My Hero

 

Right now, I am sitting with my nephew at Kosair Children's Hospital.  He was flown in on Saturday evening from Bowling Green and was discovered to have a blood clot in his artificial mitral valve. With not much time on his side, the treatment team had to decide between two course of actions with both procedures being risky with various percentages of possible fatality. The team decided to take the less riskier procedure and treat the clot with rounds of medication.  Early Sunday morning was rough, but within 48 hours, I am blessed to say that the original clot has decreased in its size.  Truly, it was nothing but God.

 

I have been blessed with many positive role models and leaders in my life from mom, dad, family, coaches, teachers, and supervisors.  Of those, I can say that my biggest hero is my nephew.  For those close to me, you know of the surgeries, the trips to Boston, and the many prayers that went up for him.  A week shy of sixteen, he has had four open heart surgeries in his lifetime and has endured more shots, tests, and procedures than I can imagine.  Yet, every time I see him, he always has a smile on his face.  He has always been a strong person and this past weekend even stronger.

 

Even though we will likely spend Christmas in the hospital this year, I am happy that he overcame this latest piece of adversity.  Like him and my family, there are many kids, families, nurses, and doctors, due to circumstances bigger than them will celebrate the holiday in the hospital.  To put it into perspective, I rode on an elevator today with a woman whose family was leaving the hospital finally after spending 18 months at the hospital.  My prayer this year is for everyone to know that it is more than the gifts you receive or do not receive that makes this life wonderful.  It is spending time with your loved ones and doing good for mankind.  These life lessons are like the heart valve, it's what keeps us going.

 

 

 

 

No Titles

Recently, I was reintroduced to a valuable lesson in photography.  An image should speak for itself.  No fluff.  No added commentary.  Just the picture.  My interpretation of capturing a moment in time.

Grace is Sufficient

Some may call me cheap.  I call myself a thoughtfully cautious financial consumer.  Right now, I am sitting at a tire shop waiting to get new tires on my car, Grace.  I held off as long as I could to get new tires, but the gaping hole in my tire forced my hand.

Grace and I have been together since November 2005 after the love of my life, Sage, left my life in flames one dreary night on I-65.  I did not realize when I first met Grace that she would be with me most of my adult life.  She was not prettiest filly on the track, but she was what I needed at the time.  And I showed her off like she was my crown jewel.  If it was driving to Folly Beach, into the hollers of Eastern Kentucky, to see referrals for work, or to *ahem* places, she has truly been my ride or die chick.

Truth be told, she has always been jealous of my girlfriend.  Since we started dating, she has been seeking to dip into my wallet just so that she knows that I know that she needs love too.  Women, go figure!?!  I can recall one day while we all were together that she decided to take this jealousy to another level.  Not one but two windows came out their tract in the matter of two months.  At least the second one was not on the side of one the tallest points in Kentucky and required me holding it for most of the day so that it did not fall.   

One the eve of what feels like is our impending end, I can't help to think of the good times and the bad times.  She is nearing the ripeful age of 230,000 miles.  She is no longer the beautiful lady she once was.  Her cooling and warmth have long been lost from her, although every now and then she'll find it in her to display her youthfulness again.  I don't know if we can make it through another Polar Vortex.  With all of that said, I feel the need to keep her close to me.  Do you blame me?  I made a promise to her.  A promise that I will see her hit the wonderful milestone of 300,000 miles.  Call me cheap, but I call it devotion to Grace.

Blackacre Conservatory (Louisville)

Nada Tunnel (Red River Gorge)

Jacobson Park (Lexington)

Old Louisville

Gray's Arch (Red River Gorge)

St. James Fountain (Louisville)

Beckley Creek Park (Louisville)

Waffle Shirt Season

It's autumn in the Bluegrass!  Don't get me wrong--  I have a deep appreciation for all four seasons, but there is something special and magical about the fall in Kentucky.  It is the time of sporting waffle shirts for the crisp evenings, fans filing into a football stadium, fall festivals each weekend, pumpkin carving, throwing everything into a pot and calling it chili, harvesting the last fruits from the garden, and gaining that one, coveted, extra hour of sleep.  Most of all, autumn is the harmonious array of orchestrated colors displaying the perfect symphony to conclude the end of the season.  

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."  - George Eliot

Creation Falls

Rock Bridge Arch

Buffalo Trace Distillery

Anglin Falls

Anglin Falls

Louisville - Ohio River

Downtown Louisville

Ohio River

Portland - Ohio River 

Lunar Eclipse

Bowman Field - Louisville

A Hueston Chronicle

The Hueston Life Chronicles is a blog written by my friend that presents a witty, intelligent, and introspective view of not only pop-culture topics, but also things that come up in his daily life.  Of his many posts, the most memorable and powerful for me was the one he wrote in anticipation of the birth of his son.  The love for his unborn son he showed in his post mixed with the nervousness of being a good father and looking forward to spending time with him has had a lasting impact on me since the day he wrote it.

