Ah, the beauty of a photo ...

My daughter, Francesca is 16, and she just came back from a two weeks trip to China.
Off course, being the shutterbug she is, she went with a camera, and came back with oh, let's say about 1000 pictures. I haven't seen them, yet ( she is jealous of her shots ) but some "leaked out" and I was able to grab this one:

My guess is that we will never know what they were looking at and why the adorable little girl was covering her face ... maybe something she saw many times, and she was like : "Oh, no, grandmother, not here again...!" The sure thing is, her expression and body language are priceless.

The lady with the girl ( grandma, mom .. ? ) seems quite amused at the sight of .. whatever it is ..
I need to ask Francesca what they were looking at...

Frankie took a compact camera with her, it almost fit in her hands, and so she was able to take many "street candid" shots, some of them are quite interesting.

More soon.

Be well.

I am back ( again )

July 24th to September 29th .... how long is that ?

There is definitely a number that you can attach to those dates, and for those of you of mathematical personality, I will tell you, it is 68 days.

In Internet or blogging time, it is an eternity. I almost feel like I should start all over, but then again, I ask myself, why ? I think I got something here, it's good. Not perfect, but good.

And, as the movie quote goes, " everybody loses a couple, but you either pack up and go home, or you keep fighting" or my other favorite quote, from the same movie: " You don't throw away a whole life just 'cause it 's banged up a little."

Recovering from the wreck has been a *lot* harder than I ever expected.
Physically and mentally.

I was gone from blogging for a long time, simply because I didn't care, and it didn't make much sense to me, considering all that I was going through.

Until a friend ( a blogger, mind you) told me that blogging is better than therapy, 2nd only to gardening... Hmmm, there was an option for me that I didn't even consider. Central Texas has been in such a state of drought for a long time that gardening is a thing of the past, so blogging (again) could actually be something I should try. Now it started to rain, so gardening is an option as well, but blogging ... I really like it. I don't know the direction this blog will take in the next few weeks, but if you read me, leave a note.

Some friends came in yesterday from Italy, and they brought a *fresh* Corriere della Sera, still with that smell of Italian newsstand that you know only if you grew up in Italy...



















So, this morning, I enjoyed an ancient Italian ritual: early morning newspaper, and espresso.

Oh, yes, even in the mist of adversity, finding small joys in little rituals, helps.

See you tomorrow.
For real.

Steel - Acciaio

Just few miles west of Austin, on Hwy 29, immediately before the small town of Fredricksburg,
on the right, one can see this amazing view.

A bull of steel. It's the entrance of the "Benini Ranch" a "ranch" of artists, they often have art shows, and things of that nature. The bull itself is full life-size scale and is just amazing.

I had no choice but to stop and click.

There is more here.
(click on the picture for a better view)

Still recovering

Well, I am still here. Recovering from spine surgery, with a neck brace on 24/7 and painkiller at close proximity.

After the car crash, I went to a neurologist for a visit, since the pain in my back, neck, left shoulder, arm and leg, was getting really bad. To make it short, after a sequence of MRI, CT scan, and X-ray( I was glowing in the dark!), three different doctors, concluded that I had three cervical vertebrae fractured, C5, C6, and (barely) C7. The neck collar was not going to be enough, and immediate ( as in urgent) spine surgery was a must.

So I went in, on July the 15th, and came out the next day, and right now i am at home, recovering. Depressed, groggy, plain old grumpy, with a gorgeous scar on my neck.

More tomorrow, I will do my best to post something FUN, UPlifting, and bright ! Promise !

vdp

CRASH

It happened. One of those unavoidable, sudden, life changing, painful events in life.
A car crash. Rather bad one too. Car is a total loss, we are hurt but a lot less than what "could have been".

June 19th, 2009, Friday afternoon, Highway 53, East of Temple, Texas. On my way home from the kid's camping trip, with Isabella and other friends. It was a caravan of cars, all friends from church.

From the opposite direction, an incoming car, suddenly jumps into my lane, I try to avoid it, it hits my car in the left side, my car gets thrown off-road, in the ditch, and rolls. I have no recollection of how may times we rolled. According to the State Tropper, from 4 to 6 (!!)


Remarkably, of all 5 kids in the car, and me, there are only few injuries. One girl has two broken ribs, bruised lungs. My daughter has bruises all over her face, I am beaten up like a steak, left arm, back, shoulder and hand VERY painful and sore, not to mention thorn muscles and other parts of me that hurt all over.
But we are all alive.

That's it for now, typing hurts and this is all I can do. (click on the pictures )



Be safe,

Summer, scorcer, heat.

It's summer, down here.
Hot, skin peeling, scorching, sweaty humid, Texas summer.
This weekend we should reach 107 Fahrenheit ( about 40-41 Celsius) and it just rained 2 inches of rain, with one of those Texas hail storms, with 1 inch 3/4 of hail, wind, thunder, the whole nine yards. And now, it is even hotter than before the storm. And it's almost midnight.

It's the time of the year when one learns quickly that form of art that is driving with one or max. two fingers, since the steering wheel is so hot that no way one puts the whole hand on it.

When you walk in the parking lot, you actually think "if I fall down, I will stick to the asphalt ... "

In Texas, summers are hot, and long. There is, however, one small revenge, for us humans.
It's called "Ice Tea" and it is THE official drink of Texas, trust me.

Ice tea is everywhere, in Texas, during summer months. Any restaurant without Ice tea in the menu, might as well close right away. And it must be huge, tall, glasses, overflowing with ice, frosted on the outside .... hmmmm I can feel it now. And off course, free refills.

Few years ago there was a candidate for the office of Governor of Texas. I can't remember his name, actually his ideas were quite good, but he had one great proposal.

If elected, he would have proposed an amendment to the Texas Constitution, and make it so that during the summer months, it was a constitutional right, for every citizen of the great Lone Star State of Texas, to have a free glass if ice cold tea. Big one, mind you.
Unfortunately , he did not became governor, so we still pay for our ice teas.

Oh, well, maybe next time.
In the meantime, be well, and stay cool, and have an ice tea on me.

For Shutterbugs only.

OK, I know, I have been missing in action for ... ever it seems. Life has gotten very complicated, but things will get sorted out, they always do.

I wanted to let all my followers [ both of you guys .. ;-) ] know that a Facebook friend of mine, photographer ( a real one, not a goofball like me ) is a member of NAPP , and is currently giving away some great stuff that any shutterbug would love to have

Click here, check it out, and good luck.

As usual, I will leave you not empty handed: my wife's sister-in-law daughter, is a perfect target fro a camera. She is just just adorable !