Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Colt, after the first Mooooooooooooooooooooo, the two young mechanics will wish they were toreadors when Ksquared comes stampeding back to the garage. LOL
Justin
Howdy Colt ...
Her coworkers will think she's flipped her lid.
They certainly will when she shows up with the horns of a longhorn steer mounted on the hood of her Buick. <ggg>
Justin, ain't got no hood ornament
White-haired Ksquared:
That greeting is my poetry offering for today. Enjoy. <g>
has to be on the web first in order to do it
Yes, the instructions I've seen for posting a photo on a message board always include the need for a url. As Colt and others have mentioned, a "host site" such as Angelfire is the way to go. Memo to Bill Gates: Bill, could you please issue ASAP a Windows patch that would allow Ksquared and me to copy and paste a photo anywhere, anytime? TIA.
it overflows the lip between the parking area and the road meant to guide it down to the drainage
Would it be possible to raise the height of the lip and still be able to drive over it, turning the lip into something like a speed bump that you see on neighborhood streets? It would be like actresses having their lips injected with collagen, and it would give your driveway entrance a pouty look. <g> Another solution would be to ask Colt to install a cattle guard at your entrance ... except that it would be used to divert water instead of cattle. Something tells me an explanation of "cattle guard" may be needed, but I'll wait and see. <g>
Speaking of needing an explanation, I had to look up "macadam", which isn't a common term in these parts.
Justin, not bilingual
Ksquared, after reading PW's (I've never been quite certain how to refer to Ms. W) post on her digital camera and your piece on the positioning of your home in its hilly environment, I'm feeling like a slow learner at this point, even though the writing was very good.
I did figure out that your property apparently slopes downward from the road toward your house, which is opposite of how I had pictured it earlier. And the retaining wall was filled in on one side to create a parking area, and a waterfall somehow came into being in connection with the retaining wall? I think that pictures would be a definite help in connecting all the dots.
The coworker who died was 73. The funeral was the traditional follow-the-script variety with no testimonials to liven it up and give it a more personal touch. I tend to prefer funerals that begin with "We're here to celebrate the life of so-and-so. He would've wanted this to be a joyful time ..." and they go on to tell funny stories and so forth.
It must say something good about both you and the teenage boys if they were friendly with you.
Justin
Worker Ksquared ...
one of the best writers on the internet...
Agreed on PMS Witch. She's been in my group of bookmarked writers on SI and IHub for a long while. She and Crocodile on SI are both excellent writers in Canada. Crocodile is into digital photography in a big way as well.
Interesting explanation of "... cats and dogs". Hard to imagine living under a thatched roof, but apparently it works.
Retaining wall ... Is this part of your basement? I know about as much about basements as you knew about stock tanks before the short course on that topic here. <g>
I'm headed to a funeral this morning. Can't remember if I mentioned that one of my fellow retirees died suddenly while doing yard work in 100 degree heat. That's a warning for us older folks.
Justin, staying alive indoors
Gill-sprouting Ksquared ...
It is coming down in buckets right now.
Another heavy rain here also. "It came a gully washer," as we used to say. Or a frog strangler, or a bug floater. Or the really odd one: "It rained cats and dogs."
Well, I now have 10 of my photo images on a floppy and have gotten all of them oriented properly. The screen on which they appear has a feature for 90 degree corrections, which was handy. The images show up well on the screen, except that the resolution is somewhat weak. Some of the pictures are 20+ years old, so it's interesting to finally see them on a monitor. Now to figure out how to get them connected up with a web hosting site, as Colt mentioned, so I can show a couple of them here ...
Justin, high and dry
Youthful Ksquared ....
not sure if I should be flattered ...
Uh oh. I should've been more specific, namely ... I thought of your earlier musings on never being able to retire. The 60 Minutes piece had a message of hope for you: that continuing to work will help insure a long healthy life with meaning and purpose.
Am I now at least partially redeemed?
