She’ll approach someone in a gorilla costume, but wear a pair of new shoes into the house, and she loses her shit.
Month: December 2006
Pandora in the Sun
The top photo was taken in 1995, the second one in 2001, and the last four in 2004. The top two were taken with a point-and-shoot Minolta 35mm. The bottom four were test shots taken when I got my Canon T-50 (I don’t remember the lens specs, and my mom has custody of my Canon right now so I can’t check, but I think it was a Tamron). When I was shopping for a film SLR, I wanted an older, used, all manual body. I read all sorts of bad reviews of the Canon T-50, but folks I knew and could talk to in person said it was a decent entry level camera body. And, they can be picked up dirt cheap from places like KEH and B&H, so I felt like it was worth the risk. It turns out, though, that the Canon T-50 takes by far the best pictures of any of the cameras I own. I love the way it handles light and shadow (I couldn’t have taken this photo of Harriet with my digital). I’m lazy, though, and I suck at getting film developed, so I loaned the Canon to my mom when I got a digital camera.
Ajis and Her Kittens
If you look at the full-sized image of the top photo, you can see how rough cats’ tongues really are.
Ajis was my brother Gabe’s cat. She was one of the colony of ferals that lived in the alley behind my mom’s house. We gradually caught and tamed them, spayed the ones we could, and found homes for the babies and the adults that were people safe. Ajis was extremely friendly, and an excellent mamma cat, so it was easy to bring her indoors when she had her babies. Keeping mamma and kittens inside makes it much easier to socialize the babies. Otherwise, the mother will keep the babies hidden until they’re old enough that proper socialization becomes difficult.
By socializing the kittens so that they can be homed and catching and spaying adult females and homing the ones that can be tamed[1], it’s possible to humanely eradicate feral cat colonies in just a few generations.
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[1] Established colonies are pretty intolerant of male cats. They’ll allow them to hang around while there are females in heat, but the males are quickly run off afterwards. Young males have “kitten license,” but when they mature, they are usually kicked out of the colony.
New Photos
Well, not new, exactly, but new-to-here. Since I’ve moved to civilization and have ditched the old dial-up account I’ve had for 5+ years, I lost the tiny personal website I had on their server space. The images there were really tiny, to conserve space, and were mostly of pets. I spent yesterday evening going through a stack of photos, scanning them and doing some basic Photoshopping. (Not surprisingly, I’ve managed to get some sort of goop speckled all over my scanner bed, probably from scanning oil pastel drawings directly on the glass. Oops! I’ve cleaned and cleaned and cleaned it, but I’m having to do a huge amount of correction to remove speckles. It’s not difficult, but it is tedious.)
Anyway, I’ll probably be posting a bunch of them here over the next few days. There are some photos of Pandora that I’ve never scanned, and don’t even remember taking. And there are photos of Gabe’s cat, Ajis, and one of her litters of kittens. Kitten photos are always entertaining, right? The best, though, are two series of photos I took of the dogs playing–one indoors, right after I got Harriet, and one in the snow, after I’d moved to Owen County. The photo quality isn’t great, because I was using a 35mm point-and-shoot camera, but they’re still some of the best dog photos I’ve taken.
The only wooden aqueduct still in active use in the US, Metamora, Indiana
We lived in Metamora from 1978-1982. In the summers we used to swim in the canal and play inside the aqueduct. The water is down in this photo, but when the canal boat is running, the lock downstream is shut, and the water level rises, making it a decent depth for swimming. I always liked swimming and playing inside the aqueduct itself, because the floor was sheathed in metal. I hated getting my feet all muddy, walking on the bottom of the canal.
Sunday Dogblogging
Saturday I went out to the real OC to help Ms. Lea move some more of her stuff. Since we’d be working mostly outside, and it was cold out, I decided that my sneakers were woefully insufficient for the task of keeping my feet warm. I stopped on the way to buy new boots.
Mmmm, cozy toesies!
Anyway, when I came home, Harriet toddled sleepily out of the bedroom to greet me. I bent down to rub her ears, and she bent down to sniff my shoes. Standard procedure, right? Except that the olfactory dissonance of OHMYGODWHOSEFEETAREYOUWEARING?! b0rkened her little pea brane, and she launched herself sideways across the room in shock. I have never before seen a dog move that quickly while staying flat to the ground. It was kind of amazing.
