Day 212

As much as I enjoyed the 4 day work weeks, it really is nice now to get home and have time to go out photographing (I guess that's a word). I went back to the lake tonight and obviously there was a thunderstorm coming in. After about 20 shots where I was just a little too slow, I finally got this lightning shot.

Day 211

I went back to the Great Florida Birding Trail that I had visited a while back. I won't bother linking you to that one since there wasn't much in the way of bird life that day. It was better today. I actually saw a couple of Scrub Jays (which I couldn't get a picture of), a pair of Sandhill Cranes, and this little guy which I can't identify.

Day 210 A Walk in the Park

I made a trip to one of my favorite places today, Colonial Photo and Hobby, to check on a lens that I'm looking into. They didn't have one so I' guess I'll have to look elsewhere. On my way home, I stopped at Eola Park in downtown Orlando. I've been there at night to take pictures a couple of times but haven't been there during the day. Actually it was Reba's idea to go so I should give her credit. This picture is of one of the many species of birds that live around the lake. I'm not sure what kind it is and I'm not going to look it up so if you know, let me know.

Day 209

Maybe we will do a bug theme this week.

Day 208

This little guy was hanging out in one our shrubs.

Day 207 Dinner

We both worked late tonight.

Day 206

These are not winning tickets. One could have known that right off the bat only by knowing that they belonged to me. It seems to be impossible for me to buy winners. Actually we very rarely play the lottery. I tend to agree with the talk show host Neal Boortz who calls the lottery a tax on stupidity, a way for the government to extract money from peoplewho don't understand that all but a very few lucky ones will put far more into it than they ever get out. This week I paid my share of stupid tax.

Day 205

This was the last of my Mondays off for the summer. Two more 10 hr. days and it will be back to normal. Tonight's picture is of the leafy end of a small bamboo stalk.

Day 204

Another experiment gone awry. I guess this is how we learn huh? Looks like I am going to need a bonus pic for this one too. This is bubble wrap.

Bonus Pics

I have been throwing up such crap here this weekend that I decided to go with two bonus pictures to try to make up for it. The first was taken some time ago on a camping trip that we took near Inverness. It was actually shot with film and scanned. The other is of a small antique store in Micanopy, Fl.

Day 203

Today we helped Matt move into his new apartment in G'ville. I had reserved a trailer last Monday to make sure I would be able to get one. This is a picture of the 5X8 covered trailer that I had reserved. They had messed up the reservation and there was not a covered trailer available anywhere in the area. At least they gave me a tarp. Fortunately it didn't rain. This is the picture that I will be sending to U-Haul when I write to them.

Another Bonus Picture

Big cats are dangerous...

Day 202

These 10 hour days are killing me. Between not getting home until almost 7 and just having a bunch of other stuff to do, it makes it difficult to get a picture. Tonight's is of Reba's toe which she apparently stubbed or something 'cause her nail is bruised but she doesn't remember why.

Bonus Picture

When the picture of the day really blows, sometimes I like to give you a little better one to look at along with it. This one is from the zoo last weekend.

Day 201 I am now a panoraMANIAC

In case you didn't know, which I'm sure you didn't since I just coined the word a few seconds ago, a panoramaniac is a person who loses or nearly loses his/her mind trying to use the Photoshop "photomerge tool" to make a panorama. This has to be the worst photo stitching program in the world. The picture tonight is actually 3 images, merged into a panorama. It covered about 100 degrees in real life. I had the photos to do a whole 180 but as long as it took me to do this, I would have still been here tomorrow. Need to take an aspirin now. Good night.

Day 200 Woo Hoo

This is a bit of a strange picture but if you have been following this PAD for a while, you may remember a little story I told about the little orange tree that could. Little Tree In case anyone thought I was BS'ing about it having oranges constantly, here is a picture with green ones, ripe ones, and one senior citizen orange.

Day 199

You are looking at the machine head of a 1977/78 Fender Precision Bass. This was at one time my pride a joy. After sitting in the case under the couch for almost all of the last 19 yrs, it is now time to pass it along to someone who 1) can appreciate the craftsmanship of a fine piece of musical equipment, 2) Can appreciate the history of Leo Fender's quest to make the the finest products, and 3) barring the other two, can come up with an a__ load of money to give me for it.
Seriously, $1100.00 and it is yours. Call me.

Day 198

Since we are working 4 ten hour days for a couple of weeks this summer, I had today off to run a few errands and generally goof off. I like days like today. This is a Crepe Myrtle from our back yard.

Day 197

This will get me caught up again. Reba and I went to the Sanford Zoo today. It is always nice to visit there even though it was a little hot for it today. This cougar had the right idea.

Day 196

This is a stump in our front yard. The tree blew down in the last hurricane. I cut up the tree but haven't gotten around to taking the stump out yet. Maybe next weekend.

Day 195

OK, I am a little behind on my posting again. Seems to be getting to be a habit. For most it isn't a big deal but I do realize that there are those out there for which this PAD gives them a reason to get up in the morning. For them, I'll try to do better. Today's picture (actually Friday's) shows three different types of memory cards used in digital cameras. The one on the left is a compact flash card, Center is called an SD (secure digital) card and the one on the right is an 8Mb MMC. We've come a long way since film huh?

Day 194

There was a time (in the big scheme of things, not that long ago) where every picture taken was in black and white, whether a portrait or landscape. Tonight's picture is in remembrance of a simpler time.

