Historic Columbus Snaps

Photo collage made and uploaded to Blogger with Picasa.

Late Fall Sunday Drive

Circus Act

Trying hard not to be too negative this morning, I'll begin with a positive comment.  In these hard economic times, I know that civic clubs struggle financially, just as individuals and businesses do. They must find creative ways to raise funds and cut operating costs while continuing their good works. Perhaps the Columbus Exchange Club swapped venues for their annual pancake breakfast from the stately Columbus Civic Center to the humble Shrine Club across from our house to protect their bottom line. 

 The scene that greeted me as I gathered the newspaper from the head of the driveway was a bit of a shocker, though. This year's theme, "Breakfast with Santa," honestly, looks more like a mashup of Shrine Bingo, Goofy Golf, and an elementary school Fall Festival. Between the inflatables, the bungee jump, and the ever-present Shrine Bingo sign, this part of the hood has not begun to be "looking a lot like Christmas." I guess Santa was inside...eating pancakes and hiding from Godzilla.

Muscogee County Public Education Center Speech/Language Office

Just a quick post to showcase the new Speech/Language Pathology Program office at the beautiful new Muscogee County Public Education Center (MCPEC).

Pictured above: panorama view from the rear right corner of the room.

Pictured above: panorama view from the front left corner of the room (actually, from the doorway).

Above:   Amy and Susan share work space in the new office (apparently, before the tables were rearranged).

More photos of MCPEC are available on Richard Burghard's blog. I don't know Richard, but he does have interesting articles about Columbus..

Idle Hour Park Walk

I think that Laurie was on target with her estimation of the duck/geese population at Phenix City, Alabama's Idle Hour Park: hundreds! Resting on the banks, strutting across the road, dozing under the trees, paddling across the lake, and even following us around the loop road, great groups of them seemed to have imprinted on us. Rather quickly we made a habit to look down at the pavement, in order to dodge slick spots that they left in their wake.

Planning to document the afternoon, I snapped away with my camera. The goose close enough to me for a good picture refused to look my way. Put your hand out there like you've got some bread, Laurie. Glad to be anywhere on a Friday afternoon except logged into Clarity, Laurie humored me. But, instead of looking up, the stubborn goose commented with a disgusted hiss at our ruse, doggedly pecking away at whatever delicasy he/she (have no idea) had found on the banks of  Moon Lake where we'd gone to "walk it off" after work.

Our plan had been to burn some calories and chalk off one more aerobic session on our fitness to-do list. Laurie suggested Idle Hour as a different walking spot, and I was eager to give it a try. I'm afraid that I ruined our exercise plans, stopping every few feet to take a picture or to laugh at a funny Laurie observation. We had only walked about a half-of-a-mile when I left to meet friends for an impromptu El Vaquero dinner. Thankfully, Laurie is good-natured and didn't seem to mind.

The late afternoon was beautiful and gave me the chance to revisit the scene of a pleasant childhood memory. My dad had taken Beth and me to Idle Hour one afternoon in the early 1960's when I was about seven and she, about five. Laurie told me that the park had been in a state of decline even then. My memory of the place is vague, but Laurie confirmed what I thought that I knew: we probably rode a merry-go-round and a swam in an immense pool - not much in the way of excitement by today's standards. However, Beth and I remembered our afternoon there for years to come as complete magic. More than likely, my fun Daddy provided most of the magic.

Today's walk was short and, though not especially magical, will yield its own good memories: a good friend, several good chuckles, and a sweet autumn afternoon.

Another Perfect Georgia Fall Day...oh, and Horses, Too

      Just a quick post to mark the end of a perfectly beautiful autumn day here on the piedmont.  Friends invited us to the Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens. Weather was great and so was the event. Enjoyed seeing the ponies, foxhounds, Jack Russell terriers, and, of course, the beautiful horses.  Nice way to spend the first Saturday in November.

Riding the Riverwalk Redux

Anna and I failed in our attempt at riding the Riverwalk this past July. If we had known that the Downtown YMCA loans its members bicycles (pretty nice ones, too), we could have ridden at no cost to us for two hours without the bike rack woes. There was no problem getting two bikes at 4:30 on a week-day. I wonder if Saturdays would be as easy.

Laurie and I have wanted to rent bikes at Ride on Bikes since late summer. We'll do that sometime soon, but chose the freebies today. Vowing to leave work by 4 (almost made it), in order to have time to ride before dark (kinda creepy down there in the shadows), we finally got a bike ride in before the time change.

