Author: ToadMama

The twenty-second prompt for the challenge was easy and interesting: pick a color then share seven interesting images featuring that color. It took a while, of course, because I have a whole lotta images stored around here.

This is what I came up with:

I’d been trying to visit what RoadsideAmerica.com calls the Giant Lurking Indian since a failed attempt in 2015 when it was just too dang hot to venture into the city of Richmond, Virginia on my bike.

I stayed overnight in Rockport during a solo road trip to Maine in 2008.

There’s nothing quite like souvenir shops in beach towns when it comes to finding tacky t-shirts. This was in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

I’d only had my bike for about a month and a half when that picture was taken.

That pic was captured in 2014 during a trip to San Diego.

I’m a sucker for cool wall murals on blue-sky days. Don’t you just love the shadow? That’s also San Diego, but it was during our first trip to that city in 2012.

In the western part of the US, things are big. Not just the states, the mountains, the trees, the canyons, the rivers, etc.

That last image was captured in 2007 at a state park somewhere between Moscow and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

That’s the end of my blue exhibit.

I am still totally up-to-date with this blog challenge thing. Yep, I’m right on time with the 21st prompt — as in one prompt a day — which just happens to be “misinformation.”

Our server was down yesterday. A large tree fell in the yard and tore through the fiber optic cable. The wood shorted-out the circuit, so we lost connectivity.

Bummer.

One of the limbs tore a hole in the fence, too.

It didn’t just cause drama for the human residents. A groundhog had been living in the tree, apparently. About 30 seconds too late, I saw it wandering around the fallen trunk, looking lost. In that 30 seconds, both dogs managed to make it out the doggie door, which is in the rear of the house, and around to the front yard.  As soon as they saw the newly evicted groundhog, they gave chase.

I somehow managed to grab my cell phone first. That’s how I captured this close-up shot of the groundhog in our yard.

Cute little thing, isn’t he?

My first thought when the dogs lit after it was that I hoped they didn’t hurt the thing. My second thought, which came as the dogs chased the groundhog out through the new hole in the fence, was that I hoped the dogs didn’t get hurt chasing that groundhog.

Don’t worry, though. All is well. Although it took me about three hours to catch up with the girls and convince them to come home.

Just in time to sit down and read some news on the Internet, where everything is true all of the time.

I realize it sounds sort of lame for me to say that I’ve let work interfere with life again. So I won’t say it. I’ll just let y’all wonder why I managed to miss five days in a row of my own challenge.

#15 – Random act of kindness

When I chose this prompt, I thought maybe I’d have the chance to get out of the house and do something random and nice for someone. That’s always fun.

The truth is, I try to be kind every day. I try to do nice things on a regular basis. Even things that seem small to one person may feel huge to someone else.

Thinking back, I did do something nice that day. It was a small thing, but it’s one of those small things I think are important. I’d asked a colleague to do something for me. He did it, and he did it quickly.

I thanked him, which is normal. But I didn’t just say thanks. I said something like…

Thanks so much for helping with that task at the last minute. It was a HUGE help!

I very much appreciate it.

And then I made sure I copied his supervisor on my reply. Because, in my experience, people are quick to complain about someone’s faulty job performance, but slow to mention when a person has been helpful, done something good or nice, etc.

Again, it wasn’t a huge thing that he did for me; it’s not something that took a lot of effort on his part. But it was one less thing I had to do in the short period of time remaining before an important deadline, so it was big to me. Which is why I made sure his boss knew about it, too.

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#16 – What are you thankful for today?

Bosses who not only listen when you share constructive criticism, but ACT. That’s big in my book. And I’m not talking about a small thing.

There was a process involving our international offices that I knew needed improvement. I met with company executives to get their buy-in so I could work with one international colleague in particular to make improvements. They didn’t just buy in, they said, basically, that it was a great idea, but solving the problem would be easier in person. So they paid to fly that colleague here from Spain on short notice so we could all work more-effectively together to come up with a solution.

So I was at our Charlottesville headquarters brainstorming at the end of last week. And we came up with a solution that will take a bit longer to implement, but is even better than what either of us alone would have proposed.

That’s big. Seriously.

