Photos

I have a little time on a Sunday evening, so here are some recent pictures. The first may need a little explanation. This is my front wheel that has a significant bend in it. It seems that I may have had a little accident. No, I didn't get hit by a car, and no, I didn't just tip over (did you know that studies on bicycle accidents show that nearly 60% of bike accidents do not involve a car or any other object?). I hit a pedestrian. I don't feel real good about that, but as I reflect on the event, I don't know what I would have done differently. I was just leaving school going through town. I was approaching a stop sign so I was checking for pedestrians and cars on the street I was about to turn on, then all of a sudden a lady stepped out from behind a car about 15 yards before I got to the cross walk. I didn't even see her before we made contact. She hit the right side of my handle bars which caused the front wheel to turn sharply to the right. That bent the front wheel as I went over the bars. I landed on my back, crushing the Tupperware which had held one of my lunches (an unfortunate loss). I totally missed my head, my helmet had no indications of an accident at all. She also fell down right next to the curb. I jumped up, as did she, and she was quite apologetic and seemed to think it was her fault. I tend to agree, but I know that I have a slightly biased view and whenever I think that I ran into a pedestrian, I think there should have been something that I could have done to prevent it. I mentioned to her that if she were to walk the 15 yards to the cross walk she probably could have prevented the situation. She then stood behind the same car, poised to jump out at the next passing cyclist. She was fine, I said I was fine because I didn't want her to feel bad (although $50 to fix my wheel was a little rough, but then again that's only a tank of gas). I jammed my finger pretty bad, but it's starting to bend pretty well now (almost 2 weeks later). I didn't lose a whole lot of skin and very few bruises. So besides the wheel and the Tupperware, I think it turned out pretty well.

It's amazing how you can take a picture like that and not even notice that your shadow seems to be the focus of the photo.

Yesterday we went for a hike. I was ready for a little break after comps, so we went up to Bridal Veil Falls and did a little 'hiking' (I'm glad my kids were looking for dirt when I said we were going for a hike, but unfortunately there was no dirt on this trail).

This is my wife with the baby. I like this picture. I wonder what they are looking at.
This is the Mugwump playing in a little pond at the bottom of the falls.
And this has to be one of my all time favorite photos. This is Six-Pence giving me a flower. I did a little cropping to get my foot out of the picture, but I like the contrast of the grimy little boy (notice dried mud on face and fingers) being thoughtful with what he could find.
Look at that, it was almost like a real post. I've had several 'shorts' recently, but should be able to really get going again in a couple more weeks.