Sunday
A 16 mile bike ride that accomplished bill paying and breakfast eating.
Home in time to watch CBS’s Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood.
I read a book made out of paper.
Wasted the rest of the day watching football.
Misc Photos
Christmas in Hopeland Gardens
The last time we walked up to see the lights in Our Fair City’s Hopeland Gardens was 5 years ago (we tried last year, but were shut out.) Tonight we made the walking trip over to see if they had added anything new and they hadn’t. We were slightly disappointed, but in talking about it on the walk back, we decided that it is better if they don’t keep piling more stuff in there otherwise it would get too gaudy.
I Sprained My Blogging Muscle
I’ve got/had a bunch of stories I kinda want to write about, but can’t seem to get them from my head to the keyboard, so I’m going to start small:
When I finished my rollerblading route this evening I remembered that there was supposed to be a partial solar eclipse today. It was scheduled to start in our area about 5:30 and continue until sundown when there would be 40% of the sun’s face covered by the shadow of the moon. It was already after 6:00 PM and the sun was already so low in the sky that because of our tree filled neighborhood, I had no clear view. The “photo” above was taken from in my driveway and shot through the big magnolia in the yard across the street.
Bloody Moon
I got up slightly early this morning to go out and see the “Blood Moon.” Because of the total eclipse of the moon by the Earth’s shadow it appears reddish in color. I left the house so I was probably the first customer of the day at the local DD. With my cup of coffee I started heading west hoping to find a high spot with a good sight line of the moon as it set. I tried a couple of spots, but couldn’t find the right combination. at this point the moon was still high enough in the sky that it was easy to see no matter where you were. As I drove along and the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon’s face it didn’t look very red. When I stopped just after the eclipse reach totality I rolled down my tinted window and Boom!, the moon was red.
Trying to hand hold a zoomed in shot of the Earth’s satellite, even with the camera braced against the car roof, means you are going to get what you see above. The two horizontal streaks are a set of power lines that got in the frame.
Sunrise Fishing
On this morning’s early walk on the beach, Donna sees a guy fishing and makes a bee line for him. “Where you going?” I ask. “To ask him what he is trying to catch,” she says. I mumble under my breath so she can’t hear, “Probably fish.” She chats him up for a few minutes while I try unsuccessfully to capture a photo of a pelican silhouetted by the the rising sun. When she asks him if the beach is always this uncrowded he tell her it is on weekdays from May to December.
When The Cat’s…
…away, the mice will play.
For the past couple of days, some of our company’s key folks, my department leadership and our Industrial Engineer have been away at a seminar/work session about a piece of our business software. They finished up this morning with the afternoon being earmarked for a round of golf as a fun wrap up of the event. So, a little before lunch, one of our our fabrication engineers received a text from the IE (the tall guy on the left) with the following photo attached:
While those in the photo would tell you that the picture was meant as an indicator that their work was done and their smiles signified that much was accomplished. Those of us stuck at work covering for them, thought it more than likely that it was meant as a neener-neener. The Fab Engineer, myself and the CNC Programer (Hi Mark!) decided that this deserved some return fire. Our first plan involved standing outside on the back lawn of the plant in similar poses, but couldn’t come up with a work related substitute for the golf club. Our second idea was to get the cleaning person to open our boss’s (the guy in the middle above) office and we could all put our feet up on his desk. Or playing cards. Then the ideas started flowing. We could use the Engineering Conference Room. Put something up on the TV like we were watching ESPN. Hey put their photo on the screen. Here is what we came up with:
The playing cards came from Google. I grabbed large sized images of ace-high straight flushes in three different suits off the net, printed them out and then trimmed them down for us to hold. I didn’t think to print out the back of a five card hand, so in the large original photo you can see that I’m holding my cards so everyone can see my hand. In this low resolution image it looks like the back of a deck of cards because the clubs printed out in a blue-ish tint. The money on the table is real.
My New Wallpaper
They had a little get together this morning for the retiring Kathy. There was cake and coffee and a last chance to give her a hug and/or say goodbye. As usual, someone was taking photos to immortalize the event. I came in slightly late to the party and was tossed together with my old boss so as to not have to be photographed all lonely like.
Later once they had passed around the link to location of the photos on the network my old boss walked by my cube and said, “That’s my new wallpaper.” I replied that I wouldn’t make it mine because it looked like I had someone’s head growing out of my left shoulder. He said, “Airbrush him out.” “Why don’t I just get rid of all the background and stick us on the beach with tropical drinks in our hands,” I said. “Fine,” he said, “Just be sure to put a little umbrella in mine.”
So, if you haven’t already accidentally done it, hover your mouse over the top image to see my new wallpaper.