The End (365/365)

~*~*~


Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
~ Winston Churchill

PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: The End

Well? This is it. 365 pictures in as many days. My Sony Cyber-shot, 7.2 mega pixel, 4x optical zoom point and shoot camera took me places I never expected to go this year.

In my world, project 365 is like any other blog. People decide to take it on for many reasons. For some it's posting a years worth of pictures straight from the camera. For others it's a weekly theme, uploaded to flicker on a designated day. And still others participate to show that they can make a commitment for an entire year and stick to it.

Me? I went into it hoping to get a good picture or two - to build my self confidence - to believe in my abilities as much as others seemed to believe in them. I was successful! It's been a good year. No, it's been a GREAT year.

I'm not sure where this blog will go in 2011. I'm looking at some weekly photo memes. This daily thing is a ton of work (don't let anyone fool you into thinking it isn't) and I've got some other projects I'm working on that make daily posting here impossible.

I do know one thing.

I will keep taking pictures.

~*~*~

Calendar (364/365)

~*~*~


I've been on a calendar, but I've never been on time.
~ Marilyn Monroe

PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Calendar

Now I can claim that I've done something Marilyn Monroe did - I'm on a calendar! Fermilab sent these out to all of the 2010 Photowalk participants. Although the monthly photos were all of the finalists (my honorable mention didn't make it), I do appear on the preface page that talks about each lab's Photowalk. How appropriate that I would be caught using my cell phone to take a photo!

~*~*~

Freezing Fog (363/365)

~*~*~


PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Freezing Fog

It's not unusual for us to have freezing fog once or twice during the winter, but this was the third day in December that it has dusted all of Podunk. It looks like someone dropped crates full of powdered sugar from the sky!

~*~*~

Whore (362/365)

~*~*~


The argument between wives and whores is an old one;
each one thinking that whatever she is, at least she is not the other.
~ Andrea Dworkin

PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Whore

I finally ordered my "Shut your whore mouth" t-shirt from Mommy Wants Vodka's website. I'm not one who usually pays to promote others. HELL! I don't even buy concert t-shirts, but this t-shirt says what I so often want to say in such an eloquent manner it should be promoted!

~*~*~

Tree Skirt (361/365)

~*~*~


PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Tree Skirt

I was a little concerned about how the cats would deal with the Christmas tree. They weren't a part of the family last year and I had visions of waking up to a toppled tree every morning.

They didn't climb the tree, they ate it. That's right, seems my cats enjoy he flavor of plastic pine needles ... at least for a little while. I had several plastic pine needle hair balls on my tree skirt, making a washing necessary.

~*~*~

Icicles (360/365)

~*~*~


“Honesty is like an icicle; if once it melts that is the end of it”
~ American Proverb

PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Icicles

These look like they might want to fight back.

~*~*~

Stocking (359/365)

~*~*~


A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer.
~ Mitch Hedberg

PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Stocking

Christmas doesn't look very traditional at our house, but there is always a
stocking filled to the brim on Christmas morning. The problem?
Each year it get's more and more difficult to find things to fill Cam's stocking,
but I think I did OK this year!

~*~*~

Hoar Frost (358/365)

~*~*~


“Poverty, Frost, Famine, Rain, Disease, are the beadles and guardsmen that hold us to Common Sense.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Hoar Frost

We get several hoar frosts throughout the winter - this was the first of the season.

~*~*~

Row (357/365)

~*~*~


Call on God, but row away from the rocks.
~ Hunter S. Thompson

PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Row

Even in the winter there is still beauty in the corn.

~*~*~

Angel (356/365)

~*~*~


I'm just looking for an angel with a broken wing.
~ Jimmy Page

PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Angel

My "special" ornaments were left behind in the move. Last Christmas, I received this one from a friend and it has become my favorite.

~*~*~

Fog (355/365)

~*~*~


Truth is the torch that gleams through the fog without dispelling it.
~ Claude Adrien Helvetius

PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Fog

Inspired by Jay

~*~*~

Santa (354/365)

~*~*~


“Believe in love. Believe in magic. Hell, believe in Santa Clause. Believe in others. Believe in yourself. Believe in your dreams. If you don't, who will?”
~ Jon Bon Jovi

PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Santa

There is a crane contractor who recently moved in just down the road from our offices who clearly has Christmas spirit. Santa now flies across the road that leads into (and out of) our complex.

~*~*~

Mural (353/365)

~*~*~


The Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition is producing 43 Interpretive Murals to be installed along the Illinois Lincoln Highway National Scenic Byway and its corridor in northern Illinois. Each mural depicts the history, heritage and events of the highway and its impact on the communities.

PLACE: Podunk V2
SUBJECT: Mural

This mural resides on the west side of Podunk V2's library.
I see it on Sundays when I do laundry and finally stopped to take a closer look.

