gifts from God

I'm not the most in-your-face religious person you'll ever meet... far from it, in fact. I'm pretty much a "live and let live" type of person. But there are certain blessings in my life for which I am extremely thankful, and which I consider to be gifts from God -- my family, my job, food and shelter, music.... and the kind of weather we've been enjoying during most of the month of May. We've had a nice stretch of clear, sunny days without too much heat and humidity -- the kind of days that make me feel extremely fortunate to live in north Texas (let's see if I'm saying that in August... ha!) and the kind of days that make me want to go out and shoot some photos. M joined me last Friday morning for a few hours of shooting, and again on Sunday evening... here are some of the highlights:

Trinity Railway Express - Ft Worth - May 12, 2006

NS 9810 southbound near Ponder, TX - May 14, 2006

M expresses his excitement about catching another train...

On Wednesday morning, I found out there was a coal load called out of Wichita Falls with one of the new SD70ACe locomotives leading, so I decided to go shoot it. I had to drive all the way to Bellevue (round trip of about 120 miles), but it was worth it... I got a pretty good shot of it on the "roller coaster hills" between Bellevue and Bowie... and it's always nice to catch the new power while it's still clean...

BNSF 9380 eastbound near Bellevue, TX. May 17, 2006.

The downside to going out to chase that coal train was that I missed out on most of my bicycling time for the day (I only had time to do 12 miles before work). So I'm catching up on my miles this weekend.

the Third on the 22nd

Call in sick to work... tell your wife or significant other that you're going to vespers (or, hell, just drag 'em along... they might learn something) ... Hank Williams III is coming to town! He's scheduled to play the Ridglea Theater in Fort Worth on Monday night. I've never seen him live, but I've heard enough of his music, and heave heard enough about his shows, to know that I want to be there! Should be a fun time. Unfortunately, I think it's safe to say that Mrs. Whiskey probably won't be joining me for this one (I doubt she'd appreciate the experience of being stuck in the kind of crowd that Hank III would draw). Tune in next week for a report...

WSC

np: Hank Williams III - Risin' Outlaw

nr: Stephen Ambrose - Nothing Like it in the World