around home

26 of my photos at once!!!

July 24, 2011

If I were to post a photo a day – or even 5 a day – it would take quite a while just to share those that I have selected for posting.

By putting together a video, I can share a large number at once – and create a video library that we can view on a TV screen. The original of the video below is higher definition than what I uploaded to YouTube.

The photos, in the sequence that they appear:

Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, September 2009
Menor’s cabin and store, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, September 20, 2007
Canton Lake, Oklahoma, August 29, 2009
Canyonlands national Park, September 23, 2007
Pronghorn, Custer State Park, South Dakota, August 22, 2007
Wild burro, Custer State Park, South Dakota, August 22, 2007
Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, March, 2011
Devil’s Tower National Monument, August 27, 2007
Devil’s Tower National Monument, August 28, 2007
Texas Interstate HighwayI40, eastbound rest west of Alenreed
Devil’s Tower National Monument, August, 2007
Cottonwood Tree, Lake Ogallala, Nebraska, July 8, 2010
Clouds, Lake Ogallala, Nebraska, July 8, 2010
Lewistown, Montana, August 30, 2007
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, September 14, 2009
Nuthatch
Ouray, Colorado, September 2010
Rest are at Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge and Kansas Highway 52
Moraine Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, 2009
Rocky Mountain National park, somewhere trail to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, & Emerald Lake, 2009
Pea Ridge National military Park, Northwest Arkansas, July 15, 2011
Abyss Pool, West Thumb, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, September 12, 2007
Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah, September 24, 2007
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Visitor Center, Colorado, 2009
Garvan Woodland Gardens, Hot Springs, Arkansas, April 13, 2010
Entrance to Yellowstone National Park, Gardiner, Montana, September 13, 2007

The music, Improvisation On Friday… by Alex, is licensed under a Attribution (3.0).

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Air Conditioner Failed….

July 19, 2011

Late yesterday afternoon, while I was at work in the simulator, Karen texted that our over 20 year old air conditioner (heat pump) had stopped working. Sad smile

We ended up spending the night in the motorhome as the house was warmer than we like for sleeping. I didn’t get off until almost 10 P.M. and Karen had the motorhome all set up when I got home, except for connecting the water. The plumbing was still “winterized” with no water in any of the supply lines and I wanted to be home when the lines were filled.

With the current weather, it’s not a good time to be without cooling

The country is in the grips of a pretty widespread heat wave. The orange on the map is a heat advisory, which is what we are in – “dangerous heat stress conditions…” during the afternoon and early evening hours. The purple area is a excessive heat warning. “A prolong period of dangerously hot temperatures will occur. The combination of hot temperatures and high humidity will create a dangerous situation in which heat illnesses are likely.”

To the east, Tropical Storm Bret is expected to stay out to sea and will provide no relief of any kind for the heat.

Smile Fortunately, the service tech from the heating and air company showed up about 9 A.M. The problem was a fan motor and they had a replacement on the truck. Replacing it and checking the refrigerant pressure took less than a half hour. Now the house is cool and the air conditioner is cycling on and off periodically.

No relief in the near term:

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A cloud timelapse photo experiment.

July 10, 2011

Did a little bit of experimenting today with time lapse photography. This short video was shot off our front deck this afternoon. It actually consists of 500 photos. The camera was on a tripod and programmed to take one photo every 5 seconds. In Windows Live Movie Maker, I set the duration for each photo to .05 seconds. The audio is from YouTube audio swap, which has a wide variety of audio that has been made available to apply to uploaded videos.

The weather today was atrocious. I know that I said I’d much rather have the heat and humidity than the storms we were getting a couple of months ago, but this is more than I asked for. Today was 101.9° on our porch. Down in town it was 105° – we’re always cooler up here in the warmer months.

If I wasn’t working this contracts we’d be heading to cooler climate – Colorado, Wyoming, somewhere cooler than here.

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Torrential rain 2 years ago.

June 12, 2011

torrential rain, june 2009

We had a bout with severe weather two years ago today. Debris from trees is flying horizontal in this picture. Shortly after this picture was taken, the large tree across the road went down.

This year, after the threat of severe weather continuous for long periods in April and May, it has turned hot and muggy – about normal for this time of year.

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My New Video “Production”–just playin’ around with the video editing software–check it out.

February 9, 2011

We have somewhere in excess of 8 inches right now. Other areas got a lot more snow than we did.

It should all melt over the weekend as we have warmer temperatures on the way.

I got my class out of the way early today because of the impending/ongoing inclement weather and came home before noon.

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From balmy to frigid, ice and snow–Winter roars back

February 1, 2011

Update — 2/2/2011: We fared better than expected – no ice and just a trace of snow. We just got the cold arctic air – 13° at 8 AM.

————————————–

Things have certainly changed in just a couple of days. Fortunately, we’ve had some warning, so have been able to make some preparations, just in case the storm is worse than predicted.

Even, though it’s raining for now, we’re in a winter storm warning, along with a significant part of the country. Areas north of us and not too terribly far away are in a blizzard warning.

We’re hoping for snow and not ice. Earlier today, the forecast was for a .2 to .4 inch coating of ice on exposed surface – tree branches, power lines, etc..

Fortunately, the forecast has changed to a thin layer of ice before the precipitation turns over to snow.

