My wife and I have spent the last day and a half removing 99% of all furniture from the second story of our house and moving it all downstairs. Our house is a somewhat organized mess. She spent the last two weeks painting our kids rooms, all in preparation for new carpet. It was scheduled to rain today, which it is (drizzling more than raining) so we were told to have a two car garage open and available so the installers can cut the carpet and not have it get wet. We were told that if our garage wasn’t available we would be charged a cancellation fee of $450. So I spent the last part of the late evening cleaning our the garage and the first part of this morning moving my mountain bikes into the backyard.

We’re ready, for the most part, and so is the house. Let’s get this new carpet installed. We were given an arrival time between 8:00 A.M. and 10:00 A.M. My wife heads out with our daughter and one of our dogs; our daughter has a doctor’s appointment and our dog has an appointment at the vet. I stay home and move the last bit of furniture downstairs and sit and wait. The windows are open. I listen to the water runoff drip on our patio cover, remember it isn’t raining so much as it’s drizzling or misting. I’m drinking coffee, it’s 9:30 A.M and the installer has called in sick. Does this mean we get to charge a cancellation fee? Our time and effort is worth something.

What to do? The house will continue to stay a mess until tomorrow, the installation has been rescheduled. The rain graduates from a light drizzle to a very light rain. I hear birds, swallows, chirping. I look out into the backyard and see a pudgy little sparrow hop along the fence line and ruffle its feathers. Three or four swallows dart over the neighboring yards. And a hummingbird sits in our apple tree.

I think it would be great if I were to grab my camera and lens (Pentax K70 with 55-300 mm) and hope that by the time I return to the sliding glass door the humming bird will still be there. As luck would have it, the hummingbird was still sitting in the apple tree. I walked out onto the patio, under the cover, and leaned against one of the three support beams. The rain was coming in sideways, my bare feet were getting wet. I zoomed in, extending the focal length the full 300 mm, both my camera and lens are weather resistant, and spent the next thirty minutes taking pictures of the hummingbird.

I guess today wasn’t a complete waste, even if plans didn’t work out as expected.

Your journey starts with a step, where are you headed.