The Marriage of Figerow...

Before the stern man took unto him a bow partner, it was just him and his sit inside kayak.
Solo voyeur upon a sea of possibility.
Lots of fish within that sea.
Then one day upon the sea of tranquility drifts a damsel in a Dagger
and to his heart the double-blade goes..
Soon he is all about Kevlar and cruising in the
Wee-no-ah
Together with his bow partner
Bent blade doing that J-stroke
Tracking a straight line
As she lies back working upon the tan line.
And as the wealth increases
Its each man to himself
matching kayaks
each carrying his own load
then its
 on to outboards and sundecks
and pontoons and deep waters
and grandsons and sun burns
All was bliss
Yet something is missed
The years go by
The job dries up
kids no longer paddle
Too young for pasture
For solace you return to water
Carolina Skiff long since sold
Downsized to keep from going under
Too stiff for the sit-in
Your thoughts return to beginning again
This beginning though not so bad
for it takes little money
You find yourself again wealthy
For you invested long ago
in a sixteen foot canoe
and it stayed with you
though all the other vessels did go
So you re-stain the old bent shaft
bending branches blade
re-cane the seats
brush up on the J stroke
To begin again your maiden voyage
Tan lines deep and bronzed beautiful.

Sad Reality

It is a sad realization to realize, most people just don't share your interests, your likes?
It came to my realization when I posted the You Tube duet from the two Stephen Foster Jeanie and Stephen winners, and it got zero likes, that people are just not interested.
And true, most of the people in attendance yesterday at the Stephen Foster Day were well into their seventies and above.  Dreamers from another era soon to fade the scene.
And yet, the entertainers young and alive, with the old folks of home enjoying them. And where were the youth? Not to be found, only the few children tugged along by granny.
I often think into the far future as with nostalgia the old folks gather around the young artist who plays the hand controller with such artisty, dazzling again the gamers who once played so deftly.

Only One

Son, even God gave Solomon many wives and concubines
But a mother, he only gave one
You need to love the one
Who loved you before you were born.

And so another birthday comes and still the silence from Landon persists. To be so close to his mother growing up, to be so far from her now continues to baffle me.
I can only image the pain Melanie feels, for even hard old me even pines for my old daddy, crazy as he was to us.
Family can be crazy and say things loudly.
Where else in this world can we be this way?
Please God, let it not be in death that draws Landon back this way, but in a loving drawing sent
from you.

Where eagles gather

Still basking in the sounds that came from the Stephen Foster Day at the Folk Cultural Park in White Springs. Like Johnny said, Stephen Foster Memorial. There was a one hour concert in the Bell tower. It began with a playing manually of the tower bells, followed by Johnny Bullard leading us in the state song, Old Folks at Home, substituting brothers for darkies....
There was a hippie type fellow with the tell-tale stickers on his dulcimer case playing Foster songs. His name was Michael Vickey. Next Jan Krautheim played with him on the piano and guitar.
Then came the high light of the day, the singing of the 2014 Jeanie and Stephen contest winners, Amanda Caban and Alexander Solomon. We got to know Alexander before the show began as Melanie and I helped him cinch up his too big tux pants with a safety pin. I told him the lame joke, you need to quit dreaming of Jeanie. He sighed.
They sang individual and the last song together. It is all on my You Tube at john33stokes.
Johnny finished the program by singing Beautiful Dreamer.
Following were fine refreshments. Melanie, Meme and I drove about the town and countryside before making our way back to Lake City and reality.

White Springs

Today is Sunday, January 12. Tomorrow Melanie will have a birthday. Today after church we hope to travel over to White Springs for the two o'clock Stephen Foster Day. We do not know what to expect but will go.
White Springs is one of my favorite little towns in the area.
I am still caught in the thoughts from yesterday and the trip down to view and photograph the Sand Hill Cranes out on Whitehurst's property at Wacahoota. Then the drive down 320 to Micanopy, stopping frequently as turkey or cracker houses came. It is an area that exudes old Florida.
The thoughts from yesterday invariable return to if only I had this lens or that setting to make the shots better. No second takes. So important to get it correct the first time. Like life. So important to get it right the only time we have to get it right.

And we are only good as yesterday's rhyme
Forgotten as around the bier we pine
And what of the words he long spoke
Was he taken for but a stammering joke
The works seemed as precious gold
But fire revealed them wood rotten and old
With a brass lantern he held his light
And as he tried to prime away the night
The glass globe hot and dark with smut
Forgotten he was as the lid was shut.

Today I Passed

Today I came upon some Sand Hills gathering around
A family of turkey with faces toward the ground
An old girl friend at the Kangaroo in town
A hitch hiker with his trousers hanging down

Today I drove through the town of Micanopy
Stopping often to enjoy the antique scenery
Down Seminary Roads overhanging mossy
Paynes Prairie and the trail full of educated greenery

Today I made my way to Dan Newnan's lake
The driving wind lapping waves did make
Saw an eagle and did a double take
Drove slow with my quart of chocolate.

Today I wished I was a member of Shiloh
Then every Saturday to Risque I could go
But I would not let my family know
Sipping coke in that dark,dark glow.

