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Here and There…Now and Then |
First Day of School, First Grade (2002)
First Day of School, Twelfth Grade (2013)
As Dorothy moves into her senior year of high school, this will be a year of lasts. Today was her last first day of school. She does plan to go to college, but that’s different. Eleven years ago I took the picture on the left, as Dorothy started first grade at the Fourth Presbyterian School. On the right is from today, starting her senior year at Washington Christian Academy. Quite a change in such a short time.
Julia
Foam Party
we went to visit our good friend Julia this evening at UMBC. Dorothy and I visited the school one day last year but Cathy had never been. It was nice to see Julia’s dorm room and we also went to dinner with her. School hadn’t started yet, it was still orientation for a few more days, so not everyone was on campus yet.
After dinner in the dining hall we sat on a bench outside the dorm and watched as a foam party began on the lawn. It was an interesting time of people watching and to be honest, I can’t say it made me wish I was back in school.
A while ago I had a realization that was a little disconcerting but ultimately has been quite freeing. When in a situation like this, where most of the people are half my age (or even a third of my age), I don’t think I’m strange for wondering how I am seen by these young people. I don’t think it unusual for someone, particularly an older someone, to feel like they are younger than they are and want to fit it. The reality is that someone my age is mostly invisible to most people a third my age. Particularly in a situation like this, where the young people are probably more concerned with how they are seen, they are unlikely to care about that old man on a bench (even when two of his three companions are also a third his age). So, while they might see me enough to avoid walking into me, they are not liable to look at me long enough to have any idea what I look like or whether I’m liable to fit in. I’m virtually invisible.
Suzy and Calvin
I’ve had one picture of Calvin here before, when he was less than a week old. His big brother, Henry, has been in at least two posts (and possibly more — searching for his first name doesn’t help, because it’s on every page!). Here’s another of Calvin, now about four months old. I don’t know where he stands, percentile-wise, but he seems pretty big to me.
As you might expect for such a cute and even tempered baby, he gets passed around quite a bit on Sunday after church. This is Suzy who has him here and I think they make a handsome couple. She might be a little old for him, but he could do worse.
Hannah, Stephanie, and Lyla
I don’t have a lot to say about this photograph. As most people who know me know, I don’t really care for young people that much. These three, however, have been such good pals for a long while and I’ve enjoyed watching them grow from girls to young ladies. They spend much of there lives far apart, at their various colleges and it’s grand to see them together.
Evan’s Window Seat
One of my co-workers sons was in the office today. He didn’t make a lot of noise. In fact, I wouldn’t have noticed he was there except I happened to walk by him. He had found a window seat and was quietly reading one of the A Series of Unfortunate Events books, by Lemony Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler). I asked if he minded if I took his picture. Knowing his mother and how photographically oriented she is, I wasn’t surprised when he said something to the effect of, “whatever.”
Dorothy and Cat
After our vacation, where finding something to photograph wasn’t a problem, I’m back at home where I get up, go to work, come home, fix dinner, and that’s about it. My commute doesn’t take me past much in the way of scenic beauty. My office is pretty barren, photographically. I wonder, sometimes, how long I can keep this up. When I got home today, though, Dorothy’s friend, Cat, was here. A photographic subject! Thanks, girls.
Oh, and cute haircut, Cat.
Katie, Ellen, Hannah, and Dorothy
Stuart, Donna, and Cathy
As vacations always do, our time in England had drawn to an end. I think we were all ready to be home again but had enjoyed ourselves immensely. For all but Cathy and me, this was everyone’s first trip to England, so everything was new. Cathy and I got to see a lot of things we hadn’t seen before and were happy to revisit those few places we had been. The weather was wonderful and even our rainy day in the Lake District was fun, ranking pretty high in everyone’s reckoning, I think.
On Monday, August 19 we checked out of the hotel and made our way to Terminal 3 at London’s Heathrow Airport. We got checked in, made our way through the frontal assault of the duty free zone (although free samples of whisky was something I don’t see very often), and got to our gate. The flight home was less uncomfortable than on the way, mostly because I was on an aisle this time. Because it was a daytime flight none of us really bothered to try to sleep. It’s a little weird being on a plane for over 8 hours but you arrive only three and a half hours after you left.
