You lead an amazing life Mr. Cassidy.

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I do. I'm very grateful for it; and you're part of what makes it so special. Thanks for taking the time to read.

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You worked hard for it. I was hooked with ol'Roseroonie. I stayed for the wide variety of stories that are both funny and well written.

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Ha... I thought that last photo showed a star=studded sky, until I realized it was just the sun highlighting all the dust on my screen. Still, it's very lovely. :)

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Sadly, unless all the lights go out in an EMP stars will never be seen in the sky here. You're lucky for the glimpse that could have been.

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DC is an interesting place...corridors of stone that hide human dramas, the same ones that unfold everywhere else. Justice O'Connor seems to have a vocation to serve, an awareness of what she was called to do, despite her private life.

Sounds like you had an interesting day in DC. I could wish I weren't 50 miles to the west or that my folks still had their DC apt. OTOH, it's nice here in the countryside and it doesn't have that fishbowl aspect that living in DC has.

Oz

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I like DC very much. Well, the marble and granite bits of it where people aren't getting shot.

I can get down to DC pretty easily. We'll have to do something.

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Could be done. MARC train runs from Union Station to my neck of the woods, just infrequently. But, I shall be up your way in Cherry Hill quite shortly. Just can't make the play, unfortunately. Travel coordination with hubby didn't work out, meaning he's going to be out of town until Friday, so I can't come north until the day Philcon starts.

Oz

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bolt bus! it's only like $10 and they have FREE WIFI!

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Quote of the Day, sir:


Flags were at half staff to honor the victims of Ft. Hood, but I'm now reminded that people go through powerful and tragic losses every day, and some of them deal with it with incredible grace and determination. I wish I had a flag for them.

Indeed.

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feel free to quote.

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This is not the 1st time I see interesting pics taken with iPhone, and I never take the time to use my iPhone camera properly. Thanks for the inspiration, and the great journal.

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You've very welcome. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I see the iPhone as a challenge, it's like trying to build a cathedral out of beer cans. Chase Jarvis has published an entire book of his iPhone photos (it's called "the best camera is the one you have with you"), but it was Haleyos that convinced me you could take nice photos with it if you tried hard.

I should do a workshop on iPhonetography.

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That would be a mighty neat workshop, You should get it uploaded to youtube.

One of my friends used his iphone camera while he traveled Paris. And that was a truly neat prospective :D

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I really admire Sandra Day O'Connor, and kinda envy your life :)

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Don't be envious, be inspired. The magic's out there, you sometimes just need to realize you're right in the middle of it.

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The magic is always there, if only we will turn our heads to look.

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My favourite Thurgood Marshall memory is when a reporter asked him why he was retiring from the bench and he replied testily "I'm old, I'm falling apart."

As also recall, he shook off this mortal coil not long after. :(

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One of my "if-only" alternate history scenarios involves Thurgood Marshall getting slightly better medical care in his early life, allowing him to stay active longer and retire on January 21, 1993.

Imagine the changes that would cause...Bush v. Gore is only the most obvious one.

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The iPhone camera is SO MUCH better than any of the three cameras I've had in cell phones. I can look at iPhone photos without seeing the artifacts FIRST.

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Awesome. Thanks for the beauty and the reminders.

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Those daisies made my heart sing.

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"I had this book about the Beatles when I was a kid and there was a photo in it of Paul standing around outside the Magical Mystery Tour bus and the caption said "Paul, waiting for the magic to begin." I don't know why that sticks with me, but it's one of those things embedded in my head. Waiting for the magic to begin. The truth, a lot of times, I've discovered, while making parenthetical asides so I can use more commas, is that while you thought you were waiting for the magic to begin, the magic was already happening."

I probably have that book: the Beatles are probably the one thing I could base a religion upon.

