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Turns Out, They Were Listening
I spent years wondering if any of those dang kids learned anything from me at all. Now I sit back, watch them cook, raise families of their own, and realize they were listening.
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Swaying in the Breeze
On one very hot day, my wife and I followed an abandoned Illinois Central rail bed to an old trestle bridge. What stayed with me most wasn’t the bridge, though. It was a patch of wildflowers dancing in the wind on the other side.
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Season Is What We Put on Food
I’m not one of those people who talks about “BBQ season.” Around here, season is what we put on food. If I want to cook outside, I cook outside. Snow, rain, heat, cold, it doesn’t much matter to me. A grill doesn’t know what month it is, and neither do I when the mood hits. On this particular night, my wife was working one of those long shifts that more often than not drags on into the early morning hours. So while she was at work, I decided I was going to have myself a cookout. Now before anybody gets the wrong idea, I didn’t forget about her. I forgot…
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I Went for the Train
I have loved trains for just about as long as I can remember, so when I saw that Union Pacific’s Big Boy 4014 was coming to Chester, Illinois, home of Popeye the Sailor Man, that got my attention in a hurry. I was laying in bed that morning, soaking up the cool air from the AC while the summer heat was already gearing up outside, when I saw the posting. I talked my wife into going, and before long that was the plan. We were headed to Chester to see Big Boy for ourselves. It was hot as all get out that day. Not just hot, but that thick Illinois…
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Part of a Story That Started Long Ago
When the package arrived, it looked like any other box that had come through the mail.Packing peanuts, bubble wrap, the usual packing job. Nothing unusual at first.But once I started unwrapping it, I had a feeling this one might be a little different. The first thing that surprised me was the weight. For something called a pocket camera, it was heavier than I expected. Not heavy in a bad way, just solid – like it had more years behind it than it was letting on. As the last of the bubble wrap came off, I noticed the box. The paper was yellowed with age, and there was handwriting on the…
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A Small Engine Project That Started It All
I’ve always liked messing with small engines. There’s just something about taking one that won’t run, figuring out what is wrong with it, and getting it to fire off again that never gets old for me. I’m not talking about having the best tools in the shop or knowing every trick in the book. Half the time it’s just patience, paying attention, and not being afraid to take something apart and see what is going on. One project in particular takes me all the way back to first grade, and looking back now, it was probably the one that started all of it for me. My bonus dad had a…
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Why I Started This Blog
I’ve spent a lot of years messing with simple hobbies. Working on engines, taking pictures, standing around a grill at cookouts. Somewhere along the line I realized those were the things I looked forward to the most. They slow me down a little, keep my hands busy, and give me something worth remembering later. This blog started as a place to keep all those moments together in one spot. I’ve always liked learning by doing. In the garage you figure things out by turning wrenches and making mistakes until something finally works. Photography isn’t much different. You pay attention, try again, and once in a while you get something you…
