The guy who farms the land across the street was harvesting his soybeans a couple days ago and I told the kids it might be a good time to practice with the camera.  I was surprised (and happy) when it was my son, Danny, who picked up the camera and ran out to give it a try.  I know it's a bit unorthodox, and he is a novice with the camera, but I like how the trees in the first shots are in the camera's focus while the combine (harvester) is the focus of the picture.  It's always interesting to see things through the eyes of kids.

This one's not his pic but a picture of a sugar maple he transplanted from under the stand of evergreens behind our house a month or so ago.  This is his second transplant attempt, and we're hoping this one takes.  We did our best not to damage the delicate roots and this time mixed the dirt with some peat moss.  

In the last week, the leaves have begun to change down in the Shenandoah Valley where I work, so I've been enjoying the changing of the season in an area that's always beautiful, but especially so now.  Since Mom now lives in FL, she asked if I'd post some pics as the season progresses, so here's one for you, Mom.

Even more beautiful on a misty morning.

In another week or so, this'll be a huge explosion of color.  Then a few weeks after that the stark beauty of winter will begin to take over.

Here's a couple from Harper's Ferry, WV, a town that played a part in the Civil War and lies in a river valley where West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia all come together.

The crops that aren't ready for harvest aren't far from it.

I'm off today, and there was a big wind this morning, so Gracie pulled out a stunt kite I'd forgotten we had.  I bought it several years ago when I was stuck waiting on a load and blew a few days walking around the Mall of America to avoid the terrible heat outside.  I had taken a load to the vicinity on a tip from one of our agents (this was when I had my own truck and trailer) that there were going to be some loads that would pay phenomenally, hauling supplies to a huge new powerplant they were building up near Edmonton, AB.   The load came through after a few (miserably hot) days.  We found the kite and the tail, but had to make a quick run to the hardware store to get two rolls of twine, and then had some fun flying the kite.  

I got home from work around noon last Sunday, so I met the family at the pumpkin patch in Skipton on their way home from church.  Yes that's my son with a cast less than a week old on his arm, Samantha's just behind and facing him.

This time Gracie's up in the air and Danny and Sam are behind.

Isabel was having fun climbing on the tires.

Rebekah getting up in the air.

Sandra, my oldest, wouldn't get on the jumping pillow this year, so I'll post her pic from last year, jumping with her somewhat heavier than now, Daddy, yours truly.

        I was thinking today (prompted by some of your posts on how quickly our children are growing up) about recent years, and started browsing through some old pictures on my hard drive.  I came upon some pictures from 2008, of Isabel, our youngest child and Antonio the donkey.  We were living in Palmer, TX at the time, and my oldest daughter, Sandra, was in the FFA.  This being the first chance we'd ever had to let the kids raise an animal for food, we bought Sandra a piglet, Shirley.  Haven't found any pics of Shirley, but the FFA kept a couple of donkeys in a pen between the pig pens and the cow/lamb barn.  If I remember correctly, the donkeys scare away the coyotes, but I could be wrong.  Apparently, a couple years prior, some of the students had done something to the donkeys, so at first they were very timid with us.  I took that as a challenge, and before long, I had the male, Antonio, literally eating from my hand.  Wasn't much of a challenge, really.  I just threw an apple or a couple lumps of sugar in the pen every time we came to feed Shirley or clean out her pen, and  before long he would run up to the fence as soon as he saw our car coming.  It didn't take long after that before the little girls got him to eat grass and clover out of their hands.  Isa and Rebekah would grab a handful of grass and wait until Antonio approached them, then take off running down the fence.  Antonio would kick up his heels and run after them, knowing that he'd be fed at the other end.  I wouldn't let the girls tease him, so they could run the length of the fence once, and then they had to let him have his treat.  It didn't take long before he got to be quite precocious, and one day I walked down between his pen and the pig pens but forgot to give Antonio his treat before leaning over to open Shirley's pen.  I was rewarded with a nip in my behind for my forgetfulness.  When we left Texas to come back to Maryland one of our stops on the way out was by Antonio's pen to say goodbye.

Isa and Antonio

  This Saturday's run was very light, so I made it the whole way to Elkton, Va before I ran out of hours.   When I got done, and since I had my bicycle and gear and 10 hours before I could start driving again, I couldn't resist trying my hand at climbing Massanutten Mountain.  This particular mountain runs south down the middle of the Shenandoah Valley.  Autumn is in full swing, but the leaves are late turning this year.  It is still beautiful, though.