Funny thing is, the _Magical Mystery Tour_ was a great example of how magic can fail in a big way, even for the best magicians. Paul'd read about Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters-- another good example of how magic _can_ happen-- and figured the Beatles could work the mojo just as well. It was the Beatles' first project without Brian Epstein, and they had _no_ idea how to get a lot of things done-- booking studios, finding locations, _anything_. The result was pretty awful. Other than the wonderful _I am the Walrus_ segment, I've never been able to watch all of it.

(One thing that always bugged me about the Beatles. Watch the films they did themselves. They have a lot of shots of them simply smiling into the camera. A _lot_.)

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Thank you for this.

I needed that reminder and the inspiration. I'm not finding the right words at the moment so 'thank you' is all I have.

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you're very welcome. thanks for taking the time to post.

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Thank you. For the pictures and for sharing your stories. Also for reminding us to open our eyes and see.

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It has been there all the time.

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Justice O'Connor's husband, ill with Alzheimer's for twenty years, had taken a turn for the worse and she left quickly to get on a plane and go to the hospital to see him. I'm left powerfully impressed with her ability to deal with his illness for so long and with such strength -- with her ability to function in the face of such adversity, to talk with colleagues and have your photo taken and simply move from one place to another. She watched her husband of half a century slowly forget who she was and then watched him fall in love with another woman in the same assisted living center, and then watched him fade completely.

I was just talking to a friend on something similar lines ~ that need to walk the balance between personal/professional worlds in the face of so much which oftentimes the rest of the world is never aware of. Like you said with Ft. Hood, there are people who deal with their own tragedies in private, and with a quiet strength, continue on.

The magic is indeed all around...

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Thanks for reminding us to look for the magic and not sweat the small stuff. I think I know a little of what Justice O'Connor was going through in a very small way --this year it was my father who was ill, but not with Alzheimers, and I work for a small university. When you're in that situation, you realize that falling apart does no one any good. My sympathies to Justice O'Connor.

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This was a sweet and moving post.

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Beautiful and poignant. It reminds me that the magic never really leaves.

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i love DC, even a little glimpse of it like this makes me smile.

I've been following your twitter and iphonetography adventures...do you use any photo editing or enhancement apps?

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i use the iPhone apps watermarkr, photogene, bestcamera, & tiltshiftgenerator, mostly for one thing each.

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An IPhone? Really? Wow.
That photo in the middle is really beautiful.

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Oops, I don't know why I wasn't logged in as me there.

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Yup. That's my phone.

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The last picture looks like a glass and metal shark swimming through a sea of stone.

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i so want to live in the world where the glass and metal shark swims through a sea of stone.

maybe i already do.

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Hi, Kyle. I've been following your lj for a while now and am de-lurking because I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your photographs.

It's a beautiful day where I am today (South Carolina) doubly so because it's the first sunny day all week, but I've been stuck inside my office unable to really enjoy it. Those pretty flowers brightened up my day so much I posted about it.

Thank you for reminding us how beautiful the world (and the people in it) are!

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i'm so happy when people delurk. welcome!!

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Like everyone I love your photos, and while I adore photos of Roswell, she's so much cuter in real life. However, over time, I've come to love and appreciate the way you express yourself in words just as much as the way you do so through photographs. You can put into beautiful and elegant phrases and sentences what so many of us can only vaguely think around the edges of.

Thank you for sharing so much of yourself. You inspire me not only to try to take better photos, but to work at my craft and be a better writer.

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I was pleased to once read a review that said I was a mediocre photographer but an excellent writer. I think it's probably true and something I'm not uncomfortable with.

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I think any of the Dementia diseases would be the hardest to take.
Not only for the loved ones left trailing behind, (that lack of recognition after a lifetimes company is heartbreaking) but also for the individuals themselves. Those more lucid days when what you are losing and what lies ahead, is still discernible through the fog! That is what i would dread the most.
Years ago i came across a quote from a collection of interviews with Dementia sufferers. It read:

"Every day is alone itself"

I scrawled it on the bottom of the mirror at the time and it now hangs outside our front door.

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That was just beautiful. Thanks. I needed it.

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You're very welcome. Thank you for taking the time to read.

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