A Good Life
16:02 Saturday, 19 July 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 83.66°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 57% Wind: 7.11mph
Words: 928
Recently, a certain amount of angst, or public introspection, has made its way into my feeds regarding Apple and its products. Mainly because, I think, for very many years Apple had enjoyed a reputation for being one of the "good" corporations. I'm not going to rehash all the reasons why that came about; if you're reading the marmot I trust you're at least somewhat acquainted with Apple's history.
And, Apple's descent into darkness didn't just happen recently. It began during the second reign of Steve, but his illness and early death kind of obscured the darker aspects of his competitive nature. Suffice to say, this is not something recent, it's been there all along. Apple benefited from being surrounded by larger villains like Microsoft and Google.
Until Apple grew larger in so many dimensions, and began throwing its weight around in ways that invited public scrutiny and criticism.
Here are three posts from three different blogs that speak to this issue from somewhat varying perspectives.
First is from Denny at Beardy Guy Musings, who represents what may be a somewhat extreme view. He reduces the issue to a binary choice, which I think is the hallmark of most extremist positions.
I like Denny, I enjoy his blog and I understand his passion. But still:
You can agree to your own subjugation, that’s your choice. It may seem more convenient. It may seem comfortable. It may even seem pleasurable and safe. But in the end, you’re handing over your own fate.
To quote the noted philosopher Jodi Ernst, "Well, we are all going to die."
Except Kurzweil maybe. Anyone checked on him lately? Has he uploaded yet?
More recently, Manuel Morales. While not exactly an extreme view, it did prompt this post, The cost of selfishness, from Ricardo Mori that seems to locate itself somewhere in between the views expressed by Denny and Manuel.
Denny has a pretty good view of the larger picture, which is clear in his archives. Manuel and Ricardo have had less to say about the broader landscape. No judgement implied, just acknowledging that Denny has framed the discussion in a larger context, which is helpful.
Record scratch...
While Mitzi's daughter and son-in-law were here, we visited a farm animal sanctuary called, er, Farm Sanctuary. It was an interesting visit, and I'm sympathetic to many of its views, but it's another binary thing. They tried to kind of "meet people where they are," by encouraging them to maybe "consume less" meat, poultry, dairy and eggs. But any effort to engage with them eventually devolved to the binary view.
Very nice people. Well run facility. They do wonderful things, but it is strictly within their own context. (Ethics?)
For instance, the animals aren't "free." They don't have any agency of their own. Most particularly, they are not allowed to reproduce. This, after telling us how much cows suffer when separated from their calves. (They have PTSD.) So presumably a "fulfilling" life for an animal includes reproduction and raising offspring, but that's not part of their program. They're allowed to live out their days in relative comfort until they die, as confined creatures exploited to promote a certain agenda.
The hens they "rescue" still lay eggs, but they compost the eggs. I guess it's better for some vegans that some humans go hungry than an egg go to feed them.
Humans. We're such funny creatures.
But, back to Apple. And ethics.
Huge topic. Larger than I can address in a marmot post. ("So why even bother, Rogers?" So I don't have to do any of the other things I know I ought to be doing right now.)
Nobody gets to choose their parents. We find ourselves where we are, in this place and time, and we do the best that we can. There are forces, dynamics and trends, cultural practices, social customs and constructs, economic systems that we have to somehow navigate and maintain some sense of self-worth, or upright morality. And we do all that in this fishbowl we call the "internet."
Look, I think mindfulness is a good thing. I think it requires effort, because the first thing it requires is your attention, and well, everyone wants that. Attention is a finite resource. It's also has a fairly narrow aperture. That is to say, well, if your immortal soul, or your freedom from, you know, subjugation, depends on what you're giving your attention to... Well, like the lady said, "We are all going to die."
Yes, our choices matter. But we lack the capacity to be fully cognizant of the consequences of all of our choices. We lack the cognitive ability to make conscious choices at every moment that they may possible. Nearly all of our behavior is habituated.
Unconscious.
So, you know, be kind. Even to the folks who eat animals. Or use commercial software. Or vote for demagogues. (You don't have to be kind to demagogues, though it's unlikely you'll ever be in a position to really extend kindness to them. They generally don't like to be, you know, "among the people.")
"Do unto others..." And so on.
Yes, choices matter. I don't go on "cruises." I don't fly internationally anymore. I try to make choices that are congruent with how I wish to be in the world. I often don't get it right. I try to do my best.
There's a better world where the marmot doesn't exist, doesn't consume resources, doesn't consume others' attention.
But here I am.
By the grace of God, perhaps?
The beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailLast Night's Sky 7-18-25
Current Wx: Temp: 53.19°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 4.54mphWords: 154
Stayed up late last night (to 2300!) and stuck the OM-1 on a tripod out on the porch. Sky was clear, so I wanted to see what I could see. Posted a couple of "test" shots, (Live Composite, but only two frames) on Flickr, along with this one. Moved the tripod between the test shots and the star trails.
