((( Mostly Positive )))
Saturday, March 22, 2014. We might have gotten 5 new centimeters ( 2 inches? ) of snow-
This was probably the height of the snow storm. Later, it turned to misty rain, then back to light snow.
We had a graduation, a registered nurse exam passing, an engagement and an anniversary to celebrate all at once. It was a nice, happy relaxing time.
~~~~~ Jim
Tuesday, March 18, 2014. -15˚C / +5˚F // -25˚C Wind Chill at 7:00 am.
While I was in New Hampshire, zooming around the state with one of my best all time friends, I actually learned something.
First, when photos in a semi dark restaurant came out blurry, my cousin wondered why I didn’t use a setting that fixed that.
Later, when my friend spotted something and took a photo from the passenger’s seat of my moving vehicle, I asked him if he wanted me to pull over or stop so he could get a steadier shot, he replied, “Oh no- I use the sports setting. It freezes motion.”
Shortly after that I had a “Well -duh!” moment and realized that my camera did have the same type of setting and I had found a broad range of specialized settings, (Like “Night Time”, “Sunset”, “cuisine”, and so on) almost by accident. I had originally breezed through the instruction booklet and only read in depth what I needed to know immediately, like how to put the battery and SD Card in and get those right… But- yeah, the night time setting does came in handy. And now the sports setting… yum.
Look carefully beyond the young deer to the left of the others (with his or her head twisted around to see what I was up to). There is something white under the branch of the evergreen back there.
The white deer in the photo above is usually hanging way back behind the normally coloured deer in this group. He or she is a bit more spooky than most and it is hard to get a photo of this guy (or gal), especially when surrounded by white snow. (( One shot that Cathi got, somebody looked at the white deer and said, “Ah come on- that’s a goat.” No it isn’t.
Yes, I could have used this setting before. My life would have been a bit less stressful. My ‘Professional’ self critical sense a lot less active, my frustration levels less acute.
See? It’s good to have friends.
(Imagine your favourite smiley face here.)
~~~~~Jim
Monday, March 17, 2014. Bitterly Cold most of the day. Wicked Wind…
On my recent whirlwind trip to New Hampshire to see my 90 year old Mother while she was visiting for a couple days from Alaska. I bought a nice homemade cutting board from an old (and close) friend.
Tonight, Cathi called out, “Hey, this cutting board is the perfect size, come check this out.”
Max, the cat, is not as happy about this as we are.
~~~~~Jim
— Thursday, March 06, 2014. -26˚C / -13˚F @ 7:00 am. (( or -18˚C/0˚F — Depending on who you believe and which thermometer they’re reading ))
I should measure the distance from the window to the top of that bit of hill back there. I think a couple herds of deer come around looking for food at odd times. We notice them most often in early morning and right around sundown.
Technically, this is not a wonderful photograph. You can’t plan for events like this. Frost on the window in the process of melting left circular blobs. I think the speckles are bits of ice on the window to the left.
Let’s see, I petted reindeer in a tourist trap theme park (“the North Pole”) in New York State and felt the velvet of their horns when I was a five year old. Also got pretty close to tame deer at Santa’s Land in Putney, Vermont. But I don’t think I ever got this close to a real family group in the wild like this.
Oh, and I was probably two feet away from a huge Moose who was stretched out to reach the lowest branches of a tree outside my sister’s living room window. If that moose lost his balance he could have come crashing through that window, and I might not be here to tell you about it. (Especially if two tonnes of flailing hooves and frightened Moose landed on me, or near enough to kick me to death…. eep.)
~~~~~Jim
Sunday, March 2, 2014. (Sally Spencer’s Birthday)
-12˚C / +10˚F @ 11:11 pm.
For those of you who miss the snow- I won’t be the kind of jerk who leers and says, “hell, you can come shovel me out any time you want.” There’s already more than enough of that personality type around.
But it is beautiful.
We never quite became snowbound, but I wanted to say, “What do you do when you’re snowbound? You grow mushrooms.” Our favourite local supermarket is part of the Loblaw’s / President’s Choice chain and they had these mushroom mini farms in a very conspicuous place right in front of the “in” doors and Cathi said, “Hmmmm-” (she likes mushrooms.) We ate a few of these and I’m still alive to tell you about it.
Latest Project: Got this far today while it was still light outside. The vertical piece of wood is something we needed to make sure the 3 inch screws the mounting bracket came with: (a) didn’t go through the wall and out through the siding and (b) offered an extra measure of support for that above mentioned bracket. We got the wood from our nearest Kent Hardware store and got the stain from the same place. (I think we got the wood and stain about a month ago-) I got to use my new super spiffy mitre saw to cut the 45 degree supports for the shelf that is still down stairs drying. (tacky) One of our cats believes he owns the bed and had to be scared off with an electric drill and kept away by plunking a guitar case in his favourite spot. Cathi is very much looking forward to actually having a dresser with its mirror up and useable in the very near future.
And I think Mercury is no longer Retrograde as of Friday the 28th. Which is good news to a lot of people I know and care about.
((( Yay! )))
~~~~~Jim