Yard is cleared.

I came home from lunch and the city has already been by and picked up the downed limbs I had moved out my driveway. Timely and efficient, it's nice change.

Driveway is clear.

Greater devastation existed in my driveway than I had originally thought. The top fell out of the tree on the west side of my driveway. As it fell, it took out three sizeable limbs beneath it on the north east side. It only took a half hour to get it all moved and the ice scooped off. Very little snow to speak of. It doesn't appear we will receive as much as forecast though 1-2 inches of snow is expected during the day. Flakes have started falling, but only time will tell if it will be a significant snow shower.

Driveway Devastation.

FLASH! stop Tree limb down. stop Ice encrusted. stop Partially blocks driveway. stop Possible impediment to arriving at work tomorrow. stop FLASH!

Snapping trees.

So all day long it has been around freezing and drizzling. The trees are coated with a 3/4 inch cover of ice and started snapping this morning. The wind picked up at 3:00 this afternoon and the problems compounded. It is hard to get around on the roads right now for all the trees in the road and utility crews blocking roads to repair downed power lines. A large tree in front of my house lost a branch while I was cooking supper. Thankfully the city crews got it cleared from the road in about 15 minutes. I just heard another large snap farther down the road. Hopefully it hit an empty spot and not someone's house.

I might get a new camera for Christmas.

It's a possibility. We'll just have to see. My mom was wanting to buy me a new one and I told her the ones I was interested in were upward of 1500 dollars and she quickly balked. I laughed b/c I know it's out of both our price range. I told her I hadn't started saving for one because I just haven't been taking enough pictures to justify the cost and my proficiency just isn't there yet either. But we talked about it and I may get a P&S/DSLR hybrid. Something on the way to DSLR, but not quite. The nice thing about the hybrids is the wealth of features and (in comparison) the minuscule cost. So we'll see.

Good News!

Well, last Tuesday I came home and checked the mail and I had a letter from my credit union. I figured it was probably something about my truck since I have been needing to call and check to see how much I still owed on my truck. It's a pretty laid back affair, I send in my payments each month and since it is small they know where it goes. I've never had any problems and they do send out quarterly statements, but I generally throw them in the closet. Well, I get the letter opened and it turns out I had payed my truck off in August. They deposited the September payment in account and that was that. I was blown away and absolutely excited. I thought I still had about five or six more months left on the note. Just goes to show what paying a little extra each month will do for ya. So I've been on this high about getting it payed off and thinking about how I was going to handle having the extra money. I am planning on saving it as much as possible since I am already used to living without it each month. But I couldn't help myself this month. I had a little bit left over from my vacation funds and with the truck payment I had more than enough to buy a new computer base. My monitor is fairly new and so I went and bought me a new one. It isn't the best in the whole wide world, but it is better than what I had. I just finished getting most of the free protection programs downloaded and updated and I even had some time to get a few pictures corrected. The top one is from the west summit of the Twin Sisters. The bottom one is Dream Lake. Enjoy! It's gonna be a good weekend.

Vacation Photos

Two weeks ago I left Rocky Mountain National Park after spending almost a full week camping and hiking. I loved every minute of it! I just got the photos back and as beautiful as some of them are, I am largely dissapointed with how they turned out. Almost all of them could do with a human eye rather than a computer enhancement algorithem. They are all over saturated. Many have blown out exposures. None have had an unsharp mask run over them. I could have sent them some place expensive that would have taken care to watch out for all that stuff and I also could have done the enhancements myself. In my eagerness to show people some pictures, this is what I've got, overexposed, oversaturated, less-than-sharp pictures.
I will be adding some here, but those I am going to work on myself. Funny how after a year of messing around with photography my eye has improved enough to notice all those little things. Have a good day and go find a mountain to spend some time on.

It takes some time.

Several years back I listened to an episode of "This American Life" themed "What do you call it?" The jist of the stories were trying to figure out what you call an event before it has an agreed upon name. The one story that really stuck in my mind was listening to Holocaust survivors talk about their experience's under the Nazi's and the lack of a coherent term or definition for what they went through. It wasn't the "Holocaust" and the full extent of the horror was not yet known. The survivors sounded still in a state of shock several years after the events and the interviewer seemed almost flippant and callous in his questions. Everything was still coalescing and being processed within the minds of the individual participants and the world as a whole.

