Gunpowder & Gravity

July 1, 2009

2009-08-16T18:49:00.001-07:00

20090701, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

My lonely little 'mater from that bush.

June 30, 2009

2009-08-16T18:48:00.003-07:00

20090630, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

Another day, another bike ride.

June 29, 2009

2009-08-16T18:48:00.001-07:00

20090629, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

It's getting to be a recurring theme with me... There seems to be a bike involved somehow. Today it was my mode of transportation through Hone Quarry

June 28, 2009

2009-08-16T18:47:00.003-07:00

20090628, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

I tried to snap a shot of the moon while I was drivinh home from work. Didn't work so well.

June 27, 2009

2009-08-16T18:47:00.001-07:00

20090627, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

If it weren't for the pavillion roof coming out of her head, I'd love this photo even more. Kid's gonna break a lot of hearts (and probably bones) when she gets older.

June 26, 2009

2009-08-16T18:46:00.003-07:00

20090626, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

Yeah. No shocker here. I'm pretty much living on my bike these days. This was how much of my tire was showing through the mud after a mile back on the road after my fun little joy ride out near Dry River.

20090625

2009-08-16T18:46:00.001-07:00

20090625, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

Need I say more? It was that good of a day.

June 24

2009-07-16T20:53:00.001-07:00

20090624, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

June 24. I got suckered in and bought some Aqua Globes to help keep a couple of problematic tomato plants alive. I'll find out soon enough if they actually work.

June 23

2009-07-16T20:52:00.005-07:00

20090623, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

June 23. Monticello. You're not supposed to take photos inside the house, but what can I say, I just gotta break stupid rules. Especially ones that say I can't use my camera.

20090622

2009-07-16T20:52:00.003-07:00

20090622, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

June 22. The Bug in her "Scuba Diving" (as she calls it). Getting ready to head over to the Massanutten Water park for the day,

June 21

2009-07-16T20:52:00.001-07:00

20090621, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

June 21. Some random flowers I found in the field near Turner House while I was escaping the clients for 5 minutes.

June 20

2009-07-16T20:51:00.005-07:00

20090620, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

June 20. Cruise in at the BBQ Ranch.

June 19

2009-07-16T20:51:00.003-07:00

20090619, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

June 19. Pink Cadillac. Best. Diner. EVER. Such tasyness, also, amazing colours abound in this joint.

June 18

2009-07-16T20:51:00.001-07:00

20090618, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

June 18. Driving home from Richmond, passing the house that everyone seems to want to photograph.

June 17

2009-07-10T22:12:00.001-07:00

200906167, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

A bunch of campers and staff at Camp Crossroads hanging out and chatting and playing games. Good times for everyone.

June 16

2009-07-10T22:07:00.001-07:00

20090616, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

This guy is awesome. It was his first time at camp and other than yes, no, and about 3 other words, he's pretty much non-verbal. Luckily, I know about as many signs as he does words, plus we both had fun making goofy noises and gestures to communicate, so we conected and had a ton of fun. He's got one of the most amazing smiles I've ever seen. I'm glad I got to meet him. He taught me a lot. I just hope I don't forget.

June 15

2009-07-10T22:06:00.003-07:00

20090615, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

So a week ago I drove up to MA to do some work, then drove back to VA for the weekend to work, now I'm up in PA for a few days to work at a Camp for Kids with MR (Crossroads Camp). My parents have been helping the director out for years and are good friends of the family. Back in High School and the first part of college I helped out, but time hasn't been kind to me for the past 7 or 8 years. But hey, I only work every other weekend and my Mom was the Lifeguard for the week so she watched Lily most of the time while I took care of my crew of guys and got as many photos as I could between personal care and keeping track of folks.

June 14.

2009-07-10T22:05:00.001-07:00

20090614, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

Took the camera to work. Was playing Trouble with one of the residents for a while until his Alzheimer's started to do its thing and he forgot who I was and started to get agitated and combative.

June 13

2009-07-10T22:04:00.003-07:00

20090613, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

On my way home from work. It's been a crazy week in the car and my time behind the wheel isn't up yet...

June 12

2009-07-10T22:04:00.001-07:00

20090612, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

Driving back to VA to work for the weekend. Sideview mirror somewhere in PA. Some day I'll relax, but it isn't today.

June 11

2009-07-10T22:02:00.001-07:00

20090611, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

We were about 95% finished with the deck, it was dark out, but we were still going with a halogen work lite. Then it started raining. I snapped a quick shot of my Dad standing on the deck in the dark then headed in to go to bed. Not bad for the first deck I've ever built (and I can't usually even cut a straight line).

