Quagmire

Anyone who knows David will attest that he can talk up a storm. Come to think of it, sometimes he creates storms with his words! Wait a minute here--maybe that's where that saying came from. Anyway, the thing about David is he's so passionate about his field,  he assumes we all are. While just talking with him on the phone, he started in.  Like this word he used--quagmire--it's the perfect word to describe what a mess our economy is in. I've been lamenting everyone's misfortunes in this blog, as you well know, but I have no answers. I'm thinking no one does.

Now that I've got that off my chest, there's a few things I'd like to share with you that may be a bit more cheery, depending on how you look at them.

Growing up with a swimming pool, I couldn't wait to have one of our own. I LOVE to jump into the cooling waters on a hot summer day. To me, there's no better way to beat the heat. As such, I'm in the sun most every day, and horror upon horrors, I don't wear sun screen! The way I see it is that for centuries people lived in the sun, hot of course, but mostly never thinking twice about it. Well, they probably thought twice about it, but you get my drift. Do I go out in the middle of the day and stay there? No, I'm not that bad, however, if I feel like swimming I mostly go early or later in the day. My view is the sun is our friend, otherwise God would have used some other way to light up our lives. This article
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/health/27brod.html
makes some interesting points about our health now that everyone is afraid of the sun. Accordingly, because we've had so little rain this summer I may have stored up enough Vitamin D to last two years!

This morning while cleaning, my little Shuffle attached to my dress, I heard this catchy song from Jack Penates called, Let's All Die. How can that be catchy you ask? Well, I like the beat and you can dance to it...  Seriously, the more I hear it, the more I like everything about it. I was wondering about the song and came across this blog entry:http://www.theburningear.com/2009/07/jack-penates-advises-lets-all-die-but-read-this-first/
The world wide web is a pretty good friend as well.

If you can believe it, yesterday morning I woke up around 4:15. Hmmm......should I, or shouldn't I? I did. Yes, I got up, dressed, made tea, and gathered cameras and my bathing suit. Fortunately Baxter roused himself enough to go outside before I left. One less worry there. The Honda was gliding down our street by 5AM, headed to Cocoa Beach. The older I get, the less I like driving in the dark, however,  drive I did. The amount of both traffic and fog surprised me. Shooting beach pictures is harder than you'd think as I've probably indicated before. You need something beside the sky, sea, and sand. You need rocks, birds, clouds, great light, and if there is a structure in the picture that'll work as well. Arriving around six,  I decided to use the pier as my focal point. The thing about digital is that you hardly need patience anymore, something in short supply for me, because you can shoot all you like. I imagine if I were using a film camera I'd have waited exactly for the sunrise.A it turned out, the light before the sun rose was actually pretty great. Here's a little album with a caveat--apologies for the redundancy of some of the shots.


The other day I read a piece on NPR's website about a famous photojournalist who'd recently died. If memory serves me right (don't count on it!), he was the photo editor in Topeka, Kansas. Under his tutelage, his stable of photographers have gone on to win every major news journalism prize out there. So....what does this have to do with me? Gathering for a weekend memorial one of the photographers called him a "ruthless editor." That's what I need! Help wanted. It's just that the sunrise was so lovely.....

Ooops, I almost forgot to share something else. Forgive me if you're bored. On Monday I got out a Gourmet cookbook that has nothing but recipes with only five ingredients. I came across this salad and thought it might be worth a try. Worth repeating and repeating friends. If you are looking for something incredibly cool and refreshing, not to mention cheap and delicious, this is the ticket. I won't copy the exact recipe but tell you how I made it. Shred a few carrots on the largest hole of a box grater. Cut radishes into matchstick size pieces. Toss with lime juice and zest, sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle a little olive oil over it all. Stir it all up and prepare yourself for a taste sensation!


Heading out to capture a little Vitamin D now....have a happy weekend.