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 !

Thursday Sky

It finally rained. After months of no rain, the worst drought in Central Texas in the last fifty years, we got some rain. A full blown line of storms, actually.

Unfortunately, it all came on Isabella's birthday, so we had to change all the plans at the last minute, as it sometimes happen.

The storm, left us with a gorgeous sunset, ( passata e' la tempesta, odo augelli far festa ... )
so I grabbed my brand new Nikon D200 and headed out. Here is the result ...

Foglia

Life is a bit overwhelming right now, so as much as I wish to blog, too much else is on the plate.

Perhaps next week will settle down. Sorry.

Others blogs every day, but I can’t seem to pull that off and still attend to all the voices crying for my undivided attention.

My advice to myself (and to you for the next few days): Be at peace.

I leave you with a picture taken by my talented daughter.