I've Moved!

As of October 7, 2009, I've moved my blogging operations over to http://patricktraylor.com/blog

Please come and visit!

-Pat

High School Sports Streak

Seems like I've been shooting lots and lots of high school sports lately... here are a few from the past couple weeks.

Best,
Pat

Butterfly Kids

Melissa Tharp takes care of her sons Marcos, 9, and Carlos, 10, who both suffer from a form of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, a rare genetic disorder in which the microscopic collagen fibers holding together layers of skin together don't work properly. For the boys, who will eventually die from the condition, the slightest touch or movement causes open sores and blisters. Children with their condition are often referred to as butterfly kids because their skin is as fragile as a butterfly's wing. I had the pleasure of visiting the family's home in Hutchinson earlier this month and the story was just published over the weekend, hence the delay. Read the story here.

Thanks for looking,
Pat

Kansas City Getaway

On a personal note, I met my girlfriend Emalie in Kansas City, our halfway point between St. Louis and Hutchinson, for a relaxing Sunday/Monday. Although it's not pictured we did have some delicious bbq as well. Back to work tomorrow...

Cheers,
Pat

Greensburg

The gutted basement of a house remains exposed as the city of Greensburg rebuilds around it.

Workers continue construction on the new city hall.

A solar panel outside a new residence.

A decaying basketball hoop still stands on a vacant property.

Sam Lofgren with Hardinger Construction works on Gary Goodman's antique shop on Main St.

Greensburg High School head football coach Clint Young throws passes to his players during a drill at football practice in Greensburg on Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 22. In the background are some of the temporary trailers being used to conduct classes until the new high school is completed.


I had the chance to visit Greensburg, Kansas last week to do an update on the rebuilding process there. The town was virtually wiped off of the map by a tornado in May of 2007, but instead of abandoning the town, residents have been rebuilding ever since. All kinds of new building projects are going up around town, most of which include sustainable, energy efficient features. It was a really interesting experience to walk around this place and see brand new construction on one side of the street and then abandoned remains on the other side. Again, I wish I could have had more time, but hopefully I'll get to come back at some point before the end of the year.

Bardo the Clown

Here are a few images of J.B. Holdren, better known as Bardo the Clown, in his store and workshop on Sunday, Sept. 19 at the Kansas State Fair. In addition to doing his own carvings, Bardo paints all the signs, backdrops, and props for the fair every year. He lives year-round in a trailer on the fairgrounds and has been a part of the Kansas State Fair for 65 consecutive years. Although he sometimes claims to be as old as 118, he keeps his actual age a closely guarded secret.

I wish I would have had more time to spend with him at the fair, but due to a pretty tight schedule, I only fit in basically one morning. It was a lot of fun hanging out with him during the time I had though.

-Pat

The low sun behind me

Driving back to Hutchinson from western Kansas last night.

MacBook Pro

Last Monday my 5-year-old 12-inch Apple Powerbook G4 finally died- about a month before I'd spilled water on it. I immediately turned it off and then let it dry out for a week after encasing it in rice to absorb any excess moisture. When I turned it on again the screen was dead but when I hooked it up to another monitor, I found that the computer worked. So I'd been using my laptop basically as a desktop until last Monday when, after restarting during a software update, everything went blank.

Yadda, yadda, yadda... I got my new 13-inch MacBook Pro this Monday. I was able to pretty much seamlessly transfer everything from my old computer to my new one via Firewire cable. Apparently my old hard drive was not dead and all my programs, music, browser bookmarks, photos and documents were transferred over- even my desktop background- when my new computer booted up after set-up. I don't mean for this post to be an Apple ad, but I was thoroughly impressed by how easily everything transferred over. It was brilliant. Anyway, hopefully in the next few days I'll get caught up on posting images from the last few days of the Kansas State Fair and a few other things I've been up to since being sent temporarily into the dark ages.

Cheers,
Pat

Friday State Fair

Kaden Littrell, 13, is silhouetted while leading his horse T.J. Miss Royal Lady through one of the rear doors to the Expo Arena before the 4H Horse Show at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, Kan. on Friday morning, Sept. 18.