The Big Guy

It was December 2004.  We had arrived early, very early to the Mall in order to beat the lines.  The kind of planning that new parents do when trying to coordinate seasonal iconic activities with the time of day the kids are most likely to behave.  The strategy had seemingly worked and we were fourth or fifth in line to see Santa. We had arrived so early that guest of honor hadn’t yet made it to his throne.  He was still over at the styling salon where the ladies paid elf like attention to grooming his snow white whiskers.

The wait for Santa was starting to take it's toll on the girls attention span, especially Sarah our 18 month old.  Remember this was the pre elf-on-the-shelf era so there were only so many, ‘you don’t want to be on the bad list’ threats that could be used at the 11^th hour.  Well along came Santa and to my surprise Santa ‘worked the crowd’ coming down the line saying hi on his way to his place of honor. 

This giant man, with coal black boots, velvet red pants and broad suspenders over his Santa casualwear playful shirt.  Sarah stood silent, not understanding exactly what was going on.  After Santa passed on down the line Alex leaned in coaching Sarah, ‘Don’t you get it, that’s the guy you have to be nice to!?!

Like many families in this area, we followed this Santa to the various locals that he would visit each season.  Such a wonderful gentle man.  Year after year we added to our collection of pictures with Santa, never missing a year.   One year we did call it close and squeaked in a visit around 3pm on the 24th.  Fifteen years of collecting pictures and saying hi to the nicest man on the planet.  We were sure to make our reservation this year, since Santa was now taking full advantage of technology of the internet and text based scheduling. 

Then we received the notice this week that that Santa had to travel back to the North Pole due to a medical condition.  Days later the note came out that the Big Guy had passed on.   For a person we spent on a few minutes with each year, it was like some pure happiness had been taken away.  Happiness in big, broad suspenders and white whiskers.  Throughout north Texas posts of "RIP Santa" flooded social media.  I'm not sure why, but that didn't sit well with me.  I prefer to think of it as our city has been transformed into Sombertown and Kris Kringle has been temporally delayed by the Winter Warlock.

These are just few of the yearly Christmas pictures we collected over the decade and a half of visiting The Big Guy.  Pictures covering circa 2004 to 2016.

Calypso

It was the only piece of mail this past Saturday.  An unassuming 3 by 4 inch envelope addressed to Jill.  I didn’t recognize the name on the return address, I just figured it was part of the 2017 graduate thank you card parade that has been marching through our mailbox the past couple of months.  Turns out it wasn’t a graduation card, but rather a note stitching together the past and present.  I put the card on the kitchen counter where Jill could easily find it when she returned.

Later in the day I noticed the petite letter had been opened.  The card containing a kind note, thanking Jill for her donation and a picture of a young woman, who I didn’t recognize, in a cyclist outfit.  Jill then provided the back story. 

A few weeks back, Jill had been reading alumni news from her high school and noticed there was a story about a former Bishop Lynch student who was also a Texas Longhorn, both of Jill’s educational roots.  With that kind of fabric commonality she clicked on the link to the article thinking the young woman’s last name seemed familiar.  

She read the article about the woman joining the group of UT cyclists biking from Austin to Anchorage, the ‘Texas 4000, fighting cancer every mile’.  (http://www.texas4000.org/)  Then it hit Jill, the tie to this young woman.  The kind of realization that jolts your memories, feelings and emotions swirling together and heightening the attention, making you lean in to read the article closer.  She read further, the bio went on to explain that Madeline, the young woman, rides for her older sister Calypso, who she didn’t have chance to know.  She was a year old when Calypso passed away at the age of six. 

Jill said to me, “You remember the little…..” and before she could complete the sentence I responded, “I do”.  I had pieced things together and knew exactly where she was going with the story.

Jill was one of the many team members at Children’s Medical Center caring for Calypso and the family. 