While in Dayton, Ohio a couple of weeks ago we did a photoshoot with the Huestons, their son, and the godparents of their son.  You could not ask for a better morning at Cox Arboretum, which was the site of where the Huestons were married four years beforehand.  As we laughed, joked, and took pictures, I could not help but refer back to his his blogpost.  I can only hope that when it is my time to be a father that I will follow the path of my friend…a loving, caring, and strong leader of his family.

A New Day

"Took me 26 years to find my path

My only job is cut the time in half

So at 13 we’ll have our first drink together

Black bar mitzvahs, mazel tov, mogul talk

Look a man dead in his eyes so he know you talk truth

When you speak it, give your word, keep it

And if the day comes I only see him on the weekend

I just pray we was in love on the night that we conceived him

Promise to never leave him even if his mama tweakin’

Cause my dad left me and I promise never repeat him

Never repeat him, never repeat him" - Jay Z "A New Day"

It's a new life for me...and my wife as *we bring our son into the world. When we found out we were "expecting" nothing was the same. Every step along this journey into parenthood has been earth shattering...

• Hearing the heartbeat was like hearing sound for the very first time
• Our first scare was like dying a slow agonizing death
• Feeling our baby move was insanity (How is this possible? I can't believe this!)
• The ultrasound where we saw the face of our son was seeing color for the first time

At the age of 28 I am a first time father and truly crossing into the wild unknown; its frightening, exciting and represents the biggest challenge I have ever faced and we are still months away from my son's arrival.

I was inspired by the Jay-Z verse above because it encapsulates everything that is "fatherhood" in my estimation. From my perspective I owe it to my son to teach him what it means to be a man no matter what and I can't wait.

Timothy Hueston, I love you more than I could've ever imagined. I am going to play with you, yell at you, teach you, learn from you, care for you, worry about you, embarrass you, raise you as a **Knicks fan and be there for all of your firsts because I'm your dad.


*Mostly her
**Please don't call child services on me

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

I am a goal-setter; triumph by gumption in school, in sports, professionally, and recreationally.  A light childhood affinity for stargazing crossed with my constant hunger to elevate my photography, and as a result, my goal this summer was to capture the Milky Way.  

Hours were spent reading blogs, viewing YouTube clips, and comparing apps for how and where to shoot it.  This just fueled the fire.  I kept checking the weather for clear skies, and querying the amount of light pollution in the area. Let me tell you, everything that I looked up did not have Kentucky as being an ideal place to view it.  It got to the point where my girlfriend became concerned with my goal, my newfound obsession.  If I had hair, it would be harried and disheveled like a mad scientist.  My vernacular became sprinkled with terms like Sagittarius, Cygnus, hemispheres, galaxy.  The horns were blaring loudly-- nerd alert, nerd alert! 

Pressing on, I calculated the best time to shoot the Milky Way in the Northern Hemisphere is during the New Moon phase and the end of Summer.  With the New Moon this week, I knew that this would be the last possible time to attempt to shoot the Milky Way until next year, as the Sun will moving closer into the Sagittarius constellation by December.  There are numerous criteria that must be met to successfully capture the galaxy.  The most important one of all is clear skies.  You can't watch the ballet if the curtains are closed. 

Last night was going to be the now-or-never photo shoot.    We decided to leave Louisville for the weekend, following the last of the Indian Summer to the southcentral part of the Commonwealth.  As I kept checking the weather, every thing pointed to defeat.  The forecast called for a cloudy night, and the sky was foreboding during golden hour as we were driving down I-65 to Franklin. The presence of the clouds taunted me-- fluffy and pink with the sunset, as if they were cotton candy spun just for me not to have.  As I parked my car at our destination-- the driveway of my mom's house, I looked up, and I knew it was on; clear skies and a million stars just beckoning me.

It was midnight, central time zone.  As we drove nearly five miles outside of Franklin to rid ourselves of the light pollution from Bowling Green and Nashville, the stars began dancing more around us.  My girlfriend suggested Kummer Road, better known as Spraypaint Road here in Simpson County.  It's an iconic pathway-- a spot for solidarity during the day, and questionable hangout at night.  I took her here four years ago when I was proudly showing her around the first time she visited my hometown.  It was only right.  We bolted out of the car.  Below is what we saw.  I now need another goal, and to cheekily close out this entry-- Sky's the limit.

Up 75

Dayton, we had a wonderful time with our friends and exploring you and your surrounding areas.  Overshadowed by Cincinnati, LeBron, Johnny Football, and the Buckeye nation, you offered us an opportunity to indulge in the variety of things you have to offer.  From dining in the Oregon District, trying Fusian on the UD campus (dining experience where you can customize your own sushi rolls-- think Chipotle of sushi) and spending time in Yellow Springs (considerably the Williamsburg or Asheville of Ohio), we truly enjoyed ourselves.

West Milton Waterfall

West Milton Waterfall

Clifton Mill

Dayton Skyline - Riverscape