Living in the Moment, I Almost Never Do

Pamunkey River Bridge Opening ©Mary Montague Sikes

Living in the moment is a hard thing to do, especially for artists and writers. That's been especially true for me during the past few weeks. I've been involved in art openings, artist workshops, setting up space in a new gallery, working in that gallery, a trip to Hilton Head Island, and much more. All the while, I've followed my passion--watching the baseball games of the St. Louis Cardinals. Perhaps that is a time of living in the moment.

Coming home earlier this week, we encountered something we had not seen for a few years--a bridge opening. Once the new bridges across two of the three rivers that surround our little town were completed and opened, the worrisome long delays to allow boats to pass through became a thing of the past.

Usually, I would be unhappy to have to wait in the long line for the bridge to lock back in place and traffic to resume. This time I decided to live in the moment. I got out of our car with camera in hand and took photos of the river and of the dramatic sunset I was fortunate to see.

Down the Pamunkey River ©Mary Montague Sikes

It was fun to have a quiet minute and the chance to take photographs from atop the bridge. It was nice to enjoy being where I was and not dreaming of how I would spend my time in the next few minutes or hours. I couldn't quite calm some future planning, like writing this post, but for a little while I savored where I was at a small point in time.

Do you live in the moment? Do you dwell in the past? Do you dream of the future? Are you a ponderer? How can we learn to live in the moment?

Sunset Over the River Marsh ©Mary Montague Sikes

Credit Card Fraud - How Does It Happen?

Sunset on Hilton Head Island - MMSikes

Is credit card fraud getting worse? We just had an experience with it that makes me wonder. Although we did not lose our cards, counterfeit cards were made with our information. The credit card company monitors accounts constantly. When they saw charges coming up that did not fit our profile, they immediately contacted us. There were charges for shoes at Finish Line in Columbus, Ohio that we did not make. Attempts were made three days later (after the account was closed) at Finish Line, Wal-Mart, and Shell--all in Columbus.

We haven't been in Ohio for several years. However, we were in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport for a few hours in late August. Was an image of our credit card captured there? Did it happen at a service station gas pump? An associate in the credit card fraud department told me that's a place it's happening a lot now. The crooks place devices to take images of your cards at the pumps. I'd heard of that being done on ATM machines, but not at gas pumps.

He also warned of two people waiting behind you in a line. One will memorize the first half of your credit card number, the other person will remember the second half.

Counterfeit cards first became a problem for credit card companies in California and Arizona. Now the fraud is "getting really big" on the East Coast.

The credit card company is investigating what happened to enable the counterfeit cards in our situation. Still, we are left with changing card numbers for those companies that automatically receive payments through our card.

Did the fraud happen because of use on the Internet? Was it at O'Hare? Was it at some random gas pump? The investigators may discover where it happened.

They may not.

Whatever happens, I'm posting another sunset photograph. Credit card fraud can't take that away.

--Mary Montague Sikes

TV Shows and Sunsets -- Popular Subjects for Writing and Photos

Recently, I noticed a big increase in traffic to my blog. When I consulted my blog stats, I discovered a big reason. In January 2011, I wrote a post about the death of Joe DuBois in the Medium TV series that suddenly was cancelled. Joe was one of my favorite television figures. I was both shocked and disappointed to see him killed off in the last episode. After I read the real life Joe is still alive, I was even more disappointed and surprised.

I loved the show with Patricia Arquette cast in the role of Allison DuBois. Besides Joe, I even liked the portrayal of the three real life daughters in the family. When I noticed all the many daily hits on my old blog post--almost 200 one day, I decided to investigate further. To my dismay I discovered articles and comments about an appearance Allison DuBois made in December 2010 on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Apparently, what she said and did left viewers disappointed in her and disinterested in ever watching the Medium. Comments in other articles were skeptical of her psychic abilities and her claims about work with criminal investigators.

Whether or not the claims made by people who disbelieve the psychic abilities of the real Allison DuBois have merit, I'm not sure it matters as far as the television show, Medium, is concerned. After all, we know that even shows based on real life have fiction in them. I very much enjoyed the characters depicting the real people. I especially loved Joe DuBois and admired his loyalty in Allison's life. I would like to think these people are real, but, ultimately, they are not.

And that's okay.

The stats made a point for me. Writing about a popular subject can drive traffic to your blog. To my surprise, "Notes Along the Way" for January 22, 2011 is the number one link on at least one of the Google searches. It is the number four link for Joe DuBois.

Amazing.

"Near the Dark of Night" MMSikes

Write about popular TV shows and post photos of sunsets. Now that's a winning combination! A new lesson learned.

--Mary Montague Sikes

Sunset Taken from the Air

"Sunset from the Air" MM Sikes

En route home from an awesome trip, I took yet another sunset photo. We were flying from Los Angeles to Chicago and were about an hour away from our destination when this picture was taken. Digital photography is truly amazing because the smudgy airplane window was partially covered with frosty ice particles.

Years ago, when I took my first photos from the air, they inspired a fascination with air views. Although the quality using 35mm film was not great, I used many of my pictures as working sketches for a series of large acrylic paintings that I called "Air Views." After that, I did another series--this time of mountains as seen from the air.

Do you like to take photos from the air? Have you sometimes been excited with the results? I would love to hear about your photos.

Another Sunset



Another Sunset in the Sierras - MM Sikes



From what we've heard we were lucky to have wonderful weather while in the High Sierras. The day before we arrived, it was snowing. The week before, it was raining and unpleasant. Since I'm always on the lookout for pretty sunsets, I was happy to find this one.