2015 All Hallow's Eve (Mostly) Blog Post

It's almost Halloween. That means it is almost time for little ghouls and goblins, zombies and vampires, princesses and minions. I don't know what the GRANDS will be tomorrow night. I think I will be Lurch from The Addams Family at work tomorrow. Are you going to dress up as a princes or a cowboy or a nuclear scientist? Maybe you could go as a Siberian husky?

Or a skeleton?

You can find a bunch of Halloween makeup ideas in Pinterest.

Alice Cooper created a list of his Top 10 Halloween songs. Is it any wonder that three of his own songs are in the list?

Do you know what the favorite (or maybe preferred is a better word) Halloween costume is for your state? Well, someone did the research, so now we can all know just by clicking this link.

Let's move to something no less colorful, but a lot less creepy. I like this shot of a fence trying to enclose the pasture area in the foreground, and maybe the mountain range in the back. Isn't that just like mankind?

Now that we have been talking about my photographic eye and tendencies, I am sure you can easily write the intro to this shot. You can see the little stream, photographed such that the sun was making it look like a silver ribbon. And you know that I am using it to lead the viewer's eye into the scene.

Does a photo like this make you wish you were out walking along this road... the sun over your shoulder... kicking up leaves as you walk? I hope so, because that was my interpretation as I captured it. I tried to frame it so that you could see the trees and shade around the road, a hint of the sun behind the tree, the road leading you into the shot, the leaves laying around the edges of the road.

Speaking of Pinterest, one of my favorite photographers has a fun page with lots of cool, inspiring photos. Go look up Trey Ratcliff and just enjoy.

Did you read the whole blog today? Did you wish there was some way to skip the boring parts? Me, too.

BTW, I decided to dress up as Lurch today. It takes a minimum of prep time, I had most of the outfit (I did pick up a new black suit jacket. Sorry, Dad. I forgot to tell you I found one and by the time I remembered, it was too late to call) and needed some white and black greasepaint. I felt shamed by being one of the few in the group not planning to dress up. I imagine the number of people on the department who remember Lurch are few and far between... and old. The photo below is him, not me.

Listen, people. Have a great Halloween weekend. Do NOT eat the candy you purchased to give away. We will get back together next week, OK?

CO and MA and UK and Yuck

I liked the mountain in the background with the golden tree up front. And of course, on the color wheel, blue and gold are complementary.

Here, we see MBH heading on down the road. Don't worry. We picked her up before we all headed on down the road.

And another foreground/background shot. This time, I placed a tree with a bit more orange in it (and a strong white tree trunk) in the back and the leaves of the front tree are where the focus is.

I read that diet soda is really bad for you. This article ranks 38 of them from bad to worst. #38 is Diet Mountain Dew, which contains brominated vegetable oil, a patented flame retardant for plastics that has been banned in foods throughout Europe and in Japan. The one MBH prefers is ranked #16. The best of them is Bai5 Bubbles. No, I've never heard of them, either.

While we are talking foods/drinks bad for you, let's jump over to hamburgers. I don't eat them (at least, not beef), and this Burger King Double Rodeo BBQ burger doesn't entice me back. First, let's look at what the ad promises.

Oh, wow. Is your mouth watering yet? For one man in the UK, it was too tempting, and he ordered one of these beauties. Oh, yeah. Let's see what he received.

Somewhat underwhelming, wouldn't you say? The article does not mention if he got his money back, but he did tweet that photo to BK.

Do you keep your bread in the refrigerator? Stop it. Go get it out right now. A HuffPo article says that will hasten staleness due to some complicated process involving how starches age. You can read more details in the article. Oh, and stop buying sliced bread.

An even better way to save money is to never have your Jeep towed out of a swamp near power lines in MA. One guy now owes $48,000 to the towing company. Neither he nor his insurance company want to pay that bill. I will admit that some of the charges seem specious (oo, I don't get to use that word very often).

