Good morning. ☕☕☕

7 April 2026

I’m off to a rough start this morning, though at least there’s hot coffee. I woke up to deal with Charlie’s accident from last night — the second morning in a row, and today’s was worse. For some reason he’s been choosing my office when nature calls, but this time the trail followed him out into the hall.

No worries. I grabbed my Bissell wet vac and got to work. The hallway went fine, but once I hit the office the brushes stopped spinning, so the cleanup was mediocre at best. I can still see outlines in the carpet and I’m still working on lifting them out. Ohhh nooo 😱. I ended up ordering a new steam vac from Amazon. Charlie is lucky we’re besties.

The whole thing threw off my morning rhythm. I didn’t get my usual couple of hours to just sit and vegetate after waking up. Numb mornings are important at this stage of life.

There was a noise in the background I couldn’t place at first, and then it hit me — it’s Wednesday, and the Roomba is roombaing.

The new steam vac should arrive tomorrow, and now I’m wondering what to do with the old one. The only problem seems to be the brushes not turning; I’m pretty sure the motor is done. It still sucks… in both senses. Maybe I’ll take it to Goodwill, or maybe it’ll just go out with the trash. Most likely the curb.

What I’ve noticed is that when I set something like that out for trash pickup, it’s usually gone before the garbage truck ever shows up. An interesting and slightly magical detail.

“Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” — Anatole France

"The things you own end up owning you.” — Chuck Palahniuk

“Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day.” — Alice Morse Earle

#photo #photography #photographer #photographylovers #nature #morning #life #dogs #sky #clouds

Good morning. 🌸💮🌷

5 April 2026

Happy Easter. 🐣

Do you remember dyeing Easter eggs the day before Easter, then waking up early to hunt them — all while somehow believing a magical bunny had been involved? Back then, imagination felt real enough to touch. Some people carried that spark forward and turned it into great stories. For me, the spell broke the moment I discovered Santa might not be real. That was a long time ago, and I’ve grown more cynical since. It happens gradually, as more knowledge clicks into place and more dots connect.

I’m not saying cynicism is a bad thing. It’s often said that cynics notice things — and we may or may not choose to comment on what we notice. We see the gap between what people say and what they actually do. It’s easy to speak without considering consequences, but much harder to follow through. Action requires commitment to real values. In other words, talk is cheap.

Cynics also see the machinery behind institutions — systems built on incentives rather than ideals, running on people who are mostly trying to protect themselves.

And we notice the incentives behind people’s actions, often intuiting what those incentives might be. There are patterns in behavior that many overlook, but a cynic tends to catch them.

In the end, it often comes down to an unwritten code: don’t be naive, don’t be impressed by titles, don’t let society gaslight you, and pay attention to what’s actually happening — not just what you’re told is happening.

And so Easter becomes a kind of checkpoint — a reminder of where belief began, and how perspective changes with time.

Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.” — Lewis Carroll

“Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist.” — George Carlin

“We do not see things as they are; we see them as we are.” — Anaïs Nin

#photo #photography #photographer #photographylovers #nature #flower #morning #easter #cynic

Good morning. 🌓🌔🌕

3 April 2026

I’m sitting here watching my cursor blink while I sip my coffee. Well—I was—before deciding to type something, anything, just to get the morning moving. Every time I pause, the cursor starts blinking again, as if nudging me to keep going.

The coffee is unusually good today. I finally worked my way through the ten pounds of pre‑ground coffee I accidentally ordered a while back. You might remember me mentioning that, if you’ve been subjected to the morning minutiae I tend to spill onto the page. So this morning I had relatively fresh, French‑roasted whole beans to run through the grinder. I should probably order more right away rather than risk waking up one morning with no coffee. The horror 😱.

Yes, I’m a practicing coffee snob—or at least I try to be. I have to admit I’m not a very accomplished one. If coffee snobs had belts, I’d probably be a green belt. Maybe even white. After all, I buy affordable beans and use a drip coffee maker. A black belt would be brewing Jamaican Blue Mountain at a hundred bucks a pound and probably using a French press with a sense of ceremony. I’m over here in the five‑to‑seven‑dollar range.

Did you know there are coffee beans that cost over a thousand dollars per pound? Ospina Dynasty runs about $1,540 per pound. I only know that because I looked it up. I can’t imagine anyone paying that much for beans of any kind—except maybe Jack. What a poor example of a coffee snob I must be.

And there it is again: the blinking cursor.

“What goes best with a cup of coffee? Another cup.” — Henry Rollins

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” — Jack London

“I’m not a snob. Ask anybody. Well… anybody who matters.” — Simon Le Bon

#photo #photography #photographer #photographylovers #fullmoon #morning #coffee

Good morning. 🪿🪿🪿

1 April 2026

I just checked — the Moon launch is still a go for this evening, and fueling has already begun. Yes, it does happen to fall on April Fools’ Day, but despite the timing, it’s very much a real event. Sending four astronauts around the Moon is a mighty endeavor. We’ve done it before, but not in decades, and I’m wishing them a safe and steady journey.

