Random Thursday Throwbacks

Brother Jim with is didgereedoo, waking up the sleeping creatures in our woods and maybe the neighborhood at a Christmas bonfire.  Niece Laura, sister Barbara along with Grace and Jacob of the triplets. 

My camera is in the shop.  It's Thursday, often a Throwback day on Facebook. First thing I saw this morning was the photo at the bottom which taken Dec. 7, 2013. My sister Barbara had shared it on her wall last night. 

So, what to do without a camera on Throwback day???  

Go back and find some photos. I have thousands in my photo library.  So, the choices today were pretty random----no rhyme or reason but all connected by family members.

My camera had a bad thing happen the other day.  As I was walking through the door to the garage, Liam came to greet me.  Border Collies have a hard time learning not to jump up and hug folks. 

Before I could say anything, Liam had knocked my camera from my hand.  It fell on the cement floor, lens first. Then, I said a bad word.  Liam ran inside and hid under the dining room table.  

Luckily, the lens is pretty tough.  A small bit of damage to the plastic around the lens rim but otherwise still working. 

When a digital camera hits a cement floor, any particles inside which love to land on the sensor land on the sensor.  My photos that afternoon had spots, one big black one which showed up in almost every picture.

I did a lot of cropping for yesterday's blog and yesterday took the camera once more to the Image Maker to have it cleaned.  Digital cameras are the best except for their problems.  One problem is all that dust or those particles which mysteriously show up inside the camera box. 

One of the reasons I bought a 3-in-1 lens was to avoid changing lenses and letting stuff get inside my camera.  Well, the stuff finds a way, and as often as I like to take picture, there's no point in putting off the next cleaning. 

So, once again this year, Mike has my camera and will do his best to remove the most recent pesky particles. 

All that said, the photo directly below, indeed, has spots, but they're supposed to be there because it was taken one Christmas night when we all gathered in the woods for a bonfire.  That's my brother Mike, Mother and my sister-in-law Mary. 

The rest show various family gatherings or activities, and, of course, with last night's convincing ZAGS victory, the shot of my sisters and me is most timely.  ZAGS are now 9-0.

Hope you enjoy the photos. Happy Thursday. 

Grand nephew Jacob and sister Laurie. 

We must have stopped off in the barn enroute to or from the bonfire. 

Willie and Debbie's first home when they moved to Sandpoint, a rental at Bottle Bay owned by one of the family outlaws. 

Yours truly, daughter Annie and geocacher extraordinaire Dave Kuhns, aka "Rocket Man."  Dave is deeply involved with Atlas Rockets.  We were standing in an open field near the top of one of the Rocky Mountains in the midst of a jeeping adventure. 

Debbie, Bill and brother Mike at the right with the triplet family and some friends from the Coeur d'Alene Indian Tribe. They had just joined our Lodgepole Society. 

A visit from brother Kevin and his wife Joyce and a fun and crazy time with Mother in the front yard. I'm pretty sure that's my daughter-in-law Debbie talking to Joyce. 

Sisters Barbara and Laurie at what they love to do best. 

My brother Jim is a cartoonist, and my blog name "Slight Detour" is based on his collection of cartoons.  These must be "renegade cows" doing what renegade cows like to do. 

And among a myriad of other activities, we three sisters LOVE to cheer on the ZAGS. 

This photo is not much of a throwback, as it was taken just a couple of months ago somewhere in Austria or Germany.  Daughter Annie's support of the Seattle Sounders makes our family's ZAGmania look lukewarm by comparison.

She has had her photo with the Sounders scarf taken in dozens of locations around the world.  And, that enthusiasm will be reaching a crescendo this weekend when she takes her scarf to Toronto to cheer on the Sounders in their match against the Reds for this year's Major League Soccer championship.