I found myself with a half hour on my hands yesterday afternoon and I spent it surfing a variety of design blogs.

We got an email this morning from Heather Ladick. Here’s what she said:

I love digital photography. I’ve never been a great photographer, but my digital camera makes me look like I’m much more skilled than I am. I love being able to snap as many photos as I want to with no thought about how much film I might be wasting. I love being able to delete bad images – rather than trying to figure out what to do with bad prints that I paid money to have developed. 

…have an almost wood-grained look.

Here is a new movie of my grandson, Jack, on the floor in my studio. I have the camera. You can hear Elanor who is sitting near me on the floor. 

My son, Christopher, is a big believer in bicycles. He rides as much as he can. In fact, his car spends more time sitting in the driveway than it does anywhere else. This is good and I’m proud of him for doing his part to cut down on emissions. Chris has even taught himself how to repair bikes and has set up a small bicycle shop in his garage. He buys used bikes, repairs them, and sells them. He has refurbished bikes for his wife, Lorna, and for Elanor. 

Both of my sons learned to ride bikes when they were young. When we lived in Tulsa they rode them a lot because our street was safe. When we moved to Sherman, TX, the bicycle riding came to a pretty quick halt. Our street was safe enough to ride on but they were getting big enough to want to go places and the city streets here are not particularly bike friendly. In fact drivers can be positively aggressive toward bicyclists. So, even though I know it’s a very good thing, when Christopher started riding his bike all over town at any time of the day or night, I got nervous. He assures me that he has found safe routes around town and I believe him – mostly. But I’m a mom so I still worry. 

Recently he found (and I admit it, it was with my help) a tandem bike. This is a contraption that attaches to a regular bicycle to add another seat. That makes it easier for them all to take family bike rides! Chris has Elanor attached to his bike and Jack rides in the seat on Lorna’s bike. They rode to our house for dinner last week. I took these photos as they were riding off into the sunset to go home.

Please be kind to the bicyclists that you come across when you are out driving around. Their mom’s will thank you for it.

A friend sent me a link to a video clip by Ira Glass (thanks, Nysha!). Ira Glass is the host of This American Life, a truly fine weekly radio show on NPR that I never miss.