Here it is nearing the end of another year and what a year it has been. Not so much for me except to say that this was the first year of my official "semi-retirement and self-unemployment". Actually, I have been self-unemployed for my entire career. There is no job security being a freelance photographer. Every job may be your last!
The year 2007 has seen some surprising and not-so-surprising events:
We have had everything from foot tapping senators to dog fighting NFL players to diaper wearing astronauts plus all those celebrity meltdowns (Britney, Paris, Lindsay etal). And it seems everybody in sports is on steroids. Even Imus got fired for, well, being Imus.
It was revealed that a character in the Harry Potter books might be gay. Come to think of it, if you are male and have facial hair and are still reading Harry Potter books... YOU are gay.
Evel Knievel died of natural causes. Who would have thought that from a man who spent years trying to kill himself doing dangerous stunts.
Anna Nicole Smith died of a drug overdose. Who would not have thought that!
Shopping became a lot more dangerous with shootings at four different malls. This year I shopped at Amazon.com. Nobody ever got shot there.
The sub-prime mortgage crisis devastated the financial markets and thousands may lose their homes to foreclosure. Shades of the 90's "dot com" bust. It seems that no matter how you craft them, pyramid schemes, like perpetual motion machines, just never seem to work.
And it turns out that all our intelligence on Iran's nuclear program may be wrong. I guess Santa is not going to give Dick Cheney a war for Christmas this year.
Al Gore wins both an Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming. Come to think of it, this has been one of the warmest winters I have experienced in Houston. Maybe old Al is on to something.
And here in Houston it looks like Metro will get its rail line down Richmond (the alignment I have supported all along) and will build all its new routes using light rail instead of a mix with BRT (buses on guide ways). There are still a few kinks to work out with the Feds and as they say "It ain't over til the..." well you know.
That just leaves me to tell you what I have been up to. Not much. I did go down to New Orleans for a weekend in October with my GF Sara Jo. We did the usual stuff: eat, drink, eat, drink.... The reason (excuse) for the trip was that it was my 40th college homecoming weekend (I graduated from Tulane University in 1967). We did not attend any alumni activities but I did make it out to the Tulane campus one afternoon to check it out. SJ spent that afternoon playing nickel poker at Harrah's Casino.
NoLa is coming back and the French Quarter, Garden District and the Tulane Campus look like Katrina never happened. Can't say that for the rest of the city though. Good times anyway.
Back at home I enjoy hanging out a the West Alabama Ice House, dining at my favorite restaurant in the neighborhood,
Divino's, and checking out the art at the Museum of Fine Arts and Menil Museum from time to time. And I jump in my pool every day for swim. My dog Boo is still hanging in there although his eyesight is getting pretty poor. He tends to bump into things a lot. But he continues to do his job of "barking up the bad people".
I am still taking pictures, but mostly for myself. You can see a gallery of my images from 2007 at my web site
www.ronscott.com. Please check it out.
So until next year have a very Merry Christmas (or Hanukkah, or Festivus, or whatever you celebrate) and a Happy New Year.