Apparently my ability didn't quite match my intitiative.  I did finally make it up the mountain, but ran out of steam and had to stop two or three times in the last half mile.  It got so steep that I had to stand up and lean forward or the front of my bike would lift off the ground every time I pedaled.  I almost gave up, but having gone so far, I thought it would be embarrassing to tell the story of "almost climbing Massanutten", so I willed myself on.    By the time I made the top, I had lost almost all the daylight, so I waited for a car to pass so I could see well and followed him down.  When we got to the main road out of the resort, I let it fly and had to use the brakes so I wouldn't pass the car in front in the 40 mph zone.  Since it was dark, I couldn't read my speedometer. I cheaped out and got one without backlighting, but I don't think I'd have wanted to take my hands off the bars to turn the backlighting on at that speed anyway.   I stopped to take a few pics on the way to the mountain, but once again they didn't come out like I had hoped.  I really should have used the manual mode, but since daylight was fading, I didn't want to take the time and just shot on automatic.  It ruined the best shot I had, when it flashed automatically and reflected in the eyes of a deer I was shooting.  The ride was only 16.57 miles, but it was more difficult than some of the much longer rides I've done.  I'm hoping to make it back so I can ramp up my ability and maybe do a better job of climbing in the future.  I'd like to see the peak in daylight sometime, too.  When I got to the top and stopped, my calves were twitching like someone was applying electric current to them, and when I got back to the truck and had put everything away, every muscle in my back ached.  Apparently climbing the steep hills in a standing position uses different muscles than normal bike riding.  I thought for sure I'd be in bad shape today, but I just have that ache (in all the muscles of my back) that you have after a good hard workout and I'm actually feeling good. My legs are fine, but ache just a little when I climb stairs.  

Anyway, here's a few shots I took on the way up.

The ridgeline of Massanutten Mountain before I turned and started the serious climbing.

The leaves are beginning to change.  This was just past the road I took, and was at the base of the mountain.  It was looking toward the valley from the base of the mountain.

As I was approaching, two deer jumped and ran, but this one stayed, so I hit the brakes and got a few shots.

Another mountain off Rockingham Pike just past the high school as I was leaving Elkton.

That's the ridgeline before I started the serious climbing.

Friday, I had to go up to the Western Shore.  (That's what we call any part of the lower 48 which unluckily happens to fall west of the Chesapeake Bay)   I made the mistake of ordering my wife's replacement vacuum cleaner online and it wasn't going to arrive 'til midweek this week, but she needed the house clean for a birthday party Sunday so I needed to pick up a cheap shop vac.  I had been planning to purchase one anyway, because her old vacuum had given up the ghost since I had been using it to clean the ashes out of the corners of the pellet stove.  Our printer had broken and Target had an all-in-one on sale for 39.99, but the one in Easton was out and I wanted to get mine before the sale ran out.  I also needed to stop by Red Wing to order a new pair of boots as the end of the year is approaching, my old ones are worn out and our work's purchasing program is use it or lose it.  Since I had to be up there Saturday by 4am anyway for work, I planned to just make an afternoon of it, then find my truck and crash in the sleeper until my load was ready.  As I was preparing to leave, Danny, who is 12, asked if he could ride his bike up into our old neighborhood to visit his friend.  I told him that would be fine, but since his Mama got off work at 6:30, he needed to be home by 6:15 because she hates it when I let him ride up there b/c of one dangerous spot in the road. "...and you know the rules.  Cross in front of our house, not out on the main road.  Walk on the side 'til you get past Hillside (the dangerous spot) and up to the cemetary, and call when you get there and when you're leaving."  Then I was off on my merry way and he on his.  

 Danny has grown and changed a lot in the last year.  

This summer Danny finally got tall enough to ride one of the racing bicycles and he and I have been having fun all summer riding as far and as fast as he can go.  A few weeks ago, I found a cheap speedometer on ebay and ordered it, and ever since, in order to build up his cycling ability, he goes out in front of the house and does wind sprints.  He measures his success, obviously, by the highest speed he reaches in a given day.  He followed my directions and was home from his friend's house long before Mama got home, but since he had some excess energy, he decided to do some wind sprints out in front of the house. 

The girls were in the house, and one later described to me what she saw, "It was really cool.  It was like he was flying."  According to Danny, he reached 22 mph, which equalled his fastest ever flat ground speed, and began to slow but pulled too hard on the brake.  The next thing he knew, he was launched over the handlebars, hand extended to break his fall.  He landed and was immediately in terrible pain.  The pain quickly dulled, and he figured he'd be fine.