Bonus Picture Time

I thought that maybe you would want to see what it looked like in color.

Day 193 For Sale

Today's picture is one taken more out of necessity than for the art. You see I am selling off some of my old stuff to make room for new stuff. Instead of going out looking for something awe inspiring, I spent a lot of the evening taking pictures to post on ebay. This lens is one which is going to have to be sacrificed. I am posting this a day late as I got tied up with the ebay thing last night.

Day 192 This was a little strange...

This looks like a normal sunset doesn't it? I was making a quick run to the store tonight and I noticed something that I felt needed to be photographed. It was about 8:15 pm and the sun was going down. The odd part about this is that this was taken facing due east. I don't recall ever seeing a sunset with colors all around in every direction. I wish I had been somewhere where I could have done a panorama. Maybe next time.

Day 191 Just a Day at the Park

Well, I was late again getting this posted. I have been running behind lately but will try to get back on track and posting the same day I take the picture. You have seen today's model before. This is Conor. Since Reba and I were both off Monday, we went with Melissa as she took Conor to a local park. Here he is, taking a little break from running around.

Day 190

This may look like one of the "It's almost midnight and I need to shoot something fast" efforts but it's not. Far more time and effort went into this shot than you would ever guess from the outcome. By the time I came to the conclusion that it was going to fail though, I had too much invested to toss it. Threfore I am giving it an E for effort and using it.

Bonus Picture

Even though it was not inteentional, I feel a little bad about the picture today so here is another from yesterday at the pioneer settlement.

Day 189

Today Reba and I went to a pioneer settlement in Barberville that we have passed periodically over the last few years as we have driven to G'ville. Every time we drove by it we would remind ourselves that we really should go and visit some day. Well, the day finally came. It sounds a little boring but it was a nice day out. We were the only visitors there that afternoon so we got a private tour of the grounds. I would like to say at this time that I was surprised at the fee for the tour which lasted almost two and a half hours. It was a whopping $3.00 per person. They have a yearly gathering there that attracts around 25,000 people over a two day period. I think we may go fight the crowd this year and see it. Overall, it was very interesting, educational, and well worth the price of admission. Today's photo is from outside the main barn.

Bonus Picture

Just thought I would throw this in.

Day 188 Fell behind again

Time has once again gotten away from me and I am late with another post. I was ready to post this Friday night but nodded off prior to getting it done. The purpose of this picure was for the effct of the colors and lines.

Day 187 All Caught up

There you go Moe. I guess it should have been open to a verse about patience.

Day 186

It was raining today so again it was hard to get out and search for a picture. I had taken down all the lights etc. when Matt was home. I guess I need to get them set back up so I can play studio guy when the weather is bad. For now, a hibiscus from the flower bed.

Day 185

It is now July 4th. (Actually it is the seventh but I'm trying to give the impression that I have been diligently keeping up with my blogging duties.) I had another chance to take some fireworks photos and went to the lake to see the Sanford fireworks show. To make sure I got a good location, I got there at about 7:15. It was fortunate because I was right at the edge of the lake and if I had gotten there 1/2 hour later, I would have been behind someone. The fireworks finally started about 9:15.

Day 184

OK, OK, I've have not been good at getting things posted so far this week. In my defense, I have been a little busy. Day 184, being July 3, was a decent day to go out and find fireworks. I suggested Lake Helen, as they were having a display that night. Unfortunately, by the time we goot there, we were a long way from the park and would not have been able to get in any kind of position to take pictures. To make a long story short, we ended up going back home. This picture was a last minute, "I don't feel like taking a picture of anything now" effort. It does however have some significance. This is a picture of my current #1 camera taken with the very first digital camera that I owned. It is a Poloroid .3 megapixel (and yes that is point 3). This qualifies as what another PAD blogger alfresco has named "craptography".

Day 183 "Honey..., the Jeep won't start."

These are not the words that I want to hear when my phone rings at work at 9:00 am. This happened on Friday morning. There was obviously nothing I could do about it then but it gave me something to look forward to the rest of the day. I have learned to hate taking vehicles to the mechanic. After listening to the car, I decided it was the starter that had gone bad. With my dislike of mechanics in mind, I crawled up under the Jeep figuring "How bad can it be to change?" After a brief inspection, I was reminded of some words of wisdom that my dad had said many times as he was about to tear into something he knew little about. "God hates a coward." he would say while reaching for his tools. With that in mind, I decided to tackle it.
After a trip to Auto Zone on Saturday, I was equipped with a jackstand, a starter and an optomism rarely seen in someone that knows as little about cars as I do. While I was out working on the car, Reba was inside figuring out if she would need a rental to get to work after we had to take it to the shop on Monday. The confidence that she had was inspiring. With Matt there to assist, I crawled up under the vehicle and after way more time than probably anyone else would have needed, I emerged, covered in black grease, ready for a test start. I was thrilled to hear it crank on the first try. I was happy, Reba was impressed, and our mechanic will need to find another way to pay for his boat. Tonight's post, while it has no real artistic value at all, does represent an afternoon of blood, sweat and... well no tears, but quite a bit of swearing.

By the way, this post is the first post of the second half of the year. 183 down, 182 to go.

Day 182

Tonight's dessert.

Day 181

Yes, we have one banana... 'nuff said.

Day 180

I have not been good about getting my pictures posted the last couple of days. I have been pretty busy but did get pictures taken. This was a quick one. I had a headache and needed to go to bed so the cats got targeted again.