Walkabout Midtown Atlanta

I went on an annual walkabout with a friend I made in high school and who lives in Oakland, CA. Each year around Christmas, he visits his mother and other family in the area, and we meet up to take photos together (a common passion), have a meal, or both. This year, we got to have about 2 hours of walk and talk, 2 hours of hanging out at my mom's place (she lives near where we walked--it was raining when we headed in), and then no meal.

It was so fun, though. There are friends you know for a long time, and there can be great distance in time before seeing one another, but when you meet up, you just continue on bantering like you saw each other the day before.

I feel that way here on 365. I can't believe I've been on this site for this many years, making connections online with people across the world, and I'm so thankful for the friends I've made--I've even met some of you, called or emailed, or received a print, or zoomed for advice about a camera.

It's a fascinating world we live in.

So this photo. I looooooove my lens on the new/ "used" Sony. I had fun trying to come up with an abstract with this sculpture in midtown Atlanta, but the sky was blown out. So, instead of replace sky like I did in PS last photo, I decided to select sky in LR and play with coloring that particular portion to give some depth to the empty space (but not detract from the detail of the sculpture that frames the high rise in the background). I could take it into PS and replace the sky, but then I think any patterns may compete. What do you think?

I'm so excited that in 8 days, my oldest daughter will be home! She's been serving in Americorps since July--fighting wildfires and doing prescribed burns in LA and MS, building trails in the Pisgah national forest in NC, providing hurricane relief in FL, sleeping in tents, yurts, homes, fire engine rooms, and so much more. She's chainsaw certified, has a firefighter 2 certification, and she's living on $5/day for food. It's an amazing tale of hers - I'm just in awe of this kid of mine!

And yet! After all she's been doing to help this great nation, in the state of GA, she didn't get to cast her ballot in the run-off election because GA is bound and determined to make voting hard for its constituents. Never in my 57 years of life did I think that someone who applied to vote would actually face such obstacles. But my daughter did.

First, it was the apostrophe in our name that prevented her from accessing the absentee ballot portal to make her request. Then, the GA Senate passed a law that your ab ballot request had to include a printed form with signature to upload to the site (that she can't access with her apostrophe name) and that a voter must do with a PRINTER (which she didn't have). I was able to make the request for her ballot in time (don't ask me why a mom can vouch for a voter more than the actual voter can vouch for herself, but hey, I had a "printer."). But her ballot arrived the day AFTER the election. And folks, I have taken this to the representatives (the Secretary of State's office--um, if you read the news and think he's on level and stuff, that office KNOWS this stuff is illegal, but they don't care one bit. They just passed me off to the county we vote in.). I've called the county to inquire what can be done. They pointed to the US Postal service. Then I called the voter hotline and they tried to get my daughter an extension via the county (that is if the ballot arrived--at the time, no ballot!). And finally, the ACLU actually called me to inquire what was going on based on the tip of the hotline.

Needless to say, if you live in WA, or OR, bless you and your government. You get a ballot automatically mailed to your home during elections. And, my assumption is that you mail it back. Deal done. HERE in GA, you have to jump through hoops, prove crap that you don't need to, then pretend that we are "easier to vote; harder to cheat." I swear to everything holy and right that all GA has done is make things HARDER for everyone. And it's not like we don't have a history on this aspect of voting. My newly elected, future representative said this to me:

"Literally thousands from Georgians over decades have been able to participate using a four week runoff and had her application be made earlier (could have sent application for absentee runoff ballot over two weeks earlier that November 25th) she must likely would not be in the current situation."

DECADES? Um, the history of voting rights in the South is legendary. That's my NEW representative.

HOT FRICKIN DOG.