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I’ve been scouting these 3 palm trees for awhile now (which is always a great excuse to get to the beach with the family for an evening picnic). At times, there’s an interesting cloud formation as the backdrop, at others it’s clear skies. Sometimes the light is “almost” just right, others it’s off.

This is the latest photograph, taken with my iphone. Still considering various compositions, and whether to go color or black and white when I lock-down the final photo with the film camera. In the meantime…

Pulling from the Idyllwild archives today. With temps in the 90’s (Fahrenheit) around here these past few days, it’s nice to revisit some photographs from our trip to Idyllwild a while back…thinking about the crisp air, mountain views, small town vibe, and time with family. Plans will be made to make it back, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Week of July 8-14, 2019

The “Quantified Self – Week of…” post is a data review of the previous week, highlighting a few key areas: Exercise / Sleep / Family / Language (Spanish) / Reading / Leisure.

“What gets measured gets managed.”

EXERCISE

The exercise category took a nose dive this week — as did my head! Quite literally, as I went over the handle bars on my son’s scooter, and landed on my head. This resulted in a concussion and strict orders from the doctor to rest for a week. After 3 days of simply moving from the bed, to the couch, and back again…I added a few slow walks for the remaining 4 days of the week. Slow is the keyword here, and I’m grateful that Gia was willing to join me and go at a snail’s pace. That’s about it on the exercise front, and the total hours show for it.

TOTAL EXERCISE MINUTES: 224

SLEEP

The sleep data for the week is interesting, with consideration to the concussion and the impact it had (or didn’t have?). A decrease from the previous week in total number of hours slept, and slight dip in average percentage of Deep Sleep. Not sure what I expected. I guess I figured all the “bed rest” time ordered by the doctor might have increased number of hours asleep. But instead I simply was bored, and also had a hard time sleeping well.

• Total Sleep Hours: 37.55
• Average Sleep Hours Per Night: 5.3
• Average % of Deep Sleep Per Night: 28%

LANGUAGE (Espanol)

Total for the week: 0

Doctor’s orders also included “don’t think.” I’ll use that as the excuse for not studying Spanish this week.

FAMILY (aka: Connection time)

Highlights:

• A highlight of the week was witnessing the kids jump into “emergency triage mode” when I pulled the dumb Dad move of hotdogging on the scooter (with my head meeting the pavement). It appears they actually do care about their old man.
• Enjoyed some quality “bench-sitting” with Gia at the Lake. Helped break the monotony of laying around the house all week in darkened rooms.
• Doug Fields gave an inspiring message at Mariners Irvine – As always, Doug never disappoints.
• Ethan logged lots of driving practice time, and I enjoyed sneaking out of the house to join him on a few “rides.”
• Special quality time with Ella, helping her pack for HSM camp. About 1/3 of her suitcase being MY clothes. I’m OK with this, for many reasons (which words really can’t do justice here).

Photo of the week (via iPhone):

Ella and I rose at 5 am, and headed out the door well ahead of the 6:41 am sunrise.  We settled into our pre-scouted spot at the harbor, set up the cameras, and enjoyed the quiet of the dark morning and gentle conversation before making photographs.

This was one of the last images created before heading home (just as the rest of the family was waking up).

Dana Point, California. An hour or so after sunrise.

Kai has taken to the Polaroid SX-70.

I’m pleased to see him leaning toward analog  tools.

This is one of my favorite places in our home to photograph the kids, as the mid afternoon light creeps across the living room.