Does anyone in your family ever post old photos on Facebook for Throwback Thursday. Some in my family do, and there have been times when I was one of the photos posted. Anyway, since it is Thursday, I thought about phrases with the word 'throw' in them.

Today's CoV has a co-worker-ish figure in it, and that makes me think of another co-worker who was recently diagnosed with three types of cancer. She had an operation on Tuesday for the brain cancer and here's what she told us."The radio surgery was a piece of cake... I was fully awake but felt nothing... Other than the tight mask on my face. The entire radiation team came out and all had smiles. They said it was perfect... Everything lined up and that's it's done. I go back in 6 weeks for follow-up MRI." So, that sounds pretty good. I mentioned before that a Christian friend and I see this as a way we can witness a bit without our friend taking offense. She has always been averse to too much religious talk, but she ended her update note with the following words,"Please give my thanks and regards to all.... I felt surrounded by positivity and prayers yesterday and want folks to know that I truly feel the energy and prayers are contributing to the continued good news that I'm getting." We'll see how it all works out. Still, keep her in your prayers.

My time is at an end for today. That means I need to wish you a Thankful Thursday and get going. So, have a Thankful Thursday. See you soon.

Almost Total Recall

Did you watch the World Series game last night? Really? The whole, 5-hour-long thing? I will confess that I did not. First off, it was Chorale practice night, so I didn't watch anything. Second, five hours of baseball? No thank you. That is a strike out for me. I prefer football, but, even then, five hours is a bit too much. I haven't watched that much of any one thing since we binged on Lost.

Ooo, pretty colors. I liked the brightness of the foreground contrasted with the gold and forest green (get it? forest?) of the background.

And, as we have all seen before, I like it when a foreground element (here, it is the road) leads the eye into the background element (here, a stand of aspen surrounding the road).

I caught the folks looking out across the trees.

What's your favorite candy? Well, a full 21% of the American public chooses peanut butter cups. I probably would not have said that, but then again, our daughter-in-love makes a really good homemade version that we have been known to chow down on. Licorice was selected as the least favorite. You can see more fun facts about Halloween candy here.

Speaking of daughter-in-love, Happy Birthday. No, it is not today, but it wasn't that long ago. I'd rather not mention names nor dates here, but if you know her, wish her a Happy B-day anyway.

I came across some 'facts' that are wrong. This article opens debunking the statement that Napoleon was short. It poo-poos the notion that the Great Wall of China can be seen from the moon. It reminds us that Columbus was not the first to discover North America. You can unlearn some other things, too.

One thing that car companies need to learn is to build products that last. Maybe that is a bit strong, since both of our cars are over 14 years old. Let's say they need to be quicker to correct recognized issues and target having minimal recalls. I know you have seen all the recall notices from all the different companies this year. Now, there is another one from GM. So, I wondered how many cars were NOT recalled.

Did you know that Motorola was still around? I didn't. At one point back in the 80s, they were the second largest employer in Arizona, second only to the state itself. Well, Yahoo Tech likes their newest phone.

I have mentioned before that Disney prices are getting too high for me. In Yahoo, I saw a headline that might have explained how bad the company is at math. The headline says the article is about all the Disney movies 'coming in the next 4 years'. The text then says 'Disney laid out its theatrical schedule through 2017'. Hmm. If it is 2015 right now, and the schedule is laid out through 2017, that feels like less than four years.

This is like the third day in a row this week where I have been blogging along and the workday intrudes. What is up with that? So, I need to prepare for my daily 8am call. Have a Wonderful Wednesday.

Trees and Spheres and Automobiles (and Bob Ross, Too)

What are you doing for the next 33 days? No real plans? Me, neither. However, one man in Florida is camping outside of a Best Buy to get a great deal on a TV come Black Friday. He also says he wants to raise awareness for homelessness. He only has access to a bathroom during business hours at the store. Does that sound fun to you? It does NOT sound like a way I would want to spend all my time up until the day after Thanksgiving.

