Another Raccoon, Another Eye

I’m trying to remember all the things I was going to blog about since I last wrote—so here goes.

Last Sunday was Easter and being the experienced Catholics we are (and because we were traveling) we avoided the Easter advent Mass and went instead to the early Sunday Mass at St Mary’s.  Ever since the flu scare last year I play a little people watching game and observe how often the people in whatever crowd I’m in put their hands to their face. We are told to avoid this but we can’t. I think on average people touch their faces 18 times an hour (we really do) and kids—well forget it.  They do it all the time. We get little itches or have some anxiety or just want to check that our hair is in place.  But it is a little scary to me to observe how often everyone touches their face in the context of  halting the spread of disease.

Last week I caught a raccoon.  That evening another one showed up at the feeder.  The cats were still staying away.  I set the trap Sunday night using a can of tuna cat food as bait and in the morning I had the raccoon trapped.  This was another meekish animal and presented no issues.  Again I took no pictures.  That morning with the raccoon sitting there in the trap both Velcro and Meredith showed up and they have been there each morning and evening since.

Yesterday we put Penny’s CRV in the shop to get it fixed.  Both the SRS and the “Check Engine” light were on.  It’s nothing that $1200 won’t fix.  The car also is coming up on needing a brake job and new struts.  This is an expensive year for that car but its still cheaper than car payments.

I am in the waiting room at the surgery center now waiting for the word on Penny’s surgery on the left eye.  I just got some good news about the car—the SRS problem is covered by warranty.  That saves about half of the cost.  I just got some more good news—Penny’s surgery went fine.

The rest of today went fine.  Penny rested and I tended to her needs.

Slash showed up looking hungry so I fed him.  Velcro and Meredith came by this evening.  No raccoon showed up.

Us Day

Penny and I had an “us” day on Good Friday.  A couple of months ago I bought tickets to the Cirque du Soleil show “Alegria”.  The show was in the Coliseum in Biloxi, MS.  I didn’t know when I booked it that it was on Good Friday.  It was a good opportunity to run off for another day together.

We first drove to Fairhope, AL to have lunch at another Triple D place called Guy’s Gumbo Shack . We took advantage of the special senior dispensation allowing us to eat meat on Friday so we could try the most popular dish there, the TLT (turkey,lettuce and tomato), which featured moist juicy smoked turkey.  We both had the gumbo,too.

We then headed to Biloxi.  Our audio book for this trip was a Dean Koontz non-fiction about  his first dog, Trixie, and how she changed his life.  The book, “A Big Little Life” coincidentally was featured on this past Sunday’s Sunday Morning program.  You can read all about it here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/10/sunday/main20052542.shtml

It’s a great book and he had an amazing dog.

I was surprised at how little there was on the coast in Biloxi.  The place obviously has not and may not recover from Katrina for a long time. 

We got there with time to spare (that should be no surprise to you) with the intent of wandering around and taking pictures.  The only thing there besides a couple of casinos was the restored last home of Jefferson Davis.  That’s where we spent our time.  The home was severely damaged by the storm but has been restored beautifully.

The show, Alegria, was fantastic. It was not a show with the awesome scope of the Las Vegas shows but the quality of the talent was up to that par.  This show had synchronized trapeze, tumbling they call Fast Track, fire twirlers, clowns, the flying man on big bunji cords,  Russian Bars, a strongman, a contortionist, a man riding in a hoop and a group on the aerial high bar.  Every act was 1st class and I didn’t see even 1 mistake or bobble in all the performances.  It was worth the price and the drive.

Beyond the performances are the elaborate costumes and the live band—the features that create an air unique to the Cirque du Soliel.

here’s a picture of the contortionist I clipped from our video. Don’t try this at home.

I bought the whole set of Cirque shows on DVD a couple years ago and so we have the video of Alegria.  We didn’t watch it before we went but now it will serve as a nice reminder of the show.  I watched some of the video today and was surprised at what I had already forgotten from the show in just 24 hours.

We finished the Koontz book on the drive back and it made both of us cry.  It is not fun driving with tears and a runny nose and no tissues.

