Seeing Through The Fog

The past two mornings brought similar yet different commutes to the office. Both were foggy, but they each had their "signature color!"

 Yesterday was a "Pretty in Pink" vibe behind the low fog.

And today was more orange like "We're a piece of candy corn" vibes. Both were worth stopping the car and taking pictures!

Then it ended up being colorfully gorgeous on the back end of the day, too!

There's not much traffic on Country Trunk F so I was able to put on the brakes and take this through the car window. 

I love fall colors, no matter how Mother Nature dishes them up. Hope you've had time to enjoy the colors of the season, too!

Those Fickle Golf Gods

After driving to work in the pour rain – make that a deluge – and seeing it rain all morning, my golf partners and I thought for sure we wouldn't have league tonight.

But the golf gods were smiling on us and the sun came out by 1 p.m.

So golf was on! The tricky thing about the golf gods is that if they smile on you, it can only be for one thing at a time. If today was weather, that meant they were not helping me have a stellar round! 

Also against us was the fact the course was so wet, it was "cart path only." Now there are a few holes with wide fairways and a long walk from the cart path to your ball. While it did help me get my 10,000 steps quite easily. It didn't help my game.

Still, I'll never complain about a round at SentryWorld!

And on the way home, the regular God gave me a colorful commute. Never doubt the blessings hiding in plain sight!

Barefoot Hotdog

What the heck is a "barefoot hotdog"? Well that would be a talented teenager who can waterski barefoot and be a hotdog (aka one-handed hot shot) while doing it!

Love this kid! 

This is Baby Aiden ... aka One of My Waterski Boys ... aka About to Start His Senior Year!

Had such a fun photo shoot tonight for senior portraits. Obviously senior pictures have moved way beyond the traditional one pose in a studio! I had the pleasure of capturing his brothers' photos and his sister's. And now it's his turn.

Of course I took some nice "portraits" but we also needed some action shots.

Beautiful night for a boat ride! Had to make sure we were facing away from the "backlit" sun while going over waves and holding my camera steady enough to capture some action shots of flips and other tricks. Looks relaxing but it was challenging that way. Can't wait to look at all the images, but I knew I for sure got that good barefooting one!

Afterward, on the way home, the sunset colors off the lake continued to be amazing in the woods, too. Just a treat for sunrise/sunset-loving me! Absolutely no filter or photo editing here! Additionally, I will not disclose if I trespassed to find a good angle. Sorry, town of Rome!

May we all find delight in childhood/teenager enthusiasm and the beautiful colors, textures, and waves in nature!

 

They're Back

Two things were back today! First BINGO returns to Assumption for the spring season. Had over 100 people so bigger jackpots were on the line. My dobber, however, must have still been on Christmas vacation. Did not want to do much work today. Above is the closest I got to the final coverall jackpot – and frankly, that's not close. 

Still, I had fun!

The second things that's back today is Mr. Sun. Yeah! That does not mean it was warm out by any stretch of the imagination. Still, when I looked out the windows and saw a pinkish hue, I knew there was a decent sunset close by.

Stepped out on the front deck and yessirree! So beautiful!

How lucky are we to live in a world where beautiful sunrises and sunsets can make us forget for one minute the harshness of winter. And, frankly, the harshness or the world right now.

Soak it in and be careful out there!

Non-Trad Holiday Lights

At the end of a pretty busy workday, I was looking forward to seeing some Christmas lights to calm me on the commute home. I did see plenty in Stevens Point, but it was the non-traditional holiday lights that caught my attention.

And yes, caused several moments where I pulled over to the edge of the road and capture them. Enjoy and see God's handiwork – even in the toughest of times for some people...

And 5 minutes later, we're in winter darkness mode. Still, the beauty of a sunset (any time of year) just gives me pause to remember God is huge, my problems/moments of angst are little, and we need to figure out how to take a deep breath and appreciate it.

The "holiday light show" was perfect timing for me. Hope you feel the same!

Finally My Turn

When the Northern Lights were already showing themselves at Lake Wazeecha at just 6:30 last night, I knew it was finally my turn to see them and, cross my fingers, capture an image or two.

Around 8 p.m. I headed over the Buena Vista Prairie Chicken Meadow – along with dozen other vehicles – for an open field / unobstructed view. I was amazed I could see the colors with the naked eye. But putting my phone camera on Night mode, I was able to capture more of the depth and vividness.