Along Last Dollar Road, we came across this area where there were bands of gold at the top and bottom of a stand of aspen. It really caught my eye. And the sun shining on everything really made the gold shine.

I decided to also capture a photo in landscape mode to display broader bands of color.

As we drove a little further down the road, we came across some deer out in the field.

Speaking of trees and things, have you ever heard of Bob Ross or The Joy of Painting from PBS? No? Happy trees? No? Would you like to see, step by step, how to paint the winter scene below? No? Well, then, move on. There is nothing to see here. If you are interested in the painting below. watch Season 1, Episode 4 in youtube. In fact, the entire first season is available on youtube.

Have you ever wanted to post your own IKEA product reviews? Would you do it in the store on the actual products? Well, this guy did. Read some of the crazy things he said. There's even a Narnia reference. Here's an example.

Nothing says Halloween like a cookie cutter. Wait, what? It seems you can use a cookie cutter to let your kids create e family-friendly Jack-O-Lantern. Read the details here.

Hey, how old are your cars? Our newest car is a 2002 model, so they are getting on up there in car years. Would you like to know 10 cars that CBS News says you can keep for 10 years? Read about them here. Number 1 is the Honda CR-V.

More and more, both husband and wife are working, making the bread for the family. I went with that analogy for today's CoV.

This blog is not earning the bread for me, so I had best do some real work. Have a Terrific Tuesday.

It's ABC Time (Aspen, Butterfingers, and Cartoons)

I know that last night, The Simpson aired their annual Treehouse of Horror episode for 2015. I haven't seen it, but I think I recorded it. Anyway, we will start off today with an article talking about some facts you may not know about these episodes. What got me started talking about The Simpsons, though, was another article about how they actually make the series. It is closer to the old 1960s cartoons than newer digital cartoons.

Did you watch the NBC series Hannibal? I did, although the last season was too weird. I am not too sorry to see it cancelled. The guy behind it, Bryan Fuller, also created Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies (which I watched and loved). So, I am excited that he is bringing back Amazing Stories, a Steven Spielberg series of family-friendly Twilight Zone-esque stories from the 1980s. I am excited about that.

Why, no. I was never really a chatterbox back in my school days. Why would you ask?

I know that some in my family have read those Killing (whomever) books by Bill O'Reilly. Have you read any of them? I have not yet, but they do sound interesting. You can guess, then, that seeing an online article called Killing Hitler sounds intriguing. It does not dwell on the science behind traveling back in time, but talks about what history might have been like if someone were to have killed Hitler before he came to full power. Go read it and see how you feel about the possibilities.

Halloween is coming, and with it, too much candy in the house. Let's look at a few facts about some of them. Butterfinger. Milky Way. Twizzlers. Pez. Milk Duds. Kit Kat. Candy Corn. Kit Kat (different facts).

Last Dollar Road. Does that name conjure up and fantasies of Vegas or pennilessness? Well, it is really just an off-road trail up near Telluride. It is also well known as a place to catch a lot of colorful leaves. Don't believe it? Take a look at this shot just as we were getting on the road.

Not impressed? Well, if you actually look down the road, you can see a bit more of the aspen and the San Juan peaks behind.

There on the left, you can see a nice split rail fence. I decided to get closer to it so it would take a central part of the photo, leading the eye to the mountains.

Did y'all hear about a hurricane out in the Pacific Ocean last week that was, apparently, most the powerful ever? It did not hurt the Mexican towns of Puerto Vallarta or Guadalajara much, but it seems to have really landed on Texas. One town in Texas, Corsicana, ended up with 20" rain in 24 hours. Whew. That's crazy. After all, we only get like 7" in a year.

It's time, folks. You cannot put Monday off forever. Have a Marvelous one, OK?

