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ava dad mom I love them . I had a great day.I am ava. I have lots of make up. you might of seen me before .I have blonde hair and I have blue eyes. written by ava s.

Uncle Bryan - Rest in Peace

So I have been sitting on this post for a couple of weeks now because I just can’t seem to find the right words. I have thought about what I want to say over and over in my head, but when I sit down to actually write it, it just never does justice to what I feel. I can’t stall anymore because the clock has run out, so here I go.


My family lost my Uncle Bryan to lung cancer this Monday. It all came as quite a shock, start to finish from diagnosis to his passing was roughly three weeks. He was having some trouble breathing and after some reluctance went to see the doctor who immediately sent him to Strong Memorial for blood clots in one lung and a large mass in the other. After a lot of scares with the blood clots and small strokes, the diagnosis came back and it was as bad as it could get, he had stage 4 lung cancer and there was nothing they could do at that point but make him comfortable. So my Aunt Sue received a crash course in hospice care and my Uncle Bryan came home and passed away with his family around him.

I have never been super close to any of my aunts or uncles, maybe it was because I didn’t see them regularly, I don’t know, but when they were around I made the most of hanging around them. Uncle Bryan was one of my favorites and I never took the time to tell him that which distresses me now more than ever. I don’t want to dwell on the sad, but I would like to tell you a few stories that could only happen to Bryan and what made him great.

Bryan had my family’s blue eyes, the strong majority of us have blue eyes but Bryan’s always seemed to shine the bluest of blues, it’s probably because they were always twinkling because he was full of piss and vinegar and quick with a dirty joke or comment. His voice set him apart too, it was great. He had this gravelly/scraggly voice that could have been a cross between Donald Duck and a muppet only deeper. He had a temper and when he got angry or was really animated telling a story his voice would go slightly higher and you could almost see Donald Duck fighting mad on a cartoon.

He was a great story teller and he had so many stories he could fill a library. Two of my favorites involve fishing, he loved to fish and routinely took his kids (my cousins) fishing. One day as they were fishing he caught a really small sunfish. He took it off the hook and because he was Bryan he stuck the whole fish in his mouth to make the kids laugh or to try and gross them out. Well, while the sunfish was in his mouth, it expanded its fins and the tiny spines in the fin embedded into Bryan’s cheeks and the fish got stuck. No amount of pulling or tugging would get this fish out of his mouth, so as his kids and my Aunt laughed their heads off at this fish stuck in his mouth, he had to go to hospital to have the fish cut out of his mouth. I can still see his face as he told the story of how the doctor began to cut the fish and how awful it tasted.

The other story, shockingly involves fishing and the hospital again. Bryan had the kids fishing and had to bait the one of their lines, so he set his pole down on a rock. He finishes baiting the hook and sits down on the rock where his pole was only to end up sitting straight down on a three pronged hook. He jumps up and starts yelling and cursing because this hook is set deep in his backside. Again, after many attempts of trying to remove the hook themselves, Bryan had to go to the ER to have a doctor pull out the hook prong by prong while Bryan was red faced and steaming on the gurney. It could only happen to him.

He would tell those stories and get so animated, you could practically see it as if you were there. Then he would just start laughing and you had to laugh with him and by the time you were finished laughing you would have tears in your eyes and your sides would hurt.

He was a great man and he will forever be missed. Rest in peace, Uncle Bryan.

The Colors and Feel of Fall…

The other day I went back to a spot I wanted to hike on lunch, the weather was beautiful, it was 70 degrees and sunny an all around perfect fall day. I set off into the woods and let the sounds, sights and smells of the season over take me. There was the smell of dried leaves and warm earth in the air, the colors of the leaves were eye popping and then the rustle of leaves when the wind blew or one of the thousands of chipmunks in the woods ran through them was warming. I am normally a summer type of guy, I love the hot weather and the blazing sun, but this day was amazing. Here are a few shots from my hike. Enjoy!

A place to sit and relax along the path.

A peek of Canandaigua Lake from the overlook

A hot mess of sap and parasite and microbiological awesomeness on a tree.

One hell of a fly catcher.

Color!

Take a hike and enjoy!

Local Hikes…

I am always on the hunt for interesting local hiking spots that I can take the girls to and spots that may be a little more advanced that I can enjoy without the girls. I packed a lunch and my camera today and set out to make the most of my lunch hour. With a quick google search for hiking trails around Canandaigua I found a gem of a spot that is well known to, well, everyone but me apparently. It’s Barnes Creek Trail situated right next to Onanda Park on West Lake Rd. Lucky for me it was a short trip down the road, so I headed out and started my one hour clock. It took me roughly ten minutes to find the park and finish my lunch, but I found it and was pleasantly surprised to find the place deserted. It should figure that no one would be there at 11 AM on a Thursday, normal people work, right?

I followed a path to a set of stairs that led me down to the creek which at this time of year was nothing more than a trickle. The creek was pretty easy hiking and there are “trails”/ledges along the creek bed that allow you to navigate without getting wet. It was beautifully quiet down there, except for the occasional sound of leaves falling from the canopy and the alarm calls and rustling of leaves from mischievous chipmunks as they scurried out of my way. I hiked at a slower pace so I could take pictures, I was upset though because I forgot to pack my new macro filters in the bag so I couldn’t get some more of the up close artistic shots, but I was short on time so it was probably for the best. I didn’t make it to the first waterfall, so I definitely am going to take some time real soon while the weather is nice and go back for an extended hike.

