A Real Break

I'll be taking a little break from blogging for a while (I have too much on my "real life" plate these days.) Thanks for your patience!

My Friend's Site

If you want to be inspired by some fantastic giclee art prints of nature check out Art Prints America. Owner Vitaly Geyman has been traveling all over the world collecting some amazing floral, botanical and ocean images. The image shown here is bark of eucalyptus tree from an ancient Australian gum tree forest.

A Win

I recently rec'd news that my "Sun through Live Oaks" photo took Honorable Mention in Photographer's Forum magazine's "Best of Photography 2011" contest and will appear in the book of the same name. The book will be orderable via the magazine, if anyone's interested. Prints are also available at a reasonable price (as always.)

Blarg! (Updated)

FYI, our home internet access died completely on Aug. 10th and Wildblue (sucks) has no idea when someone can come to fix it. My only access right now is during my very brief breaks at work (so long as there's a computer available.) Bear with me!

(Update, Aug. 13, 2011; Despite Wildblue's statement that they had no service providers in our area--thus their willingness to leave us hanging indefinitely--I found one the next town over. They couldn't understand why Wildblue wasn't sending them the work order. When I spoke to Wildblue about it, they told me to go ahead and schedule with the local company, call back when it was fixed and they'd apply a $95 credit to our account for the service call. The company had us up and running by 7pm, bless them! When I called Wildblue back again, however, the new CSR said I'd been given "bad information." Basically they refuse to honor their agreement to credit our account. We'll be going on the AT&T waiting list at the very least.
Kudos to A Perfect Satellite in Covington, LA! Boos & hisses to Wildblue, not only for lying about the credit, but for leaving us without internet for days with no resolution and for being willing to leave us in that state indefinitely when one of their authorized companies is a mere 20 minute drive away. A Google search of "Wildblue sucks" provides about a half a million pages. The proof is in the pudding!)

Your Votes Needed + TNC Photo Contest

I recently entered some photo contests with great prizes for the top winners.

Please vote for my images here. You can vote for as many as you like, but only one vote per image.

Please vote for my entry here and pass on my plea to your friends and/or family. Everyone can vote once a day.

In other news, The Nature Conservancy's annual photo contest is also open for submissions.

Thanks in advance!

Hot Art in a Cool Space

Tomorrow I'll be at the reception for the 9th annual Hot Art in a Cool Space show. Many of my photos will be on display/for sale.

Details;
Saturday & Sunday, August 6 & 7, 2011, noon-6 pm both days.
Meet the Artists Reception on Saturday evening from 6–9 pm.
Purchase Original Art by over 30 Award-Winning Artists. The St. Tammany Commission on Cultural Affairs is pleased to present a Purchase Award at this event. The selected artwork will be installed in a government building as part of the St. Tammany Parish Public Art Collection.

Location: North Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, 28662 Krentel Road, Lacombe, LA 70445.

For more info, contact Barbara Shaw 985-882-7169 or 985-630-7685.

Hope to see you there!

Road Trip, Day 10 and 11; A Change of Plans, the Voyage Home

After dinner on Wed., May 16th, we decided that we were both pretty tired. Despite our plans to stop at Caverns of Sonora and a Japanese Tea Garden and the Zoo in San Antonio, TX, talk turned to going home. Looking over maps & recalculating things, I figured that San Antonio was about halfway home from where we were now, a 10 1/2 hour drive. We could get a hotel in San Antonio and drive the remaining 10 1/2 hours the next day. So we woke on Thurs., May 17th, had our complimentary, hot breakfast and hit the road.
Heading east through the Sierra Blancas in New Mexico, signs said the Lincoln Nat'l Forest was closed and extreme fire restrictions were in effect. Around Cloudcroft, NM we saw signs warning drivers about smoke and fire. Soon after we passed a large encampment of fire fighters on the side of the road. In and around Mayhill, we were saddened to see charred trees and earth all around. It wasn't until at least a week after our ret'n home that I found any news about it--the final update regarding the fire, which was still under investigation.

Outside of the New Mexico mountains and all through West Texas is a fairly flat, boring drive. We didn't pass much on the way back to the Interstate, bathrooms included. Charles asked me to pull over in one of the very few driveways along the road. I sat in the car, deciphering this message, at which I had to laugh. When Charles got back I deciphered it for him, pointing out the irony of his chosen stop; "If you use our road to pee, please take your T.P. with you."

Breaking up the monotony in Texas we saw some huge dust devils. This one's already dissipating. They were hard to capture with the camera.

We also saw lots of wind turbines in West Texas. These are much larger than they seem. During our drive we passed a transport truck with a single blade on the bed, extending well beyond the end of the truck. There's a shot of one on the page linked, above.

We stopped for lunch at some greasy spoon where Charles had a country-fried steak that was so huge you couldn't see the plate it was on. He said it was really good. It was super cheap, too.

By sunset we'd made it to San Antonio--halfway home. Charles had taken over at this point and said he was good to continue on, so we did.

I took over outside of San Antonio somewhere and got us past Houston (there were tons of cops all over the road!) Throughout the return trip, while one of us drove, the other slept. Charles took over somewhere around the Louisiana border and took us all the way home. So much for splitting that 21 hour drive home in half! We got in around 5:15am on Fri., May 18th. After living in hotel rooms for so long, our simple house seemed so huge! Our trip was very interesting and a lot of fun, but it sure was nice to be home.

Thanks to my friends and supporters for bearing with 2 months of posts regarding our road trip. I hope you enjoyed it!