Starring Down the Late Thirties

Dude. No longer early, nor mid-thirties, come Friday, I'm in my late thirties. I do feel kinda old. When my wife says "remember honey, you're not the rider you used to be", I feel a little old. (I know she has the best intentions, and I'm not making fun of her). When I take picts of those high school kids at work, I'm now TWICE their age. Ouch. Watching Star Wars with my oldest son for the first time, a bit old.
Really, I don't know what I was expecting, being old and all.
At forty, I think of my parents. I think we all see our parents as old, as adults. That's the eternal image we have. So it's hard for us to visualize ourselves as adults. I'm still in my mid-twenties in my mind. Them being young and doing "fun and cool" things is a bit abstract to us. So, do my kids see me as old? They've only know me as an adult...
I guess it's not that bad. I do plan on living to see flying cars and the year 2100, so maybe I'm still a bit young. I just need to tell the gray in my beard that news, and all will be well.

16 Feet of Fiberglass Bliss

What a blessing we just received! Some dear friends of our's are retiring, moving south, and are giving away some of their stuff. Monday night, we got a new canoe. It's a Old Town Katahdin. It's 3 feet longer, and 6 inches narrower than our other Old Town. That translates to more speed, and easier paddling. I'm so excited. My goal is to do some river running and canoe camping, and the other canoe was just too short and wide to reasonably do that. This one is perfect. EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thank you Joan and Jim, it truly is a blessing!

Heart Week

What a week. As many know, my boss had triple bypass surgery last Friday. He originally went in for day surgery in the cath lab, to scope and stent around his heart. He ended his day with the bypass. No, no heart attack, just interesting results from a recent stress test is what started it all. To think, you start your day a little nervous, facing day surgery in the cath lab. Then the bottom falls out, life flight takes you to another hospital, and you end it with your chest cracked open and your heart rebuilt. Now, I've run the studio many a time in the past, but my biggest challenge was explaining to EVERYONE that a). Chuck's OK, the studio's fine and operational, and b). I can do all the photography that's coming up.
So for now, I'm the face, and photographer, for Falk Imaging. Not a problem. I'm excited to be shooting so much. We were starting to make the transition to me being the main shooter anyways. The Lord's just accelerated it a bit.

New Web Site

Yeah!!! The site is overhauled and live. I'm much happier with this one. I think it actually looks like a real professionals' web site. Minor changes will happen, but feel free to check out the "new and improved" www.davebennettphoto.com web site.

Stick shift

I know. I get busy. I'll try to post more, OK?
What is it about driving and shifting your own gears. Bear with me, come on. Why does one find so much fun in that. Clutch in, start, reverse, clutch out, clutch in, 1st gear, clutch out, clutch in, second gear, clutch out, over and over. Then you have to stop. Then go and repeat. Plus if you're on a slope, you gotta hold the emergency brake with your right hand, WHILE doing the pedal dance when the light turns green. Naturally, we're lazy, so one would speculate that an automatic transmission would be choice, but there's something about to be said for stick. This all started when I borrowed my parents car for a day and a half, and it's a stick. That stick had a magic power to it. It transformed a boring old Saturn sedan into fun.
I was in heaven shifting gears, working the clutch, driving in traffic, etc. I haven't driven a stick since we sold the Honda almost two years ago. It all comes back though. I reminisce about the Jeep(s) I've had. They where sticks. The older one was a three speed to boot. So maybe I'm just a car geek, but I'd love it if the Disco was a stick. Maybe it's the control. Raw man emotion as I CONTROL this beastly machine. Maybe it's the sound of the engine singing at 3000 rpm in third or fourth on a long sweeping turn. Maybe it's the sporty feeling, like a race car. I don't know, it's hard to explain. What I do know is that I would speed and get tickets if I drive a stick. It's too tempting to rev the engine, and feel it pull against you. The slush box, while advanced and fancy, just doesn't feel that way. It's like a grown up. proper and mature. A stick, it's a hoodlum begging you to act up...

NMBP w/ Stuff

So I'm looking into IMBA's National Mountain Bike Patrol. It patrols area trails, offering mechanical, medical, and educational assistance. I have the mechanical thing down, but I need to get my First Aid cert. The main problem is we only have one patrol group in the state, and it's in Dallas. So I'd be on my own. Could be cool though. I think I'd enjoy it a lot.
Our men's ministry is about to start up for the next year. I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for me/us. It has been a blessing to me, leading it over the years. I'm gonna have a hard time letting someone else do it. We have our kick off breakfast this Saturday.
Not much else is going on. The truck is about to hit 215,000 miles. Wow. God is the only reason it's still going, and to Him goes ALL the glory. I'm starting to check on resources on a new engine. I think it'll be cheaper to rebuild the drivetrain, rather than replace the truck all together. Plus, Tara's up for the next new vehicle. She deserves it for all she does for us, and what she's driving right now. She's a blessing to me. I love her very much. It's nice to marry your best friend...

Riding at midnight

Dude, how old am I? 35? going on 36? And there I am, out at 12:30 am tearing up the streets on the Maruishi. Man that thing wants to go! Which is good now that I broke down and added a brake, so now I have some confidence. I'm afraid to really open it up all the way. What if lightning strikes me at the precise moment the flux capacitor kicks in? I'd shoot back in time before I knew what happened. I did discover either I forgot how to flip the pedal over and slide into a toeclip, or it's much harder with your feet consistently moving.
Today was day one of dance school hell for me. Chuck had his week of dance school shooting (remember, we're photographers) hell, now it's my turn for dance school printing hell. I printed around 460-8x10 units at work. That's 5 hours of entering packages. The whole room stunk of ink. I still have mixed feelings about switching the lab from an optical/chemical process, to ink jets. Granted, the color correction is easier, prints faster, no color shift due to aging chemistry, no chemistry, but I still think the optical looks better. Oh well.
The ride was a good break from the day.
I'm ready to start commuting...

Riding Fixed

Bikes that is. The bike is fixed. Not, er nevermind. Tonight I finished the Maruishi Road bike. It's now a fixed gear conversion. Fixed gear means there is no coasting. If the bike is moving, ie wheels are turning, the pedals and crank are moving. I hear it's sort of a zen thing. We'll see. And it's brakeless. You must resist the pedals to slow and stop. More zen. So far, it was amazing. But, it's hard to describe why. You are in complete controll and contact with the bike at all times. My goal is to commute on this brakeless, zen fixed bike. 12 miles one way, should make it in under an hour. That's 120 miles of riding a week, $240 in gas saved, less wear and tear on the Disco. She's starting to get tired, but that's another story. Bottom line, fixed is cool, and I need to sway Tara on commuting a bit more. She did say it was my decision though... oh and the seat sucks.

Just got back from STL

We'll I just got back tonight from another PromoPix job. The same Synergy Sports contact was there, Courtney, from the "Got Milk, Think Your Drink" tour. What are the odds? This time it was "USA Football, Under Armor" with Sports Authority tour in St. Louis. Fly in fri night, job sat morning, fly out sat afternoon. It rained the whole time, save the time we where working, when I roasted my face in the sun. Then it rained some more...
Kinda wanted to see the Arch, and other attractions. It just rained. I did get some cool cloud shots out the airplane window though.
There where parts of STL that looked like Austin. I would like to take a week to explore more.