Pumpkin and Paper and Polythene Pam

We are sneaking up on Halloween, one of the holidays we all celebrate that do not involve any days off from work or school. You may have noticed that grocery stores and drugstores have a large are of candy for sale. However, my point in raising this topic is to talk about pumpkin carving. Of course, I did this for years with my kids and now, grandkids. However, nothing I carve could ever look like the work these guys do.

I also know that I am not an artist when I see stories like this one. An artist uses paper cutouts to alter our perception of famous landmarks. Pretty creative.

I do enjoy taking photos, and I enjoy seeing other types of art, but I am no artist. That becomes painfully obvious when I look at a site like this and watch the video. A guy draws a single line in a circular pattern, and the width of the line varies, creating an amazing portrait. Go look at what he has drawn and watch the video of him actually creating one of his pieces.

While I am not much of a selfie-taker, I do try and capture a shot of our hiking shoes whenever we go on vacation. Here is this Fall's entry into that elite club. As you can see, it was taken facing South from our deck on our cabin.

One morning, we headed out to capture some colors before the weather or rain caused them to fade or fall. Here is a shot of a little cabin in a stand of aspen near the road.

Here is the same shot with a wider angle view. I actually like the tighter view, although this wide angle does include more of the aspen. Also, does it look like the sky is fake? I think so, but that is how it looked.

I found an interesting article this morning where a guy dissects The Beatles album Abbey Road. What he says makes sense, although I have never personally evaluated every song, where it leads, why it matters compared to the previous song, etc. If you are a Beatles-aholic, it proves an interesting read.

No, I am not sick. Why do you ask?

Boo at the Zoo is right around the corner. Will you be going? It includes both scary and merry activities. Yes, we'll be going with the GRANDS. And also to celebrate Daughter-in-love's birthday. Does that mean she won't be preparing any food? I think it might. I mean, what's up with that? She won't be spending all day in her kitchen for her birthday? Fine, I suppose she can take ONE day off.

Have a Fabulous Friday, and a Wonderful Weekend. See you in a few.

Inside the Mind of This Photographer

Let me begin by saying "Don't panic." Let me continue by saying there is a likely a shortage of Legos come Christmas time. So, if that's your thing this year, get started now.

Apostrophe news. Have you ever fussed when your smartphone guesses wrong as to whether or not you want the word to include an apostrophe? You know, "ill" or "I'll". That kind of stuff. Anyway, if you enter the last letter twice, the phone will interpret that as requesting the apostrophe. Give it a try.

Let look at the Uncompaghre River just downhill from the vacation cabin we rented. Do you like this landscape presentation better...

Or do you prefer this portrait version?

And here is a closeup of the river without the mountains in the background.

Why do I take (and sometimes post) multiple photos that look almost the same? I am trying
different shutter speeds (maybe to blur water or darken a too-bright sky). I am trying different foreground/background elements (bring in more trees and color, extend the length of a leading element such as the river, change the overall focus of the eye from the mountain to a river or vice versa). Which of the above shots most catches your attention? I prefer one of the two with the mountain in the background. There is no real strong element in the river-only shot. The mountain is certainly stronger in the first picture and is the strong anchor for your eyes, but I like the middle shot where the river leads your attention up to the mountain.

For some odd reason, I like it when a celebrity speaks out against media for retouching photos. Did you see that Zendaya (no, I don't know who she is) called out a magazine (which I have never heard of) for altering her photo? They backed off and removed the retouched image. Check out the before and after here.

CoV time. News came out at our company that the annual benefits signup process begins 11/9/15. They will not carry forward our choices from this year, and deductibles and premiums are going up. I don't know if this can be directly attributed to Obamacare, but it is still a wallop to the old wallet.

Did you hear that next year will be the last season for Mythbusters? OK, it is true I haven't watched it as diligently in the last few years as I used to, but I still thought it would keep going a while longer. Since the stars know it is ending they plan to choose "the most awesome example" of each type of myth it's tackled in the past in the final episodes.

