Your daily dose of 'AWWWW'

OK - - it's in here

I'm thinking about giving up commercial photography.

Weddings are killing my knees
I don't do enough families and seniors to really do anything
After 3+ years I've lost about 40 thousand dollars.

I'm not going to quit my utility job, it's steady work and in this economy it's stupid.

Photography is still a passion, but I miss GOING places, and seeing nature, bugs, and little things. I love little life.

Get your Kleenex out...........

Dogs are wonderful.

My Parents Were Awesome

I found a link to this nifty website,

My Parents Were Awesome

People send in photos of their parents, grandparents, and on into antiquity when they were young, hip and beautiful.

It's a very cool site!

I'll have to dig thru a few boxes to find one of them together, but in their day they looked pretty good!

All ticks of the 'Geological Clock' are not created equal

Turn the sound up.

Plastic

I found these photos online and felt that they show one real impact of our plastic use choking the life out of the sea. I know these are 'just seagulls' and 'seagulls eat anything' but I found these shocking.

I wonder what other animals out there are living their daily lives with a belly full of plastic that we don't use anymore?

I'm also reminded of that silly commercial that the plastic manufacturers keep airing to make sure we still feel good about their products.

"Plastics make it possible."

Dr. Jack McPherson, PHD

I am proud to have known Jack by my association with his son John, and his parents Dick and Nora. On every occasion that I was fortunate enough to meet Jack, he was kind, thoughtful, and a wonderful person to talk with.



Jack had the incredible fortune to have Dick and Nora McPherson for parents. They taught him kindness, goodness, hard work, and the value of a good education. Jack's children are some of the finest men and women I know.
Some I know well and some I do not.



Jack cared about people. He taught right up until 2 weeks prior to his death. He didn't believe in self pity, or sitting and waiting for death. He believed in hope. He engenders trust and hope in others.






I find all of the McPhersons to be a remarkable family. From Great Grandpa Dick who passed 2 years ago, all the way down to my dear young Emily. Intelligent, caring, and loving. This does not happen by accident. Jack instilled these principles in his children and now they have children of their own. His love and his work ethic are now evident in them.

This photo is 5 generations



Jack honored his father's love by returning to their native Scotland to bond more closely with the families' roots. As he traveled with his sons, they also felt the deep connection and value their heritage to this day. Jack knew that family was the most important link of all. Now that family remembers him with love and respect.

May the Road Rise to Meet You, Jack.

Death - I know you.

Death and I go way back. Because I was a white girl in health care in Oklahoma, I got to take care of lots of sick rich people. Some got better. Most died. I learned the careful art of comforting the grieving left alive by helping them process what had just happened or what was happening right before them.

Because I wasn't superstitious about death, I worked in a funeral home at 16, and was more than comfortable with the dead by the time I graduated from high school. There, death was like a salesman - one face to the public, and another more real face behind the scenes. The work of death really was work.

Working in nursing homes, care facilities for greviously ill and injured children, death was my constant companion as I attempted to work my way through college. All day at school we talked about the afterlife, then I'd go to work and watch people go into the afterlife. Since so many other nurse's aides were scared to be around dying or dead people, I became the person who 'did that'. I cannot even begin to estimate how many people I sat with as they went through the process of dying. Holding their hands, whispering comforting things to them, hearing their last breath. Wondering what roads they had taken to die here, with only a stranger to comfort them.

All of these experiences gave me knowledge and wisdom when those close to me have died. Chip. Grandmother. If nothing else had ever happened, being able to look my mother in the eye and tell her without a doubt that her mother was in no pain anymore and why - - that was worth all those nights in all those hospitals and nursing homes. Death's terror was lessened - - I won back just a bit that day.

I look upon all of these people I have been with at the point of death as people who have given me a great privelege. I will never give birth. But perhaps I have given some a more comfortable death. My service to their body after death is my gift to them. The last thing that anyone will do for them.

As another death draws very near, it makes me reflect on all those gone by. I hope I have the wisdom and words to help the family as they need me to now. They don't know Death like I do.

Everything Ends

But he sure was a cutie

I love Ted Nugent

Love that Cat

A good reason to get Fido his own room

Also, another reason to keep your purse off the floor when you aren't home.