The temperature is currently above freezing.

Unfortunately, this monster storm is going to hit a lot of places hard. Some forecasters are calling it a storm of historic proportions.

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A touch of winter weather

January 10, 2011

We lucked out and the worst of the storm went south of us. I hear it snarled traffic near Little Rock into a multi-hour backup with some people stuck in their vehicles overnight. This is the same southern storm that is hitting the east and may turn into a nor’easter for New England.

Top picture is with flash – bottom is with camera on a tripod using HDR feature of my camera.

January 9, 2011, snow, Arkansas

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New car – the old car heading to the bone-yard.

January 9, 2011

wrecked 2004 honda cr-v

2004 Honda CR-V

Though we hadn’t really talked about, Karen and I had been looking forward to the day when we could get a newer car. The 2004 CR-V was what Karen primarily drove and what we took, most of the time, if we were going somewhere together.

It also just happened to be the car we tow behind our motorhome.

However, it was 7 years old, with over 130,000 miles on it. Though it has been extremely reliable, with that high of mileage, it’s getting closer and closer to the point where I don’t like for drive very far away – and, when I’m working, she periodically goes to see her mom, who lives about 2 1/2 hours from here.

The time was approaching for a new car, but we figured it would be a year or so away.

Then we had the December 26th car accident….

2010 honda cr-v 2010 honda cr-v interior

2010 Honda CR-V.

And, of course, we’ll be able to tow it behind our motorhome.

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“Are you Larry?”–more about our accident–and the blogging link.

December 28, 2010

Our car

(continued from Our accident)

I remember Karen talking to one of the EMTs like she knew him. It turned out she did – sort of.

I think the encounter went something like this:

Karen immediately recognized one of the EMTs when she saw him through the windshield as they were coming around the front of the car.

As they started checking her over, she asked, “Are you Larry?”

Somewhat surprised, he said that he was. When Karen told him, “I know your wife, Vivian,” he asked how she knew her.

Karen replied, “Blogging, email, quilting.”

He responded with another question, “Are you C.J. or Karen?”

Karen, C.J., and Vivian had been commenting on each others blogs for quite some time. Last year, they met for lunch and had arranged to do it again this week – tomorrow, in fact. Karen recognized Larry because Vivian had just posted a photo of him making Christmas breakfast.

On her blog, Karen says, “– it felt really reassuring to me even though I had never met him. It was like I knew I was in good hands.”

———-

Karen is getting around a lot better today. Her chest still hurts a lot and she has pains all over, kind of like the all over pains you get from the flu, except she doesn’t have the flu.

Yesterday, I went to the wrecker yard and got all of our stuff out of the car. It’s seven years old and I’d be very surprised if it could be fixed for the approximate $5,000 the car is worth on Kelly Blue Book. Unfortunately, I don’t have any of the insurance information for the driver of the other car. It’ll be in the police report, which my insurance company is supposed to obtain. The other driver was cited by the police officer which establishes fault for the insurance purposes.

This car was the one we towed behind our motor home, so if it’s totaled, we’ll have make sure to get a replacement that can be towed.

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Our accident

December 26, 2010

“The coast ain’t clear, __-___”

This isn’t our car and it’s not even the same model year, but the front end of our car looks something like this.

If I had just a moment and could turn back the clock, that’s what I’d tell the person that waved the kid through.

It’s what I would tell the kid, too.

We had just seen “True Grit” at a new theater that just opened about an hour’s drive from home. On the way home, we decided to go ten miles out of the way to go out to eat.

When it happened, we were driving on a road that is two lanes in each direction with a center turning lane.

We had just gone through a traffic light as it turned yellow. The next light had just turned green and the cars stopped there had started to move. We were in the southbound lane next to the turning lane and there were fewer cars ahead of us than there were in the other southbound lane.

Just after we made it through the light that had turned yellow, a car that I hadn’t seen darted through a gap in the other lane of traffic.

They had been waved through by a driver in that lane.

“The coast ain’t clear, __-___s”

We were about three blocks from the restaurant we had decided to go to.

I hit the brakes and thought that we just might make it – but realized, just before impact, that we weren’t going to.

We hit hard, but not so hard that the air bags deployed. The impact moved us a little sideways, so that the front, driver side tire was over the yellow line of the turning lane.

Shortly after the impact, the kid backed his car back into the drive of the convenience store, clearing one lane of traffic. The __-___ driver that had waved the kid through didn’t even stop to see if anyone was hurt. The accident happened right in front of their vehicle, but they just drove off.

Our car wasn’t going any place under it’s own power.

“My chest hurts.”

Karen still had her seatbelt on.
_____________

Karen’s brother brought us home after she was released from the Emergency Room.

Karen is still hurting, but nothing is broken – according to the x-rays – and her heart is fine. She got a shot for pain at the Emergency Room and got a prescription for the same medication – something that doesn’t cause nausea.

I’m fine – no pains that I can attribute to the accident. Tomorrow may be a different story.

The car is 6 years old with quite a lot of mileage on it. It’s probably totaled. The cost of repair will probably be more than the value of the car.

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Sharing photos, videos, vintage images I've discovered, and -- occasionally -- commentary and thoughts from retired life and travels.