I guess I don't seem to have posted anything about this trip even though I have used a photo from the trip as my blog Banner.
I can't seem to post pictures from the Grand Canyon photo album, and now I'll have to see if how anyone viewing the blog gets to see the photos. Ahh, they give you a URL for the album that you can insert.
I've been trying to persuade someone to start a blog, but I haven't posted anything on this blog since it was transferred to typepad, so now I'm trying to figure out how typepad works.
These photos were taken just before Christmas 12/21/09. I seem to be in the minority, but I like winter to be winter - unless I have to shovel every day for weeks - or drive 3 hours in a blizzard.
Last week it warmed up and rained so that there was almost no snow left, but yesterday I was playing with the monopod (basically a walking stick with a camera mount) that Tom gave me for Christmas to help steady my camera binoculars. Despite my having to take the photos through a window I like these photos. You can even see the snow coming down.
Now if only the sun will come out, I will see if I can find some birds to hold still long enough to be photographed.
To say that our first impression of Bill and Scott's place was not overwhelmingly positive is not an exaggeration.
However, the inside was something else. As one of their friends said - over the top. And there is a deck on the roof that you can sort of see in the last picture.
There were supposed to be 10 of us in Washington, NC, but unfortunately one roommate was not up to travelling when the time came. We missed Larry and Ruth, but had a great time regardless.
Front row: Tom, Scott, me, Nan
Back row: Kari, Tony, Bill, Peter
Or: Tom and me
Bill and Scott
Tony and Nan
Peter and Kari
It has been coming to me that I have apparently been totally oblivious about all the birds, plants, and animals around me that could not exactly have been that hard to spot - particularly birds. I can identify obvious things like robins and blue jays, but not much else.
At one point when Michael's school took him to a nature preserve and he therefore requested binoculars, I was very startled to realize that catbirds are one of the most common birds around the lake. I had spent at least 25 summers on that lake and didn't even know what the bird looked like. But now that I know to look for them, I see them everywhere.
Anyway, now that I have more time on my hands, I've been noticing birds everywhere and getting annoyed that I have no clue what they are. Unfortunately, even using binoculars it's not that easy to identify birds. There are so many little details you have to know to tell one little brown bird from another, and unless you just happen to have a bird book with you, and the bird stays put for long enough...
So I have a new toy - camera binoculars. Unfortunately, camera binoculars are a bit more temperamental than I would like. After a great many tries, this seagull picture is the best I have managed. Even so, the seagulls were supposed to be in the middle of the photo, not at the bottom of the frame. Apparently with the magnification of the binoculars, just pressing down the camera shutter is enough to depress the back end of the binoculars downward. - I have taken a lot of pictures of the sky.
This photo has been a lot more typical of my better efforts. I was unsuccessful in holding the binoculars steady in Hurricane Danny's winds, and somewhere below the bottom of this picture should be a dark greenish dot that would be Tom waving up at me from the beach.
Anyway, there is a remote shutter cord and a tripod socket. This doesn't seem like a very mobile setup though. What do people photographing birds do? sit for hours waiting for some bird to land exactly where they've focused their camera? Ah well, just because I wouldn't do it...
It turns out that there are no all white sea gulls in NE. Their wings are all grey or black on top. More stunning revelations about birds will hopefully follow.
Just before I left for the camp, a house painter came by and asked if I wanted the house painted. The house was in pretty bad shape, so I WAS interested.
I have no idea why this guy is not swamped with work unless he just works too fast. He and one other guy washed the house down with bleach to kill the mildew growing in shady spots, scraped everything down, re-glazed the windows on the front porch, primed everything, painted the trim, painted the doors, painted the shutters, and sealed the back deck - all in a little over two weeks! and that was with a couple days delay because of rain.
This is not the greatest photo, but until the leaves fall off the trees it's the best I can do.
I'll probably have this guy do some of the inside, but first I've got to dig some paths through the rubble.
It was really nice and sunny in Seattle - except for the day of Jonny's party on the beach.
Amy and Mike mugging for the camera.
Fortunately for us, the builders are not standing around saying they aren't responsible because we didn't discover the damage in time. In fact, they moved so fast to fix everything that we were stunned.
Monday before last, I was packing to leave when a maintenance man showed up with an insurance adjuster (the builder's). Wednesday, Tom got a call that the builders had lined up workmen to replace the floor and wanted permission to start immediately.
I had wondered about possibly upgrading the floor, but given the choice of having the floor replaced in under a week or dithering, we chose to get the new floor. I ran down to the condo that afternoon (Wednesday) to move all the photos etc that were on the tables, and discovered that the workmen had already started work!
I checked in on Friday afternoon and discovered that the new floor was already installed! The foreman who was working there said that they hoped to have the walls painted by Monday, but he was worried that they might not have the right color paint on hand. When I left they were preparing to do something, but I didn't stick around to find out what.
I checked in again on Monday, and this is what I found. The baseboards had all been repainted, but the walls still need paint. That was a bit disappointing, but all in all we're pretty pleased. I actually like the new floor better than the old one, and all the dents that we had accumulated are gone. The old floor panels looked too regular to be real wood, and you really don't notice the panels on the new floor unless you look for them.
Last week we got a call from property management that they needed access to our apartment because they had discovered water damage in the unsold unit below ours. Property management then called to say that they found that in installing our kitchen cabinets, someone had put a nail through a pipe. There was "minor" damage in our apartment, but most of the damage was in the unit below. They said there would be water damage experts assessing our apartment, and that was the last we heard...
I guess they are repairing everything...
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