Miscellaneous

Fog

When I left work today I was thinking that there might be a bit of fog. Most of the way home, however, there was none. When I got to Norbeck Road, though, all of a sudden, there was fog. Dense fog. From Gude Drive through Baltimore Road, it was quite dense. Traffic stopped a few times in that stretch (as it often does) and I grabbed a few pictures, including this one that shows reasonably well how foggy it was.

Fog In The Woods

In general, the view along my commute to and from work is pretty unexciting. There isn’t much in the way of pretty scenery and almost no real vistas to get excited about. On the other hand, it’s only about a 15 minute commute, and I really cannot complain. This time of year, though, especially when there is snow on the ground and it is a bit rainy, we sometimes have fog. There is a stretch of my commute, a little less than a mile, where there are woods on along one side (and a shorter stretch where the woods are on both sides). There are a few places along that bit of roadway where the view into the woods isn’t obscured by bushes or a steep bank. This afternoon, as I was coming home, I pulled over onto the shoulder to take a few pictures of the woods. I love how the copper colored leaves of the beech trees stand out against the dark trees and the pale light on the fog in the woods.

Song Sparrow

As I post this, much of the snow that fell two weeks ago is gone. But this picture is from last Sunday (relative to when I’m writing it), January 31. There was still quite a bit covering most everything all around. Our bird bath heater had become unplugged (the weight of the snow on the cord pulled it out of the socket) but I plugged it back in and it became an attractive destination for birds and squirrels. I’m not an expert on birds so I asked my brother to identify this sparrow. He’s pretty sure it’s a song sparrow (Melospiza melodia). Anyway, it was taking advantage of the open water and seemed to be enjoying itself splashing around.

Limited Parking

Cathy and I worked from home yesterday, although we could have gotten out without any trouble. We figured we might as well, since we could. Also, I needed to shovel the sidewalk from our driveway to the front door. We have been going in and out through the garage, which is fine, but at some point, it’s nice to have the front door back. Today we went to the office and with the exception of two lanes covered with huge piles of snow at Gude Drive and MD 355, we didn’t have any trouble. The parking lot at work still needs a lot of attention. As you can see, the spaces on the right are only about half way cleared. That’s where I usually park, but not today.

Snow

Cathy and I could actually get out of our neighborhood today, which puts us ahead of much of our neighborhood. For the most part, it’s only the primary neighborhood arteries that have even seen a plow. Our street was cleared by someone how lives near by who only did it to rescue a vehicle of his that was stranded in our neighbor’s driveway. Nevertheless, we worked from home today, mostly because we could and the roads still need a lot of work. We took a nice walk in the evening to Bauer and Norbeck. The outbound walk was on cleared roads. Coming back, we trudged through snow up to our knees, which was tiring work, but we enjoyed seeing things buried in snow. I really like shadows on snow and the patterns cut into the snow by wind. That’s what this is, the surface of the snow near the local elementary school, sculpted by the wind.

Snow on Monarda

We had our first snow of 2016 today. It wasn’t much to speak of. It came down fairly hard for a while but was more pretty than annoyance. The ground wasn’t cold enough and it didn’t snow long enough for much to accumulate, except where it was kept away from the ground by plants, etc. I went out in the yard and took quite a few pictures. Snow is tricky to photograph because your camera’s exposure sensor wants to make your photo a middle grey while most snow scenes are much brighter than that. So, you have to override the camera. Then, if you make the dark things in the scene a proper exposure, the snow loses it’s texture and detail. In this photo, snow flakes have accumulated on a seed head of beebalm (Monarda didyma).

Frost

It was cool this morning, below freezing but not bitterly cold. Yesterday morning it was 24°F when I got up north of Boston and it didn’t get above freezing all day. Today the forecast is for a high well into the 40s if not up to 50°F. But it was cool when I went out and there was a good coating of frost on the windscreen of the van. Before I turned on the heat and started the process of clearing it off, I pulled out my camera and took a few pictures.

Home For The Challahdays

It’s a sort of stale joke, I suppose and it certainly isn’t original, but I couldn’t resist. Dorothy was home for the challahdays and we really enjoyed having her here. Of course, having her here means getting used to having her gone again when she goes back to school.

Well, that’s today. We left home at 5:40, met Peter and Porter and loaded Porter’s things into the car and by 6:15 or so we were on our way to the North Shore of Massachusetts. It’s about 480 miles and a little more than half way is the Rockland Bakery. I have posted pictures from there before, on August 23 and again on October 04, 2015. If you are ever in the area around Nanuet, New York (just west of the Tappen Zee Bridge) then I recommend you stop in for a visit. The bagels by themselves are worth the effort, if you can get them as they come out of the oven, so hot you can barely hold them.

I brought cream cheese as well deli meat and sliced cheese for making sandwiches and we made a late lunch at about 2:30, after we arrived at the school.