June 10

2009-07-10T22:01:00.001-07:00

20090610, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

Took a break from deck building to take Lily to the playground a few towns over for a bit. She learned how to climb the ladder and was having a blast.

June 9

2009-07-10T22:00:00.001-07:00

20090609, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

Sorry about how long it's taken me to post all this stuff, it's been a crazy month and I've been running ragged. Hopefully this weekend I truly will get all this stuff updated then I'll stay on top of it until I head out of town again :). And now for hte part of the post that goes with this photo:

Got up to my parent's house today to start building a deck. It was some crazy weather up there after a 9 hour drive. If I hadn't been pooped I would have walked over to the other side of the house and gotten a photo of the woods looking all creepy and cool in the fog.

On the road again...

2009-06-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

I just got back from yet another road trip. I'm amazed my car still functions with how I've been abusing it these last couple weeks. Anyway...

I just got back from the most amazing half week I've ever had, and it was preceded by reading the most powerful book I've read cover to cover in a very long time. The book is "The Power of the Powerless". You can find it on Amazon (or one of their partner's website's) for under ten bucks, and it's worth its weight in gold. The author grew up with an older brother who was deaf, blind, and confined to his bed for 32 years. It's their story of love as well as the story of his brother's purpose. It is also the stories of 3 other families who read the first article he wrote about his brother and responded with stories of amazing love and purpose in their lives. I've never felt my soul torn open in such an extravagant way or for such a long time. It's been over a week since I read the book and I'm reminded of it's lessons of love many times daily. Just trying to describe it makes me tremble, so I'm going to stop for now.

Hopefully I'll be able to post tomorrow night with all my photos from the last couple weeks as well as a better bit about the book. You should read it and share it. Be prepared to understand that all we know about love is just scratching the surface of what the Creator has for us.

OOT

2009-06-08T17:20:00.002-07:00

I'm heading out of town to Otis for the week. Expect blogs to happen either Saturday or Sunday night when I get home from work.

June 8

2009-06-08T17:20:00.001-07:00

20090608, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

Radishes from tha garden. I thought they weren't gonna make it since they're almost 3 weeks behind schedule, but we have success!

20090607

2009-06-07T18:15:00.001-07:00

20090607, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

Massanutten Hoo-Ha! XC Race.
32 miles of pain.

Next year, I'm gonna rock the fat boy division. Hopefully on a different bike than my busted up Rincon. Maybe a Rocky Mountain Bikes 29'er... Hey, I can dream right, but I guess I need to get a job again first to make that one come true (unless someone has about $1600 they're willing to give me for a sweet new bike).

20090606

2009-06-07T18:12:00.001-07:00

20090606, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

Lots of nothing going on and I'm not too sure sometimes.

20090605

2009-06-05T20:59:00.001-07:00

20090605, originally uploaded by harner.bill.

This isn't the time for words

I'd rather talk with my fist.
It just wants to say hello
and give you a quick kiss.

---me

You'd think I'd be used to not even getting a job interview. I've only had two of them since I got laid off. My skill set is pretty much crap unless you want someone to do media related junk, which is what I want to do.
So I finally found myself a job that I REALLY wanted, AND was extremely qualified for, and even thought I might have some inside connections that could help put in a good word for me (and I know they did), but after 4 weeks of waiting and contacting their HR department to make sure everything was recieved and in process and yadda, yadda, yadda.

I called again today (I called last week but the person I needed to talk to was on vacation and the person I talked to said that the position hadn't been filled yet and my application was "in process" (whatever that means) only to find out that the position was filled earlier this week and that they had forgotten to send out notices that the position had been filled.

Grrr. I haven't been this depressed since I got laid off. At least then I had ski season. Now I've got nothing. A busted bike, a fishing license that's about to expire (and I can't afford to go get a new one) and an Xbox and the internets. And yes, I know I have a loving wife and an awesome rugrat, but they don't really help me blow off any steam. It all seems pretty darn useless. Someday I'm going to find a good full time job and work for someone with integrity. It's been a long time since I've had a boss at a full time job with integrity. Thanks, Jim and Dan, for showing me how men of integrity function in the real world.

Flickr

2009-06-05T12:15:00.001-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing that I've been using for ages and it will hopefully simplify this silly blog a bit.

