Tag Archives: family
Happy Birthday United States!
Shaping up to be a pretty night on the lake.
Last night I got to enjoy a wonderful show of colorful fireworks from a boat floating on the warm waters of a beautiful lake. We left the house about an hour before sundown, but the sky was already turning the thunderclouds pink.
Pink clouds herald what’s to come.
And as we motored out to join hundreds of other boats the pink just kept getting deeper…
Lots of boats already out there.
…and deeper…until this was the sky we floated under as we waited for the man-made show to start.
Nature’s fireworks competed with anything man could shoot into the sky.
Soon enough the sun slid below the horizon, turning the sky midnight blue. Hundreds of people sitting in softly rocking boats settled in to wait for the show.
Blue hour on the lake.
I don’t have a lot of fireworks images. I was in moving boat with little light. Plus it was just so much fun to watch without trying to capture it all.
This was the clearest image of the few I took.
You can use your imagination to fill in the big booms and the bright lights.
A windy rainstorm was blowing in and above the bursting fireworks pinkish heat lightening was showcasing the clouds in huge arcs. In the middle of the show, over the boat’s radio, came a severe weather alert warning of strong winds and possibly hail. We began to consider heading for home.
Abstract photo of boats heading home after the show. Taken from our rocking boat.
We were lucky, though, the storm held off for a couple of hours. The fireworks were able to finish with a grand finale, and we made it back to the house with time to eat pie on the back deck before the rains poured down.
Heat lightening filled the sky after the last of the fireworks faded, and boats began scuttling for home.
It was a lovely evening and I thank Captain Carl for taking us out to see man and God’s lights fill the sky.
Happy birthday America!
Lake living – the view from here
Sometimes the clouds just glow.
I am sitting in the living room, keeping one eye on the big picture window that overlooks the lake and the other on my computer screen. With any sign of movement out there the window gets my entire attention.
The doggy jet ski just went by!
I mean, what’s the point of living on the lake if you’re not watching it? Early in the morning the first thing I do every day is check the lake and the sky above it to see whether there’s anything interesting yet.
Morning earlier this week when the moon was full.
There almost always is.
Woman and her dog take a paddleboat ride while fish jumps in joy.
In fact, my Facebook friends are probably tired of getting that early (and sometimes not so early) morning image of the lake outside my window. But I never tire of it.
Summer slide waits for storm clouds to dissipate.
Oh sometimes, perhaps once every couple of days, I leave my picture window and get out on the water. Sometimes we fly out to the ‘big water’ in the ski boat to see what’s new. Perhaps to bob in the warm water and watch the sunset unrestrained by landscape.
Sunset on the ‘big water.’ Picture taken by my sister from our boat.
More often it’s just me and my little kayak that venture out, either in early morning or late afternoon. Sometimes even as the sun is going down, always in search of something beautiful.
An evening paddle.
The lake never disappoints me.
Early night boat wake as the last of the sunset disappears.
So I’m sharing random photos of life on the lake. Just things I’ve seen and captured, moments in time all revolving around sky and water and weather.
Crazy skies over a lake playground.
Sometimes I’m sitting at the house, watching the world go by.
Two guys in their kayaks enjoy a summer day.
Sometimes I’m out in the water letting the sky point the way.
Late evening light as we head home in the boat.
I don’t think there’s a better way to live than on water, any kind of water. A river, a pond, a lake, an ocean. Water changes all the time. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve gone to get the camera (which is rarely far from me) and by the time I get the lens cap off the light has changed, the boat has moved, the sun or moon has ducked behind a cloud.
Just as I’m typing this the sky changed from bright blue with white clouds piling up to pouring down rain. Honest…it was sunny as I was typing the previous sentence and now I can’t see across the lake. Good thing I went down to the dock and got the last image down at the bottom of the post when I did.
An afternoon swim is always good too.
The moment is lost.
A little rain cools things off and never sticks around for long.
I’m always sad for an instant, but then remember that I was thrilled to have seen it at all. Sometimes I even go for a walk or a paddle without a camera, just to prove to myself that I am capable of enjoying the sights without recording them all.
Clouds and water make for a perfect evening.
