What more can be said?

I think about this blogspot not as a site on some abstraction we call the internet but as a physical place where I can unwind. To me, this blogspot is a tired, run-down, old home that I renovate, restore and renew every day. It's a place where foundations of cold, stark reality are painted over with thick layers of sweet fantasy, where closet doors creak open onto the bridges of 1950's sci-fi rocket ships, where secret codes are tapped out on floorboards by a pair of black Keds as they race down hallways warmly lit by a yellow sun rising over fields covered with the first winter snows, and where summer pours through leaded glass windows setting dust motes alight like a thousand fireflies on a warm evening.

This is a place filled with the echoes of footsteps sliding through musty basements and the papery moth-wing whispers in dusty attics. This is a place full of rooms - oh, so many rooms - each with a breath, a scream, a sigh, a laugh and a life of its own.

In this place I can remember the future and discover the past. I can dissect this world and construct new ones. With barely a move, I can spin a tale that creates for you the barber-pole illusion of constant motion or with the slightest touch, I can click the shutter and preserve this moment. Unmoving. Forever.

If I were writing for a purpose, I would pay a lot more attention to sentence structure, word usage and the format and dialogue of the story. As it is, I am happy to just relax and tell a story. I will probably never be a published author or even be very good at it but I enjoy the process of writing.

Photography is another creative outlet that I am not very good at; I am still amazed by what a true professional can do with a lens and a piece of film. There was a time that I thought that good photography was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. I had this theory debunked on the trip to Hawaii where I was sitting no farther than 10 feet from an active lava flow snapping the shutter like crazy and all I ended up with were dozens of pictures of red blur. I was there with all of the right equipment but lacking the experience to make that perfect shot happen.

Flying, although not a creative outlet, is no less inspiring than writing or photography and often serves as the catalyst for both.

Tonight, was a perfect night for flying that miraculously carried over into the pictures taken during the flight. Even though I am still using the same old 2 mega pixel Olympus that I have always used to photograph while flying, the picture quality this evening was better than it usually is.

d and I arrived at 7 Flags shortly after 6pm. (are you getting the impression that d and I fly often and that we often fly together?) d's idle was a little low and I set up and took off while she adjusted it. Since I rarely make it into the air before her, I planned to set up to photograph her takeoff. As it happened, I was messing around over a neighbor's farm and wasn't in position to get a great takeoff shot but managed to get this one, instead...



The evening light was perfect for enhancing the color in the photographs as we flew over town:



It was right around here that we encountered two small aircraft. If I wasn't worried about taking evasive action, I would have photographed both of them.



The hour and a half flight through calm air provided many opportunities to take pictures.



The flight ove Sarasota Ranch Club made me envious of all of those people living in nice homes on acres of flyable land.



We crept up on Hidden River but knowing that it is a flying community, we maintained a safe flying distance and kept a close watch on the skies.



With Dennis sliding across Jamaica it was good to get a nice long flight in before the chance for rain and wind starts to increase.