Steven Helmer Publications

This is something I mentioned in a comment on another post but thought I would take a few minutes to elaborate on. My daughter, as I mentioned in that post, had a fall during skating practice Wednesday night and, as part of that fall, hit her head on the ice. Fortunately, she suffered no (apparent) long-term injury from that. She had a bump on her head but has shown no signs of a concussion from her fall. But, the incident, along with the fact it is the second time she has hit her head on the ice, did prompt me to order her a Crasche band (a head band designed to protect skaters' heads) immediately after. As I placed my order, I was reminded of a question I asked myself a while ago, why doesn't U. S. Figure Skating require all skaters to have some sort of head protection? Image courtesy of Pixabay My daughter has been involved with the sport for a few years now and, from watching her and the other skaters, I've learned to appreciate just how challenging and dan...

It was cloudy and cool out when I was on my walk today and, I think largely because of that, I didn't see as much as I was expecting to see. Basically, other than ducks, there wasn't a lot of life in the park at all. I did, however, still manage to get some photos. Some of them are below:

We had a little bit of a scare yesterday evening. My oldest daughter was at the ice rink practicing her sit spin (just like it sounds, it's a spin done from a sitting/squatting position) and, as she was going into one, her blade caught a divot on the ice and she fell backwards, hitting her head on the ice. I didn't see the fall (I was watching her up until that point and it literally happened when I walked away for 30 seconds). But, her coach and one of the other coaches said it was a pretty hard fall and could be heard from across the rink. Fortunately, other than a bruise on her tailbone, she seems to be OK. The big concern, of course, was whether or not she gave herself a concussion. But, at least so far, she's not showing any symptoms of one. Her head wasn't even sore this morning. However, I'm going to play it safe and keep her off the ice until at least Sunday to make sure. I also ended up going online this morning and buying her a Crasche headband, whic...

Nothing overly special about this photo, it's just one I took while on top of a hill overlooking the marshlands. I'm still watching out for that deer I saw drinking from the pond a couple months ago, hoping it will pop out again.

Duck season started out with a bang this week, literally. I was on my morning walk and thought I entered a war zone with all the gunshots in every direction of me. These ducks were smart, however. Not only did they hide out in a public park (no hunting), they made sure to take cover in a fallen tree.

I started to post this yesterday but learned my photo wasn't approved yet. It is today. I'm entering the contest, which is being run by the mayor and has a $100 prize, at the suggestion of a friend and posted a photo of a goldfinch I took a while ago. You can see my entry here: http://woobox.com/94ugfu/gallery/2wfmNshhL4U The winner is determined by the number of votes received so, if you like the photo, please take a moment to vote for it.

I saw this product on the shelf while picking up some cat food for my cats yesterday evening. I thought it was a bit pricey ($1.59 for a small container, I can buy a gallon of milk at the gas station for 40 cents more). However, I was intrigued by it because my oldest cat, Echo, loves milk but gets sick off of it and doesn't care for soy milk (I don't blame him, I don't like soy milk either). So, I ended up deciding to try this. I wasn't really sure what to expect from this product when I purchased it. I've actually tried similar products in the past and he wouldn't touch them. As a result of that, I wasn't sure if I wasted my money on this or not. But, as it turns out, it was actually well-received. When I first poured some of this product in his dish, Echo didn't know what to think of it and I thought he would just end up ignoring it. However, his younger brother, Mouse, ended up drinking some of it first and, once he started, Echo tried it too...