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#17 – Simple pleasure

Driving the back roads of the Virginia Piedmont on a Spring-like February day. And seeing the delight on the face of my European colleague when he tried pulled pork BBQ for the first time.

Madrid is far more exotic a locale than Sperryville, Virginia, but they don’t make BBQ like we do in Spain. And, although he’d been to the US before, he’d always been to cities and eaten in fancier restaurants. So he truly enjoyed the more-authentic, everyday American experience. He liked the back roads, too, and even appreciated the one “oddity” I managed to squeeze in.

He even suggested and took this selfie!

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#18 – Church

I’m not a religious person. So I figured I would share a link to my favorite “church” song and share one of my favorite church photos.

Click on the image for a larger view. It really is quite a magnificent entryway, don’t you think? The website, sacred-destinations.com, has this description…

“The most exceptional feature of Bern’s Münster is the magnificent depiction of the Last Judgment over the main portal, which contains more than 200 carved wood and stone figures. Such a large collection of late-Gothic sculpture is a rare survival in Europe. The 170 smaller figures are 15th-century originals; the 47 larger freestanding statues are replicas (originals in the Bern Historical Museum).

Justice occupies the center, flanked by angels and the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Above is the Archangel Michael, with a sword and scales. The saved are on the left and the damned are on the right. Such a significant survival of religious images is rare in Protestant Switzerland, but apparently the graphic depictions of salvation and damnation appealed enough to the Reformers to spare it from destruction.”

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#19 – Reflection

Ah, reflection.

Yet another word that could have more than one interpretation.

I’ll take the easy path here and share a favorite image that includes a reflection.

I often wonder how many people see reflections like this. By that I mean not just see the reflection, but get drawn into stopping for a closer look.

I don’t seek-out reflections. (Not usually, anyway.) Reflections just jump out at me. Once a reflection catches my eye, I almost always stop for a look.

Does that happen to any of you?

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Now let’s see how many of the other participating bloggers are doing a much better job than me keeping up…

• Two Wheels Two Feet
• Highway Lass
• Ride North
• CurvyRoads
• The Biker Wave
• FuzzyGalore
• Richard’s Page
• Scooter in the Sticks

Today’s challenge prompt was easy. What does Valentine’s Day mean to me? Nothing, really. It’s just a contrived “holiday,” in my opinion. A day when people feel obligated to buy gifts, express their love, etc.

I prefer spontaneity. I rarely embrace obligation. That’s just me.

What are the odds, really, of me walking onto a beach and spotting the one stone among uncountable others with a heart etched onto its surface?

Just look at all of those stones!

Back when we had cable TV, Hubby and I often watched shows about houses. It’s interesting to see how other people live. How other people want to live.

If you watch those shows enough, you’ll pick up on the common themes. People seem to want lots of space to entertain. They want an open concept floor plan, so if they’re standing in their kitchen, they can see all the way across their house. Sort of like they were living in an auditorium.

Sound carries as if in an auditorium, too. It’s amazing how much sound travels.

Our last house was pretty open. There was a kitchen hooked to a two-storey “family room”, a dining room, a pretty big foyer, and a “living room” we rarely used. The bedrooms were on the second level, along a hallway that was more like a balcony since you could look down to the first level.

Noise REALLY carried in that space.

I think that’s one of the reasons we both really liked this house so much. It’s very compartmentalized. None of the rooms flow together. We like it like that. It makes so much more sense for us.

We were both amused to learn that our neighbor, whose house is very similar, wants to tear down a wall to open things up. In our house, Hubby actually built a little mini wall and installed a door so we can completely separate the kitchen and family room when we want to (that usually means when I am banging around in the kitchen and he’s trying to watch TV).

I don’t know…big and open just doesn’t seem to work for us. The biggest downside to compartmentalization? Sometimes, it’s hard to find each other. LOL. The dogs tend to lose us sometimes, too. Maybe it’s time to find a smaller, compartmentalized space.
check out the other bloggers participating this year…

Check out the other bloggers feel about openness vs. life with partitions…

• Two Wheels Two Feet
• Highway Lass
• Ride North
• CurvyRoads
• The Biker Wave
• FuzzyGalore
• Richard’s Page
• Scooter in the Sticks