The Milky Way was visible to the naked eye, which was something seldom experienced where we lived in Florida. I saw it once out in Macclenny, Florida at my friend's little farm, but never in Ponte Vedra. Might have had some luck down in the preserve, or in Guana, but was never really there at night.
I'll try and make a more "serious" effort as the opportunity presents itself. It was just a spur of the moment thing, since the sky was cloudless and the moon wasn't going to be up until after midnight.
✍️ Reply by emailI Love New York
16:54 Friday, 18 July 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 71.4°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 57% Wind: 5.23mph
Words: 118
This is a really well done documentary from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation about invasive species.
It's about an hour out of your life, but I'd say it's worth it. It's interesting, informative and important. The subject doesn't just affect New York, as I know only too well from Florida.
There are a few invasive plants on our property and I'll be addressing those. It's an interesting point made near the end of the video, that 86% of the land east of the Mississippi is privately owned. If each of those owners took some measure of responsibility for the ecosystems on their property, we'd be 86% of the way toward a much more manageable problem.
✍️ Reply by emailNot According to Plan
13:25 Friday, 18 July 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 66.18°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 66% Wind: 7.43mph
Words: 698
Oh well...
I went down to CVS where there's a UPS drop-off, but before I spoke to the front desk, I went back to the pharmacy to see if they could simply transfer the prescription to the CVS down there in Nocatee and Mitzi could pick it up on her way home from her conference today.
No. Because I already picked it up.
I asked Mitzi if she had enough pill to last her until she got home on Tuesday and she said yes. I recall being somewhat skeptical, but she asked me to pick it up here because if she waited until she got home, they might put it back on the shelf. I don't know for certain that I would have thought about asking to transfer it to her local CVS, but it certainly occurred to me this morning.
They couldn't fill the prescription when the hospital updated it, because reasons. They said Medicare wouldn't allow them to. But I think Tricare is our drug benefit plan, and I'm not sure that they would have objected. But whatever, we had wait until she left New York before they refilled it.
So, up to the counter at the front, and as I suspected, they don't actually ship anything. They're just a pickup point for UPS.
Out to the Mav to spend some time with Maps. Since I was already basically between Watkins Glen and Montour Falls, it was almost a coin toss between going to the FedEx shipping center near the airport in Elmira, or going to one in Ithaca.
I went toward Elmira.
Got there and had to wait twenty minutes until they opened at 1000.
First in line when the nice lady opened the door. Everything clicking along until she asked if I had an account with FedEx.
I do not.
"Then I need to see your driver's license."
Which is when I discovered my wallet was in my waist pack that I use when I'm going to the gym to carry my wallet, my keys, and my phone. 🤬
Now it's 23 miles back to the house to collect my wallet. I get home, get the wallet and look at Maps again and it's 5 minutes faster to go to Ithaca, and a lot fewer turns. Basically, get on 79 and go until you get to Ithaca.
So off I go to Ithaca.
Saturday is not a "normal" FedEx delivery day. So for delivery by 1100, it's $170! By 1300 or so, it's about $130. By 1700 it's $85.
1700 it is.
I hadn't had breakfast yet, and it was now 1130. Not that I was especially hungry, just frustrated. I checked maps for someplace for lunch nearby and there was this local sub place DiBella's. Been in business for decades, good reviews, so I walked there.
Meh. I had the 7" Uncle Louie on multigrain bread. I asked for spicy brown mustard, but I guess that means different things in different places. There it seemed to mean mustard with horseradish in it. Now, I like spicy things, but I don't care for horseradish. And I didn't care for the way they sliced the roll. I expect it was just carelessness, because I can't see them doing all their subs this way. Big slab of bread on the bottom, little patch of crust on top. And very salty ham.
Disappointing. I kept half for dinner, but I'm not looking forward to it.
On the drive back home I was in train with a number of other vehicles stuck behind a loaded semi that struggled to make it up the hills.
But it is a gloriously beautiful day! 70°F and sunny. Wow. I just enjoyed the scenery. Got home, let Mitzi know her meds were on the way and took a nap. Well, I started this post first. Then I took a nap. And then I watched a Shih Tzu get groomed and missed Schatzi. And now I'm finishing this. (And it's 70°F - it was 66° when I started this.)
Some days you're the windshield and other days you're the bug.
Not going to let it bug me.
The beat goes on.
✍️ Reply by emailLast Night's Sky
Current Wx: Temp: 57.36°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 9.06mphWords: 424
Finally got the Hulu log-in squared away last night, so I was watching The Amateur. It was pretty much daylight when it started at 8:00 pm, so I wasn't paying attention to the sky. Paused the movie to make a head call and saw this out the front window. Pretty cool.
Well, I didn't post yesterday because I didn't feel like going to the gym and I didn't want to write about another excuse.
So this morning I went to the gym. My back is still complaining from the fence effort, but not enough to keep me from going. I just got out of bed and put my gym stuff on. Then I had to wake up enough to remember to bring a cloth to wipe the sweat from my face, and a bottle of water since there's no drinking fountain there.