We have talked before... well, I have talked and you have read... that I sometimes post recipes that look and sound really good but which I have not actually tried. Today is another instance of that. This chicken salsa rice one-pot recipe sounds fairly easy, and looks tasty, but I haven't tried it. We both should make it and see how it does? Don't we all want to eat more healthily (is that a word)?

We have reached my daily limit for blogging, so I will let you go. Check in soon for more fun and interesting content. Of course, if you don't see any, it is because your funny-bone is out-of-whack that day.

Does E Really Equal MC Squared?

Do you know what happened 100 years ago this coming March? Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity. Einstein believed that "space and time are not fixed, which was what others had thought, but are flexible, dynamic phenomena like other processes of the universe." He posited that the speed of light is the same in a vacuum, and the laws of physics do not change regarding inert objects. And as has been proved by atomic clocks on land and in a high-altitude airplane, time would move more slowly in proximity to a powerful gravitational field, such as that of a planet in the void of space. This last fact is used in keeping GPS systems synchronized.

Wait. If space and time are not fixed, then maybe the events depicted in the movie Back to the Future could still come to pass. In fact, many of them have, while others are not yet our reality. See which things they got right and which were missed in this recap. Why is this even a thing to discuss? Today is the day that Marty McFly jumped to in his future. Oct 21, 2015.

I don't know if you know who won the Lay's new flavors contest, but I do. Should I end the suspense and tell you? OK, I will. It’s official: Southern Biscuits and Gravy is the winner of Lay’s annual “Do Us a Flavor” contest. Go try it today. It sounds perfect for breakfast, right?

You can wash those chips down with soda. Here is a list of the top 32 sodas, ranked from worst to best. The worst, as evaluated by calories, carbs and sugar. Then, they examined each can’s ingredients and gave demerits to sodas with more chemicals and additives than those that were nutritionally similar. The worst was Fanta Grape, which contains more sugar than a bag of Skittles. Seagram's Ginger Ale was #2. #1 is shared in this article.

Let's pause for a moment of humor. If not, let's at least pause long enough to read today's Clarity of Vision.

Did I mention we were in Telluride last week? Of course, we both know that I did. Here is a photo of Main Street.

While we were there, we went into a show store looking for some new hiking boots. Here is a shot of seven shoes for sale. What? You only see six? That because there is a shoe on the lower shelf that is camouflaged, so you cannot see it.

Finally, another downtown Telluride shot that I liked because it has the old sign for a hardware business still on the side of the building.

The Beatles will soon have a new album, entitled 1+1. Do have an appetite for a newly remastered version of familiar songs? Obviously, Apple is betting that enough of us will. This story includes a new video of them singing Revolution. I enjoyed it. Will I buy the album? Right now, I am guessing no, but who can say for sure.

Speaking of revolution, have you ever heard of the Civil War? For some reason (and it is NOT because I was actually around back then), Matthew Brady's photos of the war have always fascinated me. At the time, the technology did not exist to take color photos, but some Reddit users have made some of the shots into colorized versions. Read the story and check them out. They really do seem to come to life. Here is an example, and that is General George Custer in the lower right.

Did you hear that buzzer in the background? It means my time is up for working on today's blog post. So, make it a Wonderful Wednesday, go home and watch Survivor tonight, and we will get back together soon. I promise.

One Day More... At Work

After a few days off, I am back for my second day of work in a row. I already miss the mountains and the coolness and the quaking aspens. Oh well, I cannot sit and daydream all day...or can I? No, I cannot.

In the past, just around this time of year, our daughter-in-love used to toast some pumpkin seeds for us. They were super-yummy. I don't know if Alton Brown can match her flavor, but if so, you will love these toasted pumpkin seeds.

You know that time we were talking and you said you wished there was a website where you could get new images of Earth from space every day. Next time we talk about that, I will tell you that NASA has set up just such a website. Go look at it and rejoice.

You know that time we were talking and you said you wished there was a website where you could get new images from my vast archive of photos? Of course, you already know about that site because you are reading it right now. So, the other day, we were driving around Telluride and looked to my left and saw this.