Since there were no real sights to be seen today, I leave you with two pictures of the seven people who spent these last two weeks with me. Thanks for your patience when I made a wrong turn or got us turned around. I’d travel with you all again any time (especially Cathy and Dorothy, of course).
The Blues and Royals riding under Wellington Arch.
I took about 4,400 photos during our two weeks in England* and there is no way I’m going to give you a full accounting of them here. I’m too far behind as it is, for one thing. So, I’m going to post one or possibly two photos from each day and tell you a little of what else we saw that day. If you know me on Facebook, then you’ll have already seen more than enough but you might learn a thing or two about our trip here in any case. If we are not connected on Facebook drop me a line and I’ll give you a link to my best-of gallery on my private site.
Our first day in England was not a full day because it’s the day we arrived. Once we were finished at the airport we took the tube to Paddington Railway Station and checked our luggage there. We walked from there south to Hyde Park. We made our way south south east towards Buckingham Palace and as we got to Wellington Arch, just outside Hyde Park, a detachment of riders from the Blues and Royals rode through the arch, right next to us.
We continued towards the Palace and I noticed that there were a lot of people that way. We had specifically planned not to try to see the changing of the guards. It’s fun to see but it’s a lot of work and a lot of standing about in dense crowds to see it, so we figured we’d give it a miss this time. As it turns out, we got there just as it was finishing up. My internal clock said it was much later than that, but it was just before noon.
From Buck House we walked up St. James Park, taking a break to sit in the shade and rest a bit. Everyone was pretty sleepy and worn out, since at this point we’d been about 27 hours without sleep. We made our way to Trafalgar Square and then on to St. Martin-in-the-Fields, where we had lunch in the cafe in the crypt. The food isn’t very fancy but at that point, filling was more what we were looking for. We also had pretty much unlimited access to water and toilets, two essentials when traveling.
After our lunch, we caught a bus back to Paddington Station, got our bags, and took another bus to our hotel, which was near Notting Hill Gate, just to the northwest of Kensington Gardens. We took naps before going out later for dinner and then came back and called it a day.
* Actually, there were only eleven days when we were seeing sights and on which I took most of my 4,422 photographs. Day 9 we drove from the southwest to the north, day 13 we drove back to London, and day 14 we left. I took 19, 49, and 31 images on those days, respectively and averaged 393 per day on the other eleven days.
Rock Creek Church
It’s a pretty exciting time for us. We had a nice, relaxing week at the beach, returning yesterday. Tomorrow we leave for England. But today has excitement of its own. Our church has been without a pastor for over a year. In some ways it’s been a good year. There has been a lot of looking at and assessing needs. It’s also been a fairly hard year in a lot of ways. There has been a lot that needed doing and fewer people to do it. I was blessed to be involved in the pastoral search process. Now, I celebrate along with the rest of the church that God has brought us a new pastor and his family. This is much more of a beginning than and ending and there is plenty still needing to be done, perhaps more than ever, but this is a change I’ve been looking forward to for a good while. Welcome, Martin Family!
Dorothy and Karlee
As I mentioned when I posted the family picture from a few days ago, Karlee has been with us at the beach every time we’ve gone since 2006. Dorothy’s second cousins consider her to be an honorary relative. She’s become so much a part of the family for that week that we don’t so much ask if she can come as assume that she will.
It’s hard to know what will happen next year, as both girls will have graduated from high school. The years after that are even more uncertain, of course, when they are away at college. Time will tell, of course, and Karlee will always be invited.
This photo was one of only a few I took today. We spent the first part of the morning packing and loading the car and then spent most of the day driving home. It’s about 425 miles, including getting Karlee home, and when you add stops and heavy traffic on I95, it’s a pretty long day. I made sure to take a few, though, including this of Dorothy and Karlee, ending beach week.
