Day/Night flipped out

On Saturday after Thanksgiving I woke up feeling terrible. I had not felt good on Thanksgiving, and after Googling my symptoms (yes, you CAN Google anything) I decided I just had a cold. By the time Thanksgiving day was over I was in the throes of a common cold. Rats. Sore throat, coughing, nose running, you know. Had to work at 6 am the next morning, and by the time I got to work I was feeling like I had dodged the bullet. I had a good day. A good day on Super Friday as we call it at the store. We had a LOT of people at the store at 5:45 waiting on the doors to open. Busy all day.

By the time I finished dinner and slowed down to watch some TV I was miserable again. So I went to the drug store for an inhaler. While there I decided to drive through Wendy's and have a Frosty. Love them Frostys. At that point I was right near the entrance to the I-81 interstate and not wanting to go home yet for fear of just filling up again, I went on to work. At work I ran a report that I would need on Sunday. Not that it would get done on Sunday because I am off all weekend. But I ran the report so I could look it over.

Got home, went to bed, and woke up the next morning feeling like I just described. Got up about 9:45 and slipped a little later over to Jill's house where she and Todd and Georgiann were painting Jill's master bath and bedroom. Felt bad all day.

G & I went to my favorite place to eat, Sergio's in Bridgewater. New York style pizza and subs. I felt 300% better by the time we finished and returned home. I planned to go to bed about 10, but got seated at the computer looking up different things while listening to a CD G bought for us titled "Winter Songs" presented by the HOTEL CAFE featuring a number of Indie female artists, in particular some of my favorites like Ingrid Michaelson, Kate Havnevik and others.

Along about midnight, just before closing down and heading to bed, I got an email from my dear friend and Pastor. Read his email, replied and went to bed.

Bad choice. I couldn't sleep for wheezing, coughing and hacking. So got back up and began Googling each of the artists on this album. Read through most of their bios, their music, their shows and photos. Well, didn't particularly read their photos, just looked. It is always interesting to see the person behind the voice, especially when you like their music.

So here it is 3:30 am and I still have not slept at all. Now will I pay for it later today, Sunday? Pretty good chance I'd say. I know G has to do some shopping today. If left alone and to my own devices, I may be taking an afternoon nap. Which will only lead to me not sleeping as well and perhaps being up half the night again. Not good. Although I don't go to work Monday until 12, I do need to run by the health clinic and get blood drawn for the Dr. appointment I have the next Monday.

As much southern sweet ice tea as I have had in my 59 1/2 years you would almost believe I'd have tea in my veins. Although, it might be partially at fault for my high blood sugar. We did switch to Splenda a while back for that reason. I like it better than sugar, actually. Seems sweeter for the same amount.

If I am able to stay up I would like to get my two new porch railings sanded and a primer coat of KILZ on them. I have been "working" on them too long. Need to finish. Right now I have heard this Cd about 10 times in a row. And I still have to stop typing and listen to parts. Especially to Lenka sing All My Bells Are Ringing.

I discovered in my blogging and Googling the top 10 saddest songs in pop culture. It starts out with the Everly Brother's "So Sad to Watch Good Love go Bad." As I read down through them I had in my mind Roy Orbison. He would have to make the list. He did. Number 2. "It's Over." Now how sad is that? To realize your love for someone is done? Saddest words on earth, outside of spiritual things. And even sadder in my opinion than the song that was voted number 1.

I remember the very first time I heard this song. It was about 1981 or 1982, I was standing in the dean's office of the College of Mineral and Energy Research at West Virginia University. I worked for them for 7 years. And being country music fans in that office they always had the local country music station on. George Jones came over the airwaves singing, you betcha, "He Stopped Loving Her Today."

Allow me to quote the article from Yahoo.

"I don't care how hard-bitten you may be, I defy you not to get a lump in the throat from this 20-year-old classic of cornball liebestod. It's utterly transcendental--the most heartbreaking record ever made. "

Now if the word liebestod throws you, it's OK. I wasn't sure. According to the Oxford Dictionary it means love-death and is attributed to the German opera writer Wagner. He used the word in his opera Tristan und Isolde. No, I am not familiar with it either. I knew he wrote Die Wakure and I am familar with that music. It is known in English as Ride of the Valkeries.

4 am. The carriage turned into a pumpkin about 4 hours ago and the footmen ran off into the field. And here I sit with a glass slipper in my hand. Alas. She is gone. I didn't even get her cell phone number. Drat.