The deeper tie to Jill and I is that it was in service for Calypso, while she was in the midst of her battle, that had Jill on the phone with Judith.  Judith, a Make-a-Wish director, and mother of an old friend of mine from high school.  Judith had just recently moved from Pittsburgh to Dallas.  They were patching together activities around Calypso’s wish.  During the call Jill liked Judith so much that she asked if she had a son she could marry.  Judith’s response was, her sons were married, but his son’s friend needs a wife and he lives in Dallas.  To which Jill replied, ‘If he is tall, nice and Catholic give him my number.’  Fortunately for me, Jill was a little older by this time and had excluded other criteria for a mate that would have eliminated me from further consideration. 

It was Calypso who was the initial stitch that led to Jill and I being tied together.  All these years later, on an otherwise standard Saturday afternoon a card arrived in our mailbox from her grown sister keeping her memory alive. 

You just never know how things will unfold and the impact one person, even a six year old, has on those that she may not even know, but are fortunate enough to be within her ecosystem.  I keenly remember the day that Calypso passed away.  I had just reached my desk at work when the phone rang.  It was Jill and it was terribly difficult to understand her.  I just listened.  I had no other concept of how to deal with such overwhelming raw emotions or how to provide support over the phone.  Jill ended the call with, “I want to bake cookies for a living, no one dies baking cookies.”

Please consider expanding your ecosystem by supporting Madeline in her efforts to honor her big sister.   http://www.texas4000.org/rider/2018/unassigned/madeline-schill/

Wake Up Call - 2017 Picture Review

Throughout any given year I take quite a few photographs.  Really I take a lot of pictures.  The number of pics grows exponentially when we go to national parks.  So you can imagine the number of pictures that I snapped last summer as we celebrated the 100 Anniversary of the National Park Services with a blow out trip to 5 National Parks and three National Monuments.  Through this Friday's Note entry I offer two avenues of sharing photographs I've taken.  The first is a link to a video I assembled of our family visits to many national parks over the past decade.  I fully admit it's a little like a home movie, though it is a nice chronology of my girls growing while visiting some pretty incredible landscapes.

National Park Service 100 Anniversary Family Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6teLUurM1U

The second avenue of sharing the photographs are the following top 10 pictures from that trip.   These are some of my favorite landscape pictures from the trip.  The first picture is of the Tetons from Schwabacher landing, not Swashbuckler landing as I had said for a day or so.  The back story for getting this picture is convincing the family to get up at 4:45am in order to drive to this location to get the 5:20am rays of sunshine against the mountains.  As we pulled into the parking area, already populated by a dozen cars and a mini tour bus, I managed the, "see I'm not the only crazy person!"

The second photo is from the same general area, but a little further down the river.   The water at this location was clear and calm making the reflection nearly as sharp as the mountains themselves. 

 The next picture was the following morning, yes another 4:45am wake up call and 40 min drive to get to the location of the Mormon barns at the southern end of the national park.  The early morning light against the barn framed by the mountains is one of the best 15 minutes of picture taking that is possible.

 This picture is inside of the chapel of the Transfiguration.  The picture shows the panoramic view behind the alter.  I would find paying attention to a homily a little difficult with this being the view.

 The lower falls of the Yellowstone river are twice the height of the Niagara falls.  The falls are the entry point to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  The power of the water pouring over the falls is impressive.  The view from Artist Point absolutely never gets old.

 In the southern half of Yellowstone is the Grand Prismatic Spring.  I was thwarted in my attempt to scale the hill on the far side of this oversized hot spring since the park had that road closed for work.  So this picture is from the boardwalk that takes you out onto the bacteria fields that surround the hot spring.  The different colors are the various types of bacteria that grow at different temperatures.

 In the northern end of Yellowstone is the Mammoth hot spring. This snapshot is just a snippet of the overall hot spring mountain which is constantly changing as various paths get clogged and flows redirect.  These changes were very evident in comparing the views from multiple years apart.

 At the top of Montana is a stunning park title Glacier National Park.  While the park is down to approximately 25 glaciers, down from 150 glaciers a century ago.  This picture (yes getting up early yet again) is of Goose Island on Lake St Mary as the first rays of sun light up the clouds and far mountain tops.

 Glacier National Park has a single road that bisects the park (east to west) with there being a size limit on the vehicles allowed to navigate the road due to the narrow lanes and sharp turns next to sheer rock walls.  While parking at one of the pull outs to take in the scene I notice one of the iconic red tour buses pass us going up the mountain.   Luckily I was able to take this picture as the bus crosses over the falls.