But that’s very hard for me. I seem to see almost everything as a series of images. Sometimes I can’t help myself but to point out something to the people I’m with. The angle of a tree, the light behind a building, the shape of a cloud.
Trees frame a visitor to our dock.
My family usually just nods and smiles as they indulge me. So here I am, sharing with you, these random water and sky images. Because I can’t help myself.
I hope you’ll indulge me too.
Clouds gather every afternoon before our daily rain.
Paddle away the blues
Sometimes being here at the house my parents built without them gets a little sad. Though it’s beautiful here it’s also filled with lots of memories.
Savoring the stillness.
Everywhere.
So the other evening, feeling a bit melancholy, I took a little paddle upstream. The evening was warm and still.
Mountains of clouds.
I spent a little time just sitting near the green trees, floating in the water, the clouds reflected all around me. It was just what I needed to fix my blues.
Green reflected in green.
Being a weekday it was quiet, all the weekend lake lovers had to go back to their jobs and city lives. But as I was paddling back to the house a big pontoon boat slid by me creating large waves that gently rocked my kayak. I waved at them. They waved back at me.
Rocking in warm waters.
Southern living. It’s a good thing.
The day’s clouds produced no rain for us. This time.
I headed home to wait for the evening’s sunset.
Perfect.
Pretty in pink.
Lake dogs
Katie here. I thought I should share an observation I’ve made while living down here in Alabama at the lake.
Dogs around here don’t seem to be bothered by getting their feet wet!
Jet ski dog
Huh.
Why just yesterday I saw several dogs out on the water. I guess they are not all princesses like me.
Kayak dog
As close as I want to get to the water is along the lake shore or maybe on the dock. Yesterday I did run along the shore for awhile, cause my mama and her sister and brother were swimming and I wanted to keep an eye on them.
Paddle board dog
And while they were swimming I barked and chased the waves that dared to splash on my rocks, then I ran to the neighbor’s boat ramp and barked some more; I even got my feet wet there!! Accidentally of course…that one stupid wave was bigger than I thought.
Pontoon boat dog. I think this might work best for a princess like me.
Anyway, yesterday was Saturday and lots of dogs were out on the lake with their people. I guess they were enjoying the water. So I figured I should maybe give it a try. So I asked and my people said I could come along on a boat ride they were planning.
This is the way to travel!
You may remember that I’ve been in a boat over at my Uncle’s place two times before. But that was back when it was a lot cooler outside, and not on a weekend when there were hundreds of thousands of boats out there making waves!
It was a beautiful day so I guess I can’t blame all those boats for being out there.
OK. Maybe I exaggerate a little bit. There were probably only a couple hundred boats out there, and it’s a big lake. Still…it was really bumpy.
I can look adorable even in a bumpy boat!
I was pretty much OK. Sometimes I sat up near the front between my dad and Uncle. A bunch of the time I sat next to my mom or my Aunt. But it was really windy back there.
This is not a good look mama!
If I felt nervous I’d just lean up against mama or my Aunt’s knee and they’d pet me, and then I felt pretty safe.
Sometimes a hand is all a doggie needs to feel a lot safer.
It was nice to be out there…
The fire tower has a flag on it now!
…but as soon as we pulled back into my part of the lake I knew I was almost home and I went to stand up near my Uncle and dad…
A little to the port side Captain!
…to help guide the boat back into the boat lift you know.
I’m pretty sure they were glad they had me along, but to be honest, I was happy to be back with all four of my paws dry and firmly on the ground.
I’m not sure exactly what all those other dogs see in the spray and the waves and the wet! But I guess I’m happiest when I’m next to my people. And if that means I’m in a boat, well, that’s just fine with me.
Signing off for now, First Mate Katie-girl. Boat dog extraordinaire.
Me and my mama chilling out on the boat.
Truck Safety – the details
It’s a very busy place, Washington DC.
It all started when my dad was killed by a tired semi-truck driver who fell asleep at the wheel and didn’t see the traffic stopped ahead of him early in the morning of December 23, 2004.
