Food Fight!

Photo Information

Taken:	27 November 2006 18:32 somewhere in Pasadena, Texas
Camera:	Olympus C200Z
Exposure:	ISO 200
	5.6mm, 0 EV
	f2.8
	1/30

Backstory

Kids will be kids. After putting up a good front for most of the evening, Jim and Roxy broke down at dessert. I don’t remember what it was, but it was red and had lots of icing, some of which graces the end of Jim’s nose.

It’s all fun until someone loses a limb. They both wound up wearing more of the desert than they got to eat. They seemed to have more fun that way, and it was better for their waist lines.

–10 April 2012

The House That Was

Photo Information

Taken:	13 June 2004 near Yorktown, Texas
Camera:	Olympus C200Z
Exposure:	ISO 141
	12.5mm, 0 EV
	f4.1
	1/500

Photo Information

Taken:	18 August 2006 13:52 near Yorktown, Texas
Camera:	Cannon Rebel XT / EF-S 18-55mm lens
Exposure:	ISO 100
	5.6mm, 0 EV
	f5.6
	1/400

Backstory

Long ago—before there was rural electric distribution—people used to live in this house. I never knew them, but Dad grew up on the farm “next door.” This house was the “Gus Turk Place,” named after the landowner. Dad tells stories of how he thought Mrs. Turk was his aunt. When he mentioned it to her one day, she replied, “I’m not?”

The Turks planted those walnut trees to give some shade in the summer. Dad was just a kid then. Now look how tall they are. I’m not sure when the water tank was added. It collected rainwater from the roof that the Turks used for bathing and drinking. Now, it’s a rusted-out hulk, too.

Anyway, I pleaded with him for years after he bought the place to preserve the house. But all he wanted to use it for was a barn. So deferred maintenance eventually took its toll. First, the roof started leaking. Then a large hole collapsed. Finally, the house was no longer usable even as just a barn.

Last year, Chris pushed the house down and buried it.

—25 March 2012

Volunteer Firefighters Battle for Their Neighbors in Granger, Texas

Photo Information

Taken:	November 2005 (embedded date missing) in the 400 Block of East Elm Street, Granger, Texas
Camera:	Olympus C200Z
Exposure:	ISO 263
	10.5mm, 0 EV
	f3.9
	1/60

Photo Information

Taken:	November 2005 (embedded date missing) in the 400 Block of East Elm Street, Granger, Texas
Camera:	Olympus C200Z
Exposure:	ISO 400
	15.7mm, 0 EV
	f4.4
	1/100

Backstory

I can’t think of anything more frightening than a fire at night. And yet there are men and women who volunteer to risk their lives to save their neighbors. That’s right. The men in the lower right corner who are struggling to contain the fire risked their lives out of the goodness of their hearts.

There was no way for them to put the fire out, short of letting it consume its fuel. Hundred-year-old pine burns too hot and fast. Standing more than a block away for no longer than it took to snap a few pictures of these heroes, my face got the equivalent of a mild sunburn. Imagine what these guys experienced as they fought the blaze for hours.

The fire destroyed the house in which it started and damaged the house next door to the point that both had to be bulldozed.

–8 April 2012

Pretty and Pink

Photo Information

Taken:	May 2005 at The Original Miss Kitty’s Fishing Getaway near Rockport, Texas
Camera:	Olympus C200Z / NA
Exposure:	ISO 100
	7.5mm, 0 EV
	3.3
	1/500

Backstory

This flower nestled against the chain link fence at the Original Miss Kitty’s Fishing Getaway near Rockport, Texas. X2 rented the place to get her family together for a week of relaxation one year. I wasn’t into blogging or journaling at the time, and the file dates have been lost, so I can’t get a better description of when than sometime in May 2005.

Anyway, the place was covered in lovely foliage. This flower was particularly eye-catching. Just look at those filaments! It made a pretty picture even with a little point-and-shoot camera.

–8 April 2012

Red Roofed Barn

Photo Information

Taken:	13 June 2004 18:36 near Yorktown, Texas
Camera:	Olympus C200Z
Exposure:	ISO 100
	12.1mm, 0 EV
	f8.1
	1/250

Backstory

I have always been fascinated by these old barns and their doomed struggle to stand against time. I love the color the wood turns as it ages unprotected from the elements, the differences between the sunlit and shaded sides. The metal roofs rust to dried blood. Their cool interiors beckon in the heat of the day. “Trust me,” they whisper. “I won’t crush you. Not today.”

And, indeed, it usually takes more than one pass of the bulldozer before they give up their ghosts. Eventually, someone offered to tear this old warrior down in return for salvaging the wood, which is in great demand for restaurants. So the next time you eat BBQ, you may be sitting next to the bones of this old barn.

Man Imitates Beast

Photo Information

Taken:	18 April 2003 16:59 near Kuna Yala Panamá
Camera:	Unknown digital
Exposure:	ISO 100
	9.6mm, 0 EV
	3.5
	1/200

Backstory

You’ve heard of art imitating and life and vice versa. This picture is the opposite of “monkey see, monkey do.” We were on our way back from a hard day at work, training Panamanians how to work in a Dell call center. The bus driver spotted this sloth—which he insisted was a “monkey”— and pulled over so we could see some native fauna. Aaron insisted on getting down on his hands and knees to mirror this languid Bradypus. The scimitar-like claws frightened some of the women who begged Aaron to leave the poor beast alone, but Aaron was undaunted. “He can’t move fast enough to hurt me.” Luckily, sloths are generally passive enough that we never found out if Aaron was wrong.

It’s possible that I didn’t take this picture, but I did take one that could be its twin. I had a whole flash card full of pictures get messed up in a river in Panamá, but some of the pictures survived. Those of us who opened the Dell call center in Cuidád Panamá shared many of our pictures, and this could have been taken by one of the others.

–27 March 2012

My Kind of Business

Photo Information

Taken:	25 October 2001 22:39 Cedar Park, Texas
Camera:	Olympus C200Z
Exposure:	ISO 400
	5.6mm, 0 EV
	2.8
	1/30

Backstory

The sign says it all—maybe not what the proprietor intended to say, but…

–11 April 2012