I wanted to share one of my recent favorites again for this post because I find myself looking at it often and smiling.
Throughout 2023, I’ve been taking steps to spend more time outside and slowly get back into the world. I took a break from the world for a while for two reasons.
The first was that I worked the night shift and worked three 1-hour shifts on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. This doesn’t leave a lot of time to do anything else, especially when you stick to that time all week.
The second I haven’t really spoken much about until lately. I don’t know how much I’ll share, but therapy had become a detriment for me and I couldn’t really see it. It’s not that I didn’t want to go out and do things, I literally couldn’t. It wasn’t depression. It was the extreme fatigue that comes with constant flashbacks.
I think that’s all I will say for now as I wanted to share some neat photos I took. There isn’t really a long story for each one, just something cool I wanted to share and put out there.
I visited Billy Estes on his farm in Bayard, Nebraska on August 3, 2023 for a story for Nspire Today. I couldn’t believe no one had done a story on him before. I was also happy because I got to tell the story. When I looked through the photos, I remember thinking “damn, I like that.”
I love this picture of Billy Estes. It was such a joy to be able to spend an afternoon with him on his farm. I got to learn about flowers, sunflowers, and pumpkins. More importantly, we just chatted and enjoyed each other’s company away from the hustle and bustle of the city. I live in a quiet neighborhood, but I know being out in the country is one of the most peaceful, quiet places you can go to just be yourself. This picture is all of that and a handful of joy all rolled into one.
I went to Torrington, Wyoming to write a story about The Bread Doctor. I got there early had the pleasure of watching this little boy do all he could to help out washing windows. He was so happy to lend a hand and I enjoyed watching him trying to replicate the proper way to clean a window.
I don’t want to spoil the story because you all should go buy Nspire Today next month, but I wrote a story on four sisters who raise and show rabbits. One of the requirements of showing your rabbit is pointing out that their eyes aren’t diseased or messed up. I often wonder what the hell the rabbit is thinking when their eyes are yanked open.
After I was done with my rabbit story and I was waiting for the funnel cakes and gyros stands to open so I could eat, I heard motorbike engines coming from the arena area. The riders were practicing and the little machine things were still forming the course. This isn’t the best photo I’ve ever taken, but I laughed when I saw that I had snapped it at the right moment. I imagine driving a bike on a telephone wire would really be difficult.
This is the goodness of humans in one photo. A young rider tried to take the jump and fell off his bike. The #72 rider with the white helmet saw the rider wasn’t taking the jump right and stopped his bike before he ever approached the jump. I saw it, too. White helmet guy slowly came to the top of the jump, stopped and raised his hand. The rider next to him came up and did the same. I didn’t get a shot of both raising their hands at the same time. Rider #100 was going too fast, so opted to go right and get off the course. The person who you can only see his head above the dirt came over to see if he could be of any help. The two men had been about 20 feet away and came running to help the fallen biker up and on his way. A few moments later, the little biker was standing and walking and nodding his head up and down. All six people in this picture instinctively did what they needed to do in order to help someone who could have been more seriously injured. Witnessing things like this helps to restore your faith in humanity and think maybe we’ll be okay.
Not quite a picture with a camera. It’s a screenshot but, apparently, I win the internet.
Janelle Anderson
Billy is so awesome and gives the best bear hugs. So Glad you met the Fluckiger family. I knew Elenor when she was little and she and family have been in so many musicals.