(Red Heart, image by Katarina)

“But I remember more dearly autumn afternoons in bottoms that lay intensely silent under old great trees.”
~C.S. Lewis

I arrived at work Thursday morning at 8 a.m., ready to face a fresh new day. This was an odd day compared to all those of the last two weeks in that I did not leave the building for any reason. No off-site meetings, no visiting of the many satellite locations that exist under my supervision. No stepping out to get a breath of fresh….humid…air.

I walked out of the building at around 4:45 p.m. and something very odd happened….

Continue reading Falling out of July →

This is my garage. Clean right? It hasn’t always looked this way. In fact, it is safe to say that even though it has been cleaned out various times over the last 8 years that we’ve lived in this home, it has NEVER looked like this.

Despite 97 degree temps a heat index of 105+, I decided to take my father up on his offer to come over and clean my garage. It was literally hot, hot, HOT!

Continue reading Spring Clean: The Summer Version →

(shadow on fence, Ventnor, NJ., photo by Jenn See)

“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.”
~James Dean

It is evening and the day is almost done. I have been absent for a fortnight, and yet I could not let this day, of all days, pass without settling in with all who would take the time to read this. Today I could not help but reflect back upon the very humble beginnings of this online adventure. I was a wanderer, traveling without a map, looking for kindred spirits with whom I could share this journey. While on this road, I stumbled upon a mention of fish, a familiar image of Delirium, from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, and, of all things, a very gorgeous picture of Audrey Tautou. In that moment I knew I was among friends. On that day I met Mysfit, Old Ben, and Jenn See–the triumvirate of Following My Fish. And that day made me realize just how much fun I could have with this blog. It really was the moment which planted the seeds of what Stainless Steel Droppings has become.

Continue reading Once…upon a time… →

Finally! After nearly a month without an active internet connection in the home (Thank you Comcast for your excellent service….he says, dripping with sarcasm), we are finally back up and running. It feels so good to have a live connection again. I realize that all internet providers are both good and bad. What works well for one person is the personification of evil for another. For my part, Comcast was lightening fast in my home. Fantastic speeds. But it went down every time there was bad weather. Common sense dictates that there was something wrong with the connection at the line outside the house…hence it being affected by the weather. Doh! But Comcast refused on a regular basis to do anything more than send technicians out to poke around inside the house. This last time was the proverbial last straw. I now have ATT’s Elite DSL service and so far it is really stable and runs great. I can detect minor differences in speeds, but not enough to disappoint me. And it is much cheaper than what I was paying for Comcast–in today’s economy that is a plus!

Now, I must admit that I’ve been back online for 3 days now. You may well ask, where have I been? That, my friends, is where I run into a conundrum.

Continue reading I hope you don’t mind… →

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
~Robert Brault

As a famous hobbit once said. “Well, I’m back.”

Our anniversary trip has come to an end, we had the weekend to settle back into things at home, and work has begun once again. It is bittersweet, as it is every year. We have such a wonderful, romantic, relaxing time on our annual visits to Hermann, Missouri and our challenge every year is to bring a little bit of that magic back with us to sustain us throughout the year until our next anniversary journey begins.

I took precious few pictures this time and none that I would consider spectacular, but by way of entering back into the swing of things I thought I would share them all the same.

It is the little things that matter, hence the opening image of Mt. Dew in bottles. Bottles!!! Bottled pop recalls images of summer afternoons in our neighbor’s tree house, sipping on ice cold soda. I was so excited to see this in a local ice cream shop that I had to buy some to drink there and to bring home.

Continue reading Recalled to Life →