The Beacon

Journeys in America

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 23:46:00 +0000

Working with my family history has taken me down a few different paths. The first is my letters project News From Home: A Father's Letters to His Son, and the second is my YouTube channel featuring my grandfather's 8 mm home movies from the 1930s and 1940s.

I've finally found a way to merge them into one project. It's called Journeys in America. I have a web page now, in addition to Google+ and Facebook pages for the project.

The project will evolve, I'm sure. I'm excited to see where this venture will take me. And I'm curious to hear your reaction.

Prairie Path Books

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 05:45:00 +0000

So, check out Prairie Path Books. They are a new company based in Wheaton, a Western suburb of Chicago. A good friend is one of the principals. They have a unique concept in selling books through special events -- with no actual brick-and-mortar store front.

They have had a couple events so far as they get their feet on the ground and work out the kinks. They were really nice events.

The first featured Jenny Riddle doing a dramatic book review of Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In.

The second was a particular favorite. It was in The Vault in the basement of a restaurant in Wheaton called The Bank. Danny Ellis, an Irish singer-songwriter, was the featured artist. He told stories, did readings from his book The Boy at the Gate, and performed selections from his album 800 voices, all of which dealt with his years in a Dublin orphanage. It was truly captivating. His song Tommy Bonner still makes me tear up.

Anyway, so you might wonder why I'm featuring pages from their website as my art? That's because I took the photos for the website. (See the photo credit in the first screen capture up top? "photos by Haley Hughes")

It's been fun challenge for me, and especially rewarding to see the end result. It certainly gets me away from the landscapes and puppy photos that I've been concentrating on lately.

Make me move -- better yet, come get me

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 03:04:00 +0000

So, we were on a little nature walk at Meacham Grove for exercise the other morning, and Odin decided to stage a sit-down strike in the flowers. I probably should have thought things through before taking a 3-month-old puppy on a mile-plus walk around the lake. I ended up carrying all 30 pounds of him for at least half of it. It was good exercise -- for me.

A rainy morning at Mallard Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Having a dog is a great reason to go on walks in pretty places. And bring my camera. Here we are last week at Mallard Lake Forest Preserve. Luckily there were still some colorful flowers in bloom to add some pop to what might have otherwise been a dreary rainy day. And fortunately, the rain did hold off for a while so I could get some photos. We were standing on the bridge shown in back here when the skies did finally start raining. That was OK, since Odin is still a puppy and can't handle long walks yet anyway.

Through a kaleidoscope

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 16:28:00 +0000

Last week, my son an I took a little excursion to the Morton Arboretum. In the Children's Garden we found a kaleidoscope that was pointed at a bed of flowers. This photo was taken looking through the lens of the kaleidoscope. It's one of my favorite photo from that day.

Odin the Fuzzy

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:18:00 +0000

Here is Odin at my son's football game a few weeks ago, when Odin was just turning 3 months old. So cute and fuzzy here, I want to snuggle him, yet still with those sharp and annoying little puppy teeth. He has been a good guy at the games, using our chairs for shade and just hanging out.

Canada geese

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 16:11:00 +0000

This one was from the same trip to Busse Woods earlier in September as the previous photo of the frog. I like this one for its simplicity. Technically, a little blown out, I'm sure. But yet it leaves the birds hanging in the sky, and I like that.

Mr. Froggie went a-hunting...

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 02:08:00 +0000

While Little X was at preschool one day, I took an excursion to Busse Woods, a forest preserve in Elk Grove Village, to take some photos. I noticed this little guy popping his head out of the water, and was able to get this shot. He looks rather intense, doesn't he?

Meet Odin "The Sweet"

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 15:01:00 +0000

He's a fluff ball with sharp little puppy teeth. So cute. But why does love have to hurt? :)

We had been almost 11 months without a dog in our lives. We said goodbye to Loki in November 2011 and to Thor in September 2012.

The husband and the son had been lobbying hard for a dog, so when we heard that BARC, the Bernese Auction Rescue Coalition, had a litter of puppies that it was trying to place, we decided to act. We took a weekend and drove to Kansas City, 10 hours each direction, and picked up the cute little guy.

