Christmas Day at the Grand Canyon

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Grand Canyon National Park at dawn

While it might have pained Jutta to rise so early on freezing cold days, there’d be no missing sunrise in the Grand Canyon. There weren’t many photos taken and shared across these posts as on previous visits to the United States; we made every opportunity to capture the moments of my mother-in-law in every new place she visited. This trip was not only her last, but due to the hip she broke earlier in the year, her mobility wasn’t the best, so we just took things easy.

Caroline Wise and Jutta Engelhardt at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona

Of the other photos of our day spent along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, this is the only one that really mattered.

El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon National Park

Just spending time with Jutta was enough and really, that was all she ever wanted anyway. Well, that and to laugh.

Grand Canyon National Park

As it grew late in the day, we took in as much of the sunset as we could before heading in for an early dinner and sitting around chatting on Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve at the Grand Canyon

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona

It’s Christmas Eve, as we arrive late in the afternoon to catch the sunset in the Grand Canyon National Park.

Jutta Engelhardt and Caroline Wise at the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona

This is Jutta’s first Christmas visit to the Grand Canyon of the nearly 12 times she’s been to this park during the ten trips she’s made to America. The Grand Canyon was a dream come true for her, and she’s never bored in her many visits, but sadly this is her last time here. When we made this journey up north for the occasion, we were aware of my mother-in-law’s growing physical weakness as she’s 78 years old in this photo, but the other part of the situation that’s looming is her declining memory. I can’t help but look at this photo and now see it as a toast to all the incredible times the three of us have spent together over the years her daughter has lived so far away. I’d give anything to see this old lady in the El Tovar once more for dinner and to wake up the next morning for sunrise over one of her favorite places in the world. Fröhliche Weihnachten forever, Jutta.

Psychedelic Paintball Cow Finds Enlightenment – TimefireVR

JWise TimefireVR

Psychedelic Paintball Cow Finds Enlightenment

Today, we tripped into a new light-bending paradigm, secret software with a secret sauce that we have to remain mum about. This is literally the very first thing we painted with it, and we’ve only scratched the surface or etched its Normals if you are of the 3D digital artist persuasion. We’d love to tell you more, but maybe we’ve already shared too much. A new kind of fun will arrive next year, and it will blow plenty of minds, and all without the benefit of drugs.

Education On The Light Plane – TimefireVR

JWise TimefireVR

Substance in TimefireVR

Visions of the new school. Our classroom will only exist within the electronic bits that pulse particles of light into the ether that lies between the flat panel and the optic nerve. We’re taking the instructor and turning him into the digital character of our choice; no one is afraid of computer monsters around here. We’ll materialize the software of our choosing into a virtual reality playground that enters the third dimension, maybe the fourth, if any of you can point us to the right download. You’ll walk between tools, grab the ax size paintbrush and slash brushstrokes onto the canvas, kick virtual buckets of color into space, and you can forget about finger paints as your hands do the fancy-dance frenzy to smear the image into a psychedelic landscape. Learning will become a physical exercise in our new world.

Right now, we’re amateurs, painfully aware of that status, too, but we’re not standing still. The computer industry has given us scissors that have been trained to cut up reality, and we’re running as fast as we can with them. Taking our cue from the many innovators, inventors, and thinkers who have created this digital age, we are using their inspiration as the textbook and video tutorial for what our next steps have to be. We bow down before the countless super-minds who have invented the algorithms that bend the light of the universe to our liking, and we thank each of you.