Fence

There's something about this old fence that I like. The wooden posts are dried and eroded. The barbed wire is rusty. It stopped being a straight fence several decades ago. It's sole purpose now is to denote some sort of jagged property line. It endures through rain and sun, wind and snow. A vague reminder that cattle used to live here. Like the fence, we age and change, we endure through adversity, but we still have a purpose, even if it's a bit different from the one we had when we were young and straight.

Morning Gift

Good Morning! The sky was aglow!   

A spectacular sunrise!

The sky transformed as the sun rose through the clouds. It was magical. 

Veteran's Day

Please go to http://www.youtube.com/v/AgYLr_LfhLo?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0 for a tribute to our soldiers and sailors who have fought for our freedom! 

Thank you!

Sunset times three

Last night the sunset was spectacular. 

That the view from the back deck. 

That the reflection from the side window

And this is the reflection from the front windows. 

Anyway you looked at it, the sky was on fire...albeit it was over in less that 10 minutes. 

Where is my person?

Who says dogs can't talk?

Two Babies

My friend Tana just had her second little girl. I made a pink Teddy Bear blanket for her first little girl. Generally I don't repeat the same blanket for a second child, but she asked me if it was possible to have another blankie...you know what my answer was. I  added a set of booties and a cap this time. 

                        

Welcome to the world Isabel!

My cousin welcomed his second daughter. I made her a sweater, pixie hat and booties.

                   

Welcome to the world Evan Alexandra!

Upside Down

I love taking pictures of reflections...they turn the world around. Sometimes you can see more when right side up is upside down. 

Now look at the picture turned around...

And the world looks right. What is reality? Can you figure it out?

Autumn Colors

On the west coast, the trees are beginning to change color, unlike their counterparts in the Rockies. 

 

The bright red and yellow deciduous trees light up the darker coniferous forest.

The manzanita tree, will not change color, but it's bright red bark fits the season well.

Fall is about a month out of sync.

Lake Oroville and Magalia Lake

About 5 weeks ago I posted two pictures of Lake Oroville that showed how far the water had dropped over the summer. Today we went to one of the boat ramps on the opposite side of the Lake, at an area called "Lime Saddle," and found this scene. 

The ramp is high and dry. There's a tiny scrap of blue midway in the picture...and that's the only water we found! We had a full day of rain on October 31, and we need many more days just like that. Lake Oriville supplies water to Southern California. 

A few miles up the road from Lake Oroville is a small reservoir for local use only. Magalia Lake had 

sufficient water in it. The water was still and the reflections were perfect. I hope the "powers that be" don't decide to take our local water and ship it south like they are doing with Lake Oroville which is part if the bigger California Water Project.  

Fun App

I'm teaching a point and shoot "photography" class on Tuesdays...it's great fun. Last week I talked about "Burst Mode" which allows you to take a series of pictures so you can catch motion. Right after the class I received my daily notification from Apps Gone Free saying it's offering a free for today app called Superburst. What a fun coincidence! I downloaded it and...

It's a very good app...easy to use and takes a clear series of pictures. 

PS...if you want to see the wonderful pictures my students are taking, go to http://pointshootedit14.blogspot.com. 

PSS...I really am enjoying face to face teaching. I missed it! 

Jerry "The Bear" Garcia

I'm not a "Dead Head" but I have a crochet friend who has a friend who is. This is going to get complicated...so I'll try to explain. When we cruise I usually join the crochet group on the ship. In February we had 8 sea days on a Hawaii cruise....and there I met a wonderful group of a dozen women. Every sea day we knitted or crocheted and talked and had a grand time. It was such a good time that we have stayed in touch with each other. On that trip I made this teddy bear blanket

....and one of the women, Lori,  said the teddy bears looked like Jerry "The Bear" Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Well, a couple of weeks ago, Lori wrote to me saying that her local bookstore owner was a "Dead Head" and she would love to make him a scarf with the bears on it...and she asked for the pattern. Unfortunately, I don't have a good pattern for the Bears because I have it memorized. I asked her what color she would like and I would make the scarf. Brown was chosen and 

I made the scarf (and a matching cap) and sent it to her yesterday. Teddy Bears rule! 

