Leaving on a Jet Plane

Rick buzzed into town on Friday evening, complete with large bag of laundry and and exhausted expression. He'd spent a week in Cleveland working on the generators at a women's prison and never even had time for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We got him cleaned up, rested and stocked with fresh socks and underwear. He even had a chance to go to the races with Tasha on Saturday night, and to spend a few precious hours on Sunday covered in Bondo dust out in the garage before leaving this morning for Florida. He should get to Tampa about 24 hours ahead of Fay, and is reporting back predictions of 60 - 100 m.p.h. winds. Theoretically, he's supposed to be there for two weeks straight; but if the hurricane knocks Florida back into a third world country for a few days, he's obviously going to be extended. Tasha points out that she and Luc will be in school by the time he gets back. I miss him already.

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But it was a good weekend, and occasionally a productive one. I had the privilege of doing Cassie's senior pictures on Friday night, and we managed to hit the lake just as the light did some truly magnificent stuff. The moon was full, the water was calm, and the light made everything just glow. Stunning! Now I understand what the poet meant by "the wine-dark sea," a phrase that never made sense to me before.

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Then Baby Stella posed for me on Sunday (all 8 pounds of her). I've been wanting to take pictures with a newborn for some time now, and I really, really love doing that stuff. It's apparent to me now that those black & white naked baby portraits are not nearly as easy as Anne Geddes makes them appear - once again, I really need to know more about light. But we got some decent shots of baby with parents and baby with grandparents and so on. (Do you see the new tattoo on her father's neck? And for a new father, he really is very good with her.) It was a pleasure to shoot the photos, and Deb thanked me with fresh cukes, tomatoes and a big container of fabulous bulgar salad. A win all around!