Ride Photos and a Letter From Carol
I ended up taking back the Gateway mp3 player because it offered no way to specify the order the songs were played in. I went to Bestbuy and purchase an MPIO but it too wouldn't let me organize the tracks. I settled on the iRiver 512mb, flash media mp3 player. I'm very happy with it. It's nice and small and with my music compressed at 64kps, I can get over 8 hours of music on it. And yes, I can organize the songs. So, it's nice to be jammin' to some good tunes on the road.
Last year toward the end of my riding season I was seeing some beautiful Fall colors out on my rides. I remember wishing I'd had a camera along and then I got the idea that it might be fun to be able to snap some photos along the way and upload them to the net and incorporate them into my blog. I found this nifty little camera online and ordered it. It works really well at 1.3mp and it's so small.
I got some disappointing news yesterday from the American Association of Stained Glass Artists. My lamp wasn't selected for their calendar for 2005. The woman who began the organization wrote me a very nice letter encouraging me to resubmit it as she really thought it belonged in the calendar...here's her email.
Dear Kevin,
I wrote you a letter today, but then decided not to mail it since using email is such an easier way to correspond with someone. First of all, I'm sorry to have to tell you that your Laburnum shade won't be used in the 2005 calendar. We had an unusually high number of laburnums to consider this year - six in all.
As you know, I personally love your lamp; however, the decision about which lamps will be used is not up to me but is decided on by our voting members. Many members who voted at the Feb. meeting agreed on the beauty of your lamp but, I'm sorry to say, others thought the purple areas of flowers in your lamp were too bold for a golden Laburnum...in other words, purple is not found in nature's laburnum. There was, however, uniform agreement that your photography work was splendid.
We will definitely consider your slide again next year, but I'm hoping you might be able to get shots of other views to send to us. Perhaps other areas of your lamp show more consistency of color? I'm hoping you will find the positive meaning of this message.
Sincerely yours,
Carol
p.s. do you have slides of more of your lamps? Many members send slides of several different lamps...that gives us more of a chance to feature one of their works.
I wrote her back and thanked her for her kind words and she replied with...
Kevin,
I appreciate the objectivity I saw in your reply. Of all the members I had to contact, it was most difficult for me to write to you since your submission was such a beautiful interpretation and the photography was so good. It was difficult for me to choose words that would not hinder your enthusiasm for lamp making.
Thank you for considering the idea of a re-shoot of your Laburnum. I hope you and Tammy enjoy your time together working on your new lamp. It's rare to find a husband/wife team that can carry that off! I hope to hear that you're sending photos of both lamps!
Carol
Yea, I'm a little disappointed but that's the way life goes. Hopefully, I'll try again next year and have some success.
I can't believe that Tammy and I rented Jackass tonight. Parts of it were very funny but other parts were too crude to even laugh at. I can't let Rachel know we watched it.
I got out for a 45-mile ride today. I headed out on Hwy 13 through Mendota. It felt good to be climbing on the hill coming out of Mendota and into Lillydale. I rode a mile past Lillydale, turned back and retraced my tracks into Eagan. I headed down toward the Minnesota river and rode past the Blackdog power plant where I picked up a bike path which runs along 35w. Heavy rains yesterday washed out part of the trail making my bike a muddy mess. I came out on Hwy 5 and took that home. My legs were a little tired but it felt so nice to be out. The sun was shining and the winds were light. I was expecting it to be about 53 degrees but the temp got up into the mid 60 and I got a little warm.
Last year toward the end of my riding season I was seeing some beautiful Fall colors out on my rides. I remember wishing I'd had a camera along and then I got the idea that it might be fun to be able to snap some photos along the way and upload them to the net and incorporate them into my blog. I found this nifty little camera online and ordered it. It works really well at 1.3mp and it's so small.
I got some disappointing news yesterday from the American Association of Stained Glass Artists. My lamp wasn't selected for their calendar for 2005. The woman who began the organization wrote me a very nice letter encouraging me to resubmit it as she really thought it belonged in the calendar...here's her email.
Dear Kevin,
I wrote you a letter today, but then decided not to mail it since using email is such an easier way to correspond with someone. First of all, I'm sorry to have to tell you that your Laburnum shade won't be used in the 2005 calendar. We had an unusually high number of laburnums to consider this year - six in all.
As you know, I personally love your lamp; however, the decision about which lamps will be used is not up to me but is decided on by our voting members. Many members who voted at the Feb. meeting agreed on the beauty of your lamp but, I'm sorry to say, others thought the purple areas of flowers in your lamp were too bold for a golden Laburnum...in other words, purple is not found in nature's laburnum. There was, however, uniform agreement that your photography work was splendid.
We will definitely consider your slide again next year, but I'm hoping you might be able to get shots of other views to send to us. Perhaps other areas of your lamp show more consistency of color? I'm hoping you will find the positive meaning of this message.
Sincerely yours,
Carol
p.s. do you have slides of more of your lamps? Many members send slides of several different lamps...that gives us more of a chance to feature one of their works.
I wrote her back and thanked her for her kind words and she replied with...
Kevin,
I appreciate the objectivity I saw in your reply. Of all the members I had to contact, it was most difficult for me to write to you since your submission was such a beautiful interpretation and the photography was so good. It was difficult for me to choose words that would not hinder your enthusiasm for lamp making.
Thank you for considering the idea of a re-shoot of your Laburnum. I hope you and Tammy enjoy your time together working on your new lamp. It's rare to find a husband/wife team that can carry that off! I hope to hear that you're sending photos of both lamps!
Carol
Yea, I'm a little disappointed but that's the way life goes. Hopefully, I'll try again next year and have some success.
I can't believe that Tammy and I rented Jackass tonight. Parts of it were very funny but other parts were too crude to even laugh at. I can't let Rachel know we watched it.
I got out for a 45-mile ride today. I headed out on Hwy 13 through Mendota. It felt good to be climbing on the hill coming out of Mendota and into Lillydale. I rode a mile past Lillydale, turned back and retraced my tracks into Eagan. I headed down toward the Minnesota river and rode past the Blackdog power plant where I picked up a bike path which runs along 35w. Heavy rains yesterday washed out part of the trail making my bike a muddy mess. I came out on Hwy 5 and took that home. My legs were a little tired but it felt so nice to be out. The sun was shining and the winds were light. I was expecting it to be about 53 degrees but the temp got up into the mid 60 and I got a little warm.
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