Blue Vegas

The Grand Canyon of Time

Hard to believe it's been almost a decade and a half since Sylvia and I saw the Grand Canyon. I'm so glad we went before...well. 
 

View from the Cabot Trail

 

Jellybean Streets

My anthipathy for the boring beige houses that seem to be the default in Edmonton intensified when Sylvia and I visited St. John's. I wish I lived on a rainbow road. 

Photoshopped Peters' Drive-In

About a decade ago, Sylvia and I stopped at the Peters' Drive-In in Red Deer en route to Calgary. I took a few wide-angle photos of the place. They turned out well enough. But while experimenting with Photoshop, I found I could use prompts to transform the image into something more dynamic than my original. 

And yet it makes me sad. Had I been more serious about photography, I could have achieved this effect myself, in camera. This feels like cheating. 
 

Back Alley Robot

 

A Wooden Performance

Mine, not his. 

 

Pirates of the Ottawa River

 

Chopperspotting

"Let me know if I'm coming too close to any power lines," the chopper pilot said. "Or one of the other helicopters." 

I told him I would.

And that's why I'm here today. 


 

3D Man

Here I am back in 2017, when I didn't worry about catching a virus in movie theatres. Better days. 
 

DC Boardwalk

One might toss some jacks; caltrops for kids
Bounce ball on boardwalk
Grab jack
Second ground, grab two
And so on
Bonus points: ball colour
Perfectly matches wall colour
Ghosts peer through obsidian panes
Nails squeaking against glass
But the kids don't hear
They've reached tensies
And Harpreet has one chance to win
She scoops--she scores. 
Time for ice cream--the wall inspires Neapolitan
"We're all out of chocolate strawberry vanilla ice cream" 

Muddied Metaphors

Life isn't always perfectly pretty
Sometimes there's mud in the water
In poetry as in life
Green needs brown
Words need structure
But sometimes those structures fall apart and you get a horrible mess but hey
There's still life in it

Nova Scotia Mermaid

I met a lass in Lunenburg
Fair of skin with wooden curves
I posed with her upon the docks
Admiring her painted locks
A being sculpted by the shore
Gazing south forevermore
Enduring the selfies selflessly
Always ready for one more
 

An Island of Flowers on Cape Breton Island

 

Wakes

Golden Hour Flower

 

81

We didn't know it at the time, but this was the last time Mom and Sean and Sylvia and I celebrated Dad's birthday--a few days early, on January 27, 2018. We had a nice time, and as I think about Dad on this, what would have been his 81st birthday, I'm grateful for that gathering and all the other times we spent together. I hope he's flying or watching a football game or cursing a blue streak while renovating a room somewhere. 
 

The Looming Beaver

Dune Thing

Washed ashore, this fine debris
Hard-shelled bounty from the sea
Found by Gilligan, first mate guy
Baked by Mary Ann into coconut cream pie

The Perils of Depth of Field