Elderly Justin
Colt, I remember in late August about 15 years ago getting a cold front that gave us fall weather for about a day and a half. So you never know ... snow in September could happen.
Meanwhile, we've had late-afternoon thunderstorms three days in a row, which has moderated the temps a bit.
Justin
This kind of pea soup is GROSS!
Ksquared, when you go outdoors, just grab a big ol' spoon and think of the thick air as comfort food. <g>
Thought of you last night during a story, probably a rerun, on 60 Minutes. It was about elderly people who've continued to work or who've gone back to work after retiring. An employer talked about the advantages of having older workers, mostly revolving around their work ethic. As expected, the main disadvantage is their resistance to change. A woman said that she came back from vacation to find a PC on her desk and immediately resigned. But her boss told her she was going to learn how to use the computer, and she did and was pleased that it made her work easier. It was amazing to see people in their 90s still functioning fairly well, like a 97-year-old barber. My favorite line came from a very old man who operates a power shovel ... "I tried retirement for about 30 days and it like to drove me crazy." After 8 years, I'm not quite looney yet but know that I'd be better off in some sort of organized daily activity like a job.
It's nice to see that you're getting to join us lazy folk for a day.
Justin
Peg, I know that there are practical reasons for having gutters, such as protecting planting areas and so forth. I'm not familiar with potential foundation problems, so will be curious to hear more about it.
Justin
Repair existing gutters or replace them? That was my question when my gutters of 25+ years developed a hole or two. I had only 60 ft. or so across the front of the house, and I finally decided to take them down myself and not replace them. It turned out to be an easier task than I expected. The soldered joints broke apart fairly easily, and the wood underneath was still in good condition with no rotting. All that remained was patching the large nail holes and priming and painting the wood. The house has more curb appeal without the gutters, and I'm very happy knowing I'll never have to clean them again.
As far as someone having to approach the front door during a rainstorm with water pouring off the roof, I don't recall anyone ever approaching the front door during a rainstorm. <g>
Justin
Thanks for the info on scanners and Photoshop, Id. I printed your post and added it to the collection I've gotten here on the computer side of photography. It sounds like an exciting new area to explore after 28 years of 35 mm slides and prints.
Justin
Ksquared, this afternoon the photo shop told me they can do a floppy from either negatives or by scanning prints. As you suggested, the scanning would definitely be easier and the end result would have to be better.
We had a repeat of yesterday's later afternoon thunderstorms, which were welcome again for the cooler temps (101 down to 85) and water for the lawn.
Justin
Thanks, ONEBGG, for the instructions and websites.
My PC is 6 years old, so I'm limited for now on what I can do with the hard drive. But I'll be happy for starters if I can get a lower resolution floppy image to appear on the screen.
Justin
Nice shots, trkyhntr.
a huge (hardly the word for it) bull elephant
In the very distant past, the word for it was "mammoth". <g>
Interesting story on "lofty" Houston, Ksquared.
Yes, lofts have become trendy in the past decade.
... red-brick developments like the Manhattan, a new building in the high-end Galleria shopping district.
My office building was connected to the Galleria shopping mall, so I'm familiar with all the construction that's going on in that area now. But I can't place which project is the Manhattan ... will have to look for it.
The Galleria has undergone a lot of renovation and addition of a new wing in the past year, including a Nordstrom store, the first for Houston. When CNBC does a business report on Nordstrom, it always has piano music in the background, a running gag on the piano player that NYC's Nordstrom features for a little added class. So when I entered the Galleria's Nordstrom for the first time last week, I wondered if there would be a piano player, and there wasn't. Instead, their sound system was playing Elvis' Jailhouse Rock, and I thought, "Wow, this place really does have class." <gg> Maybe after 47 years, Elvis has finally arrived in an upscale environment.
Justin, nothin' but a hound dog
Thanks for the additional photo info, Ksquared.
