shorts

After being cooped up all day working i was excited when the time came to unplug from the computer and go out to pick Jack up from school. Knowing it had been nice all day, but intentionally not checking to see how nice because i was so busy, I finally checked the temperature as i was getting ready to leave. 72 degrees. that sealed it. I made the decision to be "that guy". The guy who wore shorts on the first relatively warm day of the year.

I made sure to pick Jack up early, right after nap time, so we'd have a couple hours before dinner time. I presented him with the option of going to the park to which he replied "naaah, i want to play baseball in the backyard."
Yes.


The yard was full of downed branches, but after a minute of cleanup we were ready to go.

It took him a little while to get the mechanics back, but he was soon slamming the ball all over the yard and into that of our neighbors as well.


He hit a lousy pitch of mine that was low and away and the ball came rolling back to my feet. Thats when it happened. As I bent down to pick up the ball I smelled the damp earth for the first time in i dont remember how long. Maybe its because i just got over a cold that denied me from smelling anything for the better part of the week, but smelling the dirt at my feet gave me the amazing feeling. That and playing ball with Jack in the back yard.

Spring

Leaving the house on the way to take Jack to school today I saw two small green sprouts coming out of the browned out earth of the front garden. I think he was even more fired up than i was once i brought it to his attention , enthusiastically jumping up and down and looking all over the rest of the yard for more. I've been inside working since i returned from dropping him off at school and have been feeling like crap due to a cold. Seeing this when i took a break to grab lunch and some film a couple hours ago gave me the amazing feeling. Having flowers to look at and baseball to listen to its finally feeling like spring .

Character Study

In the winter i get kinda crazy being cooped up all the time so i am constantly looking for ways to entertain myself. Luckily, my son Jack is a constant stream of entertainment, but just like i rely on him to entertain me, he looks to me for the same. I recently came across a box of my old toys in the attic and wanted to show him what i used to play with when i was younger. He was pretty fired up and has since taken the collection over, making it his own, but graciously allowing me to play with them when i ask. Looking at these old toys i started to remember how magical they were when i was younger and helped preoccupy me for so many hours. I only found a few GI Joe's , transformers and star wars figures left over from my childhood, a fraction of how many i used to have, but its still really cool to see my son playing with these 20+ year old action figures. Seeing these old toys gave me an idea to help combat my winter boredom. My friend Nikki had recently discovered a similar cache in her parents attic that is perhaps the finest collection of stars wars figures i've ever seen, replete with millennium falcon, x wing fighter, i think there was even a tonton in there.
Seeing as all my star wars figures are long gone she was nice enough to let me borrow the figures for a few days in an attempt to capture these youthful memories. I set up a small tabletop "studio" and set off on my mission. Getting the light was a total pain in the A, trying to reduce portrait lighting techniques to such a small scale, but after a lot of experimenting and some cursing i finally got the formula down and got to work.


I showed these to Jack and after asking me where the toys were and i why i didn't give them to him he then asked for copies of the pictures for his room. If these are good enough for him i think i did something right. I certainly gave myself something to laugh at and a way to further reconnect with some childhood memories.