Texas Leftovers

I still have some unedited folders of photographs from the Big Bend trip.  I took this because it gives a better sense of the nature of the Chinati Foundation being located on an old U.S.Army base.  I had not seen a good view that shows the number of Army barracks that are located here.  This view shows that nicely, I thought and the really interesting Yucca in the center of the photograph adds a lot of interest.

 

A Rose, A Challenge

When Kathy watched me photograph the candle in the little glass box with all the reflections, and I said I was making a blog photograph, she asked if I could make a blog photograph of this rose from the new bush she just bought and planted.  I accepted gthe challenge and here is my photograph.  Kathy "styled" the photo, finding this beautiful little blue vase, and arranged the leaves on the rose stem.  So, not the greatest photograph in the world, but a decent close up of a single rose blossom, I think.

 

Get off that roof! What's wrong with you?

                               

There is nothing wrong with me!  Well mostly...   :-). We have had moss growing on this roof over the front porch for a number of years now. It made the roof look terrible.  This is a north facing roof, and there is a really tall Hickory tree that overhangs the roof, so that makes it worse.   You can see the thick brown covering on the roof behind me.  I bought some liquid moss killer and carefully sprayed it on, and within a month the moss turned brown but it was sticking to the shingles as well as it was when it was green.  I tried a brush with no luck.  One time I put my gloved hands on the roof and rolled them around on the moss and it rolled up in balls and came off the roof, but that would be really difficult on the whole front roof.  So I decided to use my little power washer which is electric and maybe 20" long and 10" in diameter so I could put that on the roof and tie it to a rope that was in the front bedroom.  The power washer, used carefully worked like a charm.  The roof finally looks brand new almost.  In addition to the moss the shingles had a dark color to them, and that came off easily.  You can see I am being very safe with an orange safety line which is tied to a rock climbing harness I have had for years for just such things.  Safety at all times.  It took me two days of this work to get the roof cleaned and it looks beautiful!

 

Ten Candles

We always light a candle in a candlestick in the center of the dining table while having dinner.  Just a thing we do.  Tonight it was warm so we had all the dining room windows open and the front living room windows as well.  There was a gentle breeze drifting through the windows and it would blow the candle flame sideways and wax would be running down the side of the candle.  So rather than close the windows, Kathy said we could use this glass holder for the little candles in cups.  It is a glass box with an open top so the flame is not blown around.  So we were eating dinner and Kathy mentioned seeing a lot of candle flames in the reflections.  I guess I had not noticed that before and when I did I thought it worthy of a photograph.  And here it is!

 

Comets and Meteors and Asteroids and Junk

We had a terrific program at my astronomy club tonight.  This is Charlie who is the Astronomy Outreach Coordinator for the Vanderbilt Planetarium, and he gave a talk on a lot of the "stuff" up there in space, like Comets and Meteors and Asteroids.  He also talked about all the space "junk" that we have put into orbit around Earth and about how hazardous it can be to satellites and manned space missions. Here he shows what the head of a comet looks like seen up close by a space mission.  We all know what a comet looks like from a distance with its long tail or tails, but this is a closeup.  He covered so much material and it was wonderful!

 

Faded Flowers

I was sitting in a chair in the back room when I looked closely at this vase of flowers.  It has b een sitting on this table for 4 or 5 days I think.  It was so nice when Kathy brought in some fresh flowers from the garden and put them in this vase.  I hadn't been paying much attention to them but I knew there were there and that they looked nice.  Until I looked the other day.  They have been fading for a couyple of days, I think and I noticed that.  But then I thought how beautiful these flowers are, even in decline.  I still think they are beautiful in this condition so I photographed them.  For you to see.

 

The Car Crash

I went over to Starbucks and CVS this afternoon.  This road was blocked because of these two bucket trucks at work reinstalling a huge power pole.  I stopped and asked one fo the flagmen if the pole had been hit by something.  And, wow, did he have a story!  He said that late last night a probably stolen Mercedes SUV came toward where I am standing through the intersection I am looking at.  There is a little jog in this street, and the car was moving at over 70 MPH!  Thank heavens there was no other car going through the intersection!  When the car missed the jog in the road and hit this giant power pole, the impact broke the pole in half!  Then the car continued toward me and hit yet another, smaller power pole!

This is the second pole the car hit.  Notice the splintered wood from one of the power poles in the foreground!  I cannot imagine the power of the impact.

The splintered wood from one of the power poles, and in the dark area in the background, pieces of the car.

Look at all these pieces from what was once a car!  I would love to see what the car looks like!  The flagman said that the driver got out of the wreckage and ran away!  I guess that says a lot about Mercedes construction and air bags!  Wow!  I keep thinking that if another car had been in the intersection and had been hit by this car, everyone in that car would have died.  That is beyond imagining.