597 Days and as Political as I Get

Rachel is done with her 2nd year of college as of last week. It's going to be a much quieter summer here for us since she's decided to remain in Rochester working as a camp counselor at YMCA. We'll miss her but no doubt we'll plan a few trips south to see her for lunch and an afternoon together.

597 days. That's how much time remains in my career so says the countdown widget I'm using to track what's left of this phase of my life. I'm sort of looking at these days in groups of 100 as I work my way toward January 2nd, 2014. I'm under 600 and looking forward to my next milestone.

I don't post about politics too often here anymore but if this is to be a blog that I want to look back on years from now to see where my head was at, I do need to occasionally make mention of my thoughts.

I don't see myself ever again embracing the political beliefs of my past where I was an ardent Republican supporter. There's just nothing there for me anymore. I've never been one to follow a crowd but if I'm honest with myself, I have to admit that I let the insidious, shrill voices of talk-radio influence me and cause me to not truly think for myself for too long. I thank the previous Bush administration and their transparent disdain for workers' rights for causing me to reevaluate who it was I was supporting and the resulting shift in my thinking.

That's as political as I'll get here.

I actually had to mow my lawn in the rain last Tuesday afternoon. We'd been in such a rainy period and I got it in my head that I was going to do it no matter what when I got home from work. I had other yard projects planned for my weekend and this wasn't one of them; projects that were already rain-delayed from the previous weekend. Life in the suburbs can be so difficult at times!

I did manage to at least have some fun with my Garmin out there—something I've been meaning to do for a while. Here's a track of my progress. I can tell you that on this afternoon I walked 3.28 miles while mowing my lawn. The white area would be the footprint of our home. Yup—I'm somewhat of a geek and I don't shy away from that.

I spent Thursday reclaiming the landscaped area on the side of our home from weeds that seem to do better than the plants I'm trying to encourage. I took on a load of mulch at Friedges and got busy. It looks nice once again and I'm happy to move on to other projects; namely, planting flowers over the next few days.

Jackson, a friend of ours from Foci has opened his own glassblowing studio and we couldn't be more impressed with what he's done. Jackson, along with Steve has been so gracious in coming alongside us and giving us pointers along the way. We were both happy and sad to see him leave Foci. He had an open house at his studio on Saturday and we made sure our schedule remained open so we could attend. Jackson, Joe, and Kevin do some amazing work. We'd occasionally work alongside them at Foci and sometimes stop what we were doing just to observe.

We've been wanting to purchase some of Jackson's work for a while now simply because we think it's beautiful but also to support him in our small way. Mother's Day was one day away and I asked Tammy if she wanted to pick out a gift for herself knowing full well that I'd enjoy it just as much! How could I lose? She found a vase and some wine glasses that will be treasured by us for years to come.

Here's a little 3-D photo fun. To view the image below in 3-D, slightly cross your eyes until a composite image forms in the middle. Attempt to position the composite photo over one of the two original photos. When you've achieved the overlap the combined images should form a 3-D photo. Click on the image to view it in full size.



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