Got there and there were three other guys there. Two my age or older, and one fading gym rat in his 50s. I wanted to warm up on the elliptical, but they only have one and one of the old guys was on it doing his full cardio workout. The gym rat was on the stationary bike, so I used the recumbent. Normally warm up for six minutes, but I went for 10 because I haven't made an effort like this in over a month and I wanted to see how I felt.
Felt fine.
Used the plan our trainer gave me, but shuffled the sequence so I was doing the knee-tucks at the end. I suppose I could have done them at the beginning, but I did my usual three sets of 25 and I was struggling a bit at the end of the third set. That would have been discouraging at the beginning of the workout.
Anyway, I've kind of gotten off of bottom dead center. I'll recover tomorrow and head back in on Sunday. Try every other day for a while and see how that works. I got in there a little after 0600, I'll try to get in there a little earlier and see what it's like.
But first, I've got to jump in the shower and then head into town and see if I can overnight Mitzi's last four pills to her. I figured she'd run out before she got back here on Tuesday, but she thought she had enough. Nope.
Then I'll try and get some breakfast somewhere in Watkins, maybe that little bagel shop I went to before.
The beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailSurprised?
Current Wx: Temp: 78.1°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 7.23mphWords: 262
No dew, so no spider webs. But I did manage to surprise this fawn. I don't know where momma was, but it stood there for quite a few seconds before it bounded off into the weeds.
This is with the OM-3 and the 12-200mm super zoom. I'm satisfied with the sharpness of this lens at 200mm (400mm efl).
Later, I went back and exchanged the OM-3 for the E-M1X. I had an idea that I could get the difference in elevation from the present house, and the back of the property. So I went around the place to where I thought the corners were and took some shots.
As best I can tell from the E-M1X "field sensor" there's about 20' of elevation difference between the house and the back of the property. About 45' from the road to the back of the property. Of course, I didn't absolutely need that data, you can obviously see that the back of the property is above the roofline of the existing house. I guess I just enjoy playing with my toys.
And I haven't done anything genuinely productive yet this morning.
But my brother called and said the check should arrive in today's mail. The post office emails him images of the day's mail before it's delivered. Mitzi signed up for the same service. So I don't have to call the credit union and I'm going to call that a "completed" on my non-existent "to-do" list.
Now to figure out what else I can do to procrastinate.
✍️ Reply by emailThis Morning's Moon 7-16-25
Current Wx: Temp: 67.71°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 6.24mphWords: 939
Air's pretty clear this morning, and still. Nice, sharp image using handheld high-resolution.
Got a couple of things done yesterday. Spent some time in Watkins Supply, figuring out what I might expect to find there. Pretty much a general purpose hardware store, with some emphasis on plumbing and electrical, I think, and RV utilities. I bought a couple of fire extinguishers, one for in the house and the other in the garage.
Thought I might go to the gym this morning, but I'm feeling the effects of making yesterday's "maximum effort," taking down the remaining part of the fence. Especially in my lower back. So I think I'm going to take it easy today, and make a plan to get there tomorrow. I figure it'll be quiet enough at 0600, but who knows? Parking won't be a problem, I may even be able to park right in front of the door. Sneak in, work out, sneak out. Nobody sees the old fat guy trying to get in shape.
Neighbor says he likely won't be able to get to cutting down that field behind the house. No biggie. At least the fence is down. I emailed the guy who surveyed the property back in 2018 to ask for a quote for another survey. I want to get all the boundaries right so we can figure out where we want to put the new house.
That is, once we figure out what it is we want to build.
Stopped by the place that carries the supplies for our water softener (Kinetico). They had the sediment filters, but they didn't have the carbon filter. The installers left us a spare, and it shouldn't require replacement for several months, so I have plenty of time to get some extras. I got six of the sediment filters, which should put us into next spring, with the two already on hand, before I need to buy more. Little cushion against "supply chain interruptions," if you know what I mean. But I'll buy one every time I replace one so that cushion remains.
When I was taking down the fence yesterday, I noticed a spider web in the grass, visible because the sun was behind it and it still had dew on it. I may go up there this morning with a camera and see what I can find.
Then I'll probably putter around in the garage, get that fire extinguisher mounted. My wife's son-in-law helped me put up a shelf in the garage, using some old weathered scrap lumber that had been lying on the ground behind the garage. It was all rough-cut, and had been sitting outside for who knows how long. I bought a hand plane just to quickly knock down the worst of the surfaces, so we wouldn't be getting slivers every time we handled it. Orbital sander took down the rest. Still pretty warped, but it does the job.
Anyway, I want to extend it a bit in the corner. There are a couple of narrower boards still back there, but wide enough for the Makita battery chargers. I've got some plastic battery holders to mount on the bottom of the shelf to hold the batteries. Makes it easier to find and store the batteries.
So, a few chores before it starts getting warm. Then I'll come inside and do "admin." I send my brother some money every month, for an account we've set up for my mom in case her savings run out. It's an automatic thing from the credit union, but he didn't get the check this month, so I've got to call and see about that. And I've still got to find a dermatologist, and a new primary care. Oh, and the title company wants to know about transferrable warranties for the Powerwalls, so I've got to look into that too.