Red and Green colors like a Hallmark Christmas movie! Ha. Just glorious! But very cold out so I didn't linger for long!

No Northern Lights here tonight but...

But those Western Lights were exceptionally gorgeous on my commute home. Wow!!

Got home in time for hubby and I to go to "dinner and a show" tonight at Assumption High School. 

Opening night for Sister Act included a delicious dinner with 3 couples from the Smits family – how fun – then the musical!

Everything was amazing from the set design (wow) to the talented singers. So entertaining! They have shows Friday and Saturday, too. Highly recommend going. Although dinner was only available tonight.

I might actually get 8 hours of sleep tonight since I don't have to keep checking for those lights. Sure appreciate their beauty and uniqueness though! 

Northern Lights Envy is a Thing

I was so frustrated with our cloud cover on Bluejay Drive last night. I literally stepped outside every few hours to hopefully catch sight of the Northern Lights.

Especially after viewing stunning photos from family Up North in Wisconsin and from the Twin Cities on up in Minnesota (like my niece's photo above). So lucky! So envious.

And I'm not kidding that there were clouds at 9 p.m., 10 p.m., and 2 a.m. But I could see something was hiding behind them!

Then.... shout out to Mr. Tiny Bladder for awakening my body at 5 a.m. I look out the bathroom window and see... stars! Holy crap! No clouds.

So I run out the front door and onto the driveway in my slippers and PJ's and finally caught a beautiful view above our tree line!

It was a brilliant pink! And because I was not exactly dressed to hop in the car and find an unobstructed view in an open field somewhere, I don't know if our pinks were attached to any greens like other photos I viewed. 

In retrospect, I should have. Because I didn't fall back asleep anyway for my 6:20 alarm.

So tonight I caught colors early...

As in sunset colors on my drive home from work. But because the Northern Lights are supposed to be visible like everywhere tonight, I will try again. Between sunset and choir practice. Then between choir practice and realistic bedtime.

Good luck to all of us Northern Lights dorks! 📷

Sunday Sidelines

 

My Sunday was pretty cliche and boring – but then exciting.

I went to church, got my car washed, took care of some yard duties and sat down to watch the Players Championship to see if Tommy Fleetwood would pull off his first PGA TOUR win. While I was watching. Turns out, he could and did. That was exciting for those of us who cheered on an underdog!

The only reason Sunday was a bummer is that I was cheering on a different underdog all day — me. Who hadn't had enough Mr. Deck Chair time this summer and had too much of the coming rainfall and wind today to mess up our date!

But there are worse things! #FirstWorldProblems

Let's have a good week!

Random Acts of Color

For some reason I could not get my phone to sync up with my computer when it came to photos last night, so I said "screw it" and didn't bother blogging. Now it somewhat works.

If you've read a few of my previous blogs you know this means I got to golf SentryWorld last night. I was subbing for friend on our other Marketing golf team who happens to be vacationing in Iceland. I'd like to say I was winning – but beautiful Iceland? I doubt it.

One fun hole was me saying, "Hey, there's my ball" and my partner saying, "I think that's a mushroom." Raise your driver if you would've thought the same thing!

At least on my drive home I knew all the COLOR credit went to God with some amazing sunset views en route home. Thanks!

Today's color palette was a surprise. I learned that someone I was loving on this weekend up north now has COVID.

So I swung by Walgreens on my way home to pick up a test. I didn't have symptoms but I had senior photo session this evening and we have an out-of-town wedding Friday. Thank the Lord it was negative. Because, well, I hate to miss out on anything!

I guess my random acts of color this week have truly been blessings!

Friday FORE! Some Fun

We had our annual summer golf round with our friends Scott and Sandy. They come from the Green Bay area so we often find a new course to try that's somewhere between us. Today we took the day off and traveled down to the boujee town of Green Lake to golf Tuscumbia.

It was a gorgeous day with temps in the low 80s. A tad sticky at times, but when the clouds were out or there was a breeze, we did OK.

This was a pretty straightforward course. And I mean straight! Pretty much a back-and-forth hole layout. You might not see it in this photo but this is the middle of many parallel fairways. 