Speaking of the Moon… do you remember when Louis Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface in 1969?
Me neither. That’s my April Fools’ joke for the day. I’m fully aware it was Neil Armstrong, with his famous words: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Louis would’ve played a trumpet, though the physics of playing one on the Moon might make that a little tricky. Now I’m just jabbering.

I did once see John Glenn, who in 1962 became the first American to orbit the Earth. It was most likely in 1963, when he visited the Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan, and spoke to a joint gathering of the Boy Scout troop and the Cub Scout pack. That memory has stayed with me.

The first American launched into space was Alan Shepard, who rode Freedom 7 up and back down in 1961. A detail many people miss is that Shepard later commanded Apollo 14 in 1971 and became the fifth person to walk on the Moon. He even took the time to hit two golf balls on the lunar surface — which is pretty impressive, considering I have trouble hitting them on Earth.

And I suppose I could’ve worked in something about Dax Shepard and Scott Glenn — two non‑astronauts who still have space‑related claims to fame. Scott Glenn played Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff, and Dax Shepard played “The Astronaut” in the 2005 film Zathura: A Space Adventure. Close enough for Hollywood.

“For all we know, the Earth may be nothing more than an ant’s nest compared to the universe.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.” - Leo Rosten

#photo #photography #nature #birds #morning #space

Good morning. 🪿🪿🦢

28 March 2026

I’m just easing into the morning with my first cup of coffee. I can always tell when I’m taking too long to gather my thoughts—my coffee starts to cool before I’ve said anything worth saying.

Last night I finished Blue Moon by Lee Child, a Jack Reacher novel from one of my favorite series. I have most of the books on audio, and for years they were narrated by Dick Hill, who passed away a couple of years ago. Over time, Hill’s voice became Jack Reacher for me, and while I was reading this one, I kept trying to hear that familiar “Reacher voice” in my head. Scott Brick—one of my favorite audiobook narrators—has taken over since Hill’s passing, but after so many years of Hill’s Reacher, it’s just not quite the same.

Since I don’t drive as much anymore, I decided to order a hardback of a recent Reacher book. That plan didn’t go quite the way I expected, because it turns out I’d already read—or listened to—Blue Moon. I’m not sure why the title didn’t ring a bell when I ordered it. Still, it worked out. I didn’t remember most of the details, and I always feel like you catch more of the story when you read it yourself. I enjoyed the book, but next time I’ll do a better job checking which ones I already own.

The story pits Reacher against two rival organized‑crime groups in a city he just happens to wander into. As for who wins—well, if you know Jack Reacher, those guys were doomed the moment they crossed him.

Blue Moon is the 25th Reacher novel. If you’re curious about where it all begins, the first book is The Killing Floor.

“Get your retaliation in first” - Jack Reacher

“You can’t reason with a bully. You stop him.” - Jack Reacher

"Reacher said nothing." - Lee Child

#photo #photography #photographer #photographylovers #wildlife #nature #bird #birds #birding #birdwatching #birdphotography #BlackBelliedWhistlerDucks #greategret #morning #book #reading #JackReacher #LeeChild

Good morning. 😴⏰☕

26 March 2026

We went to a mall the other day. In a time when most shopping malls are becoming artifacts of days gone by, this one was doing surprisingly well. I suppose it takes a certain population density for a mall to thrive. While the ladies shopped, I mostly found a place to sit somewhere outside whatever store they entered. Shopping isn’t exactly a skill I possess.

Still, it’s interesting just watching people go by. The mall walkers caught my attention. They’re the folks who briskly circle the perimeter of the concourse for exercise. I even spotted a few who took it a step further by looping through the department store at the end to add its perimeter to their route. Most mall walkers are older adults, though I did see a few who hadn’t quite reached senior‑citizen status. Their clothing tended toward casual or near‑exercise attire.

One exception stood out: a dapper gentleman making his rounds in a dark blue leisure suit, complete with a hat — a fedora, I think. I’m not great at identifying hat styles, but it definitely wasn’t a cowboy hat or a baseball cap.

I noticed an unspoken rule among the mall walkers: everyone moved in the same direction, which in this case was counterclockwise. I don’t know if that’s a national standard or just a quirk of this particular mall — not enough data.

I can understand why people choose to get their exercise inside a mall’s concourse. The environment is climate‑controlled, it’s safer than navigating city streets, and it’s free — no gym membership required. I began to suspect there was a kind of mall‑walker governance, not formalized but understood.

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” — Arthur Conan Doyle

“Manners are the traffic lights of human interaction.” - Margaret Shepherd

“The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.” — William Morris

#photo #photography #nature #morning #flowers #mallwalkers