Half Marathon

Last weekend Tony and Jenny completed a half marathon. They were still smiling as they crossed the finish line.

Arthur's Airplane Project

First, we had to turn something on the lathe. Arthur decided it looked like an airplane, so he started making it into an airplane.

Next, he had to cut off a length of board to make a wing.

The board was rough-cut, so he had to run it through the planer.

Next, he had to cut the rough shape of the wing with the band saw.

The taper of the wing required some skill with the spokeshave.

Preparing the fuselage for inserting a propellor shaft was done with a cordless drill.

This all took a long time, with breaks for lighting the barbecue, some chainsaw, hedge trimming, and machete work, so he plans to finish it tomorrow. I'll take more pictures as the work progresses.

Cue Sheet Holder

Here is my prototype of a cue sheet holder. The paper needs to be ironed with waxed paper to make it water resistant, and the wooden assembly needs to be coated in shellac or varnish to make it waterproof. It was made using maple and cedar, joined with water-based glue on mortice and tenon joints. The dowels are tight-fitting without glue, so they turn.

Next time I'll use Gorilla glue to make it water proof. I'll fasten it to the headset and top tube with twist ties.

Smashed Window

Last night somebody smashed the window on our 1998 Volvo, which was parked on the street in front of our house. This is the identical place where our 1967 Volvo was parked when the rear window was smashed out, about 20 years ago. The repair cost will be less than our deductible.

Kentucky Derby Race Hat

Monya got all dressed up in her new hat to watch the Kentucky Derby yesterday. Too bad her horse didn't win. We were both sad to hear about Eight Belles. Hooray for Abby's horse though: Big Brown by 4 lengths.

Global Warming: Positive Proof

Cousins on Vacation

Abby and Arthur were on vacation at the ocean, July 24, 2004.

Bopop as a Baby

Hey, I think that's me in the center of this one! From left to right: Grandpa Ward, Aunt Hazel, me, Grandma Nettie, and my brother Harry. I recognize him in his surfer shirt that he wore all through the California years, and even waterskiing in Lake Washington when we were teenagers. You can even see the portrait of Uncle Jim in his military uniform on the shelf. The cuckoo clock was off the picture to the right. If I'm guessing right, this photo would have been taken in 1952 or 1953.

Older Photo

Here is a photo from Grandma Nettie's collection. It's dated and labeled, so I'm pretty certain the children are Aunt Donagene and Uncle Jim. Maybe the Great Grumpy can tell us what kind of car that is. Are the children sitting on a big box that blocks the driver's door? Is that a ten-gallon hat on the trunk? I think those wheels have wooden spokes!

Old Photos

These photos were scanned from a print and a slide some years ago. The color one was taken in about 1962. The black and white looks a year or two older to me.

Four-Arm Boy

This morning, while visiting at P'Nut's house, we saw a boy with four arms. I was lucky that he held still long enough to capture this photo of him.

More Optical Fun

These two photos were taken from two different positions. Some people are able to see the combination of the two photos as a single 3D image. Cross your eyes, letting them go out of focus, but cross them enough to make three images appear. Then concentrate on the central image, picking a single object as a primary subject. Bring that subject into focus, and then look around at the other objects in the photo. You can get a larger image by clicking on the photo.

Twin Girls

The other day I met these two little girls who just happened to be twin sisters. They were wearing identical dresses and necklaces, and they even had identical hair styles. Even their names were the same! Meet Abby and her twin sister Abby.

Photo Editing

Look what I did! These two photos, taken on the advice of some photography experts, have been stacked and enhanced to produce one final photo that is better than either original.

Stop or Go?

What can you guess the motorist is supposed to do when encountering a traffic light combination like this? The sign indicates that there is no other way to go except to the right, and the green arrow says "go" but the red light says "stop!"

Curiously, the two middle lights never turn on. The green arrow turns to yellow, and when the yellow arrow turns off, there is only the red light. The red light never turns off.

Credit for this strange situation goes to the City of Renton.

Muddy Face

Here's what happens when you ride a bicycle in the rain on "clean" pavement for eight miles, without any fenders. The "other end" was even worse.

Lunar Eclipse from Arizona

My friend Jerry, in Arizona, took this picture of the lunar eclipse with a Nikon D100 DSLR and Nikkor 180mm lense. Aperture at f/2.8 for 2 seconds, tripod mounted, taken 2/20/2008 at 8:54 pm (Arizona time).

It appears to me, superior to the composite photo published on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) site. You may need to click on the image and view the full-size version to compare with the APOD composite.

Two Girls

We had two little girls come to visit today. They watched Snow White and were scared by the wicked witch. They took refuge in the afghan that Granny crocheted.

Saturn Photo: February 28, 2008

I guess this is about as good as I'm going to get with this setup: 6" f/8 with a 24mm eyepiece, aimed at the subject. Add a camera on a tripod, set to manual focus, with a 2 second shutter delay (to stop vibrations before the shutter is released). Aim the camera into the telescope eyepiece for about ten minutes, while continually adjusting the telescope and camera to follow the moving object. If the subject appears in the camera viewfinder, set the manual focus and take the shot. Adjust the shutter speed as might seem appropriate and try again. This photo is the best of about 100 frames:
Canon PowerShot S80
ISO: 50
Shutter: 1/6 sec
F/Stop: 4.5
Focal length: 6mm

The moon Titan was visible below and to the left, well inside the frame, but was not bright enough to register with a 1/6 sec shutter speed. Slower exposures only made Saturn grow and get blurry, and turn into a streak in the frame. Notice the definition between the planet and the ring.