Since them members of my family have been traveling to Washington DC regularly to tell our story and lobby for safety on our nation’s roads. This past week my husband and I were there again, talking to the staff of House Representatives and Senators, as well as people at the DOT, about the bigger, heavier, longer trucks that are once again being proposed by some in the trucking industry.
Riding the metro to the Hill on a beautiful day.
Back in 2015 double 33 foot trailers were proposed by the trucking industry, they say because of a driver shortage. What they didn’t say is that adding 5 feet on each of two trailers, hauled in tandem, made the entire truck 83 feet, 8 inches long. That’s similar to an 8 story building. Try passing that on a busy freeway.
We worked long hours and got back to the hotel after dark most nights.
They also don’t tell you that it will take longer to stop, that the back trailer doesn’t track correctly going around corners and that they’re harder to drive, requiring a special endorsement on a driver’s commercial license.
In one of the lady’s rooms, mid century modern makeup chairs.
There’s already a shortage of drivers, finding experienced drivers to haul double 33 foot trailers isn’t going to be easy.
Mountain sculpture in the Hart Senate Building lobby.
Aside from the safety issues, many companies ship their goods ‘intermodal’ meaning they move over land on rails as well as highways, and across the ocean on ships. The 33 foot trailers won’t fit on rail cars as they are configured now, and container ships may have to change the way the trailers are stacked as well. Some people fear that smaller transport companies will be forced out of business as shippers and brokers move to the more competitive larger trailers to ship their goods, regardless of the level of safety attributed to these trailers.
Waiting for a shuttle I thought the metro lines above were interesting.
There’s an appropriations bill in the House of Representatives right now. It’s the kind of bill that ‘must pass’ because it funds most of the Federally mandated programs across the country. Some members of Congress have added amendments to the bill that we consider anti truck safety. Allowing for a study of the double 33 foot trailers is one of these amendments.
It wasn’t all work. We ate dinner down on the wharf near an old torpedo factory that has been turned into an artist loft.
You might think that we shouldn’t be afraid of studying something, and normally I’d agree. But there isn’t much data out there on double 33s, they are running on some roads of certain states, but not many. We’re concerned that the trucking industry will fund studies of their own, and of course those will be favorable.
Right now the amendment is still in the appropriations bill. An amendment offered by another Representative to strip it from the bill failed by a few votes. So we have work to do.
We walked up and down a lot of stairs.
And this is just one issue. There are so many more that I want to tell you about. We worked all week on the Hill, talking about speed limiters, hours of service, underride crashes and the bill sitting in Congress right now, Stop Underride, that needs to move out of committee.
One afternoon we even got to take some time off and visit the national zoo!
We walked between appointments, from the House side to the Senate side of the Hill and back again, in the hot, humid air of summer in DC. It was hard. But getting the call about Dad was harder and I reminded myself how important this all is.
And yes we got lucky and saw the famous pandas.
I know truck safety is not everyone’s thing. And I know some of you will have differing opinions on how to solve the problem of truck crashes on our highways. I have so much more to tell you, and to show you, about our trip to DC last week. But this is already too long, too boring, and just a little stressful.
We had one peaceful evening on the Mall.
So I put a few photos in for relief — just in case you’d rather just look at cool stuff. I’m OK with that too.
Studying before an appointment.
I’ll tell you more about our work in another post. Stay tuned.
The flight home was thankfully incident free.
Flying back into the fray
We’re back in D.C., ready to work for safer roads.
Flying east with hope
We got in late last night; our flight was delayed due to mechanical problems. We arrived at the hotel long past dinner time having only eaten breakfast many hours prior.
The Potomac River gleams pink as we bank into D.C.
The hotel staff was helpful in finding us one last restaurant that would deliver though they were official closed for the evening. It’s nice when people go out of their way to be helpful.
Flaps up we’re in the Capitol now.
We can only hope the lawmakers we’ll be talking to about bigger and heavier trucks are as thoughtful.
Luggage in tow we’re going to work now.
Gotcha Day, the adventure continues
Shhhhhh….mama’s sleeping and I wanted to get back online and tell you about the rest of my Gotcha Day, the 11th anniversary of me coming to live with mama and daddy. As you know this year I’m with mama down South, and she forgot all about my anniversary! But we spent the day out adventuring with my Aunt and Uncle, so that’s OK.