 On the west side of the mountain range is Avalanche Creek.  This is the a classic view of the crystal blue milky stream that cuts through the moss covered boulders.  I have basically the same picture from back in 1996, but that picture was taken in August and the water was a lot lower and less striking.

One of my final favorite pictures is from Mount Rushmore.   I played around with some manual focus in order to get a little different view of old Abe.  I was pretty pleased with how this turned out.  It's nice having a portrait figure stay so still for his picture. 

Well, that is it for my retrospective of favorite 2016 vacation pictures.  Look at it this way, you didn't have get up early to enjoy these views.

India Kaleidoscope

I could say that this Friday’s Note has been a year in the making, but it would more accurate to say this note has been more of year of putting it off.  This week is the one year anniversary of my trip to Bangalore India.  Since that trip, my friend Gopala has repeatedly inquired as to when my impressions of India would make their way into a Friday’s Note.  I was going to write a note just about the 18 and a half hours of air travel just to get there, but that story I think I’ll save for another day. 

I think my delay in writing about India has been my inability to focus on one aspect of the experience.  To attempt illustrate my collage interpretation of the Indian subcontinent, I’ll take a kaleidoscope approach to explaining the aspects of the trip.  Each piece of the adventure tumbling into place, forming a pattern that is uniquely Indian.

The Traffic

The first aspect of the trip to tell is the experience of riding through the city.  After the initial 4am airport to the hotel drive, where the driver tooted his horn as a means of carefully running red lights, my friend Chris looked at me and said, “I made a tactical error by sitting in the front seat”.  From that point forward the front seat was mine allowing me to take all the snapshots I could.  The word traffic doesn’t seem adequately explain the challenges of traversing the city.  Every means of land travel is fair game (cars, busses, motorcycles, ox, foot, bicycle, scooters) and the sweet molasses movement is orchestrated by friendly use of horns and a high beam flashes language.  Here is a typical front seat view of the traffic and the family of five making their way to school.

The other thing to convey isn’t just the vehicle traffic, but the sheer condensed nature of the city of 13+ million people.  The immediate proximity of 21^st Century office/shopping districts with areas of economic struggles was striking, at least to me it was.  My suburbia background didn’t prepare me for the differences.  With that said, I have never felt so guilty of taking a picture as I did with the following snapshot during one of our trips to the office.

 Truth be told, this picture could have been taken in any metropolitan city in the world.  The traffic of people passing by the needy made me think of the number of times I’ve walked past homeless in Dallas. 

The Food
The food during the trip was one of the many very pleasant surprises and made me feel silly for lugging a couple dozen Cliff Bars in my luggage across the planet.  There would be no need for that nutrition backup plan.  The morning started with a choice of a dozen different juice choices.  While a festive green color, I didn’t have the courage to try the Bitter Gourd juice.  For lunch the local work team brought in a ‘box lunch’.  The only similarity between the typical USA dry turkey sandwich box lunch and the meal served in India was that the food came in a box.  However the India version of the box lunch was much more of a suitcase lunch, with enough food to feed my entire family for a day.  All freshly baked, warm, flavorful and inviting.

The Colors

Another sensory explosion in India was that of the colors.  They are vibrant, alive and welcoming.  We were greeted our first day with a fresh flower petal design laid out for our visit. 

Later in the week, our colleagues escorted us to a shop famous for scarves and local attire.  The store was like being inside a rainbow.  The following snapshot is my friend Gopala behind the counter helping us sort through dozens and dozens and more dozens of the softest and most beautiful fabrics.   The shelves in every direction was a textured painting of potential.

The following picture is part of the arbor flower display at the hotel prepping for a wedding.

 

The Graciousness

While the colors, food and traffic certainly impacted me, it was the people who left the deepest impressions.  The first thing that stood out to me regarding our office environment was that I was the oldest individual in the building.  Second, the staff's energy and age reminded me of EDS of the early ‘90s with most people being under 30 with their future careers still at the incubator adventure stage of life.  More importantly than our staff’s youthfulness was their eagerness to be helpful in any way. 