Lunar Eclipse 2008

OK, I gave up on image processing. Here is my best single frame of the lunar eclipse, complete with a camera artifact (a horizontal line). At least it includes both Saturn and Regulus, and you get a hint of the moon features.

Technical Details:
Canon PowerShot S80
Shutter: 1 sec
Aperture: F/5.3
Focal Length: 21mm

Saturn Photo: June 30, 2007

While photographing the phases of Venus last summer, I took a little time out to snap a few shots of Saturn. This one was taken on June 30, while the evening glow still colored the sky slightly blue. The camera was on a tripod, up against the eyepiece of the telescope. I didn't record the eyepiece or camera zoom settings. Saturn was not in a preferable location, so this photo is a poor example of what can be done. Since Saturn is at opposition, a better location, I might try to get some better shots tonight.

Wool Slippers

Here is a sequence of photos showing how I made these wool slippers.

I started with 100% wool, knitted intentionally over-sized. Then I ran them through the washing machine and dryer, using full heat to shrink and stiffen them. At the end, I stitched on the leather soles to help them last longer.

More Snow Photos

These photos were just too nice to keep to myself. Maybe it's because I like snow so much.

Snowy Road

Monya took this photo through the windshield while I was driving. The All-Wheel-Drive handled that snow so well that I didn't even come close to putting on the tire chains. The last section of the road was solid snow, and the steepest grade, and I made it as difficult as possible by going slow and daring the slightest bump to catch us without traction. I was testing to see when the traction control would fail, but it never did.

Red Sweater

Here's the red sweater I knitted for BeeBoo. You may notice that BeeBoo fits nicely inside of it.

Holding Babies

On Christmas Day, I had a chance to practice holding babies. Five days later, we went on a walk through the forest, in falling snow. By the way, that's Lief (aka "the Daddy") carrying Miss Maple.

Hot Air Balloon Launch

Finally, the snow stopped falling and we were able to send the balloon up. It was surprisingly successful. We attached a fishing line as a tether, which limited the altitude to about 150-200 feet. When the balloon came down, it dropped like a limp handkerchief.

Toy Hot Air Balloon

This toy hot air balloon has been in progress for several weeks. I finally got the last of the "gores" glued together, and was able to inflate it. It took two or three minutes to fill, even with the powerful blast from a vacuum cleaner exhaust. We're planning to launch it from the hills of Amboy the weekend after Christmas. More pictures are almost certain to follow.

Hanging Nest

We discovered this nest in the Linden tree yesterday. Apparently the bushtit birds like our trees and bushes, because this is the sixth hanging nest we've found, and the third nest in the past three years.

Note the wine bottle shape. The opening is at the top, with a flap of moss and spider web covering it to keep out the rain or obscure the entrance. The entire structure is very resilient at this stage. The insides are lined with cobweb, feathers and down, so soft that I can't feel it when I touch it.

Natural Beauty

No credit can be given to the photographer. These models are just naturally beautiful.

Tomato Crop

Here is a sampling of the tomatoes we harvested this year. Apparently we eat our tomatoes with butter.

Goldenrod Spider

Monya and I found this Misumena vatia in our Escondita hedge this morning.

We saw one of these flower spiders before, but didn't have a camera. It's also out of place on a bush with red flowers. They usually crouch in a white or yellow flower and snatch a bug that is landing on the flower. She looked a lot cleaner before we got the zoomed in version from the camera, but it is late summer, and she's probably just looking for somewhere to lay her eggs.

Great Pumpkin Harvest 2007

Last weekend P'Nut and Miss Maple helped me harvest our pumpkins. We gathered up 45 of the Cucurbita pepo melons. Note that some of them were different colors, and some had warts on the surface, like gourds. All of the seeds came out of the same pumpkin from last fall, so maybe this is a result of cross-pollination. We were also shocked to discover tiny thorns on the skin, not just on the vines, but they were easily rubbed off with leather gloves.

A View 40 Years Old

Compare this photo with the one posted on the Letters From Amboy blog. They're quite similar. My intent here was to capture the seven horizons. Thanks to some help from two excellent photographers, I was also able to capture the texture of the clouds.

This was my second visit to this lake in 40 years. I can't tell if it was different this time or not. At least I knew it was there.

Giant Q Tips

Clouds rolled slowly over the mountain tops, partially obscurring this meadow of Western Anemone. Sometime soon, I intend to post a photo of some Anemone under water. They're just as tall, and a lot more colorful, but you can't see as many of them at one time.

Giant Mushroom

This mushroom was about the size of a loaf of bread. I especially like the color, and almost wanted to eat it.

Fishing at a Secret Lake

We watched the fisherman, on the left in this photo, while he brought in three Brook Trout. Many more fish were jumping clear out of the water, but they were out of his casting range.