We selected two sleek,  gazillion speed bikes and set off through downtown towards the river. The Y employees looked just a little bit uncertain about our safety as we headed down 11th Street. They should not have worried about us returning on our own steam, but some navigational tips might have helped us out. Apparently, the last time that I ventured south on the Riverwalk, coaxing balky, sweaty children to follow my lead, the new Trade Center wing had not been built. The trail doubles as a service drive behind the building, confusing me (never takes much!). After a slight false start we did find our way onto the trail and pedaled to South Commons before heading back. I know, I know! Not very far! (I have ridden as far as Oakland Park before!) But now we know the ways of the Riverwalk and we'll be back.

Canada Geese were out flying in formation, and some snacked on whatever delicacy they waded past near the river bank. A lone duck floated by, but the real prize sighting this afternoon was the beautiful Great Blue Heron poised directly below us on the bank. He posed and then took off, skimming across the river and casting his perfect reflection on the water on this overcast autumn day. Lovely. DRAT! I had to use my Blackberry's inadequate camera...would have been a really nice picture with the Canon. This one will have to do (double click on it for a better view).

Laurie and I agreed that biking the Riverwalk was a nice end to a weird Monday at work. We'll be back. With a better camera. Now that we know what's what.

Bike Ride: October at Callaway

Here's just a peek at my beautiful day spent (mostly) on a bike at Callaway Gardens while Fife attended his first day of Fly Fishing School (a birthday present). I'm not sure that Pine Mountain ever saw the 65 degree predicted high and am certain that the sun never peeked out, but the day was glorious! I'm pooped! Click on the collage to see the pictures a bit larger or go to my Picasa Web album to see the slideshow.

Callaway Gardens and Picasa3 Editing Tool

What a beautiful Saturday at the Sibley Center and Mr. Cason's Vegetable Garden.

I discovered that Picasa 3 provides a flexible collage creator, which is easily uploaded to Blogger. I used it to create the a quick, easy, and good-looking collage. I especially liked the options for layout and grid color. Wish that Picasa had an option for including captions or alternate text.

Walking the Riverwalk

Today, while waiting for my bike inner tube to be replaced, instead of pedaling down the Chattahoochee Riverwalk as planned, we took a very short walk. Too muggy to walk very far, but we enjoyed Seward Johnson's bronze, When Now Becomes Then, as well as the herons, cormorants, gar, and turtles, who were also out enjoying a steamy, overcast Georgia July afternoon. We'll be back with inflated tires and a pair of binoculars for a longer trip soon.

View a (too small) video below or follow the link to a larger slideshow. I imported the digital images from the SD (Secure Digital) memory card to Picasa 3, uploaded them directly to my public, online Picasa album, and linked that here. Picasa 3 also allowed me to create and embed a photo video with the images. I like the slideshow better, I think.

Oxbow Redux

When Laurie and I visited Oxbow Meadows earlier this week, I found out about the 8 AM Saturday bird walks and planned to go. Maybe because of a stormy Friday evening...or possibly because 8:00 comes so darned early on Saturdays...Fife and I were the only visitors. We thoroughly enjoyed the leisurely walk down to the ponds with our gracious guide, Patricia. It was a beautiful day and she identified the birds I had actually seen on Wednesday -- cormorants (not turkey vultures), little blue herons (not great white egrets!!!), indigo buntings and blue grosbeaks (not painted buntings), as well as a few new ones (green heron, blue bird, wood duck, tree swallow, pine siskin, towhee, mockingbird, eastern phoebe)! We also saw the goldfinches that we had seen earlier in the week, but today they were brilliantly yellow. All were totally awesome to me.

As we were leaving the trail, Patricia spotted the adult Little Blue Herons wading in the water hyacinths. What I had mistakenly identified through the binoculars on Wednesday afternoon as great white egrets, were most likely immature Little Blues (white also).

Technology application of the day: definitely Picasa 3! It can be set to detect picture files. Although I did not use that feature, I easily imported pictures to one file, edited one or two, and could have imported them directly into this blog (Picasa and Blogger are Google aps). Instead I added a few captions, changed the font and background color, selected a transition style, imported a soundtrack, and let Picasa create a movie, which I easily embedded in the blog. I believe that even the youngest elementary-aged student could create a movie this way, with appropriate scaffolding. I can't wait to show this new feature of Picasa 3 to our teachers.


My non-SLR camera did not "capture the moment" well, but I at least had the color settings right today.

Dinglewood Scrambled Dog and a Fountain Diet cherry Coke

A Lieutenant Stevens Production: Bliss at the Lunch Counter