Throwback to 2013

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Last fall, as I was beginning a photo-related project, I discovered that our personal cloud had fallen victim to a ransomware attack (our own fault).  From the company that manufactured our cloud system, we got some help decrypting the files (almost entirely photos) but what they gave us was a jumble of files with no rhyme or reason to the sorting and it appeared to be almost entirely thumbnail sized images (small, low resolution, and low quality).  It turned out that we actually had both full sized and thumbnail but since they were all unorganized, unsorted, and missing any kind of recognizable file name (like katherine-piano recital) I really couldn't advance on my project.  Until I could summon the will to set aside the time required to filter through all those images and try to put them back in order...the files just sat on an external hard drive.

Over the summer, a "techie" skilled friend came for a visit and worked some programming magic sorting the pictures into something I could actually use.  With a clearer vision of how to move forward, I have gradually been working my way through years of photos to group photos by event or category from which I can then pull pictures to advance my photo project.  I am working my way backwards from the most recent photos to the oldest.  So far I have made it back to 2013.

2013 doesn't seem so long ago yet if you stop and realize that this is 2023, then these pictures are ten years old...or nearly so.  In the fall of 2013, I found this gem of Patrick working for the Outreach for Earth Stewardship as the mascot owl to entertain children and draw them in to meet the "ambassador birds" in the barn.  He never spoke a word while he was in costume, but his head bobs and "wing" gestures were enough to communicate with young and old alike.

What you can't tell in any of these pictures is that it was surprisingly warm on this fall day so the temperature inside that costume was crazy hot.  But Patrick never complained and he went on to do this another few times before graduating from high school.





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