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It is amazing the things you discover when cleaning up your archives. This is from a foggy fall morning 2 years ago at a little park near my home. I don't know why I didn't post it before I suppose I just never got to it. Well better late than never!

Nikon D200
Nikkor 28-70mm f2.8
1/125 second
F/4.0
ISO 400
28 mm

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This is probably the last one from those archives from a foggy fall morning in Mohawk Park. It's time to turn my attention to other things.

Update on Russ...2 for 2 with college acceptances so far...still waiting on the rest of the colleges to reply.

To all who celebrate I want to wish you a very Happy Easter.

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This was from one of our summer road trips to go visiting colleges with Russell last summer. It was a very nasty day and we hit quite a lot of flooding on the first half of the ride...it was a bit harrowing. This was shot through my very dirty windshield. (I wasn't driving so don't yell at me.)

Russell is now just waiting to hear back from the colleges about his applications. So far we have heard from one and they have accepted him...Whew! At least we know he has someplace to go in the Fall! We are still waiting for the others to respond.

There are still some auditions for music to get through. So we will see what happens there. His main major is going to be something with biology and chemistry, but he is planning on continuing with his music whether as a minor, or double major he has not yet decided. He is sure that he wants to play in an ensemble and continue taking lessons though.

I've still been really busy. I will try to catch up with everyone soon.

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Until I see you again there will be an empty space in my heart. I pray that you are safe and well. Every day I wait to hear that you are ok. It is my duty to worry and fret, that's just what Moms do. My baby boy you will always be, whether you are 2 or 42 that will never change.

Be safe Rob. We Love you and are proud of you and we miss you already. It was wonderful to have you home for Thanksgiving. If only the time had not passed so quickly.

This is another shot of the empty bench in the fog at Mohawk Park. The emptiness of the bench suits my mood. Rob left early Sunday morning and we are all missing him already.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We had 14 people together around the table and of course we all ate too much. I still feel stuffed today. The time together was just too short.

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This is another shot from Mohawk Park taken on the same foggy morning as the previous. This is taken looking in the opposite direction as the previous shot a little further down the path that runs between the Rahway River and the pond away from the bench. The path seems so different in the fog.

Thursday is Thanksgiving here. I have much to be Thankful for this year. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and lots of good food!

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This is another shot from my foggy Wednesday morning walk through my little Mohawk Park. It's amazing how the fog transformed the little park into something quite magical.

I have posted a black and white version of this photo on Parallel Universe if you are interested in seeing this scene in black and white. I found both versions appealing so I decided to share them both.

I want to thank everyone for the wonderful response to the last image. I am truly humbled and flattered.

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Wednesday morning dawned foggy. I was very excited since fog isn't terribly common here, at least not fog that hangs around long enough for me to drop the boys off at school and then go out to shoot. Usually it's lifted by the time I finish with the morning chaos, but this time was different. It actually seemed to get thicker as I drove my morning route to drop the boys off at their respective High Schools.

The fog slowly lifted to reveal the splendid Fall colors by the Rahway River in my little Mohawk Park. I was very damp and raw cold but it was well worth a little discomfort and some doggie pies that I didn't quite manage to avoid...Grrrrr!

I have a few photos from my foggy morning stroll that I will share here and on Parallel Universe over the next few days.

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This was taken on Saturday early evening as the fog was coming in off the ocean. These gulls were scared into flight by a grooming machine that was cleaning the sand after the sun and sea worshipers had left.

I will be visiting colleges with Russell over the next few weeks so please forgive me if I don't get to visiting the photoblogs often.

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This is a shot taken as we were leaving Uchee Creek campgrounds where the cabin we stayed in during our visit to Ft. Benning GA was located. The campgrounds is part of the base and is actually located in Alabama. Ft. Benning is both in Alabama and Georgia.

During our visit there was often a thin veil and sometimes a thick veil of smoke shrouding the area. My son said it was because they were doing controlled burns in order to cut down on the chance of wildfires later on as the warmer dryer weather approaches.

This particular morning we were treated to some mist mingling with the smoke over the marsh. Unfortunately it was the morning we were leaving to come home. This was actually shot from the parking area of the camp store. I grabbed this shot while Mark dropped off the key to the cabin. I had no time for a tripod, or to look for the best vantage point, and could only take a few quick snaps before jumping back into the car for the 19 hour ride home.