Camera choice

I have settled on the camera I would like to have most. The Canon PowerShot SD790 IS. It has all of the features I would like to have in a camera. You can see it here:

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_sd790-review/index.shtml.

If you have any input let me know.

Take them NOT for granted

This may be a little lengthy, but I wanted to share it.

In church last night we had a Thanksgiving eve service of sorts. It was very poignant for me as Pastor Kerry led us in a responsive reading, listening to several songs of thanks and prayers of thankfulness.

During one of the songs he asked us to list, just privately, the things we would not want to take for granted. Here is my list. After the first 3 or 4 that all began with the letter F, I continued with the theme and this is the result.

Things I Don’t Want to Take for Granted

Family: Family is a gift. Family is a treasure. Family is precious. No matter where we go in life we can never change the family we were brought into the world in, or replace them entirely.

Family Extended: Family extended includes my two beautiful and precious daughters in law, and my three precious granddaughters. Without them now I would be very incomplete.

Friends: Precious to me as well are my friends. It has been said there are friends who come into our lives to bring joy for a season and then move on. And there are friends who come into our lives to remain until the end. Both are sweet to me.

Fellowship: Fellowship not only with those of my social and spiritual status, but those of other cultures and ethnicity whose lives I can’t even begin to understand.

Faith: Faith has been the surest anchor of my entire life. It has seen me through good times and not so good times. And now in my latter years it has become the passion of my life.

Fatherhood: Through the process of watching Georgiann carry my three children to birth, through their birth, through their young years and now into their adult years, I have been blessed by being a father to the three of them.

Fine Food: From burgers to filets, from crayfish to lobster, from snickers to fudge royal cheesecake I am thankful for fine food. Fine food does not, however, include liver or injera bread.
Fun times: Vacations at Cape May and Williamsburg. Weddings in Bemus and Annapolis. Walks in the woods. Bike rides. Football at the Talbots. Sledding in the I-77 exit ramp ditch and ice skating on Back River.

Finances: Those times when we had enough money to do what we wanted, both times. Those times, all the rest, when we didn’t have enough to pay attention.

Finality of Life: Knowing I will not be here for ever. Knowing that this life is not all there is. Knowing that my end is closer than it has ever been and not being unhappy or afraid.

Future Home: Going to a place of no pain, no fear, no parting, no sadness. And staying there forever.

All of these things I do not want to take for granted.

Thanksgiving 2008.

Neighbors

OK, I have no idea who lives here. But I can tell you what road it can be seen from. It is in the Weyers Cave area. I was on some back roads today and came around a corner to see this. "Whoa," I said, "that would look out of place in my neighborhood." Wouldn't you just hate having that just over your back yard fence? "Hey, neighbor, can you clean up your place? It's affecting my property value."

Canon wins

I need to buy before I change my mind. I have pretty much settled on the Canon Powershot A2000IS . Three things won me over. 10mp, 3" LCD and optic image stabilization. It has a 6x zoom lens. Buying this camera may not necessitate me selling my D-70 which at this point would be painful. I am just beginning to get the hang of it and would hate to let it go. It is a truly professional camera and enables a lot of in camera flexibility over the image.


So, I would like to order it in the next week or so. I'd like to have time to get to know it before Todd and I bike Washington DC. If I could get it ordered before the weekend I might have it in time for Thanksgiving dinner. It looks like everyone will be here at our house for dinner including Lesa's dad, David, from Bemus Point, NY. Where is Bemus Point, NY? Go north out of Pittsburgh until you come to the water (that will be Lake Erie), turn right until you cross a reasonable body of water (that will be Chautaugua, a smaller lake for sure, but too big to jump across), turn immediately left. Tada! Benus Point. No, don't go now. Wait until late spring, July, when the sledding is poor. The roads are clear and the water is clear.


I'd say with three little ones I'd have lots of photo opportunities.


Maybe I'll post some from the new camera.

My choice

Unless someone out there raises their hand in the next few days I am most likely going to buy a Canon Powershot SD770 IS with a 4Gb memory card. I've looked hard at a number of small cameras and like this one. Actually, it is the newest generation of an older camera that I had thought I might buy. It is a Canon Powershot SD750. And the 750 is still a possibility. It has a very large, by small camera standards, 3" LCD screen that is used as a viewfinder as well as playback. The 770 IS has a 2.5" LCD screen but takes pictures at 10 megapixels vs 7.1 magapixels for the 750. Of course 10 mp fills up a memory card 30% faster than 7 mp. And the higher mp rating would only come into consideration at high enlargement dimensions. I can reduce the pixel rating within the camera, and the 770 has Image Stabilization technology built in. So, until it is time to push the purchase button, I am waffling.

