Happy New Year!

I'll be spending a quiet evening at home with my new wife, treating ourselves to some baked brie and enjoying a sip of wine. We might even ring in 2009.

The cardinal shot above is one of the many we got yesterday in Palo Duro Canyon. Below I've added a few more.

Tufted Titmouse

Tufted Titmouse

Female Cardinal

Golden-Fronted Woodpecker

Male Cardinal

Hairy Woodpecker

Here is a new one for me. This Hairy Woodpecker paid our back yard a visit after I filled our feeder up with sunflower seeds. He might have been checking it out. Might have just been there coincidentally. The hairy woodpecker is nearly identical in appearance to the Downy Woodpecker, but the hairy is larger, with a longer beak. The downy is the size of a sparrow, whereas the hairy is the size of a robin.



I've also been playing around with manual focus, trying to get good, clear shots of birds back in the array of branches of a bush. This sparrow was one of my successes.

Bitter/Sweet

This last week has been both sweet and a little bitter. Saturday, I received the perfect wife as a gift from God. That was "sweet". For our wedding, my son couldn't make it, nor could he apparently send a card or anything. That was a little on the "bitter" side. Admittedly, he lives quite a ways away and genuinely might not be able to make the trip. However, simply acknowledging the event would be nice. Am I petty for wanting to see something in the mail (electronic or regular mail) from him? Is 42 cents too much to spend to send a 50 cent card from the Dollar Tree? Or even a quick note by Email?

Today is Christmas Day. We had a nice quiet Christmas dinner with all the trimmings - just my wife and I. It was great! We gave each other some awesome gifts and had a great time. I've gotten something from most of my family - be it a just a card, or a package in the mail. That was "sweet". I got nothing from my son. He didn't even call. I called him a little while ago. He seemed a little preoccupied, but that was kind of understandable I guess - being Christmas and all. One of the things that bothered me is that he didn't say anything about the 11x14 photos I sent them in a 16x20 frame. No mention if it got there in one piece or not. I had to ask. When I did, he offered that he really liked one of them, but never once did I hear the words "thank you". Not even the one word "thanks". Nothing. Will something show up late? Maybe. The number of disappointments of the past indicate that there will be nothing.

I try to go out of my way to make sure I catch every special day in their family - birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, etc. I've never missed one. I try to send gifts, but can't always. I always send cards, regardless. I let them know I think of them.

Am I wrong to feel the disappointment, and a little hurt to boot? It's not easy to fight off encroaching bitterness. Maybe he harbors some resentment towards me for leaving him to put up with his mentally ill mother. If he does, I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do about that. It's up to him to clear that hurdle. I have every right to be alive and happy.

The Best Christmas Gift of All!

Here is my best Christmas gift. Nothing can out-do this one. I received it early - on the 20th. This gift came from God Himself.


(Photo by Steve Douglass)

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Wedding Day - IMG_2080

Wedding Day - IMG_2080
Originally uploaded by HighPlainsDox

This morning I was greeted with a gift when I looked out our front door. It only lasted moments, but enough of those moments to allow me to capture some of it before it vanished. As photography goes, it isn't much. It marks the beginning of a very special day.

Hope and Emotion

Hope

I am hoping that some of my family will be able to make it down for our wedding. I communicated with my brother today, and although things are not really rosy in their part of the country, they may be able to come down. Hopefully, at least 5 of them (mother & husband, brother & wife, sister) will be able to car pool and split expenses and make the 12-14 hour trip.

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Emotion

I've been thinking about our stock market lately. We've had some wild swings in its prices for a while. The conclusion I've come to is that the market is run by emotion: fear that [something] will happen, fear that housing will do [whatever], fear that oil will do [whatever]. If fear consumes the investors, they will sell and prices will drop. The media will confirm this. Pay attention to market reports. Listen for words like "fear", "worry", etc. If hope or elation fills them, they will buy and prices go up. It seems that very little has to do with actual business conditions or a tangible belief that a company has a future by virtue of its product or service.

Ideally (IMO), investors should invest in (and support) businesses/corporations that they believe can be successful on the merits of the respective business. Must they engage in emotional buying and selling in a desperate attempt to make a lot of money? The stock market was never intended to be a short-term money-making endeavor. It was never intended as a vehicle for high-stress panic buying and selling. Its reason for being is to help a business grow by allowing investors to help supply capital towards that end. If our markets were to return to its roots and not run by an emotional crap-shoot, it would be in much better shape. But then, our government would have to get out of the way and not force businesses to make stupid decisions, and at the same time allow irresponsible ones to fail.