We deliberated about a name, but decided to stay with the Norse god theme. Odin. He had to be an Odin. The All-Father. Especially because he is going to be a big guy. Over 100 pounds easily. Funny thing was, we were not original in our thinking. One of the other males from the same litter is also an Odin, while another male is a Zeus.

Our son also made a major contribution to his name. He wanted to name the puppy Sweetie, so we compromised and now he is Odin "The Sweet". It's right on his tag. It's official.

He's been a part of our family for almost four weeks now. We are so happy to have him.

To see more Odin photos, check out his set on Flickr.

Mother Nature's Lacework

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 15:00:00 +0000

I'm having a little fun here with some tinting. This was at the Morton Arboretum again. This time on the Big Rock walk, which is a recreation-in-progress of an Oak Savannah, which were the wooded areas in the middle of the Illinois prairies once-upon-a-time.

I pointed the camera straight up and captured the canopy of trees, thinking it looked lacy and pretty.

I've been enjoying the nature photography. Mostly because the weather had been relatively cool for a few weeks. August is usually so stifling, and the sun so intense. We are back to normal August weather now, so expect topics to switch for a few weeks. How about some puppy photos?

Swift Road Prairie

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 02:46:00 +0000

On the prairie at the East Branch Forest Preserve

The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County has awesome dog parks. They are big, sprawling places where you can go on long nature walks with your dogs. The other day, we went to the prairie at the East Branch Forest Preserve with a friend and her dog.

With so many flowers in bloom, I've been trying to work on some macro photos. I like this one. I re-cropped it from the original, but otherwise made no changes to it.

It's part of my Flickr set: Prairie in Summer.

A moment captured: Bridge through the prairie

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 03:06:00 +0000

The prairie at the Morton Arboretum

Hi. I'm here. It's been just under a year since my last post. Thanks for sticking with me. I've been busy being a mom -- a mom with a camera constantly in my hand. I thought I should do something about that. Such as share my photos. So, without any further ado, here we go...

While my son, the X Man, was in preschool the other day, I decided to take my camera out for some exercise at the Morton Arboretum. When I entered the park, the docent at the gate mentioned how pretty the prairie was right now with so many flowers in bloom. So I headed in that direction and had a great time wandering around, reacquainting myself with the prairie there. It was a sticky, rainy day, but I got a lot of pretty photos. You can check out the set on Flickr, or wait and see if I post more. I hope to soon. I do.

The doggie hospice

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 21:23:00 +0000

It's been a rough couple of months with Thor. A time I've come to think of as "doggie hospice".

It started mid June when Thor developed a cough. My experience with a previous dog is that a cough in an older dog is never a good thing. So off we went to the vet.

On the second visit to try and knock out the cough, we looked at some lumps on Thor's skin. He had four that had suddenly emerged and looked decidedly unfriendly. Time to schedule surgery.

(It's kind of gross, but if you would like to see a photo of Thor with his chest drain, click here.)

The vet took wide margins around the lumps, thinking they were probably mast cell tumors, which is a cancerous tumor. The tumors were sent out to biopsy. The result made me wish they were mast cell tumors.

Malignant Histiocytosis. It's a form of systemic cancer that is rare in dogs, except for Bernese Mountain Dogs, where it is all too common.

Since our regular vet had no experience with this sort of cancer, we consulted with a doggie oncologist. He offered chemotherapy, but cautioned that in a dog, with its shorter life span, chemotherapy is only meant to prolong the quality of life.

With chemotherapy, he estimated, we could extend Thor's life by about four months. Without it, we probably had one to two months left with Thor.

We opted to skip chemotherapy and make the best of our time with Thor.

I've been through cancer with two previous dogs, but never with this much advance notice. My experience is limited to a sudden weight loss and loss of appetite, which leads to rapid decline and only a few days at best to say goodbye.

How would Thor's cancer play out? I asked the oncologist.

He said we would know it was the end in one of three possible ways: Thor would have trouble breathing, or the skin lesions would get so bad we couldn't care for them, or he would lose his appetite and waste away.

I didn't anticipate having to deal with all three options.