Fury

We saw Fury last night. It's a World War II drama aimed at the male market. It's the opposite of a "chick flick" in other words. Lots of tanks and blood and guts and a little glory. It's a good story. It's done well. It graphically shows the horrors of war. After seeing it, I have to wonder about a religion that touts war and killing as sacred and necessary. For a more complete review of it see the other DrCs blog.

Sunset

Isn't that amazing!

Rabbit Trails

We share our property with a bunch of jackrabbits. The rabbits are fast ...we've clocked them at 25 miles per hour...and they leap great distances too. It's fun to watch them glide across the land with grace and speed. It's interesting to see where the rabbits travel. They always use the same paths. I'm guessing they have used the same pathways for centuries. I know they've used them for the last 30 years!

Because it is so dry right now, the rabbit trails are more evident. Here are a few of our rabbit trails. No matter the season, the trails are always in place. These are ancient rabbit corridors. I wonder what made these pathways the "right" roads to travel? Scientists have studied grizzly bear trails in Alaska and discovered some of the trails are thousands of years old. Has anyone studied the lowly rabbit trail?

Mt. Shasta

In the north state we have a tall mountain....well, a tall volcano, to be exact. At 14,179 feet, Mt. Shasta dominates the area. Her magestic form is just about perfect. Normally covered with glaciers and snow (Shasta is the Kurak word for "White Mountain") today she looks barren and gray.

One more piece of evidence that California needs some rain. As you can see, some of the trees are getting ready for fall. Maybe that's a harbinger for rain.

BTW, Mt. Shasta is considered an active volcano. There are several fumeroles on the side of the mountain still smoking away. Her last eruption was in 1763, and she seems to have 600-800 year cycle between eruptions. She is a a"stratovolcano" also called  a composite volcano. Two "famous" stratovolcanos were Krakatoa and Vesuvius. I've not seen Krakatoa, but I've seen Vesuvius. That mountain too, is a towering giant with Naples in the foreground. 

As another aside, I don't know why I call Mt. Shasta a "she"...it seems to fit. 

Clever Design

I love things clever. Yesterday I had a pedicure and I was unable to put on my sandals right away, so I was given a pair of flip-flops that are absolutely wonderful. They are not comfy. They are not attractive. They are clever.

What starts out as a relatively strange looking oval,  

becomes a perfectly acceptable "flip-flop" just by attaching the back loop to the top. 

Good design needs to be rewarded!

iOS8 is Pretty Good

iOS8

The newest operating system for iPhone and iPad has been out a few weeks. I downloaded it the 3rd day after it arrived, and for the most part, I've been pleased with the changes. I won't call the changes "improvements" because I'm not sure they are all better than iOS7. 

I do like the fact that the nice folks at Apple decided to use black print instead of the stylish medium gray print they had on iOS7. While the gray was pretty, it was impossible to see. I like the new keyboarding options too, including a more intelligent "word anticipating sub-routine.' The new system tries to "guess" what you are going to type next, and much of the time, it's right. The downside is it sometimes guesses wrong and the result is amusing or embarrassing or somewhere in between. With the new keyboard system, it's imperative to proofread your work. (I remember telling my students to proofread their papers...it was true then and it's true now.)

I'm still undecided if I like my iPad and iPhone being so connected. I know how to work each stand alone unit, but now, when my iPhone rings, so does my iPad. I'm not sure that is necessary. What is that doing to battery life on both devices? I'm sure it's eating power as we speak. In addition, when Yosemite, the new Mac OS comes out in a few days, all Mac devices will be inter-connected.

