The unexpected

When you wake up in the morning, you just never know what the day will bring. Take this photo, my submission to this week's Photo Friday challenge ("the great outdoors"). This was taken three years ago, June 2005, on the first photo expedition I took with my friend, Nancy. We've done many since then, the latest being just a week or so ago. That day back in '05, cameras in hand, we took a country drive and had a wonderful seafood lunch, all a birthday treat for me. It was the kind of day where, when you came to a crossroads, you just picked a direction on a whim and turned. And that's how we found the swamp, pictured above. Don't ever ask me to find it again; I couldn't. I have no idea exactly how we ended up on a narrow country road beside a magnificent swampy area.

I also had no idea when I woke up this morning that I'd be spending the afternoon sitting beside the captain as he lay in a hospital emergency room bed. A routine trip to the doctor this morning, an irregular heartbeat diagnosis, a trip to emergency at the doctor's orders. Turns out there was no irregular heartbeat, according to the hospital, and there was absolutely nothing wrong. Thank heavens.