There were a lot of huge, old trees. This one gave shade to two little fawns. You have to look close. Ha.

And look at the size of this trunk!

Sandy and I took our usual selfie. I need to find all the ones we taken the last 15 summers!

On the way home, hubby and I stopped at Two Lakes Supper Club. There's water in both lakes this summer! That isn't always the case.

So we had dinner with a view.

That was topped only by our meal. We both had our favorites. Jim had their shrimp pizza and I had their delicious coconut shrimp with cranberry-apricot dipping sauce. So good!

Did not have room for dessert but had another treat on the drive home with this unusually wispy sunset. I see a bird in there. And the whole view is like a rising phoenix. Love it!

All in all, a great day out of the office! Which is usually the case, isn't it?

Have a good weekend, everyone. Hydrate and be careful!

Spring Colors at Work

While walking some morning laps INSIDE at work this morning, I noticed some pops of color in our inner courtyard area I just had to check out during my lunch break. Especially when they were sort of purple.

Well, my eyes saw purple and my camera saw pink. You decide what works for you!

Of course it didn't take me long (via camera lens) to realize I was witnessing some "private" bee time with the blossoms and felt like a voyeur for zooming in. Ope! Far be it for me to interrupt spring "tradition"!

I frankly just liked to see some living color arrive in central Wisconsin like it had weeks ago in Nashville and St. Louis!

My after-work colors were a bit different. First, it was super green grass for our second of three golf lessons. Tonight's takeaways: Robyn can drive. Robyn can hit her hybrids. Robyn cannot chip. Will definitely have to keep practicing with my newfound chipping stance and swing knowledge!

On the way home, I was somewhat driving into the almost setting sun (not fun) but I stopped a few times because the colors were so gorgeous! 

Wow. I really can't stop bragging up this God who creates these gorgeous sunsets. Between that and the flowers, every day it's a different reason to be thankful for the unique colors of spring!

Bear With Me

I think I'm in spring fight mode as we experience 50-plus temperatures to give us a feeling of spring. And knowing that it's short-lived. Bear with me and my short-term patience. I Still I gotta love the colors of spring...

Not your normal spring "green" but this still illustrates that the sun is out!

The other interesting object up above is that the sun and moon boys gave us a close and full view the last few days. I'm not sure that the planet vibes mesh with my beliefs, but it points me to some hopefully great success vibes [including lottery or BINGOP winnings].

Maybe I won't let the colorful view get to me. But I am definitely hooked on the spring weather that allows me to dream about a tee time and potential bonding time with Mr. Deck Chair. Just bear with me when I have to a jacket back on in a few days!

Dirty Snow, Sky's Aglow

If you look closely, the juxtaposition of this photo completely exemplifies January here in Wisconsin. Mother Nature is a good distractor. I was focused on the gorgeous sunset last night but now I see that ugly pile of dirty snow in the foreground at right. 

A picture that says it all!

I didn't get a chance to share last night because I snapped some Lady Royals hoops picture and I as was working on those 'til bedtime. And just remembered I gotta finish those tonight.

But this morning I was blessed with more color at 7 a.m. on my commute. Kind of freaky how it almost looks like a California wildfires-type photo. Thankfully, it was just the sky on fire.

Today our work cafeteria crew celebrated the Lunar New Year and we got fortune cookies. I'm pretty sure mine refers to something like trying a new ice cream flavor rather something silly like a new exercise program. It's almost the end of January. I missed that boat!

After work, we had our Marketing Department Christmas party. We always have it in late January since we're so busy in December prepping for our golf tournament on Maui first week in January. Had some hors d'oeuvres, won a prize, and then headed to Rapids.

Needed to get to a funeral visitation for the mother and mother-in-law of our friends Mike and Christine.

Was glad I was blessed with seeing this gorgeous sunset before arriving. It reminded me God is here and he'll give them comfort. And me, too, since I broke down crying realizing how much I miss my momma, too! 

Got home with enough time to whip together a Peanut Butter and Chocolate Trifle for work tomorrow before choir practice. I can't thank my Martha Steward television crew enough for cleaning up after me as I ran out the door!

I'm thankful hubby feels well enough to go to his golf simulator league tonight. That's a good sign. Prayers for further progress, please!

Be careful out there – of germs and any slippery roads!