Uncategorized | Change Is Hard

October 11, 2015
by dawnkinster 20 Comments

Never quit

From our 2013 conference.

Soon we’ll be on our way to Washington DC again. Many of you know that I volunteer with the Truck Safety Coalition, a nonprofit group that works to make changes in regulations and rules governing commercial trucks in an effort to make the roads safer for all of us. And you know that I do this because my dad was killed by a sleepy semi driver back in December of 2004.

Eleven years ago my family’s life was changed forever. It seems like a hundred years. It seems like yesterday. And for four days every other year we are immersed in it, totally focused on the issues and the emotions. We will join other families next weekend, other scarred, hurting families, other people that want their loss to mean something. You can read about our last conference in 2013 at my blog posts here, here and, if you read only one, especially here.

During our time together we are safe to express our continued grief regardless of how many years have passed. And we are able to provide support to the new families who have unwillingly joined our painful club. It’s a long, hard road we’re all on, a complicated argument, a difficult fight that we face. The odds of a group of ordinary citizens making inroads in a system influenced by campaign contributions by the American Trucking Association are low. But we’re a noisy group.

And we aren’t going to quit.

Because the people whose lives were lost, and those whose lives were forever changed, deserve to be heard. We are the voice for those that can no longer speak and we make sure they are not forgotten. In their honor we work to keep everyone safer, those of us on the road as well as the drivers of the commercial trucks.

Stay tuned.

For you dad.

October 10, 2015
by dawnkinster 20 Comments

Another shot missed

Sunshine, crisp golden light, maple leaves turning red and gold…how could I resist grabbing the camera and the dog and heading out over the frost covered lawn to the pond across the street. The trees in my neighbor’s yard were stunning in the sunshine.

Morning glow

And those across their pond were beautiful as well. Katie and I moved along the road looking for a spot to capture them.

Morning calm.

I was focused on catching the light and the water while standing on the dog’s leash and listening for cars when I heard a soft, short grunt off to my right. I didn’t look right then, didn’t look until there was a rush of wings and a loud squawk.

A blue heron was lifting off of a submerged tree limb about 10 yards away. He’d probably been sitting there as Katie and I got closer and closer. He gave me a warning grunt and I didn’t listen.

So this is all I got:

Flying away.

I’ve been trying to get a great shot of a blue heron for years. Years. And there he was standing there next to me and I never even noticed. If I had glanced over at the first grunt I think there would have been an amazing shot. But I’ll never know.

Back at home moments after Katie and I came in four young deer crossed the road we had just been standing on. I don’t have a picture of them in the morning glow either. I was too busy trying to keep Katie from flinging herself against the windows to grab the camera.

Silly us.

Missed another one Mama!

October 9, 2015
by dawnkinster 16 Comments

WordPress Photo Challenge: Happy Place

Any time I can get near one of our Great Lakes I’m in my happy place.

You can see other people’s happy places at the original post. It’s very early in the week…so I haven’t selected any favorites yet. You’ll have to go check them all out.

Meanwhile…where is your happy place? I’d love to see it!

October 8, 2015
by dawnkinster 7 Comments

Shopping thoughts

I used to like to shop. When I was younger. Thinner. Now the whole thing just seems unnecessarily stressful. But I have a few things I need to pick up in preparation for a trip out of town. Not a lot of things, but still, I need to go inside a store. And try stuff on. In front of a mirror.

Truly I don’t need the overly attentive chipper female in the size zero painted on pants asking if I need a different size. I just don’t. And the older woman at the shoe store that has no other customer and wants to find me every size 7.5 black shoe she has when I haven’t even decided if I’m seriously going to look at shoes.

But most of all when I finally pick out the couple of things I need, most of which is underwear, and patiently stand in a long line of people waiting to pay for their merchandise, why do I get the only young male cashier, standing among a line of 7 older females ringing up sales? Why is it my luck to get the obviously new young male cashier who can’t get the scanner to read the tag on the underwear and is turning all shades of red. Who has to get an elderly coworker to help him. And who calls me “Miss” throughout the long excruciating (for him) transaction.

Yep. Shopping is just too hard. I think I have enough clothes and shoes and underwear now. I shouldn’t have to do this again for a few years. And if I loose a little weight there’s a whole closet full of clothes from back in the day just waiting for me.

No sales person required.

Wordless Wednesday

October 7, 2015 by dawnkinster 12 Comments

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October 4, 2015
by dawnkinster 12 Comments

Sunday Morning memories

Few of you know that my favorite TV show is ‘Sunday Morning’ which airs every Sunday on CBS at 9 a.m. I usually work my Sundays around watching the show which includes pieces on art, music, sports, and politics along with bits of news and weather. They take a longer and more in depth look at many topics that I enjoy. I almost always learn about something new, or catch up on something I used to know about but had forgotten over the years. And if nothing else I love those nature minutes at the end.

So you can imagine my disappointment as 9 a.m. was approaching today, and I clicked over to my CBS station only to find football scheduled. Football? I started thinking back…was today really Sunday? I get confused now that I’m retired. Maybe today is Saturday. I checked a calendar and confirmed that I was not crazy. I flipped through the stations again, maybe I had forgotten what station my show was on? (Notice how I assume there’s something wrong with me rather than the world!) No ‘Sunday Morning.’