I would like to find a way to attach the camera to my bike helmet and trip the shutter remotely with a handle bar mounted switch. Not sure that the small digitals even have the capability for remote shutter activation.

I just think it would be cool to have the camera mounted on the helmet and learn to aim my head to get the picture I see in from of me. When you take pictures a lot you learn to see pictures all around you. I'm sure you know that. Sort of like the hands framing of a movie camera that the producer of the Mayberry documentary showed Andy, Opie and Barney.

On my day off tomorrow I have to go in to work for a meeting with one of my associates, the HR manager and my zone manager. I don't seem to be on the same page as this associate, and I want the others to sit in as I go over my expectations for the department. Hope it make a major difference in attitudes and job performance. I really don't want to go on butting heads with this individual.

Midnight at the Oasis

Except I don't have a camel to put to bed. A free fruit roll up to the first person who sends in who recorded that song first and the year they recorded it written on the back of an open airline round ticket to London. Don't peak at Wikipedia now.

Still undecided about a new camera. But I am seriously considering scaling back on specifications. I don't need high end pictures here. It seems that Sony, Fuji, Canon, Kodak and Pentax all offer small format cameras with 15 mp capability. Whew, that is a lot. I first began looking at 8 mp, then got interested in a couple of 10 mp, then 12 and 14 mp caught my eye. Of course, if mp was the only criteria the Hasselblad H3DII-50 records images at 50 mp. The drawback might be price. They start at a base price of $27,995.00 and can hit $50,000.00 in a hurry. But you could blow up a picture taken at 50 mp to cover the side of the moon and see it from earth I bet.

I think I am going to drop back to an 8mp camera with full features. I can probably get one of those for around $100.00. Or about the cost of half a lens cap for the Hasselblad. Interestingly enough, the photographer that took our wedding pictures used a couple of Hasselblad film cameras. Well, glass plate cameras maybe. I don't know if film had actully been invented when we got married. Dirt was just becoming common in most people's front yards.

Here is a a photo I took with my D-70 after Pastor Spruill showed me the sharpness setting on my camera. I had it set for normal.

Well, you'll have to trust me on the sharpness. I guess blogger can't handle it. But is is a nice example of depth of field photography.

Cold with a chance of frigid

Turned cold overnight with showers. But thankfully it wasn't cold enough for snow. If you were blind today it would have seemed like snow. It seemed cold enough, the air smelled of snow (no I have no idea how to explain what snow smells like) and the spitting rain would make you believe it was snow if you couldn't see it was only rain.

I haven't consulted my 2008 Farmer's Almanac about weather in December yet. I can't find it, in fact. I imagine it is somewhere here. I would like to know what the weather is supposed to be like on December 13 & 14. Todd and I are in the early stages of planning a bike ride around Washington, DC. We would either go up early Saturday or late Friday evening, park at a motel not too far from a metro station, ride our bikes to the metro and ride the metro into a place to hop off and onto a couple of trails. One on Saturday and one on Sunday. Right now I am leaning towards riding the Mount Vernon route on Saturday and the Great Washington Loop route on Sunday. The MV route is about 18 miles long and goes through the heart of Old Town Alexandria. It is not a circuitous route, however. The GWL route is 30 miles long, but circular, ending where it started. There are metro stations near both routes so we could quit when we felt like it.

The weather in Washington DC in the middle of December can be at either extreme. I can't get my bike into 4 wheel drive so snow would not be a pleasant choice. And actually anything below about 45 would be colder than I have stamina to ride in. I don't have complete turn by turn instructions for the MV route, but I do on the GWL route. It utilizes some city streets and some city alleys as well as unpaved trails. Looks challenging.

Once again I have to put on my manager demeanor tomorrow and explain what I and the store expects of our employees. I am dealing with one, two or all three of three possible situations. Either we are getting lazy, getting hard headed and want to do things our own way, or just don't give a horses patoot. Thank you Colonel Potter.

I have to begin with myself, of course. I can't expect others to do what I am not willing to do. But there are quite a lot of things I alone am responsible for in the department. And in order to have adequate time for those duties I have to ask the others to do more than an equal share of the work all of us can do. Makes sense to me. You don't need to bother telling me it doesn't make sense to you. It will be OK. I trust me and I know you are sure that I know what I mean. And that may be the only reality necessary.

