Damn Routine

That damn routine.  Get up drink coffee, off to work, then home, TV, bed and start over the next day.   It is comfortable, predictable, and relaxing.  No muss no fuss.  That damn routine.  One eye should always be on it.  There is a hidden danger.  If you are not alert it will sneak in and steal your adventure.  My father used to take us on, what we called rides.  On a Sunday afternoon or in the early evening we would load up in the car and take off.  Sometimes we would check out the motels to see if they were full.  I remember sitting and counting the cars that flew by in a minute on interstate 44 before the overpasses.  If memory serves me correctly we would count well over a hundred cars.  Of course to break the routine a bungee jump would work, but dad had it figured.

This blog as most of you know has dealt primarily with photography, and you may now be wondering what this has to do with that.  Well not much.  Although photography can become routine.  This is about paradise and how the routine can replace it.  I am leaving paradise, Mesquite Nevada.  I waded the Virgin river this morning.   In the last three years I have made trips to Yosemite, Zion (a bunch of times) Arches, Canyonlands, Valley of Fire (several Times), Grand Canyon, Great Basin, Lake Mead, Lake Powell, Dead Horse, Horse Shoe Bend,  taken more hikes than I can count, and driven part of the Pacific coast highway for me it gets no better.  I almost forgot we are 90 miles from Las Vegas not only gambling, but great shows Lou saw Elton John, Lion King, Thunder Down; people watching I've seen a couple of see thru blouses, there is no telling what you'll see, and great shopping.  This has been paradise.  I am headed to Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

There is something about moving to a state that is OK.   I lived there for a year about three years ago.  I didn't like it.  Now I'm headed back.  Oh well at least I will be close to the Buffalo river, and some waterfalls.  I don't mean to offend the people of Bartlesville.  I'm sure they are great people.  It just will not compare to Mesquite.  Oh yeah this isn't about moving.  Its about that damn routine.

As much as I have done here I wish I had done more.   I wish I hadn't fallen into a routine.  I know, I never will again.  I have killed the routine.  Stomped it with my hiking boots, strangled it with my camera strap,  drowned in it my camelbak.  I had plans for the fall Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.  I was busily saving money to float the Colorado river.  Life took over and instead it is the move.  I could have made the hike through the subway, I could have backpacked Zion, four-wheeled Canyon Lands.  I should have seen Santana, Cher, Bette.  I could have.  I didn't.  That damn routine.

I guess I should post some photographs:

Lake Geneva Wisconsin (the first time I lived in paradise)

Taken with film.  I frequently ate lunch on the shore of the lake, and went there before work.  Watched ice sailing once. 

These next two I took Saturday at the Virgin river.   

 ISO 100, f16, 1/60

ISO 100, f16, 1/80