Amblin Cafe

Part of the Woods

2010-11-24T10:55:00.000-06:00

I spent some time in the woods last week, a camera I hoped to use judiciously hanging from my neck and a gun I wasn’t thrilled about firing idle on my lap. I am usually enthusiastic come deer season because I like venison and being outdoors even on chilly days. But my objective this year was to shoot a buck with my camera. The woods woke up around 6:30 when gray squirrels began to emerge from

Stargazer

2010-08-13T10:55:00.001-05:00

I awoke at 3:30 this morning, dreaming my backyard was filled with deer. In my dream, I stepped out onto the deck to find a couple of fawns playing, then looked to my right and discovered a few does and three or four more fawns. I could hear a buck snorting as I watched another doe squeeze her way through a small hole in the privacy fence. Just as I thought to go back inside to fetch my camera,

The Winds of Change

2010-08-10T13:37:00.000-05:00

At the pinnacle of my career success, I knew beyond any doubt that everything I had ever done toward my chosen field had prepared me for the precise moment I was living. My education, the people I had worked with, failures, successes, all the experiences I had collected were part of this knowledge storehouse I could tap into at will and find something that applied. I was given the keys to be

One Hour on a Lake

2010-07-30T14:46:00.000-05:00

A summer weekday with humidity levels and air temperatures both in the mid-eighties led me to believe it was a perfect day to grab a kayak and explore. So, I headed out to Springfield Lake where the city’s parks department runs a nice pavilion and rents kayaks for $8 an hour. Life jacket on, paddle in hand and an eight-foot Old Towne that still had the slight scent of sunscreen as a lingering

Doolittle

2010-07-20T18:01:00.002-05:00

I am convinced that the hummingbirds frequenting my feeders communicate with me. No, the heat hasn't affected my good senses. After all, it's not like we discuss politics or Proust or trade jabs. The conversation isn't spoken, so I don't hear tiny voices, but the topic is something very dear to a hummingbird's heart - food.Over the years, I have observed hummers check the feeder, not sample the

The Descendants

2010-05-03T10:17:00.009-05:00

Poised like paratroopers on D-Day,‭ ‬we waited for our signal to jump,‭ ‬to make the leap of our lives,‭ ‬the one we had trained for and from which we would not return.‭ ‬I could feel the wind in my face,‭ ‬all of us could,‭ ‬and our anticipation grew stronger.‭ ‬We had been told countless times not to look down because the act could stir panic in our hearts,‭ ‬and our instructors would have no

Fearless Finches

2010-03-13T10:58:00.001-06:00

My bird feeders are hubs of activity each winter and into the early days of spring. Every year seems to attract new animals. There are always squirrels who never understand that black oil sunflower seeds are meant for birds, but are nonetheless entertaining to watch. Doves have been frequent visitors the past several seasons and are quite content to peck away at scraps and fallen seeds although I

Lessons Learned

2010-01-10T08:10:00.003-06:00

I sat on a knoll concealed by trees and brushes on the edge of my deer woods one early fall morning. Straight ahead was an old farm road overgrown and brushy save for a small patch of open field, an acre, maybe two. To my left, a tree dropped its hedge apples which are said to be the perfect cure for ridding a home of spiders and which cattle munch in loud bursts. Just to my right the old pond

Christmas Lights

2009-12-02T16:17:00.002-06:00

November is always a busy month with Thanksgiving preparations, holiday shopping, deer season and Christmas lights. This year I got lucky. It was 65 degrees with calm winds the weekend I put up the lights but there have been Novembers past when I worked in weather so cold I could not feel my fingers and times when it sleeted on me and once, after the lights were all in place, that a hailstorm

Shift in Thinking

2009-11-05T22:05:00.005-06:00

Not long ago I read that scientists had discovered bacteria, I think it was, that thrived in an environment of benzene. They were trying to determine what new possibilities existed with such a life form, one that could tolerate chemicals so extreme that our conception of how things could live was challenged. And that led to theorizing that our search for life on other planets was misdirected.

Fighting Sleep

2009-10-25T16:43:00.003-05:00

Have you watched children just before bedtime on a day when they have played hard and filled with fun? There's a sudden burst of energy in a last minute refusal to give up and go to sleep for the day, perhaps a bit uncertain whether the next day will bring as much delight as the one passing into history. They fight sleep as hard as they can and want so badly to stay awake and stretch the day out

Cheers to Perusing

2009-10-14T12:31:00.010-05:00

When I was old enough to ride my bike outside the confines of my immediate neighborhood, my usual summer destination was Edison Park which was a straight shot down Mulberry Street about five blocks from my home, a journey that took me past rows of closely packed houses on either side. Occasionally, I took a more scenic route down 167th Street past Concodria Cemetery and near a bank of businesses

