Sunrise on the Stillwater section of the Green River, Canyonlands National Park, Utah. Taken during our annual fall canoe trip.

Kate MacLeod

It's been my privilege to know Kate MacLeod for a long time. She's an amazingly talented instrumentalist and has a sparkling, effortless voice that I always love hearing. Here she's performing at a small Quaker benefit concert in March 2007. Those of us in the Salt Lake valley are fortunate to be able to hear her several times a year, usually in intimate settings with good acoustics.

My Funky Elbow

In a freak accident I ruptured the distal biceps tendon in my right arm. Translation: the tendon attaching my biceps to the bone near my elbow was torn off, so it had nothing to pull against any more. Here's the surgical repair. The raised area on the radius is the 'radial tuberosity' where my surgeon (Ed Weeks, in Salt Lake City) ground off the remains of the tendon there, drilled a hole in the bone (it's the lighter area above the button) and used a metal 'button' with sutures to retain the (trimmed up) end of the severed tendon. It's held in position over the tuberosity where it 'knows' it should re-attach. The tendon actually grows back onto the bone, which seems pretty amazing to me. This takes a long time - 2 months in a rigid brace, and 5-6 months until it is fully healed. X-rays don't show the muscle, tendon or sutures. Apparently even MRIs and ultrasound don't do a good job of imaging either, so you can't really know how well it's healing. In the meantime I can't do anything which might tense up the right biceps and rip out the repair - no biking, swimming, backpacking, paddling, or handholding my DLSR...

Viola da Gamba

According to Wikipedia, viola da gamba is the Italian name for the viol, and means "viol of the leg," which also helped differentiate it from the visually similar but only distantly related early violin family which the Italians called viola da braccio (lit. "viol of the arm").

This particular viola da gamba has seven strings, for some fantastic bass, and is owned and played by Ronnee Fullerton of the Baroque Trio.