NOTICE: All photos copyright by D.T. and S. D. Stanton. All rights reserved.

7.09.2012

Catching Up

Yes, I've been a bit remiss lately. Sorry 'bout that. I'll try to rectify the situation now.

We were both off on the 4th. There were a few options of what we could have done, but we decided to go see the 4th of July parade in downtown Canyon.

When we got there, we found a place to park less than 1/2 block from where we wanted to sit. We also found a spot to sit that would be in the shade the whole time. Apparently, we were supposed to be there.  :)  While we were waiting for the parade to start (and subsequently get to us), a little guy caught our eye. He hadn't been walking very long, and was trying out his new-found skills with his Daddy close at hand.


I have no idea why the expression.

All is right with the world again.
Another young man near us was apparently trying out his skills as a doctor while he waited.

What's the diagnosis, doctor?
People are interesting - especially kids. They can be so animated!

There were two different fly-overs at zero hour to mark the beginning of the parade. Given our spot under shade trees, we couldn't see them. I had to go out in the street in order to get the shots I did.
 


The parade was a good one. Floats, bands, military and their vehicles, firemen and their trucks, and a little bit of everything.








(Some of the cast of TEXAS! the musical.)



(This young lady was on a float.)

More like these are in my Pbase galleries.

It was the perfect day - not too hot, light breeze, and in the shade the whole time. Couldn't have asked for a better setup.  :)

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We've had a small leak in our power steering pump pressure line for a little while - nothing serious, just a "seeper". I finally got a new line and had to put it in over the weekend. It was one of those that had a factory seal that started to leak. I expected it to only take an hour or two, depending on how easy it would be to snake out of its position and get the new one put back in the same path. It can be a real challenge the way they put cars together any more.

As luck would have it, all went great - until I got to the last little bracket I didn't see at first. It was in one of those spots that was virtually impossible to get to. I could barely get one hand in the right place, but it needed two. When two hands found there way to the right spot, I couldn't see anything - not to mention having to be a bit of a contortionist. You get the idea. After struggling with the bracket for a while, I finally got it out. A little while later I got the new line snaked into position and the battle started again. I had to get that same bracket bolted down. Too often, "puttin' back in" isn't as easy as "takin' out". It wasn't this time either.

Ok, I finally got it all put in and mounted securely - just like the factory one. Now I had to get all the air out of the steering. Took forever! After 5 1/2 hours, this 1 - 2 hour job was finally done! I guess it had to happen some time.

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I kinda let our lawn grow a bit lately - to where it's long overdue for mowing. I was going to do it today after work, but it had been raining off and on and was still wet. Long grass holds moisture much longer than short grass. I won't mow wet grass unless I absolutely have to. It looks bad afterwards and is more of a chore to get the mower clean when I'm done. May not be able to tomorrow either. They are saying an 80% chance of more rain tomorrow. I'm not complaining at all. We need rain - lots of it. I'll just deal with tall grass when I am able to mow.

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I think that's is about it. I hope I'm caught up now.  :)


6.20.2012

June Jazz

Every Tuesday evening throughout June, Amarillo College hosts various jazz bands - a different band each Tuesday. These are free to all interested, and we've been going to them this year. (They last about 2 1/2 hours.) During yesterday's performance, I took some video highlighting two of the members of The Martinis and put them together in this short (1 minute) video:

6.16.2012

Wedding Shower

(Follow-up)

My apologies for taking so long getting promised images up. These are some of the photos I took at the wedding shower I spoke of in my Saturday Stuff post below.

Amanda and Jeff
Bride-to-be's mother, bride-to-be, groom-to-be's mother.
Opening gifts.

Guest book.
Refreshments. Delicious!

(More shower photos can be seen HERE.)

6.10.2012

Saturday Stuff

The "daughter we never had" is getting married to her best friend next month (a pretty cool guy), and she had her wedding shower yesterday. I will be shooting her wedding, so naturally I got some shots at her shower, too. (I haven't gotten permission yet to put any up publicly. When I do, I'll probably put some up on my PBase site as well as a couple of them here.) Amanda says Shelley and I are her "other parents". We consider her our daughter, too.

After we got home from the shower, Buster was not out in plain view as he is most of the time when we get home from anywhere. We didn't think too much of it. He takes spells where he just likes to camp out under a bed or somewhere secluded. Time went by, and still no Buster. The search began. I did a cursory check of his usual spots, but no Buster. I got the flashlight and did a more thorough search. It is kinda dark under beds and other hidey-holes he uses. I even checked the bathroom. (We've closed him up in there accidentally before.) Called for him, tempting him with "wet food" - not a sign or sound. The search continued. Why is it you always find what you're looking for in the last place you look?  ;)  Turns out, when I opened the closet door in the hallway, there laid a little furry boy - looking up at me with an inquisitive look on his face. Don't know if he was asking me "What?", or maybe "Why did you shut me up in here?" He didn't seem real anxious to come out. We have no idea just how long he was there, but we suspect it was hours! Never had an accident, even though we wouldn't blame him if he did.

