Day 154/365

     The weather during my drive back to Saginaw yesterday couldn't seem to make up its mind. It would be sunny one second, then part of the sky would become overcast and rain at the same time. It made for some interesting clouds, which I'm always a sucker for. 

Day 153/365

     Sunday's belated post is one I took from my mom's car as we were driving out to her cabin in northeast Ohio. You can see great blue herons almost any time you drive out there, and this past weekend was no different. I wasn't quite ready when I took this first shot, but I like it anyways. 

Day 152/365

     I'm spending this weekend back in Ohio. After the not-so great past week and-a-half, I jumped at the chance to switch three-day-weekends with another photo intern at work in order to come home last night. Today we went out to some family friends' place out in West Farmington for a frisbee-dog weekend they have each summer. It's a weekend filled with camping, eating, drinking, and playing with dogs - what more could you want? Anyways, we helped them pick corn from their garden for dinner, (pretty much the best sweet corn I've ever had; talk about "farm to table!"), and I stopped to take a picture of their sunflowers. Their sunflowers are so tall that it was easy to stand under one to get today's beautiful blue sky in the background. Today was a good day, and was definitely needed. I'm sure I got some decent frisbee-dog photos, but I'm about ready to pass out so I'll be sure to post a link to them here tomorrow. 

Day 151/365

     Today was an initiation of sorts in my burgeoning photojournalism career; I saw my first dead body while on the job. I covered a car accident in a small rural town outside of Bay City where the truck pictured in today's post ran a stop sign, colliding with a Ford Escape before going airborne and rolling over into someone's front yard. The only people involved were the two drivers, and both of them were killed in the crash. Just as the reporter covering the accident and I got out there, they were using the jaws of life to take the deceased male driver out of the truck while paramedics took the deceased female driver out of the Escape. There's only a few photos up on MLive here so far; the authorities haven't been able to get ahold of the deceased woman's next of kin yet, so I can't post the photos of her car until her husband's been notified. This afternoon's turned into a depressingly surreal waiting game. 

Day 150/365

     Yesterday's belated post is from a local Saginaw group that employs at-risk teens, and also offers them educational and recreational activities as well. Yesterday the Saginaw teens learned how to fish out at a Bay City park. It was really refreshing to see; there's so much poverty and crime in Saginaw and not very many people willing to try to change things. Seeing a group dedicated to trying to do just that is most definitely a welcome change. 

Day 149/365

     Today's post is from the Bay Area Women's Center in Bay City. The center is having its first ever "Power of the Purse" event and fundraiser next week, where there will be auctions and raffles that will all directly benefit the Women's Center. Hundreds of purses have been donated by various stores and designers for the auction, so I was assigned to take some photos of the preparations the center's staff are starting to partake in for the event. The center really does a lot of good in the area; acting as a safe place to go for at risk women from all walks of life. It was really nice to see just how much support they're receiving for the fundraiser. 

Day 148/365

     Yesterday/Tuesday's post is from the old Saint Patrick's Cemetery in Bay City. There's been some work done on the trees there, and people who live near the cemetery and/or drive by it have been complaining about how the tree company has been handling the whole process. There were reports of damaged grave sites/headstones and all-around catastrophe. While the reporter that was assigned the story and I didn't see any actual damage, it was definitely a bit disconcerting to see logs and debris lying anywhere and everywhere, even on top of grave sites and completely covering grave markers in some cases.

Day 147/365

     I know I'm a bit backed up in updating, so here goes. Monday's belated post is of my cat, Finch, again. Since I got my dog, Kip, Finch has been camping out on top of the refrigerator. At least he's stopped growling and hissing at Kip on sight. Now if I could just get him to come down...

Day 146/365

     Just when you thought the pet posts had died down... I got a dog! He officially came home with me this past Friday, so just consider yourselves lucky that I lasted this long without putting a picture of him up on here. Anyways, his name is Kip, and he's a five month-old American bulldog/black lab mix. He's super laid back, except for the fact that he's having a bit of a problem with being left alone when I have to go to work or go out in general, but we're working on it. Now if I could just get my cat to come around to the idea of Kip being around...

Day 145/365

     Today I was originally supposed to cover the last day of the Bay County Fair, but what I really ended up covering was how the Bay County Fair got cut short due to all the flooding in Bay City since it's rained so much this past week. It was pretty interesting to see carnival rides sinking into the mud and carnival workers wading their way through standing water to take everything apart. Definitely unlike any carnival I've ever been to!