Another Raccoon

Saturday and Sunday evening 2 cats showed up for dinner-Buzz and Velcro.  Monday, no cats showed but a raccoon did.  Again last night the raccoon showed so I set the trap.  I used cheese rind and dry cat food as bait and emptied out the cat feeder bin so no food would be there.

This morning the raccoon was trapped.  This was a kinder gentler raccoon.  He was quiet, did not soil himself and didn’t piddle in the car when I took him to his new home.  I didn’t take any pictures of him either.

We went to Sam’s yesterday to get some of the usual stuff we get at Sam’s.  Besides the usual stuff we came home with a new generator.  I don’t know how old our current generator  is –somewhere around a decade.  It still works but is getting a little ragged running.  My experience with gas engine life was not good before the generator but I have kept it running OK by making sure it ran every month or two.

We got the new one because it was marked way down.  It was an unused return item that wasn’t in this Sam’s system so they knocked 30% off the price.  I’m hoping to get a decade out of this one, too.

Today marks the first anniversary of the oil spill in the Gulf and I’m happy to say our beaches are great.

25X Optical-140X Digital

About 2 weeks ago I was looking through some of our older pictures—the ones we took in Italy to be specific. I noticed which camera I was holding at Trivi Fountain (it’s the one I take out in the kayak now) and thought to myself about what a difference the camera I currently used would have made.  I also thought to my self that if a better camera were available (for the level of photography I’m into) I would get it before we went on another big vacation. 

Just 2 days later Penny tells me about the new model of the Canon camera that we currently owned 3 generations of.  Unlike my current camera which has a respectable 20X optical zoom this new model has 35X.  She encouraged me to get it.  My initial thought was that the last thing we needed was another camera.  But the seed was planted in my mind.  I thought about what I had decided 2 nights earlier and after mulling it over for a week I decided to go for it.

I found the best price, believe it or not at Wal-Mart.com.

I picked up the camera yesterday and Penny and I went out to Destin to put it through its paces.  Penny now gets my “old” 20X camera and that’s what she took to shoot in Destin.

Here are some shots demonstrating the zoom:

The black speck in the center of the picture is a fisherman.

At 35X you can see he has a friend with him—a heron.

At max digital zoom I get just the bird. 

Admittedly the bird is a little coarse due to the digital zoom but it’s not bad.  I’m excited by the possibilities.  

I took some shots of the moon tonight, too.

Here is the 35X shot.

Here is the max digital zoom. If you look carefully you can see the Apollo 11 lunar lander at the top center of the picture in the Sea of Tranquility (only kidding).

All the max zoom pictures were taken hand-held.  Even without using a tripod I’m impressed at the relative sharpness in the shots—especially the moon with max digital zoom.  I didn’t crop these pictures.  I couldn’t fit the whole moon in the frame at max digital.

My new camera is a Canon XS30IS if you are inclined to know more about it.  It  is quite similar to my previous camera but they’ve made some nice improvements that make the camera easier to use.  For example, in the AUTO mode the camera automatically goes into the macro setting if the subject is close to the lens.  I won’t bore you with more details.  It takes good pictures, that’s what’s important.  Oh, and it is compatible with the flash unit my daughters got me for my birthday 2 years ago.

We had a beautiful sunny day to play with the cameras at Destin Pass.

Finally, on a different note, 2 kitties showed up tonight—Velcro and Buzz.  That’s the first 2 kitty night in some time.

Some of the Past Weekend, Some Today

I mentioned that we went to see “Born to be Wild” in 3-D last weekend.  The IMAX theater is at the Golf Hall of Fame which, apart from having a very nice golf course has beautiful buildings and well sculpted landscaping.  It’s a wonderful place to just walk around.

Sophie liked to push her sister in the stroller.

I got more plants for the garden today and that fills up my containers this year.  I added Bell peppers, Japanese eggplant and okra to the tomatoes,eggplant,cucumbers, squash and herbs that were there.

It looks like we will have a decent handful of blueberries this year.

The blackberry plant that just grew gangly branches last year actually has a few blossoms on it this year.

The blackberry plants I took from the secret location last year have come back this year but I don’t expect many berries on them.