The money from MPB was deposited yesterday, which was reassuring. That'll probably go toward the survey. I'm saving up for a generator, and considering skipping the battery for now. "Better" being the enemy of "good enough." In this case, "soon enough," as a hedge against another 30-hour outage this winter.
In the near-term, I bought an EcoFlow Delta 3 Plus to keep the refrigerator running if the power goes out. I've got a Bluetti AC70 coming up in the pod. And I just bought an EcoFlow River 2 Pro that was on sale. The Delta 3 Plus has, nominally, 1kWh of storage. Might get 800 watt hours out of it in an outage. The AC70 and the River 2 Pro both have 756 watt hours, so figure about 600 out of those two. The AC70 will be the backup to the Delta 3 Pro in case the outage outlasts the battery. The River 2 Pro will be for nighttime, for Mitzi's CPAP, a light and to keep the phones charged.
The refrigerator uses 690 watts when it's running, but it's not always running. I don't know the duty cycle, but I've got a Kill-o-Watt meter in the garage. I should probably dig that out and put it behind the fridge. Except we're getting a new one later this month, so I'll skip it for now.
None of that addresses the real issue, which is the well pump. But I remembered I've got the water in the hot water heater so we can still flush the toilet for a while. Plus the little container we bought from Walmart, which probably has a couple of flushes in it.
Sun's up. Guess I should go look to see what I can see.
✍️ Reply by emailFence Is Done
Current Wx: Temp: 70.05°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 97% Wind: 0.51mphWords: 293
The pic isn't an illustration of the fence being down, but because I was taking down the fence, I saw that fog over Seneca Lake. This was taken from what is probably my neighbor's property. (Log cabin on the left. They built that place themselves 42 years ago.) So it's just behind where we think we're going to put our new house.
Anyway, fence is down and I'm sitting here sweating in front of the computer again. I have showered and shaved and inspected for ticks, but it was a workout. I've got to talk to my neighbor about getting his bush hog or brush hog or bush whacker, or whatever it is back there to cut all that grass down. I could see where the deer were bedding up against the fence. I guess they felt more secure there? Anyway, hopefully that all comes down.
In other news, here's a short video on the housing situation in at least one part of Florida.
Madness.
Mitzi just called and we've been trying to set up a security cam in the house, something she wanted to do since we took two of the cameras here offline, so they were just sitting on a shelf. It's hard to do by remote control. I think she's got it figured out now. At least I hope so.
Well, I guess I've got to get some breakfast and figure out what else I'm going to do today. I think a trip into town may be on the agenda. I want to buy some spare filters for the water softener. I need to get a haircut and I should probably find a dermatologist to check out a mole on my leg that has changed. Yeesh.
The beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailIt's a Zoo Around Here
Current Wx: Temp: 67.17°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 0.78mphWords: 549
I would have deleted this shot, but then I noticed the rabbit.
Anyway, I went out last night with the OM-3 to play with the sunset. I was just goofing off and I haven't really set up this camera yet, so I'm shooting jpegs and I've got the white balance set to cloudy for the sunset. I had to try and correct the color in Photos, came out fairly well.
There's a sequence up at Flickr that tells the story, though the photo stream is in reverse chronological order. (So arrow left from the linked shot.) Can't have everything I guess.
The big news is we have a contract. It's not everything we wanted, but it's better than nothing, which is all we've received until now. It's a contingency, the buyer already lives in the community and has to sell their place. Puts closing in late September, unless their place sells earlier. Price isn't what we wanted either. I'd say we're losing money compared to what we invested in the house. But I don't think we're going to be alone.
Florida is toying with the idea of eliminating the property tax. The only reason they're doing that, which they won't admit, is to save the real estate industry, developers and home values. The insurance crisis will only get worse, and I think everyone is holding their breath through this hurricane season.
I don't think they can eliminate the property tax without bankrupting local governments. Of course, it would defund public schools, which is pretty much okay with Florida Republicans.
Florida is exposed to the sea on three sides, which is to say, it's very exposed. Likewise with its real estate inventory, having permitted development in vulnerable areas for far too long. Everyone in Florida is exposed to unreasonable risk, and insurance is a problem. Which means mortgage lending is a problem. Which means home sales are a problem.
I thought we were kind of ahead of the curve, but now I think we're just at the leading edge of this wave of losses that's going to wash over Florida. It's not breaking over us, but it will be for those much after us. So I'm glad we're getting out when we are. Apart from the fact that we'll never be any younger than we are right now, we're not going to take the kind of beating people will be taking a year from now.
Unless Florida eliminates the property tax, which brings a whole new raft of its own problems. No income tax and no property tax? Yeah, people will flock to Florida again. But they'll need that money to afford insurance. They won't have any government services, but it'll take a little while to figure that out.
Florida has been a one-party state, governed exclusively by Republicans for more than a generation. This is what Republican governance leads to.
I'm not saying Democrats are necessarily better (though they mostly are), just that we should have divided government all the time. So there's a check on the worst tendencies of either party. With one-party rule, elections are won in the primaries, where only the most rabid voters turn out and candidates grow more extreme over time and you start building concentration camps in national parks.
