Rixations and other frustrations

waterlilyIt’s a good thing I had this photoooo in my phone today because The Admiral flew away this afternoon just as soon as I got my iPhone camera open.

This may not be the best photo ever but do you have any idea how hard it is to take a picture from a kayak? It’s like, “Oh, I have to get a pitcher of that water lily because I’ll never see one again!” If you are me, you are steaming along, then… Quick! Backpedal! I backpedal and promptly do a slow-motion careen (or is it career?) right smack into the very thing I want to take a picture of. Eventually I get close enough to a stop that I could probably take a picture but I have to get my iPhone out of its dry bag (which on this trip was a ziplock bag because I couldn’t find the dry bag I bought last fall) and by that time, I have slowly drifted past the photo’s subject. After much jockeying around, I finally managed to get this one. It may not be the greatest. The flower isn’t quiiiite open yet but I do love the big luxuriant leaves. (Click and click again to embiggen.)

I am kind of done for today. You are happy about that. Just another Pleasant Valley Planet Ann Arbor Sunday-ay-ay Tuesday-ay-ay. Here in status symbol land. What song was that from? Oh! Hey hey, it’s the Monkees! (it’s a video but I didn’t get an ad…). Totally fergot! I luvved the Monkees even though I realized that they weren’t as “cool” as all the acid rockers, etc., who I luvved too. (Along with Vivaldi and Bach and Mozart and Debussy and Chaminade and all kinds of more esoteric “classical” composers.)

Status symbol land? Around here on The Planet Ann Arbor, the status symbols are not houses or automotive vee-hickles so much although there are folks who care about that stuff. Here it’s what college (or nursery school) is the “best fit” for my [insert term of genius here] child. The college of “fit” for *many* local kids was Carnegie-Mellon the year one beach urchin was a senior. With apologies to C-M, which does have a fantastic reputation and is a wonderful place for many people to get an education, barf bag please…

3 Responses to “Rixations and other frustrations”

  1. Margaret Says:

    I love water lilies and have terrible picture taking timing also. I watched the Monkees show; did you? I loved their music, even though they were a fake group. Ashley got her second grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation; it’s keeping her in Senegal for the full year, so I hate them. 😉

  2. Paulette Attie Says:

    Photography in a kayak is darn near impossible. You did well, KW. As I rounded Cedar Point a few years back, I saw some wild roses among rocks on the shoreline. Wasn’t that difficult to flip that baby sideways as a big gust of wind came from the north. Took on a lot of water, but held the iPhone up well enough to photograph another day.

  3. Pooh Says:

    I’d like to see Mark use his Go-Pro on a kayak ride. It’s got a waterproof case and it’s small, so could he probably clip it to a life vest.