Velcro showed up again today-in daylight-at 6PM.That’s 2 days straight.

I just looked at the surveillance cameras and there is a spider trying to build a web in front of one.  It’s pretty neat being able to see what’s going on outside.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday was an interesting historical day.  It was the 150th anniversary of the start of the civil war, 66th anniversary of the death of FDR, 50th anniversary of the 1st man in space and 30 years since the 1st shuttle flight.

Yesterday also saw the appearance of Velcro after more than 3 months.  There are no cats tonight.

Today we pre-registered Penny for her eye surgery.

It’s been a beautiful weather week but I haven’t really taken advantage of it.  We had doctors appointments, haircuts and other things making it such that we didn’t have a long enough block of time to run off and do anything.

We finished up with the latest FOCCUS couple this week and it was probably the toughest couple we worked with.  Their biggest issue was youth with no couple communication skills.  Penny gave them a very serious talk and hopefully we helped their relationship some.

Power to the PC, Right On

I successfully installed the new power supply in my computer.  I took many pictures of the old one in place and the of each connectors before and after I disconnected   them.  Then I played the pictures back in reverse order when I put the new power supply in.  That way I had a step by step guide.  It worked OK.  The only thing that doesn’t work now is the DVD drive.  I don’t know if it got fried when the power supply went or if I missed a cable somehow. TBD

Our quick trip to Jacksonville was nice.  On Saturday we went to see a 3-D IMAX movie, “Born to be Wild” about 2 organizations that rescue animals-one elephants and the other orangutans.   Both Sophie and Lucy sat through the movie with no fuss.  Sophie tried to touch the 3-D letters at the start of the movie.

We stopped off at High Springs to see C&C on the way home.

Once again there were no kitties here last night or tonight.

Moon Shot

The moon looked neat tonight – just a sliver and enough earthlight reflection to see the complete disk - so I took a picture.  We are having cool clear weather and will be in the 40s tonight.

I like the craters along the terminator.

Garden Progress

I started the day  by making Penny banana pecan pancakes. Next it was a trip to Lowes to get lumber for a bookcase I’m going to make for C&C. 

I got 2, $10 off coupons for Lowes on line that expired today.  I used 1 yesterday buying yard and garden stuff.  I used the other today buying the wood. 

I got all the garden containers ready today and planted most of the plants I had.  I’m not trying anything new this year but I did take the necessary time to set the garden up properly.

As I was loosening up the soil from one of last years containers I uprooted a tiny oak seedling.  I couldn’t help but marvel at Mother Nature.  The acorn was still attached.  The tree had sprouted horizontally.  The seedling tree, about 3 inches long, was growing straight up.  The root straight down about 4 inches long and the sideways acorn hanging on in the middle.  It was a textbook visual of the wonder of seeds.  I was tempted to replant it—but I didn’t.  These things are popping up all over my backyard.  Each time I mow I chop the tops off of these little miracles and don’t even think about it.

It Went “Pop”

I gutted and rearranged the computer desk to make it neater, more functional and put the new printer in place.  That went fine until I turned on the power.  Not the “on” button of the computer this was the power strip.  When I plugged it in I heard something pop.  Later when I did push the power button on the computer nothing happened.

I went on line on my laptop and found out how to troubleshoot the computer.  I put my multimeter to use once more testing the voltages coming from the power supply.  It was dead.

So I’ve ordered a new one and will use my laptop in the interim.  All my files should be OK because the power supply failing doesn't cause you to lose files.

I bought the plants for my vegetable garden today but didn’t get them planted yet.  I’ve got to get all the containers ready.  That’s what I spent the afternoon doing.  There will be more of that tomorrow.

Only 1 cat has shown up briefly one night since we’ve been back.  That was Buzz and the only reason I got to see him is because I saw him in the back yard on one of our security cameras.  I dashed out and called him and he skittishly came and then ran away—then came back and ran away—then came back and let me touch him.  He ate some food and then left.  That was 2 nights ago and I haven’t seen him again. 

Remember our redwood burls?  I evidently killed one but the other is growing nicely.  I sprinkled them with glass and pebbles from Glass Beach.  Here is a picture.

Tomorrow is more garden and yard work.