Resistance Is Futile

Resistance Is Futile, originally uploaded by ::Kevin Greene::.

The inspiration behind this title is pretty obvious. This picture was taken at the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro. I’m pretty sure that Kate had been told on several occasions prior to this to stay out of the puddles. But, when she saw this juicy one, she couldn’t resist doing a frog jump right into the middle of it.

That’s just what kids do. I’ve learned, through experience, that my role as a parent to Kate and Natalie is to provide them with guidance and to make sure that they don’t put themselves into situations where they can get hurt. I’m not going to stand in the way of them being kids.

Team Building

Team Building, originally uploaded by SWVirginiaDeity.

This picture was taken at one of Kate’s first spring soccer practices. If I remember correctly, the coaches had huddled the team together to come up with a team name. I’ll get back to that shortly.

After the first practice, I thought her team was going to be terrible. That, of course, would have been fine, since they were 4-year-olds and should have been out there just to run around and have fun. My first impression of the quality of her team was wrong. They went on to destroy every team that they faced. Kate unquestionably has a lot of athletic potential. She scored a lot of goals and loved to mix it up with the players (mostly boys) on the other team.

Watching Kate play soccer naturally makes me think about my own childhood. Growing up, I felt a lot of pressure to succeed at sports. And, I did. When I was 12, I won the local, district, state, and regional Elks National Hoop Shoot contests. I finished 11th at the national championship for my age group at the old Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

But, the whole process was such a grind that I lost my drive to (attempt to) be better than everybody else at sports after that. I am so grateful to have had that experience, though. I know that it has made me a better parent. I know that I want Kate and Natalie to have fun. I know that I don’t want them making a mistake (in sports or life) and thinking about how I’m going to react to it because they feel pressure from me to be better than everybody else or above making mistakes. And I know that I will always shake my head at parents who are getting after their 4 and 5-year-olds over their play on the soccer field.

As for the team name…they went with the completely nonsensical “Purple Dogs.”

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!, originally uploaded by SWVirginiaDeity.

I posted this picture to my Flickr account on St. Patrick’s Day of 2008. It was taken on March 15, 2007. At the time it was taken, I was about two weeks away from losing my dad. In this picture, Kate has borrowed his St. Patrick’s Day hat and is rocking it in front of the camera.

My dad was diagnosed with an advanced metastatic malignancy in December of 2006 by imaging studies (later determined to be melanoma). He died on March 30, 2007. Despite all of my medical training and my experiences in dealing with death (as an assistant state medical examiner), I was completely incapable of making his passing any less terrible. I know that he suffered at the end and I still hold on to a lot of guilt over that.

I cherish this picture. Unfortunately, I didn’t start taking pictures until right around the time that he died. I like to make pictures that have elements that remind me of him. Being around Kate (and Natalie) made him happy, even when he felt terrible. When Kate looks a little down I’ll ask her what’s wrong. From time to time she’ll say, “I miss Grandpa Gary.” I know that he had a positive impact on her life, just as she made his last few months a little less bad.

I miss him too. I think that the passage of time just lengthens the interval between having sad feelings. But, I think that when those thoughts and feelings are present, they are just as hard and painful as they were during the days just before and after his death.

Where Did All The Water Go?

Where Did All The Water Go?, originally uploaded by SWVirginiaDeity.

Falls Lake is a man made reservoir north of Raleigh that serves as Raleigh’s primary water reservoir. At the time this photo was taken, it was about 8 feet below normal. It was remarkable standing on this boat ramp looking out over the mostly dry lake bed. On the horizon, against the backdrop of the trees, dust was being kicked up by the stiff winds.

This is without a doubt one of my favorite pictures. I wanted to process it to give it a sort of sci-fi feel, as though Kate is walking down the ramp of a spaceship onto the surface of another planet and she’s looking around to see if she’s alone.

Sci-fi nonsense aside, the water level truly was remarkable. I went to Denver the week after this picture was shot and while I was gone the Triangle got some much needed rain. When I revisited the same spot a week or two later, the water level was almost back to normal.

Behind The Controls Of A Cessna

Behind The Controls Of A Cessna, originally uploaded by SWVirginiaDeity.

A friend of ours from medical school flies out of this airport. She showed us around one day and let Kate check out some of the planes while I was (of course) standing by with my camera.

Kate looks so grown up sitting in the cockpit with the headset on. Of course, she is wearing a shirt with what looks to be a cupcake on it.

What the picture doesn’t convey is the overwhelming smell of fuel that permeates the cockpit. I guess you get used to it (just like I’ve gotten used to the smell of autopsies).

Seeing Kate looking “all grown up” makes me wonder what she’s going to do with her life. It makes me wonder what’s in store for her. It makes me hope that I’m doing enough to help her make good choices down the road.

It’s funny to think of her as a commercial airline pilot, or a doctor, or a lawyer, or a business woman, or whatever it is that she decides to do with her life. It makes me hope that I’m around long enough to see how it plays out.

She Looks Up To Me

She Looks Up To Me, originally uploaded by SWVirginiaDeity.

This picture was taken at the Hank Anderson III Community Park in Carrboro, NC. It was shot on what would have been my dad’s 64th birthday. I wanted to post a picture of him, but unfortunately I don’t have any quality digital pictures of him. I didn’t become an avid photographer until the month right before he died. I guess it served as an outlet for some of my sadness at the time. The pictures that I took of him that month are not how I want to remember him.

So…this is my tribute picture to him on his birthday. This picture is about how my kid looks up to me the same way that I looked up to him.

Give Up, You’re Surrounded

Give Up, You’re Surrounded, originally uploaded by SWVirginiaDeity.

This picture was taken in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, NC. There is an exhibit there called the “Terror of the South” where they claim to have the most complete Acrocanthosaurus fossilized skeleton in the world. The skeleton is on display in a domed room. A model sauropod (the penis-like creature in the picture) serves as the Acrocanthosaurus‘ prey and flying pterosaurs circle overhead. Overall, it’s a pretty neat experience.

This picture makes me think about all of the thoughts and emotions that people (religious or not) experience after the point in time when they realize that they’re going to die and that there isn’t anything they can do about it. It was shot a couple of weeks before what would have been my dad’s 64th birthday. I guess that had me thinking about things related to dying and death.

And yes…for you dinosaur aficionados out there, I realize that sauropods are herbivores and that they might choose not to devour a human (even if they had one surrounded). I think the pterosaurs would pick a human off though.

Range Of Emotions

Range Of Emotions, originally uploaded by SWVirginiaDeity.

This picture was taken on the Navy Pier Ferris wheel in Chicago. The title is an obvious reference to the different goofy facial expressions that were captured.

For those who haven’t ridden the Pier Park Ferris wheel, here are the highlights. It’s pricey (at $6 per person), but well worth the price. Really small children get to ride for free. Natalie was a little over a year old at the time. I don’t know what the age cutoff is. The view is tremendous. And lastly, it’s a long, slow ride so you get to take in the view for about 6 or 7 minutes.

Natalie (the one-year-old on my lap) did terrific on the airplane. So…we assumed she would have no problems at all on the Ferris wheel. Did I mention that this is a long, slow ride? The last thing you want to do after seeing a look of terror in the eyes of your one-year-old is to come to the realization that you’re on a long, slow ride that keeps going up (to approximately 150 feet).

Fortunately, we were able to use all of our tricks to distract Natalie and she calmed down pretty nicely. Nicely enough for us to enjoy the view and to snap a few pictures. This picture was taken during our decent. Part of the Chicago skyline is visible on the right.

I seriously don’t want to see that look in my kids’ eyes again.