Winter in Florida?

Have you ever wondered why girls / women keep a diary and men don’t, at least none that I know of. Unless your job requires daily writing, most of us don’t; but what a great way to keep up with your life. If not for your own edification, then for your children and their children.
Why the musing about such a mundane subject? I’m not sure but it’s probably because we are getting close to sale of the motor home. Unless someone knocks on my door in the next two weeks, I will be off to Houston, TX, to hand over the keys to PPL, one of the largest consignment RV dealers in the country (at least that’s what they say). Although I’m not sure I’d want to write every day for myself, when we were traveling, it was a great way to recap events of the day.
Even now, when I’m assembling photos for the show and others, I often refer back to the daily blog to make sure where we were when a certain photo was made. Fortunately, in the digital age, the camera keeps track of date and time. I read that some newer cameras even have a GPS to record long/lat so you really know where the picture was taken. I probably don’t need that, but it’s interesting to think about.
We had our most serious cold weather this week. According to the local weathermen on TV, it is the coldest in three years. Inland Florida got down to the teens; we were in the mid-20’s for a couple of nights. The photos above shows the icicles on our plants in the front yard. Today (Friday) it is back into the mid-60’s with Sunday scheduled to be in the mid-70’s. That’s Florida winters for you.
We had a nice visit early this week from Teddi and Bill. Teddi does catering in Macon, GA, and has two cookbooks published. Margaret helped edit the first one back when we lived in Warner Robins, GA. Teddi and Bill also bought two of my photos from the show. What nice people! (They’re nice if they didn’t buy any!)
As I mentioned last time, my web-site (http://www.aMUSEingJourneys.com) is up and running. Still not perfect – don’t know that it will ever be, but at least folks can go there to see photos. At the moment it’s mostly the photo show, but I think I’m going to need to cycle a wide variety of shots to keep up the interest. If you always see the same photos, you’d probably stop going. So keep checking in.
The internet magazine that Carol (our daughter) is works with (http://www.Dystopiamagazine.com) has used several of my photos and want more. So I’ll probably add their link to my site.
Finally, the photo show ends in its current location at the end of January. We have found a local gallery that wants to hang my photos. It’s a small gallery, but we’ll probably be able to hang 8 or 10 plus a bin for smaller prints. I’m also working on local photos for note-cards that they can carry. Folks usually don’t want large prints, particularly if they’re traveling, but a small note-card (postcard size-ish) might work. I’m also thinking about assembling some of the photos into a self-published book that might interest some folks. Never a dull moment.

Happy New Year!

It is hard to believe how fast the time slips by. The last posting was right after Christmas. Now it’s the second week in January in a new year. Yes, I’m a little tardy (per my every-other-week promise), but things fill the days.

In case you haven’t heard, my alma-mater squeaked out a football win over Oklahoma for the BCS National Championship last week. First time in a long time I stayed up past midnight! Whew! Superman (Tim Tebow) just announced he’s returning for another year at Florida, so they should be pretty good next year, too.
We continue to get positive feedback from the photo show last month. Out of the 30+ photos hanging (not counting the small ones in bins), we’ve sold 10 so far and people say they’re going to revisit. Of course this is after the Christmas shopping, so I’m not holding my breath. But the important thing is, folks enjoyed the photos and had a good time at the show.

Now, for those of you who couldn’t make it (or would like to see them again), my web-site is finally up. Not perfect, but at least you can look. I continue to tweak the contents and I’m still not totally comfortable with pricing, but that is work-in-progress. http://www.aMUSEingJourneys.com
A local gallery has tentatively agreed to give me wall space. I’ll probably try to utilize more local subject material since that’s what folks want to see when they wander into a local gallery. But at least with the web-site up, we can advertise for that destination.
I’ve included a couple of local photos including one taken in the early morning mist of the marina.
We have decided to cut back on travel in 2009 and depending on the economy, will probably put our motorhome up for sale. So if you know someone who wants a good unit (and good towed-vehicle), send them our way!