So, how was life this past year? What all did you do? Sure, work is the first thing that comes to mind, then eat, sleep, play with the dogs and check Facebook. But let's think about this for a minute. There's much more that makes the stuff of life.
There's the big life events; birthday parties, new family members, weddings, vacations. And that's a good start. If we dig a little deeper into the memories, we might remember about how wonderful that chili smelled on the day of the big snow. Or how the spotted dog lost his two front teeth during a dental cleaning at the vet's office. Teaching first aid to a Boy Scout patrol and dropping the new kid off the emergency stretcher. Finding out that much talked about novel was really as good as they said. And finally opening that bottle of Adam's County wine that was saved for a special occasion.
I've created this photo journal to capture those little daily things that define life at its essence.
This is my Project 365.
I'll grab a snapshot every day for the next year. And good, bad or blurry - I'll post it. Now, I'm not going to post to the blog every day. That's just crazy talk, you know. I'll do catch-up days and share a bunch of snapshots at once, I think.
Like today. We've got Day 1, which was actually Jan 3 cuz that's how I roll. And we'll finish up this post with Day 5.
Day 1
Jan 3 2011 . . .We were invited by the Riverside Chamber of Commerce to talk to folk about Canine Companions for Independence. I snapped a shot of Micron as he was psyching up for his presentation. Our venue was Expressly Espresso, who were wonderful hosts. In the background is our PowerPoint presentation on CCI Puppy Raising on the big screen. Good group; they were easy to talk to and Micron was able to add to his fan base.
And that gas fireplace was working very nicely on this winter evening. A grande latte and warm corner in the cafe. Very cozy.
Day 2
Jan 4 2011 . . .In this we have an example of symbolism. I'm returning to work after the Christmas holidays. I had saved vacation days for the end of the year, so I finagled a break of December 23 through January 3. It's a time of refreshing nothing specialness. I can blow off an entire day and the sun still comes up the next morning. Nothing disastrous happens just because I'm not wall to wall with the usual stress-filled schedule. It's just lovely.
This is a shot of my work bag. Laptop and day planner inside, car keys hooked on top. If you squint your eyes, it almost looks like it's making a sad face. But I gotta admit, I do like my job. And even more, I like being gainfully employed so I can maintain this fancy lifestyle of mine. By fancy, I mean sending the kid to college. I really don't mind going back to work, I just wish the day could start a little later in the morning, is all.
Another bit of detail; some yellow dog hairs stuck to the side of the bag. There's dog hair on everything here. Inside the register, seen in the right hand corner, is enough fur to craft a large gerbil. We try to vacuum it out on a regular basis before it has a chance to become self-aware.
And in the background are rolls of Christmas wrapping paper. Haven't put away the holiday stuff yet. But I will. sigh
Day 3
Jan 5 2011 . . .The kid wants to know why there's a drawing of a pig on that bottle of wine we brought back from Adam's County. Well son, it's a play on words I would guess. The winery name their spiced wine Scrapple, apparently taken from Sweet Cranberry Apple. Which, to our good fortune, is really nothing like that culinary delicacy of scrapple.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about scrapple:
As you would expect, the wine is more than a little sweet. You couldn't finish a bottle in one sitting without some level of regret later. So here it is still on my counter on Day 3 of my Project 365. After counting on my fingers, I can tell you this was taken on January 5.
Day 4
Jan 6 2011 . . .Well, that was close. I've retired for the evening and just put the bookmark in that Chabon novel. As I turn out the light, I realize that I didn't take a photo today. Ugh. Ok, I'm up and with the beloved Canon now in hand walking through the house. What the hell am I going to take a photo of at this time of night?
Ah, the poinsettia. Why not? It's after Christmas and the thing is still alive and that's enough milestone for me. To my mother's disappointment, I'm not very good with plants. The cleaning staff at work take my desk plants away from me. It's true. They give me regular updates on their progress like it's an open adoption or something. Did you see your something-something plant on the windowsill? It's blooming!
