Just a quick note: If you encounter me on any of the services that include an icon or picture, or go to my personal website, you’ll now encounter some variant on this picture.
The picture(s) I’d been using were either three years or eight years old (depending), taken in Alaska during cruises. In both pictures, I had a mustache–one I had for more than 30 years.
I shaved off the mustache a little over a year ago. It’s not coming back. While it was essentially invisible in icon-size versions of the picture (white hair blends pretty well with pale skin), it was still there.
The picture above was taken July 6, 2011, during a hike in Morgan Territory Regional Preserve, near here. (I go for hikes–nothing too strenuous–every Wednesday with some varying number of other folks.) Those are hiking poles in my hand, and a truly elegant hat (OK, a cheap gardening hat, but it does the job and fits my fat head) on my head.
Before you ask: No, the photo hasn’t been Photoshopped–neither my wife nor I owns Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.
It has, to be sure, been altered–not to make me less aged, but to move me from kneeling as part of a group shot to me kneeling in the open area to the left of the group. My wife did the editing, using Corel Paint Shop Pro. Only the background was changed (and it’s background that is actually in the original picture)-she didn’t attempt to touch up my numerous wrinkles or other facts of being just under 66.
A handsome man at any age!