That leads to another issue...power! The new health app is a power eater. Something that is going to count the steps you take each day is going to be on all the time...and when you look at battery usage, you might find it's using 60% or more of the power you use each day. That's a lot of power to tell you how many steps you walked.

Siri has gotten a little bit better. I use Siri a lot. She's my "go to timer" when I cook. I ask her to find folks and places, and she does a pretty good job. Now, if you are plugged in, you can say "Hey Siri" and she will answer you back. This is useful if you are in your car, charging your iPhone. Even though the latest research by AAA says that even hands-free cell phone use is distracting, there are times when it's necessary to use the phone when you are driving. I've also discovered that if Siri does not understand the name I'm asking her to find, I can now spell the name and she will find it. In the past when I've tried that, she has gotten flustered and found really stupid non-related words. Siri seems to be better "connected" to Safari. Now I can ask her to call a local business and first she will check my contact list then she checks online. She's a very useful tool. (I still use the original voice, but you can change the voice if you wish.)

If you need to call one of your favorite people, double click on the home button and your favorites appear at the top of your screen making them easier to call. If you don't like that feature, you can turn it off too. In fact, many of the features that were added can be turned off by finding them in settings and pushing the button from green to white.

For me, the best change is the built-in photo editing application. Both the iPhone and the iPad are pretty good cameras, and now you can edit your photos better than before. You have far more control over color and light than with the previous version. It's not as wonderful as Photoshop, but it's darned good! 

As I said, I'm pleased with the new iOS8. Given that, I've not downloaded it for an iPhone 4. I've read that it's best on iPhone 5 and 5S and iPad 4 and 5. When I get my iPhone 6 (not 6+) I'll be very familiar  with it.

Lake Oroville

We are back in drought-ridden California...and the stories are true. California is dry, dry, dry! As we traveled west on I-80 and other major highways, we could see how the terrain looked drier as we got closer to the coast. 

The sight that brings home the drought conditions, however, is looking at lake levels. This is a picture

of Lake Oroville on May 16, 2014 pointing east.

This is a picture of Lake Oroville, pointing west, (from the same bridge) on September 29, 2014. I called Gordon at the Lake Oroville Marina and asked how him far the lake was down...and he told me it was down 675 feet! He did not know how deep the lake was, but I know the spillway is 770 feet tall, so that might be some indicator of lake depth.

Look at the bare shoreline in the two pictures and you can see how much it's gone down since May. I've seen Lake Oroville low before...and that time the houseboats were lined up in a single file down the middle of the remaining water. At least there are two rows of houseboats now. We need rain in the Golden State!

Just Playing

What do you do after you've been driving all day? When you are tired? When you are too pooped to cook, let alone do much of anything else? Well....we went to a restaurant. Let someone else cook dinner...that's a good idea! Then, what do you do while you are waiting for the food to arrive ? We started to play with the coasters on the table. Did you know they can be used to make card (or should I say coaster) houses? We made a four story house...this has to be a record! 

It leaned a bit, so we called it our Pisa Tower...and in a nano-second it fell down. Before it fell, our wait person said that was the tallest one she had seen! She was impressed! I guess other people make coaster houses too? Maybe we should have a contest to see who can make the tallest coaster house. Are you up to the challenge? Send me your pictures. It has to be taller than 4 stories! 

Rocky Mountain Color

I The northeast "brags" about it's  fine fall colors...and indeed it should brag...but don't dismiss the fall color that happens in the Rocky Mountains. 

This is the Snake River Canyon on the way to Jackson. The cottonwoods and aspens along the river are dressed in yellow and gold. The red mountain maple is already gone...but if you look back a few days, you'll see pictures of it.

The aspens turn yellow, then brown then drop their leaves quickly. Their display lasted about a week. if you blink, it's over.

The yellowing leaves, the bluebird blue sky, and the crooked white trunks of the aspen trees make a beautiful autumn picture. 

We will return to the west coast, where it will still be summer, albeit a dry, dry summer. If there are autumn leaves, they will not appear till mid-October or early November.