That boy...!  :)


6.07.2012

The Simple Things - A Poem By Edgar A. Guest

The Simple Things
I would not be too wise—so very wise
  That I must sneer at simple songs and creeds,
And let the glare of wisdom blind my eyes
  To humble people and their humble needs.
I would not care to climb so high that I
  Could never hear the children at their play,
Could only see the people passing by,
  And never hear the cheering words they say.

I would not know too much—too much to smile
  At trivial errors of the heart and hand,
Nor be too proud to play the friend the while,
  Nor cease to help and know and understand.

I would not care to sit upon a throne,
  Or build my house upon a mountain-top,
Where I must dwell in glory all alone
  And never friend come in or poor man stop.

God grant that I may live upon this earth
  And face the tasks which every morning brings
And never lose the glory and the worth
  Of humble service and the simple things.

 

6.04.2012

Recent Happenings

Friday night, we had some storms going through the panhandle. Normally, they split and go around Amarillo. Don't know why. It just happens - far too often to ignore. It's referred to as "the Amarillo split" among other things. Out of the all the rain crossing the panhandle, we got a whopping "trace" - just a little bit of water covering the bottom of our rain gage. It poured all around us, but not here. Typical.

Friday night, we were going to see the stage show "TEXAS!" down in Palo Duro Canyon State Park's amphitheater. We had an English (aka "British") friend of ours with us who has never seen the show. This was his chance.

I kept a close eye on the radar to see how things were going, and it looked like we might be ok. The rain was staying right next to where we'd be. I even called down to the Park to see if it had been canceled - right before we got in the car. Still not canceled.

As it turned out, when we got to the entrance to the canyon, they had to cancel the show - not because it was raining, because it wasn't. The stage was flooded! Well, we went in anyhow and stayed up on top at the main overlook. Thought we might get some lightning shots if things worked out. It did.



The lightning wasn't real prolific, but we did manage to score a few good ones.
 
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Our English friend, Dean, was telling us about hummingbirds he got photos of at the zoo here. (He works at the zoo.) After some discussion about their habits and such, I decided I'd park myself near the trumpet vines in our back yard that next morning. The trumpets were flowering really nice, and we knew that those little rascals love things like that. (Coincidentally two or three days before, Shelley saw a hummer flit past the car as we were getting ready drive off to work.) I sat there for about 10 or 15 minutes with camera in hand and at the ready before I caught sight of one. It was only there a minute or so, partaking of the nectar of maybe two flowers before slipping away. Not much time to make adjustments and shoot in the dim light, but I did get him.

(Female Black-Chinned Hummingbird)
Since that morning, the flowers were going through a cycle where the full ones were dropping off and the newly emerging ones were not yet open. I haven't seen any more hummers yet, but come the weekend I'll be sitting back out there early in the morning. Since the first sighting, I got a new hummingbird feeder and hung it on a shepherd's hook in a shady spot in the back yard - with homemade nectar in it. Hopefully I picked a good spot. We shall see.

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Our hot water side of the tub has been leaking through for a little while - the hot side. After work, I shut the water off and tore it apart to see what was going on. The valve stem (core? spool?) was split down the side and its seals were about shot. A quick trip to the faucet parts guy and $6.49 later, I had the new stem (core? spool?) assembly in hand. A few minutes after getting home, it was in and the water back on. I'm not a plumber and don't really like plumbing, but that's something I can do - so I did.


5.31.2012

Birding

I was out in our back yard after work yesterday looking for "our" Kites, and came across a pair doing their usual Spring fever dances. I got out my telescope and coupled my camera up to it to see if I could get it adjusted right for some shots. I wound up taking some video of a female Mississippi Kite grooming herself in a tree a couple of houses down the street. Here is the result, not cropped or anything.

(A female Mississippi Kite grooms herself.)

The telescope I used was a 1200mm Maksutov-Cassegrain catadioptric 'scope. A "catadioptric" telescope is a hybrid reflector and refractor telescope. Used with my camera (without eyepieces) it's about 4x as powerful as our biggest camera lenses.


5.29.2012

Eclipsing, Mowing and Musing - Oh My!

On May 20th, the solar eclipse passed nearly over top of Amarillo. It would pass directly over Lubbock to the south of us and put us in the 90% area, scheduled to max out just before sunset. Skies were overcast in the morning and were forecast to be so all day and night. What better way to blow a good eclipse? We didn't have much hope at first.

