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I took some photos of Jacksonville during the Christmas season and then completely forgot about them. This is a night shot which I didn’t think would come out, given the dense fog, but the photo came out OK anyway. A closer view during the daytime can be found here.
I took my first swings of the year yesterday. Felt great. They weren’t at the field pictured above, which is where we have our games in Medford. They were in Ashland at the Iowa Street fields. The view was beautiful. It looked like this as the snow from a few days back has yet to melt on the top of Grizzly Peak. Alas, I didn’t have my camera with me so I have no real photos of the day.
I love living in a college town. I’ve mentioned speakers at SOU before. Tonight I went to a really, really good one. Phil Zuckerman spoke about religion in Denmark and Sweden. I’ll be back in Denmark this summer so as a former religionist, and someone who finds the nearly complete lack of religion in Scandinavian countries (and Japan), where the quality of life and happiness of the populations is superior to the far more religious countries, I find this topic to be very interesting.
On top of that, Zuckerman is a very animated and enjoyable speaker to listen to. If he can write as well as he speaks his books must be good. I’m going to check out his most recent work, Society Without God. He mentioned this evening that his next book is on apostates. Too bad we didn’t meet before tonight or I could have been in his next book.
Anyway, you don’t want to miss Zuckerman if he comes to your town. Here is a small taste:
Our “false spring” of the past few weeks appears to be over. After at least a dozen days in the past three weeks of 50 degrees or more, including one or two that went over 60 degrees, it may be a while before we see 50 degrees again.
We’ve been having some nice sunrises recently.
…and some ice under a blue sky at Lake of the Woods.
Ashland is most famous for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. However, with so many actors in town, its small-town feel, and its picturesque backdrops, Ashland has also been featured in a number of movies (for instance Calvin Marshall and Coraline). David Fincher (famous director of movies like Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to name just a few) went to Ashland High School. So I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised to wake up last week to a film being made right next door.
This view of the Talented Animals van was from my driveway. The normally empty street was packed with cars, vans, and filming equipment being loaded into my next-door-neighbor’s house. My neighbor happens to be a production manager in the film industry so, again, I wasn’t that surprised.
They are filming a movie called “Walk-In” which is based on the book Summer’s Path, written by Scott Blum–also from Ashland.
Super Bowl Sunday morning at Lake of the Woods… Photo by Ellie.
I have spent the past two Saturday’s in the Old South Medford High School Gym watching volleyball. The girls have fun playing numerous games in one day, but sitting on a hard, wood bleacher seat for 6+ hours is more painful than fun.
Ellie is still 12, but she is tall enough to block the ball. No one is tall enough to block the ball you see in this picture though.
Another photo from my December in Utah today… Never heard of Lake Bonneville? Most people probably haven’t, but don’t feel bad. It is a prehistoric lake. What remains is now called the Great Salt Lake, which you have probably heard of.
The day after I took this photo I went on another walk in the same general area. The houses in that picture would have been under water back when Lake Bonneville was in its heyday. The walk was beautiful but extremely cold.