June 4

2009-06-05T11:58:00.000-07:00

I've had this set of rubber ears for a bit and I've been planning something fun with them, I've just never gotten around to using them, so I figured I should see how well it photographs now. Hopefully once I'm back from the boonies I'll get this project finished.

June 3

2009-06-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

June 2

2009-06-05T11:25:00.002-07:00

Got a new bike rack.

June 1

2009-06-05T11:25:00.001-07:00

The view from the back porch at work.

May 31

2009-06-05T11:24:00.000-07:00

May 30

2009-06-05T11:20:00.003-07:00

Driving down a long and lonely road...

May 29

2009-06-05T11:20:00.001-07:00

May 28.

2009-06-05T11:18:00.002-07:00

The child who usually hates to wear hats loves to wear her helmet around everywhere.

May 27

2009-06-05T11:18:00.001-07:00

Bike ride time!

May 26

2009-06-05T11:17:00.002-07:00

Rhubard Almond bars.

May 25

2009-06-05T11:17:00.001-07:00

May 24

2009-06-05T11:16:00.002-07:00

Mama's little baby loves rhubarb, rhubarb,
Bebop-a-rebop Rhubarb Pie!

May 23

2009-06-05T11:16:00.001-07:00

May 22

2009-06-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

Strawberries in our garden.

May 21

2009-06-05T11:14:00.002-07:00

Burning the candle at both ends.

May 20

2009-06-05T11:14:00.001-07:00

May 19

2009-06-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to go to the park.

Arriving at the park.

May 18

2009-06-05T11:12:00.001-07:00

"Driving" Papa's car.

May 17

2009-06-05T11:11:00.000-07:00

Trying to ride Hannah's big girl bike.

May 16

2009-06-05T06:48:00.000-07:00

May 16. Driving at night. Don't remember why or where. Just gotta get there.

May 15

2009-06-05T06:47:00.000-07:00

Snapdragon finally decided to bloom and make the ants happy.

May 14

2009-06-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

May 13

2009-06-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

Chili Cheese Dog and Fries from Jess' #2

May 12

2009-06-05T06:44:00.002-07:00

Trying to reflect

May 11

2009-06-05T06:44:00.001-07:00

May 10

2009-06-05T06:43:00.000-07:00

The aftermath of a headshot while out paintballin.

May 9

2009-06-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Massanutten Yee-Ha! downhill Mtn. Bike Race.

May 8

2009-06-05T06:41:00.000-07:00

May 7

2009-06-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

May 6

2009-06-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

Both of my raised bed gardens. Looking pretty sparse, but improving steadily.

May 5

2009-06-05T06:37:00.000-07:00

The view from my backyard at night. Stupid North 38 student housing development.

May 4

2009-06-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

So I'll start this with an apology to those of you on blogroll and other programs, you're going to get flooded with posts from me today as I try to catch up on a months worth of photos.

May 4. Garden is coming along nicely.

Woot

2009-06-03T08:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my new hard drive is finally here and my backup of my old drive is complete. I just finished downloading a month's worth of images (thank God for 8gig memory cards) and now I'm starting to process them. They should all make it up to the flickr gallery by tomorrow and then they'll start appearing here on the blog soon after that. I'll be heading north into the wilderness for a few days next week and won't have internet, but rest assured, I'll still be photographing and then I'll finish updating the blog when I get home.

Boo for Hard Drives

2009-05-13T10:10:00.001-07:00

So my photo hard drive has decided to take a nice, steaming hot dump on me, and I don't like it. It does, however, explain the randomness of some pixels on a number of my photos. I'm slowly backing everything up onto my external drives and my little internal drive while I decide which big external to go with. So until I get a new external, I won't be posting any photos. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have a new drive and have transferred everything over to it.

May 3

2009-05-05T09:05:00.000-07:00

May 2

2009-05-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

We went to this kids safety day thingamoboajigger, they had a petting zoo. The boss ladies were happy. (make sure you click to embiggen this one. It's a two parter.

May 1

2009-05-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

Took Lily to the park for some running around and sliding. There was a group of kids doing flips and they were kind enough to let me take a picture. I think they thought I was a wee bit crazy, and maybe I am, but I'm getting used to people knowing it.

April 30

2009-05-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

My secret hidey hole. (aka, Mossy Creek Dam).

April 29

2009-05-04T11:54:00.000-07:00

Ring around the Rosy
Pockets full of posy
Ashes, Ashes,
We all fall down.

April 28

2009-05-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

Mmmmm...

April 27

2009-05-02T17:17:00.000-07:00

Ice Cream. Or rather, what's left of ice cream when you give a two year old a spoon and let her go.

