What's After Work?

 Hi all, it's been a while. I guess with the continuing pandemic and all it's variations I just got complacent. Riding my bike, shopping online and planning a wedding. But now Christmas and the wedding are over and I can get back to telling about what happens during retirement.   Last year my son Austin became engaged to his now wife Morgan.  A tradition that my mom started is to make the newly weds a memory quilt. At the beginning of last year Jan and I began to make Morgan and Austins memory quilt. To the right are the fabrics we bought. The lighter blue is the fabric was sent to 40 family and friends.  We asked them to create a memory they have of Austin or Morgan on the square. As we got them back I started sewing them together into a quilt top.   As we got them back I started sewing them together into a quilt top. ...

Now that I am retired I have time to notice the small things. One thing I have noticed lately is a small Spineybacked Orbweaver spider . I have been watching it weave its web for about two months now.  It is really quite interesting how it remakes it's web over night. In the morning is when its web looks its best. By the afternoon it looks quite tattered. This morning it looked like she had completely redone her web because all of the attachments to the wall and plants had been moved slightly and I was able to get behind the web to take this picture and catch the sun through the web.  I'm not sure how long the spider will stay here but I'll keep watching.

 With a year of Covid under our belts I've been thinking about what will define this era. I think it will be the masks we are wearing. These are a visual representation if the many things we are all going through.  I know that there are other things that could define this time; washing hands, social distancing, unemployment, fear and anger. but these are all things that can be connected with other times or events. Masks are focused on this time only. Masks are either a symbol of caring for others or submission to an authoritative government. Masks played a part in the downfall of some political aspirations while boosting others.  I have noticed masks being discarded most places I go nowadays. I got to thinking that a year ago seeing a mask was a rare event. Now most people I see out are wearing masks and they are loosing then everywhere. I have started photographing masks as I find them. The more I look the more I find. By the end of this I may have quite a collection of ...

After Jan retired we took a cruise down the coast of Maine. That was a lot of fun. For my retirement adventure we are going to visit Hawaii. For that I bought with my exercise money an underwater camera. I have been practicing with it this week in the pool with Noah as my model. I've gotta figure out what to do about my mask. I wear glasses and I cannot see the image on the camera very clearly in my regular mask. So I am just kinda point and shooting for now.