Some new year thoughts

The day has arrived that will turn into the night
when the amateurs go out and gather with friends to
prove how much they can drink. We wish everyone a
safe night and that you remember where you parked
the car.

This year has been so good for us we hate to see it
end. But as with most endings there must also be
a beginning and as we face the new year we believe
it will be every bit as exciting as the current one.

If you are truly happy you understand that life doesn’t
come with a warranty. We are not guaranteed a happy life
nor saddled with a bad one. As long as you are breathing
only you have the ability to change the outcome.

Looking back over our year we found that I still miss Mom
and the wife misses her Dad. But thinking of them does not
make it a sad occurrence as we choose to savor the time we
got to spend with them instead dwelling on the grief of our
loss.

Long ago a wise man said: we lose ourselves in the things we
love and find ourselves there too. Although I like the adage
I wish it would have included something about keeping us sane.
When we’re doing something we love time has a way of getting
away from us and troubles slide off our shoulders.

And we’ve noticed over this year coming to an end, that too
many people are bashing what they hate when they should be
embracing what they love. Time would be well spent practicing
the later and forgetting the former.

So as we look into the headlights of the oncoming new year
here at Casa Cruiser we say, bring it on. Happy New Year!
Comments are always welcome.

Almost

On this, the day before the eve of a new year, we would
like to thank everyone who has stopped by and those who
have commented on our humble blog.

The picture above was taken with the same camera while
standing in the same spot as the other picture we posted
of this steeple. The more we play with this camera, the
better we like it.

Since we have returned to our little slice of Heaven
on the east coast of Iowa there have been two shots
fired calls and three arrests. Great to be home.

This year for us has been one big pleasant experience
after another that we hope will continue into the new year.
Reunited with family, reasonably good health, and a
granddaughter are a few of the highlights.

I took my first vacation in 14 years with the lady who
follows me around to mountainous areas of our country
I hadn’t seen before, and another year of wedded bliss
has past.

We expect a deluge of junk mail, robo-calls, and a lot
promises from candidates who want our vote. Most of
said promises won’t be kept and many of us won’t see
another politician until the next election cycle. As far
as we’re concerned, the elections can’t get here fast
enough.

Many make New Year’s resolutions they know they won’t
keep, the wife and do not. We just wish everyone good
health and happiness. If you can’t have that, and don’t
want to feel like a dog in pajamas, start looking for
something to blame it on.

And Happy New Year to all!
Comments are always welcome.

2015 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 28,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 10 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Nailed it

As I was fumbling to get the new camera together my oldest son
and his wife stopped by for a minute and dropped off a goody box
filled with all sorts of sweet and tasty things. Being homemade
just made it all the better. Thanks for the goodies, I hope we
weren’t supposed to save any.

After they left, with camera assembled and freshly charged battery
installed, we took some pictures. I took a few of the wife, she took
a couple of me, and I went outside to take a few. This is the
picture I like the best.

The church steeple in the background is three city blocks away
and I have been trying for years to get a picture that showed it
clearly. With my little camera the steeple was always burred or
not to be seen. The picture above is a color photo, it has just
been that dull of a day.

When I enlarged this one for a better a better look it spoke to me.
It had the depth I was wanting and the cloudy day just made it
better. The wife didn’t like the pictures I took of her and I didn’t
like the pictures she took of me, but we both liked this one.

I might even try it with a telephoto lens tomorrow. That said, we
hope you have your plug wires on in the right order and had a
great day too.
Comments are always welcome.

It got a little crazy

The trees look ready for Christmas after we got hit with an inch of freezing rain and sleet followed by 2 inches of snow. The picture was taken this morning as I shoveled open the end of alley and cleared the front walk so we could a newspaper and mail. As I gazed up the alley I realized some work was ahead to get it cleared to garage.

This picture shows just the sleet and before the added snow. Because of this little storm I came to the conclusion Dad was right when he said it takes him all day long to do what he used to do all day long. It’ll get done but it will be on my terms. It has to because we’re supposed to get more snow tomorrow.

I also ventured out and picked up my package and got a pleasant surprise. Turns out we are now the proud owners of Nikon D3300 DSLR camera. We are a little apprehensive to start playing with it as we’ve always had much simpler cameras. This thing came with 3 different lenses and 3 different filters and until we read the manual we have no idea what any of them do.