~*~*~

Sunrise (352/365)

~*~*~


Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.
~ George Washington Carver

PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Sunrise

I'm not sure which I enjoy the most - a beautiful sunset or a beautiful sunrise - but this time of year I usually get to see both!

~*~*~

Stack (351/365)

~*~*~


Anything beats an expensive stack of paper.
~ Larry Niven

PLACE: Cubicle Hell
SUBJECT: Stack

Oh the auditors. I wish they would go away ... far away ...

~*~*~

Barn (350/365)

~*~*~


Do not let a flattering woman coax and wheedle you and deceive you;
she is after your barn.
~ Hesiod

PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Barn

~*~*~

Poinsettia (349/365)

~*~*~


Poinsettia smiles in winter.
People know Christmas is nearer.
Yellow pistil with red leaves appear
In all greeting cards every year.
~ Charles Woo

PLACE: Cubicle Hell
SUBJECT: Poinsettia

~*~*~

City (348/365)

~*~*~


A city is a large community where people are lonesome together.
~ Herbert Prochnow

PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: City

If we have Christmas decorations on the streetlights that makes us a city, right?

~*~*~

Cow (347/365)

~*~*~


If happiness truly consisted in physical ease and freedom from care, then the happiest individual would not be either a man or a woman; it would be, I think, an American cow.
~ William Lyon Phelps

PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Cow

The snow is always greener?

~*~*~

Christmas Cards (346/365)

~*~*~


Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.
~ Charles Schulz

PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Christmas Cards

Cam's school makes Christmas Cards each year as a fundraiser.
Hopefully I will get these out before Christmas!

~*~*~

Yarn (345/365)

~*~*~


I've always done things the hard way. I was born like a piece of tangled yarn. The job is trying to untangle it, and I'll probably go on doing it for the rest of my life.
~ Karen Allen

PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Yarn

I love yarn - soft and vibrant. Too bad I don't know how to knit or crotchet!

~*~*~

Gingerbread (344/365)

~*~*~


[Thelonius dunks the Gingerbread Man in a glass of milk]
Lord Farquaad: That's enough! He's ready to talk.
Shrek (2001)

PLACE: Cubicle Hell
SUBJECT: Gingerbread

We have a vendor whom, every year, sends us a customized gingerbread house. I've never been brave enough to actually eat it, but it is pretty cool!

~*~*~

Pieces (343/365)

~*~*~


“When it seems that someone has shattered your dreams....pick up even the smallest of pieces and use them to build bigger and better dreams.”
~ Unknown

PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Pieces

~*~*~

Spiral (342/365)

~*~*~


Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it, or simply avoid it.
~ Vaclav Havel

PLACE: Hotel Indigo
SUBJECT: Spiral

Cam's school had their holiday luncheon in the ballroom of this "boutique" hotel.
The decor was funky and fun ... kind of like the kids in his school!

~*~*~

Buckeye (341/365)

~*~*~


"It all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it's close."
~ Jesse Owens

PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Buckeye

Everyone has been bringing treats to the middle school youth group lately, but we have one volunteer with Celiac Disease. I decided to make a gluten free treat for her to bring this week. She didn't share.

~*~*~

First (340/365)

~*~*~


Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
~ Winston Churchill

PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: First

I got my first Christmas card today. Hopefully it won't be the last!

~*~*~

Tread (339/365)

~*~*~


Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray; Who can tread sure on the smooth, slippery way: Pleased with the surface, we glide swiftly on, And see the dangers that we cannot shun.
~ John Dryden

PLACE: Home Sweet Home
SUBJECT: Tread

I'm pretty sure if I were to look back through my photos I'd see that I have taken more photos of these stairs than I have anything else ... which is why I'm not looking back!

~*~*~

Chaos (338/365)

~*~*~


Chaos is a friend of mine.
~ Bob Dylan

PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Chaos

The first snow of the season always brings a certain level of chaos.

~*~*~

Crystal (337/365)

~*~*~


A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Crystal

Sometimes the frost is solid and blocks your sight,
and sometimes it begs you to look a little closer.

~*~*~

Old-Fashioned (336/365)

~*~*~


Call me old-fashioned, but I like my conditioners to be conditioners and my shampoos to be shampoos.
~ Kyan Douglas

PLACE: Podunk Illinois
SUBJECT: Old-Fashioned

We don't do fancy froo-froo displays here, we do displays with heart!

~*~*~

Lights (335/365)

~*~*~


“An optimist is a person who sees only the lights in the picture, whereas a pessimist sees only the shadows. An idealist, however, is one who sees the light and the shadows, but in addition sees something else: the possibility of changing the picture, of making the lights prevail over the shadows.”
~ Unknown

PLACE: Church
SUBJECT: Lights

They decorated the youth center for Christmas. Pretty lights!

~*~*~