1. Super Bowl LX has passed. My New England Patriots didn’t finish their story and go from the outhouse to the penthouse in one season. The Seattle Seahawks defeated the Patriots 29-13 and deserved to win. Their defense lived up to the hype. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye looked rattled at many points during the game. His right shoulder was still somewhat injured, but he didn’t make excuses. He’s only 23, the 2nd youngest quarterback to ever start a Super Bowl. Despite the team losing, I have no doubt that they will be back in the Super Bowl within the next 3-4 years. The Patriots are a young team, with most players signed, and tons of money to spend. There might be a step back next year with a harder schedule and other teams getting a bit of a playbook on the Patriots, but rest assured, this is only the beginning of this chapter. So Patriots fans like me have no fear, and Patriots haters, sorry, but get used to them being contenders for the foreseeable future. Until then, though, hats off to the Seahawks; they are the champions and deserve all of the accolades.
2. The ice floes have been clogging the north side of Cape Cod for three weeks now. It has almost become just another part of life. I have been at some beach nearly every day getting photos and videos, as you who have been reading the blog know. When something feels common, it can also feel less dangerous. I have been climbing out on the ice chunks to get better vantage points. Of course, I’ve been doing it safely, but when you’re maneuvering on pieces of ice, how safe are you really? I have had a few slips and gone down during the last few weeks, but that didn’t stop me from taking it one step further this week. I went for a sunset shoot at Sea Street Beach in East Dennis. I carefully made my way out onto some of the ice and shot a video. Then I wanted to get some more footage since you never know when the temperatures will rise, and the ice will become only a memory. So I started walking further out until I was probably 75 feet offshore on the ice. Then I heard what I thought at first was a wounded bird. It was a high-pitched squeak. Then I heard it again, but it was no bird. It turned out to be the sound of ice splitting. Think about what an ice cube does when you drop it into room-temperature liquid. It kind of squeaks and cracks. Once I realized what it was and where I was, I got back to the beach as quickly as I safely could. That squeaking noise definitely was a reminder that I needed to respect those ice floes, no matter how cool the photos and videos could be.
3. As we are in mid-February, thankfully, we’re closer to the end of winter than the beginning. I am craving warmer temperatures and things blooming. It feels as though this has been a classic New England winter when we haven’t had one in several years. For as much as I want spring to get here, I am torn. The ice floe videos have been a boon for my social media, so I am not too keen on giving them up. That being said, I believe that Cape Cod in general is a great place, and videos of it will keep bringing in new viewers. Also, no matter how much I want the ice floes to stay, I can’t do anything about it. Or can I? No, I can’t. But I can shoot so much content that I can repost and repurpose it until I get sick of it. Of course, the biggest issue with spring on Cape Cod is that we don’t get one until May. Before then, we get a mass of mid-40s and fog, which makes us all feel like we’re in some horror movie waiting for the killer to pop out from the fog to end us. Yay.
4. The older I get I try not to look past today to get to tomorrow. What I mean is I see so many people on social media ‘dreaming of summer’ currently. Summer is 4 months away. These people are wishing away so much time that you don’t get back. Sure, I might be taking it too literally, but I am trying to make the best of each day rather than sitting back wishing it was spring, or summer, or sunny, or warmer, or that I was doing something more exciting. I think that’s a big reason why I have enjoyed Cape Cod’s icy winter. It’s like it gives each cold winter day purpose rather than these days being looked at with scorn and wishing it were summer already. Don’t forget, the sooner it’s summer, the sooner it’s winter again. Just make the best of each day you have; summer will come right on time as it does every year.
5. Dedication to the Craft is something I’ve mentioned a lot in this blog. It is something my buddy Steve and I coined about getting a photograph, no matter what might be in our way. This typically means putting ourselves into some sort of less-than-ideal situation for the good of the shot. One such way I can do this is by running on a treadmill and then deciding to go chase a sunset at an icy beach. My adventure to Chapin Beach in Dennis included me in shorts, trudging through a foot of crackling snow to get amazing photos. A pair of women, all bundled up, saw me out there and fled. There was also a nice older man shooting photos who didn’t seem too surprised when he saw me up on a hill, standing on a picnic table looking for the best vantage point. All in all, it was a fun trip, and the photos were worth it.
