A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

My world

Photo Blogging Challenge (July 2022): Get low

Everybody get low!

Low is fine as it can be interpreted in a bunch of ways, including a point of view. Which, I’m sure is the way many may have gone.

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And that’s always fun, pending the subject!

Though this one could have been all Harper, I’ve *tried* to mix it up a bit. I’m trying to take photos of other things, though it’s hard when I am with Harper most of the time!

Hopefully low is a good thing for your posts this month. I know this theme could also take on a negative context, depending on how life is going for somebody.

I hope everybody’s summer (or another season, if you are in other parts of the world) is going well and you are enjoying life. It’s a short one, so try to make the best of it!

Here are my five for the month! Let’s see what you all have!

1. Harper

Harper loves chilling. And I have to be honest, Iove getting low with photos. Of course a lot of times, she just turns away. I’m glad she did with this photo… it’s such a cool profile of her!

2. Colorful

To get the best views of flowers, you really need to go low!

3. Harper’s ball

It’s fun to watch Harper with this soccer ball. She can’t destroy it. And she grabs and runs with it. This was a fun shot as she was clenched on the ball when I took it.

4. Too early!

I always like getting low for leaves in the fall … it’s way too early to see leaves like this on the ground!

5. Geocoins

Working on a full blog post about these geocoins, but i needed to get somewhat low to take a photo like this. I’ve wanted a personal geocoin for years, but to invest the kind of money it takes, I needed to have something I was truly passionate about — enter Harper. I am so thrilled with how they came out and I’ll look forward to trading with other coin collectors and hopefully growing my personal coin collection!

There’s my five and let’s see what you came up with! If you took part in this month’s challenge, make sure to link up below.

And for those of you who participated, make sure you try and get to other people’s blogs and comment (here, too!).

Let’s continue to grow this challenge and have a strong community. Come back and check out the others who link later on, too! NOTE: We have a Facebook group for those who participate in the challenge and are interested. I’ll post any announcements there and hopefully it can be a place where things are discussed and some interaction etc. You can access it here.

** CHALLENGE CHANGE **

From this point forward, I am going to do the next theme at the bottom of each linkup. Also, the posting date will now be the first of each month, thus giving you the entire month to take the photos etc.

That means it’s a one-stop shop! Hopefully this helps out with everybody.

So, below is the linkup for July. Make sure you drop your link there.

I’m sorry for doing this to all of you, but I must! August is National Dog Month, so … the theme for August is … Pooch. I’m hoping because I use that word, maybe it opens up more interpretation than just “dog.” Remember to come back on September 1 to link up and check out the theme for that month!

Photo Blogging Challenge: July 2022 results

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Back to the blog

Several years ago, I set out to have a blog post each day. 

I went a little deeper than a year, but it burned me out. Ever since then, it hasn’t been the same blogging. I continually try and get back into the blogging world, but outside of the monthly photo challenge, sometimes I’m just not into it. 

There are a variety of reasons for this. 

The first, of course, is time. It takes time to write blog posts and make sure they are where you want them to be. Sometimes I don’t have the desire to do all of this. 

Second is the changing of the blogging world. When I first started blogging, it was a lot more interactive. Even for me. I used to love visiting and reading blogs – especially personal ones. And it was nice when people returned the favor. Alas, my blog has never been anything big where there were a lot of comments and interaction. Even if I respond to comments, it often ends with just that. 

Over time, it becomes normal not to blog. Though I feel I have plenty of topics, it’s tough to carve that time that I feel I need to give. You can’t just write and leave it out there. You have to have that interaction part. You need to visit other blogs, read and comment. It’s how small blogs survive. 

But, the blog world changes. 

A few months ago, I went looking for some blogs. A lot of the blogs I found are lifestyle or “mommy” blogs. A lot of the themes and topics weren’t of interest to me. That doesn’t necessarily mean I shouldn’t blog. Part of blogging is a mental release of things. It helps you see and appreciate things you do. 

Finally, a lot of it is time. With Harper and such, sometimes when I am home and on a computer, I like random surfing and such because it’s a way to let my mind wander. It might be YouTube or something else. But it’s often things I don’t need to think too deeply about. 

There are things, however, I like doing that can be made into decent posts. I’m still working on understanding and learning woodworking. I’m in the process of buying a house. I’m still navigating dog ownership. I really still want to do more videos (which could also become blog posts). I still geocache and go to a few baseball games in the summer. There’s a lot for me to do if I can start focusing and putting, so to speak, pen to paper.

