Out of the Nearly Dead Planet or What I Did on My Summer Vacation in 25 Words of Less
After over two years of nearly constant blather (and far too much Foolish and too little Sage), the Sacred Journey Blog demanded a vacation. Faced with a threat that it would walk and take a job as a website promoting acne remedies, I acquiesced and got it a cab to the airport. The Blog has not sent any postcards, but I expect to see it back (with a good tan) in August.
The Ol’ Sage and his Long Suffering Wife have had plenty to keep us off the streets and out of major trouble in the meantime. The old house we’re fixing up on Tyson Ave. has consumed our evenings and weekends (this was going to be The Summer We Did Nothing), but I think the end result will be worth it all. Once again my LSW has proven she had incredible vision, the ability to see something for what it can be and not what it is. Our friends Nancy and Henry have been incredibly generous and always surprising us with some new, unexpected little nicety they have added to the house. We’ll be moving in some time over the next two weeks, along with some surprise “house guests.”
We did manage to sneak away for two weeks in the midst of all this. We were in major road trip mode, covering most of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern US. First down to Charlottesville for a sweet reunion with friends from our old church. Then all the way up to Maine for three days at my brand new Favorite Place on Earth: Bailey Island, Maine. Finally, across to the High Peaks of New York’s Adirondack Mountains for a family reunion, including both of our daughters’ families and two of Karyn’s sisters. Even though the American concept of vacation is a literal “vacating” from “real life,” we had some reminders that real life does not recognize nor allow such abandonment. Karyn has written about dear Olivia and her brain tumor surgery during our time away, and we returned to the news that the parents of the husband of one of Karyn’s sisters had been in a car accident resulting in the death of his father. Sober reminders that there is no “vacation” from the effects of sin until God reveals his new heaven and earth.
Until I find time to begin blathering again, I’ll let pictures tell the story. I went wild with my new digital camera on our recent trip and have posted a visual travelogue. Below are a couple of samples, Present Creation forestastes of the glorious New Creation on its way…
The Crags - Bailey Island, Maine
Grandchildren Éva and Ethan reunite at John’s Brook in the Adirondack High Peaks
Son-in-law John checks baseball scores from the summit of Whiteface Mountain. Lake Placid and the High Peaks of the Adirondacks in the background
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July 18th, 2006 at 10:33 am
Good to have you back and posting, Mark! Glad to hear that the break was a blessing.
July 18th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Good to have you “blathering” again!!!
July 18th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
“I went wild with my new digital camera on our recent trip and have posted a visual travelogue.”
This is the understatement of the vacation. Mark is known by our grandkids as “Poppy.” Suffice it to be said that we were accompanied by the Poppy Paparazzi wherever we went. I began to think I was married to a single-lens cyclop instead of a blue-eyed boy. Whether hiking, being silly with kids and sisters, relaxing, talking on the phone, cooking or sleeping (I did make it a habit to lock the bathroom door when I showered) we were never safe from the stealthy digital photo bandit.
July 18th, 2006 at 8:29 pm
Mark, Great pics, but you are missing 2 things! A picture of the photographer, and a nice touch would be some music playing while you view the slideshow! The beautiful scenes of the vacation house on the coast of Maine and the mountains were breath taking! It was great to see how big the g’kids are getting! You and Karyn are truly blessed! Congrats on Philip’s new job! Blessings! Melissa in cville
July 19th, 2006 at 12:10 am
Ah, how they despise the Poppyrazzi when his camera intrudes into every moment…but then how they love his pictures when they need a grandkid/Maine/Adirondacks fix!
July 19th, 2006 at 10:50 am
I love the idea of the Poppyrazzi. :chuckle: I may have to gift my favorite seminarians with a Flickr Pro account to support their
crack habitability to share photos with the wider world.Yes, getting good equipment always drives one to shoot more. The budding photogeek in me wants to know what Mark’s shooting.
July 19th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
Geof:
If you are in the gift-giving mood (and my birthday is this Friday!), I’d probably more appreciate an upgraded storage on my Picasaweb account. I’ve become enamored with Picasa as my “photo editor for dummies,” and it easily uploads straight to my picasaweb account. Vacation photos used up almost half of my free storage, though!
My camera is a FujiFilm that my son-in-law passed on to me when he got a newer camera. It isn’t fully geek-ified (limited manual control) but I’m very happy with the results I’ve gotten. It has an awesome digital zoom and seems very forgiving to my less-than-steady hands after one too many vacation Honey Brown Ale’s!
July 19th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
Alas, Google does not ofer me the capability of doing that. But I could send you the money.
July 19th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
I think once the discussion turns to cash deals I should take it offline…
July 25th, 2006 at 9:49 am
[...] And thanks to my dear friend Geof, I now have upgraded storage on Picasaweb. There will be no stopping the Poppy-razzi! Gotham trembles! Published in: It’s All About Me | on July 25th, 2006 Popularity: unranked | [...]