The Obies: Commercials about families of deer

So today has been interesting at least to me.

I'll start with the most recent part. Sorry I don't have pictures to go along. I had something happen a few minutes ago that made me think that I was getting simpler and older, or maybe I'm simply getting older. Either way, I enjoyed myself and the world seemed somehow simpler.

I got home and fed Jackson and watched a little TV and then Jackson let it be known that neither watching TV, playing in his exersaucer, or jumping in his jumper were going to satisfy him. So we decided to go rollerblading which has always calmed him down before. I bundled him up pretty well and got into my Landrollers and took off. We made it to the little travelled road down the street from us and were going along at a pretty good clip when I saw a long white flag attached to the back end of a bounding deer. I know that deer reportedly put up their tails in warning when they are scared, but I had never seen it to this degree. It is still at least somewhat special to see deer in the field when we drive by, but coming up on one with no other sounds around and just you and the deer is such a different experience. He bounded more like I would imagine a big rabbit or a kangaroo. Just a neat brush with nature. He soon bounded out of view and I kept on rollerblading. Unfortunately, within a minute I heard a shotgun blast. I don't know if the shot was directly linked with the deer I saw, but it triggered a quick shift from happy contentedness with life to a sense of melancholy.

I understand hunting and have some close friends that hunt. Its just not for me. I continued on my route and came to an open field on either side of the road and had another treat. I've always wondered about some of those photographs/artworks that purport not to use any special filters and use only natural sunlight to display these unbelievable depths of color. Well I happened upon this field at the exact right moment. The sun was almost gone and the sun was a deep merlot over the evergreens in the background, but the impressive thing were the small sprouts(I believe they were small corn stalks).
The light was just right for them to pick up the color while keeping the surrounding ground dark and almost black. They almost seemed to be lit from within the ground. Again, I was happy to be outside with Jackson and running up on such a beautiful and unique aspect of nature. When I turned around at the end of the road and returned to this spot, the light inside the earth must have burned out because the corn stalks were now simply pedestrian. I will bring a camera along with me for my next trip out.

About where I had seen the first deer on the way out, I saw another crossing the road and heading the other direction. This was a medium sized buck and he was moving along pretty well also. Dusk had hit and I did not get as good a view of him, but was happy to see him bounding away into the darkness. I said "Run buddy, run" under my breath and kept on skating. Instead of hearing a shotgun blast a minute later, I saw a hunter heading back to his truck with his gun already packed away in a large bag due to the failing sun. I said good evening to him and thought, score one for nature, at least for tonight.

I saw 3 more deer in the field near our house and got back home with Jackson. He hadn't made so much as a peep on our trip, but he showed at least a momentary displeasure about it being over. The crying did not last long, and he has been entertaining himself while I write this. Thanks Jackson.

Thanks for allowing this self indulgence. The part that will interest everyone else other than me will be posted soon, but I've get to get a move on. Love you all.

Oops, well I never got to post the last one without the pics, so now it is 3 days later. Lets add in the more interesting part of the day. The commercial!!!

Wednesday was the day of the shoot for the North Carolina Furniture for Less commercial and quite a crew was gathered.

Allison and Parker came to help the cuteness and family quotient of the commercial. And then the entire Julian family and local Obie crew were there including Nana. Jackson took this opportunity to crawl on Nana before the filming began.

We began with Elizabeth and I being customers sitting down on a couch and chair that we were interested in. My performance was not particularly convincing, but then again I was sitting on a floral print and it did nothing to accentuate my curves.

The filming then moved to the back of the store with Parker and Allison and the bulldogs getting involved.

We then moved back to the front of the store and Jackson made his film debut. He was quite a ham, laying on the bed and giggling and even crossing his legs for the camera. We'll have to see what it looks like on the Food network and HGTV next month.

And finally the family shot at the end with Jackson riding Fenway. Jackson and Parker and the bulldogs were all exceptionally well behaved for this day and we can't wait to see the final product. It took a few hours and we were all pretty hungry by the end of it....