Even bad photos tell good stories

We’re never averse to trying something new here at Just Wright Citrus so today we introduce the photo page.

I hear you saying already, “Wait a minute! You’re a TERRIBLE photographer! All we see are pictures of buildings, parking lots and county commission meetings. Good thing you can string two sentences together or there’d be no reason to be here.”

First off, that’s a little harsh, don’t you think? I’m not sure it passes my standards of polite discourse. But it is true. I am a terrible photographer and I’m grateful you put up with it.

Photo ability is definitely the weak spot of the Just Wright Citrus blogroom. What I lack in skill I make up with enthusiasm and ridiculous camera angles.

I’m out driving on Citrus County roads a lot. Or walking through downtown Inverness. Some of my impromptu photos end up on Facebook right away, others I’m not sure what to do with until one day I get the bright idea for a photo page. So, here we go.

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Spend any time at all around Inverness and you’ll see Mike Van Dyke with his guitar. I came out of Cattle Dogs the other day to a pouring rain, so I introduced myself and he was kind enough to let me take his picture.

There is something small townish about a guy sitting outside a cafe on a weekday morning with his guitar. I stood there trying my different camera angles, quiet but for the rain and his peaceful strumming.

Mike said something so cool I wrote it on one of my business cards:

“I try to promote the beauty I’m familiar with.”

Words to live by, brother Mike.

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Here's something you don’t see everyday: An airplane in Big Lake Henderson at Wallace Brooks Park.

I first noticed this plane about a year or two ago, and even posted something on my personal Facebook page about it. I mean…it may be common where you live, but I have as much chance of seeing a seaplane on the lake as I do a manatee.

So it was great timing the other day when, walking to Just Wright World Headquarters from another Cattle Dogs visit, the airplane was again at the park and this time the pilot was preparing to depart.

His name is Mark Normark from The Villages. Says he’s been flying seaplanes for 30 years. He enjoys flying to Inverness and the tranquility of Wallace Brooks Park.

I watched him taxi out into the middle of the lake, turn around and then head back, rising as he passed me into the warm summer air before banking slightly right. 

I’m grateful for moments like that.

I don’t know what the heck’s going on here or why I decided to take a photo of an empty county commission chambers.

But now you know the Just Wright Citrus view. That’s my seat. Back row, on the aisle, in front of the post where, years ago, the county added an outlet so I could plug in my electronics.

That chair is my home every other Tuesday. I’ll never forget coming home from Michigan after my dad died, and not really feeling normal again until I went to a county commission meeting and sat down in my little office away from the office.

I can see everything from back there and, more importantly, I get a decent vibe of the room. 

Many years ago, before any of the current five were in office, the moods of the room had been steadily going downhill for several months. It wasn’t unusual to see people grumbling or shaking their heads as commissioners pontificated about this or that.

After one such meeting, I was speaking with a commissioner who went on about all the wonderful things he was doing and how they’re really on the right track.

I looked at him.

“Commissioner,” I said, “from where I sit there’s a wide valley between you and reality.”

Enjoy your Citrus County snapshot of reality this weekend, friends.

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