Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Category Archives: fun stuff


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Do you know what this is?

Can you guess what’s piled up here?

Does this help?

Hmmm…I didn’t think so.  Unless you’re a farmer…or have farming in your family it’s unlikely you’ve got this figured out.  Is that enough of a hint?  No?

During our drive in middle Michigan this past weekend we saw lots of farmers out in the fields bringing in crops and tilling empty fields.  One of Michigan’s exports is sugar.  Can you guess now?

Yes!  That’s a heap of sugar beets!  There’s a sugar processing center for Pioneer Sugar up at Sebewaing which is on the western coast of the thumb of Michigan.  And this was one of the smaller piles there!  There were huge dump trucks filled with sugar beets lined up to dump.  Kind of amazing!

On Sunday morning when we woke and began to pack the car there was a semi truck with a flat bed full of brand new, shiny red and yellow farm equipment parked in the motel parking lot.  I thought the new farm equipment was beautiful.  What do you think?

To me it was sculpture…though I’m sure if anyone saw me taking pictures they’d have thought I was nuts.

Things are pretty straight forward and down to earth in middle Michigan.  Not so much into sculpture I’m thinking.

And you know how I usually give you photos of sunsets over water?  Well…how about a sunset over a corn field?

Just as beautiful, don’t you think?

We saw so many beautiful things, and I have so much to share with you.  It might take me a whole week of posts just to show you what we saw in two days.

Now for your next assignment.  Can you figure out what this is?


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Memorizing sound

This weekend husband and I explored the coast of Lake Huron.  While I have been in love with Lake Michigan my whole life, I have never spent much time near the big lake on the eastern side of our state.  After two short days in and around the vicinity I can see how easy it would be to cheat on my first love.

As we were driving along on assorted “Lakeshore Drives” up the coast I was looking at the homes – some little cabins, some monster estates – and wondering if these people who are so lucky as to wake up to that huge beautiful lake ever take it for granted.  Or if they, like I believe I would, wake up each day in awe and wonder and thankfulness just to be there.

One of my favorite stops this weekend was Tawas State Park, which we walked on the beach for what seemed miles.  There were little spits of sand sticking out into the water, and at the end of one of them, Sunday early afternoon I stood with my eyes shut and memorized the sound of the soft waves lapping at my toes, gurgling around the sand, sliding away.

Today, when I find myself back in my cubicle working on files and making decisions, when the hours grow long and my neck is tired, when my head aches and I’ve adjusted my glasses for the thousandth time, I’ll think of that moment standing on the sand with water all around me.

And in my heart I’ll smile.


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The race not run

I spent last weekend in a small town a couple of hours away at the home of a friend.  Once upon a time I would have called her one of my running buddies…but I haven’t been running in two years so I guess now we’re just regular friends.  Friends who happen to get together for running events.

A year ago she did a half marathon that sounded like a lot of fun and I vowed that by this year I’d be in shape to do it with her.  And I was moving along toward that goal, up to six miles, when I messed up my knee.  So though I was registered to participate in the event this year, after spending most of August and September sitting around with ice on my knee I was in no shape to run.

But I didn’t miss out entirely!  Three of our little band of four actually DID run the half marathon on Sunday.  I went with them to the spaghetti dinner the night before, spent the night at our “runners slumber party” and got up early to see them off the next morning.  Then the husband of one of the runners and I went out to eat breakfast while they ran the race.

Doesn’t seem a bad thing does it!  And it wasn’t.  It was great to see everyone, to talk about old races we had done, to plan some races for the future (because FOR SURE by next year I’ll be back on track!) and generally support each other in our attempts to foil the aging process as we keep active.

The race itself was small, but beautiful. It ran through the streets of a quaint, Norman Rockwell type town for a mile…

…then most of the rest of it was along a rails to trails path that ran past ponds and colorful trees, farms and open fields.

I got to walk some of it, and kept myself busy taking photographs of the beautiful scenery, including the current header picture, as I waited for the front runners to come back by on their out and back race.

So this old runner had a good time, even though I didn’t get to run the race.  Running can be a solitary sport.  Or it can be a sport that brings solitary people together in celebration of good health and friendship.

Great job ladies!  You’re all my heroes!


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Evidence for keeping a camera in your pocket at all times.

Last week my husband and I met for supper after work.  Following him home I noticed the sky was turning orange and pink, and that the clouds were all ringed in brilliant gold.  But I didn’t have my camera.

By the time I made it home, raced into the house, found the camera and made it out to the park the sky looked like this:

Then a couple of days ago I noticed the trees in the backyard glowing in the late evening light.  I went outside to investigate.  Looking east was like looking into a classical Renaissance landscape.  Well…except for the paved road:

And toward the west the sky was turning into this:

The thing I’ve learned about photography and light is that you can never outrun the sun.  That perfect photo that you catch a glimpse of will be lost while you’re looking for the camera and it can never be recaptured.

Sometimes perfect remains in your mind…and good enough is what you get.


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Catch a shooting star

I went to bed early last night exhausted from nights of sleeplessness.  But it was another restless night.  As husband slept, and dog slept I watched the clock.  Finally early morning, maybe 2:30 a.m. or so I got up.  Naturally Katie did too.  And as soon as we ventured out to the living room she starting running around barking.  As I’m shhhhing her, afraid she’d wake up the husband, I turned on the floodlight in the backyard.  There, right near the house was a little rabbit.  A terrified little rabbit looking for somewhere to run.  I turned the light off and tried to distract the Sheltie.

We went out the front door, she sniffing the ground, then wandering around till she found the right spot to do her job.  I sighed as I shivered in my pjs, wondering why I, the only one with a job, was standing outside in the middle of the night waiting for Katie to finish.  Then I urged her back to the house, posted the this mornings wordless Wednesday entry and tried to go back to bed.