I got my shopping done, ignorant of what had happened, got to work, grabbed a nap and then got to the business of delivering my load.  I finished around midnight, and made it home about 2:30 Sunday morning.  I got up late, grabbed some breakfast and the house was soon in "final cleaning before company comes" mode.  It was especially funny to see the kids vacuuming the whole big house with a little shop vac that has a 6' cord and a 4' hose.  As usual, everything came together just as the first guest arrived, and the party began without a hitch.  People we hadn't seen for months were there.  The kids were playing in and out of the house.  There were caramel apples to make and games to play, and then just as the kids were busy playing outside in the beautiful weather and there was enough of a lull for the adults to sit back and talk, Gracie came running to tell us, "Isa's bleeding."  With a sigh, wondering if we'd even be able to see where it was our little hypochondriac had hurt herself we walked out and around the house.  This is the child that demands a bandaid for the littlest scratch or prick of a thorn.  We walked into the living room to see a six year old, the left hand side of whose face and hair was completely covered in the blood that was pulsing out of her scalp.   She said she'd been running and had banged into the edge of one of the windows that opens outward.  We couldn't find the injury, but with all the blood and her full head of hair, we thought that maybe (like in one of my previous injuries) it had pulled back a piece of scalp which had then fallen back into place.  The wife and Sandra, our oldest, quickly jumped into the car and made for the emergency center a few miles from our house.   Ten minutes later, the party was back in full swing, and a half hour later, they were back without even a stitch.  The edge of the window had made a very small cut which had bled profusely. The only way we could tell she had been injured was that she had a very pink tinge to her blond hair.

 Isa a few minutes after she got back from the ER.

We ended up having some of the company from the party stay over for dinner, and it turned out to be a very enjoyable evening.

Monday, it was off to the doctor.  Danny's hand still hurt, and considering the speed of his accident (I think he may actually have gotten slowed a bit before he went over, b/c he still has his nose and all of his teeth) we took him to the doctor to be certain he hadn't broken his arm.  The doctor took one look and pronounced that he had a buckle fracture and would need xrays and a cast.  We got xrays and then since it was too late that day, went back the next morning to have the doc put the cast on.  It's pretty light b/c it's made out of fiberglass.  The only other drama was that Danny's school was doing a program where they tried to get a large group of kids doing jumping jacks to see if they could beat the world record for the largest number of people doing jumping jacks as a group, and Danny was told to do join the group.  When he protested twice, the teacher (not his) told him to be quiet, he could ask his question later,  so Danny obeyed and was up all night in pain from doing jumping jacks with a freshly broken arm.  I guess the teacher couldn't figure out that a child with a cast on his arm might need to be excluded from that particular exercise.  It's all good, though.  All the school kids have signed his cast.  He got two days off school for the  trouble. He's feeling much better, and Mama bear called the school and chewed on the ear of the nurse a little to make sure that particular idiocy wouldn't happen again.  He's just disappointed that the best cycling weather will probably be gone by the time his cast comes off in four weeks.

By:Gracie- Samantha in the kitchen

By Gracie or Me ( I can't remember) Sunset in front of our house.

Sunset over the Potomac at Harper's Ferry.

By Gracie: Spider Web

 By Gracie:  What we call a zipper spider.

Piece of an old F4 Phantom from the USAF'a Thunderbirds flight demonstration team.  I liked how the truck in the mirror lined up to look like it was pulling the airplane on the trailer.

Coming into Luray, VA on a morning with low clouds obscuring the tops of the mountains.

A barn I like to photograph, but from a different angle than normal and with low clouds, in Elkton, VA.

 Mama had been sick, so Daddy made the birthday cake for Gracie.  It may have been ugly, but it tasted good, especially with the two cans of icing it took to stick everything together and cover it passably.

Shenandoah river in the morning.