In July his cough came back and he started coughing up blood. I decided there was no reason Thor had to suffer so I called his regular vet and asked what we could give him. Since his cough had responded to Clavamox before, we tried it again. It worked.

In August his appetite was waning and he noticeably lost weight, down 15 pounds from his normal 75. The major effect of this was to aggravate his arthritis. The vet explained that as he lost muscle mass, the effects of the arthritis were worse. So in we went to get more pain medicine. It helped.

In this time, more skin growths started to emerge. By September, one on Thor's side was the size of a golf ball. He managed to tear it open and start it bleeding. The vet advised that we couldn't stitch it up without removing the growth all-together, which would require anesthesia. We opted to keep it bandaged.

This began Thor having to wear a T-shirt all the time. A black T-shirt with a maxi-pad stuck to the inside to absorb blood and other fluids. The tumor has gotten to be the size of a tennis ball. Very gross looking and smelling. (Click here if you would like to see. Fortunately we don't have a way to share the smell.)

Through this all Thor has been so good. So patient. Working with me to let me help him.

And I've had to constantly do the reality check and ask: Is Thor still enjoying life?

The answer has been a consistent Yes. He has been big smiles for me. He has enjoyed laying and napping outside. He has continued to make it up the stairs to sleep with us.

But yesterday his cough started to come back. And today his rear end has so little strength, he is falling a lot and having trouble moving around.

I do not believe the answer is a whole-hearted Yes any more. It is time.

I am sad and will miss him.

Catching up -- Little X, Loki, and a Video Tour of Chicago 1930s

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 04:06:00 +0000

Is anyone still there? I have thought about catching up with you, dear readers, many times in the past year. I miss you and this blog.

What have I been up to, you may wonder?

Mostly chasing after Little X, who turns 3 in a few weeks. He's a curious, active little guy who keeps me on my toes. Especially since he stopped taking naps in March. I mean he stopped cold turkey. He doesn't even fall asleep in the car. He refuses to waste daylight hours on a nap. The bright spot, though, is that his bedtime has moved up.

Loki: 2002-2011

Another major thing, and this was deserving of a post all its own, is that we lost Loki in November to an undetermined cancer. She was 9 1/2 years old and a wonderful dog who is greatly missed. Little X still says sometimes, "Loki died. She's not coming back. Let's go get her."

My letters project blog is still going strong -- News From Home: A Father's Letters to His Son, 1931-1940 (Melbourne to Chicago). I have posted 22 letters so far. It's mostly family reading it, but a few academics have found it and sent me encouraging comments about it being a wonderful example of community history.

I've also gotten some old family 8mm video digitized (through ScanDigital), and have posted them to YouTube. There is one video in particular that has caught some attention, with more than 1,300 views so far. It's a video tour of Chicago that my grandfather put together in about 1936. I think he intended to use it on his return to Australia so that he could give lectures about Chicago.

I think it's fun to see the city as it was. If you click through to YouTube, I've put in a table of contents in the caption information with shortcut links to the various sites shown in the video. My favorites are the "The Ghetto on Maxwell Street" at 9:07 and a shot of my grandparents at about 6:22.

What I especially like about the video is that many of the major sites shown in the video are still must-see sites on a tour of Chicago 75 years later, such as the museums and parks.

It's also been fun to see people discover the video and repost it in various places. It's thrown me back into social media as I've had reason to discover reddit and tumblr now. For my own future reference, here are direct links to places where the video has been posted:

Calumet412 on Tumblr
Reddit
Chicago Architecture Blog
Chicago Screen Shots
Skyscraper City Forums
Thrift and Shout! on Tumblr
Archinect
Chicago Magazine Blog

I have more old 8 mm videos to post with some fun footage in them. I'll share them once they are on YouTube.

I hope not to be a stranger to this site. I'm a dedicated blogger, even if I take a vacation now and then.

News from Home: A Father's Letters

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:14:00 +0000

Recently I was given a few boxes of my grandfather's papers. In the boxes were 10 years worth of letters written by my great-grandfather and sent to my grandfather when my grandfather came to this country in 1931.

