Life Through A Long Lense

The raNdom Thoughts and observations of an amateur photographer

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Flickr test

The photo linked here is marked "restricted" on Flickr.  It is just a generic test photo with no relevance and is entirely safe. I am testing whether it can be seen at all, and if so, can it be seen by persons not logged in to Flickr?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveemerson/2794781166/in/photostream

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Playing in the leaf pile on Flickr.

The Joys of Fall. Raking leaves is a chore, but playing in them is a joy. I love my trees. I love the colours and the variety. I love my little grandkids even more. They are the greatest gift God could give anyone (well, second only to His Son, our Saviour)

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Happy 100,000! on Flickr.

Received new July 28,2011 100,000 miles in 14 months for an average of 7,000 miles per month or a little over 200 miles per day- holidays and weekends included. And driving the truck is only my means of transportation for the job, I don't "drive a truck" for a living. Here she is brand new:

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Colours of the Union- "And a little child shall lead them" on Flickr.

 I love how the little Union flag bearer is apparently best friends with the little Confederate boy.  Would that we could be like the children and accept each other despite our differences. Our civil war was a very weird thing.  Brother against brother, a battle would rage in the morning and at the camps in the evenings oftentimes there would be comradeship amongst the opposing armies.  Then morning comes and its back to killing each other.  Really hard to understand. Both sides were fighting for freedom.  But freedom meant different things to different people.  For one side, it was freedom for all.  On the other side it was freedom to deny freedom to some. Although I grew up in the South (M/L) and all around me the sympathies were for the Confederacy, I am glad the war came out as it did.  The minor issue of the war, slavery, was indeed immoral and wrong.  It was a plague on humanity that had hung around a few thousand years too long already. It needed to go. But that being said, I believe our little American experiment died with the South.  No longer would the states or the individual citizens have protected rights that could not be usurped by the Federal government.  Words to that effect carefully inscribed by our Founding Fathers, even those of the 10th amendment, become no more than empty, hollow "promises" that the Federal government was free to break as they chose. Notwithstanding the words of the "Bill of Rights," the civil war showed that the Federal government was sovereign and would be willing to use force and kill its own citizens to enforce its "duly passed" laws.  The debate over whether or not we should have a powerful central government was settled by war and killing of our own citizens- not much different than Tienanmen Square when you think about it- only we did it on a MUCH larger scale than the Chinese.

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For the birds on Flickr.

Human life is FAR more valuable than any animals. But it puzzles me why we have more respect for some animal life than for others. For instance, we feed birds but kill insects. It makes sense at one level: Insects are often pests. But many times we kill "pests" just because we don't like them, even when they are doing us no harm and ultimately might be good to have around. Sometimes, as in the case of stinging insects, it is simply out of (usually irrational) fear. We are all interconnected on some level. As this feeder was intended to feed hummingbirds and its nectar is being "stolen" by insects, these same insects might very well feed other birds and at some point provide a needed service to us. Life is precious.

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ASL on Flickr.

The heart of a teacher. Although I didn't get a picture of it, last night I observed something that prophesies to me about the future of my grand daughter. She and her sister were playing in the water at the Y pool and she was attempting to teach her sister how to do a handstand. "Big whoop" you say? What's such a big deal about that?

Well, the big deal is that she cannot do a handstand herself very well. She has the heart of a teacher.

The heart of a teacher is that he/she is willing to SHARE with others whatever he/she has without fear that he/she might lose their superiority in skills or knowledge. A teacher does not hold back. In fact it is through seeing his/her students surpass his/her level that a teacher gets his/her greatest satisfaction. It is a teacher's greatest honour to encounter someone who is actually interested in the things THEY have learned and to see them take the little bits that they share and reach for the sky with them. The most interesting phenomenon takes place when one begins to teach: THE TEACHER LEARNS. I think this well illustrates a great life principle- it is in GIVING that we RECEIVE. I love to watch my three grand kids taking turns teaching each other as they learn themselves all the myriad mysteries of life.

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four horsepower harvester on Flickr.

The harvest is in full swing. I wonder how well the farmers are doing as we had flooding early in the season and then a long drought. From what I can see (not being a farmer and knowing pretty much nothing about farming) it looks like the bean crop is pretty much normal, but the corn looks pretty poor this year. The stalks are short and they don't appear to have a lot of ears on them. I hope I am wrong about the corn. Being a farmer is a tough life, full of uncertainties. They seriously need all the breaks they can get.

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Overcoming on Flickr.

Overcoming fear: This is my 7 year old grand daughter. She has a moderate fear of heights. In this picture, she is attacking it head on. I know from whence she comes. When I was her age, I was so afraid of heights that i could not climb over the second step of a step ladder. When I started high school, I had to walk to school a mile away. That walk included crossing a railroad yard. There were two bridges available to do so, one made of concrete and another, open to foot travel only, made of wood with open-riser steps in one direction and a ramp in the other. I was terrified to use either bridge, but especially the wooden one. Many times i would walk across the tracks rather than face these bridges. One day I had enough! I thought "nobody else is scared of this bridge, why me?" Each day, as I walked to school, I would face that wooden bridge down and I vowed to beat it. I walked up the steps as far as I could until I got scared, then turned around, shakily walked back down, and walked the tracks, hoping the "railroad dicks" would not catch me. After a couple of weeks of this, I did it! I actually walked all the way across that bridge! Day after day, I faced that bridge and with familiarity, the fear left. A few years later, my best friend, Dale, and I took a rock climbing course where we learned technical climbing and rappelling.  The two of us did a free-fall rappel off of that bridge. The 21st street bridge had been finally conquered, and along with it, MOST of my fear of heights. (OBTW, the railroad dicks caught us rappelling) Now I love to fly and I love to go up in high places, as long as there is reasonable protection. I have climbed rock faces. I have climbed radio towers. I have worked in construction on high-rises. I have even been on the roof of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center (which has NO parapet wall and the roof slopes near the edge, BTW). The fear is still there sometimes, but it is under control. I am writing this to say to anyone who cares, if there is fear in your life that is keeping you from accomplishing things you would like to do, TACKLE THAT FEAR HEAD ON and you will overcome. Dave

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I guess its a newbie thing

I have spent virtually all evening trying to figure out why i cannot see the notes on my posts.  The links indicate they are there and I saw them yesterday, but today they just won't show.

I see notes on others' blogs just fine.

I have tried Firefox and Safari on the Mac and Firefox on my XP machine, both logged in and not logged in, deleted cookies and cache, FINALLY was able to find a link to open a help ticket.

Still no luck.

-frustrated

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farewell swimming season on Flickr. i So love the water. To be able to wade in a stream with the grand kids, go swimming in a clean outdoor pool... just to be able to walk down a trail and cross a stream without worrying that getting your feet wet will shorten your hike because of fear of freezing your feet off.

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IMG_7175 on Flickr.

The fall colours are peaking in Indiana. This is a beautiful time of year but it is a bitter-sweet time. The cooler weather is relaxing and we leave the sweltering heat behind. but we also leave the water--