People

Navigating A Mine Field

At our youth group meeting this evening we had a team-building exercise. Teams of two people had to navigate through a mine field. One of the two was blindfolded, the other had to give verbal instructions to get them through. Of course, the “mines” were just paper cups, and just as well. Some made it, others were not so lucky. After most of the kids had participated, two pairs of adults gave it a try. The last to go was Bob, who was led through the course by Sokho. The kids rearranged the cups between each run and they decided to put a lot, close together at the beginning of the course.

There were not many spaces where his feet could fit, so Sokho had Bob inch up to the cups and then instructed him to jump three feet, landing with his feet about two feet apart. As it turns out he landed a bit short of the open space Sokho was aiming for, but, as you can see in this picture, he landed quite amazingly between the cups. Actually, his left foot grazed a cup and it slid about an inch from his foot. That’s what Shelly is pointing at. Still, it was quite remarkable.

Abbie and Jack

We’ve met quite a few new people lately and these two have been a bit part of it. Jack, on the right, was in Dorothy’s class in middle and high school. As it happens, he is dating Abbie, on the left. Through Jack, Dorothy and Abbie met and became quite good friends. Through Dorothy, of course, we met Abbie and after a while, her parents. Finally (well, so far) we have met many of those involved, in one way or another, in a church planting effort that Abbie’s dad is working on. I can’t really say he’s in charge, because too many things outside his control have come together in just the right way. We certainly don’t know where it is leading or what our small role might be, but it’s interesting and a little exciting to be a part of it.

Julia and Cathy

Yesterday and again this evening we had our young friend Julia over to help me do some organizing in our basement. Quite a while back we had work done in our basement that required we move everything away from the walls. If you have an unfinished basement then you know that usually the idea is to have everything against the walls, so that basically meant everything had to move. Because it’s an unfinished basement and we don’t spend much time down there, we haven’t put a lot of effort into getting it back to the way it was. Well, that was our task for the last two evenings. It’s not completely done but much better than it was. Of course, it was terrific to have Julia over and after working and having dinner, we all had a good time visiting. Both evenings I took a few silly pictures. This is actually the least silly of them all.

Lucia

After a little over a month off, our youth group started meeting again this evening. I’ve seen most folks in the interim but not nearly as often and it was good to be back together. Naturally I took a few pictures. Now that I’m not leading the time, I have a bit more freedom to take pictures. It’s nice to be able to simply show up and go with whatever has been planned. This is Lucia, one of our middle-school girls and a rising star (not to mention being terrifically photogenic).

Self-Portrait

We live in the age of the ‘selfie’ and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Oh, I suppose it’s mostly harmless but it does have a strongly narcissistic feel. I’m not a big selfie taker but even in the days of Leonardo, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh, self-portraits were a thing. So, once in a while, I think.

Anyway, I happened to see a portrait of this type and thought I’d give it a try. I’m not sure how well I like the results—my face doesn’t lend itself to it as well as some I’ve seen—but it’s interesting, anyway. Is it a front view or a profile? It’s both, and therein lies the interest.

So, what do you think?

Dorothy

It’s been a nice two weeks with Dorothy but she had to return to Richmond today. Before driving her down we hung out with some new friends who are friends of friends of Dorothy’s. I brought my camera and took quite a few pictures but thought I’d share this one of Dorothy instead of any of our new friends. I suspect there will be more opportunities for sharing pictures of the others in the future.

I like this picture. It’s Dorothy between laughing and being thoughtful about something. There’s a slight grin, which is always the sign something is going on, but she’s being subtle about it. There’s something on her mind and there may be a joke coming.

Or maybe she’s about to burp. You never really can tell with Dorothy.

Austin and Stephanie

I guess I know I’ve been working with youth a while when they start getting married. I guess is hasn’t really been that long, Stephanie was a graduating high school senior when I helped with my first youth trip at Rock Creek Church. But this isn’t really about me, it’s about her. After all, she was married today.

Stephanie met Austin in her first year at college and it was pretty clear pretty quickly that the were pretty well taken with each other. Knowing Stephanie, I couldn’t really blame Austin, and getting to know him a bit over the intervening time has convinced me he’s a pretty decent chap, as well. They are obviously in love and seem to be very well suited to each other. As everyone expected, Stephanie was a beautiful bride and we had a lovely time, seeing her and visiting with friends.

