Carlos’s Photo Blog

I got this in an email. Does not matter if it is true…

Three Things that are Constant:

Father, Son & Holy Spirit.

I was walking around in a Target store, when I saw a cashier hand this little boy some money back.

The boy couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 years old.

The Cashier said, “I’m sorry, but you don’t have
enough money to buy this doll.”

Then the little boy turned to the old woman next to him: ”Granny, are you sure I don’t have enough money?”

The old lady replied: ”You know that you don’t have enough money to buy this doll, my dear.”

Then she asked him to stay there for just 5 minutes
while she went to look a round. She left quickly.

The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand.

Finally, I walked toward him and I asked him who he wished to give this doll to.

“It’s the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for Christmas.

She was sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her.”

I replied to him that maybe Santa Claus would bring it to her after all, and not to worry.

But he replied to me sadly. “No, Santa Claus can’t
bring it to her where she is now. I have to give the
doll to my mommy so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there.”

His eyes were so sad while saying this. “My Sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says that Mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister.”

My heart nearly stopped.
The little boy looked up at me and said: “I told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the mall.”

Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing. He then told me “I want mommy to take my picture with her so she won’t forget me.”

“I love my mommy and I wish she doesn’t have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister.”

Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly.

I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. “Suppose we check again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll?”

“OK” he said, “I hope I do have enough.” I added some of my money to his with out him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money.

The little boy said: “Thank you God for giving me
enough money!”

Then he looked at me and added, “I asked last night before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy t his doll, so that mommy could give It to my sister. He heard me!”

“I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn’t dare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and a white rose.”

“My mommy loves white roses.”

A few minutes later, the old lady returned and I left with my basket.

I finished my shopping in a totally different state from when I started.

I couldn’t get the little boy out of my mind.

Then I remembered a local news paper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a truck, who hit a car occupied by a young
woman and a little girl.

The little girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-sustaining machine, because the young woman would not be able to recover from the coma.

Was this the fami ly of the little boy?

Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the news paper that the young woman had passed away.

I couldn’t stop myself as I bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home where the body of the young woman was exposed for people to see and make
last wishes before her burial.

She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful
white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest.

I left the place, teary-eyed, feeling that my life had been changed for ever.. The love that the little boy had for his mother and his sister is
still, to this day, hard to imagine.

And in a fraction of a second, a drunk driver had taken all this away from him.

Just wanted to share that with everyone!

Carlos

Well I do not have any more pics with me and I did not want to repost the ones I did before. Sure I got tons more pics, but this time I want to concentrate on words. I sent this email out a couple of days ago to some of my Brother Knights in my current council.

Hey Brothers,

I neglected to mention something. I still keep in touch with my previous council and one of the big events that is still close to my heart is a fundraiser they have every year to fund scholarship for local kids. It is for the local parish in San Antonio, but I wanted to ask everyone to pray for our Brothers in Texas as they make a yearly journey to the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle [http://www.olsjbasilica.org/web/home] in San Juan, TX. I will give you some back ground so you can pray for them at critical stops along their journey. I may have mentioned this to some of you, but I am not sure if I shared with the council.

This started about 10 years ago as a way to raise awareness for vocations. Two Brother Knights walked from San Antonio to Austin, TX. They walked over the course of a few days. Over the years it grew and it has become a crucial component of a scholarship fund the council supports. The last few years they have given out approx $10,000 a year to high school and 1st year college students. Over the course of the years I think more than $100,000 has been given away.

So how do they raise this money? For the last few years they have walked in teams to the Basilica. I have joined them on the walk a couple of times. Some of you may have been to Texas, but the route they take from San Antonio to San Juan, is an arduous trip. It is very timely that the journey is done during lent. I found myself reflecting a lot on Jesus’ travels thru the desert. This is southwest Texas after all. Even in March it is already getting warm. Usually it is a group of 15 to 20 men and they walk in teams of 3 for 3 miles at a time. See the theme? All in all over 300 miles are covered over the course of the 3 days it takes to get there, hmm another 3!

It not only is a wonderful way to raise money, but I solidified many friendships on those walks. After all, we slept wherever we could. There are a couple of parishes along the way that put us up for the night and even feed us. Or should I say them. Needless to say I cherish my memories of my walks, maybe not the memories of the blisters! Since I no longer live in Texas I try to do something while they are on the walk. I usually pray a rosary during my lunch break at work and call them while they are on the road.