Today in Traxler a letter I tried to mail
No Post Office here since '06 they did tell
Went to Bland where no one dwells
Tried Providence but the house fell.

Today I saw a Croft training his puppy
Would not shake, getting blood on me
Said, "Can I take a photograph of your property?"
He said, "Sure, it belonged to my daddy's pappy."

Today I had to tell a cow to move over
He was by the chimney wanting to hover
I tried to tell him go eat some clover
He said, "You are the strange imposer."

Today I made it home and watched Kentucky
That is another place I would like to be
And Monday is Melanie's birthday
See how much fun I had today with photography?

Shot the moon

Finally today had good success capturing two airplanes intersecting the moon. The first was a smaller Leer Jet and my shutter speed was set at 125. With hand held, the shot was too blurred when enlarged. This larger jet was shot at a shutter speed of 320, enough to give greater detail to the jet and fortunately, even though hand held, still acceptable sharpness.
I still miss the D7000 that allowed me to concentrate on the focus and not the proper exposure.
They tell of the Sandhill Cranes gathering in large numbers on Whitehurst prairie. We are thinking of traveling down in the morning to see. I do not know if they gather there at night so it is a shot in the dark going down.
We shall see.

Twenty-one thousand

Just a note to say
In the twenty-one days
You were away
Another social media
came our way
We all left Facebook
and now when you look
and wonder where
are the friends
well...all things must end
and begin
So you may as well
 in the closet dwell
We are doing just swell
It's such a neat social media
We really didn't need ya
I got like a thousand likes yesterday
And Oh the games we now play!
The comments are mandatory
And its all free as long as you
use alliteration,rhyme,sarcasm
and allegory
Something that was so lacking
and no more page hacking
for everyone is now a friend
requests we don't have to send
My where did the time go
Twenty-four hours not enough you know
They got this guy in charge named Tebow
And they say he is about to sway
The maker above
To make a thousand years a day
That way
We can post without guilt
And never need those twenty-one day
things
Why, that would be
Twenty-one thousand years
Time enough I think for you to learn
the use of
alliteration, rhyme,sarcasm and allegory
we use here.

And so Friday is upon us. Melanie and I today started the juice program, weighing in. We are the same weight...after twenty-six years we have reached steady state. Jordon is again off with Allison and Carson.
Meme has returned to my sisters to dwell, unhappy I am certain. Melanie is studying up on her new task in the job she has. She says job security. We all could use more of that. Without her working, we would be in a real pickle. Still, with her health, I am always aware of that nagging feeling of being a month or two on the street. They are talking of taking Jordon to Disney and Epcot for his twenty-first birthday the week after next. Naturally, they assume I will stay behind with meme and the animals. Probably will. They usually have a better time without me along moaning over spending this and that.
The weather today in Lake City is in the seventies but the aftermath of the two days below thirty outside is sad. All the things are dead, except the plants I stored, and even they are hurting. The nice calla lily from the Santa Fe survived this time.
The above poem is a further reaction to the friends mostly from the Williston Church of God who took this twenty-one day fast from Facebook. I have always been wary of these programs bought on by Rick Warren and such, works of Piety, really accomplishing little. If anything, puffing our spiritual pride up in that we are holy now that we have gone away from the sinners for the time.
I have always been wary of such days of doing things bought upon by Rick Warren and Joel Osteen and others. It smacks of piety and accomplishes little in way of truly reforming the heart.
Granted, I need 40 days of fasting and prayer to purge the many things I allow to hinder my growth and walk in Christ. But it would be vain to announce it to the world and let all know I am leaving them so I can do this.
I would just do it quietly while maintaining a presence in order not to give my friends the feeling that somehow I looked down upon them or I was better for doing this thing.

The Living Spread

Today is Thursday, January 9 of 2014. The day after our 26th anniversary. We went for Zaxby's. I did get her to ride with me so she could order from the passenger seat, calling out across me. I have a thing about talking to strangers. It is in the 50's and grey, with sunlight coming for brief spells. I have posted the perfunctory pictures to Facebook to the various sites I maintain, checked to see what response I got from my Share plea last evening and deleted the plea. I got three.
The lower molar on the left side of the mouth hurts and no doubt has been cracked by my eating of hard cereal. Melanie tells me constantly not to chew so loudly, to close your mouth. Sloppy eater.
Juicing was to continue today but we opted for coffee instead. Such a chore to sit there and juice up breakfast when coffee is so easy.
I am about to get up from my steady state of depression and ride down to Gar Pond and walk around in the woods, making my way down to the Florida Trail. But first, in order to do that, I will have to eat something.
Oh that coffee would sustain.
Mamma dined on the Zaxby brownie from last evening with milk. She did not want milk but Melanie messaged me from the closed door office to give her milk instead of the Coke Zero she had out.
And so the living will soon spread out. Jordon has gone to see his boy Carson at Allison's. Paula will come by this afternoon and get mamma and take her back to her home. Melanie will work on behind the closed door till after seven, just in time for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.
I will have long since returned from Gar Pond, wondering why they named it thus. Wondering as I wander.
But first, something soft to eat....

