Personal Day

I just couldn't find the will power to make it to work today. I told my boss that I just needed a personal day to "deal with numerous personal issues". I guess this is really the truth. I've been slightly depressed lately. I don't know what it is, I'm just not happy with my life lately. I feel bogged down by everything. My wife is calling it a mid-life crisis. I don't know what's going on.

I spent most of the morning driving around and looking at stuff, which is my favorite morning activity. The opening shot here is from this morning's sunrise at Jester Park.



I visited Robby's grave this morning too. I feel guilty for not going out there more often. It's upsetting to find it so covered with crap. Getting the time to clean it up was worth the day of in itself.


It feels like all that I did this past weekend was to care for my children. I took Abby, her friend Lilly, and Madeline to Skate North on Friday night. Abby wanted to go there with Lilly for her birthday. Madeline and I strapped on skates and did one loop on the floor. That was enough for both of us. We were very bored for about two more hours while we waited for Abby & Lilly to be done. Skate parks on Friday nights are full of 9-16 yr olds. Not a fun place for a dad and a four year old. What's with the blinking pacifiers that all of the kids had? Drugs?

Saturday I took Madeline out for a walk on an abandoned beach out at Saylorville. It was nice to get out of the house for a while.

Morning Drive

I'm a morning person by far. I love the morning. I'm usually alone, the air is clean, it's quiet, the light is the most intriguing. The worst part is that I have to go to work in the mornings. There are some (most) days when I would like to be able to screw around for a few hours before I have to be anywhere. Today was one of those mornings. The temp was 35 when I left home. The air was still. The light was good. I felt good. Stupid job.

Huge Deck for Entertaining

I went to my sister's house this weekend to assist my nephew in building a deck on the front of their house. It went surprisingly smooth, and only took about 6 or 7 working hours to finish. This was Brandon's (my nephew) first project of this sort. He is a natural at this kind of thing and it was a joy to spend the time with him.

Iowa beat Iowa State yesterday, finally. Iowa's second half adjustments never cease to amaze me. Kirk F is one awesome coach.

We ended the day, yesterday, with the Wickers and Claussens at their campsite. Lots of good food and conversation as usual. It was nice to reap the benefits of camping, without all of the cleanup. Especially since it rained overnight.

Insomnia

I fell asleep for about 2-1/2 hours and now can't sleep. I hate insomnia. I'll be sleeping like a baby when the alarm goes off in five hours.

Leica is introducing the M8 digital rangefinder tomorrow. I want one bad. Too bad it'll probably cost $5,000. I need to win the lottery, or maybe sell a bunch of photos (hahaha).

Angie is coming home from her trip to England tomorrow. She's at the airport in London right now. I don't envy her for her trip home. What a long day it will be.

Kodak Blues

Amazingly, all of the kids are out of the house for the night. Abby & Madeline are spending the night with my mom. Alex is staying with a friend. I've been printing for the past two hours. YAY!

Sometime last year the assholes at Kodak decided to stop making B&W printing paper. The paper that I use to make prints from my 8x10 negatives is Kodak Azo. It's my favorite paper by far. I'm down to my last four sheets of grade 2. Damn!! I'm going to have to find a good replacement paper now. Stupid Kodak bastards. Like they're making any money in the digital market.

I'm going to start shooting more 35mm black and white. I'm going to use Kodak's Tri-x. I hope they don't drop film anytime soon. I use their Tmax400 in 8x10. Too bad they make such good stuff.

Moon Dance

The single parent thing finally got to me tonight. I needed a break from the older two. Sometimes they just drive me crazy. I assigned them some housework, fed them dinner, and headed out with Madeline for a few hours of peace.

We went out to Jester park to watch the full moon rise. As we sat there amidst the dead trees and osprey nests, we saw the big orange moon break the horizon over the lake. Madeline was more excited about it than I was. She made up a dance on the picnic table to honor the rising of the moon. Pretty cool.

Preschool part 2

Madeline loved her first day at preschool. At first she didn't want me to leave. When she got busy playing I snuck out. When I picked her up, she didn't want to leave. That's good.

I got some darkroom time in tonight. I re-printed a few 8x10 negs. Re-printing negs is just not as exciting as printing them for the first time. I should just learn to print more than 1 or 2 when I do them the first time. I've been working on getting a set together of my best 8x10 prints, for me. Everytime I get some prints made, I give them away. When someone comes over and want to see my work, I don't have much to show them. That, and I'm working on some for Madeline's day care provider, Sandi. She's a great lady. She asked me for prints about a year ago, so it's about time I make some for her.

The weather is still super here. I hope it holds through the weekend.

This is a scan of a print from an 8x10 neg. The funny swirly lines are scanning artifacts. I am very stupid when it comes to computers & scanning & photoshopping.

Preschool

Madeline starts preschool tomorrow. She says she doesn't really want to go because all of the kids will be mean to her. Poor kid. I plan to stay with her until she feels comfortable. I bet it takes about 10 minutes.

I wish I liked my job. I feel like I'm wasting my life away eight hours at a time, every fucking day. If there's no heaven I'm going to be very pissed off.

Angie made it to England just fine. So far it's been going pretty well at home. The great weather is helping to keep me in good spirits. It's been just gorgeous. We're camping this weekend, I hope it stays just like this.

Crikey

I guess Steve Irwin's dumb luck finally ran out. I feel horrible for his family, especially his children. It's a tragic deal for them. Seems pretty selfish to me, risking his life like that, when he had kids at home that needed him to be around for a while. Angie said "it was just a matter of time". Alex said "duh, that's what he gets". Nobody deserves to die, but you shouldn't go chasing it either. I guess he died doing what he loves. I should be so lucky.

The first day as solo parent went very well. I even grabbed some time to develop the thirteen 8x10 negatives that I exposed yesterday. A few look very promising.

Angie is somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic right now. I can't imagine how sucky an eight hour flight must be.

This fall-like weather we're having is totally bitchin. I'm loving having the windows open for a change. Fall is definitely my favorite time of year. Jeans & sweatshirts. Awesome light.

In the beginning

Not being a man of words, I use photography to speak my mind. I've created this blog to share my thoughts and images with those that might find importance in them; or at least maybe a little entertainment.

My wife left for a 10 day trip to England this morning. I'm Mr Mom until the middle of September. She does most of the work around here, so it's going to be a very long 10 days.

We've had lots of rain this weekend. Thankfully it's just been in the evenings though. This is a shot of Abby playing in the puddles on Friday night.

(PS - Contrary to popular belief, the name of this blog "Tea Bag Images" is NOT derived from the perverse definition of "teabag". When this blog was started, my wife was on her way to England to have tea with her relatives ("fancy a cup of tea?"). That's where my inspiration for Tea Bag Images came from. You and your filthy minds...;-))