Wading through life

Just past the graveyard

I took this picture Sunday evening. I chased the sunset from the West Ave Dunkin’ Donuts past my apartment and to the corner of Springport and Sandstone. I was just about losing hope Springport would offer a view of the horizon when I came upon a graveyard that backed up a hill to a field. Though it’s hard to see in the picture, the field was littered with hay bales and rolls gently and is quite beautiful. It will be a good place to visit again sometime.

After watch Spider-Man 3 downtown Sunday afternoon (I plan to sometime blog about my Spider-Man 2 and 3 reflections after watching them both for the first this weekend), I took advantage of the amazing weather and walked around downtown Jackson for a couple hours. How my appreciation for it grew! It really is quite beautiful—especially on a day like Sunday.

I wish I had had my camera with me, but at the same time, it’s nice to just have memories of things sometimes—especially when you’re spending the time with the Lord. We walked and talked and just enjoyed the late afternoon. It was really good for my heart.

Lastly… be praying for me. I’m preaching at church this Friday evening. I’m really excited. I haven’t given a “formal” teaching since two April’s ago. I did a sermonette one Friday a few months ago and of course share quite a bit at the small group I lead. But, it’s nice to get these opportunities to share what the Lord’s be teaching me in a more official way… and brush up on my speaking / teaching skills while I’m at it. I hope to cut down on my usage of the word “like,” which I completely beat to death in April ’06. Saying “like” is about as bad as saying “ummm…”, which we all know is a public speaking no-no.

West-Virginia_156_bw

So, here are some pictures of our West Virginia expedition (that’s the gallery, this is the slideshow).None of them really represent what constituted the most exciting parts of our trip, which was rafting and biking. But, they do represent the leisure aspect of the vacation, which was probably just as important for me.

So, enjoy! Sorry there isn’t a bit more variety… and sorry I didn’t take my camera biking with me, because there were some really neat scenes along the trail.

I’ll post a bit more about the trip later…

Apartment Chaos

Since I’m a terribly infrequent blogger these days (I really hope to regain my voice and begin blogging more consistently, but I will promise nothing), I thought it would be good to update on something rather unimportant—my apartment.

I moved in nearly two months ago and couldn’t really afford to furnish it very well. My old roommate Scott graciously gave me many things that were collecting dust at our old house, my parents’ old table is still hanging in there and I bought a bed. But for the most part, it’s barren.

But that is all in the process of changing, thanks to a new job coming my way June 15.

Yes, that’s right. My days at Spring Arbor University are over. Sorry for not mentioning this when it was “breaking news” several weeks ago. The Reader’s Digest version is that a friend of mine at Foote Hospital, who will be my new boss, began recruiting me back in November for a Web job there. I interviewed there a few times in April and by mid-May, I had landed the job. June 1 was my last day at SAU.

The significant raise I’ll be receiving from my new employer is enabling me to by some much-needed supplies for my place. It’s getting kinda old not having a couch (yes, I could have bought a temp from Goodwill or something… I’m not complaining) or bookshelves. I’m weird in that I hate temporary solutions. I’m a do-it-once / do-it-right-the-first-time person. Therefore, my apartment has remained in a -just-moved-in state since mid-April. Though, I suppose my mindset would have been quite different had I not had this job prospect before me. I would probably have resolved myself to filling it up with local Craig’s List items.

So, I hope this chaos I’m living in with simmer down by mid-next week when my rug and couches arrive and I’ll truly be able to feel at home when I’m home.

Au Sable #113

Spent the weekend at the snow-ridden Au Sable Institute, which is near Mancelona, Michigan, but not near Au Sable, Michigan… in case you were wondering. I went up there with a dozen or two young adults from my church. It was a great weekend full of conversation, games, food, and firsts in snow shoeing and broom ball for me.

Not much went on photography-wise until my snow shoe adventure Sunday morning. The Lord dumped a couple inches of fresh power on the land over night and broke the clouds up enough to give me some good picture opportunities.

20 minutes in, I almost turned around and headed back to warm my frigid hands before taking any decent pictures. I was tiring of taking my gloves off to manipulate camera controls and swap lenses. But, I decided to push on and kept a bit more active to keep the blood flowing. When I passed through the wooded area onto the frozen lake, I actually got quite warm. The sun’s rays were bouncing all over because of the reflective white blanket of snow and absent shade.

So, this is my favorite of the bunch. It was one I had to wait a cold-while to get. When the wind would gust, it would knock snow from the branches and fill the air with a brilliant dusty glow—the sun’s back-lighting making it all possible. Back-lighting always makes for interesting exposure situations, as does a high-contrast frame.

This one also marks the importance of not just looking forward and sideways, but also backward, when hiking around for pictures. Turning around in snow shoes isn’t the easiest thing to do, requiring high, wide, awkward, precarious steps. But I had to utilize several 180s and some slowly-but-surely backward-stepping to line myself up for the proper frame.

See a few others in my Flickr gallery of the Au Sable trip.

Heavy burden

I may be way late with these, but I wasn’t to be left out of the Great Ice Storm Photoblog-o-rama. So, here are my contributions, uniquely mine in their own right. There is a rogue moon photo taken at dawn within a day or two of the ice storm pics. So, I just dumped it in with the others.

And if you’re wondering what the heck I have a picture of a gas grill in there for, I like taking pictures of paradoxes (is that the right word?), such as a uniquely summer-time thing such as a grill… but it’s draped with ice.
To see them, check out the slideshow of the other photos.