It's Been A Interesting Month!

It was an interesting month of August to be sure! I've written about my Dad and his struggles with esophagas cancer. But some neat stuff has happened as well, or at least I think it was pretty cool! Last April I entered some pictures into the "Our State" magazine's yearly photo contest which is published in August. I sent pictures in all of the categories in hopes of at least getting an 'honorable mention' in one of them and my pic published, but in the last part of July I received a letter from them stating that I had won THIRD place in the black and white entry that I sent in, which was taken in Dobson, NC at 'The Depot' restaurant last November! I was shocked to say the least!

They sent me a copy of 'Our State' and a gold ornament of the State Seal of North Carolina. And about a week later, I got a call from the Statesville Record & Landmark and they wanted to do an interview and story about the picture. They had received a press release of the photo and my name but no details on how to contact me. I went on a Wednesday afternoon for the interview with Jim McNally (who is a really nice guy there at the paper) and my story was in the Thursday paper on the FRONT page!!! You can imagine my surprise when I saw that and since then a lot of people, even people that I don't know(!) have spoken to me about the article!

I write about this NOT for self-glory but just to proclaim the goodness and love of God! He knew even then that my world was getting ready to be turned upside down with the news about my Dad and our Father showed kindness to me by having this neat thing come along first, which He knew was pretty important to me!

I have been wonderfully Blessed in recent months with my layoff and subsequent ability to draw unemployment and have this 'window of time' to get to spent some time with my Dad and Uncle Glenn as well. Uncle Glenn is 88 years old and his time may be short as well and with my storied past (http://www.worldofdanny.com/ 'My Journey: The Antics of A Pilgrim') growing up not knowing one side of my family, it has been a real delight to have this second chance at restoration with my Dad and that side of the family! Actually, I hope in the near future to be able to have the time to add a chapter to my attempt at writting an autobiography of sorts.

And now for the rest of the story...I am going to enter some pictures into the Iredell County fair and also maybe some in a contest in the 'Wildlife In North Carolina' magazine as well, if I can make the deadline, which is the 15th! I seem to have a growing number of pictures in my 'library of pics' and maybe it's not too self-promoting to put some of my stuff 'out there' for some other folks to enjoy too! I really do enjoy taking pictures, am I a 'photographer'??? I would need to hone my skills quite a bit before taking on that sort of title, but I do have one award for such!