365 Photo Project - Day 89

Taken: March 30, 2010, noon
Location: Healdsburg, Ca

Two posts back-to-back and no time to say anything much. I'm just taking a short break before launching into my next writing session, which is likely to take me well into the evening. Outside, we're getting pounded by a heavy rain storm. I can hear water beating loudly off the metal roof of my office, which is in a renovated old winery building.

I talk to my parents several times a week by phone. Sometimes it's just to say 'hello' or check in, other times to share news or just to chat. We always have something to talk about. Today I called to relay a funny bumper sticker I saw (turns out it wasn't THAT funny) and my Mom told me she is now reading my blog.

This started when they called me shortly after I wrote about them here and me saying "hey, I wrote about you guys today" turned into me reading it to them. I love reading to them and they seemed pleased, if slightly embarrassed. They shouldn't be. It's all true people. All of it.

Now that I know my Mom is reading (hi, Mom!), I wonder if it's going to change what I write, even subconsciously. The truth is I hardly think about my blog when I'm not writing it. I do think about the photo part a lot though -- it's practically really as I have to keep my camera with me, batteries in and charged and make sure I have that damned memory card in too (can't tell you how many times I've taken "great" photos only to discover I forgot the memory card).  But the writing part, what I'm going to say here, I almost never know until I'm sitting at my desk writing it.

I'm sure this is not a revelation to my regular readers (I notice I make mistakes a lot) and frankly, I'm not sure how much I write here will have any lasting value. It's more an exercise than anything else. Like I've said here before, I like to empty my head of junk and B.S. so I can concentrate on the daily writing stuff. So far, I think this blog has made me a better writer, but again as I've said before, it's going to be a few more weeks, maybe a couple months before I really know how and how much it has helped.

Speaking of writing, I must get back to it. Today's image is of a new hotel called H2O, that's going up in my small town. They closed part of the main street through town last week so they could put up those balconies. Not sure I'm loving them or not, but I've wanted to shoot them ever since I first drove by. This morning, I had to make a run into town and the sun was poking out in between the heavy rains. The shadows cast by the balconies were just the sort of effect I was after. Edited very slightly with Photoshop.

Programming Note: Just wanted to point y'all to the upper right hand corner of my blog where I've just put up a link to my Flickr Photostream. There you can see a whole bunch more of my photos, including a few blog rejects, as well as all of the blog photos collected in one place (that would be the set called "365 Project").  And for you pug lovers out there, there's a seemingly endless amount of photos of Louie and Chamuco, too. 


And while I'm talking shop here, I'll also note the experiment I'm trying with advertising -- clicking on them sends me pennies. So click away why don't you? Please forgive me, those of you who hate to see ads all over the Internets. You may ignore them -- I'm hoping it won't be intrusive but if it starts to be, I'll remove it. Thank you to my few, yet loyal readers. Your visits are appreciated and your comments always welcome.