Weekend With WOWSkunk

Where do I start?! What a great weekend. I arrived at my friend, Cindi's, around 4:30 P.M. Friday. We enjoyed dinner at Kodiak Jack's. The following night was party night. The first guests arrived on their motorcycle with pop-up camper attached. It was a friend of Cindi's, Mike, and his daughter, Megan. Other guests arrived periodically after that. Cindi's other friends (by that I mean other than me) at the party were a lot of fun. We had a lot of laughs--and a lot of warmth, wink, wink! Oops, lest you misunderstand--there was a GIGANTIC bonfire during the party. This first picture shows you the size of the pile (notice Cindi's grandson in the front).

The size of the actual burning pile gets lost in the dark background.

I always manage to see different images in a lot of pictures. This next photo looks to me like there are demons in the flames. (Besides Cindi's demons, ha ha. Oh, maybe these are Cindi's demons!)

This pictures looks like a (ever so appropriate) fire-breathing dragon:

This truck belongs to a friend of Cindi's son, Cory. Notice the car and motorcycle between the wheels, to give you some perspective on the size of the truck!

All in all, it was a fun weekend and I now feel I have a lot of new friends that I hope to see again and become better acquainted with. Here they are, bringing up the rear.
Thanks so much Cindi!

My Second Post of the Day

I had a strange experience this afternoon. I often have to catch little critters that my cats bring inside to play with and then get bored with. Today, the field mouse that kept showing up in my living room was eating my hanging plant (philodendron). My female cat, Mrs. Whiggins, would get real close to it and just reach out and touch it with her paw and the mouse did not run away! However, when I got close to it, it would amble away (and Mrs. Whiggins didn't even chase after it!). NOTE: when you have an in/out door for your cat, you have to decide whether you'd rather have an indoor litter box or put up with the critters! Anyway, here is Mrs. Whiggins looking like she has spring fever...not!

I had finally cornered the mouse into a small cardboard box and put it outside where the mouse finally emerged and that is what Mrs. Whiggins is looking at. I'm surprised she didn't go out the kitty door and come around front and bring the mouse back in!


The mouse is still on the porch; however, it is no longer living. Must've died of fright or else eating the philodendron was its downfall...

Ooops, best laid plans...

We ended up postponing our trip to Costa Rica. We have until near the end of February 2008 to use our airline tickets. Not sure when we will actually be able to go. John felt (and I agree) he shouldn't leave the country without taking his youngest son with us--teenagers will be teenagers, LOL.

Since we didn't go to Costa Rica, we spent some time in the country again taking pictures. The chipmunk was eagerly chowing down on bird feeder spillover:

This tree photo is the opposite side of the "tree of men" in my previous post. We were so drawn to that tree that we went back for another look and discovered the "devilish face" on the other side of that tree. (See the possibility of horns rising from the forehead?)

Beautiful Weekend before Costa Rica trip

This past weekend and the days since have been a boon to my mental health! I fare a lot better when it is warm and sunny! This coming Saturday John and I will be heading to warm and sunny Costa Rica. I will try to update the blog while there, but don't know how successful I'll be.

Here are a few photos out of a whole bunch I took this past Sunday (April 22, 2007). See if you can see at least two faces in the "mantree" picture. Hope you enjoy it and the rest of them. I also recorded the spring peepers that we were surprised to find whooping it up in the late afternoon instead of early evening (it's not much to look at, but the sound is impressive).





I liked this picture because it looks surreal.

I loved this view of the countryside with Skaneateles Lake in the background:

Being a fellow motorcycle rider, I had to capture this biker out enjoying the great riding weather after being stuck on four wheels through the winter season:


I believe these next photos are of a downy woodpecker:

Where Is Spring?

I got snowed in at John's house in Auburn Monday. I didn't mind staying in Auburn, but I sure hate this snow and cold. I had to shovel my driveway out when I got home last night. I only shoveled enough to break through what the State Department of Transportation plowed into the end of the driveway and in just a few feet more. Then I just floored it and let the car go as far as it would into the snow. I figured it was going to be melting in a day or two anyway. Am looking forward to flying to Costa Rica a week from this Saturday (28th). At least it will be warm and sunny there! In the meantime, here are a couple/few pics I've taken recently.

No Energy

Hello again. Wow, it's hard to believe it has been slightly over a month since I last posted. I just don't seem to have the energy lately I used to have. I know I don't get enough sleep because of the sleep apnea. Most people around me don't seem to understand that just because I may "sleep" eight hours (or more), it doesn't mean I am actually resting that whole time. Even with the machine, I don't stay asleep like normal people do. Anyway, as long as I am here...here are a few pics I've taken lately. These were taken while I was at a friend's house. All have been modified slightly on the computer.

Do I Have Cheese? Do You Have Cheese?

I just read something that I really connected with its message. I'd like to share it with you:

Beyond Blue This is a great site! Hope you enjoy and find it helpful.

