Category: Photography

Photography

A Brief Reprieve

Shelly

We (along with folks all over the northern hemisphere, it seems) have been in the midst of a heat wave. It’s been hot and humid and generally too disgusting to do much of anything. Last night, though, a cold front moved through. Right before the accompanying storm hit us, the temperature started to drop and the dogs decided–at long last!–that it was cool enough to play. I was too transfixed by watching them to get any pictures, but there was lots of biteyface and Olympic level zooming.

After the dogs had taken the edge on their pent up energy, I went in to get my camera. A hole had opened up in the thick cloud cover, with the setting sun reflecting off a small crescent of cloud tops at the edge of the opening.

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I had no sooner come inside from taking the above photos than I noticed that the sky to the east had turned dark blue, the sky above had turned dirty dark grey, and the sky to the west had turned a glowing brown color. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I wish I’d gotten photos, but we were getting so many lightning strikes that I decided going outside would be tempting fate. Storms scare the living hell out of me, but I’m also fascinated by them. I stood in the front door and watched the lightning repeatedly strike the ridge across from me.

Thankfully, the storm moved through quickly. The lightning, while nerve wracking, cleaned the air. The smell was heavenly. We got a little bit of M&M sized hail, but nothing too worrisome. Unfortunately, we also didn’t get much rain out of it. It poured for about 15 minutes, but then it slacked off and soon quit entirely. We need a slow, soaking rain, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to get one anytime soon.

The cooler weather should last through the weekend, so as soon as the grass dries I can actually get some yard work done. Um, yay?

Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Letters to Esther Updates Forthcoming

Shelly

I have what may prove to be a really boring photo project planned for tomorrow. But! Because of the nature of the project, I should have time to finally (!) work on Letters to Esther. I’ve been neglecting it dreadfully and figured that if I voiced my plans out loud (um, in writing), I wouldn’t be able to back out of them.

In other, tangentially related news, I’m nearly finished with the art website. The package I bought had a ridiculous amount of space (five (5!!!) gigs), so I’ll have more than enough room to host Letters to Esther and its future, related art projects there, too. This has been an interesting project for me. The two halves of my brain just do not play well together, so the constant to-ing and fro-ing has been a challenge–a fun challenge, though.

Hmmm… What else…

  • The wind and storms have finally died down (thanks a lot, Arlene!), so we should have blue skies and warm-but-not-ungodly-hot temps for the next few days.
  • I kept forgetting to take my camera with me, so I missed my chance to take a picture of The Bust o’ Darth Vader perched atop the Burger King building. At one point, he was about 1/3 deflated, so he was half reclined, wielding–like a cop holding a billy club in one hand and thwacking it against the other–a similarly deflated light saber. In all, it was the worst Viagra ad, EVAR!1!! Alas, Mr. Vader was gone when I drove by this morning.
  • I had to stop at three–three!–Bigfoot/Circle K/BP/Macs (lord knows what they’ll be called next week) before I found one with a working pepsisodapopcoke fountain machine. And, no, I couldn’t just stop for a cold, caffeinated, carbonated beverage at any of the other 250 gas stations between my house and my workplace, because none of those other places has my favorite brand of crack–Go Ape Energy Drink. It’s red, it’s ubercaffeinated, it’s tart, it’s slightly bitter, and it’s fizzy. In short, it’s divine ambrosia.
  • Summer teevee sucks so badly that I’m counting the days until Big Brother starts. Yes, I know how sad and pathetic that is.
  • I’m sick to death of cataloging COR Opinions. Title o’ the Day: Opinion on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the quality of bathing water. Riveting stuff.
  • The last book for a round robin I’m participating in went AWOL. Hopefully it’ll turn up soon, but it should’ve been here three weeks ago. Mail out day was yesterday, so now its absence is cutting into the next person’s work time. There’s nothing I can do about it, though I can’t help but feel bad that someone’s book might have gotten terminally lost in the post. At this point, I’m just hoping the next one gets here before the its mail-out date.

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    from 2000-ish

  • It was finally cool enough last night for some spectacular biteyface action. I was enjoying the show too much to go get the camera, so I didn’t get any pictures. It was really, really good, though–lots and lots of zooming, vaulting, rolling, and dragging each other around by the face. Oh, and the faux snarling and growling. Mustn’t forget that. It sounded like a pack of rabid hyenas had landed in my yard. And, afterward, I had two flat dogs with lolling, slab-o-ham tongues who were more than happy to go to bed early.
  • Speaking of dogs, Harriet has discovered that, if she brings me a mouthful of looong grass, I’ll tear each blade into small pieces and hand feed it to her. She’s not spoiled or anything. My excuse for obliging her is that there is nothing, and I mean n-o-t-h-i-n-g, cuter than a Boxer dog smack-smack-smacking her lips while eating itty bitty pieces of grass.

I think that’s about everything. As you can see, I live a most exciting life!

