I’ve added a new Haw Creek travel page on the What the Hay hay art contest in Montana, as well as a What the Hay photo gallery.
Note: some of the photo pages have links to larger versions of the images.
Held the second Sunday in September, What the Hay is a central Montana hay art contest stretching over 21 miles in Judith Basin County. It features around 50 or more creative hay bale sculptures in fields between the towns of Hobson and Windham.
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So I’m working on the RV manufacturers pages at my Haw Creek website checking out the links and updating them and when I clicked on the link: [click to continue…]
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I overheard it the day before the election.
“That Obama scares me.”
I tried to believe that his fear was of the changes that are going to occur as a result of this election.
I really would like to believe that.
But I know better.
It was fear of something different, of someone different.
“HE isn’t like us.” “HE looks different.” “HE sounds different.” “HE can’t be a real American.” “HE pals around with Bill Ayers, a domestic terrorist.” “HIS preacher teaches hate.” “HE’s a Muslim.” “I can’t vote for him, HE’s…, HE’s…, not white.”
“THAT Obama scares me.”
“THAT one.”
Despite the misinformation campaigns, the hate ads, the robocalls, and racial bias, the American electorate overwhelming elected THAT one — the SENSIBLE one — the RIGHT one.
Yes, WE can!
Yes, WE did!
The change is started. It’s going to take some time.
Some people aren’t going to like it.
It’s not going to benefit everyone.
I’m not going to like everything about it.
But the nation was off course.
The nation needed a new heading and there will be a new hand on the tiller.
Yes, we can!
I’m not afraid of Barack Obama — Never was.
Note: This commentary is not intended to imply that all who voted for McCain and against Obama were racist. In my view, race was not an issue for the majority of those who voted for the Republican candidate, but there were many voters who were influenced by race and/or the campaign ads and speeches that were designed to foster fear — and that is what this post is addressing.
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Karen and our oldest daughter went for a hike at the Bona Dea Trails near Russellville Saturday while I stayed home to do some work on the shop. We had heard that there was an alligator in the wildlife refuge that the trails wind through. Karen was always looking, hoping to see it everytime she was there. Of course, I was a bit skeptical that any of us would ever see it.
I was wrong!
Our daughter took these pictures yesterday. Karen estimates that it was 70 to 100 feet away. She has a post about it on her blog, too.
It doesn’t look like this guy — or gal? — needs to go far for a meal!
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Twelve and one-half inches
More than we normally get in several years combined
March 4, 2008 at 8.25am CST
Camera: Pentax K10D
Exposure: 0.011 sec (1/90)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 100
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I like trains and pictures of old trains, particularly nice images of the steam locomotives. I can remember — barely — when some steam engines were still used on the Union Pacific.
I also like to find large old images where one can see a lot of detail when you look close. I’ve cropped this one several times to show all of the people in the image.
“Giant Bluff.” Elk Canyon on Black Hills and Ft. P. R.R.
A wood-burning locomotive with four cars, on a track below a cliff; several people are posing in front of the train.
1890.
Grabill, John C. H., photographer.
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.02546
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I’m not a small guy — and I guess I’m not as small as I used to be. Our oldest daughter took this picture of me going down into the after torpedo room on the USS Razorback, a submarine permanantly moored in the Arkansas River at North Little Rock. The Razorback is a WWII era diesel submarine, commissioned toward the end of the war. After its service in the U.S. Navy it was sold to Turkey for another couple of decades of service. After it was decommisioned by Turkey, it was sold to North Little Rock and is now part of a growing maritime museum. It’s named after a type of fish, not the mascot of the University of Arkansas. This was my second trip through this sub. The first was last year and was the first time I had been on a submarine since I stepped off my boat, the USS Casimir Pulaski, thirty years earlier.
This was a pretty full weekend and, with going back to work all of a sudden, I’m finding it a little difficult to squeeze things into the reduced amount of time that I now have. I’m only working 40 hours a week, with no overtime, but, with travel, that’s about 45 hours a week that I had for other stuff before last week. I’m getting up early to go to the fitness center, but the workouts are a little shorter.
However, it is just for a short term contract — 26 weeks — so it won’t be long till I’m free again, plus, we should have some of our recurring bills eliminated, so financially this should be a plus.
It’s bedtime, I’m tired, and I’m starting to babble on, so it’s time to close — I will endeaver to keep up with this blog. We’ll see.
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Karen calls one of her quilt projects Insanity. The quilt uses patterns from a book called “Dear Jane” and is based on the civil war quilt of a New England lady by the name of Jane Stickles. Every block in the main body of the quilt has a unique design as does every colored triangle shaped block in the borders and the four corner blocks. To this point, the quilt has 4,253 pieces and, when done, will probably be over 5,000. On February 23, she will have been working on this project on and off for three years. Insanity!
Karen blogs occasionally at Quilts…etc.
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One of the things I really like about my digital camera is the ability to shoot multiple pictures rapidly. I sometimes use this capability to “paint” or “sweep” a composite image. I sweep from side to side and up and down, capturing as many as 20 or 30 images in a short period of time, which I can later assemble using Autostitch.
This photo was a bit of serendipity. I’ve had a few composite “sweeps” where there was something or someone moving. Sometimes this results in a person or thing being stitched out of the image. Sometimes, there will be a ghost image. On my first attempt with the green VW, I ended up with this image.
To get the final result, I cropped each of the original images so that the background behind the car was unique in each cropped image. Thus, when the four images were merged, the portion of the image where the car didn’t get blended into a common background.
A larger version of the image is scheduled to be published on my photo blog on October 21st
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At about noon yesterday, I went up to check the mail. All we got was a catalog from Lands’ End and some junk mail. When I got back down to the porch, I handed the mail to Karen, knowing the first thing that she would do.
Sure enough, she started paging through the catalog looking to see if there were any pictures of our granddaughter in it. You see, our granddaughter occasionally models kids clothes for Lands’ End and she’s been on a few local photo shoots in Wisconsin for a couple of other companies.
Before long, Karen tells me, “I’m not sure, but I think this little girl might be Cia. It’s kind of hard to tell looking at her from the back.”
When I saw the picture, I was pretty sure it was her, but wasn’t entirely positive.
Of course Karen had to call our daughter, Jes, to find out for sure. Except Jes didn’t know because she hadn’t gotten that catalog yet and she didn’t remember the layout that Karen described to her. Of course, the parents aren’t always on the set for the shoot, so it might be something she hadn’t seen.
We scanned in the photo from the catalog and sent it to our daughter.
Before long we got a message, “That’s my sweetie!”
That’s three different Lands’ End catalogs that Cia has been in — and this time Karen spotted it before our daughter had a chance to.
Note: Cia only does these shoots occasionally and she will only be doing them as long as she continues to enjoy it. After costs, the money is being put away for college.
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