So here I sit at work. Not an uncommon event, but today is kind of super slow since the web-based software I’m supposed to be documenting is currently down for maintenance. No idea how long, so … yah.

Just over 2 months ago, I had surgery on my shoulder and detached biceps. Just under 6 months ago, I started going back to the gym. I say “back” like I had been going extensively at some point in my past. HA HA HA HA HA HA! Yah. No. Admittedly, though, I’m a rather large fan of the gym culture. It’s not a lot of “I’m better than you” or “you aren’t working hard enough” … there’s more of a “Hey man … nice job!” mentality. We’re all trying to better ourselves. Why would someone go out of their way to make someone else feel small or push them to quitting?

Anyway, since the surgery, I haven’t been able to do much other than ride a stationary bike or walk on a treadmill. And what is this month’s activity goal? Exercise 2010 minutes. That’s just under 65 minutes a day. Yup. I’m gonna do it. Told myself last night that I’m gonna crush it whatever the goal is. September was kind of a blah month exercise wise. I met the goal, but I didn’t … I dunno. Enjoy it? August was a great month. I pushed myself *hard* to meet that goal, and this month looks like it’s gonna be the same.

You’ll see. Goals are locked in.

When I first started off in blogging, I scoured the internet to read what some of the more renowned bloggers were writing. There were music blogs, political blogs, movie blogs, life, cooking, home decor, favorite European toilets, bizarrely obscure animals … blog posts are the distilled essence of what a person finds interesting at any given moment.

Some blogs are angry. Some are poorly written. Some show you pretty pictures. Some say literally nothing and are merely an encapsulation of the most random verbal meanderings–like Psalms or, for a more current application, this blog.

Allie Brosh’s blog is none of those things. She writes Hyperbole and a Half–one of the funniest blogs of all time. Her stories about her childhood are astoundingly fresh in her mind. She invites you in for a cup of [insert your hot beverage of choice here], sits you down, looks you in the eye, and paints a picture of her life with words and borderline child-like drawings. The drawings are one of the best part of her blog. You know that “[Insert action word here] ALL THE [insert noun thing here]!!!” meme? She started that with her “CLEAN ALL THE THINGS!!” drawing. Not by design, of course; she’s much too humble for that.

She also suffers from depression.Crippling, debilitating depression. It terrifies me to think that yet another brilliant mind–someone who has touched SO many people with her words and images–has dropped off the face of the planet like she has. Once so prolific in writing and sharing her life, her thoughts … her depression has  isolated her. She hasn’t posted since October 2014. No tweets since July 2015. No Facebook action since May 2014.

All we can do is wish her well. Today, I woke up thinking about her blog and what happened to her. This isn’t the first time, and it probably won’t be the last. We’ve lost some really brilliant minds and souls to depression, and it worries me that she may go that route.

Allie, if you’re out there and somehow this manages to find you, please know that we *all* wish you the best. We love your mind and your posts. While it would be super awesome to hear from you, we understand where you may be–that you may not feel that your posts are funny, or that they even matter.

To quote Chester Bennington, “Who cares if one more light goes out? Well, I do.” “I” being we, the collective whole who have become your fan base. We know that you have to take care of you, but we’re here for your when you’re ready. And if you never write another post, thank you for sharing your life with us for as much as you did.

She’s dead. And worse yet, there’s no news as to why. I can’t stand this. She was 46. One year older than I am. Probably not even that much older. Their music has always been such a great throwback to my simpler times in the 90s. No college to worry about, no mortgage or even many adult bills, just care-free and happy.

And she’s dead. I can’t fathom what would have taken her this early. I know they cancelled last year’s tour, but that was for back issues, from what I remember.

I’m sad. Hers was a voice that could soothe and comfort, yet she also carried herself as someone who I wouldn’t really want to mess with, ya know? Songs like “I Just Shot John Lennon,” “Zombie,” “Salvation” … all showcase her raw power with her vocals.

I don’t know what to do. I just want to drive around and listen to The Cranberries and her solo stuff. And I can’t cuz I have a meeting in over 3 hours.

RIP, Delores. Dreaming my dreams with you …

It is August 2nd. That means that the month over which I’ve been slobbering for the last 8 years is *FINALLY* here. Assuming that you aren’t living in a remote Brazilian jungle and completely and utterly isolated from news, the fact that there is an eclipse coming to the continental US should not at all be shocking at this point.

I have reserved a couple different things through borrowlenses.com: a Canon 7D mark II camera body, and a 100-400mm F4L lens. I figure that shooting on an APS-C sensor will automatically get me about a 640mm equivalent look to the pictures, which is still a tad less than I’d like, but it is what it is, and there are other eclipses coming.