It takes time to understand and gain perspective about most things, but especially about major events. Most of all it takes time to change things within our own life. There was a historic lighthouse on the east coast in danger of falling into the ocean because the shoreline had eroded to within 100 feet of the foundation. The community gathered together the funds and bought a parcel of land far enough away from the shore to ensure it wouldn't be endangered again by erosion. The difficulty was getting the lighthouse to the new piece of land. As they moving company prepped the lighthouse to be moved the single most perilous part of the journey was the first three feet. The lighthouse had to overcome its inertia in one piece. If they could get it moving those first three feet it would move just fine.

Lives are like that lighthouse. It takes a lot of prep time and work to overcome its current state to move to a new location or state of being. Once things get moving it'll be okay, but getting it started is the hard part. And I suppose that if it all falls part, that just speaks to an inherent instability. Even if life had stayed where it was the instability would have brought it down. A well built, resilient life can handle change, though not without stressing it.

I've talked a lot with my friends about moving and finding a new job. Almost three years of talking, and only now do I feel like I am finally at the point where I am going to do it. And somehow, I think I've got a lot of stuff built in and around my lighthouse that it'd probably be best to let the ocean claim it rather than carry it along for the ride.

If you are going to be shocked into a new direction by the events or circumstances or stories around you, don't have to be unaware of the problem and/or the solution? A near death experience won't make you more appreciative of you family if you already appreciate them fully. Likewise, can you have a revelation of things you already know and actions you already know you should take?

Insignificant

Have you ever read or watched or had an experience that you think should have some significant degree of meaning to you and be one of the those life altering or defining moment only to be unnerved that it doesn't? Let's say you have a near death experience and on the other side of it you are troubled because it seems that should be a defining moment in your life and yet your whole attitude is "meh."

"I lived. Let's move on. Don't get me wrong, it's great, living, and all... And what a wild ride!"

And in the midst of all of this you are more troubled that you aren't troubled.

Apathy leads to intertia.

Watering in the Rain.

Last night as the rain started falling I remembered the sprinkler in the back yard. I ran out and shut it off so I didn't waste money on water I was about to get for free. All to often I end up duplicating my own efforts or those belonging to others. Whether from ignorance, forgetfullness, or whatever, the result is the same, wasted resources. I might as well be washing my truck in the rain.

Don't nip my nylons.

My friend Larry had knee replacement surgery almost two weeks ago. He shuttered his one man feed store while he recuperates. His son came up on Thursday and Friday to help and he called me on Friday to help him grind and deliver a load of feed on Saturday. I was happy to help and told him to call me whenever he needed it. Until he strengthens his knee some more it just isn't wise for him to be throwing around fifty and hundred pound bags of feed.

Larry has thigh high compression socks that look like a really thick, bleach white nylon hose to help with his blood circulation. Since pants are a bit difficult to put on at this point, he's been wearing his shorts and flashing his nylons about. The lady we delivered the feed to has four very friendly and inquisitive dogs running around the cows and their respective cow patties. While we were trying to get lined up to the feed bin with the auger, the dogs run over to Larry and he says just as straight as can be, "Don't nip my nylons." Sitting at the wheel I fell over laughing. It was something about the comment and the mix of where we were and Larry saying it that just cracked me up to no end.

Rain

The weather scorched us last week. 100 plus degree weather for seven days. I enjoyed it. Yes, I was hot and I spent a lot of time sucking up the refrigerated air rather than sitting outside in the heat. Complaining isn't going to make it cooler though. I save my complaining for the cold weather. I don't like it. It's miserable and unbearable. The heat I can deal with. Last night the heat broke as a cold front ushered storms over our region. Today I have the windows open airing out the house at a comfortable, if cool, 70 degrees.

