Another Another Random Picture

This was taken in September during my trip to Michigan. Dad and I went for a stroll on the Lake Skekemog Swamp Pathway and we were there during the hatching season for snapping turtles. The trail that takes you to the lake is on an old railroad bed which bisects the swamp. Turtles were moving from the swamp to our left toward the lake to our right. You had to watch your step, who wants to squash a baby turtle? I don't.

Another Random Photo

In December 2010 after a snowstorm I caught this bluebird on a branch.

Random Photo

Taken during my 2009 trip to Michigan. Taken at Peterson Park in Leelanau County.

Another Boring Golf Post

Going to the range for a good year now has really helped my game. What's funny though is that recently I found a way to help myself with the driver while on the course. That doesn't usually happen. I started thinking about swinging a baseball bat. When you are batting in baseball or softball you don't have a back swing. You just put the bat behind your head and assume your batting stance. I started thinking of my golf swing in that way. I have found that when I get to the end of my back swing and think of that point as the beginning of my swing I hit the ball better. I found if I slow my back swing way down I naturally paused for a bit longer at the end of my back swing. This allows me to acquire my target down there by my feet and then wail away.

I confirmed this yesterday while playing with my friend Bobby at Revolution Park. My driving for most of the day was shit. I was slicing the ball when I wasn't pulling it. On the ninth and last tee I remembered to slow my back swing down. I saw the ball more clearly when I did that and hit it about 260 yards straight. I have found this works for me because with the slow back swing, and the pause at the top, it feels to me like I am starting at the top, it's like I am batting and to me that feels more natural. It may also be because a slow back swing is easier to control and if your swing starts sloppy then it's going to end sloppy.

Cat Spazzing while Sleeping

Melanie shot this with her phone. This is Pippin flailing around in his sleep. What a tool.

Dan Kelly

On Sunday Melanie, Chris and I drove up to Vienna, VA to see Australina singer/songwriter Paul Kelly play a show at a great little club called Jammin Java. Before the show we met Paul Kelly's nephew Dan Kelly. Dan plays guitar with Paul Kelly when he plays A to Z shows. During A to Z shows Paul Kelly will do a two-night stand at a club and play 2 1/2 hours a night of his songs in alphabetical order. Dan was a lot of fun, he was friendly and had a playful humor about him. Before the show I noticed he was selling a CD and I asked after the show if it had original songs. He said, "Oh yeah! And it's not the folk singer/songwriter stuff like we did tonight, it's kinda psychadelic rock!" I had to buy it. The album is called "Dan Kelly's Dream" and it's really good.

Here is a video for the title track of the album. I don't know if it's an official video or not but I like the song a lot.


The video below is Dan Kelly busking out on the street. I think it shows nicely his playfulness.


Discovering Dan and his music is one of those nice surprises you get when you take a chance and take a chance and go see live music and talk to people.

The Planets Were out Tonight

Jupiter on the left and Mars on the right. Taken from the back yard, looking west.


Looking east, Mars hangs over the neighborhood.

Mayhem from the Stands

Now that the NASCAR season is in full swing I can continue my hobby of finding Youtube videos of wrecks shot from the grandstands. Speed Weeks at Daytona offered amateur videographers plenty of material.

The truck race featured Joey Coulter's truck going airborne down the front stretch.

This guy panned perfectly. Well done.


This camera operator was a little further down towards turn 1 and he also did a fine job of panning.


A little closer and the camera work is a little shaky but he is right on the action.


A more static shot


And now the Piece of Resistance. Front row!

Next time Nationwide action!

I Go to a Softball Game

Last week Melanie and I took a walk through Park Road Park and came across the Queens University softball team practicing. We didn't know they practiced and played their home games right down the street from us. We vowed to go see a couple of games. I took a long lunch today and went down there to catch as much of the two games as I could. They were playing Mars Hill College today. Mars Hills is north of Asheville.

I arrived today just in time for the last two outs of a 2-0 win by Queens. The teams then took about a half hour break. Next time I am bringing a book. I left during the second inning of the second game. Judging by the pitching and how the hits were falling I am willing to bet that Queens went on to win that game also. This was the first time I had watched women's college softball. I like it, the teams play for single runs just like Ty Cobb.

I saw several players take a step as they swung in an attempt to slap the ball to the opposite field. Just like Ty Cobb.


I was surprised while previewing pictures when I saw the obvious great balance it takes to pitch this way. I showed Charlie at work and he compared what he saw to dancers. I think that is an apt comparison.

Jessica Scott, Queens University pitcher


Mars Hill pitcher


I messed this one up. I only caught part of ball. This is Kaitlyn Cheek and she drilled this ball out to left center. She has a great swing.


One thing I have noticed while watching some softball on television is that women's softball teams keep up constant chatter, both while on the field shouting encouragement to the pitcher and to teammates who have made good or bad defensive plays and while batting. Queens even had some chants they would throw out in certain situations. I liked the one they used when a teammate fouled a pitch off. Something along the line of, "Don't like it, foul it off" and then they smacked the fence. In the picture below Mars Hill players are encouraging their current batter.


That was a nice lunch outing. I hope to go see them play again and this time catch both games.

Another Boring Golf Story

This last Sunday Wendell and I headed out to Revolution Park to play some golf. I had a decent day for once. For a few holes I really felt like my swing was coming together. You know how that works though. A couple of holes later and you're about to swear off golf.

It's funny and frustrating to me that the best shots I hit seem a lot of the time to turn into bad shots. Usually it is due to picking the wrong club. There is a green on the back nine at Sunset Hills that I have twice sailed with a seven iron because I was fooled by the distance. Each shot was a beauty also. Is there a German word for the elation and then frustration you feel after hitting a beautiful looking golf shot with the wrong club for your distance? Goddamnitfruede, maybe?

This time I hit my first shot on the short dogleg eighth hole around the dogleg and next to a tree about 60 yards from the hold. I hooked the shot and got lucky. The ball was sitting up on top of a pile of weeds and dirt and there was a tree halfway to the hole, right in my path. I figured my only chance was to take my wedge and knock the shit out of it and hope for the best. I just nailed this ball and it went straight up over the tree (over the tree! Holy shit how did that even happen?!?) landed on the green and...rolled off the back. God Dammit!! Well, it was only six feet off the green and if I hadn't pooched the chip I could have been putting for par...but still, you would like to what is possibly the best shot you ever hit stay on the green when it hits there. I can still see that shot go up over that tree and hit that green, it was perfect for a few seconds.