More of Finding the Beauty

After shoveling as much snow as I have this past week, I very much enjoyed the beauty along the lake on my way to John's house. He spent Friday night at my house, so when he was on his way back to Auburn so he could take his son to work, he noticed the awesome number of waterfowl along Route 38 near Auburn. He called me to let me know so I could drive that route as well in getting to his house for the rest of the weekend. Luckily they were still there when I came through. Awesome. There were Canada geese, Trumpeter and Royal White Mute swans and ducks also. Not a really good place to park, however, to get pics, but I managed to get a few shots anyway.

Finding the Beauty

Since I can't go to Costa Rica for awhile, I have to find some beauty in this ccccccold area of Upstate New York. I looked out my window a little while ago and could see the beginnings of the sunset and decided to brave the cold to go outside and capture it with my camera. It wasn't nearly as cold as it was on Sunday, luckily. I can't wait to complain of the heat!

Cold and Blustery Photo Day

Today was beautiful from the perspective of seeing--not so beautiful for taking pictures without gloves on! But I did get some good shots. I used the polarizing lens and I think it gives the pics too much of a brownish tinge. However, it is a learning experience. What do you think?

Photo Manipulation

I've been playing again with photo manipulation. Check out this pic of my grandson, Matthew, and his sister Jaden.

OK. I think I'll go take a nap now. I have been up all night just playing with photos in PhotoShop.

G'night, er g'day, all.

Always Learning Something New

I'm still busy with my camera, but also with my scanner and old photos and enhancing photos. This is a picture I took a few months ago. I was just trying to capture the glimmer of the water in the little creek in the woods--so imagine my surprise and happiness to see what I had captured in those woods. The woods are on the edge of property owned by friends Heather and Jack in Niles, NY. John's shadow played a part in the ability to capture this view. I see many faces in this photo, but the two that really jump out at me are the "panther face" and the man's partial face tucked into the left side of the panther. "I see faces..." hmm, where have I heard that before? LOL

See if you see more faces (monsters have faces too)--and the head of a bird--in the same picture turned upside down.

Working on my photos helps me forget for awhile the cold that is on the other side of the walls of my house. My fingers get a bit cold even inside though because I keep the thermostat set to 62 degrees F. Even though this has been a very unusual and mild winter, I am thoroughly looking forward to the warm sunshine of spring.

Reminiscing with Old Photos

Hi, everyone. I've been having fun scanning old photos--makes you think back to life during the era the photo was taken. I'm not old enough to have been alive at the time all the photos were taken though, LOL. Photos of my ancestors are kind of fun to see. The first picture is of my mother's fraternal grandparents. You can see I didn't take the time to remove the crack in the photo.

The second picture is my oldest (half-) brother. He died in a car accident when he was 27. His son was six months old at the time and my son was a newborn. My son will be 37 this year! The second picture (obviously not really an "old photo") is of my grandson during one of his hare scramble races last year or maybe the year before. He's been racing since he was 5 years old. He will be 11 this summer.

The next photo is, to me, the most perfect Santa picture. Look at those rosy cheeks! How could anyone doubt that this guy is the REAL Santa. He is being hugged by one of my great nephews (David) when he was a little guy.

This photo is my mother, father, oldest brother and oldest sister. It makes me feel ancient that they are all deceased now.

I love this computer age (at least most of the time).

Sharing Christmas Morning

Just thought I'd share a couple of pictures from Christmas morning. This is my granddaughter, Jaden, and my son's dog that Jaden named Clifford. (So far, my son has not been able to rename him.)

Hooray, It's a New Year!

I had another nice weekend with John. I always take my portable toolbox with me because there is a good chance I can use some of them at his house. I love that we can work on projects together. Of course, it is always a learning experience as well! This weekend we laid new linoleum in his second bathroom--operative word being "second". As beginners on a project like this, it took us a good part of three days to complete. John had previously removed the old floor tiles, so we didn't have to deal with that also. We had to fix the water shut-off valve to the toilet first of all because it leaked when we tried to shut off the water. That turned out to be the easiest fix--we replaced the gasket. We had several places to cut around to make the flooring fit. We didn't have a grease pencil, so we used a felt-tip pen on the reverse side (which meant we had to "reverse" everything) so that took a bit of studying, measuring, re-measuring, and re-cutting (because I figured it was better to have to cut out more later, rather than cutting too much). That process paid off. The floor ended up fitting pretty well. Before we could cut out for the toilet area, we had to remove the toilet. So after all that and glueing the linoleum down, we had to rebuild the toilet! It was so old, all the bolts and nuts were rusted and the gaskets were hardened and misshapen. The jury is still out on how well that turned out. When I left today, the water was not leaking from around the tank to toilet gasket, but the water would not shut off in the tank when it got full. John is going to get new guts for the tank now sometime this week. We're beginning to feel like "John" experts now. Who knew a toilet had all those gaskets or that I would ever be part of replacing the "wax seal"? One of our next projects will probably be removing the rust and repainting the heat venting in the bathroom.



On my way home today, I stopped and took another picture of a tree that fascinates me. I've taken pictures of it before, but the sun wasn't shining and they didn't turn out that great. The sun cooperated today. I love the way the shadows show on some of the branches and I also love the way the branches seem to reach out like welcoming arms.

I also got a great shot of the moon this afternoon. I manipulated the shadow lighting so that the texture shows through a little better.

That's all for now, folks....