P.S. Once more for old times’ sake

If you thought you heard the last of me, think again.

When I left the Wharton Journal-Spectator and the East Bernard Express three weeks ago, I thought I left not only the newspapers but journalism for good. Yet here I am.

Trust me, this is only a brief encore. I really am moving away, just not in the timeframe I anticipated.

My last day with the newspapers was May 12. Over that weekend my family and I packed our house and on Monday, May 15, movers helped us load a rental truck to prepare for life in Bryan. The truck was loaded by noon. At 1 p.m., our plans were torn apart. Three days away from closing on the sale of our house and four days from the purchase of our new one, our real estate agent called and told us our buyer lost their loan – the deal was gone.

We planned to be out of the house early and stay with relatives for a few days so that we could have the house professionally cleaned and final repairs made. We forged ahead with those plans but by the end of the week we backed the moving truck up to the house and unloaded most everything into the garage. We brought just a few things back into the house and are living out of boxes and suitcases – essentially camping in our own home.

We extended the closing date on our new home and in less than a week were under contract again to sell our house in Rosenberg to new buyers. We are currently in the waiting period for the closing, so with time on my hands and money gone from my wallet, I offered to come back and help out here for a while. My new last day will be Thursday, June 8.

The next day I will fly back to Colorado for the weekend to attend my 40th high school reunion. The Niwot High School Class of 1983 is getting together again, and after having missed the 30th reunion I am anxious to see old friends (with more emphasis on “old” than I care to admit). I looked over the guest list and noticed that I have not seen some of them since our 20th reunion and many of them since the day we graduated.

It’s disheartening to see only about 40 people registered out of a class of 202. Still, it will be fun to catch up on old times. It’s interesting to look back at high school after four decades and see where life has taken us. Back then I wanted to be a newspaper photographer. Not much has changed in that regard. Only I’m doing much more than taking pictures. And once I leave again it is my intention to retire from journalism and step into a second career.

I do not know yet what that career will be but I do know I will not be following the career path I envisioned back in high school. It was my desire back then to get established in newspapers and then to move up to magazines. There were four magazines that caught my eye for having the best photography in the world.

The one I most wanted to work for was Sports Illustrated. Although I never had a picture published in their glossy pages, I did have a nice stint photographing pro sports and I’m happy with that.

The next was National Geographic. Only the best of the best work for them and their work is impeccable! Again, I never made it there, but I have done a lot of nature photography and I’m happy with that.

In my opinion, the best photojournalism is done by photographers for Time. I have never been published in that magazine but I have done a lot of news and feature photography and I’m happy with that.

That last was Playboy. My reasons extended beyond photography, but I still felt they did exquisite portraits. Alas, I never did photograph any naked women and my wife is happy with that.

Today photography has become so advanced with new technology and artificial intelligence programs that it is hard to know what is an actual photograph and what is fake or so enhanced that it is no longer real.

It is my intention to step away from the madness and confusion of modern journalism and do some farming with my wife; growing some crops and raising small animals. We both did that as children and we’ve always had a desire to do it again. Instead of talking about it, we’re making it happen. At least we’re trying to. Sometimes I wonder if all the snafus buying and selling homes isn’t God’s way of redirecting our steps. We’ll see!