Winning.
✍️ Reply by emailJust Watchin' the Clouds Roll By
Current Wx: Temp: 80.37°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 5.55mphWords: 520
I've had to hang around the house today while Mitzi is doing some packing down in Florida. Presumably, at some point today, we're going to jump on a zoom call with our realtor to discuss the pros and cons of a contingency offer.
So I'm stuck here.
Which isn't a bad thing. But I would like to get out of the house and do some shopping at Watkins Supply so I can get a better idea of their inventory. I also need to buy some spray cooking oil.
While I'm hanging around, I went online and changed my address at a bunch of my accounts. Now I'm worried about flying again, and TSA and how my change of address may screw up my pre-check. We need to get new driver's licenses too, which is when I'll change my voter registration. We're past the six-month mark for Florida residency (meaning we're less than six months in New York), so we shouldn't be liable for 2025 state income taxes. But you never know. Death and taxes and all that jazz.
I also renewed the nice-marmot domain for another five years. Wasn't coming up until September, but figured I'd just go ahead and do it while I was updating the contact information.
Got an email from MPB and they've offered me $2K for the cameras I wanted to sell, which is pretty fair, I think. I was surprised at how much they offered for the little Panasonic Lumix LX-7, but it was in mint condition and came with the charger and so on. That money should appear in my bank account by Wednesday I guess. Unless I made a typo somewhere.
We've decided to buy a new refrigerator rather than ship the one up from Florida, instead letting it convey with the house. We're not getting a super-fancy one, since it'll stay here in this place after we build the new place. But it'll be a side-by-side and we should stop hitting our heads on the freezer door, which will be nice.
Mitzi reports good progress on loading up the pod. We may have room for more than we'd planned, so the night stands and Mitzi's tall mirror/bookcase might make it up. (I'll be amazed if that survives. But...🫰)
I had the windows and the screen door open until 1320 this afternoon. My wife's son-in-law, Ian, helped me install a storm door while they were here. Couldn't have done it without him. It lets more light into the house and more cross-ventilation. Nice to have.
Played around some more with the E-M5, which is where the pic above came from. I think Olympus tweaked the Dramatic Tone algorithm from image processor to image processor (TruePic series.) I think the TruePic VI series of cameras had the best, though the difference between it and the earlier 12MP models may be due to the sensor differences.
Or it could all just be in my head.
Anyway, it does make an otherwise unremarkable scene a little more, er, dramatic.
The beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailBugs, Mr. Rico! Zillions of 'em!
08:06 Monday, 14 July 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 72.1°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 1.16mph
Words: 578
That's a line I'll never forget from the now somewhat problematic Heinlein juvenile, Starship Troopers. It comes to mind at the moment because there are a lot of insects around here. I'd always considered Florida the bug capital of the world, but generations of development, lawn "care" and extermination "services" have pretty much eradicated most of them in a suburban setting. Biting flies, mosquitoes, chinch bugs, fleas and palmetto bugs (roaches) seemingly the only insects resilient enough to survive, due to selection pressure from the aforementioned "care" and "services."
Right now I'm being annoyed by two flies. My neighbor raises cattle (small herd, only 10), and the deer are in the dozens if not hundreds around here. I went out this morning and pulled up another 50 feet of fence or so. I'd hoped to get it all, but it's hard, it's hot and I'm old. I've been in and showered and I'm still sweating here in front of the computer.
And being annoyed by two flies that snuck in as I was going in and out.
Ticks are in the news. I wore long pants and long sleeves, the clothes I wore when I was treating my hiking clothes with permethrin, hoping some of the overspray was at least somewhat effective. I think I probably should have added some bug repellant, but I was in a hurry to get something done before the sun got too high.
I saw one recommendation to help prevent tick bites is to throw your clothes in the dryer for 10 minutes on "high" after you come in from being outdoors. So I did that before I showered. I gave myself as close an inspection as is possible for one person to inspect themselves. That's a likely use for AI, having your phone inspect you for ticks after being outside. Someone alert Mr. Cook. They can probably do all that "on device,"
And speaking of flies and ticks, I guess I did not know that ticks are arachnids, they have eight legs. This troubles me because I identified a bug Mitzi found on a wine bottle as a spider, while she suspected it might be a tick. I retrieved the photo I took from the trash in Photos and cropped and "enhanced" it and Photos identified it as a cobweb spider. I think that's correct.
Speaking of arachnids, flies and Mitzi, she made me eject one of my bold jumping spiders, and I haven't seen the other one in days. I suspect foul play. That horsefly in the earlier pic today is the same variety that was swiftly dispatched by one of our bold jumping spiders back in June. I miss them. I've been unsuccessful in convincing Mitzi they are among our allies in the defense of our home. I shall make further entreaties.
I took a few moments to look to the west before I started dismantling the fence. The sun was just hitting the hillsides on the far side of the lake. I hope I never get used to it.
Oh, and before I forget, Loren has a remarkable post about a conversation he had with ChatGPT about Taoism. I thought it was fascinating. You should check it out.
