Striving for Balance

Today's topic for PhotoHunt is "Balanced".

I decided to go with this shot of the head of a carving that is in my home. While I am not a practicing Buddhist by any means, I do recognize that many of the tenets of that belief system have positive real world outcomes for many people....including the idea of reaching a balance in your life.

Mom's surgery

Good news so far. Mom's surgery went well, or so they tell me. There was a little bleeding problem today and one bought of very low blood pressure...but Dad says that all is good now. I spoke with her by phone this afternoon. She seemed to be in good spirits, although that could be the pain meds.

Pea Soup?

Haw Creek was covered by duckweed and looked like pea soup!

A tree had fallen across the creek and caused the duck week to build up behind it, rather than floating on down. The result was about 200 yards of greenery on the creek.

It looked nasty, but was easy to paddle through.

Did you enjoy the previous furlough? Want more?

Bibb school employees facing furloughs again

Well, the link above says it all. Looks like we will be spending another week at home unpaid. It sucks, but I know that we are still doing so much better than a lot of other people who have lost their jobs. Although the story in the link indicates that the school board hasn't yet approved the proposal, I am fairly sure that they will. The budget simply demands it.

Snow Pics from Dad

Dad sent me a few photos of the snow at his house. Looks to be about 3 or 4 inches. Dad says his woodpile is really going down with the constant fire burning in their stove. Fortunately, he has enough wood to get well into next year already cut and split.

The Days of Summer are Gone

Alas, the days of summer are but a fleeting memory. Gone are the flowers. Gone are the butterflies.

But all too soon, they will return again!

Toothy Smile

Everyone smiles for the camera...even an alligator!

Lil Blue Heron

The Mud Pit

One of the more memorable events on the Florida trip was the mud. Although it was sunny for most of the days, we did get one night of rain, which turned a bit of Bob and Suzanne's field into a mud pit. I think a total of 5 or 6 vehicles got stuck in it on Thursday and Friday. The big pile up was on Friday morning when Bob Scheider was leaving and his van got stuck. So Marty took his 4 wheel drive truck to pull him out...except that he just went down to the axles on all 4 tires. So it was my turn to try to pull people out as the rain continued to fall.

With everyone's help, we pieced together a plan and a very long tow rope which allowed me to pull Bob's van out easily, and then to pull Marty's truck out. We then all got behind Marsha's car as it was pulled out of the field...only to get stuck before crossing the boggy part. So, it was one more car that I pulled out. Amazingly, Cindy and Bonita just drove across it like no problem!

Everyone got so wet, that most people decided to take the day off from paddling as so we dried off by going into town for a late lunch at Bob Evans.

Thanks goes out to Cyndi for these pics.

Returned Home Safe Last Night

After a long drive, we made it back home from Florida just before dark and the temperature was dropping fast. Just enough time to get the canoes put away and the junk hauled into the house.

The trip was a great one. Pics are on my facebook page now, more to be added later...and I will probably post those here over the next few days.

This was how we saw things when we awoke the first morning in central Florida....frost on the ground! We didn't have power, so didn't run the heat in Bonnie's camper and it was about the same inside as out. Brrrr!