Memphis, Tennessee

Cooper-Young

Max flies his remote control helicopter in his bedroom. All beware ... and be ready to duck!

Guinness is now 15 and has been part of the family nearly since Brian and Shannon got married. He's a good old boy He's now at an age we wonder if it will be the last time we see him.

en route ...

On our way for the last of the Christmas shopping Max falls asleep in the car.

Huey's — known around Memphis for their famous hamburgers — and a Pokemon comic revive him.

Photographs taken with a Leica M8

Memphis

Voluntine-Evergreen

Max attempts to discourage photography at Cafe Eclectical — the cafe is fast becoming a favorite haunt in Memphis ...

... Dianne, while not encouraging photography, tolerates it.

Mud Island

Ben's Park

Mud Island began as a sandbar off the mouth of the Wolf River in the 19th Century. As it grew it extended where the river emptied into the Mississippi south toward downtown Memphis. A dense forest soon covered it. City fathers worried the bar would eventually block the landing for Memphis. In 1960 the Wolf was diverted across the north end of the bar leaving a peninsula with the Mississippi to the west and Wolf River Harbor to the east. For years there was a small, single runway airport accessible from the city by a pontoon ferry. When we moved to Memphis in the early 1980s the airport was gone and it was home to transients who set up camp in the woods. Today Mud Island has developed into a community of homes and apartments accessible by car with wonderful parks along the river and harbor, a number of shops, Max's school and Mississippi River Park on the southern tip. The latter can be reached by monorail from downtown Memphis and has a hydraulic model of the river from Cairo, Ill., to the Gulf of Mexico.

Max climbs trees and does tricks on a swing in Ben's Park hoping to see some of his friends ...

... his grandmother, below left, hopes for no broken bones.

Long shadows play across the path as, left to right, Max, Dianne and Chi-Chi head toward home along Wolf River Harbor.

Cooper-Young 

Christa, foreground, and Chris, rear, are two of  Brian and Shannon's close friends. Both are pharmacists; Krista teaches clinical pharmacy and Chris is a research professor at University of Tennessee Medical School. They are fascinating conversationalists. Dianne and I always look forward to seeing them.

This is a work week for Brian. He unwinds at the end of a long day.

Photographs taken with a Leica M8

Memphis, Tennessee

Cooper-Young

Max, right, watches Christmas videos with his cousins Lily, left, and Forrest, center. This is the first of several holiday parties.

There is an old holiday tradition in my son-in-law Brian's family. Each year they break out molds, bake and decorate Santa Claus and Christmas Tree shaped cookies. Shannon, center, works on a mold while Brian's mother Beverly, left, and sister-in-law Amy look on. There is much discussion between them on how the cookies should be rolled and patted so that they don't become too hard.

Brian prepares potato soup  — he is a wonderful cook and everyone looks forward to his creations — for the evening meal and ...

... puts out the condiments to add to it.

The cousins are excited. There are three computers in the house this evening. They can play the interactive internet game, Club Penguin, all at the same time and watch what each other is doing on their individual screens. Max's computer is in another room so he dashes back and forth checking on Forest and Lily while their mother Amy assists Forrest.

The cookies are finally out of the oven. Everyone begins decorating them with food coloring, icing, sprinkles and coconut. 

Beverly and Shannon finish decorating the last of the cookies. There is a family joke that while the cookies are pretty, they are hard and not very good. I disagree. I think they are great.

At the end of the evening after dinner, Max plays Christmas music while gifts are exchanged.

Photographed with a Leica M8

Travel from Short Pump, Virginia, to Memphis, Tennessee

It was still a winter wonderland this morning but the roads were clear leaving Kingsport, Tennessee. Not far from here we were rear-ended while traveling 70 miles per hour. Fortunately there was no damage to our car and very little to the car that hit us. 

There was more snow crossing the Cumberland Plateau but still the roads were clear. We ran out of all weather coming off the plateau.

It has been a long, hard trip. We finally reach Memphis late this afternoon. One of the large ornaments hanging from branches before our daughter's and son-in-law's home in Midtown.

Photographed with a Leica M8

Travel

Driving from Richmond, Virginia to Memphis,Tennessee

Dianne — relaxed, calm, enjoying the trip — at lunch just north of Roanoke, Virginia. We had been making wonderful time when 30 minutes afterward we ran into this ...

... snow! We were behind this fellow nearly two hours waiting for an accident to clear somewhere up ahead.

It was a beautiful day ...but slow.

Tree backlit by lights around our hotel at Kingsport, Tennessee. We finally pulled off the road after nine hours of driving — most of it crawling, at times less than 20 miles per hour — when snow began to turn to rain. We traveled 326 miles today, averaging 36 miles an hours.

Photographs taken with a Leica M8

Short Pump, Viriginia

Three of my favorite models ... Jenine in front of the cupcakes ...

... Sadie in front of the fireplace ...

... and ... Toby on the sofa.

Photographs taken with a Leica M8

Short Pump, Virginia

Daily Grind

Jenine steals my hat ... and looks good in it too.

Cambridge Church

Harper, right, and Dianne, left, wait in line for Christmas dinner at the church.

The children of the church put on a Christmas pageant this evening ... 

... in their midst are two little lambs and a devil.

Photographs taken with a Leica M8

Richmond, Virginia

Above and below: The C.E.O. plays sax at a company Christmas party.

Aubrey visits her Dad at work and offers a tentative wave.

Photographs taken with a Leica M8

Short Pump, Virginia

I saw this on the evening news the other night and meant to post it. Evidently there is a new campaign in Washington. Since social problems often happen there before we face them in our communities, get ready for a rash of "drunking driving!"

Photographed with an Apple iPhone

Video of a friend's missing relative. Please watch. Help if you can:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrt7rUm-Pbk&feature=player_embedded

Short Pump & Richmond, Virginia

Short Pump

Copperas Creek

Lamp in early morning fog.

Trees in the fog along Copperas Creek.

Richmond

Monday morning meeting ... another kind of fog.

Short Pump

Daily Grind

Jenine works on Christmas drawings, upholding the standard of the Grind as a place for all kinds of art.

Copperas Creek

Sadie greets Dianne with an ear snuffle. For those unfamiliar with ear snuffles, they require a long yellow nose pressed against the ear while delivering rapid and deep sniffling.

Photographs taken with a Leica M8

Short Pump

Cambridge Church

Jay Smith, pastor at Cambridge church, greets the congregation in a sanctuary decorated for Christmas.

The hands of Eugene Smith — organist for the church — play across the keyboards.

Allan, foreground, joined the church last Sunday ...

... today Pastor Smith baptizes him.

Harriet offers one of her magnificent solos. Cambridge is fortunate to be able to enjoy her artistry.

Emery, foreground, lights the first of three candles today — the third Sunday in Advent — as her mother Llew tells the significance of the candle. Two more candles will be lit; one next Sunday and the last on Christmas Day.

I couldn't resist one more image of a guttering candle against a backdrop of lights.

Photographs taken with a Leica M8