January 2013 – The Dassler Effect

Hello, readers/viewers. I don’t know what I ought to call you 🙂 It has been a little while, but more on that in a little bit.
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First, I have had an article published in catapult magazine about a coat…well, really about other things, too, but finding an amazing coat in a thrift store gets the ball rolling.

In the current issue, which is all about the issues involved in clothing oneself, I also have two haiku, reprinted from here, about some of the wonders of spring.
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Regarding blogging and breaking, well, I am in the process of mulling over a photographic break, both on and off the blog–that is, exiling my cameras elsewhere for a time in order to…well, I am not certain to do what exactly, but perhaps, to riff off the images in the previous post, to let the lake refill. Indeed, the images in that post may serve as an apt image for this time.

I do hope that there will be some activity here, perhaps the posting of an article or two, but, more significantly, I hope to complete an overhaul of The Dassler Effect, with a new look and a section devoted to selling some of my prints.

I am not sure how long the break will last–it has not snowed here and the flowers are as yet to come out to tempt me–but I can be a fickle fellow 🙂 so there maybe some hope that it will be short.

Thank you so much for coming along for the ride however long you have been on board.

On New Year’s Day my brother and his young son and I drove from Helotes, Texas to Medina Lake to see what we could see, having done no research on the Internet prior to going. It was a beautiful drive, passing through Texas Hill country and several small towns. Had we checked on the Internet, we would have found out that Medina Lake is currently suffering greatly from the drought that began in Texas in 2010. According to this article, which has some great pictures and information, as of November 30th the lake was 68.99 feet below “conservation pool,” which I take to be its standard level. The water has not been this low since the 1950s.

And even though Medina Lake was designed with such changes in water level in mind, it was sad to see the long, long boat ramps and pontoon docks sitting in the middle of the lake bed, long past being near the water’s edge. It must be trying times to be a lakeshore property owner there just now. I would love to see Medina Lake back at its full level, as it looks amazing in these photos of the section where we were at Bandera County Medina Lake Park, but the low water level did make for some intriguing photos. Click on any photo to see a slightly larger version.