Nothing doing.  Katie had to go out AGAIN!  Seems I rushed her inside too soon.  She has a persistent bark that means I’m not going to get away with ignoring her.  So out we went again.  Maybe 2:45 a.m. now.  We wander around until she finds a new perfect spot.  I sigh some more, watching the stars, which were heavy and low in the crystal clear October night.  To me the Big Dipper represents Dad, and Orion’s belt is my Mom.  Mostly because those are the only two constellations I can recognize.  Still, I talk to them regularly while Katie and I are out in the dark.

And then, just as Katie began to do her thing, the biggest, brightest most wonderous shooting star arched across the sky right above me.  It was amazing.  It was beautiful and it shot through the sky for a full second or two.  Katie didn’t notice it.

But I did, and right there hugged my baby-girl for making sure I was outside on a chilly October morning so that I could see such a beautiful thing.

Way to go babe!


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Katie says – "Look what Daddy built me!"

Earlier this summer husband built Katie a dogwalk and a full size teeter!  And right about that same time I hurt my knee and was spending most of my days reclined with ice on my leg.  I tried running with Katie on her brand new equipment, but that really aggravated my knee.  So all these weeks Katie’s new stuff has been in the garage.  Waiting.

Last night Katie’s dad put the dogwalk and teeter up, set out a few jumps and the weaves and when I got home from work Katie and I played for awhile.

Remember when she was afraid to walk on the board when it was flat on the driveway?  And when putting the board up on bricks freaked her out?  It was only a year ago when she would run the other way to avoid running over the board as it sat on a 2 inch pipe!  Silly girl.

Now my biggest problem is that she runs up and over the dogwalk and then turns around and runs up and over it again!  And regardless of what obstacle I think we’re going to do, she’s doing the dogwalk first!

And maybe all those weeks in agility school working on the dreaded teeter was worth it.  Because look at this!

“I’m not afraid of any ole teeter Mom!”  Watch me!  Watch me!!!!

I’m watching Katie-girl.  And I’m in so proud of you!


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Portrait of an amazing woman

I’ve never tried portrait photography, though I’ve admired many photographic portraits over the years.  I especially love those of older people, whose faces show some of their history, whose eyes have become wise with time.  But I’m a shy photographer and asking someone to sit for me is difficult.  And of course I’m shooting with a point and shoot and never figured I had the right equipment for “real” art.

So when Kathy over at her blog Lake Superior Spirit mentioned that she had an photographic assignment from Scott at his blog Views Infinitum that required her to try portrait photography I was intrigued.  And I instantly knew who I wanted to photograph.

My husband has an Aunt who just celebrated her 95th birthday, though you wouldn’t know it to look at her.  She’s beautiful.  But she also, like most people, doesn’t feel she takes a good picture.  And I’m still shy.  So the photo I’m going to share with you was taken while she sat in her chair in her apartment looking at an ancient photo album filled with family pictures, some over 100 years old.  She was entranced enough that she didn’t notice me taking pictures.  I understand from reading that a real portrait would have her engaged with me.  We’ll work on that!

She’s sitting in her favorite chair, sunlight coming in from her left, wearing her reading glasses and telling us the names of family members in the photos.  I like that the shot includes her hand which has a character all its own.  This was taken with a point & shoot camera, on the automatic setting.  I darkened it up slightly in “post production.”

I think she might let me try again if I ask.  Now that I know there’s a “portrait” setting on my camera!


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Busy busy busy

Katie and I have had virtually no time to work on anything this week.  Well, that’s not entirely true.  Katie has had time.  Me?  Not so much.  So this week’s training challenge is being postponed to next week.  In it’s place I’ll share with you a bit of our weekend.

Saturday was Bruce’s Aunt V’s 95 birthday.  We arranged to take her to lunch, and several family members came along. She didn’t know that other people would be there and became more and more excited  each time another person arrived at our table in the restaurant.

After lunch and back at her apartment a great nephew shared a very old photo album he had inherited from his mother.  In it were photos of Aunt V’s family, including her mother and her aunts and uncles when they were young.  Aunt V spent a good amount of time pouring over those pictures, telling us who everyone was.

It was a tender moment and I was trying not to cry.

My husband and I  had a wedding to go to that evening.  It was in an outdoor venue quite close to where we live, so we hugged Aunt V goodbye, wished her a Happy Birthday again and headed over to the wedding.

They sky was getting dark as the wedding began.

but everything went well and they were married before the first rain drops fell.

All in all a lovely and celebratory kind of day.  And to top off the weekend my husband and I are going to Ann Arbor this evening to listen to the season opening performance of the symphony.

Life is good.


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Having a grownup dinner

For the past few years I’ve become  used to being the oldest person in the room.  Going back to grad school at 50 was fun and exciting and stressful and exhilarating all at the same time, but I was almost always the oldest person within sight, in study groups, in classrooms, sometimes even on the bus!  And while working in the library I was often older than the other employees.   And now, back in the mortgage industry I’m for sure the oldest person in my group.  It’s just something that I take for granted now after four years.

But last night I had dinner with a group of women to discuss a book and most of them were my age or slightly older.  It was a lovely evening, the discussion one I could relate to; talking about the things we’ve noticed about ourselves since we turned 50.  It was comforting to know that other women are going through the same things, noticing the ways our hands, hair and bodies are adjusting to five or more decades of life.

Not having to be hip or young or technically advanced, not to talk about the latest technical gadget or social networking site – that was all comforting.  Peaceful even.   Of course some of that warm fuzzy feeling came from the three or four bottles of wine we shared.

Giggle.