• Reflections on…

    Another sick day has come and gone. My magical streak of months with at least one sick day has reached three… and the management goes wild! This little bug has given me the opportunity to milk a little more value out of ” HBO on Demand “. Several movies caught my fancy, but I only watched one, a little flick called “In Country”. It is a movie that was released in 1989, starring Bruce Willis, which told the fictional story of a Vietnam veteran and the daughter of a Vietnam casualty. Upon graduating from high school the girl asks questions about her father, whom she never met, and about the “vets” in town who aren’t in a hurry to answer her questions (and relive the past). The end of the movie has the girl, her paternal grandmother, and the “vet” (her maternal uncle, played by Willis) traveling to Washington, D.C. to visit the Vietnam War Memorial. The girl and her grandmother seek out the father/son who died, and the “vet” seeks out friends who were lost. Everyone finds emotional closure. Maybe it was the cold medication, but this was one of the few movies that moved me to tears in the end. It reminded me of a work of art called ” Reflections ” by Lee Teeter.

    Fast forward to 2003.

    What began as a short incursion to depose a dictator has become more. The word on the street is that those in the know should have known that it would take more than just a brief invasion, and they didn’t adequately prepare for the invasion’s aftermath. Now some good folks are in another country longer than they were told, and possibly unprepared for their task.

    I had seen the movie “In Country” before, but today it seemed to have more meaning. Here’s to hoping that today’s fight will leave a more uplifting legacy.

  • Hiding in the shadows of illness.

    I have completed a most unlikely weekend; one in which we went somewhere new and I didn’t take any pictures. I dutifully carried my camera around, but I never framed a shot, much less actually take a picture. All I can say is I wasn’t inspired. A cold will do that for you.

    It’s too bad too, we were doing the annual convention tag along and this year’s installment took us to Hutchinson Island, on Florida’s east coast. That’s “Florida’s Gold Coast”, according to the Chamber of Commerce. Our hotel wasn’t right on the beach but it was nice anyway. Part of the problem was the rain, part of it was the cold, and part of it was… I don’t know. Maybe it didn’t seem unique enough to picture. Not once did I think to myself: “I’d like to remember just how this looked.” This is what inspires me to take my camera out. It’s not the most artsy reason in the world, but it’s honest.

  • “Fantasy of Flight – Exit 44″

    What pray tell is “Fantasy of Flight?” I really have no idea; however, out front there is a plane taking a header into the ground with a flight-suited man hanging from the tail. Please, take me!