Sunrise

Saturday morning I was awakened by a dream at 4:09 am. I arose, quietly dressed, and sneaked out of the house for a sunrise walk.

I walked a mile to the bridge over the Iroquois River.

There I stood in the center of the bridge and took a panoramic view.

When I photoshopped these pictures, they got lighter, but also got pretty grainy.


Unseen and thus escaping capture by the camera, what's missing from this scene are the birds singing their praises in the light of the dawn.



The nearby farm seemed to capture the essence of the morning. See the grain bin and mists on the field beyond.

The plants in the background look out of focus, but actually, they are *not*. Even in real life, they had this fuzzy, out of focus look to them. The stalks of the plant were surrounded by fuzzy shapes, causing some sort of optical illusion.
The mist is slowly lifting...
I can see the way ahead ...
And I've left behind the empty streets that once inspired my life...
... love eternal will not be denied ...

Stylin'

John has a new hair style. He's pretty tickled with it.

John scoots.

Emmalee scoots.

Summer Storms

These majestic and ominous clouds moved very rapidly from the western horizon on Friday night.

The pet store

Can you tell what our girl is holding? It's an adorable little critter!

It's a sweet little.... baby skunk. An exotic pet store near us has them once a year, only in June. I met a lady with a couple of them riding in her cart at Petsmart a few months ago. As a pet, they're kind of a mix between a cat and a ferret. You can litter train them and they're very fun, inquisitive and active. And also gamey. Despite being de-scented, they definitely have a strong body odor. (Mom noticed the burning candle hidden on a nearby shelf). Nevertheless, the skunks really are very cute.

John enjoys his one on one time with a baby skunk.

Emmalee walked all over the store carrying her new little friend. She had a hard time putting it down.

Nap time for about 7 or 8 baby skunks (who can tell?)

Both kids also held geckos and baby king snakes. We also got to see and pet a Kinkajou. (Just FYI, in case you're ever interested in getting a kinkajou as a pet, startup costs are about $10,000. No kidding.)

Emmalee holds yet another baby friend - a gecko.

Emmalee gets up close and personal with an alligator. One of the things this pet store does is rescue alligators that have been dumped and place them in an animal refuge. (They just placed a 6 foot American Alligator in a refuge earlier this week. He'd been in their store 5 years while they raised funds for it.) The three they currently have were given up by their owners after they got too big. But the store owner told us the DNR pulls about 15 alligators out of the nearby river every year. Yeeks.

Today was a big day for Emmalee. It was her first time to go down The Blue Slide at the water park/pool by our house. It's a very tall flume-like slide that's VERY fast. She's been waiting for at least two years to be big enough to go down that slide. This winter, she hit the coveted "48 inch" line - the height requirement not only for riding The Beast at King's Island, but the big slides at our aquatic centers too. So today was a big deal - the fulfillment of a dream. She's been talking about it since we measured her on her birthday last November and found she would be tall enough come summer to ride that slide! Emmalee is the small figure on the left waiting her turn at the top of the slide.

Emmalee's very happy face after her first ride on the blue slide. The water was so very cold that she was afraid she wouldn't be able to handle riding the slide today. But she decided to grit her teeth (literally) and go for it. Her conclusion: "That was TOTALLY worth it!"

The water was cold, but the kids were unanimous in their opinions of the slide - AWESOME!

Emmalee does the The-Blue-Slide-is-Totally-Awesome dance.

Just for Daddy

My daughter created this work of art and gave it to me for Father's day.

The picture goes into a "create-a-mug" which is a plastic mug that holds paper or other decorations to make a custom mug.

She pulled the kitchen stool out to the garage, and studied her mom's Magna. Mine was not available for modeling since I had ridden it to work. She carefully copied the myriad of tubes and wires that comprise the engine.



You can see the detail on the tank including the Honda Flying Wing logo.



She embellished the "A" in "HONDA" to give it wings as well.



And the wheels are stylized with an idea of her own ... holes instead of spokes.



The only trouble with this whole arrangement was that after she had created this masterpiece she could hardly contain herself. She could barely hold back giving it to me right away, and it was only Tuesday.

Her conversations drifted toward hints about my gift. She casually engaged me in conversation about my Harley mug at work. She knew that folks see the mug and ask me about my Harley, only to discover that I don't have (nor want, at present) a Harley.

This line of questioning and conversation let me know what she had done for me, but we waited until Sunday for the unveiling. She was so happy to present it to me.

I haven't taken it to work, wanting to post this blog entry about it first. She sees it on my desk at home and asks, "When are you going to take it to work? Are you still drinking from your Harley mug?"

