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August 25, 2013

ANOTHER WIRE BRIDGE AFTERNOON

... liz and i decided to have a picnic at the wire bridge ... she brought all sorts of yummy snacks, and, thinking that if the zombie apocalypse should occur while were up along the river we'd need more to eat, we also stopped to get some pizza at the country store in north anson ...

... liz is a "rock mover" ... she started her career by moving the giant stone that over the years had slowly ground its way from the center of the earth right up through the asphault in the middle of her mother's driveway ... from there, she progressed to the backyard and garden ... now she's on a quest to decorate her gram's yard with various pebbles, stones, boulders, and rocks ... i think in an earlier life she was a hardy new england farmer ... "damn rocks ... g*d put 'em here to test me ... got to move 'em all if i want head of the line when i get to heaven" ...

... after lunch, and a rest, of course, we enjoyed swimming in the stream ... okay, so while i swam she looked for rocks ...

... while liz wandered the banks of the carrabessett, i decided to find out if my little waterproof camera was waterproof ... years ago, adrien borrowed it when she went to hawaii ... over the phone, "dad, the camera doesn't work anymore" ... i told her not to worry, that over a four-year period i'd more than gotten my money's worth out of it taking pictures along the reef in grand cayman ... "put it in a jar with some rice, then go buy yourself a new one" ... when she brought it home i did some research, learned that it was about one-third the price of the camera to have it "refurbished" ... before sending it off, i took it apart, air dried the insides, then let all the pieces sit for a few days ... when i put it back together it worked ... !!! ... since then, however, i've used it only for shooting in poor weather, or when i needed a pocket camera ... today i decided to take it underwater and find out what would happen ...

... liz struck up a conversation with this little boy, i think his name is tristan ... "do you know my grandmother," he asked ... "no," she answered, "this is just such a nice place for people to meet" ...

... as i lay atop one of the boulders in the middle of the stream, suckin' up the sun's heat stored within the water-smoothed pegmatite, liz was teaching tristan to skip stones ...



... liz is a great teacher, and tristan seemed a willing pupil ... at first, he didn't quite comprehend the concept that the rocks wouldn't skip if there were people standing between him and the water, but after a few very near misses he began to get the idea ...

... my wonderful daughter, liz, in her teacher's hands she draws in these little boys so they find exciting a simple river rock ...

... i know, a somewhat over-hdred HDR photograph ... clouds would've probably made the difference, but even with a plain blue sky i couldn't resist trying ...

 ... always a teacher, lesson goes right to the bell ... "how to get the sand out from between your toes" ... yea, that one's way more important than that algebra stuff they kept telling us over and over that we wouldn't be able survive without knowing ...

... that's a julia smile, absolutely, and those of you who know her ma are most likely commenting as to how remarkable is the dna molecule that it allows a mother can pass on her pretty face to her daughter ... me, always, i see my little baby girl playing with joyful abandon in a very happy mountain stream ...

... liz left the rocks, moved ... the camera leaked ...

... at the end of the day, here, from this very special place, part of me never really departs ...