Photos from Kate’s graduation ceremony, yesterday, at Merrimack High School.

     

Joe, with Matt’s encouragement,  decided to trim some branches off the tree in the yard near the driveway.  Use a ladder?  Are you kidding?  Wait until daylight? Why?

  

My former friends in Evansville sent me this card.

Open it and there is a single word inside – old. The old guy skipped work on his birthday and walked around Castle Hill and adjoining Crane Beach.

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View of the ocean from the end of the Crane Estate lawn.

Goose and I drove into Applewood today and spotted a Great Blue Heron. I’ve many standing shots of the bird, but I’ve been trying hard to get a full wing spread photo to show rakkity just how big these birds are. At my prompt, Goose jumped out of the truck and yelled really scary things at the bird so he’d take flight. As Goose yelled, I snapped the shot above, and to add context Goose spread his six foot wing span kneeling in about the same spot as the heron.

Goose and I rented a forty foot ladder today so he could safely reach the front peak of the house. There’s a bit of bounce to the thing as you climb up it, but I don’t think there’s a chance it’ll snap in half.

Robby’s new look.

Joe’s bunny.

All kinds of progress.

A friend of a friend’s granddaughter came a visiting and Matt thought what a perfect excuse for a party. All photos by Matthew.

Brian’s Photos.

Following the lead of others, I skipped work today and hung out in Newburyport and on Plum Island. I took a few anonymous people shots and some, if I do say so myself, worthwhile photos of snowy egrets. I again used the longest lens I have.

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Saturday night, if memory serves, Richard claimed my photographs make people appear better than they look. Matt and I combined to create this collection, and while they were all vetted by three adults, it’s impossible to know how the wearer of the face is going to react – especially given the close crops I favor.

Our dinner slash party together was perfect. Most of the night felt like any other, and for the brief time I became the center of attention, well, that was fine too. During those blush-inducing toasts I felt like Tom Sawyer watching his own funeral.

I’d like to clear-up a now decades old myth. It is a better story as told by Steven, and while I did peer in at Karen through her bedroom skylight, the truth is I didn’t then fall off the roof. Or jump off in an oedipally induced spasm. Or float off after a glimpse of her naked body. I fell off my ladder days later while shingling the chimney side of their house.

Anyway, I won’t soon forget Adam’s limericks, John and Karen’s rendition of “Here Comes the Sun,” or Dan’s Clintonesque soliloquy (Hey, he was talking about me, he could have gone on forever), or Susan’s Becca-like proclamation about me not being the boss of her, or Richard’s reason for giving me a toast, “Someone took my chair.”

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The reason for the last photo? Bill Lewis walked by while Diane and I posed for the second to last photo and asked, “Where’s the pitchfork?”

There’s a nearby daycare and I’ve wanted to take this picture for a long time, but I was pushed by the traffic behind me so the photo’s a bit blurry.