The greatest thing is arriving at the Basilica on the third day and being received by all the visitors and especially our families. I am not sure if it is the fact of knowing the journey is almost over or seeing our wives and children run out to hug us that keeps us going. The next day we have a special mass at the Basilica. It is a great tradition and is something I miss the most about my previous council.

I just wanted to share this with everyone. The scholarships are only open to local kids in the parish, but if anyone would like to make a donation you can send it to:

Knight of Columbus Council #8175
C/O Robert Salinas
9542 Sage Terrace
San Antonio, TX 78251

I just ask that you pray for our fellow Brothers on their Journey. They start this Thursday at approx 9am. They leave the Resurrection of the Lord Catholic Church parking lot and make their way southwest towards San Juan, TX. They usually stop walking at a little bit after dusk for safety reasons and start the next day as soon as there is light. So pray for them especially during these times.

Vivat Jesus
SK Carlos Medina

I posted last year about the walk. I should probably start a website for it or maybe at least a facebook page. Anything to bring more awareness to a couple of things, Vocations and Scholarships. So what do you mean by vocations? That means I want more young men to become Priests. I want more people to become involved in my Catholic Faith. I know I struggled when I went to college. Ha, that is an understatement, I am still going to college! I want everyone to get as much help as they need. Not only that, but make sure someone tells them “Go to college and finish it, because if you do not. You will be paying for it the rest of your life!”

So if any young high school kids reading this, this is for you!

Don’t fall in love, don’t be scared. Go get some more education. It is not about doing something for someone else. It is not about pleasing your parents or not pleasing your parents! It is not about impressing anyone by going away to some Ivy League school. It is not about running away. It is not about being pretentious. The only thing it is about is improving yourself and your chances in this world we live in. I will have to say college may not be for everyone and there are many great things you can do without a college degree, but try it! And don’t just go to a community college for the wrong reasons! Yeah do it to save money, but that is why there are scholarship programs, and financial aid, and other stuff! Just do it! We have a long life ahead of us and wasting it trying to catch up is one of the worst things you can do. Do it now when you are young, where you have energy. When you do not have 10 other things you want to do at the same time! Go and learn! It does not matter what, just go and just enjoy learning! Love will wait, parents will forgive you, and friends will skype with you. Just go!

Carlos

Oh yeah for those who want to see pics you can check out these previous blog posts:

http://carlostmedina.com/cphlog/?p=139

http://carlostmedina.com/cphlog/?p=172

http://carlostmedina.com/cphlog/?p=189

I really do not like the way the YAPB shows the picture in my post. I think I am just going to stick with thumbnails in the body. I wanted to post a big and small version of the same picture. Really just for me to see how it looks. It is actually snowing right now. I have tons of video on You tube of the snow. I have been doing some POV videos of me driving. Dont worry I am being safe. I mount the camera so I am not trying to drive and film at the same time. I might mount my dslr and take some pics…hmm I guess I need to focus on that since I like driving and photography so much. I just need to drive around and take more pictures. I am seriously considering taking the train down to center city and taking some shots down there. I missed doing that during the last storm. Darn it I left my camera at home.

Here is the same picture but in the actual full resolution from my camera. Of course I have been absent from photoshop for some time. So any of my pics are au naturale!

Ok, so that is totally huge. I think it will be ok to just use the small one unless someone really wants to see the high resolution image. I know in today’s world of “High Def” everyone wants all those pretty images on their website. I will keep playing with it.

So this was from the Snowageddon storm we had in Feb. Right now we are under the Snow-a-cane, the return. It is actually snowing sideways right now. These pics were from the day after the snow stopped. We never really got to build a snowman, but the kids had a lot of fun playing in the snow.

I guess I have to write some more stuff so the post looks ok. I am so lazy, I would rather just type some fluff instead of figure out how to force the gallery to keep the 2×2 structure. Maybe there isnt, maybe word press is just like that. I used to find answers now I just come up with more questions. So I have to remember for now that if I have a portrait orientation then I have to type at least 150 words or more. If it is in landscape then I can probably get away with writing almost nothing. This is after all a photoblog. A picture is worth a thousand words, but that does not mean I have to write a thousand words!