Make it do!

There's an old saying...

                        "Make it do, 

                         Wear it out, 

                         Use it up, 

                         Throw it out." 

Here's an example of that saying.

There's nothing wrong with that yellow truck other than it has no front wheels and I'm guessing the engine is not where it's supposed to be...but it's still a perfectly good trailer! I'm guessing it will not be "thrown out" until it falls apart.

Vanity Plate

I collect license plates--well pictures of license plates. I saw this one in Jackson Hole on Sunday and I liked it a lot. I think you will too. 

Way to go Mississippi!

Autumn Leaves Part 2

The aspens are turning yellow. 

The maple are bright red-orange. The color is illusive as it will be gone in a few days. It's a pretty time in the Rockies.

'67 'Cuda

Remember this sweet ride?

Sleek and red and shiny?

With a back window that went on forever and was impossible to clean.

And this is what was under the hood! It seems so empty...but she was a speedy ride.

I love the uncomplicated instrument panel...

And the Solid State AM radio with chrome push buttons. 

With Black Naugahyde upholstery and no head rests nor seat belts, she was what every teenager wanted in 1967. Ain't she sweet!

In Memorium

A dear friend, Dick, passed away last night. He was a avid fisherman among other things. One day he and I went deep sea fishing in Ixtapa. He was so excited to catch a big fish! Another time, he wandered to one of the little lakes hidden in the Greys Valley searching for the perfect fishing hole. 

Dick, here's a little boat, just for you, in the Salt River, ready to take you fishing whenever you want. 

We will miss you, my friend. May you rest in peace.

Autumn Leaves

It's autumn in the Rockies. The nighttime temps are falling to the mid-20s. The leaves are changing. I particularly like the mountain maple right now. It's a red-orange color that highlights the south sides if the mountains. 

There are patches of red splashed across the mountains. 

The Salt River is still flowing.

It has not snowed at this elevation yet,but it is on the agenda to happen soon. 

Better

Each day I'm a little better than the day before! That's real good news. I'm still not able to bend or stoop and sleep in my normal fashion. Life goes on.

It's deer season, so the animals are smart enough to hide. I told the big buck who hangs out at my house to stay in the back forest, but I don't think he listened to me. On the other hand, one doe has decided to stay. 

I'm a little worried about her as her ribs show -- will she have enough weight to survive a cold winter and have a baby?

Recovering and an Android Tablet

Slowly, I'm getting better. My recommendation .... Don't fall...and if you do, don't break a rib. There's not much the medical community can do for a broken rib. They will not put you in a cast, nor will they tape you up...as both are ways to bring about pneumonia! That is why I was given a rib brace. The brace is helpful but now after a week, I no longer need to have it on 100% of the time. Think of a rib brace as a corset...if you've ever worn a corset, then you know what I'm talking about. If you've been lucky enough to have never worn a corset, please don't break a rib to "enjoy" the experience. 

In the meantime, I purchased a really inexpensive android tablet. It arrived yesterday. This morning I had a lesson from Ed, my android using friend, and I think I have the basics figured out. I will probably never be an android fan, but It serves my purpose. This fall I'm going to teach a digital photography course and some of my students are going to be android users...so I need to know how to use an android unit. 

My friend Phyllis called last night saying she was looking at a small Samsung tablet for under $200. I bought this little fellow from Tiger Direct for under $60. My guess....the Samsung probably has better support but for the price, my TD-cheapo unit is excellent. It will not replace my iPad which is about 100x faster (at least it seems that way).

Bounce Next Time

I'm taking a little vacation from my blog because I forgot to bounce. I was on my morning walk...and I tripped. Instead of bouncing, I broke a rib! I don't recommend it. It hurts. I'm in a rib brace and taking pain medication. I'm sleeping a lot and trying not to cough, laugh, stretch, or move. This is not what I had in mind for Labor Day weekend!