The letters are full of history of all sorts -- world history, family history, YMCA history.

So, in my *ahem* ample spare time, I've started another web project. It's called "News from Home: A Father's Letters to his Son".

It probably has a very niche readership, but, who knows, maybe you fall into that niche. Check it out and see. I'd love any feedback.

Celebrating the big 2

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:28:00 +0000

It's been a busy year. Little X just turned 2. He's is curious about everything and likes to explore. He's really kept me on my toes since he learned to walk over a year ago.

Sorry I've been so neglectful of this blog. Maybe I'll post again soon.

I just wanted to say "Hi" and "I'm still here."

The price of motherhood

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 02:29:00 +0000

The price of motherhood seems to include this blog. Now that Baby X is 1 year old and walking everywhere, I seem to have little time or energy to update. Sorry about that. Know that I'm still here, lurking in the background, and someday soon I hope to catch up with you more.

Wordless Wednesday: Walking!

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:15:00 +0000

Wordless Wednesday: Sharing

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:31:00 +0000

Happy Birthday Miss Loki

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 05:21:00 +0000

I realized it was Wednesday and thought I could quickly bring this blog back up to date with a Wordless Wednesday post. Then I decided that I don't dare post only a photo after abandoning the blog for several weeks.

So, here are two photos of the family and Miss Loki celebrating Loki's 8th birthday at the end of May. I can't believe she's 8 already!

Don't you love the party hats? We make the dogs wear them every year and every birthday. It's a silly tradition, but I love it and they tolerate it well.

As for the rest of us, we're keeping busy. Baby X is 10 months old and on the verge of walking. He loves to point at things and have us name them. We journey into Dad's office several times a day so that we can look at Dad's Godzilla action figure thingy.

Sorry to keep this update short. I'm late for bed, and Baby X will be waking me much to early in the morning.

Our little pilot

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 04:54:00 +0000

Two posts in one day! It's feast or famine around here. :)

Just hanging around

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 02:39:00 +0000

That's frustrating. I just wrote a whole post updating what we've been up to, and the internet ate it. You'll have to take my word for it, the post had some amazing writing. Award-winning. But now no-one will ever know. ;)

So, to keep it short, the highlights of the last post were this:

Baby X cut his first tooth last week, which explains the copious drool in the photo above.

He's crawling and pulling himself up on everything, and is pretty fearless when it comes to standing.

Even though we've baby-proofed a lot already, there's always something else he'll discover and try and get into. Keeps me on my toes.

He has a cute sense of humor and considers coughing to be a great form of joke-telling.

I've been making his food, which has been fun for me as I've long been a finicky eater and this has allowed me to explore more vegetables.

We've been enjoying the warmer spring weather. Taking regular walks, which Baby X loves. He gets excited when I put on the Baby Bjorn or bring out the stroller. In a few months I know he'll be insisting on doing some of the walking himself.

I'm trying to find time to write more, but Baby X makes it difficult. He has little patience for me being on the computer.

Speaking of which, I need to run. So much to do now that he's asleep for the night.

I'll leave you with this video, which is one of Baby X's (and his Mommy's) new favorites.

Wordless Wednesday: Hat

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:22:00 +0000

It's official -- Baby X is crawling

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:48:00 +0000

Silhouettes

noreply@blogger.com (Haley H) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:25:00 +0000

I did it again. A whole month without an update. Gah. I hate it when I do that.

One of the many things I did in the past month was take a vacation to Galena, Illinois. We rented a house, packed up Baby X and the dogs, and headed out for four nights with friends. From our rental house we saw deer and squirrel up close, plus enjoyed the daily parade of wild turkeys. We also did some snowboarding at Chestnut Mountain, did a wine tasting in Galena's historic downtown, and had an all-around nice time. (Click here to see all the photos from the trip.)

Here are two of my favorite photos from the trip. I took them one afternoon while Marriott was walking the dogs. I was standing in the doorway of the house, holding Baby X in one arm and balancing my camera in the other.

Marriott said that even though she knew it was her in the photo, the image of her standing at the top of the driveway gave her nightmares. She could imagine some evil person approaching the house like that while she slept...