As the day progressed, the sky cleared off and was almost perfectly clear come time for the eclipse to start - about 7:30pm CDT. Only a few spotty streaks of clouds still hung around. Shelley and I took up position on the west side of town that afforded an unobstructed view of the sunset, got our cameras ready and watched for other photo-ops while waiting for the sun to weaken to the point we could take some photos.



Below are some of the shots I took, along with an animated GIF I assembled. (Click on any image to see the full size version.)

(First shot I could get - safely.)


(Nearly maxed out.)

(Shortly after maximum, nearing sunset.)

(Ok, I had a little fun with the last one.)
What clouds stuck around actually enhanced our shots, I think. Unfortunately, it was completely obscured by clouds around its peak. I managed to pull a few images aside to create an animated GIF. At the start of the animation, it was just coming out from behind the clouds that hid the peak of the eclipse.

(Note the sun stop setting and wait for the trucks to go by. It was accidental when I created it. )
We were lucky the clouds disappeared and we got to see it. It was a sight we will likely never see again.
 
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I finally got to mow the lawn again after work today. Yes, I anxiously look forward to it! Haven't had to do it for a little while. Parts of the lawn show it, too. After mowing, I made some artificial rain. Gotta make it a little bit green to keep fire danger down. Would love to have a few more inches of rain. We were tickled to have gotten the 1/2" and 3/4" increments we got earlier this year.

You know you're from the Texas panhandle if you consider a rainy, gloomy, stormy day to be "beautiful weather".

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 Musings. Hmm. Well, actually it's something a-musing. Something that Shelley and I both do, and sometimes chide each other for it.

Most of you know we have a very interesting little boy that came into our lives about 3 years ago - a gray and white tabby cat named "Buster". Well, not really a cat. Not sure what he is. Anyhow, he's as much a family member as any 2-legged child. He is one of those boys who can do virtually anything he wants to, sleep where he wants, will smack you on the tush as you walk by and then act like he didn't do anything. Well, you get the idea.  


(If you want to get an idea of how "people-like" he is, check out this sneaky little thing playfully trying to tell "Momma" he wants some treats:  http://tinyurl.com/6mujxlk.  Some say it's not possible, but he has a very cool sense of humor.)

Now, what prompted me to start about Buster in this post is that I just witnessed (again) him snoozing on half of the couch. Yes, he's a big boy. Not overweight, just big. When he stretches out, he easily takes up half the couch. 

Shelley and I have our customary places to sit on the couch. We all have "our spots" to sit and get comfy, right? A little bit ago, I saw her taking up an alternate position and not bothering "that boy" - who was snoozing peacefully on "her side" of the couch. "That boy" (as we refer to him very affectionately in casual conversation) is so spoiled (or is it "revered"?) by both of us that we refuse to make him move when he's commandeered "our spots".

I shake my head at how he's managed to rule Shelley's life in just three short years, all the while knowing I'm just as guilty. "That boy" has us wrapped around his little paws for sure - and he knows it!


5.28.2012

Memorial Day

Today there were Memorial Day services all across the country. Here in Amarillo, we attended the one at a nearby cemetery. It was a perfect day - warm with a little breeze and clear skies. A flyover by 3 locally owned aircraft kicked off the program.

(Private, locally owned Beech T-34 Mentors.)
The Caprock High School's JROTC Color Guard presented colors. (Caprock High School is the one I furnished the cover photo for on their 2010 yearbook.) These young people always do a fine job.

(Caprock High School JROTC Cadets.)
One of the things they do each year is to place a wreath in honor of a local mother's son, who sacrificed all in Iraq. This is also symbolic of all families who have lost members in the service of their Country.

(Caprock JROTC Cadet escorts a mother who lost her son in Iraq.)
Those who serve take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. As long as that is done, their lives will not have been lost in vain.

I salute all who serve, all who have served, and all who have given all.

(In Memoriam.)

5.27.2012

All Gave Some - Some Gave All


In remembrance to those who gave their life for their country, so that we would remain free.

Thank you.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below. 
We are the Dead. 
 Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie,



In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
-- John McCrae 1872-1918


Windmill Park - Spearman, TX

We took a little jaunt into the northern panhandle today, and paid a visit to the Windmill Park in Spearman, TX. They have many windmills that were designed to pump water, as opposed to generate electricity or grind grain. Many of them are wood structures, some are steel.



(Note the scroll work on the platform supports on this one.)
--dts


We Missed Y'all and That's No Bull!

We haven't done much with this blog in awhile. It's time to fix that.  Perhaps with a photo or two just to show we are alive and kicking. We were out in the Panhandle today and met these two fellows and they were kind enough to let us take their picture.  I think their names were "Angus" and "Beevo".

--SdS

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