Once we get it figured out we’ll see if we can get some great pictures to share. Or come to the realization that we can’t take good pics. Since I only gained a little over a pound during our vacation and the wife isn’t saying if she gained weight, our New Year’s resolution will be to worry about more important things than how far the needle goes up on the scale.
Comments are always welcome.

We never knew

A friend shared something that got me thinking with all the calls of
racism today that seem to assault us on a daily basis. But are any
of these claims true? After reading what our friend had shared I at
least had to admit we are confusing a certain segment of our society.
See what you think.
——————————————————————-

When I was born, I was BLACK
When I grew up, I was BLACK
When I went in the sun, I stayed BLACK
When I got cold, I was BLACK
When I was scared, I was BLACK
When I was sick, I was BLACK
And when I die, I’ll still be BLACK

NOW, you ‘white’ folks . .. .

When you’re born, you’re PINK
When you grow up, you’re WHITE
When you go in the sun, you get RED
When you’re cold, you turn BLUE
When you’re scared, you’re YELLOW
When you get sick, you’re GREEN
When you bruise, you turn PURPLE
And when you die, you look GREY

So why y’all be callin’ us
C O L O R E D Folks!!!
—————————————————
Comments are always welcome.

Storm update

The weather service was saying up to a quarter inch of ice and have updated that to a possible half inch. Snowfall prediction has also gone up and it is raining hard at the moment. We did end up venturing out earlier as the lady who follows me around wanted to go the post office to pick up our mail. Driving was not the bad with hardly any other vehicles on the road. We also got a notice that UPS tried to deliver a package and couldn’t while we were gone. The friendly note left on our front door said we could pick it today at an access point which just happens to be a health food store not far from our place.

I decided to go tomorrow and find out exactly what is in said package. The only thing I know is that it is a package and it weighs 8 pounds. If I knew for sure it was cookies I’d venture out again today. A guy has to have priorities. In the mean time, here are a few more pictures of our trip.

So if we get bored with the rain/sleet/snow, we can look at these and remember what a sunny day looks like. Enjoy your day.
Comments are always welcome.

Goliath is coming

The wife and I were sitting around and talking over coffee about how we
out-drove winter storm Goliath. Later watching the news we learned he
wasn’t done with us yet. Today in Iowa we are going to get hit with sleet,
freezing rain, and snow. Early predictions are a quarter inch of ice and
3 inches of snow will fall before Tuesday morning.

But Goliath didn’t get the memo. We visited with Dad and got groceries so
we have nowhere to go that we can’t go to after the storm. We have salt,
the snowblowers gassed up, and winter gear has been rechecked and is ready
for action.

Our walks will be cleared, the alley will be snow free, and after we’ll sit
down for a another cup of coffee and a Christmas cookie. We do concede it is
a stubborn storm and we thought we’d seen the last of it, so bring it on,
we’ll take pictures.
Comments are always welcome.

The lone tree

We pulled into a rest area in central Nebraska and as I gazed out at what was behind the building I snapped this picture.

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

I wasn’t happy with how it turned out on my camera so when the wife joined me I asked her to get a picture with her camera.

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

I did this because the lone tree in the center of the picture is how I’ve felt at times. I don’t do fads, don’t follow the recent movies or watch the hottest TV shows, and I’m certainly not a fashion plate. So when I get invited to a gathering I feel like a fish out of water. It never fails.

Recently at one such gathering I was asked what I thought of the new Star Wars movie. I got some funny looks when I replied I hadn’t seen it and even more funny looks when I explained the last movie I paid to see was Love Story. It went downhill from there as someone asked my opinion of some talent show that they seemed to like. Laughter ensued again when I replied the last talent show I watched on TV was Ed Sullivan.

I glanced around the gathering and noticed men in dress slacks and shirts and women dolled up, and there I was wearing jeans and an ugly Christmas sweater. I held back a giggle thinking how silly they must feel. I don’t look at the food spread out on tables because I learned a while back that people who dress like that just don’t understand that you don’t know what you’re looking at.

I could go on but you get the point. That is why I had to get picture of the lone tree in a forest of other trees huddled together and looking identical. That lone tree stood alone and stood out yet signified to me that it is alright to different while still standing proud and strong. If we
ever pass that way again I will make a point to stop and see how the tree is doing.
Comments are always welcome.

More pictures

Here are few pictures, taken with the same camera, that we’ll share this morning.

Comments are always welcome.