When I let my fingers do the hiking

It doesn’t happen often, but this weekend I stayed home and didn’t get out for my usual photo hike. Instead, I spent the holiday weekend with my kids. My daughter, who is living out-of-state attending grad school, was home for Thanksgiving, so when she wasn’t hanging with old friends (who were also visiting over their break), I wanted to enjoy her company. My still teenage son lives at home, and also wanted to spend time with his all-growed-up sister.

The other deterrent to my hike was this pesky thing called NaNoWriMo… with my kids at home, and wanting to do that whole family thing, I got woefully behind on my daily word count. Saturday, I was facing a 4,000+ deficit and the possibility of simply throwing in my keyboard.

While I do enjoy football, I was particularly grateful for the games this weekend. The College Kid is a FSU alum and with the bitter intra-state rivalry between Florida State and the University of Florida, she was busy watching the game with friends. My alma mater also had its final conference game that morning, so… I donned my Vols T-shirt, and hunkered down to type while I cheered on my team, and my daughter was out of the house cheering on hers.

Much caffeine and copious amounts of (good and bad) snacking later, and I had pounded out 4,581 words, getting me back on track and even ahead a little for Sunday. There was also a celebratory glass of wine once I could power down the old laptop.

I have less than 10,000 words, and six days, to finish my quest of writing 50,000 words in 30 days.

So… for this weekend’s photos, I give you a few images of what helped me through my marathon day of writing.

(Photos shot with a Nikon D60, using an 18-55mm, 55-200mm, 20mm f/2.8 wide-angle, 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, Nikon CoolPix S205 and/or iPhone4)

For more photos, please visit my Flickr photostream.