Keepers #1 -- I enjoy going through my photos sometimes. "Keepers" are what I call the ones I like. These shots are: a cow looking at me in Eastern Washington State, early morning puddles on pavement, woman walking near Jackson St, chrome grill at a car show, and concrete wall with a pipe and two holes...

I did the Crown Regency "Skywalk" with my nieces the other night. My legs stopped trembling about half way through, and that's when I started to really look at Cebu City. I was happy to be the last in line because I got to just stare out and look around when they were doing the individual photo ops. I'm the tall one in the group shots :) It was sort of magical, but I'm not sure that I'll do it again. Sitting down and looking at the Fuente Osmena Park below us was one of my goals. Another goal (see hands in prayer) was to be able to stand up again.

Like so many things after Covid, and then Typhoon Odette here in Cebu (2021), the economy took a big nosedive. Club Ultima is near where we live, and only just recently they started re-opening some of their facilities. The only things that continued and more or less survived the past several years were the gym and the Prana Medispa. These photos are from Club Ultima's pool and outside deck area on the 17th floor. They re-opened it recently. I did get in the water, but it was unheated. With the warmth outside, you like it... after a little shivering. The tall white column sticking up in the last photo is the same white tower you can see in my last island hopping photo from yesterday. Another thing I plan on doing soon is the "Skywalk". That's where you walk along a ramp on the outside of, and near the top of of the Crown Regency Hotel next to Club Ultima. Whoa!

more shots from our Island Hopping earlier this month...

3 photos in my FB Memories this morning: Sagwa, the cat, in our fake xmas tree back in Tukwila, a long time ago... I started my Walking, and taking photographs, in January 2006, after I retired. A special thank you to my daughter Andrea for buying me my first SLR camera. This photo is from an early morning walk in Georgetown on Saturday, December 26, 2015, the day after xmas... We brothers would visit our Mom separately sometimes. We had set up a FB account for Mom at one point, and every once in awhile I would find a message from Mom in my Inbox. Thank you JR...

There is a short window of time in the early Winter mornings when these colors appear... deep, rich, copper gold? colors. Whatever they are, it's when the angle of the rising sun is very low, and it seems like they only last a few minutes. These shots were taken around 2017, when I was walking along the Green River Trail in Tukwila WA. The last image is of the LRT passing by on the other side of a tree line, not far from where the other shots were taken.

from a 29Feb2012 post: -- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly -- My friend and his wife had invited me over for dinner at their first house, a little cottage in Edmonds. When I entered their house, the front door opened into a small entryway, and I found myself looking at a poster of Eli Wallach. I turned right and looked into the living room. On the opposite wall was Lee van Cleef. When I walked into the living room and turned left, there was a third photo, life size, mounted on the far wall...Clint Eastwood! The Ugly, the Bad, and the GOOD... ps - my friend Jim got an award or something for this painting in the Edmonds Arts Festival. His title was "Dreams of a Pubescent Slug". On the Awards notation, they had it listed it as "Untitled". I liked Jim's title.

Since the theme of the day seems to be snow, I decided to share these images from my early morning walks in Tukwila WA 13 years ago:

Island Hopping Dec2025 #5 - These photos are from our ride to Mactan Island for our Island Hopping. It was in the early morning when the low angle of the sun gives you wonderful colors and shadows... I just held my camera up to the window and clicked away.

I've been walking around this area of Cebu City for a number of years. My preference is to walk without stopping for an average walk of 30 minutes, and without falling down :) Often times, I choose to walk on the roadway with the cars etc and motorcycles. It's safer than all the obstacles on the sidewalks. I've slowed down my pace over time as well, not because of my age, but because walking with my faster gait doesn't make sense in this climate. All that said, I love walking in Cebu. It's going to be interesting in 3 weeks though, when I'll be walking along the Green River. The average temps there in January average 34F (1C) to a high of 43F (6C). Brrrrr...

walking down Osmena Blvd...

18Dec2018 - Neo, the cat, probably doesn't understand my "chotto matte kudasai ne?", "just a moment please" in Japanese. I say that when I get up to refill my coffee cup, and he knows that I might turn on the bathtub water for a few seconds if he meows at me.

I like going back through my photos sometimes, and editing ones that I passed by the first time. These 6 shots are my carving workspace, a good Korean take-out that opened down below our place, a chicken wings restaurant with xmas snowmen, the "flyover" pedestrian bridge nearby, the view from that flyover looking S/SE, and the "God Cures, We Care" sign on a new pharmacy...