  About a month and a half ago, I was stopped by a police officer for illegal parking.  The problem was, I hadn't parked illegally.  The curb on the shopping center side (where the cop was parked, incidentally) is painted yellow and has No Parking signs.  I had parked on the other side, which has unpainted curbs and no signs.  The police officer waited until I got back in my car and had begun to leave before he pulled me over.  When I asked why he might have pulled me over, he got angry and said that I should have known that I had parked illegally since the curb was painted yellow and there were more than 12 signs.  I said the curb wasn't painted, but he continued his rant, so I decided it was probably not worthwhile to continue an argument I couldn't win and shut up.  Meanwhile, he asked for my drivers license and registration and I remembered that I had just given my license to my son, since he doesn't have an ID, because the librarian insisted that she must have the picture ID of someone in the family.  A few minutes later, I was driving home with a $20 parking ticket and another $50 one for failing to produce my license upon request.  Since I have a CDL, and the Feds continue to come up with ever more intrusive and (in some cases) unconstitutional regulations which in turn end up interpreted by employers even more stringently than the rules are written, I needed to beat the driving without a license in possession charge.  Also, since the tickets were both given unjustly (the occasion to give the second ticket would never have arisen if the cop hadn't stopped me illegally) I needed to fight them anyway, because I believe that rights that aren't protected will be lost.  And so this past Friday I went to court to fight the first ticket in hopes that I would beat the charge and have grounds to fight the second.   The judge arrived about 20 minutes late but proved to be a man who actually considered the evidence presented by both sides (contrary to other court experiences I've had in different jurisdictions), so I was feeling good about my chances.  Before long I was called.  The officer didn't show, but b/c the town tickets are somewhat ambiguous and few, if any people actually fight parking tickets, the judge was uncertain as to whether his presence had been properly requested.  My paperwork, though, indicated that the officer had at least been notified of the court date, so the judge asked what  I had to say for myself.  I responded that I had pictures of the spot where I had parked and from farther back where you could see both sides of the street, and that I had been parked on the unmarked side.  He said that I had introduced reasonable doubt and he would thus find me not guilty but then proceeded to lecture me not to park there anymore if I didn't want to have to deal with the hassle of being stopped and fighting it in court.  I had been relieved at not guilty, but was immediately enraged to be lectured thereafter.   Even though I understand his point of view,  the lecture should have been to the cop( I know. He wasn't present) for harassing people who were not breaking the law! I'm still trying to calm down about that.  That said, after speaking with a lawyer friend of mine, I should have good grounds for getting the final ticket dismissed, b/c in my instance the police didn't have probable cause to make the traffic stop, since I wasn't and didn't even appear to be breaking the law.  I just find myself frustrated that I will end up losing two days to court proceedings and on a lesser note, having to listen to lectures from both the law enforcement officer and the judge when I was minding my own business and obeying the law to begin with!  I'd go on to describe the other things that get my blood boiling about the Commercial Driver Licensing rules which allow the government to step roughshod on our constitutionally guaranteed due process, but that's for another blog.  In the interim, maybe I'll take out my frustration by getting a new hairdo.

 This morning I dragged myself out of bed wishing I could sleep just a little while longer, but knowing it had been three days since I had seen my kids and they are no longer used to me being gone more than overnight.  If I didn't see them before school today, I would be asleep this evening  when they got home, because I have to work again tonight.  I helped heat waffles and clean up after a bad attempt at cooking eggs.  Then had to explain to a six year old that yes, she did have to wear socks with her  "Thing 1 and Thing 2"  Converse, because I said so and if she couldn't find her socks, she could wear two different colored lookalikes from the lost sock basket.  Then I tried fruitlessly to explain to all the kids that just because it was a little chilly this morning, if they wore jackets to keep them warm on their thirty second walks from the house to the bus and from the bus to the school, they'd regret it this afternoon when they had to lug those jackets home, or worse, when I was griping at them for leaving them at school.  I hollered "BUS!" about 15 minutes early just to see them run around like crazy trying to get ready because they thought they had plenty of time left.  I was dreading getting home, only to have this short time and have to go right back to work for two more days, but grateful, too, because in a chance meeting with the big BIG boss a few days ago, I planted the idea that maybe if they'd use me as a trainer it would allow them to keep one of their weekend runs covered, but allow me to get home Saturday night instead of Sunday morning so I could at least have one weekend day with the family, plus it would give me a slight increase in pay for about half the time invested, at least for the weeks when I was training.  I pressed a little harder by promising that if he let me train, I'd be sure to cover the one weak spot the other three trainers are known for neglecting.   He said he'd talk to my boss, but had I yet? I said I had a few months ago, but I would again this week.    I did, and apparently he did, too, because I am now slated to start training a guy on some weekends in October! YES!  