It is very difficult to explain the continuous support we were afforded.  Politeness coupled with broad smiles is such an engaging way to go through the day.  It wasn’t just an occasional talk that was positive, but rather every interaction.   Every single experience. The hotel staff, our driver and our work teams all approached us with a desire to assist us at every turn.  At the close of the trip, Gopala and Hema invited us into their home ,where Hema had prepared the most wonderful meal and she smiled as she said 'I cut back on the spices for you.'  Always eager to make sure we where taken care of. 

Looking back, I shouldn’t have waited so long to share my experiences, but sometimes the memories need to fall around and collide until they form the right pattern.  I close this note with the following picture that I snapped while we were stuck in yet another traffic jam.  I imagine the girl was thinking, who is this guy taking my picture and I wonder where in the world he is from?

T-Rex on Vaca

Let me start by saying, I can't believe I didn't get video and only snapped pictures as T-Rex made it's way through iconic national parks the past couple weeks.   It all started this June when my Sarah requested T-Rex for her 13th birthday and I loved the idea.

When she opened the gift her first question was, 'can I take this on vacation' to which mom laughed saying, 'you know dad is already planning on it.'  

So T-Rex traveled a few million years and a couple thousand miles via SUV to take pictures in the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier NP and Mount Rushmore.   Here are just a few of the adventures that we had while taking the airy beast around.

 It was very interesting to see the two most common reactions to T-Rex coming out.  First, I was amazed at the number of people who seemed completely unfazed by the giant nylon reptile.  They would see it and have zero reaction and go about their way.  The second reaction was genuine happiness with the most common phrase being, 'You have made my day!' followed quickly by, 'Here is my phone, please take a picture of me with T-Rex!!!'

The top picture is KK from the Teton Cabin rental office as T-Rex celebrated her birthday by taking a chomp out of her.   She couldn't stop laughing.   Next is T-Rex making a quick call, one dinosaur inside another dinosaur in a single picture.  Get it?

Here T-Rex does the unexpected and decides to do a little kayaking on Jackson lake of the Tetons.  Unfortunately for Rex, the short arm syndrome makes working the paddles impossible.  Here the kayak rental person becomes another person requesting a candid pick.

 In Yellowstone T-Rex made it's way through the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone at the lower falls overview site.  At this location I wish I would have taken a picture of the number of people who were completely indifferent to this plastic animal posing for pictures.

Here Rex considers taking a Red Bus tour through Glacier NP, but realized that the average age of the clientele of the bus tour was actually older than Rex.  Yikes!

Here is T-Rex with the crew from the Flying Pig Adventure company who took us white water rafting.  They wanted to tweet that Rex visited.  With all of the excitement, Rex left her tennis shoes behind.  Fortunately, when you call a few days later and say, 'I think T-Rex left her shoes', the crew more than remembers the reptile and happily mails the shoes back to Texas!  Rex has surprisingly petite feet.

Always being nature aware, T-Rex reads up on the local beasts that dominates Glacier NP.   For the tale of the tape, T-Rex takes the grizzly on speed, canine teeth size and claw length with the grizzly having the 'reach' advantage over Rex.   We looked and found bear spray to carry but there was no T-Rex spray to be found.

 T-Rex spreading the word of keeping wildlife wild!  Represent!

Flashing little known presentation skills, Rex presents the latest ranger program, 'Jurassic Park to National Parks, Take a Bite Out of Adventure'.   Rex especially liked the air conditioning that made staying in the costume longer easier as we waited for the park rangers to take a picture with her.

At the Glacier NP visitor center we were getting Sarah into the costume when a retired couple came up to us and the husband looked perplexed and said, 'I just don't get it!'.  Before I could respond his wife chirped up and said, 'I just is, it's fun!!!'  and I excitedly pointed at her and said, 'Exactly!'.

