Did I tell you I was doing Yoga on Mondays?

My yoga teacher's name is Mike Condiff. I am on my third week of yoga classess at the Mind Body USA studio. I have been enjoying the distraction of being focused. I am not sure if I will continue with Yoga but it has been beneficial so far.

A view from above

Arial photography from the TerraServer USA website of our little rental house. Here are some facts about Huddleston:
Huddleston, VA
Quick FactsCity: HuddlestonState: VirginiaCounty: Bedford CountyZip Code: 24104Area Code: 540Population: 45656Latitude: 37.154717Longitude: 79.494856
Well, I am sure you found that helpful. Our little cottage is in the center of this picture. I love the web for being able to access this kind of image. I first learned about sites like this from my Weird Uncle Fred on his site Fragments from Floyd. I most recently was reminded of this site on Jay's blog JayBaz.
Jessica and I have played around with the idea of someday building our own nest. I will try to post a picture of that property soon. Thank God for inlaws with land!

Notes from the Shed/Office:Pizza in the oven!

Should I trust my life to this man?

I think this kind of boat is called a shredder. The man piloting the boat is named Howard Kirkland. I have been invited by my good friend Joe to take a little trip down the Lower Gauley River in West Virginia the second weekend of October with some of his Blue Ridge River Runner buddies. I will be in a raft with this man. I must tell you I am not the adventurous type. I love being on a river. Joe and I use to take his canoe down the James River all the time. But most of that was floating. I did try my hand at kayaking for awhile. The result was some torn cartlidge and a boat that sat in Joe's basement till he took it down a flooded creek knocking a whole in it. I don't miss the boat and my torn chest healed. (By the way, I hurt myself getting out of the boat to pee not on some big rapid.) I went canoe camping once before. We did about 60 miles of the James River from a place called Iron Gate to the town of Glasgow, VA. Glasgow might be familiar to any of you AT through hikers out there.
I had a little trouble the first day but was loving it on the second! We ended up being on the river for four days.
This trip is a little different. It is just for two days and one night. I will be riding in the raft with someone who has been down this stretch of river a lot of times in many different boats. I have no responsibilities besides staying in the boat and helping unpack the gear. The gear is for all the guys in kayaks like my friend Joe. I am praying for warm weather.

Am I becoming a Geek?

I have traveled down a slippery slope. I was seeing how easy it was to find my blog on Google when I stumbled upon Blogshares. Yes, I signed up immediately for this virtual whatnot. Under my newly installed links you will see the icon. I now own 1200 shares of my own blog plus shares in Heather's World and Rob's Rabbet. I really wanted to buy some shares of Fragments From Floyd but I don't have enough virtual currency. (Note to my weird uncle Fred: You should really check this out if you need a confidence booster! Turtleblues is trading at like .22 cents while Fragments is trading at like $528.22 or something. Sheesh! To rich for my blood.) So, here I am playing an online game that I would usually make into a joke. Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you spend Sunday morning online.
Let me know if I should be watching your blog stock by adding your URL to the comments section.

Notes from the Shed/Office

Notes from the Shed/Office: Organization has taken place!

Enchanting

This beautiful building is The Aviary in Miller Park in Lynchburg VA. I have been to swing dances and lectures there. This is also the place where we held our reception after the wedding. I love this building and particularly this picture.

The Picture did not come with the frame.

As many of you know, I have not been married long. This dream picture comes from my Wedding day. Jessica, my wife, recently framed this picture for our living room. It serves as a gentle reminder that we find each other beautiful above all esle. We have over six-hundred pictures of our Wedding day. We had an excellent photographer. Our photographer was Sam Dean. He did the photography for our wedding then went to Afganistan as an imbedded reporter for the Roanoke Times. It makes a big difference in the pictures to have a photo-journalist as your photographer instead of the usual portrait artist. We were very happy with our pictures.
For the last few months we have been listening to Sam's adventures on our local public radio station WVTF. I love our local station. It introduced me to my weird uncle Fred by way of a radio essay. I have been daydreaming about sending an essay in my myself. Fred also is the reason I entered the blogging world. He really has a blog worth reading in Fragments From Floyd. I encourage all of you to go visit immediately especially if you like nature photography.

What a view!

My first car was a 1964 Ford Falcon Futura convertible. When I bought it the front bumper was in the back seat, the windows wouldn't roll up, and there were an assortment of minor ailments. But I loved that old beater. I remember driving it around Knoxville Tennessee to mini car shows. It was nice to have everyone looking at you wondering, "hey, where is that guy going?" . It is amazing how material possessions can bring you so much joy and how quickly you can get attached to something. I sold this car when I went to college. It had a few problems that I didn't have the resources to fix like a severely rusted frame. But someday I hope to have another classic beater to play with when I have the resources to make it what I want.
I am learning about patience these days. If I were to run out with my check book in hand, I could probably buy a little beater to fix up but after it was here I couldn't do anything to make it solid. Oh, and I am sure Jessica wouldn't like to trade our small savings for something that would rust in the yard. So, I will wait. I will plan. I will dream. I will use patience to get what I want.

Daydreaming in the Shed/Office

What we have here is a 1964 Ford Falcon station wagon. I have been keeping my eyes open for one of these for years now. Unfortunately, I haven't found one when I had a little cash saved up. This particular wagon was for sale on ebay a couple of years ago. It went for the incredibly low price of $1250. So maybe one day I can pick me up a little grocery getter like this and transform it into a roadtrip car.
Jessica and I have been talking a lot about the future. Trying to combine our individual dreams with our collective. She really likes this dream of the classic station wagon. I too have been attracted to some of her dreams. It is amazing what two people working together can accomplish. I have great faith in a future full of realized dreams.

Making New Friends

Here is my new friend Reid. You may remember me telling you about a recent trip to a wedding in Pennsylvania. We were there to be with Jessica's many Blacksburg friends celebrating one of the groups wedding day. I really only knew the groom. I met many interesting people on this little trip. By far, my favorite was the Bazuzi family: Jay, Julie, and Reid. I had seperation anxiety when we left the Chalk Hill Lodge. My nurturing wife had to comfort me all the way home. If you would like, you can check out Jay's Blog. His blog is way over my head as far as daily content. It is all about computer codes and such but occasionally he posts some personal stuff that I can relate to.