We are expecting to get another foor of snow before the weekend is over…

I was conversating with a friend of mine and for some reason I started singing this song!

Don’t this the wrong way, I am not a fan of dope, but I am a Mexican-American!

Carlos

I did not realize I had not posted any pictures in a while. Yesterday when we got home we saw these small lines in the snow. They were made by small twigs falling from the trees. IT looked pretty cool because the twigs made a deep slit into the snow. I thought one looked like a stick figure and Roman thought so as well. The only problem was that we had them in opposite positions. I made a hole where I thought the head would be. Roman said that he thought the head should go on the other end.

I will probably post some pics from the last big snow storm we had. We were outside playing snowball fights and trying to build stuff, but it was fun. It would have been more fun if I was not wearing jeans!

A good friend of mine, oops let me rephrase that, my Brother Robert sends out this weekly email. He is on facebook, but maybe I should get him a blog. So I am just going post what he emails me. I do not always listen to his message or anyone’s, but I have not grown up yet!

Can you believe another week gone by. Live life to the fullest every day.
Call an old friend and just say hi. Call a family member you haven’t talk to
in a long time and just tell them you love them. The days just go right by.
Keep all of your friends and family in your prayers for we know not what
they are going thru.

Robert Salinas

TODAY’S ENCOURAGING WORD – 2/5/2010

In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises.
Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and
moral excellence with knowledge
–2 Peter 1:5, NLT

So I was working on this problem at work just trying to use this grey matter that is in my head. I started thinking about other things like I often do when I try to focus. I have been having trouble focusing lately. I started taking an online class to finish up my bachelors degree. I have not been able to focus on that. I guess it does not help that it is an online course. when I am at work, I can’t focus on work. I am not really stressed out, but I just concentrate. I have so many loose ends in my life right now that it seems overwhelming.

I just took a pic outside of the window. I wanted to include some pic even if it just from my iPhone…

Carlos

OK so I am lying, it is not a new picture. It is an old picture. I am not sure I ever posted it anywhere though. This photo was actually printed. The picture is of one of the runners/participants in the Karakung kids triathlon. I have covered this event a couple of times. It is really fun and really tiring. I always get tons of great shots. This year I took my son with me and he took some shots of his own. I put the camera on a small tripod about 8 inches off the ground next to the pool where the swimmers were getting out of the pool. I attached the remote release and had him sit there and told him to just push the button when someone passed by. He got some good shots. Since I set up the shot does that mean I got some good shots.

Carlos Medina

• Has everyone watched the Caprica pilot already! Who else thinks it is all flavors of awesome! It defintely has watchability! #
• Saw a fb group called "move superbowl to Saturday night" I totally agree or make it early on Sunday! I got kids who go to school on Monday! #
• I cannot wait for the #SNL sketch on the #ipad! Oh no I gizzed in my pants! #
• I am eating some Munster cheese with crackers. yummy! #
• Not sure if this is funny or scary, but tons of people gizzed thier pants when they saw the new ipad! My post was retweeted! #
• Mexicans dont buy stuff! They steal it! RT @georgelopez: The Lopez Tonight store is now open for business!! Orale!! http://bit.ly/9fX48r #
• 8 Things That Suck About the iPad http://i.gizmodo.com/5458382/ %23apple %23appleipad Unfortunately I have to agree with all these points! #
• http://twitpic.com/102ysy my dealer just dropped off another package! I swear these things are like crack! Wait I have never done crack! #
• I am not sure I want teenagers. I hope my kids move out when they turn 13!!!! #
• It is 18 outside, we are at roman's bball game and there are 3 team here…oops #
• Oh no, roman's team is down 9-6, start of the second half… http://twitpic.com/10i68n #
• http://twitpic.com/10kub6 just threw another log on the fire. The cord of wood I bought is almost gone! #
• We can go where we want to cuz the night is young and so we…we can dance, we can dance, everybody take off your pants! #
• Catching up on chuck! Had enough of my accounting homework. Making some popcorn. Still cold outside… #
• http://twitpic.com/10pizm Roman is laughing cuz i sang " I posted on facebook" #
• I uploaded a YouTube video — Pauline jamming out http://youtu.be/9klLPNWcYRc?a #
• http://twitpic.com/10r2fc ok, whose mom had one of these growing up. Bonus if you have now! #

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