So, let’s try this again. 

Over the weekend, I went through my blogging folder on my Google Drive. It turns out I had written up a bunch of posts. Some of them are ones where I need to polish them a bit or change some things around. Heck, I have a few that are kind of outdated (car things), but I plan to still use them. 

I miss aspects of blogging, so I am going to, once again, try and get back into it, though likely slower and a bit more simple. The reality is that blogging helps with my mental well being. Some posts eventually might take a “real” turn. By this I mean kind of going inside my head and seeing where I am with things. Life isn’t always cupcakes and candy, afterall. 

We shall see how this goes. But, hopefully, I’ll at least have a couple of posts per week, starting with cleaning up and posting ones I’ve already written!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Photo Blogging Challenge (June 2022): Water

So. I promise that every challenge won’t just be about Harper. And I had a few ideas of other things I wanted to do with this theme.

Alas, it’s way too hard to get away from photos of Harper when water is involved.

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Really hard.

And in the end, I also wanted to make sure it wasn’t just photos of dock diving, so I worked to at least figure that part out.

Harper definitely likes water.

One interesting story about her with water — drinking it. A few months ago, I didn’t think she was drinking enough of it, and of course I was getting way worried. Who wouldn’t when it comes to a dog drinking, right?

So I reached out to my trainer and asked her — and she mentioned something about village water and chlorine etc. So we started with spring/bottled water with her and she totally drinks way more, so that’s a good thing.

Anyway .. I hope you all had a great month. It’s been crazy busy for me and I’ve been working on understanding self care and trying to take care of myself. I’ve always been way too married to a job and such and I have finally started to realize that life is short. I need to make sure I’m in a good place so I can enjoy life and with Harper!

Here are my five for the month! Let’s see what you all have!

1. Dock diving

Harper is into dock diving. Sort of. I don’t know if she will ever compete, but we have fun. Most of the time, I have to be in the pool for her to jump to me. I don’t mind, usually, though. And it also allows me to take photos from inside the pool (yes, I’m careful!) Where she dives, there are three levels. The ramp, the lower dock and the higher dock. This was her first time jumping off the high dock! Her trainer is watching on!

2. Get the toy

Once in the pool, she needs to get her toy and then swim back to the ramp and go back up. Here she is getting the toy.

3. Waiting

Before dock diving lessons, I always try and walk her around so she can go. And after, we sit back so she can see others diving, but not be trying to get closer. Most of the time, she sits like this, watches, and waits.

4. Water(melon)

Harper loves watermelon!

5. In the creek

Harper loves to explore, and that includes creeks and rivers. A park opened in town and it has an easy access to the creek, so we went exploring one day.. so much fun!

There’s my five and let’s see what you came up with! If you took part in this month’s challenge, make sure to link up below.

And for those of you who participated, make sure you try and get to other people’s blogs and comment (here, too!).

Let’s continue to grow this challenge and have a strong community. Come back and check out the others who link later on, too! NOTE: We have a Facebook group for those who participate in the challenge and are interested. I’ll post any announcements there and hopefully it can be a place where things are discussed and some interaction etc. You can access it here.

** CHALLENGE CHANGE **

From this point forward, I am going to do the next theme at the bottom of each linkup. Also, the posting date will now be the first of each month, thus giving you the entire month to take the photos etc.

That means it’s a one-stop shop! Hopefully this helps out with everybody.

So, below is the linkup for May. Make sure you drop your link there. The theme for July is Get low. Remember to come back on August 1 to link up and check out the theme for that month!

Photo Blogging Challenge: June 2022 results

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Photo Blogging Challenge (May 2022): One hour

One hour.

60 minutes.

3,600 seconds.

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A lot can happen in that amount of time. But what happens if you decide to capture an hour in five photos?

Just five photos?

This is one of those times where this challenge gets harder as I could easily go 10 or more photos for this one — as you will see below.

I’m sure most of you knew Harper would somehow be in this, yeah? She is. In fact, what I decided to do was to cover a morning walk. From beginning to end … it is less than an hour. But the end of it all, there’s one way to show how this all ends for Harper — on days when I am home anyway. This walk was taken at the local college, which is out for the summer. It’s a nice route and if done right, is a good two-mile walk where she can explore, sniff, climb some steps, jump on walls etc.

Hope you all have had a great month. It’s been interesting here. Some ups and downs. Had a few deaths in the family, finally no longer could avoid covid (as I write this, I’m isolated and hoping I can return when I’m supposed to … but we’ll see if I am symptom free) … and here’s hoping for a better June!

