagh and James Michie, eds.
Oxford University Press.

TIME:  5:56 PM
PLACE: Hesse Park
SUBJECT:  My feet and a slide

School's out for summer.  I "twittered" earlier today that Monkeyboy lasted about 2 hours before the phrase "I'm bored" spewed forth from his mouth.  Sigh.  He had an away baseball game tonight.  We arrived about 35 minutes early, so I took StellaDella to the playground at the park.  She watched another girl play a "follow the leader" game with her mother and then decided that we needed to do that as well.  Her idea of "follow the leader" was dictating directing me in various exercises around the structure.  Here I am at the top of the tallest slide on the playground (don't look too close at my toes, I need a pedicure very badly!).  If I was rating the slide speed, I would give it an 8.5/10 - it was pretty fast.  I was extremely happy that my fat ass lovely derriere didn't hinder my decent by scraping the sides as I glided to the bottom!

Here I Come Mom! (139/365)

 
“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

George Bernard Shaw (Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950)

TIME:  1:31 PM
PLACE:  Tri-Township Park
SUBJECT: StellaDella

My sister, Cathy, babysat StellaDella today while I went to a doctor's appointment.  Afterwards, we picked up the dreaded McDonald's and went to a park near her house.  SD and my nephew and niece played on the play structure for about an hour.  Cathy and I attempted to sit on our butts and chat, but the children and their incessant demands to watch them as they went down the slide and to push them on the swings prevented us from expanding our bottoms.

"Watch me Mom!"
"Mooooom! Are you watching me?"
"Watch me go down the slide."
"Are you watching me now?"
"Here I go....."
"Did you see me?"
"Aunt Suzy, now you watch me!" 

Good gravy, how pesky is that?

Duck Amuck (093/365)

 
Rufus T. Firefly: "Remember, you're fighting for this woman's honor, which is probably more than she ever did."

Duck Soup (Groucho Marx, Leo McCarey-director, 1933)

TIME: 1:44 PM
PLACE:  Bellevue Park
SUBJECT: Female Mallard

After StellaDella's preschool let out, she and I went to a local park to feed the ducks.  This park is different from the one that I walked the trail with my sister and took the turtle picture.  I remember coming to this particular park with my family when I was a child.   There used to be a play structure my brothers and I would play on that looked like a rocket ship.  That "ship" is long gone now.  I also remember one winter got so cold, that we were actually able to ice skate on the lake.  But, it is now MANY years later and springtime.  The ducks were happy to see us with our stale hotdog buns.  SD had a good time heaving the bread into the water and then demanding having me push her on the swings in the playground.

A Bale of Turtles (077/365)

 
"The turtle lives 'twixt plated decks
Which practically conceal its sex.
I think it clever of the turtle
In such a fix to be so fertile."

The Turtle, Odgen Nash (American poet, author, lyric-writer, 1902-1971)

TIME: 11:31 AM
PLACE:  Longacre Park
SUBJECT: Turtles

I went into my client's office this morning and faxed some information to an insurance auditor.  My client's Internet was down and he was at court this morning (he's a lawyer), leaving me with unexpected free time.  So, I met up with my sister at a park and walked the trail.   Our first time around the pond, we saw a large amount of turtles sunning themselves on a metal plate in the water.  So, of course, on my trip past my car, I grabbed my camera and took a picture as we passed them the second time.