I have noticed a lot lately that people never tend to look up, when you see people walking most of them are focused on the ground in front of them or straight ahead. It never seems like anyone takes the time to stop and look up. I always try to look at my surroundings from all angles, it’s just the paranoia in me I suppose but I always look at the higher ground first to make sure nothing is coming down on me. As I strolled back I was looking up and I saw this platform mushroom growing about 20 feet up, then a bit lower I noticed this:

Yup that’s a rock that the tree has grown around. I have absolutely no idea how this rock got 10 feet off the ground, but it was interesting to see.

I finally made it back to my Jeep when I spotted a sign for another more manicured trail for the “Uplands”. That trail will have to wait for another day as I was out of time, so I packed up and headed back to work.

Overall, it was a pretty cool place for a few short hikes. I am definitely planning to go back soon, hopefully with the girls, but possibly on my own with my camera.

Keep exploring!

Starting Out…

This weekend was pretty crazy as usual, it seems like we have somewhere to go every day of the week and this weekend wasn’t any different, but one of the nice things we got to do was to go over for pizza at my youngest brother’s new place. He is nineteen and he made the decision to move out from my parents and get a place with his girlfriend Megan. They really lucked out and through a family connection ended up with not just an apartment, but a whole house a nice size lot in the country, not bad at all for a first place. In fact, Aaron’s first place is nicer than my first 4 apartments and better furnished lol. I remember how big a step it was to make that first move from my parent’s house and how I nervous I was. I’m sure he is nervous too, but he isn’t showing it yet. I’m proud of him for making that first step to true adulthood and managing his life.

Here he is with the girls, he looks pretty relaxed, right?
I am relieved that he found such a nice place and didn’t have to go through what I went through. I have always been stubborn and always did things my way even if that made my life harder than it needed to be. I have lived in some pretty shady places, scraping by and living on furniture that we found on the curb. Hell, I lived in a camper in the middle of nowhere without electricity or running water for 6 months. I have fed myself dinner by making the rounds at Wegmans and Tops for the free samples, if you ever find yourself in that position they sample givers normally start to get suspicious of you around round 3 lol, then its time to find another fishing spot. But even though my life hasn’t been exactly easy I did learn a lot from those years of living rough and it is that advice that I will pass on to Aaron in person. I don’t want to get into it on here because there are too many things I’ve learned through embarrassing moments that don’t need to be made public.
But one thing I will share is that you can weather the greatest storms in life if you have the love of a good woman. Lean on each other and know that all things seem to work themselves out for the better even if you can’t see it when you are going through hell. I have gone through so much and always made it through because L Bird was by my side and when we had nothing we still had love. Love you L Bird.

New photo toys…

So I have been reading another blog that does a lot of photography and they have a ton of close up shots that I really admire. After a little research I found I could get the effects I admired so much from macro lens. So I bought a cheap pair from Amazon to try them out and I was pretty impressed. Here are some of the shots I took on lunch today, these were just me trying to get a feel for how the lenses work, I definitely need more practice shooting with these.

Teasel at a +4 macro

Golden Rod at a +10 macro

Honeybee at a +10 Macro

+10 Macro

Pretty cool, huh?

New Beginnings…

Well, it’s the start of a new school year and a whole year of new beginnings for our little family. A Bird started 1st grade and so far is loving it, she is also cheerleading for the first year so there are a lot of firsts for her and us this year.

On the first day of school she chose to wear an outfit that she picked out herself while she was school shopping with my father. She has a sense of style that is all her own, she wore a pleated khaki skirt, with a t shirt that was covered with a denim vest, that’s right my little girl is bringing denim back so dust off your White Snake jean jackets, because they will be hip again, maybe…. a big maybe.

She is enjoying cheering but it is our first experience with a “team sport”, so we didn’t realize what a time commitment it really was. She cheers for the flag football team, so before school started she was practicing 3 nights a week for an hour and a half, now that school and the games are starting she practices 2 nights a week with a game on Sunday morning. I guess I didn’t realize that at this age they would be drilling them so much, but she seems to enjoy it. It has causes some stress around here as both L Bird and I are running on practice nights, but it’s a short term deal, the season is over at the end of October, so we just have to muscle through a another few weeks.

This is a big year of firsts for Nat too, she will be 9 months in a couple of weeks. It seems like she is a couple of weeks in front of where A Bird was developmentally at this age. She is spitting, sputtering, jabbering and has turned out to be quite proficient at crawling and squealing. She is pulling herself up onto everything and you can’t get away from her now. If you go to the bathroom, you hear a “thump, thump, thump” of her crawling on the hardwoods after you, then the banging of tiny fists on the bathroom door and squeals and spit flies until you come out. She loves A Bird, she follows her everywhere and routinely laughs at  A Bird’s antics.

Other than that not much is going on, the house is still on the market, things are still stressful, but life goes on right? Life goes on, one day at a time whether we are stressed or not. On that note, I have a crawling baby that is starting to get grouchy and two other ladies that need some help waking up, so grouchy pants, Linus and myself have some work to do. Wish us luck!