In the midst of this perfectly normal school morning we heard the emergency vehicles go out on a call.  About the same time we heard a helicopter.  Isabel ran to the window and said she saw it, but I didn't bother for once.  I'm a terrible aviation fanatic.  It's not uncommon for me to drop everything and run outside to see what's flying by, if it sounds like something interesting.  I think it might be genetic.  My grandfather and his brothers bootlegged sugar and other supplies that were rationed during WWII, flying them up the Chesapeake Bay and then out to remote airstrips for further distribution.  My uncle spent many years rebuilding a wrecked Cessna, and I spent a couple years working on cargo airplanes in the Air Force.  Until I ran out of money, I took flying lessons, too.  I just missed striking a deer on my first solo takeoff and was then quickly given by my instructor the broad steps that should be taken to abort a takeoff without seriously risking the destruction of the aircraft.  The bus showed up soon after, and after a few minutes looking for papers to send to the realtor who finally has a contract on our house,  I took my wife to McDonald's for breakfast, and then to work.  As we arrived, one of her coworkers mentioned that she had to detour because the highway was shut down.  Only a few minutes later my wife called.  An acquaintance had sent her oldest son to take the other children to school.  A few minutes later, at an intersection which has claimed many lives through my lifetime, she was involved in an accident.  All we know is that one child is dead and the others were sent to the hospital.  One or several (it's unclear) were flown out to the trauma center across the bay.  

I'm grateful this morning.  I'm grateful that my six year old went to school with one white and pink sock and one white and blue.  I'm grateful that we'll probably end up searching for jackets that have been laid aside and forgotten somewhere at school.  I'm grateful that the helicopter we heard wasn't, unbeknownst to me, carrying my child to the trauma center.  And then I feel guilty, because while I'm taking an easy breath that it wasn't our child this time, another dad and mom have commenced a journey of heartbreak that is beyond my understanding and probably beyond what either I or they would believe we have the strength to endure.  Above all, I feel an awful sympathy for a family ripped apart, and understand that if I were in their shoes, I'd probably view my sympathy with scorn at least for the moment.  "He still has his kids."

   First things first.  I'm not a pacifist.  Second, I won't say that I am even on the same page as this guy, but he does say a lot of things that have been running around in my mind since autumn 2001, so I thought I'd share.   

http://mises.org/daily/5633/A-Bloody-Decade-of-Fear-and-Vaunting#.Tm0eTckBLJc.xanga

I showed my kids your comments on the last of their pictures I posted.  Apparently that encouraged them to take more pictures because when I got home from one of my runs last week, they excitedly asked me to look at the pictures they had taken.  So here are some of theirs and some of mine from the last week or so.

My oldest, Sandra, was babysitting one afternoon and took them for a walk down to the park.  Samantha, the 14 y.o. took these pictures of Grace, the 10 y.o.

Samantha and Grace took these.  I liked the first one, especially so because of the sweat bee at the bottom of the flower on the left.

Grace took this one of some Queen Anne's Lace.  (We live in Queen Anne's County)  I liked how only one of them was in focus.

They took several of flowers that were past their prime and losing petals.  I liked these because I thought they were of subjects that normally wouldn't be considered worth shooting.

Another shot at the park.

This one is of a green tomato in our garden. Again interesting what a kid thinks makes a good subject.  This one caught my eye, but I'm not sure why.

My wife bought me a speedometer/odometer for my bike a week or two ago, so I've been riding with renewed zeal since I now can see my progress.  The kids and I took a trail from the shopping center to a local 55 and older community.  We always see some sort of wildlife when we take that particular trail and this trip didn't disappoint.  We saw three deer from about 150 feet away, but I couldn't get the camera out quickly enough.  We hit paydirt in the bushes around the sedimentation pond, though.  Saw all sorts of bees and hornets and several butterflies.  I took these.

The new trucks we got at work are very large inside, so I can take my bike along and ride during my 10 hour layover.  It works out well for me since the area where I live is very flat, but the area where I lay over is right in the middle of the Appalachian foothills and it gives me a chance to do some serious training in the hills.  I got this one just outside Bridgewater, Virginia just as the sun fell behind the horizon.

A cannon in front of the Harrisonburg, VA visitors center.

James Madison University is in Harrisonburg as well.  I got a picture of their mascot last night on my ride.

On a completely different note.  My wife works at a local consignment shop several days a week and does a lot of their decorating and window dressing.  She talked them into letting her bring home a mannequin torso to decorate.  She bought a lamp kit and wired it up, then added material and a lampshade to come up with this. We took it down to her store tonight and will see what the owners think tomorrow. Here are a couple pics of it at the house before we took it in.