Another Pretty Girl (but DEFINITELY not No. 1)

I was getting a little tired of those dreary old dead-of-winter photos. Therefore, I assume you were, too. Here's a girl whom I met for the duration of a shutter-click at an outdoor market festival in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, in July 2008. Not only did she let me take her picture, but she lit up the viewfinder with the smile you see above. Too bad I didn't know about this gambit (or was too shy to use it) when I was young enough for it to blossom into something -- maybe.

Winter in Drydock, 1968-1969

During the winter of 1968-1969, USS Suffolk County (LST-1173) was being overhauled at the Horne Brothers shipyard in Newport News, Virginia. At night in winter, a naval shipyard can be quite an otherworldly-looking place: Four fellow junior officers and I rented a cottage in Virginia Beach -- a good 45-minute commute from the shipyard -- and lived there when we weren't on duty aboard ship. Virginia Beach is a lively seashore town most of the year, but here's what it looked like at night in January 1969: Main drag, downtown. Beach promenade. Winter is cold and dark pretty much wherever you go in non-tropical latitudes, it seems. We burned a lot of firewood in that little cottage -- and a lot of scrap wood we liberated from a nearby demolition site. Quite the band of jolly buccaneers, we were. At least we got away with it (most of the time). Those were the days. Cherish them, cherish them.

Hiking in the Chagrin River Valley and Other Adventures

Over Labor Day weekend, Eve and I visited my daughter Janet and her husband Steve in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. On Saturday morning, we took a hike in the Chagrin River Valley, through some beautiful meadows and hardwood forests. Here they are at an observation platform where we had a close encounter with a baby muskrat in one of the wetland areas, but the little twerp took a powder when I aimed my camera in his or her direction. Later in the day we visited the Great Geauga County Fair, where we saw some charming alpacas... ...and llamas And we ate lots of deep-fried country-fair fare -- funnel cakes, deep-fried Oreos, deep-fried Snickers bars, sausage sandwiches with grilled onions and peppers -- all of which I will never tell my cardiologist. And if you do, I'll deny it; then I'll hunt you down and feed you to radioactive cockroaches. The next day we toured the wine country along the south shore of Lake Erie, and we fetched up on a breezy terrace overlooking the lake and sampling some local wines... And the next day we came home. How was YOUR weekend, Dear Reader?

My No. 1 Girl Friend -- No Kidding; Cross My Heart And Hope to Die

It took some doing, but I am now blessed with a life companion who understands me -- not an easy task, believe me. A couple of days ago, she noticed I was howling, beating my chest, and posting a parade of photos of some women who played minor roles in my past life (well, they're minor now, having passed into whatever they've passed into). The rolling pin stayed in the kitchen drawer, and the back-seat driving became only a wee bit more shrill. Anyway, here she is -- living proof that the trial-and-error method works. After a lot of false starts, here's the one that worked...

"NO DIVING"

This is what happens when a photographer is in the right place at the right split second with the right equipment. Outside the border of this severely cropped (unfortunately) digital scan is a sign which says, quite clearly, "No Diving." Our young hero, however, seems to be training for the Olympic Mens' 10-Meter Platform Diving event. Photo made in September 1969 at the Currituck Ferry landing on Knotts Island, North Carolina. And so we chemically grab and hold onto the blink of an eye 40 years ago. Monochrome Forever!!