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Emotion is the fuel for another of our country's engines: Politics and political elections. I don't recall any election (and I've seen quite a few) that wasn't run like the stock market - on emotion. Far too many people fail to vote with their brains. They vote with their hearts, according to what "feels good". Candidates always try to appeal to emotion, because that is what voters use most. Because it's driven on emotion just like the stock market, its results are just as shaky.

We need to start fueling our nation's engines with brain power, not emotion. It's very similar to drugs. People do drugs because they make them "feel good". They become trapped by them, enslaved by them - all for the desire to feel good. The same is true for the market and the government. Invest and vote with your emotions, and they will bite you.

As a nation, let's let our brains be the driving force, not our emotions.


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Overcharged

One day last week, I took Shelley to a nice local restaurant. We got some really good service and the food was great - as it always is at this particular place. Had a great time.

This evening, I checked my bank account against my check register and found a discrepancy. The entry for our night out was $10 too high. Thirty five dollars was all of a sudden $45. I called the restaurant and talked to the manager, and he told me to come down to get it straightened out. He said if one of his people are stealing, he'd fire 'em. When I got there, he went into his office and made a print-out of the credit card transactions that day. The entry for our meal showed a $14 tip! I have never, ever left a tip that high. That was almost the price of one meal! As it turned out, a $4 tip somehow came across as much more - as if somebody "accidentally" put a "1" in front of the 4.

I told the manager that I would hate to see anybody get fired, and asked that if this employee has never been a problem before, to show some mercy - but at the same time, I understood that he had to do what's best for his company. I am convinced that he will check it out before taking action, as it could have been an honest error/type-o, or whatever.

The end result is that they take care of their customers. They made it right with me, at a generous rate of twice the error. I put up a little bit of argument, as it was not necessary to refund more than the erroneous amount. He insisted because of my inconvenience and having to make the trip, etc.

Always be sure to keep accurate records when using a credit/debit card for purchases. Up until now, I have shredded all my card receipts to prevent ID theft. Now I will keep them until I confirm the amount with my bank. Online banking is a blessing.

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President-Elect Obama

Election 2008 is over. Obama has won. Now all we can do is wait to see what he will do for (or to) America and its citizens.

Many say that this is a historic time - and it is in a sense. It is only historic in the sense that he is the first black President that we've ever had. That's where it stops. He is no god, nothing really remarkable. His qualifications and accomplishments are actually quite unremarkable - unless being a "community organizer" is all it takes to be the leader of the Free World. It sounds like an extremely lackluster qualification to me. Even one who incites a riot can be considered to be a "community organizer". The term has no meaning. Be that as it may, we now have a black president-elect - regardless of how or why he received so many votes. But should it be a historic moment?

If we were truly color-blind as Dr. Martin Luther King wished, and didn't judge people by the color of their skin, he would be "just" another president-elect. This should not be anything "historic" because he is just another man. His skin color should not enter into it. Why so much emphasis on it? It doesn't make sense.

This Republican does as Dr. King wished. I judge people by the content of their character, and not by the color of their skin. I have seen little in the content of Obama's character that gives me the warm fuzzies. I have trouble trusting him. However, we have no choice at this time but to give him a chance. Admit it or not, he will be the President of The United States of America. If this is your country, he will be your President - the leader of our Country.

I personally have little faith in his ability, but I am willing to give him a chance. As I said above, we have no choice at this time. If he fails us, we have telephones to contact Washington with. We have Email. We have Congressmen. We have mouths. We need to use them. We have the power. Washington gets their power from us, not the other way around. The only power they have, is what we allow them to have.

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Tyco

The brightest crater on the moon is by far Tyco. Normally, it is the brightest spot on the full moon. It's so bright, it's hard to get any detail in it without significantly darkening the rest of it. This shot shows Tyco in all its glory and detail. It's the prominent crater at the lower left of the moon in this view, and appears to have spokes spanning across the moon's surface.


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Moon Fix

I had to get my "moon fix" last night. Here's what I saw.


I love how crater shadows set it off.

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