6. Dedication to the Craft can also take the shape of standing underneath a tree full of fighting turkeys, trying to capture some sort of National Geographic video. It was a ‘jerk the wheel and pull over’ type of moment as I spotted what was probably close to 20 turkeys in a tree. A few were fighting over the best branch and gobbling at each other. When trying to leave, I was boxed in by the rest of the turkey family, probably another dozen or so. These ones casually swaggered across the street and hopped onto a snow bank, all while I tried to reason with them. Luckily, I knew the password *gobble*, and they let me by without hassle. That was a close one.
7. I had a cute interaction with a little girl at the supermarket this week. As I was walking, she was facing me in a shopping cart. She looked like she had just finished a frosted donut, as it was all over her face. She smiled, waved, and even said hi. I made sure to say hi back, and she seemed happy with that. She also said hi to everyone else who passed by, but I didn’t hear anyone else actually say it back. I’m sure they all waved or something because who could resist engaging with a cute little kid? Psychos maybe. I would interact with every kid I saw if I could, but I think it would start to look like I was a creep, and we can’t have that.
8. Valentine’s Day is interesting in that I’d love to have someone to celebrate it with, but I also love the fact that I can just do for myself and not have to stress about whether I did a good job. It’s not really a holiday. It’s more of a spend more money on a relationship day. You can put in almost no effort, like getting flowers at a gas station on your way home from work, and be rewarded like a king. Or you could go all out, spending handfuls of money you don’t have on a celebration, and still be looked at as less-than. You sometimes never know what you’re going to get. I have always thought that if you’re a big Valentine’s Day person, that’s great, but not overly impressive. Everyone who cares about their partner does something on that day. More impressive is being the hero of the day on a random Tuesday in August when nobody else is watching. That’s when you know you’ve found the right one. Would I do something like that? I’d like to think so, but there’s only one way to find out.
9. Speaking of Valentine’s Day, mine was spent on a treadmill in the morning. While I was there, trying to run like it was 2019 again, I spotted this cute girl I had seen several times there. She’s a combination of mousy and serious, if that makes sense. Like, she’s not there to hang out and chat. She’s there to get her work done and go. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how to get her attention. We wear the same brand of shoes, Brooks, but I don’t know if that’s much of an in. On this day, we each finished our respective cardio at the same time and ended up next to each other in the stretching room. Sadly, for as much as I’d like to think I would be coming off as genuine, I stayed silent and stretched rather than try to talk to her. I know most women don’t want to be approached by a stranger at the gym, and I had to respect that. There’s not much else I can do but try to be in her line of sight next time we’re both at the gym and smile like an idiot. Yeah, I’m sure that will suddenly break the ice.
10. Sadly, the wonder of the Cape Cod ice was shattered this week when a husband and wife fell through the ice. It happened at First Encounter Beach in Eastham. Unfortunately, the ice can look thick and stable and actually be ounces of pressure away from cracking. The couple had been out with their dog and walked out on the ice. This week saw temperatures getting into the high 30s on most days, which seriously compromised the ice. It was apparently also high tide at the time that they were walking, which was a perfect storm for a tragedy. Incredibly, the day before the event, I had been not far away at Skaket Beach in Orleans. There it was, low tide, and I hiked nearly ¼ mile out onto the ice for one final adventure. There were several other people out wandering on the ice at Skaket. The big difference between my walk and the tragedy in Eastham comes down to knowing your surroundings. Skaket Beach is the epicenter of the tidal flats on Cape Cod. Essentially, any erosion of the beach itself just gets dumped right offshore onto the flats. This makes it possible to hike great distances offshore, especially at low tide. To the untrained eye on social media, it might appear as though I throw caution to the wind with some of my photo adventures, but in reality, it is a lot of low-risk or highly calculated risks. My condolences to the family and friends of the people lost in Eastham this week.
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