forbidden fruit

Apples get a bad rap.  The Bible doesn't say that Adam and Eve ate an apple, just that it was fruit from the knowledge of good and evil.  I'm sure we don't have access to that same fruit anymore.

Friday was purt near perfect, weatherwise.  It was one of those afternoons, when it seemed a shame to remain indoors, and just about any excuse to get outside sounded reasonable.  But things truly were slow at the office, so I made a judicious application of a couple vacation hours.  When I got home, I put air in the bicycle tires and went riding around with my thirteen year-old son.  Since we were out in the early afternoon, it felt like we had the whole town to ourselves.  We even took advantage of trying to kill ourselves at a skate park, since no one else was there.  No extreme stunts, really.  We rode the ramps, but avoided the more dangerous jumps.

On our way back home, I saw how the light caught this apple tree.  It was like someone powered up a string of red lights!  So, when we put the bicycles away, I immediately grabbed the camera and took my son back to that apple tree.  It was on private property, so I rang the bell and asked permission to take pics on their driveway.  The man of the house was fine with it, but after a while, his wife came out and asked a bunch of questions because I think she wondered if we were up to no good.  "Are you a professional?  What is this for?" etc.  I can't blame her; nobody wants to be taken advantage of.  I showed her some of the photos, and how I was mainly interested in the red apples and deep, blue sky.  I was glad to be carrying a polarizing filter for that blue sky!

Then, I tried something different.  I positioned myself behind an apple, and directly in line with the sun.  It would have been a silhouette, but I flipped the flash up to catch the apple's color.  There was absolutely no blue in that sky.  The sun's light completely blew out the highlights around the apple.

I thanked the strangers for allowing me to snap a few photos, then called my boss to thank her for letting me get out on such short notice.  I'm glad I asked their permission, and I'm glad they both said yes.

February thaw

Oh happy day! It was warm enough on Saturday for me to ride my bicycle instead of driving. (The bike in the photo is not mine, but my son's. I took that shot in September.) Where was I? Oh, yes... my wife was kind enough to load the heavy, bulky equipment I needed into her van, and that freed me up to hop on the bicycle.

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After she drove off, I expected to follow immediately, but the rear tire was low on air. There were two air pumps close at hand, but both were broken. Did I bother to get rid of them? No, of course, not. So I rode on low tires, huffing and puffing all the way. I didn't mind though. It's such a break to finally get away from this single-digit (fahrenheit*) weather with sub-zero wind-chills.

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There was wet, sloppy mud everywhere, but I didn't care. You could hear every downspout and puddle guzzle away at the thawing snow, drinking down all those cool, refreshing icicles. Yum!!

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In a way, I felt sorry for everyone who did not ride their bikes on Saturday. You missed a good thing. Now let's see... there ought to be another pump around here somewhere...

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*Metric conversion = really, really, really cold!!!!