Every Picture Tells a Story
06:34 Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Words: 408
One of the things we do when confronting loss and the feelings that accompany it is to try to surround ourselves with the memory of "the departed." I know that last week was more difficult than the week immediately after my father’s death. The first week is filled with activity, things that modern society deems "must be done." And indeed they must. But that’s good too. I think. I guess.
I don’t know.
Anyway, we, my six siblings and I, wanted to put together a slideshow of my dad’s life to show at "calling hours." Really, it was as much for us as for anyone else. I don’t know if anyone other than family sat through 30 minutes of snapshots and old songs.
As I was going through the collection of old photos we all tend to accumulate, one of the things that really struck me was how "bad" many of the images were.
Now, let me quickly add that I love those images to death, and they’re among the most important things to me in the world at this moment. But in terms of what I’ve become accustomed to from digital images? Wow. We’ve come such a very long way.
While I tend to regard my iPhone 5s camera as the tool of last resort, I think I can say that I would happily have had all the old photos we had of my dad shot with the camera built into an iPhone 5s. Anyone today who sneers about mobile phone cameras, let alone point-n-shoots, is an idiot.
Well, no, that’s not true either. It’s worse than being an idiot. Which is probably a pejorative term that has become socially inappropriate. But I digress. The internet is filled with fools who know everything about nothing, and have to trumpet it ceaselessly.
Seriously.
And it’s a shame.
The point of the camera, for most of us, well, for all of us really, is to capture memories. We can do that today better, and easier, than at any time ever.
Capture your memories. Take pictures of your family. Even if it’s with your iPhone or your little point & shoot.
Learn a little about composition. Learn a little about how to use what you have to your best advantage. But don’t worry about whether or not you have a "good" camera. Just shoot.
You, or the people who love you, will be so very, very glad you did.
This morning's bird(s)
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Didn't see any birds on my walk this morning, but on our way back from the farmers' market (really just an outdoor vendor event) in the golf cart, these wild turkeys crossed the road and the multi-purpose path in front of us. Fortunately, I'd brought a camera along. There are 11 young ones. I've seen small groups before, 3-5 individuals, never a whole family this large. It was fun watching mom go after one of the chicks(?) when it started to wander off.
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Did a little sight-seeing and grocery shopping yesterday morning. Came back to the cottage and put everything up and had lunch.
Went out to visit the Finger Lakes Visitor Center in Geneva, which we'd never been to before. Pretty nice facility, I think it's new since we were last in Geneva, which may have been three years ago, or four.
They have a lot of regional products, a snack bar, the usual tourist literature, a wine tasting bar that may sell beer. (I saw folks sitting outside on the patio with what I assume were beers.) We walked along the pedestrian path along the shoreline, found a bench and sat and looked at the lake for a while. Saw an osprey dive and catch a large fish. I had the Stylus 1s with me, 300mm effective focal length. I saw the osprey get set for its dive, but wasn't quick enough to get the camera turned on and lens extended. 300mm wasn't long enough anyway, but got some distant shots of an osprey with a large fish in its talons.
Shot this on the way back to the car when the severe weather warnings started going off. We made our way back to the car and headed home. When we got back into the house, the heavens opened up. Pretty intense downpour for a while. The car certainly needed it, it's covered with dust and dirt.
Spent the rest of the afternoon reading the book about Operation Paperclip. Judge Cannon and J.D. Vance intruded. Watched Netflix and went to bed.
The summer of madness continues.
✍️ Reply by emailThis Morning's Moon 7-16-25
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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.
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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 emailRed Sky at Morning
18:30 Thursday, 16 July 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 65.34°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 85% Wind: 4.07mph
Words: 101
I didn't get a shot of it because I was headed back to bed, but there was an eerie red glow kind of suffusing the landscape this morning. Canadian wildfire smoke arrived yesterday.
There won't be any work on the house today, but there are other things Brad can do.
It's cool out, but we've got the windows closed and the air filter running. I have an indoor PM2.5 monitor for the house and it's good. I had one for outside, I think it's in the garage. I may have to go dig around for it.
The way we live now...
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