Recently in Photos Category

There's too much happening in my life right now. Between work, family, photography, it's hard to take time out for myself. That's been my life lately, and why I haven't posted more to this blog. It's not that I don't have anything to say. I just haven't had time.

We went to Boston yesterday. It was nice to get away and see a couple of friends. We went to a nice restaurant last night and had a great time. But I'll write more about that later.

Last weekend we went to the McLean Game Refuge in Granby, Connecticut. We try to do something every weekend that's just about us. That's either a drive, a hike, or a photo shoot somewhere. We had a great time. We took a few photos. Hope you enjoy.

Yesterday was a busy day for me. Today, I'm just taking it easy, and maybe taking in a movie or something at the mall. I'm on my own for a bit. Kent left yesterday morning very early for Vancouver, B.C. and won't be home until Thursday very late. He called last night to let me know he got in ok, as we always do.

So what to do with myself on a beautiful Saturday when I'm by myself? I decided to plan a photo trip, since it was nice and sunny out, to Kent Falls State Park, in Kent, Connecticut (map). It's a fair haul from my home to Kent, CT, but I was making the whole day of it. So I loaded up the gear, and headed off.

I have no idea how to get to Kent, CT. In fact, I can't find my way out of a paper bag without directions. Luckily, my car knows everything - how to get there, plots several possible courses, and how long it will take to get to our destination. Of course, I went the more direct way, which it said was to avoid freeways. That took me up through the north-end of Hartford. And as I was driving through this neighborhood, watching the junkies shooting themselves up with their morning fix of heroin, I realized just how different life can be if you make the wrong choices. I suppose, just maybe, if I had made different choices, I could have been one of them?

But along the way, since I was kind of going by it anyway, I decided to stop by Elizabeth Park. After a short distance, I leave this area, and ascend into the north Hartford area of Prospect Avenue, filled with huge mansions where the upper crust of the "other half" live. It is here that Elizabeth Park resides. And here are are few of the photos I took from Elizabeth Park.

View the entire set here.

View the entire set here.

After spending an hour or so there, I proceeded to Kent Falls State Park, about an hour away from Elizabeth Park. It was a very scenic drive - country side with farms of various sorts along the way. Very rural Connecticut, and a part of Connecticut that I don't often get to, the north western part of the state.

I spent about three hours at Kent Falls State Park. Here are a few photos from that stay.

View entire set here.

View entire set here.

After my stay at Kent Falls State Park, I decided to go to Toshi Japanese Restaurant in Avon, Connecticut. It was on my way home, and it has quite a reputation for being a top notch sushi restaurant. I programmed my car to find it, and I left for Toshi.

I come into the restaurant, and I'm seated. They put a menu on the table, and came back no more than one minute later to ask me if I'm ready to order. I said, "Well, no. I just sat down." The waiter told me, "Well, we are closing the sushi bar in five minutes so you really do have to get your order in now." I should have walked out, but after hiking all over Kent Falls State Park all afternoon, I was really hungry. So, as he stood there watching over me, I picked out a few things that sounded good to me. He put the order in.

The food came, and the beverages came later (not good!). The sushi looked like it had been put together by an amateur. I could have done better. I didn't complain. I had lunch. It was around 2:30 in the afternoon. I thought that they were closing the sushi bar to prepare for dinner. They were after all clearing off the paper napkins that they gave to me, and placing blue cloth napkins on the tables.

I paid my bill, and wanted to go wash my hands. The restaurant was still open for business, yet, they weren't serving. On my way to the restroom to wash my hands, the entire staff were gathered around a large table playing poker. It's good to know that my lunch was hurried and that absolutely no thought was put behind my first (and only!) visit to Toshi, because they had something more important to attend too... a poker game.

Toshi, truly a second class restaurant that's honestly not worth the trouble to go to. I was very disappointed. I grade them a "D-".

