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The neon sign atop the Nevada State Bank across the street is flashing the time, then the temperature. 2:59. 101. 2:59. 101. 3:00. 101. A few hours before dawn and still over a hundred degrees. Yeah, but it’s a dry heat. As if that matters. As if no one ever died from triple digits, no two year old strapped into the back seat of an SUV while his mother shops for one last pair of bargain-priced shoes.

It’s the end of a miserable week, a lousy month. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does. Yet always, just down the block, there’s Hope leaning against a lamp post, a cigarette dangling from her lips, smoke veiling her face, skirt hiked up with promise.

So, I say good bye to any thought of sleep, lock the door behind…

Early morning breakfast on US Route 50 in blissful ignorance of its fame as the Loneliest Road in America.

This is the Border Inn, where accommodation is in Utah while the bar and slots are in Nevada!

When the truth gets buried deep
Beneath the thousand years of sleep
Time demands a turn-around
And once again the truth is found
Awakening the Hurdy Gurdy Man
Who comes singing songs of love.

~ Donovan

If you happen to be passing through the Public Garden in Boston on a nice day, chances are you will come across The Hurdy Gurdy Man (Donald Heller) and his trusty dog, Mack (Mackie), singing songs of love…among other subjects!

Another shot taken on my recent trip to York in the UK. These guys really made a great noise. I loved the guys on the rights hair.

The last of the Thanksgiving guests had gone, two days of parties were over (oh my what a fabulous holiday!) and it was time to revisit the Monochromia post that I’d scheduled over 2 weeks ago.  As I looked at it, I knew … I just wasn’t feeling it and a change had to be made.

I sat at my desk and stared out the window and pondered the situation.  The last three day’s photography efforts were all about family and friends.  Copious amounts of food and drink had left me contentedly sluggish.  What to do, what to do?

So there you have it.  The view from my chair.

I’m thankful for a holiday that celebrates gratitude … and thankful, too, for the opportunity to be a part of Monochromia.

A right of passage for many high school juniors is the Spring Break college visit trip. And so it was for me and my daughter last March. Instead of heading south to warmer temperatures, we headed north, ultimately reaching Maine. And along the way we encountered dropping temperatures, a frozen Lake Champlain in Vermont, and of course, snow.

This night, snow fell silently on the small town of Hamilton in upstate New York. A quintessential New England town, there is a 1925, Dutch-colonial style inn that anchors the Village Green, and it is from a balcony there that I took this shot. I didn’t have a tripod, but I had a wooden railing, which served admirably.

This is one of my favorite images from the 8-day, 10-state, 11-school, 1850-mile trip. And my daughter? She wants to go to school in California.

For more photos from my travels, around home and…

More of my images can be seen at – The Things As They Are In Pictures