Here are my five for the month! Let’s see what you all have!

1. A dog’s life in the morning.

Carrying her pal. When we are out on walks, after Harper does her business, Gumby comes out and she’ll carry him usually for the rest of the walk. Unless, of course, she finds a stick or something.

2. On the wall

When Harper finds a stone wall, she likes to jump up and walk it. She has pretty good balance. She actually stopped and let me snap this photo!

3. Steps

Harper loves climbing and going down steps. So when we do the college walk, I make sure we go in areas where she can go up and go down etc. This is a large set and she loves going up the steps.

4. Up above

When we are at the upper sidewalk of the college walk, it’s a great view, You can see how impressed Harper is.

5. Snooze

If I am home … and am on the couch after the walk, this will often be the scene at hand. Walking takes a lot out of her!

BONUS

I can’t resist. This should have likely been the first photo, but… early in her walks, this is kind of a normal thing, too!

There’s my five and let’s see what you came up with! If you took part in this month’s challenge, make sure to link up below.

And for those of you who participated, make sure you try and get to other people’s blogs and comment (here, too!).

Let’s continue to grow this challenge and have a strong community. Come back and check out the others who link later on, too! NOTE: We have a Facebook group for those who participate in the challenge and are interested. I’ll post any announcements there and hopefully it can be a place where things are discussed and some interaction etc. You can access it here.

** CHALLENGE CHANGE **

From this point forward, I am going to do the next theme at the bottom of each linkup. Also, the posting date will now be the first of each month, thus giving you the entire month to take the photos etc.

That means it’s a one-stop shop! Hopefully this helps out with everybody.

So, below is the linkup for May. Make sure you drop your link there. The theme for June is Water. Remember to come back on July 1 to link up and check out the theme for that month!

Photo Blogging Challenge: May 2022 results

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Photo Blogging Challenge (April 2022): Enjoy life

Enjoy life.

Two words that should be paramount to any human being.

Two words that aren’t always followed or used. Stress fills many lives. That stress can be caused by so many things: work, health, politics, school, family life, financial issues, and so much more.

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At times, those two words seem impossible to follow. What can make you enjoy this life. We know, in the big scheme of things, we are all small particles in time. Our time on Earth is short, so we often find it hard to find time to enjoy what we have.

Humans are all different. We come in various shapes, colors, looks, and more. We speak different languages, we write and read differently, and we communicate on different levels.

But we are all humans. Unfortunately, part of being human are certain emotions and actions that can make it hard to “enjoy life.” And that’s a shame. Because, in the end, we should all be able to enjoy life as long as we walk this planet.

So, for me, I’ve chosen to simplify a lot of things in life. I try not to bring work or the high-level stress items into my own world. I’ve done a decent job of it at times, but still have a long way to go. Maybe one day, I’ll fully be there. For now, though, I will keep plodding along.

Here are my five for the month! Let’s see what you all have!

1. Happy birthday!

Harper turned one on April 29! What a great day (and weekend) we had together. She has really allowed me to learn to enjoy life, even though she can be a total pain in the ass sometimes!

2. Play ball!

I love baseball and I always said even if I had a dog, I wouldn’t take the pup to a baseball game. Alas, I now enjoy bringing Harper to bark in the park (though it’s only been twice). I think it will be fun as she ages to see how she grows being in the park at games.

3. The bunny!

We got a great day for Easter and I was able to make sure Cameron had his egg hunt when they came over!

4. Boop!

How could I not use this one this month? This was during her birthday hike. Is that a boopable nose, or what?

5. Wash time

I have to make sure my new ride stays looking nice!

There’s my five and let’s see what you came up with! If you took part in this month’s challenge, make sure to link up below.

And for those of you who participated, make sure you try and get to other people’s blogs and comment (here, too!).

Let’s continue to grow this challenge and have a strong community. Come back and check out the others who link later on, too! NOTE: We have a Facebook group for those who participate in the challenge and are interested. I’ll post any announcements there and hopefully it can be a place where things are discussed and some interaction etc. You can access it here.

** CHALLENGE CHANGE **

From this point forward, I am going to do the next theme at the bottom of each linkup. Also, the posting date will now be the first of each month, thus giving you the entire month to take the photos etc.

That means it’s a one-stop shop! Hopefully this helps out with everybody.

So, below is the linkup for January. Make sure you drop your link there. The theme for May is One hour. Remember to come back on June 1 to link up and check out the theme for that month!

Photo Blogging Challenge: April 2022 results

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!