April 26

2009-05-01T18:58:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited that my garden is growing well (ok, at least my herb garden is doing well), but nonetheless, I'm pretty darn stoked.

April 25

2009-04-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

Another grand day of goofing on the front lawn after Kimberly went to work. I'm pretty sure Lily thinks I'm crazy for enjoying laying on the grass. She'll walk on it, but she's otherwise pretty distrustful of the stuff. After a while though, she softened up to the idea of it all and sat on the grass with me and exclaimed "I sit on the grass!". If you've ever heard her when she's excited, you'd know this comes out as a delighted half-squeal and with some odd inflections. Rugrats are amusing. Especially when they get verbal and discover new things.

April 24

2009-04-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

helping matt move. I was driving his truck and snapped a photo of him driving hte moving van

April 23

2009-04-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

April 22

2009-04-23T06:44:00.000-07:00

Earth Day. And, some Basil that I had planted last week has poked out of the ground. Woot woot and whatnot.

April 21

2009-04-23T06:41:00.001-07:00

Well, the long weekend is over and I had to drive up to BWI to pick up the girls. I passed this nasty wreck en route. It apparently shut down I-81 SB for almost 16 hours. It happened at midnight, didn't get cleared until close to 6pm. We detoured home another route, but the 8 mile detour down Route 11 was taking some people up to two hours. Craziness. I snapped this quick shot while driving north and going an almost legal speed so I could rubberneck.

April 20

2009-04-23T06:39:00.000-07:00

So today is 420. A happy day for pot heads everywhere. I no longer smoke the stuff, but in solidarity, I cooked up a pound of Bacon and a half dozen eggs for breakfast/lunch (it wasn't fancy enough to be brunch) for Matt and I.

April 19

2009-04-23T06:37:00.000-07:00

After a few days of Bach'in it, I decided to make Matt and I some cookies to munch on while we pwned zombies. Gotta keep your energy up for when the zombie apocalypse comes.

April 18

2009-04-23T06:35:00.000-07:00

VA Fly Fishing Festival. Casting demonstration. I HIGHLY recommend checking out FFB. Quality products at a fair price.

April 17

2009-04-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

Superjail. I curse you for being so downright entertaining, what with all your bloodspatters and randmness.

April 16

2009-04-17T20:58:00.000-07:00

This is proof enough that there is a God. It's pork buns and home-made noodle soup from Chinatown Express in DC. Nothing that tastes this good could have been the result of anything remotely accidental.

April 15

2009-04-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, my little paintball warriorette. Ready for battle (or, more frequently, to wear my mask around and pretend to be a monster of some kind).

April 14

2009-04-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

You spin me right round, baby
right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round

April 13

2009-04-15T09:12:00.001-07:00

April 12

2009-04-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

Easter. Best day of the year. It means we're free, all we have to do is choose to be free and accept Grace and repent.

April 11

2009-04-15T09:09:00.000-07:00

Had another good day getting the vegetable beds ready for planting. Had to have us a bath after spending two days digging in the dirt.

April 10

2009-04-15T09:08:00.001-07:00

Gettin the flower beds ready for summer time and the whatnot.

April 9

2009-04-10T10:52:00.000-07:00

Got my l33t new cards in from moo. If you've been thinking about placing an order with them and haven't done so before, let me know. They gave me a few 15% off (1st order only) coupons.

April 8

2009-04-10T10:51:00.002-07:00

Got my raised beds built. Coupla months and tasty vegetables will be mine.

April 7

2009-04-10T10:51:00.001-07:00

April 6

2009-04-10T10:49:00.002-07:00

The storm is a rollin in. I wait.

April 5

2009-04-10T10:49:00.001-07:00

Sick toddlers are fun. As long as you give in to their demands.

April 5

2009-04-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

April 3

2009-04-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

I returned to the scene of the crime again. Roughly the same time of day. Swapped the 20D that I used last night (first time I've touched an SLR since late January) for the G10 that I normally use. Kinda fun seeing the differences.

April 2

2009-04-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

so much pain, death, suffering, futility, arrogance, loss.
such a small stage now.

April 1

2009-04-02T18:36:00.001-07:00

mmmmmm...bacon

March 31

2009-04-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

Only in birth and death are we apt to sing one's praise.
Beauty surrounds, but we only notice when it's new or gone.

March 30

2009-04-02T18:32:00.000-07:00

March 29

2009-03-30T11:00:00.000-07:00