With Rex plumped up, we waited for the park rangers to be available for pictures (their request not ours).  I noticed the same retired couple over at the park's topographical map, but the husband continuously watched Rex's interaction with complete strangers.  First, there were the two brothers, about 5 and 7, who came over asking for a hug and a picture.  Then the teenagers with huge smiles came over for a picture mimicking the short arms and sharing that phrase, 'You made my day'.  Then another family with Rex in action chomping the mother's head.  Finally, the rangers were available and T-Rex drove obvious fear into the park ranger!  Shout out to the two rangers from UT and Pittsburgh!!!

It was at the close of Rex's Glacier NP photo session when someone grabbed my left arm.  I looked over to see that it was the husband of the retired couple getting my attention.  He leaned in and said, 'I just want you to know, I think your daughter has terrific parents!' he then smiled then winked.

He made my day!


T-Rex closing our the marathon road trip at Mt Rushmore!  Boy I wish I had taken video.  I really wish I had taken video.

Tulle Time

It has been awhile since I've posted, but after seeing disjointed yet related occurrences of tulle handling in a single day, I took it as a sign.  During the day I noticed a post to the internet of an artist using tulle and an iron to create incredible pieces of art. 

His name is Benjamin Shine and here is a link to his website that includes the various pictures that he created using tulle.

http://benjaminshine.com/projects_to_view/tulle-works.html

I especially like the illustration of the hands as well as the tulle flows.  Simple and amazing.

The following is a video of Benjamin working on his 'paintings'.   The short video is well worth your time.  The dancers are subtlety beautiful and the two faces for his wedding portrait are incredible.   I've never seen anything like it.

http://www.boredpanda.com/ironed-fabric-art-benjamin-shine/

So after seeing what this artist could create, I found it that more interesting when Jill coincidentally that night decided to clear out the 'dance costume closet'.  Stuffing outfit after outfit with bunches of tulle into the vacuum storage bags.   Then buy sucking out the air created her own tulle inspired modern art bag.  It had to be a sign - so it was time to get back to posting a note, a Friday's Note.

Bakers Dozen

The following are some of my favorite pictures of the past year.  I found it difficult to whittle the thousands of pictures I had taken down to just these few.   I started with the elimination of some entire categories of pictures.  I discounted portrait pictures that I had taken telling myself that picking from those pictures would be like choosing from my kids.  I also decided not to include stained glass window pictures since I had recently posted using some of those pictures.   I also eliminated the bazillion dance and drill team pictures that I had taken of my daughters.  Facebook has been populated with plenty of those pictures throughout the year.  Eliminating those categories of pictures started to make the selection process easier, but the vacation to some of our nation's best national parks certainly complicated things.
So after all of that, here are the pictures I selected, along with some rational as to why I picked each snapshot for this yearly review.

Venus Setting

The first selection is a night time shot from the McDonald Observatory.  It was a great time during our spring break trip with a fun constellation presentation and the many mini observatories open for viewing the vast universe.  The only thing better than taking in the night sky were the tall hot chocolates that to take the bite out of the cold night air.  I picked this particular  shot since it shows Venus setting low in the west sky and the 'Seven Sisters' cluster of stars high above.

While the milky way wasn't as pronounced as we would have liked, the overall observatory experience was a great time during our trip.

Rio Grand at Sunset, Big Bend NP

The origin of this next picture was the discovery of a post card at the Big Bend National Park visitor center.  My daughter wanted to take this iconic shot of the suns reflection off the Rio Grand with the stark desert landscape glowing at the close of the day.  After asking a number of park rangers about the location shown in the post card we found the location which naturally was the southern tip of the park and at the top of a little knob where the Rio Grand makes the 'big bend' with Mexico being on three sides of the hill we were on. 

Of course taking a picture at this southern most outpost of the USA leads to interesting experiences at the US Border Patrol when you roll in late at night on the way back to the hotel.  But that is another story.

Des Monies Sculpture

During the summer went on a business trip to Des Moines Iowa.   A little walk from the hotel was a collection of sculptures in a city park.   I was drawn to this piece of art, a collection of letters in the shape of a human sitting with their knees pulled in tight.  It was so interesting from each angle and the lighting at night added a whole other dimension to the experience.