Cold Turkey

It is so frustrating. What works on Monday in the computer, does not work on Tuesday. What happens to computers in the night that one day, you are able to transfer photographs from Picasa to this Blog, then you get error code 503, service unavailable? Now I have to revert back to the original file and import it to the blog. Extra steps, extra time.
Yesterday, the 7th of January, I made the decision to send back the Nikon D7000, though quite heavy, met my needs for a camera body. I just could not justify at this time the price without any job. Even with a job.
I posted all this malaise so I will not dwell long upon the subject.
I took the usual afternoon walk at Alligator Lake in the bitter cold. Three layers and it still bit. I had the D3100 along, the lighter weight quite noticeable. I waited on the dock for a plane to cross the half moon, to no avail. I kept hearing the owls hooting deeper in the cypress hammock. I wished for a kayak to venture in and find them. One day I will happen upon one again.
I appreciated to kind response from my malaise from Rosemary. Rosemary was my friend at Florida Southern, almost girl friend friend, but my cold feet kept me distant. I ran from many in my life.
She was a music major so she is tuned to the artist spirit.
She offered to help edit my work. She said the poetry wasn't bad, only for a certain audience. A small audience I may add. Like here. Ten followers if that. I can usually write at will here without fear of anyone reading, until I write something controversial, then every Tom with a Uncle Harry who is a  dick wants to read it. I detest those people to no end. But that is the nature of man.
She mentioned again the publishing of a book. I do need to pursue that avenue. Johnny Bullard of White Springs has approached me about helping him with one by offering the photographs, he the writing. It could be a good learning experience. I must pursue that as well.
At this point, on my twenty-sixth wedding anniversary, time moves rapidly along. Today I could not get into clothes worn just a year ago. The juicer is out on the counter. We promise each other to begin, but not in earnest. Turkeys are cold in January and we must give them shelter.

Next level

Like the clouds stacked up this past week, I often think when walking along on one of my daily outings, what will it take to rise to that next level?
For several years, since 2009, Facebook has been the means of conveying photographs to people. While it has been a great method, along with the digital camera, it has not grown. My likes or followers or whatever remains small, confined to the same three to five hundred likes, or friends, depending on which site.
The photographs I have displayed at the Gateway Gallery since last year have not sold. I have constantly rotated them out, attempting to hit a chord. The only print that has sold has been the same print of the octagonal church. And this was sold to the same person, one for him and two for friends. The display at the library of historical 1980's photographs of Lake City I took when I was a newspaper photographer hasn't garnered any interest since going up before Christmas.
The blogs I maintain remain after nearly three years with about ten followers. Ten. 
Face it, I am stagnant in this endeavor.
And so I ponder the future, the futility of going out and snapping countless photographs that will be sent to Smug Mug albums, to be cataloged and forgotten.
It was not a good time for such gloom. I had purchased a new Nikon D7000 for $700 and at $30 a month, would take two years to pay off.
By then, the latest, greatest camera would long be out and the D7000 a relic.
And I would have thousands of photographs stashed away for what?
The joy of doing it?
I have some serious soul searching to undergo in 2014.
Someone out there, how about "discovering" me, offer me a job, allow me to pay for this crazy obsession.
Update January 7th.
 Today, Nikon announced the D3300. And on it goes. Today, three days from the 30 day return policy from B&H photo, I made the decision to return the D7000. It was heavy, heavy, but that was not the reason. I just cannot justify $35 a month for two years to pay for the darn thing without a job.
Funds are tight enough around here as it is with only one person working.
Things I greatly liked about this D7000. I was able to finally meter and use the manual focus old metal Nikon lenses. In a Aperture mode, the metering was finally accurate on first take, allowing me to concentrate on getting the shot, not fiddling with the manual exposure settings. I was able to use the commander flash mode without the cable attached to the flash from the camera. This was a great help on the Ellijay trip when taking the family shots. I will greatly miss that feature.
Third, the remote control button worked again. The D3100 I have is not set up to use the remote button.Go figure.
The D7000 focused fast and the metering was accurate. It had many other features I was learning to appreciate.
Someday, this year I trust, some type of job will avail itself to me, that I can do, and I will again order some type camera body.
It may be the D7100, the update to the D7000 I got for $700. It may even be the new Samsung NX30 . It looks promising and light. It may be the Olympus OM micro four thirds. Again, light and sharp.
As you see, I lean toward light. The Nikon D7000 with the old metal 180mm with the 2x extender was a beast to carry about.
It is probably time to gather up all the old Nikon gear and put it on ebay or Craig list and generate some cash.
That way, even without a job, perhaps I can muster up around 2k needed to get into a new, lightweight system.
If Nikon would ever come up with the proper lenses for the DX format, I would remain a Nikonian.
But, as Thom Hogan said today, we have been knocking on that door going on 15 years now and Nikon is not answering.
For the time being, I will venture out with the D3100 with the dust spots on the sensor or the Canon S95 with the cracked screen and JB Welded back.
One does not need the latest, greatest camera for photography. Like any tool, one can dig his grave with a shovel or a backhoe.

Path of Grape

the lone wild grape leaf left dangling down on the trail.