Nesting Layson Albatross - Midway Island, North Pacific: File # 1124789

Okay, I don't know if it's really nesting since there are no eggs and he (maybe she) is by himself. Also, normally I don't like shooting the top of the heads of my subjects. That normally doesn't look right. In this case, it works perfectly. The grass makes a nice frame around the bird. His color highlights him with the darker grass. While some basic rules are broken--like shooting a subject's head--it's a really successful image.

Enough about the picture. Lets talk about today.

I'm sitting in a chair on this thanksgiving day. This chair is flying through the air at 500 mph on its way to the mid-west where I'll eventually meet up with my sister. (I think she has t-day pizza or something waiting for me). While I'm in this chair I'm typing on my phone writing these words that eventually will make it into the "cloud" that eventually makes it to my computer. Can you imagine anyone writing these words 50 years ago that also wasn't writing about Buck Rogers and ray guns. Yet here I am today in 2011 doing what was magic just a few years ago. How fortunate am I for this? Very!

You see, I'm a geek at heart which doesn't mean I'm some sort of slave to technology. Politely it can mean simply being passionate without consideration to what others think. 50 or 100 years ago I'm not sure what I would've been geeky about. But today, I'm geeky about technology that makes the details of our lives easier. For me, I feel I'm incredibly fortunate to be alive at just this time to see the advent of these technologies and really almost take them for granted. It's an amazing time and I'm thankful to be alive and participating in it as much as I can.

Of course on this 2011 Thanksgiving, that's not the only thing I'm thankful for. There's too much to mention here in this simple blog. Still, let me go down the list.

There is much thanks for having a career most wonder "how did you get that job?". To be able to travel to Hawaii by air through the Aleutians and Midway Island because that's the only way to get there is simply something to be thankful for. To after flying all day long and the night sets in and there is the one piece of land you can put your aircraft on (Midway) is something to be thankful for. To open the aircraft cabin door, after leaving freezing-rear cold Adak in Alaska, and hear the birds by the hundreds of thousands squawking and chirping in the night, that's something to be thankful for. Much to be thankful. (being a a person with a secret desire to be a professional bird photographer and surrounded by such photographic opportunity is also something to be thankful for)

I am visiting my sister in Michigan. Of course there's no easy way to get there meaning I have to drive another 3 hours before I get there. There's still a three hour drive in front of me. Even then, the idea I can fly to a location, pickup a car with almost no waiting, and hit the road without much delay, faster than I could've gotten my own car out of long term parking, that is much to be thankful for.

Then to show up at my sister's house, who I live 2,000 miles away and not seeing her for nine months, then by no design, three months in a row... That's crazy enough to be thankful for.

I am thankful for my son to be doing extraordinarily well at his school when some seem to think he gave up on his chances. Gosh, that is something to rejoice about.

Not everything is all sugar and tulips at the Hill household. Oh, I have my troubles. Dang battery in the smoke detector decided to give up the ghost at 315 am this morning. In all the years I've lived in houses with smoke detectors, why is it they never seem to fail during the day? They always seem to wait until the middle of the night for maximum household attention. There's some fuzzy crazy math that can probably describe those odds. But, to think I could even consider such odds. To get my ladder--which I only seem to use when I need to replace a smoke detector battery... In the middle of the night... There is much to be thankful for. I'd much rather deal with a battery on a working smoke detector trying its best to keep doing its job than to wish I had a working smoke detector when it really wasn't working at all, if you know what I mean.

My cousin Sarah, my snarky cousin (the others are much less sarcastic), was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. God blessed her with this attitude for just such an challenge. She's taken to writing about her adventure of kicking this disease in its arse which has been an endless source of inspiration for anyone that reads her words including me--I admit to laughing a little, out loud which makes her words even more special. I want to be her when I grow up. Since I'm only nine months younger than her I have a lot of growing to do. I'm thankful I have a cousin to be thankful for.

Finally, I'm thankful to breath. To just let the air in and out of my lungs. To take those steps everyday that allow me to live this day and the next. Regardless of all the bumps in the road, to have that sight of my future and my life. To be able to look in the forward direction, there is much to be thankful for.

Happy T-Day, everyone.

Tom

SunsetEpic Trip To Hawaii NovDec 11Layson Albatross

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