My Right Eye

Some of you know that I’ve had some eye problems over the last seven and a half years. About seven years ago I had cataract surgery in my right eye (pictured here). Then in 2014 I had the left eye done. Both procedures went well but in both cases I tore my retina in the weeks following the surgery and had to have a laser procedure to ensure my retina didn’t detach. I had another follow-up appointment with the retina specialist today and for the first time since 2009 I don’t have a follow-up scheduled. I’ll only go back now if I have any further problems. At the bottom of my eye in this picture you can see the edge of the lens that was implanted in my eye.

Ceramic Doll’s Head

Dorothy has been home and today she was going through a bunch of stuff. For one thing, she went through a huge number of pens, both felt tip and ball point, and got rid of those that didn’t work. It’s always frustrating to need a pen and not be able to find one that works. The odds are now much more in your favor if you need a pen when you are at our house. She also started to go through papers from middle and high school and got rid of a lot of those. One thing she found, and I have no idea where it came from, is this head. It is made of ceramics and I thought it would make an interesting photo for today.

Ginger Snaps

Cathy made my favorite cookies today. Ginger Snaps. That isn’t to say that I don’t like other cookies, of course, and if I only ever had ginger snaps, I’d probably miss other types, but these are, I think the cookies I like best. They are especially good when warm out of the oven, as almost all things are, but they are also good after they have cooled and are slightly hard, with that characteristic crunch (or snap, if you will).

CT Scanner

I started the day off right with a visit to the radiologist’s this morning. There’s nothing like a CT Scan to get you going. Well, I suppose that’s maybe overstating it a little. But I did have a CT Scan today. All is well, so don’t worry (if you even thought to worry in the first place). This is just keeping an eye on things and things seem to be fine. I snapped a couple pictures of the scanner after we were done and as the images were being copied onto a CD for me to take with me. This machine always looks like an enormous point-and-shoot camera to me (e.g. Canon Powershot E1).

Unique Thrift Store

Cathy and I went to the Unique Thrift Store this morning to buy a few things. In addition to good bargains, we enjoy it as a cultural experience. There is a store that specializes in clothes and accessories for Latino parties in general and Quinceañera in particular. I particularly like the shelves with rank upon rank of figurines dressed in their quince-best. The varying colors along with the otherwise identical postures and features make for interesting patterns.

Hubble’s Galaxy Puzzle and Kepler’s Planetary Puzzle

Cathy gave me these two puzzles for my birthday. I do enjoy puzzles and these were quite nice. The first that I tried, on the right, was labeled as Kepler’s Planetary Puzzle. Apparently it is more properly known as a Chuck puzzle, invented in 1897 by Edward Nelson. It is a form of Burr puzzle, a three-dimensional puzzle of interlocking pieces, often made of wood. This was a bit tricky but I managed to get it back together in about a half hour. The second, on the left, was labeled as Hubble’s Galaxy Puzzle and that took me a little longer. It took nearly an hour, with the first 45 minutes or so being trial and error (mostly error). Once I figured it out, it took another 15 minutes or so to actually get all the pieces together.

Boiling Eggs

I happened to be hard boiling a few eggs this evening and as I watched the water boil I realized how cool it looks (cool in a hot sort of way). The rolling bubbles, bursting, sending spouts of water up into the air, was just beautiful. But it all happens very fast. So, I pulled out my camera and took some flash pictures, easily freezing the boiling water. I think there’s more to be done here, but this is a reasonable first attempt.

Foggy Morning

It was quite foggy this morning as I drove to work. There were a few times on the way in where I would have liked to take a few pictures but there was nowhere convenient to stop the car, so I kept going. When I got to work, though, I walked around a bit and took some pictures of the trees in the fog, which was starting to lift. This photo was taken looking across the road behind my office with a nearby tree backed up by woods in the fog in the distance.

Montecristo

I like neon signs. I’m not sure what it is about them. Perhaps it’s the intense colors in the dark. Perhaps it’s the flowing lines of the glass tubing. In any case, whether or not I know why I like them, I do.

This evening I was in a parking lot and took pictures of a few neon signs. One simply said, “open” but I thought this one was nicer. I particularly like the “font” used, especially in the letter M. Montecristo, in this case, refers to the cigar company.

Baby’s Great Turtle Adventure

If you’ve been following my photo blog, then you’ve met Baby before. In fact, he was in a photo just a couple days ago, along with his new friends, Mr. Beaver and Mrs. Schnauzer. Baby came from Chinatown in New York City, where Dorothy found him. As I mentioned the other day, he travels with Cathy, riding in the bottom of her purse, but getting out to pose for pictures in various locations. Mostly those pictures go to Cathy’s Snapchat friends but once in a while they show up on Instagram. This outing, however, was a bit more adventurous. Baby paid a visit to Fluffy, a red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans). He hesitated to actually go swimming with Fluffy, however.