One concern I have is that I haven’t ordered any filters. That’s … yah. Not an oversight. I’m actually making my own, and I really need to start dedicating my time to making sure that they’re going to work. I ordered a sheet of black polymer solar filter film from thousandoaksoptical.com through Amazon. I really should order another because I have 0 confidence that I’m not going to severely jack up this thing. I’m also considering ordering some optical glass from a warehouse, but we’ll see. I’m not doing that just yet … and at this point, probably not, but we’ll see.

I have two camera bodies that I’ll be using. I own and use (read: abuse) a Canon 6D with pretty much reckless abandon. I also have a 24-105mm F4L lens that I’ll use to track the eclipse from beginning to end. I HOPE to use it to capture the eclipse and the constellation of Orion, since it will be out to the southwest during the eclipse. That, to me, is just … wow. WOW!! I hope to get it all in one shot, but if not, I’m happy making a composite.

I’ve been going through old pics the last few weeks. It’s amazing what I’ve learned about Adobe Camera Raw over the last few years just from tinkering. I love it. I’m confident that these pictures of the eclipse are going to be … dare I say it …… *stellar*. Sorry. I couldn’t resist. I mean … sure, I could have, but I chose not to. Cope with my wit.

We’re going to Idaho Falls to stay with a friend of mine who I haven’t seen since I moved from Buffalo in 1995. She and her husband have graciously invited us to stay with them. The problem is that the sheer number of people who are traveling to the shadow’s path is *insane*. The eclipse is on a Monday. We’re leaving that Friday afternoon to beat the traffic heading north. Friday. A full 3 sleeps before the actual eclipse. We’re also bringing a ridiculous amount of food and water for the car ride because who knows what’ll happen when we go to leave … or for that matter when we can actually leave. According to some reports, we may be stuck in Idaho Falls until that Wednesday due to the traffic. THAT IS RIDICULOUS.

Speaking of ridiculous, though … ha ha. The I-15 north-bound will be lined with porta-potties. I don’t … whatever. Sure.

Less than 3 weeks … I’m stoked.

Well, I’m back from Kenya again. Have been for almost a month, actually. If I had my way, I’d totally quit my job, find a source of residual income, and just move to Kenya permanently. There’s just so much to do over there. People to meet, buildings to construct, culture to absorb … and I love all of it. And I do mean ALL of it. The lack of running hot water, the latrine pits that scare me, the mosquito nets that don’t really do a lot to keep them away … I’d trade all of this life over here for a life over there. I think the transition would be … I don’t know. Difficult, maybe? Maybe not? For me, I don’t think it’d be a huge deal. For my girls, maybe not so much. For my wife … again, not a big deal … so I don’t know.

I do know one thing I’d miss a lot: hockey. I *love* hockey. And with the off-season changes the Sabres have made, this coming season should be interesting in a way that hasn’t happened in a long, long time. But we’ll see …

However, this most recent trip to Kenya will probably be my last for a couple of years. I *might* be able to go in November of 2018, but I can’t make that call yet. As a family, we have things coming up that I cannot divulge here due to secrecy and promises, but I can tell you this: we are going to have a LOT of fun somewhere in the first half of 2018. I really need to start preparing for that. There are things that we’ll need to buy, arrange, and acquire. Primarily, passports. 🙂 That’s all I’m gonna say about that.

Anyway, due to the nature of this upcoming family adventure, all funds are going to that effort right now, which makes me nostalgic for my friends and family that I won’t get to see in Kenya for at least a year and a half … probably 2 years.

This is one of the reasons I’m so sad that I won’t be going back over in the near future. Those papers on the table display the architecture plans for the cultural center we want to build. And the ground-breaking ceremony took place last November on the trip before mine. We’re hoping to have a ribbon cutting ceremony this coming November on *something*–be it a latrine pit or a cottage … we don’t care, as long as something is built.

This pic is of one of our humanitarians surrounded by a small army of Kenyan kids who fell in love with her because she’s awesome!!

And, of course … hippos.

This has been one emotional, crazy ride. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’ve seen things here that I have  never seen elsewhere. Take, for example, the riot we encountered on our way to meet a family to deliver a cow. There was an incident with a police officer, and a local ended up dying because of it. We’re talking burning tires, screaming and marching, banging machetes on boulders in the middle of the road … traffic stopped cold. We couldn’t move forward, and we couldn’t back up. Moses, thankfully, was pretty laid back with it all. He just asked some people to move their cars so we could go way around. “What? Oh! Yah … sure.” And move them they did. We still had to go down through the tiny village, but we made it.
David’s jeep crew, by way of comparison, did not. They were stuck there for hours. Literally. One of the ladies in our jeep had a daughter in the other jeep. She was freaking out, and it’s well understood why. One wrong move, one weird twist, and and that whole thing could have spiraled out of control. It didn’t. Angels attended them.

