It was a lovely day, yesterday. Shirtsleeves weather. Short shirtsleeves.
The Redding area
is a realtor's dream when the weather is like this. Not everyone would
buy a house here when it’s 110 degrees, but everybody loves sunshine and
low 70’s.
These are great days for photographing nature.
Yesterday, my neighbor, Margaret, and I went to take a few pix at some favorite photo spots.
Photo credit - Margaret Miller
A tiny spot of blue in the grass caught my attention, so I got a close-up shot.
Trees are budding
and flowers are blooming at least a month too soon for their regular
pollinators. These are interesting times for botanists and
entomologists.
Today is another gorgeous day. I look forward to finding more subjects to tickle the Leica lenses on the Panasonic Lumix cameras.
This morning,
I turned off the noisy refrigerator while I had coffee, read the news,
checked my email, and had breakfast. It was heavenly peaceful in my
little abode. A wonderful way to start the day.
Still feeding the baby
Since it has been back on, it is only cycling up to about three fourths the volume it was yesterday. It is not cycling as often, either.
I could
chalk this up to it having reset itself, like a computer, or it could
be possessed with a personality that has an aversion to being replaced.
Today was
a lenticular cloud day. This one pictured here, that Mount Shasta
created, was particularly fun to watch as it changed shape. I could
easily imagine that something so big and active would contain a
personality of sorts, “I spin, therefore I am”.
I followed it over
time, and from different locations. I even made the rookie mistake of
shooting a few pictures in portrait mode. I was enamored, enchanted,
and clearly not in complete control of my photographic impulses. Ah
well, I just stuck them side by side in Pages, made a PDF, exported it as a JPEG, shrank it to blog size, and they fit on the page that way,
“I find solutions, therefore I am”.
Sometimes,
I enjoy finding character and personalities in appliances, clouds,
chairs, cars, shoes, and umbrellas. My life is a lot richer when it is
populated with whimsy, imagination, and magical creations.
So, if my refrigerator is quieter now because it likes it here and wants to stay, or if it was a mechanical reset, at least it is less noisome.
I choose to use my imagination to make living with the noisy creature more fun, but I will be happier when I get a quieter refrigerator.
Today’s Musical Video; ( I think this is the best Marie Daniels video, so far.)
Many a Sunday evening,
I have driven home from opening the Jefferson State Blues Society
Sunday Jam, and, while crossing the Sacramento river on the Market
street bridge, I have seen the lights of the Sundial Bridge reflecting
on the river.
Each time
that it looks tantalizingly photogenic, I say to myself, “You should
drive over to the kayak launching spot near the bridge, and take a
picture”. This Sunday, I finally did.
My neighbor,
Doris, let me know that one of her cacti was blooming, so I took a few
pictures. I like the new place she has put the cactus. The images can be
staged in a number of interesting ways.
Tonight I am writing the blog post from my, ‘study’. When I am finished, the study will be dismantled and the bedroom will reappear.
This move
to the bedroom was provoked by the roaring, gurgling, mind erasing,
relentless sound of the refrigerator. Sometimes it is extremely
uncomfortable for me to be in the otherwise delightful living space of
this apartment because of the sound level of the refrigerator. That’s a
shame. I love living in this place.
I guess
I will ask Kathern, our manager, again to replace it. She and Tony, our
maintenance person, came in last year to listen, but it didn’t seem
loud to them. Like most people, their hearing is not as acute as mine,
so I can understand how they might not have thought it was too loud.
Since it is even louder this year, maybe they will hear it this time.
I searched my blog with the word ‘refrigerator’, and it found THESE POSTS where I wrote about the noisy refrigerator. They go back to 2009!
I even considered
turning the thing off entirely and just using it to store potatoes,
mushrooms, and carrots, but where would I keep the Trader Joe’s vanilla
ice cream?
Full Wolf Moon
I watched
60 minutes Sunday night. I am really glad that Barack Obama and Hillary
Clinton are representing our country. It was so refreshing to see that
there are at least two people in our government who are intelligent,
educated, and experienced in matters of state.
Yes,
it’s that time again. The hungry wolves can be heard
outside the teepee's, on the snow covered hills, howling at the moon. We
call this the Full Wolf Moon, because the wolves bellies are empty and
the moon is full.
I realize
it doesn’t make perfect sense, but I suspect it was difficult to
translate Algonquin into English. Sometimes it’s hard to translate
English into English.
John Harrison
was kind enough to put a new set of strings on my guitar this week. He
would rather do it than have to look at the way my guitar looks after I
change the strings. They stay in tune better while playing a gig after
he has strung them, too.
My guitar always sounds so nice with fresh strings.
Photo credit - Rocky Evans
“La Primera Vez”,
or, “The First Time”, is the name of the new song that John and I
started writing this week. It feels really good to play, and I have
almost finished writing the words and story.
John came up with a beautiful Spanish sounding musical hook, so I translated the main phrase into Spanish. It works. Stay tuned.
I can see why this fellow wouldn’t want a background check, or a ban on assault weapons.
I also understand why the NRA would mount a media campaign against anything that might have a negative effect on weapons manufacturers.
But why
are people so quick to embrace those blatant lies and
misrepresentations of the NRA propaganda that are in opposition to facts
and common sense?
My new favorite
side dish is Trader Joe’s frozen stir fry vegetables. I put half a
package in a covered microwave container for about 3 min and presto, add
some fresh ground pepper and eat. This way I have something healthy on
my plate while I continue to use up the food in my freezer that contains
creepy, factory animal parts.
Last night, I got to watch Jupiter as it appeared to move from one side of the moon to the other.