Photo: Pot

Photo: Curtain
This photo was really sharp when I had finished adjusting levels and the colors. I ran the unsharp mask and it did make it sharper, but it didn't make it a better photo. I changed course and ran a Gaussian blur over the whole thing and a much better photo resulted.

Photo: Bread

Photo: Speaker.

Photo: Radio.

Photo: Plant Base

Photo: Pant Curtain.

Photo: Sculpture Base.

Household Abstract

I can't figure out how to make a nifty border with the GIMP. It is frustrating me to no end.

Nap Time.

Nap time should be reintroduced as a daily adult activity. I am at the office and just really want to go home and take a nap. I brought my greatest hits of Don Williams cd with me from the house at lunch time, so the afternoon is going by faster. I just don't think I can think much more.

Grass is mowed.

And now it's watering. I also weeded the flower beds. In the midst of all that I pondered just how much work we as a people put into surrounding ourselves with beautiful things. What benefit do flower beds and flower gardens provide for humanity? No compare how much work goes into putting together and maintaining them. For what?

Now I wonder if all the work is to surround ourselves with beauty, or simply a status symbol. "I'm better than you because I have prettier flowers and my grass is greener."

It's not just flowers and grass. Look at our homes. We build and buy and work to have a beautiful home full of wonderful things. We seek out spouses we find beautiful and desire beautiful children.

It all seems rather superficial and self-centered put like that. Regardless of whether these things are used as status symbols or simply because we like them.

Beauty equates to health. From a strictly anthropological standpoint it makes sense we would seek out beauty. Judging on beauty, a pretty wife will be healthier and provide healthier children who will also be beautiful. Pretty land again equates to health. Who wants to live in dry and blighted regions? When a landscape whimpers death and disease people flee from it if they have that option.

Aside from the health aspect of it, are we all simply exercising our arrogance and self-importance? Can we truly be an altruistic people?

Well kiss my grass. Stupid white line is gone. Read on reader, read on.

White Lines and Grass.

Do you see that line right there?--->

EDIT: I fixed it. I am so cool.

It is really bothering me. Why is there a stray white line running the course of this blog? I don't know. I think that something is sized wrong somewhere, but GAH! Stupid white lines. Yesterday, all afternoon long I kept saying, "I need to mow the grass." And yet the grass never got mowed. I really didn't feel like mowing it. My flowers are hurting this year b/c I just have been giving them much love lately.

Speaking of white lines, I wrote that title and it looked like a drug reference. Shooter Jennings, Waylon's son, has a song out called "Little White Lines" that's all about cocaine. I like his style, but that is the first song of his that I really like. There is also a song by Butterfly Boucher I think is called "White Lines." It was out last summer. I bought her cd and my goodness it's bad. I liked the song, but after I listened to it for a while I decided it was a really stupid song. Anyway, the jist of the song is she was watching the little white lines on the road go by as she drove or was riding as a passenger.

Both of these singers though don't get regular radio play. But thanks be to the glories of technology, me and my XM Radio can hear them across the country. I love my XM. Yesterday I was sitting here at the house and listening to BBC Word Service. I don't have cable and my tv is rarely ever on. I get a lot of cable news channels on my XM so I don't miss out on their coverage. But I can't stand to listen to most of the cable news programming. It is mindless. Several months back I was listening to Fox News and a guest host was filling in for Brit Hume. I can't stand Brit Hume. As I listened I realized it was an excellent interview and news piece. The reason it was well done was the host allowed the guest to actually speak. The host didn't lead or put words in the mouth of the guest. He actually allowed the guest to speak. I was shocked and impressed.

Now back to the Beeb. I was listening and realized how much I enjoyed it b/c I actually learned stuff. The programs were interesting and informative, well written and produced, and on a broad range of topics. It really is the Word Service. Why can't American cable news outlets cover stories from across the globe that are meant to inform and educate. You can enterain as well. There was piece on some guy composing music inspired by Rembrandt. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to that piece, but the parts I did were really fascinating. See, now there was an entertaining piece that actually informed me. (Willie Nelson rocks!)