Illustrations

John's project during church - a mini etch a sketch drawing of Calvary. He also built a Lego version of it too. It's the John version of staying engaged with the lesson.

Summer tradition?

A motorcycle ride, first to church, then to the park in Fortville

Emmalee finds the deepest part of the stream

John looks for crawdads In the creek

Mulberry Stained fingers

John picks mulberries at the park

Emmalee, John and Daddy play at the park on a sunny Sunday. The rain caught us later on the motorcycles on the way home. We only got a little damp though, and it only added to the adventure

Happy Father's Day

Another John illustration ... for Father's Day. The motorcycle is wonderfully detailed ... and yes, it is launching vertically. It hit the ramp and is now flying straight up.

I love the rider, tongue out, helmet flying off.



This picture has what seems to be a signature of John's illustrations, the bird flying overhead, surveying the scene, wondering what is going on.


And there's a wonderful expression on this dude's face. The thought balloon requires some explanation.



The story goes, I bought an after-market seat for my motorcycle, because the stock seat hurt my back. I was looking for something with low back support.

When I bought the new seat, Carolyn asked, "Does it give you the low back support that you were looking for?"

I said, "It does. Well, really, it's more 'upper butt support' than 'low back support'..."

The kids, hearing this conversation, laughed aloud. Whenever we talk about motorcycles, motorcycle seats, riding motorcycles with a passenger, riding motorcycles with luggage, riding motorcycles long distances .. whenever that stuff comes up ... we invariably get a laugh about "Upper Butt Support".

John worked that into his illustration.



He was drawing the motorcycle, and Carolyn noticed he was drawing a Harley-Davidson logo on the tank. She gently suggested, "You know, Daddy actually probably prefers Hondas to Harleys..."

John gave it some serious thought, and said, "No, I want to draw what I want to draw."

Carolyn said, "Okay."

Gotta love that independent spirit. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Space: 1888

I'm no cartoonist although I really enjoy the single-panel cartoon format of cartoons like "Far Side", "Speed Bump", "Bizarro", etc.

I've been enjoying watching that 70's era science fiction TV servies "Space: 1999" with the kids. Reliving my own childhood.

I dreamt up a goofy spinoff concept -- combining space and time travel. "Space: 1888".

I drew a space-faring donkey pulling a conestoga wagon.

I showed it to John. It won't win any awards, but watching John's face when I presented it to him was priceless.

I deadpanned it. A completely serious, expressionless look on my face as I showed it to him. His eyes fell on the picture, then went back to my face -- hoping my expression would give him a clue. He studied the picture some more, then back to my face again. 3 times.

He wasn't sure what to make of it.

Finally his face broke into a broad grin. He laughed uproariously.

"I like it!" he said.

Liberty County Courthouse

The old county courthouse at Liberty. On Liberty's town square was a Father's Day Car Show, which enticed us to stop as we returned from our camping trip.

Father's Day Car Show

The monster truck was popular with the kids, who liked being able to stand up underneath the body of the truck.

Car Show

John admires the motor on a shiny black Mustang.

Hueston Woods

The stately State Park lodge at Hueston Woods. We didn't stay at the lodge but the kids did enjoy touring it; it's an impressive building. John wanted to climb the beams inside and out of the massive A frame.

John and Emmalee pose by the lodge at Hueston Woods. We camped after this year's family reunion.

Happy day. Summer at Dairy Queen.

Dessert

Pickles and whipped cream for dessert. the fact that it grossed out the parents made it all the more appealling.

This was our "new" camper on its way home one cloudy day in April. We stopped by Aunt Carrie's because she'd been good enough to take Emmalee while I transacted business with the owner of the camper - who happened to live just a couple miles away. It's a new and exciting chapter in our lives - full of hope, possibilities and newfound freedom. It's a very happy day.

The camper has already seen its first trip with us to Turkey Run. It was just as much of an escape and as full of the thrill of a new frontier as we'd hoped. John's quote about Turkey Run was "I've been looking all my life for a place I'd like to stay all my life, and this is it."

And this is only the beginning...

Emmalee loves her Daddy.

John worked hard to create "Extreme Hopscotch". It's hopscotch, combined with a maze, combined with pools of lava and deep holes into the earth. The red you can see is the lava. The hopscotch maze extends far beyond this picture. He created it on the driveway at our friend's home. All the other kids thought it was the coolest!

Ice Cream

Chalk drawings by the kids, of themselves, buying ice cream from the ice cream truck. they can hear the music from a mile away.