I think I might be subconsciously avoiding posting in June due to the horror of BIRTHDAY. Anywho, here's a quick run-down of stuff that happened with links and stuff. Stuff. Stuuuuuuuuuuffff.
On June 13th I repeated my poor decision-making from the previous year and ran in my second Panther Run. The cool part was that many more of our friends were able to join- ten of us in total. The not-so cool part was that I did not run enough before the race. Nothing major, my knees did not explode or anything but I was definitely much more sore than I remember being last year. The course felt a little more challenging than last year too. The obstacles were more numerous and more difficult. I kicked my ass.
Also, we did jump over fire. JUMPED. OVER. FIRE.
I was busy doing the race so Esther grabbed all the pictures. She made a great blog post about it here:
Panther Run 2015 with lots of pictures.
Immediately after the run we did a 1.5 mile float from Swann Bridge to Powell Falls on the Locust Fork River. I did bring my camera for that.
All of my pictures are here.
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| Swann Bridge |
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| My view for most of the float |
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| Dragonfly lovers on my monkey legs |
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| Powell Falls |
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| Fish at the falls |
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| Stealth monkeys |
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| At the falls. More "in" the falls, really. |
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| Swann Bridge enterior |
On the 27th I had another birthday and didn't take any pictures. It was a stormy day and we had planned to do another year of Cops on Top as a proxy for my good friend Officer Stamps. We did make the "climb" to Alabama's high-point on the following day- although it's more of a drive, truth be told.
A few additional pictures are here.
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| View from the fire tower at the top of Mt. Cheaha |
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| Chan and Esther with "John" |
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| Survey marker at the high-point |
Earlier this month on the 11th Ben, Chan and I attended the
Percussive Artistry concert in Huntsville. Pieces ranged from "Stomp-esque" arrangements involving ladders and plastic cups to actual mallet arrangements and taiko drums. (Okay, minor quibble here, they were bass drums and toms used in place of actual taiko drums but considering the cost of an authentic Japanese drum I understand.) All the shots I took from the performance are
here.
Just a couple of days ago I was sent on business travel for the first time in a couple of years. It was a driving trip to Fort Walton Beach and Esther was able to ride along to make sure I didn't fall asleep in transit. I worked practically a full day on Wednesday, drove about 6 hours and didn't check into the hotel until midnight. I got about 4 hours of sleep, did the work meeting thing and then drove around a little with Esther before pointing the car towards home and arriving once more at midnight.
Too much driving. Too little sleep.
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| Esther got a haircut while I was in meetings! |
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| Esther claims this is a shark-spotting copter... |
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| Actual wild pigs just south of the Alabama/Florida border |
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| Esther at the Florida high-point, swooning from the thin atmostphere |
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| Crazy from the altitude |
That's it. All caught up on stuff that I took pictures of. Oh, here's one more. Esther getting help with yoga from Murphy, the newest dog. Perspective makes him look HUGE in this picture, but he's only a 20 pound Lakeland/Fox/Muppet Terrier mix. He's super helpful with the yoga; does at least 3 downward facing dogs each morning when he wakes up.
