A Long Time Coming
Out with the old (2002 Ford Escape, 166,000 miles):
In with the new (2014 Toyota Tacoma):
Mare’s Tails
The line of unusual triangular-shaped clouds resembling prayer flags draped over Green Lake are called mare’s tails or fall streaks.
On this particular evening, rising air was on the verge of creating cirrus clouds, and a passing jet shifted the balance causing the clouds to precipitate out.
Toro Nagashi 2013
Watching the Toro Nagashi celebration at Green Lake with my friend Tina, who was visiting from Buffalo.
From the Seattle Times:
“Lanterns honoring the victims of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are placed in Green Lake. It’s an adaptation of an ancient Japanese Buddhist ritual where the lanterns represent the souls of the dead and are floated out to sea with prayers offered that the souls may rest in peace. The ceremony also takes place in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Seattle the ceremony also honors all victims of violence.”
Harris Shutter
Mount Saint Helens, using the Harris Shutter technique.
Ohme Gardens
Summer is Here
Rides near Harvey Field, Snohomish WA.
Maurits Cornelis Escher
Born this date in 1898. And we are certainly richer for it.
In late 1997, I went to see the centennial exhibition of Escher’s work at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. It was the first time I discovered why it is important to see the originals of reproduced art. There was a great deal of nuance visible in the originals that do not show in the cheap lithos available at every art poster shop.
For example, I could see the slight bloom of ink into the paper – an almost imperceptible lack of sharpness that is inevitable when a person uses a quill on vellum. It made the art more “alive” and deeply moving, in that it was suddenly something done by another person, not something clever done by a machine.
Additionally, when viewing the originals, you get to see the actual size that the art was created. Escher’s “Metamorphosis” is twenty three feet long, and is even more stunning when you realize that it is a woodcut print.
Escher is a favorite of mine because his work combines perfectly the mechanical precision and geometric clarity that is associated with “left hemisphere” activities and professions, with brilliant distortions of reality that are the paragon of the cleverness that an energetic “trickster” mind can produce.
Rocket Surgery
The furnace decided to fail again, so out with the jeweler’s loupe and dental probe to examine the control module circuit board.
I found a loose connection in a Molex-type connector, but I am not confident that is the only problem.
Now we wait and see.
Legedemain & PFM Collection
This will be the place I stash my shortcuts.
Panning Cameras
Some of the newer cameras have a panorama feature that allows you to press the shutter button and pan the camera left to right, thereby recording a smooth 120 degree (or so) image. (An example here.)
I wondered if the camera was sensing the input across the CCD, or if it was sensing via some sort of gyro technology. To answer the question, I held the camera steady out the driver’s window while I drove my car, creating a panning effect. The train was moving parallel to the road I was diving on, but in the opposite direction. Here’s the result:
Because the action was going faster than normal panning speed, the camera lost a lot of information in between the vertical slices it was recording. At least I know it works by interpretation of visual data. Plus, I like this effect!
Home Stretch
During this project I expected to be posting frequent updates as I progressed, but the project was so overwhelming in scope and demand that I had very little time for anything else. So, it’s been a long time since I have posted, and the few posts I made in the last quarter have been far more brief than I would have liked.
The good news is that all of the problems have been solved, the wiring changed, plumbing corrected, floor sanded and refinished, and the cabinets are finally mounted.
The granite people will be here tomorrow to make a template, and they’ll be back in a few weeks with our beautiful new countertop.
In the meantime, I am down to smaller details, such as mounting handles, installing crown molding, trim, and a couple of lighting fixtures.
After that, it will certainly be wonderful to restore functionality to the whole house, which has been upside down since December.
Clearance Clarence
The housing market has definitely turned the corner, and there are many places being sold to investors.
East of Monroe, there is a twenty acre lot with an abandoned mobile home and a 48×48 metal building that sold last month, and the buyers poured heavy gravel (most of the rocks are about the size of my fist) along the driveway and across the lot to support trucks.
It turns out that this lot provides access to timber on an adjacent lot, and the trucks, loaded heavy with logs, have pressed ruts into the gravel so deeply that the rocks in the center strafed the underside of my truck. I needed about another four inches of clearance.
As my assigned area (from East Monroe to the eastern county line in the wilderness) includes a lot of rural property, I think I need to get a more rugged pickup truck.
Remains of the Day
What the Hail
A spring shower mixed with hail. The gods must be crazy!