Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2: Day 14 – Life In Color

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No waiting for curbside pickup this early!
“There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.”  Incorrectly attributed to many sources, origin uncertain.  I like it anyway.  Sort of like the one about the journey being the destination.

The quote is on a card that I received yesterday with a shipment of coffee beans.  Freedom Fresh Roasts is a small batch coffee roaster operated by a long-time friend and former restaurant manager.  I’ve had his coffee in restaurants but he just recently started selling online.  I haven’t had the beans yet but will report as soon as I’ve tried them.  I have a feeling they’ll be yummy! 🙂

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2: Day 13 – Life In Color

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Delivery of building supplies to the new storage center under construction

The summertime heat and humidity have finally arrived.  It’s typical here in the south, but we do the “thermometer dance” in the spring between heat and A/C, then BAM! it’s summer.  We’ve been taking our walks early.  Well, early for Kathy. 😉  That gives us a chance to get home before our shoes start melting into the pavement!

The Big Brown Truck is bringing me a special package today.  I’ll write about it tomorrow. 🙂

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2: Day 12 – Life In Color

Hanging basket in the neighborhood

It was nice to get out yesterday and do something besides buy groceries.  I’m still getting used to the breeze on my neck and around my ears from my haircut, but it feels good!

We drove through uptown Charlotte on our way home yesterday, and it was interesting to see the number of cars parked along the street, even though there weren’t many people around.  There was a lot of construction going on, as there always is there.  It’s probably good to get it done at a time when they won’t muck up traffic, although they will still manage to muck up traffic even when people start returning to the office.  Assuming they ever do!

Word is that Trumpty Dumpty has decided that he’s going to take his toys and go to someone else’s sandbox to have his lovefest.  I don’t care one way or the other, but I know that a lot of businesses are/were hoping to gain back some of their lost revenue from all the convention goers.

One good thing about having the convention wherever they have it is that locking all those goofballs up in one place for a week may insure that a lot of them aren’t around to vote in November.  That’s cruel I know, but when ego replaces good sense you get what you get.

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2 Day 11 – Life In Color

Flowers in the neighborhood

“One of the difficulties of being alive today is that everything is absurd but fewer and fewer things are funny.” Alexandra Petri in“Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why”

We’re getting our hair cut today!  I know it may seem selfish to some to be so excited about something so trivial, but it’s a big friggin’ deal to us!  I’m proud to have a full head of hair at almost 62 years old, but this rag mop is getting out of hand!

Just another small step toward normalcy.  We’re happy for every little thing these days.

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2: Day 10 – Life In Color

Pool reflections

From the Useless Statistics Department:  We drove our car a grand total of 42 miles during the month of May.  Yikes!  We did finally buy gas for the first time since March in order to use up some of our Fuelpoints, but only needed 7.5 gallons.  But I got it for only $6 so it was still a deal.  I suspect we’ll be doing a little more driving in June.  At least I hope so…I’ll have more Fuelpoints to use! 🙂

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2: Day 8 – Life In Color

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We Got Ladders

One of the things I’ve been impressed with during this corona-crisis is the resilience of people and what they have done during this time.  No, most of us haven’t learned to speak Italian or Spanish, but many people have found interesting things to do.  Some of my neighbors are rediscovering old hobbies or dusting off cookbooks and getting reacquainted with their kitchens.  Monte was writing the other day about replacing the coffee shop routine with visits to the countryside in the early morning or late evening.  Earl and Cedric have been revisiting old photographs – sometimes finding lost photos filed in the wrong folder! – and reworking them to make new art.

Of course there are downsides, but I try to not dwell on those.

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2: Day 7 – Life In Color

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Life In Color – Flowers in the Neighborhood

We learned yesterday that our libraries will reopen on June 1, albeit with very limited services including only allowing one person at a time in the building.  That’s OK with me, as right now I just want to return two physical books that I’ve had since February.  All of my other reading has been on my Kindle.  It will be nice to get the books off our living room table!

Random Thoughts

Celebrating Our 2-Year “Retirement-versary!”

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Sunset from Morton Overlook, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

I realized this morning that today is the date of our retirement 2 years ago…time flies when you’re having fun!  It’s amazing to realize that it has been two years. We’ve been very glad that we over-reached a bit on our travel through the first 21 or so months, since we’ve been making up for it the last few months.

The photo is from 2006, recently processed in Lightroom using more “modern” tools.

Photo Project: Life In Color

Phase 2 Day 6 – Life in Color

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Life In Color: Pool Shadows

Kathy & I haven’t been frequent pool-goers in any of the neighborhoods we’ve lived.  But this year we had decided we were going to use the one in our current neighborhood more.  Of course it has not yet reopened for the season so we walk past it every day.  Some kind of hoopla between the HOA board, the pool company and attorneys.  But it gives some of the neighbors something new to talk about! 😉

This week Kathy & I pulled the plug on our October cruise and cleared the travel slate completely.  We’re planning a trip to the beach, thinking that renting and living in a condo down there for a week will give us a similar insulation from others to living at home while providing a change of scenery.  We need a change of scenery.

We’re hoping that things loosen up a bit across the country in June and July and are hoping to bag a few more states.  Unfortunately the ones we still need are in the far corners of the country.  But fortunately most of the states are wide-open spaces, so as long as we can get gas, get food and sleep, we might be able to put together a nice drive without a lot of people-ing.

Photographs and stuff!