Family Beach Photo
Today’s picture is of the portion of our family that was at the beach this year. We missed having Stephen, Maya, and Iris, who have come in recent years. We also missed Brady, George, and Carmela, although they haven’t been, at least not in a long while. But, we did have Karlee, Dorothy, Henry, Cathy, Albert, Dot, Ralph, and Tsai-Hong. While Karlee isn’t technically in our family, she’s been with us at the beach six of the last eight years and we didn’t go to the beach the other two, either.
Airborne
Our friend, Dave, took two other friends, Jon and James, up in his plane this afternoon. He had to return the plane to Frederick and get his car, so they flew with him, along with his oldest son, Conor. I drove them to the airport where the plane was and took some pictures of them as they took off. I underestimated how much runway this larger plane needs to take off as compared to the smaller planes that take off so very quickly and easily. They got off the ground just before they got to where I was by the runway. The picture taken right before this is a little better in terms of showing the plane. I was trying to keep up with them as they hurtled towards me and I’m afraid that the framing is a bit off. Still, I like this one because you can see James in the cockpit. Another future pilot, perhaps?
In Memoriam — Kevin Snider
February 6, 1952 – July 8, 2013
Guatemala Team
Dorothy left early this morning for Guatemala early this morning. We dropped her off at Church of Christ at Manor Woods at 2:00 AM and they were off by 2:30, heading to the airport. By the time we were home from church later in the day there was a post on Facebook saying they had arrived safely in Antigua. It’s going to be hard not being able to call and ask her how she is, but we’re looking forward to all the stories she’ll have when she gets home. This is the team, just before the piled into the bus and headed out.
Cathy and Dorothy
It was about 10:30 this evening and I hadn’t taken any pictures today. I asked the girls if I could take there picture and I took about a dozen. This one turned out quite well, I think. Others had one or both of them making silly faces, and while they are funny, it’s easy to get tired of silly faces and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of their ordinary smiles.
I love you both, girls.
Viki
As followers of this blog know, I had surgery in May and then again on June 12, just under three weeks ago. I was back in to have the staples removed last week and went in again today for what we all hope will be my last visit. I’m recovering nicely, although I’m still supposed to take it easy.
I don’t like telling people that I hope never to see them again, but when the reason you see them is that you need or are recovering from surgery, that’s a little different. Viki, the nurse at this particular doctor’s office, is very nice and cheerful and was gracious enough to let me take a couple pictures of her, after I told her why I carry my camera everywhere. Thanks, Viki, for making a bad time more pleasant.
Lilias, Michelle, Hope, Ben, and Yan
It’s hard to believe it’s been two years since we saw these lovely folks but when they were here last they were just under a month away from having their second child and now here they are with three! What a wonderful time we had catching up, hearing stories, and reconnecting. And what a beautiful family they are becoming. Lilias is becoming quite the little lady and Yan is cute, if somewhat wary of strangers. Thank you all for giving us a day of your time and God bless you as you follow him.
Dorothy, Hannah, Kendra, Emma, and Safiya
Dorothy and some of her friends left for summer camp this evening. It was a beautiful, warm afternoon and spirits were high as five buses of kids and counselors headed off for West Virginia for five fun-filled days and nights. As usual, I took a few pictures. In this one are, from left to right, Dorothy, Hannah, Kendra, Emma, and Safiya. Have a great time, guys.
Simone
I took some fern pictures this afternoon but fern pictures are pretty easy to come by. Dorothy visited with her good friend Simone this afternoon and I took some pictures of them. Pictures of Simone are considerably harder to come by because Simone lives out of town. Dorothy didn’t particularly like the pictures with both of them, so you get a picture of just Simone. Not that that’s a bad thing, just a thing. Here you are.
James Imitating Jacob
I went to pick up Dorothy this evening and ran into a few old friends, some of whom I haven’t seen in a while. James was there with his grandmother and I took a few pictures of them. She was talking about her newest grandson, Jacob, and told James to show me what Jacob looks like. This is what he did.
Apparently Jacob was a bit of a crier at first but recently he has become interested in everything. He stares around with an amazed expression on his face similar to this one.