But we delivered the cow!! It was one of the most moving experiences of my life. The whole village walked out to greet us.

Well … hmm. Let me back up. When I say that we delivered the cow, I mean we walked it a solid mile down a dirt road, through fields, jumped ditches, and THEN delivered the cow. When we were probably a block or so away, I could hear singing. The villagers walked out to greet us in song of the most gratitude and thanks I’ve ever witnessed. Just thinking about it right now brings tears to my eyes all over again. We met them, they turned around, and we kept walking back to the village. we circled around, formed a horseshoe type line, and then the cow was brought into the center. Pastor Ben said a few words, as did one of the girls from the family (I think …)from whom we bought the cow said some words, and then we celebrated.

I’m telling you right now, you cannot come here, witness these types of events, and not be moved. It just isn’t possible. The human condition forbids it. The joy on that family’s face–knowing that complete strangers took them into their hearts and made sacrifices on their behalf to raise money for us to present them a cow so that they could be a little more independent than they were the day before … it was so overwhelming.

That was our Monday. Yesterday was spent training another village on how to use reusable feminine hygiene products. If you aren’t familiar with the Days for Girls program, I suggest you become such.
Imagine that you’re a little girl, eager to learn and go to school. You’re fervently studying your favorite subjects (and not-so-favorite subjects). You feel smart. You feel EMPOWERED. You feel like you could conquer the world!!

Now imagine that you start to get your period, but because there’s no way to stop the flow, you have to sit at home one week a MONTH on a cardboard box because your school won’t let you come. Because you’re bleeding. From your God-given and -made body part. You can’t do anything about it, and you want to go to school … but you’re not permitted. Because you’re a girl with a period.

You fall further and further behind. You struggle mightily to catch up after every cycle. Inevitably, the work just becomes ovewwhelming, and you end up dropping out. You realize that your dreams are dying. All the thoughts you had of becoming an engineer, or a marine biologist, or a doctor–gone.
Days for Girls provides girls in these exact types of circumstances the means to continue their education. No longer do they have to miss an entire week of school a month. They can stay caught up and get their assignments done. THEY GET TO GO TO SCHOOL EVERY SINGLE DAY because Days for Girls provides them reusable, washable pads. Such a simple concept, yet such a miracle for these girls.

So yah. Part of our day was spent training the girls of this village on how to use these kits.

Now … I did not participate in the training. It’s already an awkward enough discussion and situation; these poor girls did not need some random American guy coming to their village to discuss their newly-minted womanhood. And personally, I was grateful that I didn’t have to. The awkwardness goes both ways, sister. 🙂
While most of the others were training, Becci, Sarah, and Sherry  played all kinds of games with  the little kids: Red Rover, Duck Duck Goose, and Red Light Green Light. I got a bunch of really great pictures.

I also laid down in more poop than you can possibly imagine to try to get some toddlers and a baby to smile. It didn’t happen. In fact, the exact opposite happened. Lots of scared looks, lots of tears, lots of clinging to each other. Meanwhile, I just laid there with a coloring book, colored pencils, and lots of smiles. eventually, the older toddler started smearing his pencil all over the paper, which … you know … kind of how  they do things at that age.

Lesson learned: ALWAYS have candy on hand.
Aaaand because we’re rolling out in a bit, probably ought to wrap this up. THERE WILL BE MORE.

So here I sit outside the Farmington Utah Apple store, waiting to get in for a genius bar emergency appointment. The camera all but stopped functioning in its entirety. It would open, but a) I couldn’t take a picture, b) I couldn’t even see what was on the screen. It just froze out of focus. Weirdest thing I’ve ever seen my phone do.

So I came to the store in a fit of panic. On my way to the store, I set my phone on the dash rather than my normal hands-free cradle. Some guy cut me off, and then he immediately slammed on his brakes. I, of course, followed suit. My car stopped, but my phone didn’t. It went sailing st about 80MPH into the windshield.

You should see this screen …

Yet somehow, the touch screen is still  usable. No idea how this is happening, but whatever.

So now, instead of possibly getting the phone replaced for free, I may have to pay for a refurb … unless they play it super nice as they are often wont to do at the Apple Store.

Of all the times in the world for the camera to stop working, it would be just before I go to. Kenya.

Interestingly, the camera works now. I restarted the phone a couple different times, and now it keeps taking pictures. Figures …

So I guess I’m just gonna scrap the WordPress app. It doesn’t auto-post anything, so what’s the point?

Speaking of Kenya, I need to start packing! GAAAAH!! SO much to do … so little energy to do any of it.

At least I have the blog posting thing figured out. One check box I can mark. 🙂