So I did what any typical middle aged person does in situations like this. I googled it. And I found out there’s some silly football game in London that has upstaged my show! But amazingly, CBS had not forgotten about all of us art lovers. They have available online, from their archives, the very first show that aired with Charles Kuralt back on January 28, 1979.

Sadly I am old enough to remember 1979 quite clearly, though I didn’t see the inaugural show back then, so of course I had to watch it today. Are you curious to know the contents of that first show?

Well, here you go:

There was a piece showing President Carter speaking on the Iran controversy, though they didn’t call it that back then. This was 10 months before the American hostages were taken, but the piece showed the growing tensions and the affect it was having on American politics. There was a short interview with Detroit Mayor Colman Young about the Republican National convention which was to be held in Detroit. I felt transported back in time.

There was a sports report done by Richard Threlkeld about big ten basketball. He was a regular on the show and I always enjoyed his work. Mr. Threlkeld was killed January of 2012 in a crash with an oil tankard in New York state. Knowing that as I watched him today in the 1979 piece made me sad. Sometimes it’s not good to know the future.

There was a story about Nelson Rockefeller who had died just two days prior. In the piece was a short interview with Mr. Rockefeller showcasing his modern and abstract art collection. He said he liked abstract art because, depending on your mood, you could see something different each time you looked at it, unlike a classical piece. Once you looked at those, he said, you knew what was there and you didn’t need to look again. Interesting perspective.

And there was a piece about the American bald eagle and how close it was to extinction. The focus was a fight over an oil refinery that was proposed for Eastport Maine, which is the furthest eastern town in the United States, and made entirely of islands. It also happened to be a sanctuary for bald eagles. In January of 1979 the eagles had won the fight and the refinery was not being built, even though it would mean jobs to a town on the brink of extinction itself. The story said that the town had a population of just over 2,000 which apparently was down from previous years. I looked Eastport up just now. The last census data is from 2010 and shows 1300 residents. The photos I could find don’t show any refinery. Which is good news for the bald eagles.

The cover story was about Pope John Paul on his first foreign trip. It looked very much like the recent Pope visit to the United states. The story talked about the struggle in the church over who would lead and toward what. I wonder if much has changed in the thirty-six years since.

So on a Sunday morning when my routine was disrupted I found a bit of ‘Sunday Morning’ to appease myself. And I got a trip back through time; short as it was it was long enough for me to realize life seems pretty much the same as it was back then. Similar issues. Similar struggles. Similar reactions. Though 1979 feels like a different life, a different world, really it wasn’t so very different than the life and world I see today.

And that’s oddly comforting.

October 3, 2015
by dawnkinster 11 Comments

WordPress Photo Challenge: Boundry

Darn fence!

You can see other interpretations of ‘boundry’ at the original post. Or you can check out a few of my favorites so far here, here and here.

This is an intriguing photo challenge. What boundaries do you see around you? Care to share?

October 2, 2015
by dawnkinster 8 Comments

Play date!

Peep and me meeting this morning at the park.

Katie here! Guess what? Remember when I told you that my mama was gone all the time, and then she took me to the kennel and left me there? I was thinking maybe she didn’t love me anymore or something. But today she proved she loved me cause she took me for a long walk in the woods. And even better we got to do it with my friend Peep and her mom!

Peep and I had so much fun! We especially liked foiling all our mamas’ attempts to get cute pictures of the two of us together. We talked about it before we set out on the trail and decided one or the other of us would always turn away when either of them pointed a camera at us.

Got our plan down. Onward!

It worked great.

They hardly got any good pictures of us together while we went on our long walk. After awhile they just gave up. Score one for the dogs!

What’s over there?

We got to walk through the beautiful woods on a very pretty day. And it was cooler too, only in the 50s (10s in Celsius) which I like a whole lot better than the hot summer days when my coat is just so hot!

Want to come to the park with me next time?

Most of the time I got to be off leash, though when we got near a road my mama put my leash back on cause you know I like to chase cars. There wasn’t anyone else out there though, it was wonderful. The whole place was just for us!

This is my good friend Peep!

Peep and I decided that once we got back to the beach we’d let the moms take pictures of us sitting together, as long as they didn’t make us sit too close.

We did this for the moms.

We like each other and all, but we still like our own personal space, you know?

So then after we posed for them my mama was talking to Peep’s mom about calling us so she could get pictures of us running to her, and I heard her say ‘call’ and figured that was good enough, so I took off for her, leaving poor Peep in the dust.

Coming mama!

Peep says the only reason I got ahead of her was because I cheated. I think it’s my due as a princess.

Either way we had a wonderful time out there in the park for a couple of hours. When we got home mama had to comb out my furs to get all the bits of leaves and stickers out of me. I was sort of a mess. But I’m a good girl and stood quietly on my table till she was done cleaning out my armpits.

Then I took a nap. Cause that’s what a princess does after a big day. I heard mama and Peep’s mom talking about when we can go again before hunting season. I’m pretty sure we’re going to get one more long walk together soon.