Happiness Is

Day 10: Happiness is:

Sunshine!

It gives you fruits and vegetables in your garden.

A Happy dog.

  And Sunflowers.

Today was a wonderful day. A good meeting for local library board members about finance with a tasty breakfast from Hy-Vee. The afternoon was spent playing with the dogs, swimming in the pool, and eating a yummy Indian dinner.

If you are not into Indian food, this may not look so good, but, the Indian spices are so delicious it really is wonderful.

Happiness is having a nice day, enjoying the sun and appreciating the food that you eat.

Day 9: Happiness is:

Having a great meeting with librarian colleagues who are also friends. Getting the board packet out and not forgetting to attach the packet to the email.

Having a Library staff that gets into the spirit of the season.

Happiness is going to the game with John and Katherine. Enjoying a beer in the car (while parked and turned off), meeting up with a library board member who wore his Team Library shirt, and yelling and screaming our way to victory! Sycamore Spartans - 33 DeKalb Barbs - 21.

It was a great game. It could have gone either way after half time. So glad the Spartans kept their cool and kept on scoring.

Happiness is knowing that next Friday, DeKalb Library staff will be grilling lunch for the Sycamore Library staff.

Happiness is making work fun and still getting things done!

Day 8: Happiness is:

Right now happiness is sitting down and thinking about bed. It has been a long and good day.

Sandwich Fair: 1 Blue Ribbon and 2 Red Ribbons.

 There's a lot of competition. The Photo Competition Shoot at the fair was fun but difficult. At 5:00 p.m. they gave us the theme: In commemoration of the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, the theme is Let's Roll. At the Sandwich Fair. As you look around at life, joy and happiness, you are to focus on a horrible event 10 years ago.

I went my own way and looked for motion. Like, Let's Roll, Let's get going. Others were more direct in their interpretation and those are the images that won. Oh, well. It was a good experience and good practice. Tracy and I enjoyed Faye's BBQ for dinner and went on a train ride.

As hard as it is to see your photo without a ribbon on it, you know that there are others who are in the same place you are in. When your friends are participating in the contest, you want everyone to win.

Happiness is knowing that my friends and I are all Best in Show even if the judges didn't notice.

Day 7: Happiness is:

Getting to download your hummingbird photos from the previous day and getting one good shot and one that you like even though it is not the best shot.

 It was pretty exciting when two hummingbirds arrived at the feeder. Unfortunately it was pretty early and there wasn't enough light to really capture the birds in flight. They never both landed for their photo-op. Guess they didn't know that it was their chance at 15 minutes of fame. Still love the moment.

Two in flight

Happiness is the arrival of another shirt. This year the Sycamore Public Library is supporting the Sycamore Spartans in full color. We have challenged the DeKalb Library to wear Barbs colors this Friday for the big rivalry game and made a little friendly wager.

If the Spartans win against the Barbs, Dekalb Library staff will come to Sycamore Library and grill us a hot dog lunch. If the Spartans lose, we go to DeKalb Library and cook for them. We sent a press release to all the local venues. The Midweek printed the article today and we got a call from the Daily Chronicle for an article that will be in yet this week. Go Spartans!

Stop in the library to check out a very gold and black Friday.

Happiness is a fun night at Photography Club. Way to go Tim O. at winning our first ever Photo Challenge.

Happiness is all about creating your own happiness.

Day 6: Happiness is:

Happiness is knowing that this is my blog and I can write and post as many or few photos as I want to in a day.

I came upstairs to download my pictures of the hummingbird from this morning and realized that I forgot to bring the SD card with me. Since my allergies seem to be affecting my breathing, I am choosing to let the photos wait for another day or two.

Tonight I made Tomato Tortilla soup for dinner. I used up the tomatoes from my garden and the ones I got from Mary, added a can of tomatoes that needed to be used before it expires, chopped up fresh oregano and basil from my herb pot and added the other ingredients to get yummy soup for dinner.

Best of all there are leftovers so I have lunches and other dinners as the mood strikes.

 When I was in Mexico a couple of years ago, they served the soup with chunks of Oaxaca cheese and avocado and tortilla strips on the side. You sprinkle all the extras in as you go. Now, that is the way I serve my Tomato Tortilla Soup.

One of our waiters at the breakfast buffet in Oaxaca Mexico

Happiness is the sweet memories of a life changing trip.

Day 5: Happiness is:

Hummingbird's at the feeder.

Taken in 2008

Stopping on a drive to take photos, just because it looks cool.

 Having a grasshopper visit you in your car. And getting to takes pictures of said grasshopper.

Letting the dogs run and play in the backyard.

Happiness is having a beautiful day on a Monday when you don't have to go to work.  It is seeing places that you have never seen before. It is enjoying the things that you do everyday. Happiness is taking time to see the beauty and joy in the world. 

 When you are lucky, you have your camera in your hand and you actually capture the moment; in focus and with the right exposure. 

What a great way to start the week.

Day 4: Happiness is:

The yummy bacon, spinach and tomato sandwich I made yesterday.

Bear

 Relaxing in the sun on a beautiful day.

Having all of the Sandwich Fair photo contest photographs printed, mounted, named and tagged with more than a day to spare.

As I look at all of the images that I selected, I am pleased. Mostly, I am pleased that I can see growth in my skill, my point of view, and my vision of the world.  I am also finding great pleasure in seeing my work in print form. I really need to do that more often. Posting on Flickr and here is nice, but it is not the same as the printed image. It is easy to get caught up in the digital age and think that we no longer need that piece of paper. But, I can see that there is power in the print. I suspect that it is partly the tactile experience. It is also a feeling of completion. There may come a day (maybe it is here) that for many posting the image is completion and this may just be a part of my age. I hope that those of this technological  age will always toke time to print at least the very best of their photographs.

Having time to go through the photographs of the last few weeks and edit them.

This sunset was taken while we were driving home from a day out looking for a new bed. It was an incredible blazing orange sun that peaked through blow the cloud line. Happiness are the sunsets.