Spring and new life

A bright soul made her way quickly into the world on May 15. Claire Wooldridge was born on her due date, a healthy 7 lbs, 8 oz. Mom and baby are doing well. I haven't met her yet, knowing that Catherine needs time to adjust and there will be plenty of time to get to know Claire.

Colin's parents are in town, visiting with their newest grand daughter. I'm delighted to have a chance to visit with them as I'm hosting a BBQ they're attending. Its inevitable that during this time thoughts of Colin would be making themselves felt. I remind myself to keep breathing and accept that missing him so acutely will pass. It astounds me that living with grief can be so difficult at times that it takes my breath away. I take solace in the fact that as humans our capacity for grief and pain is also matched by our ability for joy, happiness and love. I try to remember those positive moments when sadness has me in its heavy grip. I hope that I can continue to integrate the growing awareness of the impermanence of it all.

New life is also growing in my garden, its gratifying to see the small shoots of radishes and spinach push their way up to greet the sun. My composter is happily composting, leaves from my lilac bushes are starting to appear. Sean loves working in the yard and its fun to be out there with him.

On a completely unrelated note I became enamoured with flat screen TVs and not because I particularly like watching TV. I've lived happily without cable for 7 years. Nope, my attitude changed dramatically one day when, by accident I noticed that Tom's flat screen TV had a small slot that took SD Memory cards, the kind you put in your camera. The kind that were sporting all my photos of Bhutan. I thought I was going to have to copy my Bhutan images over to his Mac so he could see them. Instead there we were looking at them in 42" of high definition Glory. Fucking amazing I have to say. Since that day a seed was born in my mind. Not unlike the new growth in my garden the idea of displaying photos on my own TV was germinating. One afternoon I walked into London Drugs to buy some photo paper, walking by all the TVs displaying the panoramic shows designed to take full advantage of their high definition capabilities. Normally I walk by without a second glance unless the show being displayed has mountains or something else I like to admire, being caught in the technicolour grasp for moments before continuing on my reason for being in the store in the first place. But this time I zero in on something else I love to see... a sale sign! Last year's model of Panasonic TVs were on sale. After humming and hawing, doing some research on the internet, bringing in my memory card to see what the photo quality was like, and more vacillating, I made the decision to buy a TV. Then I find that only the floor model was left of the 42". More head scratching, and considerations... they wouldn't drop the price but offered a longer warranty, but how many hours had this TV been operating? I opted for the next option, the same TV but in a whopping 50" format (and more money of course), which they did have in stock. Wholly mother of god, this TV is BIG. I'm an unabashedly proud gear junkie when it comes to climbing and outdoor gear but this interest hasn't extended to electronics that much. OK I do have a kick ass Mac computer that is damn sexy, but TVs haven't been on the list. In fact I could go so far to say that I've had an aggressive dislike of TV and all it represents in our culture. A drug that mollifies the masses with aggressive advertising to keep us compliant and relentless consumers. I've kept a TV to watch movies.

To find myself excited about bringing electronic equipment home felt weird in a way. I felt guilty to be dancing to the pied piper song of "Buy... buy...". My reticence evaporated when I saw my first photo on my new purchase. I love this quote by Groucho Marks "I have ethics, but if you don't like them I have others" I've sold my soul to the flat screen high definition Devil, he would look good on my TV too, the reds would be fantastic.

So now I'm grinning like an idiot looking at this 50" High Definition Plasma TV that is residing in my living room. I'm not the only happy camper, nephew Sean is doing the happy dance too. But my smile is from the fact that my Bhutan photos are even better than when I first saw them on Tom's TV. Speaking of Tom I also have a darn nice surround sound theatre speaker system too. He deemed my lack of audio equipment unacceptable when he lived with me and gifted me with the system. So here I am, a non TV watcher with a system that would make a technophile drool with envy. Well perhaps a lower to mid technophile since I've been shocked to discover the amount of money one can sink into a"home entertainment system" if you want the cutting edge technology.

I'm hosting a few slideshows of Bhutan and it will be awesome to show them on the new TV. As a designer I care about visuals and the wow factor when doing so - I ain't gonna lie!

I smile when I think of photos of Claire being shown large scale by her proud new aunty. The shots of her with food on her face, in the tub and perhaps when she grabs her first handhold on the bouldering wall. New life and high definition electronics working together, who would have thunk? :-)