The next picture is of the Dallas skyline.  May 2015 was a month long deluge after years of a drought in north Texas.  A side benefit of the month long rain was the flooded Trinity River allowing for a reflection of the city at night.  The red, white and blue of the lights are from the Memorial Day themed lights outlining the building and Reunion Tower.  On the far right is the iconic Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge with it's beautiful single arch suspension cable design.

Dallas Skyline Reflection

Centennial Football

 The following is part of my Friday Night Lights picture collection.  I got into the habit of taking pictures of my daughter's drill team and her friends in the Titan band.  This picture is a pregame snapshot of the football team coming out of the smoke tunnel.  Somehow this picture stood out as a particular moment in time, the anticipation of the game to be played.  Or maybe I just liked it.  Either way, this picture was one of my favorites of the fall campaign.

Grand Canyon North Rim

The next picture is from the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  Unlike the south rim, the north rim is has one tenth the number of people which leads to a calmer, quieter experience.  I liked this picture with the window opening of the rock and the sky clouds enhanced by Lightroom only slightly.  The north rim is certainly a place I hope to visit again soon. 

The next picture was a quick snapshot taken of a girl who spotted me taking pictures.  I just loved the composition of the girl against the blue garage door.  I textures of the location seem jump out of the picture.

Bangalore Girl

The next picture I went back and forth as to include it or not.  I ended up including it for a couple reasons.  First I don't believe that I've ever had the feeling of guilt when taking a picture like I had with this snapshot.  The picture of these two women begging had that impact on me.  Truth be told this picture could have been taken in any city, Dallas, Pittsburgh or in this case Bangalore.  The close proximity of poor and well off just seem a lot closer in Bangalore than from here is the sub-burbs.  The other reason I was drawn to this picture is that this one shot captured the two women and the people seeming to pass them by as just another part of their day.  Made me think of the number of homeless I had passed by in my home town over the years.  That compounded my guilty feeling as our driver was navigating through traffic to our brand new, state of the art office building. 

Bangalore Sidewalk Scene

Grand Canyon Sunset

If you want to feel small this next picture introduces you to that concept.  The picture is a trip back to the Grand Canyon.  This past summer marked a fundamental shift in my oldest daughter's view of visiting the national parks.  Here she is greeting the sunset at the close of the day.  The other reason that I liked this picture is that it shows that you can edit out six random people from the picture when they won't take the hint to move when you are taking the original picture.  Some people!

The Watchman Zion  NP

Of all of the national parks the Grand Tetons are my favorite, but Zion is likely my 1A park.  There is a reason that more than 3.6 million people visit Zion NP each year.  Zion includes my favorite hike (the Narrows) not pictured here.  Also contains the hike I couldn't complete (see last August blog post).  What I've included here is a picture of the Watchman mountain kissed by the setting sun and the trees in the foreground hugging the Virgin River for what little water is available in the desert.

Milky Way over Bryce Canyon NP

The next park in our summer visit was Bryce Canyon.  This picture I both like and regret.  I was standing on the rim of the canyon waiting for nightfall and star pictures.  It was then I spotted a photographer, with the largest tripod that I've ever seen lugged over his shoulder, headed down the trail into the canyon.  I watched from the top as he descended and studied where to stop on the switch backs in order to take the ideal picture.  He then setup remote lights that illuminated the hoodoos (hence the light in the foreground).  I should have headed into the canyon right then to take advantage of the situation.  Boy I wish I had, but rather I captured this picture from the rim.  The hoodoos are lit with the Milky Way high above.  It's an ok picture, but not what it could be. 

Due to the experience I created a new rule of photography life.  Rule number 47, if you see a photographer with a gigantic tripod, follow them.

I included this final picture from our hike back down the Angel Landings trail.  Alex was completely spent after scrambling to the top and Sarah was recovering from the disappointment of me not allowing her to hike to the top.  This picture reminds me of how genuinely happy they were.  No phones, no computers, no TV, it was as primitive as can be.  Well, primitive except for the camel back hydration packs, aluminum hiking poles and cool down towels.

 Just the two of them hiking together and talking,  Honest to goodness talking and laughing with each other.  Just a good day.

Angel's Landing Hikers

 So that is my baker's dozen of pictures from last year.  Hope you enjoyed them.