Eclipse glasses — Ginger and Gary ready for the annular eclipse, in Odessa, Texas. Annular Eclipse Trip Day Four. +7
October 14, 2023
October 13, 2023
Faux Stonehenge Odessa, Texas. We stopped here while scoping out potential places to watch the annual eclipse. We decided this might be too twee and too popular. The eclipse photographers were already gathering. +2
October 13, 2023
Nowhere – State Highway 206, New Mexico — Day Three. We stopped to grab a quick video of the impressive nothingness here for the folks back home. Within ten minutes a couple of guys (from the buildings you can see in the distance behind the water tank) turned up to check on us. It is not as deserted as it might appear! Video: 30 seconds
October 12, 2023
The northern edge of the Llano Estacado in New Mexico. On state Highway 469. Annular Eclipse Trip Day Two.
October 12, 2023
The northern edge of the Llano Estacado in New Mexico. On state Highway 469.
October 12, 2023
Scenic stop — If we’d checked the map, we would have discovered an amphitheater nearby. On state Highway 469.
October 12, 2023
The northern edge of the Llano Estacado in New Mexico. On state Highway 469.
October 12, 2023
Canadian River, south of Logan, New Mexico.
October 12, 2023
Ginger sitting on the edge of the bluff overlooking the Canadian River, south of Logan, New Mexico.
October 12, 2023
Day Two — Canadian River Railroad Bridge. Logan, New Mexico. We spent last night in Dodge City, then headed down to Texas, went across Texas and into New Mexico. And why not? It bagged me a new state.
October 11, 2023
Day One — Annular Eclipse Trip. The plan is simple. We have set aside three days to drive to Odessa, Texas, which is in the middle of the Annular Eclipse track, where the weather is set to be clear and cold. We’ll watch the eclipse and then spend two or three days driving home. +2
October 10, 2023
Sparkle Zone color. There’s a reason why we call this room of our house the ‘Sparkle Zone.’ +1
October 3, 2023
Testing, testing. One, two, three — Two outpatient visits to the hospital today for some tests. Ultrasound in the morning, and my annual cardiology checkup in the afternoon. All my results were good. In a little experiment, I used AI to obfuscate the personal information in the image. It makes a nice change from pixelating it.
October 1, 2023
Bowed — before I threw away the bowed worktop I’d set aside as a workbench top, I decided to check how bad it was: 5/16-inch over 36 inches. No, I wasn’t going to be able to use it for anything, so into the trash, it went.
September 30, 2023
Small Product Photography Setup — Once we’ve been using it for a while and know what we like and don’t like, I’ll tidy away the cables and power supplies. Until then, it’s going to be a bit messy.
September 23, 2023
Harbinger — The yellow light at sunset is a warning of the incoming storm.
September 23, 2023
Lanie’s been in Europe since December. It’s been my job to give her car a run out every now and then while she’s gone. One has to do these things in style 🙂 +1
September 19, 2023
Table saw cart — completed (for now). That’s another job finished. As I hoped, the dust collection seems to work well. I also made a zero clearance saw blade insert for the saw. +1
September 11, 2023
Building my table saw cart. One-minute read, +4
September 8, 2023
New workbench storage — I have finally updated the storage area above my workbench. There used to be five plastic cat litter boxes on the shelf. I made these five wood boxes in an afternoon, so the finish isn’t furniture level, but they fit the space well and look much better. +2
September 8, 2023
Hitachi C10FR Table Saw — My next project. It’s a very well-used worksite jobbing saw I’ve had for a few years. I’ve spent time setting it up, so it is accurate enough for my purposes. However, it is time to make some improvements. I’m going to replace the base with a wheeled cart with adjustable height to match my workbench. The saw sprays sawdust around when it is running, so, most importantly, I’ll be adding dust collection. +1
September 1, 2023
Hibiscus — Hollywood. Our hibiscuses have generally been a bit ‘Meh’ this year, so this one stood out. The blue tinge is due to reflected skylight, not coloring.
September 1, 2023
Doorstop — another test shot to get a feel of the workflow with the new storage and table.
September 1, 2023
Knife — A quick test of the new photography table. Jim gave me the knife a few months ago, I’m not sure where he got it from. It’s more for decoration than anything else. It’s very heavy and made, I’m told, from surgical steel. I suspect it’s from India (the maker’s mark has been removed). The piece of driftwood was sent to us by a friend of Ginger’s in Sweden. It was washed up on the Baltic coast and is amazingly lightweight.
September 1, 2023
Set up for a quick test — I used a small hand-held fill in light for the test pictures. It has finely adjustable color temperature and brightness.