"Clear."

- Zap! -

"... anything?"

So many thoughts.  

So many voices in my head, all vying for attention... if only they would settle down for a spell.  So much I want to say, but when I open my mouth, no words escape... 

"clear."

Why is this so hard? Thought sparks in the deep recess of my mind. Words are expressly chosen in a vain hope of  understanding. I open my mouth.  No words. Frantically, I struggle to retain the thought.  To that connection.  It is fruitless, as the inspiration fades like the memory of a dream, only to be replaced by another voice, another story, another feeling.  Another chance to connect, another opportunity missed. If only I could clear the voices, a moments peace.  If only I had the time.  If only I could rest, think... sleep. 

Just clear my mind.

"Clear.."

- Zap! -

...

- beep -

- beep -

- beep -

"We got 'em."

"where am I?"

"Vital signs are weak, but stable."

"That was a close one.  Welcome back."

The Taylor Times : First Edition

This isn't going to be a post about skiing, but there is a very high risk of avalanche... an avalanche of Taylor information. I won't delay the festivities with stories of other happenings.  Perhaps after, but first let's get right into The Taylor Times. 

Picture Day

A local photo studio came by Taylor's preschool for class pictures a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately it seems Taylor wasn't in the mood to cooperate with the whole process.  She came home with three pictures which accurately captured three of Taylor's often very creative facial expressions.  I won't post any of them here because they are group photos with her classmates, and it doesn't seem right to post pictures of other peoples children. Suffice to say if you've been following this blog you have seen the looks.  On the bright side, the people taking the pictures were able to see the sweet little girl hiding behind the scowl.  They offered us a free session at their studio to get some pictures of Taylor sans attitude.

Out of that session they gave us quite a few very cute thumbnail proofs. It was difficult, but after consulting with some interested parties, we narrowed it down to 5 pictures.  We got very few physical pictures, but I scanned them into the computer so we'll be able to print out multiple copies. Following are the pictures we selected.

This is my favorite for it's artistic flavor. We got a copy of it in 8x10 and hope to have it framed.

Passings, Parties and Personals

Pool Party!

Here’s the meat and potatoes of this blog installment.  Sometime around mid-July, I don’t recall the exact date, Taylor and I spent the afternoon having a pool party.  Earlier in the day while Taylor and Linda were away, I took the pool from its usual resting place on the back patio and moved it to the front yard.  The front yard being one of the few places around our house which boasts both grass and sunshine, seemed to be the perfect venue for a pool party.  I found a nice level spot and started the filling process.  While waiting for this task to complete, I retrieved her slide from the play area and set up at pools edge. 

Linda and Taylor returned from their outing just as set-up was reaching a conclusion.  Taylor was very excited to see her pool and slide in the front yard.  It took much convincing, but after a while Linda was able to shepherd her inside to get dressed for the pool while I finished up the final details.

90 Second Theater

We'll call this a quick and dirty intermediate blog update.  I've been currently working on a larger update (yes, I have been working on it), but during the review of raw footage I came across some video that gave me an idea for a side movie.  So, keeping with my normal laser like focus, I dropped my work on the larger movie/post and did a quick side job.  This is definitely new territory for me, at least on this blog.  Taylor gives her best performance to date...   It's a quick one, not called 90 second theater for nothing.

Well, that's about it.  Nothing a whole lot more to say in this space.  I will say that a lot has happened since my last update so this next post (assuming it gets done) should be chocked full of stuff.  Hopefully a little something for everyone?

editors note: Taylor has moved on from this harrowing experience.. It took all of about 5 minutes, just long enough for us to convince her that Morris needed to take a nap.  I apologize for no happy ending to the movie, but I had to relinquish my job as camera operator and don my "Mr. Fix-it" uniform.

The Good, The Bad and the Cuddly

Upon opening my email last week I came across a request for another blog.  My first written request. On one hand I felt bad having not done a post in a while.  On the other, it was nice to see that people (or at least persons) had missed my work.  I wanted to make a least one post a month on this blog; hopefully more, but at least one. Looking back my last post was at the end of April. It boils down to me missing one month.  All in all that's not too bad...  literally and figuratively I guess.

Seeing as how so many people told me to have a great day today, and since I've nothing pressing on my table at this moment (more on this later), I've decided to sit down at the computer and fill this blank space with something.  Not completely sure how much or exactly what yet.  I've got the rest of the day to find out.  Therefore, in celebration of adding yet another 365, in my astounding run of over 14,600 consecutive days existing, I'm going to spend the next few hours talking to myself...  I'll try to communicate the highlights of happenings since my last posting.

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