And AKMA (He's fighting a bot infestation. Server may not respond.) sent me a link to a nice, if somewhat rotund, marmot.
As always, the beat that can be counted is not the beat, but it goes on just the same.
✍️ Reply by emailThis Morning's Moon 7-14-25
Current Wx: Temp: 68.79°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 1.61mphWords: 13
And just so you don't think I've given up on shooting the moon...
✍️ Reply by emailThe Fly
Current Wx: Temp: 68.09°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 2.46mphWords: 396
Yesterday was kind of a loss. Spoke to my mom, who's been having some health issues but is otherwise in good spirits, and then took a nap! Missed my Tinderbox meetup, which I was kind of looking forward to.
Tried reading a book, but my eyes kept closing! Did a little grocery shopping and spoke to Mitzi after she got settled in.
That was a bit of good news. We had a short-notice showing scheduled, and Mitzi didn't quite make it out of the house before the realtor arrived with his client. He asked Mitzi to stay and show the house, so she did.
Apparently, he was quite impressed with the house. The buyer already lives in one of the condos in our Del Webb community, but is looking for a detached home. We're going to consider a contingency offer they plan to make today. So... Maybe some good news for once.
The image above was shot on the 10th of this month. It's not a great image, but I liked the reflection in the glass. I'd been using the 12-50mm lens on the E-PL7, which is a 16MP body. It has the "macro" position on the lens that allows for closer focusing at 43mm focal length (86mm efl). I wondered how it would perform on a 20MP body like the E-P7.
Well, it seems like the lens can resolve the facets of the fly's compound eye. Not bad for a "snapshot," just fooling around.
There are also a couple of shots of the sky yesterday evening as the thunderstorms were approaching. We had two fairly significant storms with a total of 1.25" of rainfall, and a peak rate of 3.05" per hour. They moved through fairly quickly, but there were flash flood warnings up in the region. Haven't seen any reports of flooding, but I wouldn't have enjoyed being out in that weather. Lots of lightning, and visibility was poor.
I'm going to try to pull up the remainder of the fence this morning. I'll be glad to have that chore done. My neighbor says he'll go through with a "bush hog"(?) and cut down all the tall grass back there. There are a few trees I think he'd like to keep, but I believe that is all on his land anyway, so I guess I don't really care that much.
✍️ Reply by emailAnd I'm Back...
05:49 Sunday, 13 July 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 71.47°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 6.73mph
Words: 860
It's been a busy week, and a lot has happened.
The kids left on Friday, and it was wonderful having them. The tiny cabin her daughter and son-in-law stayed in was comfortable, and fortunately it was big enough to accommodate their three-year-old, because Mitzi got sick.
She had a sudden onset of headache, fever, chills, muscle aches and just in general feeling miserable on Monday. Tuesday morning, she woke up feeling the same, and wondered if she might have Lyme disease. So we went to an urgent care clinic, which was located in Schuyler Hospital in Montour Falls. It opened at 0730, and I wanted to get there when it opened, but it's hard to move fast when you're ill.
We got there a little after 0800. From my experience with urgent care clinics in Florida, I anticipated a room full of people and a long wait, but the place was basically empty! We had to do all the intake paperwork, and then they took her right back.
A few minutes later the PA comes out to the waiting room and tells me we're taking her over to the ER! Oy!
I figured that was going to mean a longer wait, and asked why we were going there instead. She mentioned that because she was dizzy and might need an IV, and because the ER can do blood work "stat" and get faster results.
We later figured out that we had Medicare and Tricare For Life, and it's a rural hospital about to be slammed by the Big Ugly Bill, so they wanted to bill at the ER rate.
There was no wait, we were seen immediately. Blood was drawn, doc came in, we talked about Lyme and she mentioned that they were seeing a lot of it, along with something I'd never heard of before, anaplasmosis. She gave her a 10-day prescription for doxycycline and said the blood test may come back negative for Lyme if it was early in the infection, but it would be a couple of days before the results were in. If it was negative, it would be up to Mitzi whether to continue the antibiotic, but she said it would probably be best to finish the entire course.
Mitzi rallied a little and we stopped by a little bagel shop where the kids were having breakfast, after picking up her prescription. From there, we went home while they went on to the Science Center in Ithaca and spent a good part of the day out there.
By Wednesday afternoon, Mitzi was feeling better, so we were confident the antibiotics were having an effect. She still had a headache, but it wasn't her usual migraine and she could function. So we pretty much resumed normal activities and had a pretty nice time.
On Friday, we finally got the test results... Anaplasmosis. They wanted to extend her course of antibiotics by two days.
So I googled anaplasmosis and I was glad we went into the urgent care clinic. We aren't sure when she was bitten. We suspect it may have been when we did the walking tour of Montour Falls, but we don't know.
At any rate, I'm now taking the whole tick thing a lot more seriously because we are surrounded by deer. I'm treating sets of clothes for hiking with permethrin. I spent a good part of yesterday weed-whacking any high grass near where we walk on the property. And I'll be wearing long pants along with my Timberlands when I'm out there pulling up the last several yards of fencing.