Very nice job that ONEBGG did for his wife's artwork, which is very good. The concept of the home entryway views is particularly interesting, and all the scenics, animals, Clyde, etc. are well done.
Last year I finally put together a small photo album of some of my favorite pics. It's made up of 4"x6" photos on white 6"x8" white paper, leaving a 1" border. Now when I tell someone I'm a photographer by hobby, I can follow up with the album for anyone who shows an interest. So I might shoot the pages of the album to use for an initial try at using a floppy. For the album I did any needed cropping, so that situation is taken care of. A website similar to ONEBGG's would serve the same purpose as my album in showing my photos to online friends and is a goal I need to aspire to.
Is there a way to select an individual photo on ONEBGG's website and post it directly to a message board as Colt did with his tank pictures?
I can relate to your photography trainers' framing their images perfectly on the negative. Most of my photography has been with slides where cropping isn't practical, so I worked hard at getting the composition perfect on each shot. Actually, the slide mount covers a small part of the slide image, and I've often re-mounted a slide to improve the composition slightly.
I worked for another energy company like Enron, but it's still afloat fortunately -- my retiree medical insurance depends on it. Enron was formed in the mid-'80s when two companies were merged. Ken Lay was second-in-command at my company when he left to become Enron's CEO, and he was well-thought-of at that time.
Again, thanks for your help with the photo thing.
Justin
Sleeping Ksquared ...
Get them copied onto a floppy.
I assume you're saying that photo developers offer floppy files as well as CDs .... as opposed to my saving their CD file on my own floppy?
Next questions: Does the file (floppy or CD) from the photo developer provide a full frame of the original negative? Is it possible to crop the file image and save the cropped image as the permanent file image?
Yes, I was fortunate to retire early. I had 30 years service at 52 when the company offered an early-out package that added 5 years to my age and years of service for computing my pension. It was too good to pass up, and I was burned out and didn't want to be there anymore, so I took the package and haven't regretted it. I miss some of the people and to a degree, the daily structure, but not all the hassles. When I think about what happened to the long-term employees of Enron, I feel extremely fortunate about my situation.
Sounds like an interesting weekend for you. Bound to be an interesting story or two that will be forthcoming.
Thanks for the photo info. I need all the help I can get, as you can surely tell.
Justin
Ksquared, I'm pleased to report that I stopped by my photo developer today and asked if it's possible to get a CD from print negatives. Turns out it is, so I may give that a shot. It seems like it might be a fairly simple way to get the images on a computer file. Most of my better scenics are on slides, so I'll need to get them on a negative by copying prints that I've made to print film (by taking closeup pictures of them). It's getting complicated already. <g>
Meetings .... I remember the counterproductivity of meetings, which were getting to be a plague when I retired 8 years ago. Don't miss them a bit.
Snack food .... Back in my drinking days, I always had simple stuff like chips, dips, cashews, etc. .. obviously not up to your more elegant standards. <g> Since I didn't limit my drinking and snack food to weekends, it might be why I was 40 pounds heavier back then. <gg> Anyway, good luck with your social gathering.
Today was another blast-furnace scorcher. As I drove home from working out at around 5:00, it was 101 degrees, but a blue line of rainclouds was forming to the north. Soon the thunderclaps began, and by 6:30 I was getting a heavy rain. I stepped out on the front porch, and it was warm and windy and rainy and steamy all at the same time, but a welcome change from the breezeless dry heat we've had the past few days.
Justin, relaxing in a/c comfort
"slacker.ksquared"
Sounds like you're following the maxim "When the cat's away, the mice will play."
Ksquared, thanks for the tip on the gif thread. It appears to be a place to hang out once I get well beyond my present position of Ground Zero. Looking at some of the posts there reminds me of hearing someone trying to tell me how to play Bridge ... the terminology tends to be foreign to me. I need someone in real life to explain in simple language what specific scanner, storage device, etc. that I need to get in order to get started. I'm actually quite good at computer stuff once I get past the pesky Getting Started phase. Step 1 in this case is mustering the initiative to seek help ...
