The blog

A road into the desert.

A road leads over the hills and into the distance. A key word in that sentence is "leads". Roads like this grab my attention and draw me into the desert. I've got to go see what treasures can be found where ever the road goes. And when I've traveled the roads and look on a map at the locations of the pictures I've taken, the empty spots in that map draw me deeper into the desert, further away from the pavement, away from even the seldom-traveled dirt roads. What rarely-seen treasures are hidden there? What surprises await me? What beautiful sights will I capture with my camera?

I first started writing this blog to share my desert exploration adventures with family. I think my mother-in-law was my most faithful reader. Both my wife's parents have passed away now. I often imagined my younger sister reading my blog to my own mother as I wrote blog entries. Both of my parents have passed away now. I still get +1's from my older sister on blog entries, and my older brother makes cryptic comments about the blog and pictures. (I try to blame the strangeness of his comments on his Parkinson's, but I have known that his mind works differently than most people's since the mid 60's.)

So the main reasons for writing this blog are gone. I didn't really realize this until I started thinking about why the frequency of posts has declined recently. I can't imagine not writing it, though. I even have ideas for posts I will write in 2015. I just may not be posting quite as frequently as I used to.

The desert still calls to me. I'll be out there as often as I can be, filling in those gaps on the map, finding the things I haven't found yet. And I'll continue posting pictures on Google+. I've learned a lot about taking pictures over the past few years. They're usually in focus and properly exposed now, and I rarely get any fingers in the frame anymore. My main focus has always been to show as much of what's there as I can. I may start working on making them more artistically pleasing. I allegedly have artistic ability; I just don't make use of it. Stay tuned.