Sitting here contemplating how cold it is going to be for a while I find myself sorely jealous of Barbara down there in Miraflores just outside of Lima, sitting on her balcony high above the city overlooking the Pacific Ocean as summertime comes with clear skies and nearly equatorial temperatures. I would love to go spend time on her balcony as well, but may not get to. I did get to sit on her former balcony but it was only a second story and the people going by on the street must have figured me for a stuck up American because I had no idea how to answer their very friendly greetings. I just waved and didn't say anything. I hope my wave looked friendly. I did smile and got a few smiles back. Nice people. Anyway, I hope to not dwell on the image of her basking in the sun while I am scraping my truck windows this winter.

The outside temperate has dropped 3 degrees since I started writing this. Not that I can type fast anymore. My poor left hand only has one finger doing all the work. Reminds me of another situation I know about. Oh, sorry. I didn't really say that did I?

I went to Stuarts Draft this evening after dark and passed a road that always brings back a singular image to my mind. And I wonder if I'll ever totally get over it. There are memories stuck in my brain from a number of events. I can still see and smell my grandmother pulling a cherry pie out of her ancient oven when I was about 8 or 10. I can remember how my glasses steamed up so I couldn't see at all walking from the cold outside into Jim's Coney Island hot dog stand behind the Chevrolet dealership just two blocks from school. I can remember playing football in the Talbot's backyard in Morgantown WV and getting beat up so bad I could hardly drive back to Baltimore. And way back in the recesses I can remember my dad's parents, grandma cat and grandpa cat, living above Dumham's grocery store during one of the very few times grandpa cat was sober enough to stay home and the amazing number of stairs it required us to climb to get into their apartment in Okmulgee.

If grandma cat seems strange to you, you might not know my last name. Trust me, it was a natural.

Quandary

You may not know me enough to know of my interest in photography. I began taking pictures and learning to take seriously good pictures in 1969. Not that I took seriously good pictures then, but I was interested in taking seriously good pictures. I wanted my photography to pop and please the viewer. I began with color slide film because my dad had shot literally thousands of color slides during my young years. We had slide shows of about everything the family did that would put an insomniac into a comma.


I soon switched to black and white for most of the photography I did for my own amusement because I was always more impressed with a great b&w photo than a great color photo. It depended on the subject, of course.


After I got married I turned a half bath in our apartment into a dark room for b&w developing. I had poor to mediocre results until I began to get the formula right.


When the children began to show up (and I still wonder how that happened) I again switched film formats and was shooting mostly color print film, with an occasional print/slide film.


I went through a long spell of not shooting pictures much at all until the digital age came along. I wanted a good camera, and for reasons I won't go into here I decided to stick with the 35mm platform and chose a Nikon. It has the look and feel of a great camera, and it took incredible pictures. It is capable of taking better pictures than I am capable of seeing in the view finder.


But the Nikon is big and heavy and quite conspicuous. You can not be stealthy with it. It dominates the scene. Because of it's bulk I find it a burden to carry, use quickly or unobtrusively. It is impossible to use while biking. At least it would most likely crush a hole in my chest while riding, and at worse be violently killed itself in a crash. I'm not saying I ever crash, but in the extremely unlikely event I did crash my bike the camera would suffer to the point of demise I am sure. And a painful death it would be for me, considering the outlay of cash it took to obtain it.


All of that to say I am looking at some seriously small cameras with serious technology on board. Two that have my attention now are these:













They have similar features and one that my Nikon, at 5 times the cost, does not have, native b&w. I am trying to decide whether to buy one at all, to buy one and then decide to keep it or stick with my Nikon, or sell the Nikon.


My Nikon is only 6 MP. The Olympus is 10MP and the Canon is 10.1MP. It would most likely be over kill to shoot normally in the higher resolution. The pics would take too much room and time to upload. But if I really wanted the detail for a large format print it would be available.

We had a pretty day here today with just a little chill in the air. I was planning on going mountain biking with the boys today after church but after a rough and partly sleepless night I opted out. There is no telling what I may have saved my body from in the pain and carnage category. I am sure I missed some great riding and great fun. I have not heard from either one so that must be good news. Neither one was left for the buzzards in the woods at least.

I went out a little while experimenting with the settings on my Nikon. I knew my film camera so well I didn't use a light meter for many years. It was a 1971 Nikon Ftn and built long before auto exposure and point and shoot was perfected. I was able to take very good pictures with it. I have been stymied with this new Nikon D70-s. The auto settings don't seem to be sharp enough or have the saturation I like. Plus, and a terrible flaw in my mind, it doesn't have native black and white capabilities. I was really disappointed when I discovered that. It was one feature I didn't investigate when considering the Nikon. I believe it might have made a difference.

