#roulston

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada - 13 January 2013 -  by Allen Roulston

I was clearing space on the digital camera ( a Canon PowerShot SD450 DIGITAL ELPH) my wife and I bought before going on our honeymoon in 2005. It is just old enough that my Mac won't communicate with it, so I keep a windows XP machine alive into which I dump all my digital photographs.

The camera contains a 1 Gb SD card and I am constantly snapping photos documenting my day.  Some people might call me obsessive compulsive. I call it practical as when I find myself thinking, what was I doing on day X of year Y, I can quickly look it up.

From time to time I delete the mundane photos from the SD450, yet I generally keep the photos of family and friends which have sentimental value.  My digital camera serves as my pocket photo album. Today I viewed this photograph and ceased the clean up process and started writing this blog.

I'm certain this photograph is my favourite shot from 2012. It was obviously captured in Las Vegas, early in the morning as we were driving to the airport to begin our journey home after a two week and three day vacation in Arizona, Nevada and a little bit of California. That vacation trip with my parents was absolutely the best thing I did in the year 2012.  It might just be the best thing I have done in the past 30 years, and as you might guess (or know) I've done a lot of fascinating, interesting, exciting and memorable things in my life, from the birth of my daughter to skydiving, BASE jumping, motorcycle riding, scuba diving, employment peaks, getting married, making movies, cheating death . . .

Tears come to my eyes when I look at this photograph. My wife is very well acquainted with the fact there are certain songs that will bring tears to my eyes, but I don't think there is another photograph that can make my cry on cue.

I am not certain, but I don't think I'll get to make another trip like the vacation of 2012 with my parents. It was that good and it would be hard to top. I'm very thankful for all the adjustments people made to make the trip possible. My sister, Linda, accepted responsibility for my parents Samoyeds for the duration of the trip, and my wife stayed at home and took care of our snakes.

I often hear people say "good times" while reflecting upon recent events, perhaps a party or an evening spent with friends.  When I look at this photo I -feel- the good times of more than two solid weeks on a vacation with my parents.  I was their tour guide and did my best to keep them experiencing moments of wonder and excitement each and every day while we were vacationing together.  From what I recall, I did a very good job.  I must have, I was tipped well at the end of the vacation.  :)

Good times, Mom and Dad, very good times,

Love and hugs,