Coping With Heat and Virus Restrictions

So, what are we doing these days? It is hot, really hot, here in Gold Canyon. Not as hot as it will be mid-summer. But hot. Just look at this temperature!

In addition to the heat, there are the restrictions of Covid 19. Everything in our resort is closed. The swimming pool, the gym, classrooms, tennis courts and pickle ball courts. It is the same all across the country, I know. Some people in our resort are trying to make do. These people put up a rope or something so they could play pickle ball on one of the parking areas.

If nothing else works, how about arranging small rocks in front of your house?

We have been trying to clean up and pare down some of our files. I have used my iPhone to make digital images of thousands of the photographs we have accumulated. Many of the pictures are ones we have taken throughout our married life. We have pictures of our children over the years, pictures of our homes and friends. And many, many photos from our travels. In addition, we have many of the old photos from our parents.

I have finished copying them. Now, I have to put them into digital albums so we can find them if we ever want to.

We also have been trying to clean out old files. Here you can see some of those John has been going through.

I have been working on financial files. I don't have to keep everything, for ever. For legal reasons, 7 years of financial data is all that is required. We also have deeds to property we have bought and sold, as well as to property of our parents. The paper really accumulates.

We also have many genealogy files. I was surprised to find those had already been pared down. I didn't have to do anything there.

We are trying to put this time to good use. And so far, we haven't been bored. And when we die, our children will appreciate what we are doing. Their job will be simplified.

Odds and Ends #1

You have heard of horse whisperers, I imagine. They don't have any horses here at the Antlers Rio Grande Lodge and Restaurant, but they do have sheep and one goat.

John said he was a goat whisperer. Oh really? was my response.






























Now, every time we pass the goat and sheep pen, John has to stop by and say hello. And the nanny goat seems to talk to him, too. She even sticks out her head to be petted. Maybe he really is a goat whisperer.

We pass this pond several times each day as we come and go from our resort and as we take our walks. Often it is a beautiful reflecting pool.

Sometimes we see a mother duck and her three ducklings. You might try clicking on this photo to get a better look at these cute little ducks.

We drove to Lake City one day and when we were enjoying an art gallery, John pointed out this group of photographs. (Robinson is my maiden name.) Unfortunately, they are not my work.

Oh, To Be A Teenager Again

NOT But is was fun during the past week to participate in the preparations for the high school homecoming dance our oldest granddaughter attended last night. We had two sons, no daughters. So last weekend, I enjoyed sewing straps on Kylie's strapless dress. She had to try it on so we would know they were in the right place. She looks so pretty and grown up--until you look at the socks she is wearing.

Yesterday, we went to watch Kylie and two close friends have their hair fixed for the dance. Kylie's cousin Andrea loves doing that work. Here she is doing Caitlin's hair.

Mom Shannon started some of the curling on Emily's hair, then Andrea finished the job.

Kylie's hair was already done when we got to the house.

Here choice of footwear hadn't changed much during the week.

Kylie tried to take a picture of herself in the mirror.

Here are the three girls, ready to go have the pictures taken with other neighborhood high school freshmen.

The girls and their families all live in the same neighborhood and have known each other for years. Here is the whole group from the neighborhood.

We were impressed with how much fun these boys and girls (young men and women?) were having with each other and how well they cooperated with the parents and some grandparents taking the pictures.  They could be silly and serious.

Sometimes there was a mother or two doing the arranging, while younger brothers played in front.

The boys played some football when not posing.  You could hear warnings of (no grass stains) from the parents.

The photographers were very focused.

After all these young people left for dinner before the dance (with parents doing the driving), we we out for pizza with Eric, Liz and John.

We heard today that Kylie had a great time at her first high school dance.  Hopefully, the rest of high school will go as well.

A Lesson Learned

I learned something yesterday.  In fact, I learned several things.  We drove to Austin (something like 54 miles from here) and visited the Zilker Botanical Gardens and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  We both took cameras to capture what we saw.  I used my Canon PowerShot SX40HS, which takes great closeups.  John used our small, older, Canon PowerShot 260HS and his iPhone.

When we are being tourists, we both take lots of pictures which I then download into my computer.  From the many (many, many) photos we take, with lots of duplicate shots of the same thing, I pick out a few to use in my blog.  Because I can do exposure bracketing with my SX40HS (the camera will automatically take photos 1/2 stop either side of the setting that seems best), I often get 3 photos for every time I click the shutter.  Yesterday, I took lots of close-ups of flowers in addition to shots of the larger displays.  I knew I had a lot of editing and deleting to do last night.

After dinner, I downloaded all those pictures.  As always, when I was done, I picked up each camera again and deleted all the photos from the day.  That was a big mistake.  When I went into Picasa on my computer, I had all the photos John had taken with both his cameras.  But mine weren't there!!!  I spent a couple of hours rethinking everything I had done.  Where did I go wrong?  I'm still not sure.  I obviously skipped one step in the download process.

What did I learn?
     It is good that we both take photos, even if there are lots of duplicates.  That is a good back-up for human error.
     I must double check that the photos are  really on my computer hard drive before I delete them from the camera.

But these lessons are really common sense and minor.  As I think back to yesterday and to most of  the times that I take photographs, I realize that I am so focused on the camera and getting the right picture that I am not really experiencing what I see.  I intend to re-experience it when I look at the photos.  But I am really missing the actual experience that way.  I don't take time to appreciate what I am seeing, to let the pictures imprint on my mind.  I see only the camera and I don't see the event or location we are visiting until I get home and see it on the computer.  THAT IS WRONG! 

I hope I have learned the two common sense lessons about taking duplicate photos and double-checking my work.  But more importantly, I intend to really enjoy what we are doing and seeing--while it is going on .  The photos are an extra, allowing me to see it again and share it on the blog, they aren't the reason I am there.  I hope this loss of photos has taught me a little about how to enjoy the life we live, while we are living it.

How about you?  Is this what you experience?