It was
a bit more spectacular than my current, ‘night moon camera’, (Lumix
FZ5), can capture, but the dust speck in the image, (above at 1
o’clock), is an image of Jupiter.
Today, got off to
a tasty start with an all organic breakfast. The fruit, cereal, and
milk were all as nutritious, and tasty, one can get without growing it
oneself. Do you know anyone who grows their own organic bananas?
The Treehouse flowers
looked happy, and healthy when I stepped outside to check the mail. I
had plans to go on a photo excursion to take some train pictures with my
neighbor, Margaret, down by the trestle that crosses the Sacramento
river.
While waiting
for a train, we noticed a large flock of robins descending onto the
Shasta Horseshoe Club, horseshoe pit area. The photography subject of
the outing was changed to robins.
There were
between 75 and 100 robins, pecking in the ground for worms. A few came
close enough to get many good pictures of them. I plan to study the pix until I can identify the differences between the robins.
There was no
3:30, or 4:00 train to photograph, but it was a great day to snap
pictures of robins. I wonder if it is the same flock that I have seen
here at the Treehouse. I will have to compare pictures after I learn how
to tell them apart.
Meanwhile, back at the Treehouse, I took a few more pictures.
This resident bird
wanted it’s picture taken. I was experimenting with using the manual
focus toggle, so the bird posed patiently while I ‘dialed in’ a nice
portrait of it perched on the bush that it calls home.
I took this
picture of the colorful flowers that Steve grows in a flower box on his
porch, then headed up to see what goodies I might have brought back in
the Lumix FZ8.
I am trying
different methods to put groups of photos here, on the blog, in ways
that might show the light, shadow, and color dynamics of the original
images. Today’s video is a slightly better version of the video shown on
the previous post.
It still lacks
the vibrant color and detail that exists in the original pictures. I
have a couple more experiments left that might achieve the results I
seek. I will continue to make improvements each time inspiration chooses
to visit this experiment. In the meantime...
You may have read
about the new prescription drug provider, (or whatever one is supposed
to call this unnecessary attachment to Medicare), that took over the
previous company. The old one was Orange Slush fund, or something. The
new one is Silver Platter Partners, or some such name for the private
prescription plan the republicans inserted into the Medicare program
during the Bush administration.
I went to Safeway
to pick up a prescription today, and forgot to bring the card for this
years corporate money leaching device, ah hem, prescription plan. I
would have had to return the next day with my card in hand had it not
been for John, the helpful pharmacist.
He took it upon himself
to negotiate the twists and turns of the information highway on my
behalf. He tapped, clicked, watched for the results, and even made a few
trips to the other end of the prescription counter to get papers with
codes and numbers to enter into the computer when the previous numbers
led down the wrong electron path. I mean to say that this determined and
dedicated person wrestled with that computer, (and with whatever entity
was on the other end), for at least 15 minutes until, with a fist-pump
of satisfaction, he got me fixed up with the new set of numbers.
I am in
the system now, until the next conglomerate swallows the Silver Spoon
prescription plan. When they do, I hope I will remember to bring the new
card they send me.
John, the kind pharmacist at Safeway, handed me my prescription. I thanked him profusely, and headed over to the library.
As I was walking
from the Buick to the library entrance, I noticed that I could see
Mount Shasta through a space between a tree branch and a wall about 100
feet away at the end of the building. As usual, I had a camera with me
and got this shot between the wall and branch, and through the net on
the softball field on the next lot. What fun.
My next stop was Trader Joe’s, where the moon was showing me it’s good side, and I got this nice detailed hand held shot of Luna.
I made
a slide show with the Apple program, Keynote. I had forgotten that I
could make slideshows with that full featured presentation tool which
came as part of the iWork software package.
There was
a way to just use HTML code to post it to this blog, but I wasn’t sure
how to time my music track and the video transitions that way, so I made
it into a movie and added music I produced with a keyboard and
GarageBand then put them together in iMovie.
I just finished reading Killed at the Whim of a Hat
by Colin Cotterill. It is an interesting and entertaining detective
story set in Thailand. The mix of Western and Asian influences in family
dynamics would be story enough, but the many plot lines are thicker
than sticky rice.
A faster read, for me, was the latest Walt Longmire mystery by Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies.
This is one of those kind of books that I will consume in one reading
if I don’t make myself put it on the nightstand to finish reading the
next night.
The past few days
have been a treasure trove of delight for photography, and just plain
old viewing enjoyment. I have been clicking away at so many interesting
subjects, that I have created a logjam of images. Any one of the
hundreds of pictures would be a keeper, and even after pareing that
number down by disqualifying images with correctable flaws, I still have
a lot of really nice photos.
I would like to
find an HTML5 App that I can use to display art and graphics in new
ways, but so far, I haven’t found any that work well for me. I really
don’t want to write computer applications. For me, that is the
antithesis of creativity and best left to someone who finds joy in
writing programs.
In the meantime,
there are a few other ways in which I can display many pictures at
once. There are galleries, slideshows, and presentations, in addition to
video’s.
I have sorted
the new images into files of manageable numbers. My plan is to make a few new
videos combining the images with some of my recent recordings. I just
need to set aside the time to do it.
It takes me
about 10 hours to produce a simple 3 minute video. That is after the
images and music have already been edited and are in their presentable
forms.
What a wonderful
world I got plopped into. I have been given opportunities to make
the best of the person that is me. This hasn’t always been the case.
There were years when I stood in opposition to my best interests, but I
think those times were necessary learning experiences and the value of
the knowledge gained could not have been achieved any other way.