Other than that, it was really a spectacular day. I got home around 4:30, and by 9:00, I could hardly keep my eyes open. I went to bed and had good dreams about the day.

The photo below is my first attempt at making a composite photo. The composite consists of eight distinct and separate photos. The photos are then merged and aligned into one complete composite. The final file size was 756 megabytes. This was reduced considerably, even on the Flickr site. Not bad for my first try. Click on the photo to view it in Flickr, to see it in larger sizes.

In celebration of... nothing really, we took a short trip down to Mystic Connecticut last night. We stayed at a local motel, and had dinner at the Floodtide Restaurant. I guess we go often enough for them to know us. They actually remembered us. We had a Caesar's Salad made right at our table. It was pretty cool.

But before that, we wondered around Mystic a bit, after taking a walk out to Bluff Point State Park. Here are a few photos of the trip.

One of the cool things about my visit to Idaho is that a few of my relatives want to take the time to establish a relationship with me. One of my nephews is one of them. Anyway, the trip just wouldn't be complete if I didn't post this very photogenic goat that belongs to that nephew. It's not often that you get a subject that loves to be photographed.

My trip to Idaho was all planned out, right down to the last detail; what to do, when to do it, with whom to do it with, etc.

Well, that all went out the window to a large extent. I had planned to leave on June 14th at 9:00 a.m. on United Airlines (THEY SUCK!). I called to confirm the flight the night before. They canceled that flight, and put me on the 5:27 p.m. flight. The next morning, I awoke at 6:00, thinking that I had the rest of the day to take it easy and pack in my own good time. I called to confirm the flight. They cancelled the 5:27 p.m. flight and put me on the 10:10 a.m. flight instead. So, instead of having all day to pack and get ready, I had just an hour or so to put everything together, get to the airport, and take off.

The flights were all different. I originally was going Hartford / Chicago / Boise. Now, I was going Hartford / Washington, D.C. / Los Angeles / Boise. I got to Los Angeles late because the plane left Washington late. So when I stepped off the plane, I had a message on my cell phone that the United computer had cancelled my flight to Boise (because I was a bit late getting in), and was flying me to San Francisco / Boise instead. The short of it is, I made it to Boise (eventually) and my luggage went to San Francisco. We eventually all united (no pun intended) Sunday morning, just in time for me to get to my cousins house on Father's Day for a family reunion.

It went well, although I was a bit of a zombie. It's kind of strange for me seeing people that are rather closely related to me that I haven't seen for a long time. I went back three years ago, and before that, it was 25 years ago. I never felt like they accepted me, and things were said that are hard to forget. But times change. I would like to know them more now, and I think they want that as well. Here's a summary of the trip, and mention of some of the things that were especially special to me. One "thumbs up" was good. More than that ranked the events...

Sunday, June, 15th, Father's Day
Meeting aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. Some of my nieces and nephews are 17 years old, and I just met them for the first time. Yeah, it was a bit weird.

Monday, trip to Cascade/McCall with my friend Mary
I have to say, this was one of most special trips I've had in a long time. The scenery was beautiful, but I was able to really connect with a friend that I've known for many years. We went to the same college together. In fact, Kent has known Mary most of his life (they've known each other since kindergarten). We shared a lot of information that was, at least from my perspective, a bit intense. A lot has happened since we last saw each other. I wanted to catch up and at the same time, be a friend. After dinner, I was wiped out, but in a good way. A few photos from the trip...

Tuesday, back to Boise
I dropped Mary off at her home, and I took off to meet with my brother for the afternoon. We ended up fixing his computer that lost a hard drive. That evening, my cousin took me to a Shakespeare play at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, where we saw "All's Well that Ends Well". It was well done. We had full dinners at the play and my cousin and I enjoyed a bottle of wine throughout the play. Nice.

Wednesday
I visited with more family in the morning, then had lunch with my Aunt Verna. Verna is a person who will always be honest with you, whether you like it or not. She's always been that way. I give this a three thumbs up because something rather extraordinary happened.