Photography

More Clouds

Shelly

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I took this a couple of weeks ago. We’d been having crappy weather, but toward the end of the day, the clouds started to break up. I was hoping they’d clear enough in the west for a good sunset, but they didn’t. The consolation prize was this view to the southeast. Not quite the picture postcard I’d been hoping for, but sometimes you get what you get.

Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Score! And, Some Other Stuff

Shelly

I got back from the pop machine and found that some very kind soul had left a couple of issues of Real Simple sitting on the magazine table. Real Simple is a good source of gluebook images. The thick clay-coat paper is also great for recycling into handmade art journals.

And, I found out that I’m getting my old desk back tomorrow. I cannot articulate how happy this makes me. The new, supposedly “ergonomic” furniture we were given is pure crap. It’s shoddily made and uncomfortable to use, especially if you’re short, like me. The computer sits in the corner and the keyboard tray is like an a ginormous platter. The sheer hummensity of the tray means that the monitor is at least two arm lengths away, which is not good. The tray also extends out so far that it’s impossible to reach over it to use the desk behind it. That means that I have to do a bizarre hybrid of The Twist and The Cha-Cha in order to get my work done. No, no, no. But, tomorrow, I’ll have my beautiful old desk back. Wheee!

In other news, I was suddenly possessed last night by a lawn mowing demon. It’d been weeks–literally–since I’d cut my grass and it was reaching critical mass (um, length?). There were several sections that I had to cut by raising up the mower and lower it down. My only complaint about this mower is that the grass chute gets clogged too easily. Because of the length and the dampness of the grass, I had to clean out the chute every two steps. It ended up taking me over three hours to do the whole thing, but it’s done, done, done. For now. I’ll have to do it again before the weekend is over. Between the monsoons and fact that I had to cut it on the highest setting, it’ll be due for another cutting in a few days.

Finally, in gratuitous cuteness news, I present Miss Harriet Brown the Amazing Burrito Dog:

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Harriet, as you can see, is a Boxer dog. Boxers are dainty (ha!) little things who are sure to perish if they get cold or wet. Physicists take note: I have it on very good authority that it is possible for a dog to melt and freeze at the very same time. Anyway, Miss Brown is fond of her creature comforts, first among which is her binkey. When she’s feeling a wee chill (pretty much anything under 75F), she brings her blanket to me so that I can wrap her up like a burrito. At night, she insists on sleeping under the covers, as far away from The Eeevil Fan as possible. On sunny days, she likes to pass the time on the front deck, baking her little pea brain to a crisp.

Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Procrastination

Shelly

Something is blooming. With a vengeance. When I woke up, my eyes and skin were itching like crazy. What’s odd, though, is that I’m not congested or sneezing. I’m not complaining, mind you. The itchies are a royal pain in the behindermost parts, but nothing either Claritin or Benadryl won’t cure.

What I am complaining about, though, is that I have to mow the grass today. There’s no putting it off any longer. I didn’t do it last weekend, so it’s ridiculously long. I’m procrastinating because I really don’t want to do it. It’s nightmare to mow at the best of times. Letting it get this long makes it ten times worse. The good news is that it’s only in the low 70s today and really breezy. It’s a fairly cloudy, too, so it shouldn’t warm up much more.

Also, this is Day 1 of my six-day mini-vacation. Yay! I don’t go back to work until next Thursday. That means lots and lots of time for arting and, if I can get it sorted, some web design. As soon as I get the damned lawn mown, I can get started on Fun Stuff. Have I mentioned that I’m procrastinating?

And, now for some gratuitous cuteness:

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Pandora and Elliott, nappin’ out

Pets, Photography

As Promised Yesterday…

Shelly

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Pandora (AKA Mistress Eeevil Kitty)

Pandora is in charge of making sure that my work table is kept clear and that all stray socks, wash cloths, and scraps of paper are deposited by the front door. She’s 16 this month and is still going strong. Every morning, I wake up to her running crazed laps up and down the hallway.

Pandora is the only cat I’ve known who is absolutely fearless. While I was moving the furniture around last weekend, the dogs both hid. Not Pandora! She was constantly underfoot, checking out what I was doing and looking to see if I’d unearthed anything Interesting. I’ve moved around a lot since I got her and have never seen her stressed about being in a new place. As soon as her carrier is opened, she’s out and exploring her new queendom. Every trip to the vet is a new adventure–she schmoozes with everyone and noses around, getting into everything she possibly can.

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The Studio

That’s Elliott in the last picture. He’s a mamma’s boy. Whenever I’m working, he sleeps under my feet. When I’m not working, he sleeps under my computer desk. The desk looks like a hunk of junk, but it’s an antique primitive piece. I should take better care of it than I do, but I don’t have the space to store furniture I’m not using. Plus, it’s the perfect size and height for what I need.

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And, because we haven’t had a landscape photo in awhile…