INDIAN LAKE

 Dear Kema,

I appreciate your comment on Indian Lakes album. You can see that the location offers tremendous opportunities for photos. I've been going there off and on for over three years. Indian Lake is less than 10 miles from home in a State Forest.   

About a month ago when I visited I found that the water level was way up. In fact I couldn't walk all of the way around the lake because of flooding. It turns out that there is a prairie, something like Paynes prairie, which drains into the lake. Apparently the prairie had accumulated so much rainwater that the lake took the overflow. Within a few weeks the water had receded; maybe it found its way into the aquifer.

I keep finding more places to take little hikes around here. I'm always glad to find another opportunity to take a picture. My android cell phone sends the photos right to my computer and stores them in Google Photos.

CREATIVITY

The evening before my sister went into the hospital suffering form a ruptured appendix I talked to her on the phone. She didn't say a thing about feeling sick. We talked about the normal things which interested us - family, activities, weather, memories. As the conversation was ending I remember saying to her that she and I spent our time doing completely different things. She continued to be involved primarily with quilting and gardening. I had given up sewing and my yard got minimal attention. Now my time was occupied with studying and writing for maintaining the Blake blog. However as I thought about it later I realized how similar our activities were at a deeper level. We were both gathering together material from whatever source we could find and assembling the pieces into a whole which was greater than the sum of the parts. The pieces of fabric and the plants were the material from which she created the designs which came from her imagination, just as surely as were my posts to the blog coming from thoughts and ideas which my imagination assembled.         

2020 ELECTION

 

I went beyond the duty to vote (which I had already done) on this election day. Although I had volunteered to be a poll watcher I was not required for that post. However on Saturday I got a call from Oregon saying that poll greeters were needed in Ocala. I had my email sent to the local chairman of Democratic volunteers and learned of a opening at a precinct at a church nearby. I agreed but without enthusiasm. I just didn't want to feel like I had not done as much as I could. I picked up a Biden/Harris sign and some sample ballot material from Democratic Headquarters so I was ready to go on Tuesday morning at 6:45.     

It was a chilly morning but I and the voters were ready for an early start. There was a line of people waiting for the doors to open. I set up my lawn chair and tray table and sign outside of the 150 foot perimeter as required by law. I was just there to hand out material to those who requested it and very few did. After the initial surge of voters things got pretty slow. I walked around a bit trying to keep warm. At one point I stood in a sheltered, sunny spot and though of how Larry always looked for the early sunshine to help him get moving.   

Later there were two events to spice up the morning. First I saw a man with a professional style camera walking around trying to get a picture of what was happening at this precinct. Eventually he wandered over and we started a conversation about election turnout and different parts of the US. He is a photographer named Doug Engle for the Ocala Star Banner, so he asked to take my picture with my Biden sign. It was a pleasant experience on an otherwise dull morning.

Later in the morning I saw three people on the other side of the parking lot, apparently engaged in a long discussion. After putting up a couple of signs in the vicinity of signs for a variety of candidates they headed in my direction. The man started a conversation so I reported on how voting was going at this polling place. He spoke of the turnout at other sites he had visited and mentioned the heavy early voting in Alachua and Clay Counties. He was accompanied by two young women and a small, friendly dog. They too asked to take a picture. This was a group picture of the Biden sign, me, the dog and the young man and one of the women. The photographer was pleased that she had gotten a good picture of the dog. The young man seems to have been the candidate for congress for this district, Adam Christensen (the commotion with the dog made me unsure of his name.) If he were to win his race, he would be the youngest member of congress.

It was definitely a more interesting morning than if I had stayed at home.

https://demcastusa.com/2020/06/11/meet-the-candidateadam-christensen-florida/

https://i1.wp.com/demcastusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/20-IMG_1605-2-Essential-Validation-Services-Adam-Christensen.jpg?w=2160&ssl=1