I know why American news can't cover these other stories. They don't involve an 18-23 year old white, single, attractive, blonde woman who went missing in shark infested waters while walking her toy sized dog through dog-eating-alligator territory. They are also missing a parent who stops living so they can pop up in front any available video camera wearing an 8-10 full color photo of their missing child, who would never do something to endanger their life, to spew conspiracy and venom b/c they haven't been interviewed in the last five minutes or b/c someone didn't babysit their grown child and then failed to deliver them from their own stupidity.

I've got to mow the grass.

I did.

I did mess up my template. I'll work on it later. I just finished making some breakfast burritos. They were good. I made a huge mess before and during the cooking process. Do you remember the whole fried carrot fun? Well, I just put the frying pan of oil in the oven. I didn't think about it until I yanked the frying pan out of the oven and oil went flying everywhere. Now how's that for fun? So I had to clean before I ever got to start cooking. Arg.

I think I messed up my template.

Fried Carrot

Tonights many entries are inspired by Jaymeekae. She had this to say:

Inspiration
It occured to me that something the world is missing
is carrots deepfried in batter. Carrots are one of the few vegetables I really like and I think carrots in batter would be fucking awesome, to say the least. You get potato in batter, fish, chicken, even mars bars in certain infamous northern
english fish and chip shops. The world is ready for
deepfried carrots, nay, the world is crying out for them.Let's
make it happen.

So I did. I made it happen in all kinds of ways. Enjoy.

A picturesque picture of some of our ingredients and tools. 

Prepare your carrots for frying. Here you see we have denuded six medium sized carrots. These are from California so of course they're anorexic. You just can't buy nice fat carrots from California. Prepare to lop off their heads and cut into two inch pieces. The pieces will be skewered on bamboo sticks and dipped in hot oil until they talk. Who says medieval torture is dead? 

At only $50 a barrel this oil is a real steal.  

Here are our three main dry mixes. They all look pretty much the same from this distance. Don't drink the Windex. That's for clean up later on. Feel free to smell the Windex at will though.

For our first carrot coating tonight we're going old school; buttermilk and seasoned flour. Any liquid could be used, but water and milk are probably going to be to thin. You will be unsatisfied with anything thinner than buttermilk. Condensed milk is an option if you like sweet carrots. You know, if you like that sort of thing. So anyway, coat your carrot good with buttermilk and prepare to roll it in the flour. 

Coat your carrot well. Our flour is seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. I mix till it looks pretty, but whatever method you use I am sure will work just fine. 

Someone get that carrot to the dermatologist. A double or triple dipping to get a nice thick coating of flour is definately in order. Sheesh, it looks like an 90 year old lady's skin is peeling ten days after she was out in the sun to long. 

Beer Batter. What doesn't taste better bathed in the warm comfot of beer batter? Mix according to directions. You may use beer or water. Don't worry about carding your guests, the alcohol in the beer batter will combust away in the searing oils of your frying pan. Water is a perfectly acceptable alternative for those who would prefer not to have the taste of barley and hops in they fried carrots.  

Make sure your carrots are fully covered. Beware of the dreaded drip.  

Now that's a nice rack. A beautiful golden brown. Nicely formed and with plenty of perk. 

Here we are using pre-packaged hushpuppy mix to coat our carrots. The carrot puppies will be much coarser in appearance and have a rougher tooth feel. Prepare your mix mostly according to the package instructions. Add a bit more milk or water though so the preparation isn't to thick to coat the skewered carrot. 

If you are not careful with your hushpuppy mixture you will see problems similar to those pictured here. The hushpuppy mix dried out. Now this would be great if we were actually making hushpuppies, but we're not. This clumpy, dry oatmeal looking mush is to dry for making our carrotpuppies. Add a bit more milk or water the thin the mixture out, stir well, and you will have a much better base to fully coat your carrot. 

Sshhhh! Carrot puppies sleeping. 

For our next carrot coating we are mixing our buttermilk base together with the flour coating to make a nice thick breading. Basically we're just playing with the method of applying our carrot coating as the taste will be the very same as in our first example. 

Here we see the result of our fried carrot sporting the seasons latest breading fashion. Earth tones are dominant this year. 

MMM...Fry baby fry.