Good Morning

When the day starts out with a spectacular sunrise like this it’s a great clue that it’s probably going to be a nice day. I snapped this on the way from the parking lot to the office this morning, ever grateful that I am never without a camera. By the time I got into the building and up to the 3rd floor where I thought I’d have an even better vantage point for a picture, the colors had faded dramatically so the moment had passed. I was smug the entire day knowing I had a blip in the camera and didn’t have to worry.

I stopped on the way home to pick up some DVDs that I had converted from old VCR tapes. I’ve wanted to do that for a long time and finally got around to taking them to the local tech wizards. They neatly transferred everything to more modern media, at least for now. These were things I hadn’t seen for a very long time – treasures that I didn’t want to lose. Some were VCRs that I had converted from old 34mm film taken when my kids were little, 40-50 years ago. Another was a recording of my mother appearing in a play back in 1983, two years before she died. She was an actress and very active in local theatre. One of our friends taped one of her performances but I hadn’t seen it for years. I was a little apprehensive about viewing it because I figured I’d spend the evening in tears watching her, but that didn’t happen. I sat there with a silly grin on my face, enjoying every minute. It was wonderful seeing her and hearing her voice and even though she was “ in character”, it was still my mother. She loved the theater and she loved to act. She managed to be involved in local theater in whatever town she lived in and if there wasn’t one, she started one.

The next set of converted DVDs I’ll be watching are from my first and second trips to England in 1998 and 2001 when my husband and I went to visit our friends Myra and Doug in Manchester. They took us to Hebden Bridge and Haworth and we rode the Keighley Worth Valley steam train at Oxenhope -- it was my introduction to Yorkshire, sheep with tails, stone walls and tea rooms. I’m a little more than apprehensive about watching those not only because I believe I left a chunk of my heart there but because my husband’s been gone since 2004 and I’m not sure what it will be like seeing him walking and talking again. I think I’ll save those for a weekend so I don’t have to function in polite society just in case I have trouble.