I've been fairly vigilant looking for ticks as I've been pulling up the fence, which had tall grass on either side of it. Deer ticks are pretty small and can be easy to miss. So far, I haven't found any on me, but I don't know if I missed any. Now we're kind of holding our breath for a couple of weeks to see if her kids develop any symptoms. We're fairly confident they'll be okay, we didn't do any activities in areas with high grass, but we'll feel better once we get through this incubation period. At least they know what to look for, or expect, if one of them gets sick.
Mitzi's been a good sport about it. I felt bad, convincing her to move up here, only to have her get sick from something you can't get in Florida.
Speaking of Florida, she's on her way back there for a conference she's helped plan; and to see her primary care doc at Mayo, which was a previously scheduled appointment but a happy coincidence just now. I drove her to Elmira-Corning Airport at about 0400 this morning. It's not a long drive, but it's all country roads, some of them with no striping. Not a lot of fun in the dark. I drove slowly because I expected deer in the road and we saw a few. One stepped out in front of us just as we left the driveway!
I guess blogging will resume at my regular rate.
And the beat will go on.
✍️ Reply by emailLost In the Flood
09:25 Monday, 7 July 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 78.98°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 77% Wind: 9.42mph
Words: 259
The kids have gone to the park in town, so we have a couple of hours to ourselves.
I'm a bit at sea regarding politics, or at least, political action, right now. My default response is to send money to candidates and organizations, but I'm kind of reluctant to do that right now as we live betwixt and between until the Florida house is sold.
I find I'm limiting my consumption of partisan content. While it often validates my feelings, it also often leaves me feeling angry or helpless, and that doesn't help anything. And I wonder a bit about the kinds of people who make a living making that sort of content. I guess I'm glad they're doing so, but it gets kind of repetitive after a while.
All that being said, I actually took the time to read this piece from Rick Wilson, who I'm somewhat ambivalent about. Nevertheless I thought that, while perhaps a bit overlong, this piece was well written. Perhaps it only validates my feelings; and I can't say I feel empowered or moved to some specific action, but I'm glad I read it.
Thankful he wrote it.
This gets worse before it gets better.
At some point, it'll get bad enough that something will change.
But the larger trajectory is set with regard to climate and catastrophe.
We can do better, helping one another.
We can do better, trying to prevent even worse outcomes.
We can do a lot of things better; but it's going to take something worse to make people change.
✍️ Reply by emailHavana Glen Park
Current Wx: Temp: 74.66°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 8.46mphWords: 661
Blogging will be light this week, as we're hosting Mitzi's grandson while her daughter and son-in-law visit us. They're staying in a tiny cabin about a mile down the road, giving them a little alone time each night. (And because we only have one bedroom and bathroom.)
We went to Havana Glen Park on Saturday. Mitzi and I hadn't been there before, and it was charming. Not among the top attractions here in the area, so it wasn't slammed with people.
I hadn't intended to get in the water, but I ended up falling on my ass on a slippery rock. Not one member of my family happened to notice (three-year-olds tend to command a lot of attention), but several people rushed over to see if I was okay. (I was fine.) I got to experience the Apple Watch fall detection function. It was all a little disorienting.
The first thing I checked was me. Next was my OM-3. I was out with my newest camera and of course I took a spill. Well, luck was with me. In addition to not hitting my head (a lot of rocks in my immediate vicinity), the camera emerged virtually unscratched.
Meanwhile my watch was vibrating and vibrating! My hands were wet, so trying to get the touch screen to respond was difficult. It first reported that it had detected a fall and asked if I was alright. I don't recall exactly what it was reporting, but after I acknowledged that I was ok, it asked again for confirmation that I had fallen. I suppose that's an effort at data validation on Apple's part.
I thought I'd be kind of sore the next day, but the only result is a rather tender bruise near my left hip. Apparently, I went down on my left side, which is probably why the camera was spared, I carry it on my right side.
Apart from that bit of excitement, we all had a nice time and later repaired to the playground at the park for some time on the swings and slides.
From there we went into town to enjoy some pizza from Jerlando's, eating it on the grass in the shade at the little park at the base of Montour Falls. While we were at Jerlando's, someone mentioned trying to get some from the larger Jerlando's in Watkins Glen, the next town over, and they were slammed. Holiday weekend at a popular destination. Montour was the perfect call.
Yesterday, we visited Taughannock Park to see the falls. That was probably too ambitious for a three-year-old. He didn't make it to the falls, but his mother and I did. My achilles was flaring up badly, and my distorted gait was causing discomfort in my iliopsoas. If I sat on a bench for a few minutes, it would relax and I could go on for a while. I'm a wreck in my lower body. I have no idea why this achilles thing isn't resolving. It's been around six months at this point, and I don't recall it ever lasting this long before.
I still haven't gotten to the gym, but when I do start (probably this coming Saturday, after our guests leave on Friday), I plan on spending a lot of time on the elliptical. That's what I trained on when I was running and this thing flared up. I'd get some cardio and I think the additional blood flow and no impact helped heal whatever is injured.