Years ago, when I came out to my cousin (the one I was staying with this time), she asked if it would be ok to tell her Mom and Verna. I said it was. Well, neither aunt reacted very well, and at this point in my life, it serves no one to drag all of that up again. However, I do need to mention what Verna said, because it's relevant to the point I'm speaking of now. When she found out many years ago, she wrote me a letter and told me two things; 1) don't mention this (that I'm gay) to her husband because "he came from a different generation and he just wouldn't understand." Funny how I remember exactly how she put it. And 2), that I never mention this to my mother because "it would just kill her"... to know that she had a gay son. She said it in such a way to make me think it would have been easier if I were deformed or was a drunk, rather than be the ultimate worst thing that you could possibly be: gay.

So at lunch, we are talking about the family in general. And Verna tells me, as if it's something that she's been wanting to tell me for a very long time, "You ended up with quite a man didn't you? Kent is very nice." I told her that I felt very lucky. She said, "Well, I think you are both lucky. You've found a nice life together and it's all worked out."

That was actually a huge moment in my life. I wanted to ask her if Mom were alive today, if she would still ask me not to tell her, but the moment was so magical that this 84 year-old woman could completely come around on this topic, I just didn't want to ruin it. And you know, it really doesn't matter what she would have said. She accepts us now. That's good enough for me.

I'll leave the rest of the week with just this comment... it was a fun time. I met with friends at different times, and had a great time catching up. I left Boise yesterday morning at 7:30 a.m. in route to Chicago. I met Kent there, where he was returning from a trip to Seattle. We managed to get seats together for the flight home.

It's nice to be home, and I'm filled, as I go through all the photos that I took of people I love, with wonderful, warm memories.

I want to say one last thing. Throughout my life, I've been distant with my family. Now, I want to reconnect a bit, if that's possible. Perhaps it's something that I'm experiencing because of this period in my life. Throughout the rough periods in my life when I felt that my family just wasn't there for me, what always got me through were my friends. That is why I value nothing higher than friendship. "Blood is thicker than water"... that has not been my experience. I have a family, made up of my dear friends, who are not related to me by blood.

On this trip, I told one of my friends that she was really a part of my family. She knows who she is and I want her to know, I meant every single word of it. I wanted to say it for awhile, and I did on this trip.

It's important to tell those you care about how you feel. Don't assume they know.

As for this weekend, it wasn't a total loss. It turns out that something else my friend had planned for Saturday afternoon got canceled. So, we did some things Saturday afternoon. I was on my own Saturday evening. I saw them again Sunday morning at the hotel for brunch. Afterwards, I left for home. It was nice to be home and greeted by this clematis that decided to bloom literally overnight.

We planted this clematis 7-8 years ago I believe. And now, it's just taking over. I love the blooms though. This was taken at dusk tonight.

I took the day off from work. So, I'm taking time to rest, work on yet another photo book, and to take the time to wonder around my yard and garden to see the results of all the rain we've been having. I love flowers. To me, they make everything brighter. I even buy cut flowers that I have around my home.

Tonight I'm going to Hot Tomatoes to see my friend Donovan. Tomorrow morning, I'm off to Boston. I'll stay the day, see a friend or two, and come home Sunday afternoon. Monday is all mine. Kent is in South Africa still, so it will be quiet. I may go for a hike on Monday if the weather is good.

Kent emailed me a few photos he took while exploring around the Cape Town area. This is what he sent.

And a few more...

This maps out the hike drive they took today, along with the photos along the way...

I usually take a two mile walk around Founders Plaza, in East Hartford where I work. I do this around noon. But today, when I got to work around 7 a.m., the air was so fresh and clean, that I decided to put on my head phones, grab my camera, and take my walk then (I also took one at noon). These are just a few of the things I came across.

The first is simply the path I took this morning, followed by a flowering dogwood tree, and some leaves.

I love Spring!