Doing Some Painting

We have had these four small pieces of wicker on the front porch for about 30 years or so, along with a large wicker chair and a larger table.  The wicker is old and eventually the white paint fades and the wicker gets dirty and looks awful.  So I paint it all maybe every 8 years or so.  But using an automobile spray gun and compressor, the paint has to be thinned and I would put three coats on the wicker and it would only look OK.  So I bought a new HPLV spray gun that you hold in your hand and it plugs into an extension cord.  No air compressor required!  And it sprays a much thicker latex paint.  This time the wicker almost looks brand new!  With only one coat of paint!  Wow, so much easier.

So here are five of the pieces back on the porch, looking almost brand new!  What a wonderful feeling of accomplishment to get all of these painted, over a two day period.  The porch now looks so much nicer!

 

The March 13, 1989 Aurora!

On March 13, 1989 I was out in the side yard using a new telescope and I was not paying attention to the time.  It was aboutr 2:00 AM and I had to get up for work in the morning.  I began to notice a greenish glow on the horizon and I thought it was light pollution from Glen Cove but I didn't recall the greenish tint.  Gradually the green went away and was replaced by a brighter reddish glow.  Finally it dawned on me - I was seeing an aurora!  And seeing an aurora so far south from the northern latitudes was very unusual.  So I ran in the house, grabbed film Nikon and a 20mm lens and some 3,200 speed Fuji color negative film and quickly set to work as one area of the sky would fade and another area would begin to show color!  It was just astounding to see!

Look how brilliant the red color was!  And you can see the Big Dipper hanging in the top of the photograph.  The reason you are seeing these photographs now, 37 years later is because I received a phone call from a company that sells college-level courses to the public, and a professor is making a new course and one episode will be about the 1989 eclipse!  The producer had looked everywhere and couldn't find any photographs of the event, until he found some of my photos online somewhere!  So how cool will that be for me to be part of the course.  I will get a copy of the course when it is done!  Oh, and by about 3:00AM the aurora had completely faded and I finally went to bed!

 

LA Freeways

I was glued to the window as we approached LAX and I had been taking photographs all the way.  When were about 6 miles from landing we flew over these two intersecting expressways.   I was stunned by the sight of this intersection!  You are looking south at the intersection of Interstate 110 running from bottom to top of the photo, and Interstate 105 running east and west.  I couldn't believe the complexity of all the ramps connecting the two expressways!  Years ago in Rochester, NY they rebuilt a smaller complex connection of two expressways and that was known as "The Can of Worms" which is funny but which seemed really appropriate.  Since everyone who has been to Los Angeles always talks about "the freeways out there!" I though this would be an interesting photograph for those who have driven the freeways.  Please click on this image because I posted a larger size showing more detail.

 

Venus and a Delicate Crescent Moon

After dinner tonight we needed to take a quick drive up to Stop and Shop for a few things that our local grocery store does not have.  What great luck. I happened to look out my drivers side window and saw a beautiful and delicate crescent moon in the sky, with the planet Venus very close to it.  It was not in a black sky but rather in a delicate pastel blue sky which made it even more beautiful.

I thought the best photograph would be this close-up so I did this first and then as an afterthought, decided to do a wider angle view with trees and the Moon and Venus so much smaller.  But now I think that wide-angle view was a far more interesting photograph.  Not sure what you all think. NOTE these are extra large images so please click on them to enlarge them and see more detail.

 

The Price of Gas!

Liz was driving us over to Amy's after picking us up at the airport and we were driving up Lincoln Avenue and that's when we went by the first gas station.  I couldn't believe my eyes - $6.49 per gallon!  Unbelievable!  A few days later Liz and I went to pick up some food for dinner and she stopped to get gas. It was a really busy station so I didn't get out of the car.  When we were driving back to the house I asked how much it cost to fill up and Liz said $80.00!  Yikes!  EIGHTY DOLLARS to fill the tank?  So I did the math and she only got 12 gallons of gas.  That's nuts!  I filled up my tank before we left for California and I paid $4.29 a gallon. here in NY.  Poor Californians, with the huge STATE taxes on gas, that is just killing them!  Here are some numbers in cents per gallon:  Connecticut $0.25,  New York $0.25, and California $0.71.  There ought to be a law!

 

A Neighbor's Cactus

The houses where Liz and Sarah live are pretty close together.  I am standing in their driveway, and looking at their neighbor's cactus which is just over the fence in their neighbor's yard.  Such beautiful cacti and beautiful flowers..  I don't know the kind of flowers these are, but they are on separate stalks just in front of the cacti.  I photographed this scene a couple of times before I got this photograph.

 

Such an Unusual Landscape From The Air

Sitting at the window watching the world go by, and then suddenly I saw this.  It looks like something with tentacles creeping out over the landscape!  So this is near Terre Haute, Indiana and this tan and green landscape design was visible for miles.  The dark green tentacles are forested land!  And in between the land with trees are farmers fields and if you look closely you can see their rectangular shape in many cases.  I wondered what crops the farmers grew here and Wikipedia told me: "The landscape around Terre Haute is mostly flat, fertile farmland along the Wabash River valley, which is especially suited for large-scale grain farming.  Historically, the area has long been associated with cornfields and hog farms." How cool is it to know this after seeing the landscape from 34,000 feet! I posted an extra large image so please click on this image to see more detail.