THE 12TH DAY OF THE 12TH MONTH OF THE YEAR OF THE CAMELLIA

Ever wonder just what an otter sees when he is on top of the water?

As opposed to that which he sees under water!

A whole different perspective than that we usually see. 

THE 11TH DAY OF THE 12TH MONTH OF THE YEAR OF THE CAMELLIA

Just a couple of shots of something that we all drive past often, but probably never really notice!

The South Carolina State House

The State Tree

Merry Christmas Columbia

The 10th day of the 12th month in the year of the Camellia

New gallery called "Arsty Fartsy" in a "Strip mall", where I have just hung a bunch of artwork. It is on the north side of Knox Abbott drive between 9th and 10th streets.  Right across from the truck rental place,  down the street from three automobile repair places, and up the street from four fast food joints.  Only me! They are open from 2:00 till 7:00 each day.

TACKY, HUH?

I know, only I can find a gallery by that name and quality.  Well, it's better than hanging on my wall in the office and just maybe we find a victim or three.  Lets hope!  I suspect that I am the old "Fartsy" part of that name, but I have no part in the ownership, and that is a good thing.

We went to a serious Columbia Christmas Pageant at the First Baptist Church tonight.  I was afraid the place would be struck by lightning when the good Lord found that I was attending, but then again it would probably have just been payback.  The new Governor elect, Nikki Haley and her family were in attendance so that probably held off any personal retribution.  We have gone in the last couple of years and it is a spectacular.  The topic of the mini sermon seemed to be directed  specifically to me.  The part in the Bible where the prodigal son leaves home, leaves his "Father", losses himself in sin.........But is welcomed back by the Father with his sins forgiven.  I'm working on it privately but the story just hit a little too close to home.  Forgive me Father for I have sinned.  Amen.

Oh, and by the heat pump was fixed yesterday, and it did get up to almost 70 outside.  Wouldn't ja know?  We had maintained temps above sixty inside the house for two days by closing up most of the rooms and burning copious amounts of wood in the fireplace.  Evidently the breaker switch on the heat exchanger part of the heat pump was burning itself up and had to be replaced.  So there you go.....we can dial down Christmas presents by another notch. 

God bless ya Murphy!

THE 9TH DAY OF THE 12TH MONTH OF THE YEAR OF THE CAMELLIA

HANGING COLD

The coldest two days of the year and of course the heat pump went out. 

Murphy's Law of course.  Whatever will go wrong, will!

Skip's law, Murphy was an optimist!

Just got the pump fixed so a Merry Christmas to the repairmen!

Ho----Ho----Ho!

 

The 7th day of the 12th month of the year of the Camellia

I sit here on the coldest morning since last February or maybe it was January.  We had 21 degrees in central South Carolina this morning, and I understand that the cold front extends well into Florida.  It's supposed to be in the mid teens in New Hampshire tomorrow morning, but today looks clear up there with a brisk wind and a chill factor well below my thermal underwear.

Christmas always seems to bring a dozen chores which have to be done before noon each day and when I write them down there always seems to be carry overs on the list from the previous day.  How did I manage when I actually had a job? Such is life I suppose, but I have neglected the blog too long.  .

This morning even the bird seems to be quiet.  Maybe he died of the cold over night.  I don't want to look because it will start him squawking, and that will last long into the night.  And I might have to get him a bowl of hot chicken soup.

The "Chee-Wa-Wa", called "McGee" , isn't moving for anything and just growls and bears his teeth at me when I approach him.

Missy, just gives me that leave me alone, I'm busy, but if you insist, look!

Maybe, I should just treasure the quiet around here.  Get another cup of coffee and go back to work on the dreaded list.  After all I do need to get ready for my nap!

The second day of the 12th month of the year of the Camellia

My father once said--------"If you feel like you are, or are going to make a fool of yourself, just don't go outside!"

Well I rarely listened to him I guess, cause here I am again. writing in the blog.

I have been going through some slides for a client and thought I would put up a few of the flight photos I have taken.  Flight shots are not as easy as pointing the camera at a bird and going click, click.  Well, maybe sometimes we do get lucky.  But for the most part we want to be in those golden hours of the day (early morn and late eve), when the light is low and the shutter tends to get slow.  Not a lot of 1/1000 of a second at those times times of day.  Hence, when we have great sunsets or sunrises, the critters flying against them tend to be silhouettes.   Then you have to get close enough to them to make it worthwhile and if you have too much flash or not enough, they just look crappy.

The geese above are coming in for a landing in a corn field on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  You can tell the time of day because of the slight yellow cast of the overall image.  The birds are backlit, but not too badly because they were below the tops of the trees in the background and the exposure could be for the birds and not setting sun.  The action  in the image is actionuated by the drops of water coming off the wings of the two birds to the left.  Yes, it had been raining and was just clearing as the flock came into the field.  The image has been cleaned up and a lot of the original fog is gone but mood was traded for the action in this case.

More of a scenic than a bird flight shot, this was taken just after an all night snow storm.  You can see the problems with backlighting as the birds being darker than the background tend to
silhouette.  Next to shooting on a foggy, rainy day, the best time for me is on a very snowy morning before all the human critters get out and mess it up.

THE FIRST DAY OF THE LAST MONTH OF THE YEAR OF THE CAMELLIA

THANKSGIVING, AND getting caught up!

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Cheri's family in Chicago.  Lisa, Ron, et. al. came in from California.  Rick and Sharon and their two girls were our host.  We flew from Charlotte, NC to O'hare and it was interesting to say the least.  I have not flown for a number of years and things have changed a little since I did my twice weekly Newark to Boston shuttles.

Of course the security thing was way different, but not what it was all blown up to be by the media.  From Charlotte, I just went through the metal detector but coming back from Chicago the stint in my chest and the zipper in my jogging pants set off alarms.  So I did do the big ex-ray machine and got felt up by some guy who didn't want to be doing it either. 

Charlotte is not a big town by New York standards, but it did show up OK through the Nikon lens.

Now bear in mind that these shots are for the most part through the airplane window.  I am sure some were wondering why I got my spray bottle of Windex out and cleaned the glass, plexi, or whatever it is you look through just before you use the little bags supplied in the back of the seats in front of you.  Actually not bad shots and one of the passengers actually asked me for some copies of the clouds.  Neat!

Chicago is a little larger than Charlotte but at least we had pretty good weather on both ends of the return trip.  Flights were delayed in NC on the trip out, due to a front moving through.  No biggie though.

This skyline shot did not come from the plane, which is probably a good thing.

The clouds from the plane were practically none existent until we got just to the west of the Great Smoky Mountains.

It was a pretty good cloud cover, but did not last after we passed over the Smokies.  The clouds broke up just in time and the mountains lived up to their name and majesty.  I've been there once and want to go back before it's all over........just unbelievable photo ops there.

Just remember that these photos will become much sharper when you double click each one.  The mountains themselves show in what I hope is an artistic rendition.

That was pretty much the travel time spent on this last trip.  I won't bore you with family goof photos, Wriggly Field, or other sites of Chi-town, like the big peanut.  Time to get back to work.  Remember, Christmas is coming and God forbid you want to buy something.  So give me a little lead time.