“If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.”
– Jim Richardson

Photo Friday this week leads off with interesting evidence of my new, and entirely unearned, elevated status. I have been mistakenly called “Rev” before, but I think this is the first time anyone skipped the cloth and went directly to the PhD!

That’s right, folks, “Dr.” Derek Maul will be speaking at the First Presbyterian Church of Greenville later this month. I don’t know what I will be saying but I am already impressed. If I were you I would make your travel plans now!

My next photograph is this beautiful carton of eggs. It’s great to have an eight-year-old entrepreneur as a neighbor. Our new president may or may not lower the price in the grocery store (my guess is that once he was elected he completely lost interest in how much we pay for eggs). So I am hedging my bets with the kid next door.

Then there is my new haircut.

“Please,” I say, “take off a lot more on top!”

So Thursday I walked a half mile north on Main to see if Rebekah’s stylist might be willing to throw caution to the wind and buzz me close.

She did, and I am pleased. Plus I enjoyed the beautiful walk there and back through the historic district and across the Town Common.

My final “Photo Friday” images are – of course – from the new house.

Tyler of K’s Custom Woodworks did an exceptional job with the knobs and pulls. Now all we need is appliances and some tile work and the kitchen will be pretty much almost mostly done.

Out back Eddie and Mark are working on the stairs coming down from the kitchen door. There is not a lot of space between our house and the adjacent lot (Chad Hinton’s law offices), so we are going to have to be creative back there.

I appreciate the photography quote above – “If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff” – but I have to admit that I find absolutely everything interesting in its own way.

Life is good. Stuff is interesting. We just have to keep our eyes open… and absolutely our hearts too.

– DEREK