Of course I'll do the strength training too. I have to believe that part of the reason why I came out of that fall in pretty good shape was the strength training we'd been doing since January.
A lot of horror in the world, and it intrudes here as well. I can't begin to imagine what the parents in Texas are feeling right now.
Anyway, I'll be back at this as time permits.
✍️ Reply by emailLooking Out the Front Door
Current Wx: Temp: 54.07°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 2.33mphWords: 362
It's 55°F outside on the 4th of July. That's something I love about New York. It's 74°F in Ponte Vedra, which isn't horrible. Of course, the sun isn't even up yet in Ponte Vedra. It's been up for nearly an hour here. High today is only supposed to be in the 70s.
I love it here.
This is the view from the front door. The landscape changes day to day, as farmers work the land and the crops begin to grow, along with the changing angle of the sun and cloud cover. It's a show unlike anything you'll ever see in Suburbia.
The air is crystal clear this morning, after a line of thunderstorms blew through yesterday afternoon. It blew the new grill we bought over and off the porch! The cover makes a great sail. A bent handle and warped side burner cover were the only damage. We've tucked it up close to the house now.
Shot this with the black E-PL7, and the 12-50mm kit zoom. It's an odd lens that earns mixed reviews, which I've mentioned before. But it seems pretty damn sharp to me, especially on a morning like this. This is at 50mm (100mm effective focal length). The images I post here are larger than they appear on the page. Right-click and open them in a new tab to get a larger view. I'll put this one up at Flickr too. [Update: I just looked at this image after posting it, and it's definitely softer exported at the lower resolution. Check out this one at Flickr. I want to be fair to the 12-50mm zoom.]
This is a jpeg, SOOC other than cropping it to 3:2 to get rid of the upper power line. The new house will be higher on the hill, so the power lines will be below my horizon. They'll still be in the frame, but not so obvious as they are against the sky.
Pulled down another 20 feet or so of fence yesterday. About another hundred feet to go. Probably go out and do some after I finish here. Take advantage of a cool morning.
✍️ Reply by emailLast Night's Moon 7-1-25
Current Wx: Temp: 71.96°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 74% Wind: 7.45mphWords: 172
I tried shooting a handheld high-resolution shot of the moon last night with the mZuiko 100-400mm zoom and it wouldn't work. Not enough image data in the frame to align all the images. But if I put the MC20 2x teleconverter on it, it fills enough of the frame to align the images.
Went into Watkins and picked up the proximity card for the gym. When I got home, there was an alert on my phone that Apple Maps had corrected the issue I reported.
At first, I thought they had. I entered our address and that's what showed up on Maps. Well, I'd forgotten that I'd entered a Pin for our address, and that's where Maps goes when I enter the address. If I remove the Pin, it still points to our neighbor's house.
So I reported the issue again. Added six photos and typed in ALL CAPS, because I'm old and cranky.
It's a beautiful day here. I can't let Apple and its dysfunctional customer service ruin it.
✍️ Reply by emailFireflies
Current Wx: Temp: 62.83°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 4.14mphWords: 231
Saw the fireflies in the grass behind the house last night and figured I'd try a little experiment.
Stuck the Olympus Tough TG-6 against the sliding glass door and tried a Live Composite shot. This is a little 1/2.3" sensor compact camera with an f2 lens, so I wasn't expecting a lot. Its great virtue was its light weight, which made the suction cup tripod mount less of a risk. I have an adapter so you can screw a filter in front of the lens, but I couldn't find an adapter so I could make one of my circular polarizer filters fit, so there's some reflection in the glass.
This is probably 11 or 12 minutes of 13s exposures, composited into one image. That may be a meteor near center frame, or a flash from a satellite. The time in the exif data is an hour off, despite the fact that this camera has built-in gps. I probably have a setting wrong somewhere. But the shot was a little more than an hour past sunset, so there's still a lot of sky-glow.
I checked later in the night when I was up anyway and firefly activity was much diminished, so they seem to be more active just after sunset.
This is tweaked in Photos, but largely what came out of the camera. Larger version up in Flickr.
✍️ Reply by emailMoms
Current Wx: Temp: 80.46°F Pressure: 1009hPa Humidity: 74% Wind: 7.87mphWords: 183
By no means an exceptional photograph. I was shooting through a window and I couldn't exactly maneuver to frame the shot except for zooming in or out. I had gone into the bedroom for something else and saw this group beginning to emerge. Called for Mitzi and then went to find a camera.
There are a lot of deer around here, so I'm quite certain this will become rather mundane at some point. But for now, it's still pretty remarkable. This is the first time that we've seen this many does and fawns together.
Warmer today than yesterday, but by no means oppressive. We had the windows open most of the day, only closing them about an hour ago to kind of bring the internal temp down a few degrees.
I got in touch with the gym, and I'm picking up my access card tomorrow morning. I'll probably start working out on Thursday, I have a few things I need to do tomorrow.
Just wanted to get a post in for the first day of July.
The beat still goes on...
For now.
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