My new shoes have now been thoroughly and completely sniffed, and have been deemed Legal and Allowed by Officer Brown. Also, I laughed so hard I gave myself asthma.
Teh Enb.
In case anyone out there doubts the magnitude of Miss Brown’s bozocity, I thought I’d submit this photo as proof that she is Not To Be Trusted.
Fog
This is a pretty good approximation of how my brain feels this morning. Mr. Upstairs (Milton) has spent the last two nights rearranging furniture, so I haven’t been getting much sleep. How much furniture can one fit into a 700sq ft apartment?! And why can’t it be (re)arranged at a reasonable hour?
I still can’t figure out when Mr. Upstairs sleeps or when he goes to work, assuming he actually does either of those things. Whenever I pass him in the hallway or parking lot, he pretends I don’t exist. Even when I say hello, he stares straight ahead and ignores me. M’kaythen!
In other neighbor news, the Bumpass family have moved into the apartment I share a wall with. I was a little apprehensive at first, but they’re surprisingly quiet. I had to laugh when I saw them moving in. Their patio is cram-packed with filthy, broken-down old furniture, and they’ve erected a Monument to Tackiness that leaves me equal parts horrified and impressed. I’ll try to get a picture of it, but for the time being, you’ll have to make do with the knowledge that it contains a bunch of glass-ornamental-garden-tchotchkes-on-sticks, US flags, and porcelain bunny planters.
Also, they’ve got the requisite Bumpass Hound, in the form of a cuter-than-hell Catahoula Leopard Dog puppy. She seems pretty well behaved, though when she gets barking, it tends to go on and on and on. Miss Brown does not approve. Whenever Miss Catahoula starts roo-roo-rooing, Harriet gets agitated and starts pacing and hrumfing.
Monday Dogblogging
Miss Brown’s Dog Bed
Some dogs have dog houses, some dogs sleep on the floor, and some dogs have their own little beds. Miss Brown’s house has central heating and air conditioning, electricity, and running water. It is furnished with comfy furniture for her to lounge about on, including a full-sized bed. Also, she has staff to feed her and to prepare her bed with fresh, clean linens, and to tuck her in when she sleeps.
Yesterday was laundry day. Miss Brown waited patiently while I stripped the old sheets off the bed and replaced them with clean ones. As soon as the bottom sheet was in place, up she hopped, making a cozy nest for herself with the pillows. I had to put on the top sheet and comforter with her in the bed. The bottom picture is of her under the comforter. She stayed there until I called her for her afternoon potty break and snack.
Evening Belt of Venus and Twilight Wedge Progression
Belt of Venus and Twilight Wedge on Northern Horizon
Joyce mentioned once in comments that one of the photos I’d taken of the Belt of Venus didn’t show the accompanying Twilight Wedge. Since the sky was really clear at sunset, I thought I’d try and get a series of photos of the lengthening Twilight Wedge, to illustrate how it progresses. These photos were taken at three minute intervals. If you look, you can see the faint band of blue along the horizon growing larger with each consecutive photo. Eventually, the Twilight Wedge overshadows the Belt of Venus, joining with the darkening twilight sky above.
The Belt of Venus is the pink to brownish band of light above the horizon, opposite the setting or rising sun. It’s the result of the sunset/sunrise reflecting on the atmosphere, so it’s pinkish in color.
The Twilight Wedge is the blue band below the Belt of Venus. It starts out as a faint purplish tinge along the horizon, and grows larger and larger until it eclipses the Belt of Venus and joins with the darkening twilight sky above. The Twilight Wedge is the shadow of the Earth cast on the Earth’s atmosphere.
Rising Moon with Belt of Venus and Twilight Wedge on Eastern Horizon
Studio Update
It is done. All the furniture is in place, and everything is pretty much unpacked and put away. I still need to find a small shelving unit to go next to my computer desk, and there are drawers and drawers of supplies and assemblage/collage junk that I just crammed together when I moved that I’ll need to sort soon, but at this point my studio is functional.
And, Pandora approves.
red paper boat 