Virginia Is For Families

Father’s Day this year was something special. Beth took your blogging buddy out to breakfast and I was able to enjoy lots of treats that you will not find at the local fast food place. And then we wandered over to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens for the special event they planned for the day.

I have some photos to share of the antique cars and Harley Davidson motorcycles. Also a really cool dragon fly! Some of them are posted at Photo LinkLove which has enjoyed or endured depending on your perspective another face lift. I really think this will be the last one for awhile since it incorporates everything I had ever hoped to do to it.

And then there was Tiger Woods and the US Open! Talk about golfing excitement! Tiger put on an incredible show as he fought his way to the lead on Saturday, came out on Sunday and immediately gave it up when he played the first hole as if I had taken possession of his body and then fought back again to tie the leader on the last hole.

So it’s not over yet! We get to see eighteen more holes today. Father’s Day is extended this year for another day! How cool is that? Do you think I can get someone to take me out to breakfast again before the golfing resumes?

Probably not. Tiger hit some amazing shots over the weekend. He was putting shots in the can from all over the place and the crowds were going nuts. And viewers all over the world were no doubt jumping off their couches and doing the same thing. It was a great day for golf.

And Tiger was hurt too. His recent knee surgery is still in the painful stages when pressure is put upon it. And a golf swing will put lots of pressure on it. At some point yesterday the number one golfer admitted taking the number one pain killer and stopped grimacing in pain. But it was an adventure.

We still can’t figure out why he hit a driver into the thirteenth hole after Lee Westwood put his ball in no man’s land and had to take a drop. Why?  And then on the next hole he hit an iron when he should have hit a wood. Why again?  And he lost a couple of shots for what reason?   But that just made the ending even more dramatic as he made a birdie from a hundred yards or so to send the tournament into overtime.

Tiger is a new father himself these days. Maybe that’s why he was sinking putts from all over creation. I don’t know. But it was a lot of fun and a golf tournament many of us will never forget. Want to see a photo of a cool car?

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My eyes cracked open at the crack of dawn today. And I wobbled over to the window and looked out through more cracks in the blinds and the spaces between the leaves outside. And I was happy to see. . . COLOR!

That’s right sports fans. There was a little bit of pink or light red in the sky and this is a very good sign.

Because it means that in about thirty minutes if your intrepid photo guy can put on his pants and find his way down to the James River we may end up with something like this to show you before 8 am.

I even had time to go to Starbucks for a coffee and blueberry scone before heading down to the Pony Pasture to see all my winged friends. Because I have done this before and kind of know what I am doing now.

This is why you need a nice camera dude! What did you see last night on television that can compare with this?

The Tudors? Well, alright. You have a point. But you can record that sucker and go to bed. Or you can sleep less and do both. But in any case you need to be out there when the sun comes up.

Because this is when the magic happens.

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Here is a larger view on Blogger

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In this photo we can see the reflection of the sun as it peaks over the hill on the scales of this large fish. The Osprey is having him over for breakfast.

Who says birds are not hospitable?

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Recently I read an article about sleeping and found out a few things. I discovered that there are folks out there who are hopping around and making a big deal about our sleep habits.

And let me just say that I don’t think we have sleep habits. We have caffeine habits. And I actually have a bunch of dangerous habits.

Oh wait. Excuse me. Those are hobbits. I love my Lord of the Rings (Middle Earth edition) Adventure and sometimes play it on the computer after I get done blogging. So that would be about two o’clock in the morning.

Anyway these folks say that lack of sleep contributes to different diseases. And it also contributes to obesity. How could that be? Well as far as the fat stuff goes maybe it happens like this.

We don’t eat when we are asleep. We eat when we are awake. If we are awake more we are going to eat more. Then we are going to get fat. Is it alright to say “fat”? Obese doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. It sounds like something a guy cow known as a bull would say to his girlfriend “Oh Bess! Would you make me something for breakfast”?

Let me just say that I have been living on about five hours sleep for awhile now and it hasn’t affected me one bit. I am just as lucid and rational as the day I was born.

Sure I get sleepy once in awhile. But doesn’t everybody? That’s why they are doing all these studies about sleep. Besides the fact that they need something to do and won’t get paid if they just sit around. . . . sleeping.

My feeling is that if we slept less we would have more time to do many things including blogging. We could learn a lot more by reading more books. And the amount of time we actually have to work would decrease as a percentage of our waking life.

Here’s the article in case you are not convinced that I have this thing figured out. And please let me know how much you sleep and how much sleep you feel you need. I’m not saying I will change my mind but . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/08/AR2005100801405.html

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Dawn at Virginia Beach can be a beautiful scene and this morning demonstrated that this is true. As light approached surfers came down to the beach in their wet suits and headed out into the pounding surf . I managed to get myself down there to record some of it. The back is a little better. Fortunately I remembered to bring my wide support belt with the embedded magnets. If you have back problems I highly recommend one of these.

I took about five hundred shots and increased the size to large in the camera. So we have many more pixels in the same amount of space. Let me know if you can see any difference. I need to go have breakfast now but here is a photo from this morning.

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And here our early morning is curled up inside the wave. This particular ride brought some whistles and cheers from the surfers still on the beach. I bet I could go down there now and find someone who would love to have this photo. But I don’t have a printer. Too bad.

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