After we got finished with the crazy art compound Pasaquan we drove another hour and arrived at a Providence Canyon State Park. It’s Georgia’s very own Grand Canyon!
There were red cliffs and white cliffs and a beautiful blue sky.
Mama and Uncle and Aunt and I decided to walk down to the bottom. Mama was a little worried because it was a warm day and she was picturing herself carrying me back up if I overdid it. We asked a Ranger how far down it was and she said it was a little over a mile down and back up. Well! I can do a mile mama!
She still looked worried, it wasn’t the down that concerned her; she said OK, but she’d be watching me and if I got to lagging she was turning around. Plus she had water for me, and treats. So maybe it would be fun.
Are we going all the way down there mama?
So down and down we went. We saw lots of people coming up and most of them were panting just like me. It was pretty steep. But there were lots of trees for shade and it got cooler the further down we went. Once we got to the bottom I instantly saw a problem.
Water. Lots and lots of water. Not deep, but definitely wet and as you all know I do not get my feet wet. No I do not. I am a princess and it is unseemly to have damp feet. Plus I just went to the groomer a couple weeks ago and I am not up for having to do that all over again.
Ummm…that’s not water is it?
So I suggested we just observe it from the edges. But my peeps seemed to think we needed to walk upstream. I tried to find the dry edges to walk. I was very focused on not getting my feet wet.
Let’s stay over here where it’s dry!
But some of the stream didn’t have dry edges! Oh NO! What is a princess to do?
Oh no! Wet feet!
Eventually, when I had to, I just gave in and walked in the water. Don’t tell them, but it was pretty cool and my feet weren’t so warm when they were wet. But my beautiful white feet turned Georgia clay red!
I don’t like it but I guess I don’t have a choice.
I’m hoping mama doesn’t notice that and doesn’t make me go back to the groomer. I was a pretty wet mess by the time we turned around to head back to the car.
I give up!
On the walk back up the cliff we stopped a whole lot. And not just for me either – my people were huffing worse than me! Most of the time I was out front pulling them along. As you may recall my mama calls me a mountain goat.
Resting on the way up. Don’t look at my red feet.
I did really well, and drank all my water and ate a few treats along the way. We saw lots of dogs but it was mostly the children we ran across that wanted to meet me. I let everybody talk to me and pet me and tell me how beautiful I was (even though I knew I was far from beautiful dripping muddy water off my furs!) and I thought the whole thing was fun, though a bit muddy for the likes of a princess.
I told mama that was stretching it a bit much, so the next place we went that day was a marina where I got to sit under Spanish moss and on a porch with rocking chairs.
This is pretty. And a lot drier!
That was more like it.
Except for the warning about the alligators.
What does this sign say mama?
Geeze mama! What were you thinking! I’m alligator bait here! Let’s get back to the car and home so I can get my supper. Sometimes I don’t think you even have a brain woman!
Once we got home and I got my supper I was all stretched out on my comforter when my Aunt decided she’d comb out all the seed pods and sticks caught in my muddy red fur. I opened one eye, didn’t tell her off or anything, just got up and crawled under the bed.
Enough people! (Don’t look at my red feet.)
I’d had enough adventuring and I didn’t want to be bothered. Mama and my Aunt laughed and said that was OK. And they let me sleep till the next morning by which time I had pretty much cleaned myself up my own way. A princess knows how to prepare for the new day after all. She doesn’t always need help from her people.
The next day I went for a long boat ride and saw cool stuff, but that messed my fur up too. I swear, mama needs to come up with a more sedate adventure for me now. Cause I can’t keep putting myself back together every single day, you know?
I know you know.
Don’t tell the peeps, but this was sorta fun.
She is everywhere
In memory of my mom. She would have loved this Alabama spring.
Wisteria, in bloom all over. It’s invasive, but oh so beautiful.
Dogwood, such a sign of spring.
Redbud, crazy fushia glowing all through the woods.
There’s a whole bank of crowfoot violets at the end of her street.
I see her everywhere, but nowhere as clear as in her beloved flowers and birds near her home on the lake.
Feeding her ducks.
Change Is Hard 