📷 Not My Usual Beat...

...but a necessary change-of-pace. 😵

I’m sure I could write something fairly respectable if I started tinkering at the keyboard until I managed to cobble a workable piece. It’s just that I don’t think it would be very honest. There are moments where you feel as if you really do have something useful to say, and then there are these…other moments. My heart isn’t in it. Various developments have temporarily (I hope 🙏) derailed me. I’m a bit bruised, numb, and anxious. I find a need to slow down, recharge, and regroup. I hope it doesn’t take too long 😉.

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Two quick preliminary points. I’ve recently completed two streaming series (both on HBO Max as it happens):

The first was DTF St. Louis. I’m sure it’s a good series and I know it’s one that many respected critics have enjoyed. It had its moments for me, and I thought both the performances and the story were subtle and quietly impressive. In the end, I wasn’t entirely sold on it. It had a plodding feel to me that is just not (at this particular juncture) what I need to be doing. In all fairness, I want to give it another try when (if?) things settle-down and I can focus more patiently and cleanly.

The second was The Pitt. Plodding, it isn’t. It takes place in a Pittsburg hospital ER (get it?) and it washes over you like a firehose. It’s constant motion by multiple people at once. Multiple stories are interwoven. It’s graphic and intense, but in the midst of the overall chaos it has its share of quieter and more ordinary human stories as well. There are many outstanding performances in a very large cast. As far as I can say as a layman, the medical stuff is realistic and very well-done. It’s addictive for streaming. I loved it!

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This brings me to my point. For a while now, I’ve been interested in amateur photography. Some years back, I purchased a Canon Rebel T100 at Walmart. I make no claims to great skill or technical knowledge, but I think of it as a fun hobby. On occasion, it comes in handy as a tool for modest social commentary. At my age, it’s easier and more productive to take photos than to do other more strenuous activities.

Here are a few selected photos:

^Ginkgo trees @ Catalpa Street Fall Lexington KY

^The falling of the Ginkgo leaves is an annual event in Lexington. Draws crowds every year in November. This is close to the Henry Clay Estate.

^Martine’s @ 3td Street Lexington KY

^The upstairs seating area here has been a hangout for me almost every Thursday afternoon since we came to Lexington. I do some of my writing there.

^Simple lunch and simple photo @ Martine’s

^Scene @ Keeneland Thoroughbred Race Course Lexington KY

^Flag @ No Kings Lexington KY June 2025

^This is one of those moments where a photo can make an activist statement (worth a thousand words, as the saying goes).

^Fire smoke sunset in 2021.

^This was no ordinary sunset. Extreme western forest fires in July of 2021 created these hazy sky conditions as far east as Kentucky.

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I have probably hundreds of these. Some are OK and some are less so. I’ll comb thru my files eventually and post any more interesting ones that I can find.

Until later. 🙂