Ruminator

  Thursday November 24 th , 2022. A day that would change my life. A few days of fear led me to a new outlook on life. It has been one year today (depending on when you are reading this) that I had what the doctors described as ‘ an event ’. It took many questions, and finally a friend, who is a doctor, told me what the event meant. A heart attack. Another friend said as I reminded her it has been almost a year, “ it seems like long ago to me ” that this entire ordeal happened. For me it seems rather recent some days and “long ago ” other days. Regardless, it was life altering for certain. My life has changed so much since last Thanksgiving and those few days after. I have lost over 50lbs and kept most of it off, regulated almost all my blood work back to normal levels, tried to exercise daily, and feel I really have a new lease on life. Hiking can still be tough but is much easier than before. I do not get as winded, or if I do so while climbing a hill, the recovery is quick...

  Since many of the stores already have Christmas stuff out, I set a New Year Resolution. I know it is early, but it was on my mind, so I wanted to share. Over the past several years, my frustration with social media has grown. I have joined, deleted, and rejoined Facebook, mainly to follow photography groups. I recently watched a video that struck a chord with me. The author spoke of the purpose of purpose of sharing things on social media, and in my case, my pictures. He talked about the desire to get likes, followers, and comments. That in the beginning all people, no matter what genre, strive for this. It is later that, as we grow in our work, those likes, follows and comments lessen as we strive to find our authentic voice. I have always prided myself on doing what I like and not doing for others. This is apparent when one of my most photographs that now hand in three different locations (two homes and an office) is a picture I don’t like. I took it on a whim and almost ...

Photo by: Tim Bindner I am about to tell you about three separate days of hiking. Two at the same location and one at another. A grand total of 13+ miles over three days. Day 1: November 3, 2023 I was off work and planned on heading to the park office prior to hitting the trails. Stanley, my friend, and the property manager, wants me to stop by after 8:30am. He has a map of the property and wants to share some hidden gems he found while hiking. The park sold property maps (well, gave them away) and horse maps (that cost $10). The horse maps were more detailed but mainly show the horse trails. Stanley took his horse map and transposed hiking trails and locations on it by drawing various routes he had done. I bought a horse map and will also follow his lead and create my own custom map. I was told by Stanley that there was a mountain bike convention in Campground A and there were many bikers going to be on the trails for the next three days. My original plan was to hike the R...