Scattered Thoughts . . .

A s I mentioned in my previous blog entry, we spent the day out for Sheila's birthday.  Most of the day was really nice while some of the day was pretty disgusting as will be described later in this blog entry.   The drive up to Burlington was nice...  the sky was clear and it wasn't snowing for a change!  The mountaintops clearly have snow but the snow at our lower elevation was mostly gone over the past few days and wouldn't return until the following day.   Sheila had gone for a massage in mid-morning in Waterbury so we were heading up to Burlington a little later than we normally would have started out.  She enjoyed her massage so that is good.  By the time we arrived in the Burlington area, it was a bit later in the lunchtime hours so we were pretty hungry.  We had decided to have lunch at a new Mexican restaurant in Willison called "Casa Grande" since we had never been there before and we do like Mexican food.  I think we visi...

Y esterday was Sheila's birthday.  She had already opened one gift a few days before her birthday (a good pair of ear buds) but she had another one to open on her birthday.   I had purchased a new ring for her...  the main stone is aquamarine (her birthstone) and it is surrounded by white sapphires... Shooting photos of jewelry isn't something I do all that often.  I had forgotten how surprisingly difficult it is to get a sharp photo due to all the specular highlights reflecting off the jewelry.  To compound this primary difficulty, you need a lot of light coming from many directions which makes even more specular highlight reflections.   Another problem I had with this particular photo is that a ring is quite small.  Since it is small, you need to try to get as close as possible which then results in a very shallow depth of field putting most of the ring out of focus.  I resolved that problem but the specular highlight issue is still a ...

I 'm a few days late with this St Patrick's Day post due to some lousy health over the past few days.  Fortunately, I managed to record and upload a couple of piano recordings this morning so I was able to publish this post.   Ideally, I had hoped to have these two recordings posted here sometime  before St Patrick's Day but being only three days late isn't all that bad.  At least it's still the right month, the right week and the right time of year!   This first recording is "Danny Boy" which is an arrangement by Keith Jarrett.  I really like most of his arrangements and his arrangement of "Danny Boy" is definitely one of my favorites . Here is the recording... This next recording is of the Irish lullabye, "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral"... I really need to do more recording at the piano before I lose any more of my piano ability.  Unfortunately, I usually have a difficult time recording myself though.  Whenever I attempt this, my mind tends ...

W e had planned to have our St Patrick's Day dinner last night (Sunday) but I was still recovering from fixing our neighbors roof earlier in the week so we put it off until today...  assuming I felt better.  I was feeling quite lousy yesterday and I was so exhausted I didn't even have the energy to stand.  I did feel better today so we had this heavy, fat-laden meal tonight. I started the day's cooking this morning by baking some Irish Soda Bread.  I cut the recipe for this bread in half this year so it didn't come out as well as expected.  Since it was smaller, it turned out a bit drier than usual but still more moist than most other people's soda bread.  So, I'd say it was "slightly" dry...  whereas I would say that most soda bread that I get elsewhere is "exceptionally" dry bordering on inedible.  My Irish Soda Bread is usually moderately moist. I usually make this in a 9 inch springform pan but this year I only made enough to fill a 6 inc...

I missed the lunar eclipse the other night even though I spent some time during the previous two weeks collecting the necessary gear from storage, ensuring everything is in working order, and planning the shots I wanted.   Unfortunately, I was feeling quite lousy after fixing our neighbor's roof and the weather wasn't ideal for this eclipse project anyway.  We seem to miss most astronomical events here in Waterbury due to what could easily be classified as abysmal Pacific Northwest-type of weather so I can truly say I am not the least bit surprised by another hazy night turning into a cloudy, foggy night.   On the following night, the moon was shining through our living room window so I grabbed one of my cameras and a lens so I could shoot a few photos through the open window.   I've been trying to use my micro four-thirds cameras more often lately so that is what I did on this night.  I don't know why I keeping attempting to shoot photos with th...

A s I wrote yesterday, I had done a relatively small roof repair on our neighbor's roof yesterday to repair damage done by part of our spruce tree falling on it.  I do some light physical therapy everyday for my spinal injuries but this was the first time in months that I did anything physically strenuous.   Just finding the strength to get up and down the ladder was grueling by the time I did it about a half a dozen times.  Doing anything on a roof does no good to anyone's knees and ankles and I already have significant problems with my knees (always have) and working on the roof did not help at all.   I just remembered something else...  I had roof cement all over my hands and needed to use paint thinner to remove most of it.  Using any solvents on my hands always results in my health crashing.  I don't know if it is due to what is absorbed into my tissue or if it is the fumes but I know that my health crashes after cleaning up my hands wit...

I had previously written that the top section of one of our trees (a tall spruce tree) broke off during a little bit of wind we had a few nights ago.  The section of tree that fell on our neighbor's roof had rolled right off the roof.  All that was remaining on the roof was some boughs that were about the size needed for making wreaths so I though the roof was fine.   I should also mention that our neighbor's house is unoccupied at the moment.   The other day, the temperatures were up around 60 degrees so I went outside to pull those boughs off our neighbor's roof.  I grabbed the roof rake for pulling snow off the roof and attempted to pull down those boughs...  they weren't moving and the roof rake was getting caught up on something.  I immediately knew what the roof rake was hanging up on...  some of the branches on this section of tree must have punctured the roof.  Now I wasn't too happy and I knew I had some work to do ahead o...

T here is a way to sort of simulate shooting in medium format or even large format (those old large wooden cameras with a bellows on a big, heavy tripod with a cloth draped over the photographer's head) by shooting many images (side by side, high to low) with a wide aperture and then stitching the images together.  This provides a wide view compared to just a single image using the same lens but also will provide a very shallow depth of field.  I've never tried this before but the idea of this technique always intrigued me so I tried it this afternoon in our living room. A shallow depth of field simply means that what is in focus in the photo is just a small slice of the whole scene...  what is in front of the slice of focus is blurry and what is behind the slice of focus is blurry...  the only thing in focus (hopefully) is the subject.  This type of shooting is most prevalent in portraiture or still life photography to eliminate distracting backgrounds and/or e...

W e have a tall spruce tree in our yard that hasn't been doing too well in recent years.  It was a beautiful tree up until about ten years ago when it developed some sort of disease.  Now, every time we have a bit of wind, branches fall off this tree.  Yesterday, I watched the top section of this tree break off in the wind and crash down with a big thud on our next door neighbor's roof! Most of the time, the falling branches have been no problem since we can always use firewood.  Plus, the boughs can be used for making wreaths for Christmas.  Yesterday, however, the top 12 feet of this tall spruce was blown off and it fell directly on our next door neighbor's roof! As you can see in this first photo, below, the top section of the tree is now missing.  Also worth noting is how much the tree has thinned in recent years.  There aren't many branches left on this tree! The top 12 feet of the tree fell right on our neighbor's house and then rolled off the ro...

I dream just about every time I fall asleep.  That isn't so unusual though because I think everyone probably dreams every night.  What is unusual is I almost always remember these dreams as though they happened in real life whereas most people don't even remember dreaming at all.  My dreams are often vivid with sounds, sights, colors, touch, smells and real life references.  This is great, for the most part, but I do have to say that the overwhelming realism in these dreams often leaves me feeling completely exhausted when I awaken in the morning.   As most readers should know by now, I am disabled and have been for the past 27 years.  As such and as one would expect, I can't do most of the things I did when I was younger and healthy.  On the positive side, this sudden disability was fairly easy to accept (after some grueling and painful therapy to walk and learn to live my daily life again) because I always had this nagging voice in my head tell...