A little of this, a bit of that – mindless web-surfing on a cold and damp Saturday afternoon reveals the following gems. I’m a sucker for multi-tools, although I confess that I rarely find a need to use one. One reason is that even though they’re generally tiny, they’re still inconvenient to carry in a… Continue reading Random Thursday: The Saturday Edition
Month: January 2015
Silence, please
If you’ve driven north on Holiday Hill Road, starting at Briarwood and going to Greentree, you’ve surely noticed two rather unusual sights on the west side of the road. Both are efforts made by Fasken Oil and Ranch – the landowner – to be a good neighbor to the housing developments across the street. I’m… Continue reading Silence, please
The Fox Returns
We were leaving the house to head to church this morning when my eye caught something odd through the door that leads from our bedroom to the back porch. It’s hard to make out from this phone photo, but it’s a gray fox napping on the mat outside the door. I opened the blinds a… Continue reading The Fox Returns
Adventures in TV mounting
I bought an LED TV as a Christmas present for MLB as a replacement for the remaining CRT set in the house. That TV was installed inside the built-in cabinets in our workout room, mounted on a sliding metal platform that has a few degrees of rotation so that we theoretically could view it from… Continue reading Adventures in TV mounting
Acquiring Culture in the Hill Country
During a recent stay at Horseshoe Bay we made a day trip to Fredericksburg, primarily to eat lunch at the Peach Tree Restaurant, but also to browse through the approximately 800 stores crammed into the three-block downtown shopping area. We didn’t anticipate that we would leave far more cultured than we arrived…not that that would… Continue reading Acquiring Culture in the Hill Country
Ice Storm 2015: Aftermath
The sun came out this morning, after four days of being missing in action, and the damage caused by yesterday’s ice storm is all too obvious. We drove to the airport and back (that’s another story) and saw a depressing number of broken tree limbs throughout the city. It’s going to take weeks to clean… Continue reading Ice Storm 2015: Aftermath
Ice Storm 2015: From bad to worse
I don’t care what Luke Bryan thinks, there are times when rain isn’t a good thing. Like, this morning. We awoke to the sound of falling rain, which normally would be cause for rejoicing in West Texas. However, when temperature has been below freezing for more than 48 hours and the streets are already coated… Continue reading Ice Storm 2015: From bad to worse
Macro photography with a focusing rail & Photoshop layer blending
I received several awesome Christmas gifts, including a new iPad air, a high-powered flashlight, and a set of electronic shooters muffs, but not every cool gadget is hi-tech. Take, for example, this macro focusing rail: One of the challenges of macro photography is the shallow depth of field, meaning that often only a tiny portion of… Continue reading Macro photography with a focusing rail & Photoshop layer blending
New Year’s Day at Casa Fire Ant
It’s 11:03 a.m. and I’m still in sweats. We just killed a pot of coffee, a tray of cinnamon rolls (Sister Schubert’s, of course) and a rasher of bacon (whatever a “rasher” is). The Rose Parade is on TV, we’re rapidly killing BTUs via the gas log, it’s 24ยบ, and we’re still iced in. In… Continue reading New Year’s Day at Casa Fire Ant