The images above have not been manipulated in any way other than shot in manual mode with the settings chosen by me and not the camera. I believe I mentioned here before that James Spruill showed me a setting that might sharpen the pictures a little. It would not help the saturation factor at all.

Enjoy. Bruce.

More little ones

Top picture is two granddaughters and one grand-niece. Clockwise they are Madison Nicole, Amari Roza, and Callie Shea. The second picture is Callie. Double click on this picture and you will see how beautiful this girl is. Of course I'm biased. Not pictured is granddaughter Abigail Kate and two grand-nephews, Logan and Brendan. Brendan is also known as Mr. B. Logan and Callie belong to Christie and Lyn while Mr. B belongs to Juli and Robert. They all live in Kentucky.

They are on Georgiann's side of the family. And a fine family it is.

The third picture is dinner being made at Jill's and left to right is Georgiann, Juli, Diana and Lesa. The final picture is Jill's view to the west at sunset. I hope you enjoy.

Project done

OK, here are the pictures for my sweet sister-in-law, Susan. Susan would have done a much better job on this, but since she lives near the edge of the world where tornados are born I couldn't get her help. So Pastor Kerry has to live with my very poor skills. Dad used to call himself a wood butcher. I think I have a lot of his genes running in me.

Susan I did learn some things during this project, and my next one will be better. I just need someone to give one to when I finish it. Until I know who I won't start it.

I may post tomorrow night. I will find out tomorrow if one of my full time associates was let go yesterday after I left or sometime today. It was looking like they were not going to be kept.

My pictures may be better from now on because of a setting a visiting evangelist made for me in my camera the other evening. He has an identical camera but knows his much better than I know mine. You can see his handiwork here:http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/gallery.asp?mem=48704

James lives in Tennesee and works hard to attract "hummers" as he calls them. He and his wife, Mary, have traveled many times to Haiti to minister to the Haitians' medical, spiritual and building needs. See what you think of his pictures.

No donor required

I just stumbled upon a blog that brings details of a new artificial heart the French have just developed. It has proved successful in animals, and if successfully tested in humans and certified will go into production. It is expected to cost just below $200,000.00. Enough, as the article points out, to give one a heart attack. I wonder what you do then?

Haha. Couldn't keep it to myself. You can find it here: http://besthightechnology.blogspot.com/

New experiences

It has been said you are never too old to learn. But it has also been said you can't teach an old dog new tricks. As of today, and for my experience of today, I have to side with the latter.

Todd took me over to Walnut Creek Park south of Charlottesville just off Route 29. We rode one of the less strenuous and technical difficult trails. It was my first ride on an honest to goodness mountain trail. It might very well have been my last. I haven't decided yet. I didn't get hurt. Pretty amazing. I did take a number of spills but only one hard fall. I launched myself off the bike sideways down a steep incline a couple of times. It might not be common knowledge to you but I proved today that you can only go so slow on a bike before balance is totally lost. At that point it is best to exit the bike or seek outside stability. Since my feet barely reach the ground on nice flat pavement, finding stable footing on the downhill side of a steep incline is only wishful thinking.

There were plenty of oh-my-gosh moments as we hurtled downhill among the very large roots, rocks and leaves in the very narrow trail with every size fallen branch across the trail and standing limb severing trees on each side of the trail within inches of the ends of the handle bars.

Many of the branches and rocks were not secured to anything and the leaves were just lightly resting on the trail so any or all of those objects could roll with you in any direction or simply slide along with you as you applied the back brakes with vengeance.

Braking evidently is an acquired skill as you don't want to apply too much braking to slow beyond balance speed, but if you don't apply enough brake you will not negotiate the next very narrow very sharp hairpin either to the left or the right. Throw in a few good size logs for entertainment because the other obstacles are just too boring and you have the makings of disaster if things like compound fractures and concussions are things you like to avoid.

All in all, I had a blast. But the thoughts of being laid up with pins in shattered bones kept me from laughing hilariously. It was a splendid day in a wonderful part of the woods. If I was decades younger I think I could take the sport on with vivaciousness. But at my age and fragility I may stick to paved or at least semi paved roads. Yes, motor vehicles are a consideration, but there can only be so many motor vehicles. I may have seen upwards of a trillion skull crushing tree trunks go by my head in less than 90 minutes today.

But it sure was fun.