This beautiful white poinsettia was a gift from Derek's girlfriend. She brought it home from her sister's holiday wedding all dolled up with glitter on the leaves. Now this plant never hurt nobody in its life and doesn't deserve its dark fate. Not sure how long I can keep this hapless thing alive, but probably should take it into work next week and leave it on my desk so it has a fighting chance.
Day 5
Jan 7 2011 . . .On a trip to Kroger, we just need to grab two things. Intending it to be a quick trip, we take the service dog in training for a walk through. We've had Micron at the grocery a handful of times and he's always an attention getter. Some folk want to stop and talk, some ask if their kids could pet him. I consider this just another way of raising awareness of Canine Companions for Independence. It's good socialization for the pup as well.
This trip we're asked if this is a service dog in training. Yes, we say, we're puppy raisers for CCI. She tells us about a family member whose life was changed profoundly by a service dog. She has seen first hand what these dogs can do. This is the kind of conversation that can just make your day.
Do we take donations? Well no, we don't but you can go online at http://www.cci.org/ to donate directly to the organization. She pulls a bill out of her purse and hands it to us. Please take this donation, she says, I want to help. We've encountered generous people over and over since our involvement with CCI. I'm still impressed every time it happens.
Canine Companions for Independence operates on donations alone. No government grants or funding. Every donated dollar, good or service is put towards the noble goal of providing service dogs to people with disabilities. At no cost to the recipient. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about scrapple:
Scrapple, also known by the Pennsylvania Dutch name pon haus is traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices. The mush is formed into a semi-solid congealed loaf, and slices of the scrapple are then panfried before serving. Scraps of meat left over from butchering, not used or sold elsewhere, were made into scrapple to avoid waste.Huh. Kind of sounds like the Mennonite cousin to the hot dog, don't ya think? Anyway, the wine from Adam's County is a sweetly spiced white. I had saved this bottle from our last Gettysburg trip and had it chilled for our annual New Year's Day dinner of pork & sauerkraut.
As you would expect, the wine is more than a little sweet. You couldn't finish a bottle in one sitting without some level of regret later. So here it is still on my counter on Day 3 of my Project 365. After counting on my fingers, I can tell you this was taken on January 5.
Day 4
Jan 6 2011 . . .Well, that was close. I've retired for the evening and just put the bookmark in that Chabon novel. As I turn out the light, I realize that I didn't take a photo today. Ugh. Ok, I'm up and with the beloved Canon now in hand walking through the house. What the hell am I going to take a photo of at this time of night?
Ah, the poinsettia. Why not? It's after Christmas and the thing is still alive and that's enough milestone for me. To my mother's disappointment, I'm not very good with plants. The cleaning staff at work take my desk plants away from me. It's true. They give me regular updates on their progress like it's an open adoption or something. Did you see your something-something plant on the windowsill? It's blooming!
This beautiful white poinsettia was a gift from Derek's girlfriend. She brought it home from her sister's holiday wedding all dolled up with glitter on the leaves. Now this plant never hurt nobody in its life and doesn't deserve its dark fate. Not sure how long I can keep this hapless thing alive, but probably should take it into work next week and leave it on my desk so it has a fighting chance.
Day 5
Jan 7 2011 . . .On a trip to Kroger, we just need to grab two things. Intending it to be a quick trip, we take the service dog in training for a walk through. We've had Micron at the grocery a handful of times and he's always an attention getter. Some folk want to stop and talk, some ask if their kids could pet him. I consider this just another way of raising awareness of Canine Companions for Independence. It's good socialization for the pup as well.
This trip we're asked if this is a service dog in training. Yes, we say, we're puppy raisers for CCI. She tells us about a family member whose life was changed profoundly by a service dog. She has seen first hand what these dogs can do. This is the kind of conversation that can just make your day.
Do we take donations? Well no, we don't but you can go online at http://www.cci.org/ to donate directly to the organization. She pulls a bill out of her purse and hands it to us. Please take this donation, she says, I want to help. We've encountered generous people over and over since our involvement with CCI. I'm still impressed every time it happens.
Canine Companions for Independence operates on donations alone. No government grants or funding. Every donated dollar, good or service is put towards the noble goal of providing service dogs to people with disabilities. At no cost to the recipient. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think.
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