The rest of this post is really long, even by my standards, so bless you if you read it all the way through. It covers the details of our visit with Rob. Much of what is written here was also on my other photoblog, with slight editing.

The visit was wonderful and the boys fell into a routine of being brothers within minutes. I got lots of snapshots of them together, but not much in the way of photos that I will post. I never did get to do the family portrait I had wanted to get, but oh well. The boys didn't want to pose and Rob was being his usual when it came to the camera. He hates having his picture taken so suffice it to say the snapshots of them playing cards and just hanging out are good enough.

The first night there we spent in a local hotel. The remainder of the visit was spent in a pretty nice little cabin at the campgrounds that is located right on the base. The cabin had both heat and central air, a kitchenette and large bathroom, a master bedroom and bunk beds in the living area for the boys. You have to be military or military family to use the cabins.

The only problem, which wasn't really a problem, and was actually kind of cool, was that the airfield was just the other side of the campgrounds which made it interesting since we were often in the flight path of some very large, very loud military aircraft. The Airborne jump school is on Ft. Benning. The planes came so low that the shadow covered the cabin and when you looked out the window it appeared as though they were almost skimming the pine trees. Fortunately it wasn't constant and only occurred a couple of times at night and early morning when we were sleeping.

I wasn't able to take many pictures on the base for obvious security reasons and I didn't even try since I was unsure of where it was ok and where it wasn't. I figured better safe than sorry and limit it to the places I knew would be ok like the campgrounds. Even so, I didn't take that many photos. I was really too busy running here and there getting things taken care of.

A lot of the photos I took were on the dull side. It was somewhat overcast and the entire area was shrouded in a thin veil of smoke much of the time that we were there. They were doing controlled burns all around in Georgia and Alabama, which was actually where the campsites were. Ft. Benning is in GA and AL.

We didn't have time to explore much outside of Ft. Benning either. The only thing we really saw were tons of shopping. Strip malls with chain stores and restaurants were everywhere. I've never seen so much shopping outside of the cities in one place in my life. It was big box store and discount store heaven.

There were more restaurants than I can count all of which were along the lines of the chains like Applebees, Chilis, Ruby Tuesdays, Outback and others that are found down south. My stomach is paying the price for it all. It was hard to find "healthy selections" at these restaurants and we only BBQ'd at the cabin a few times.

The visit ended much too soon and was emotionally draining when it was time to drop Rob off at his apartment for the last time. He had to run up and get me some papers for me to take home so that I could look after his affairs while he's gone. After he gave me the papers, we said our heartbreaking, tear filled goodbyes and had a silent ride back to the cabin which is nearly a 30 minute ride.

When we got back to the cabin I took the packet of papers to file them away with all the other papers I had. I opened the packet and in with the assorted pages was Rob's Will. At that point my heart tore in two and I lost what little composure I had left. I couldn't stop crying and it still brings on the tears to think about it. I had refused to think about that possibility but that document haunts me now and has forced me to think about the previously unthinkable.

To avoid thinking about Rob leaving I did most of the driving on the way back to NJ from GA. I probably should have split it more evenly with Mark since I think I really overdid it driving more that 13 of the 19 hours. But it was the only way I could keep my mind off things especially after Rob called us late afternoon when we were driving to let us know that he'd been bumped up yet again and was leaving in only hours. He was going to be boarding the plane before we even made it home.

I have actually spoken with Rob on line twice since arriving home, thank God!!! I know he is safe at least for now. He has sporadic internet connectivity, but we will take what we can get. Thank God he brought his laptop!!! I spoke with him Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning.

There is a bit of good news though. For those who may remember the ongoing saga of our leaking underground heating oil tank, the light is blaring at the end of that tunnel. We were told that the water samples all came back clean!!! That is really excellent news since it means that all that is left is one more sample in 3 months, which should come back clean. This means no well to monitor the water so we can start to put the property back together and repair all the damage done by the remediation. The homeowners insurance adjuster came out today to look at the property and see what repairs will need to be done, which includes our driveway, the curbing along the driveway, front steps, walkway, sidewalk, and repairing the landscaping. At least that nightmare is pretty much over. I'm sure the neighbors will be happy as well, since our property looked like hell for so long, a little over 1 year in fact. I will be so happy to have a real driveway again and no more mud, huge holes, and smelly piles of contaminated soil!!!

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