Sign me up :: It's an emerengy

I cadged this picture from the Internet:

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Happy Wednesday

Dagny: So big to be so little

It's been awhile since I shared anything about Dagny.

In fact, the last time may have been in June, when she had her first birthday.

Dagny had some mighty fine times in the pool this summer. She loved it and was never afraid of the water, even for a moment.

A friend gave Audrey an elaborate crab-shaped contraption -- complete with stand-up eyes and pink beestung lips that actually resembled Dagny's own voluptuous sugarlips -- for Dagny's floating pleasure.

I wish you could have seen the wee thing paddling all around like a baby Esther Williams. It was epic.

Last week Audrey brought Dagny by to stay with me for a few hours. The baby was dressed so cute (as per usual) that I seized the opportunity to take her out onto the front porch and capture the moment.

The result was rather stunning, given the mellow light of the late-summer day, not to mention the beauty of my subject.

Dagny is fifteen months old but she's tiny. No fat rolls here. None of my babies were fat either, so we've concluded it's genetic.

But she is growing up. There is no avoiding it.

I think you will agree that the above photo was the money shot of the day. It may be the best photo of a human face I have ever been privileged to take.

I shot this mini-session using my Nikon D3100 paired with the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 50mm 1:1.8 G prime lens.

Yesterday I took more photos of our precious ever-changing baby. If you're so inclined, you may see them here.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Wednesday

For the record, ha ha

All things considered, it helps -- in every situation -- to have a sense of humor.

I'm fixing to go out on a limb here: Dour, humorless types baffle and vex me.

Baffle because I don't understand how they face each new day, and vex because a dour person is a real buzzkill.

I am only being honest.

If you can't laugh (at the appropriate time), I'm not sure you can truly grieve (at the appropriate time). There are times to be silly and times to be serious.

The most endearing and enduring people know one from the other.

That does not mean we are all required to find the same things humorous in the same way. Heaven forfend.

It is still, for a while at least, a marginally free country. Your funnybone, whatever its proclivities, is not accountable to me, nor mine to you.

Clever minds take various forms and wander down myriad avenues, taking in the scenery.

Be that as it may, I find this sign terribly amusing:

Because it is stationed prominently just inside the entrance gate of one of my favorite haunts, both now and in the hereafter: Columbia's historic Elmwood Cemetery.

This being the very acreage where, if the Lord tarries and I'm not caught up in the rapture of the saints, avoiding death as Christians since Christ's resurrection and ascension have hoped they would do, my own mortal remains will someday be planted.

Wait. Why did you find that sign funny, you may be thinking.

Well. When you stop by the office (a sad place sorely in need of redecorating) to update your records, what precisely are you going to say?

Hey! I'm still alive!

Or:

Hey. I'm still dead.

Or:

Hey. I'm still alive.

Or:

Hey! I'm still dead!

Behind door number three? Likely a mere change of (physical) address or cell phone number. Or heart.

By the way: Before some levity-challenged -- but no less valued -- reader finds it necessary to correct me here, please know this is all tongue-in-cheek.

I know what the (distinctly humorless) powers-that-be at Elmwood mean by the sign.

I think.

Either way however, I am disinclined to acquiesce to their request.

My records? They are what they are.

In conclusion, I've told my children: At my funeral (whenever that may occur, and no time soon I hope) and for the days after, for as long as it takes, I want you to cry.

But I also want you to laugh.

They know what I mean. When my time comes, I will be mourned and remembered by some exceedingly fine individuals.

I believe I have taught them how to both rejoice and grieve. These are important lessons.

Anyway. If you think this is weird? You should have clicked out when you had the chance.

Know that I love you.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Friday :: Happy Weekend

New York state of mind

 ^ Empire State Building ^

^ Rockefeller Center ^

^ St. Patrick's Cathedral and Rockefeller Center ^

^ Cortlandt Street, Lower Manhattan ^

^ Empire State Building ^

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Out of the night you burn, Manhattan

In a vesture of gold --

Spun of innumerable arcs,

Flaring and multiplying --

Gold at the uttermost circles fading

Into the tenderest hint of jade,

Or fusing in tremulous twilight blues,

Robing the far-flung offices,

Scintillant-storied, forking flame,

Or soaring to luminous amethyst

Over the steeples aureoled.

= Lola Ridge =

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God Bless America :: Never Forget

 

In a New York minute

^ Tourneau TimeMachine :: Fifty Seventh Street ^

^ Paramount Theatre :: Broadway ^

^ Trump Tower :: Fifth Avenue ^

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Time changes everything except something within us

which is always surprised by change.

= Thomas Hardy =

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God Bless America ::  Never Forget