I had Dad pull over so I could walk back and look at the scene a little closer. I was interested in the way the road went into and disappeared in the trees.

However, while I had zoomed in a bit to catch the road and the trees, I excised the trees and their brilliant foliage around the scene. So, I took another photo in landscape mode so you can see more of the scene. Hmm, these look much more colorful on my monitor at home.

"YOU get a new car, and YOU get a new car." Remember when that was a phrase often repeated when Oprah Winfrey would have those annual giveaways on her TV program? Now, maybe some people will be hearing, "YOU get to lose weight, and YOU get to lose weight." She has purchased 10% of Weight Watchers. It's stock jumped 90% on the news.

Four fitness apps for your smartphone, and three of them are free. Why not? Go check them out and get up and move. I was wacko busy at work yesterday, but still could have found time to do something after I finished working yesterday, and I did not. Might one of these have gotten me off the couch? I don't know, but I will check them out and decide.

I will place today's CoV right here for your reading pleasure.

Did I mention that my friend at work, Pat, has lung cancer which has spread to her lymph nodes and brain? She is addressing the brain cancer first, although no date has been set. She is not a Christian, so pray for both her physical symptoms as well as her spiritual awakening. As one of her three best friends at work (that I know of. Two of us are Christians and one I am not sure of), this may open a door that lets us witness to her without her taking offense.

You know what happens right about here everyday, don't you? We have to say "See you later" (not goodbye forever since we will both be back here soon). Have a Tremendous Tuesday, my friends.

Sorry. I Was Out of Town

Oh, you didn't even notice that I have not posted anything for the last few days? Well, shame on you. Anyway, we are back. You'll hear more about our week below and in the coming days.

Look, let's just get the big news over with right from the start. Yes, I might have been a little over the posted speed limit when I crested a hill and saw a state patrol vehicle sitting on the opposite shoulder of the road. He was very kind, but still issued me a ticket. I haven't paid it yet, but I just got home from vacation over the weekend. Give me some time. I will. Up until the speed limit dropped by 10 mph, I had the cruise control set for 5 mph over the posted limit. I felt that was safe. Once it dropped, I hadn't reacted and got caught.

Just 20 minutes earlier, we had been filling the tank when Dad decided to air up a couple of tires that were a little low in the higher altitude of the Colorado Rockies. He noticed one had a crack in the sidewall, probably from one of the off-road trips. So, we had to unpack all our gear to reach the spare tire. We replaced it and reloaded everything and headed off toward our meeting with the afore-mentioned state trooper.

Here is the first photo (actually a panorama of two shots merged together) of this year's SW Colorado trip from a road near Telluride. We missed the best colors by 7-10 days, but as you will see, there were still areas of brightness.

By stepping off that same road to the right, I followed the wooden fence you barely notice and made it central to this next shot.

I then stepped off the left side of the road to capture the mountain on the left of the above photos with the colors in front of it (the above two photos show more of the evergreens than the gold of the aspen).

We rented a house and did not stay in a tent. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to give your kids a tent-like bed they can enjoy every night. Read the tutorial here.

Preacher Bro and his wife were with us and my folks in Colorado. They are part of a Dr Pepper-loving family. Maybe they will like a Dr Pepper Pulled Pork Sandwich? Does that sound tasty to you? You make it using a slow cooker, so it is minimal effort. There is even a remote possibility that I could make them one day.

If you ARE going to use your slow cooker, be sure to follow these tips. They will make sure you are getting the best results. So says Yahoo.

Did you read the Harry Potter books? No, you cannot have only seen the movies because J.K. Rowling has revealed her favorite chapter in any of the books. You can find her answer here. I only read the first 2-3 books, so I cannot comment.

Not only am I back, so is Clarity of Vision. I know. It's like a double blessing, isn't it?

After being away for a week, I am WAAAY behind. I'll be back soon, though, with more stuff to share.