Dreamscape

2009-10-08T13:13:00.003-05:00

Dreams are fascinating to me. Even the strange and twisted ones. Where do they come from? Why do we have them? What do they mean? And why is it that sometimes we remember them so vividly when we first wake up only to lose their detail with each breath we take until they are completely wiped away. Yet there are others we recall almost exactly as we dreamed them, even years later.Sometimes, I can

Hitchin' a Ride

2009-10-01T18:36:00.005-05:00

I make it a point never to pick up hitchhikers. It's just my policy and it always has been. Most are nice enough and probably mean no harm but there's always a danger that something could go wrong and I could end up badly hurt or worse. A couple of days ago, I violated my own policy and the thing is, I didn't even mean to do it, the hitchhiker crept in so quietly, so subtly I had no idea she was

Construction Projects

2009-09-28T20:49:00.002-05:00

I don't know exactly why I thought of it today, but I remember as a child one of my aunts telling me that every mile we walked added a new artery to our circulatory system. That was quite a revelation to my young mind and something that had a profound impact on me at the time. My brain immediately started developing what if scenarios. My first concern was what would happen if we walked only, say,

My Secret

2009-09-26T11:18:00.001-05:00

I have been carving out fifteen minutes a day every day for a visualization exercise. I am trying to picture where I see my life, my career, my finances as the future unfolds and becomes the present. It’s a great exercise and calls for living that fifteen minutes as if the future were already here today.There has been so much written and said about creating our own realities and I have become a

Foggy Morn

2009-09-22T11:04:00.004-05:00

My knee is still sore today after playing too many consecutive hours of wallyball last week so I decided a nice, long walk would help rehab it. Last night's heavy rains left fog so thick I could barely see the ridge to the east and imagined mountains beyond. There really aren't any mountains nearby where I live and take my walks but I do have a vivid imagination.Water droplets were poised on

Changes

2009-09-19T11:01:00.001-05:00

As I wander the same trail through the same neighborhoods on my daily walks, I find myself less attuned to the mundane path I travel and more aware of the sounds of nature, the scents of the outdoors and the neighbors who painted their garage doors that hideous shade of green this summer. Last evening, the scents are what captured my attention. I always manage to pick up something wonderful along

Affirmations

2009-09-19T07:47:00.003-05:00

I started this blog as an avenue of expression, to talk about whatever I wanted and to continue practicing my writing skills. What I ended up doing was only posting when I felt I had something poignant to say. But then, following that logic, I haven't had anything important to say since July 2nd. Truth is, I have found other venues in which to write: freshare.net, Twitter, Facebook and a few paid

Guide to Social Networking Sites

2009-07-02T06:37:00.002-05:00

I have been trying to get immersed in social networking sites as a way of letting people know about freshare or my blogs and maybe even a little bit about me. I have accounts now on most of the major sites – Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn – and I started trying to figure out how each one works and what they attempt to provide to the user. So here is my very brief explanation of what you

Gusto

2009-06-09T11:22:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday I went to the hootenanny in Mountain View, Arkansas with my oldest daughter. For those who have never been to the hootenanny, it's an open air bluegrass concert held on the town square in Mountain View on Saturday nights. But I'll tell you this: the best music is not on center stage, it's along the side streets in gazebos and under shade trees or beneath shop overhangs. We attended

The Scent of a Memory

2009-04-21T20:09:00.002-05:00

I like the way a familiar scent in just the right context can evoke a long forgotten memory and transport me back to another time.Last weekend, I was in the Wal-Mart parking lot headed toward the store to start the weekly grocery shopping. It was cool but sunny, very mild weather. A two-ton Ford dually motored slowly past, the driver in search of a parking space wide enough to accommodate his rig

Trout Fishing Camp

2009-04-10T20:12:00.002-05:00

Last weekend I got to go trout fishing on the river. Well, that is to say I expected to go trout fishing but the river was up big and the trout refused to bite so I ended up hunting instead - for morel mushrooms. That's the subject of another post in another blog which you can read here if you'd like: The Morel of the Story.Being out there on the river is one of my favorite places and my weekend

Sunny Days

2009-03-29T23:14:00.002-05:00

Last night’s snow looked like spray-on flock, the kind you can buy at Christmas to add a wintry touch to decorations. But it had little time to celebrate as the morning sun melted it away, giving a long drink to tulips and redbuds.What a great day for a walk so I laced on my sneakers and headed outside. This time of year, everything looks brighter, more detailed than in winter. In winter,

Hidden Brook

2009-03-24T16:03:00.004-05:00

Water had furrowed the rocks the way time etches an old man's face. The flow was steady, patient, and the water had clearly expended much of its efforts either carving pathways to follow or sanding smooth the stone beneath it in a time honored journey to the sea.Ignoring rocks it had befriended eons earlier, the brook disappeared below the surface only to find its path again a few yards later, a