June Jazz

Every Tuesday evening throughout June, Amarillo College hosts various jazz bands - a different band each Tuesday. These are free to all interested, and we've been going to them this year. (They last about 2 1/2 hours.) During yesterday's performance, I took some video highlighting two of the members of The Martinis and put them together in this short (1 minute) video:

Wedding Shower

(Follow-up)

My apologies for taking so long getting promised images up. These are some of the photos I took at the wedding shower I spoke of in my Saturday Stuff post below.

Amanda and Jeff

Bride-to-be's mother, bride-to-be, groom-to-be's mother.

Opening gifts.

Guest book.

Refreshments. Delicious!

(More shower photos can be seen HERE.)

Saturday Stuff

The "daughter we never had" is getting married to her best friend next month (a pretty cool guy), and she had her wedding shower yesterday. I will be shooting her wedding, so naturally I got some shots at her shower, too. (I haven't gotten permission yet to put any up publicly. When I do, I'll probably put some up on my PBase site as well as a couple of them here.) Amanda says Shelley and I are her "other parents". We consider her our daughter, too.

After we got home from the shower, Buster was not out in plain view as he is most of the time when we get home from anywhere. We didn't think too much of it. He takes spells where he just likes to camp out under a bed or somewhere secluded. Time went by, and still no Buster. The search began. I did a cursory check of his usual spots, but no Buster. I got the flashlight and did a more thorough search. It is kinda dark under beds and other hidey-holes he uses. I even checked the bathroom. (We've closed him up in there accidentally before.) Called for him, tempting him with "wet food" - not a sign or sound. The search continued. Why is it you always find what you're looking for in the last place you look?  ;)  Turns out, when I opened the closet door in the hallway, there laid a little furry boy - looking up at me with an inquisitive look on his face. Don't know if he was asking me "What?", or maybe "Why did you shut me up in here?" He didn't seem real anxious to come out. We have no idea just how long he was there, but we suspect it was hours! Never had an accident, even though we wouldn't blame him if he did.

That boy...!  :)

The Simple Things - A Poem By Edgar A. Guest

The Simple Things

I would not be too wise—so very wise
  That I must sneer at simple songs and creeds,
And let the glare of wisdom blind my eyes
  To humble people and their humble needs.

I would not care to climb so high that I
  Could never hear the children at their play,
Could only see the people passing by,
  And never hear the cheering words they say.

I would not know too much—too much to smile
  At trivial errors of the heart and hand,
Nor be too proud to play the friend the while,
  Nor cease to help and know and understand.

I would not care to sit upon a throne,
  Or build my house upon a mountain-top,
Where I must dwell in glory all alone
  And never friend come in or poor man stop.

God grant that I may live upon this earth
  And face the tasks which every morning brings
And never lose the glory and the worth
  Of humble service and the simple things.

 

Recent Happenings

Friday night, we had some storms going through the panhandle. Normally, they split and go around Amarillo. Don't know why. It just happens - far too often to ignore. It's referred to as "the Amarillo split" among other things. Out of the all the rain crossing the panhandle, we got a whopping "trace" - just a little bit of water covering the bottom of our rain gage. It poured all around us, but not here. Typical.

Friday night, we were going to see the stage show "TEXAS!" down in Palo Duro Canyon State Park's amphitheater. We had an English (aka "British") friend of ours with us who has never seen the show. This was his chance.

I kept a close eye on the radar to see how things were going, and it looked like we might be ok. The rain was staying right next to where we'd be. I even called down to the Park to see if it had been canceled - right before we got in the car. Still not canceled.

As it turned out, when we got to the entrance to the canyon, they had to cancel the show - not because it was raining, because it wasn't. The stage was flooded! Well, we went in anyhow and stayed up on top at the main overlook. Thought we might get some lightning shots if things worked out. It did.

The lightning wasn't real prolific, but we did manage to score a few good ones.
 

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Our English friend, Dean, was telling us about hummingbirds he got photos of at the zoo here. (He works at the zoo.) After some discussion about their habits and such, I decided I'd park myself near the trumpet vines in our back yard that next morning. The trumpets were flowering really nice, and we knew that those little rascals love things like that. (Coincidentally two or three days before, Shelley saw a hummer flit past the car as we were getting ready drive off to work.) I sat there for about 10 or 15 minutes with camera in hand and at the ready before I caught sight of one. It was only there a minute or so, partaking of the nectar of maybe two flowers before slipping away. Not much time to make adjustments and shoot in the dim light, but I did get him.

(Female Black-Chinned Hummingbird)

Since that morning, the flowers were going through a cycle where the full ones were dropping off and the newly emerging ones were not yet open. I haven't seen any more hummers yet, but come the weekend I'll be sitting back out there early in the morning. Since the first sighting, I got a new hummingbird feeder and hung it on a shepherd's hook in a shady spot in the back yard - with homemade nectar in it. Hopefully I picked a good spot. We shall see.

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Our hot water side of the tub has been leaking through for a little while - the hot side. After work, I shut the water off and tore it apart to see what was going on. The valve stem (core? spool?) was split down the side and its seals were about shot. A quick trip to the faucet parts guy and $6.49 later, I had the new stem (core? spool?) assembly in hand. A few minutes after getting home, it was in and the water back on. I'm not a plumber and don't really like plumbing, but that's something I can do - so I did.