Here’s to Austin and Stephanie. May you love each other more and more, every day of your lives.

Dorothy, Cathy, Jonathan, and Amy

I’ve completed four years of living photographically. Well, as many of you know, I took pictures before I began my Project 365 in 2011, but since then I have managed to take at least one picture every day. Here’s to one more year.

We had some very good friends over today to ring in the new year with a very relaxed meal of fondue (both meat and cheese). The food was fine but the company was beyond compare. First and foremost were our friends, Amy and her older son, Jonathan. Thank you both for coming and brightening our day.

Happy New Year!

We were a bit tired from our trip downtown today but we went to two New Year’s Eve parties this evening. Naturally we could only be at one of them at the stroke of midnight.

We started the evening at my mom’s and stayed there until about 10:00 p.m. Then we went to the Rock Creek party at Stuart and Donna’s house. This photo was taken about four seconds before midnight, the last photo I took in 2014. Happy New Year, everyone!

Dorothy, Karlee, and Cathy

The year we first met Karlee, I took Dorothy and her downtown over Christmas break. We went ice skating on the Mall and went to a few museums. It hasn’t been as regular as her coming to the beach with us but we’ve taken Christmas-break trips downtown a bunch of times since then. She came this afternoon to spend the night here and we have an outing planned for tomorrow (which I’ll get to in tomorrow’s post). Here she is with Dorothy and Cathy. As you can see, we are always totally serious when Karlee comes to visit.

Cathy On A Park Bench

Cathy and I went for a walk in the park early this afternoon. It was cool out but not cold and it was nice to be outside. The park, surrounding Lake Frank, had two parking lots connected by roads but the roads have been closed off for quite a few years (if they were ever open, I don’t really know). At the western parking lot, which is up a long hill from the lake, there are benches that are nearly at ground level. That’s where this picture was taken. I don’t think they were originally so low to the ground but it isn’t clear if they have sunk or if the ground has been piled up under them. Either way, they deserve to be used once in a while.

Christmas Eve by Candlelight

Our church’s Christmas Eve service is one of the highlights of every year for me. I enjoy seeing friends, but of course I see most of these same people every week. Somehow, though, at Christmas Eve, I see things in a different light. Sometimes that’s the light of candles. Each year the service ends singing Silent Night while holding lit candles. Every year I take pictures and I always enjoy them, as well. Taking pictures by candlelight is a bit hit or miss. This was taken at 1/15 second at f/3.2 with the ISO set to 1600. To everyone who was there, thanks for putting up with me and my camera. I love you all.

Jane and Katie

Our office holiday party was this afternoon and we had a nice time together. Our group is fairly large and I only know a small fraction of the 150 or more people at the party. One funny thing that happened was Jane, on the left in this picture, came over and asked if she could have her picture taken (on her phone) with a few of us. It seems her kids know her coworkers’ names but aren’t entirely convinced they exist. After all, they only hear names and never actually meet anyone. So, to Jane’s children, here is your mom with Katie. I can assure you that Kasia, Kathy, KC, and Henry (that’s me) are all real people, as well.

Christmas Caroling

We had our third annual Christmas caroling outing this evening. It was cool out, somewhere around 35°F, but the wind which had been blowing earlier in the day had died down, thankfully. I checked my journal and last year it was around 30°F and the year before that in the mid 40s. We had 23 people this year, down three from last year but a few new folks came. Once again, we rode in a trailer behind a pickup truck, fitted out with Timmy on the drums, Amanda at the keyboard, Deb on Bass, and Bret on guitar. We had a good time but I think everyone was ready to get back to the church for hot chocolate and cookies by the time we were done.

Grant Stephen

We were out and about today and decided to see if we could visit our friends, Keith and Collyn and their one week old bundle of boy (I mean joy). As you will probably have guessed, they said we should come. Not being around newborn babies that often these days, I forgot how small they are. Collyn was good enough to let us hold him for a while. He’s a beautiful little boy and was quiet while we were there. I took more than just a few pictures, as you might imagine but I think this is my favorite, with Keith tickling his tiny feet. Congratulations to the happy parents and their newly enlarged family.