Firey Friday

Day 252/365 - Firey Friday, originally uploaded by sunmallia.

Well I can’t say this has not been an exciting vacation!

Don’t know if you heard about the explosion in San Bruno, California, well that is my little town and I experienced the most frightening day of my life yesterday!

Yesterday Cody and I were preparing to do our Furry Friday photo when all of a sudden I heard a huge explosion and the whole house just shook and it felt like it would not stop. Then we ran outside and saw this huge cloud of smoke coming toward us with the strangest sound, lots of hissing and sizzling. I ran out to the front of the house to see what was going on and one of my neighbors told me they heard a plane had crashed into the homes on the other side of the street, we later found out it was a gas leak from an underground pipe. The sound of the explosion was one I have never heard it was like a hissing windy sound that was sucking in everything in its wake. The flames were as high as 150 feet and the smoke just started covering every thing I could see. My Aunt and Uncle were right at the explosion site and started running as soon as they heard the boom, got in their car and tried to get to me, it took them 45 minutes to drive less then a quarter of a mile as everyone was trying to get out. The fire fighters did not have water for 30 minutes as the explosion also blew out a water main so the planes are what saved us at the beginning. By some miracle the winds changed and the smoke started moving away from my house, my area is in the canyon where as my aunt and uncle are on top of the hill where the original explosion took place. Anyway I am rambling just excited to be back home, have electricity and have my family. You know they tell you to grab what is important in an emergency, well I figured out what is important to me as soon as we got the evacuate I got my dogs, my camera equipment and computer and some clothes, not an exercise I wanted to do but at least now I know what I can’t do without.

Days 46, 47, 48 and 49 - 2010

Well I have not posted for a couple of days now. Actually I was going to stop, figured nobody is reading this anyway so why post. But then I realized I am not doing this for the outside world I am doing it for me so I can remember what I was doing on that particular day in my life of 2010.

It is funny I look on some blogs and they have a bazillion followers. Some are interesting and some just so so but what is it about them that makes people want to read them. It's this complex I have always had, when I was in art school I would always judge myself against how good others were compared to me, but one day my teacher said some have been in this class for years you are just starting you can't compare yourself to them. Well I guess the same holds true for my blog, I am just going to keep focused and keep my eyes on the prize New Years Day 2011.

Well what has happened since I last blogged, Day 46 up there with the foggy tree is how I felt that day, I had just had to put my mom's dog Sydney down and I was pretty blue, went to the dog park and cried for a while. Sydney was one special dog, (as they all are but Sydney was truly special) I got her for my mom as a Birthday Gift, my mom had just lost my Grandpa and was all alone, my brother and dad had died and now my grandpa all within the course of 2 years. I had moved out and she was alone which she did not know how to be. So my friend Mary Ann and I went to the pound to actually get this other dog who just wound up not fitting in with our family, so Mary Ann went a wandering and found Sydney. At first I said well this dog is too big, so I read her bio and it said she liked to hold hands, so I said I have to see this. They brought her in and the first thing she did was give me her paw and we sat like that for a bit and I wound up bringing her home. My mom screamed and yelled at the time I DO NOT WANT A DOG, but Sydney gave her her paw and they were friends for life. My mom took it really hard to, they were together 24/7 every day for the past 11 years, (Sydney was 13) and you would not see one without the other. So now I am waiting for her ashes to be done so we could go and spread them over all the places she loved, she always loved to run and she gave us tons of good chases. I think I even blogged about it in her description.

Day 47, well that was the last of the persimmons on our tree. I love the way the tree looks when it is all decked out with the persimmons like a Xmas Tree from mother nature. I have to say I don't miss the fruit though it is John that loves the fruit persimmons are entirely to mushy for me, but thought I would send it off in style and get some Lensbaby practice in.

Day 48, this is my sweetie John Sweet. I got him to pose like a mean old cowboy for me but he is quite the opposite. His family is very wild west though. They are from Vernal, Utah real cowboy country. His great granddad was quite the character, he and his brother were run out of Texas for one thing or another and wound up in Utah. Gloria, John's mom says they are related to President Lyndon Johnson, (Johnson is her maiden name) and I have to say if you look at some of the family photos there is a resemblance there. Great granddad was known as Dally Man to the Indians in the area, he got that nickname as he was so good with a rope, I guess a Dally is cowboy lingo for the ropes they use to rope the cattle. He also lost a big chunk of property in a poker game. I just love to listen to Gloria tell stories of the family, very different from my upbringing coming from a very European family.

Day 49, today, well that is just me practcing with my Lensbaby again. I think it looks o.k., will be interesting to see what I think a year from now. Hope my photography gets better that is the whole point of this. When I opened the front door today I saw that my 50mm lens had arrived so I am excited to go home and give it a try. I see all these gorgeous photos with the great Dept of Field and think well how come I can't achieve that (me comparing myself to others again) but I just want to go home and have some 50 mm fun.

So that is it folks (or Paula), see you tomorrow same place but who knows what time.