Thanks for your sight-unseen interest in my photography. Maybe it's just the nudge I need to get going with getting it on my PC.
Justin
"Purpose?"
Forgot about that question. As far as I know, the only purpose of a tank is to provide drinking water for livestock, but there could be other uses as well. In my photo that I described, the calf is standing near the edge of the tank in water up to its, well ... calves ... and taking a drink from the tank.
Hope this helps.
Justin
Ksquared, I can't speak for Colt's tanks, but the ones I've seen were manmade by removing earth on a downhill slope and using the earth to form a dam. I would imagine that water wells are used to supplement rainwater that's captured, but I really can't remember about that -- it's been a long time since I've seen a tank up close.
I can verify that tanks have snakes in them. A friend and I were fishing at a tank on his family's property, and there were a number of water moccasins poking their heads above the surface of the water. We had caught several fish and had them on a stringer in the water, and when it came time to leave, I pulled the stringer out of the water to find that a water moccasin had a fang stuck in the stringer cord. Fortunately the fish were intact and we were able to shake loose the snake. An unnerving end to a fishing trip.
I suspect I didn't answer your tank question very well, as my knowledge of tanks is very limited. I'm sure that Colt can fill you in whatever I missed or was totally wrong about. <g>
As for my picture that you "saw", I wish I could post it as well. I really do need to get someone to show me what's needed to get a photo on a computer file and then get it to appear on a message board.
Justin
Excellent photography, Colt. Your stock tanks are much more lush and scenic than the ones I've seen, usually carved out of a slope on a mostly open range. I shot one of my favorite photographs at a tank near Schulenberg. It was early in the morning just after a cold front (norther, to us Texans) with heavy rain had passed through. The water level in the tank was up, and a back-lighted calf was standing in the shallow part with its profile reflecting in the water. The sun was shining thru the trailing edge of the cold front, making for a dramatic sky. It was a case of being in the right place at the right time with several elements coming together for a great shot.
Thanks for posting the pics.
Justin
"this will insure that Justin won't forget me when that time comes ..."
Colt, Justin appreciates your support but is bad about duck-ing out when it comes repayment time. <gg>
Ducks .... Colt, a year or so ago I was driving down a country road in the Rio Grande Valley with my brother, who lives there, and he pointed ahead to a pair of birds sitting on a power line. "They're ducks," he said, and sure enough, as we got closer, they took flight with the familiar profile of ducks, which they actually were. It was certainly an odd sight for someone like me who had never seen a duck with that roosting style. He said they were new to the area and had been spotted sitting in trees as well.
Just curious ... are you familiar with this kind of duck, and if so, are their feet constructed differently than the usual web feet?
Justin
"It's kinda fun watching NLionGuy and Ksquared go at it ..."
I trust that Ksquared will be in full cheerleader regalia complete with pom-poms? That'd certainly make it worth the trip over to that thread, I'm sure. <g>
Yes, Colt, Blue Bell is indeed hard to beat. Every now and then when I think I deserve a treat, I'll spring for a pint of the expensive stuff and always come away realizing I should've stuck with Blue Bell from "the little creamery in Brenham".
Your bowl of Rocky Road reminds me that I had a piece of cake that was served up for the birthday girl tonight. Will have to adjust my workout mileage accordingly. <shucks durn>
Justin
"How to enjoy German, Mexican and Italian foods....."
Glad I enjoyed only Mexican food tonight, which means I need only an extra 1-2/3 miles of jogging, the way I figure it. <g>
Justin, not going to bed hungry
"Must make one hell of a racket. "
And from a very young age apparently. A friend was in the chachalaca's wildlife refuge and spotted a small one on the ground. It wasn't flying yet, and when he picked it up, it let out a screech that could be heard for miles, he said. Being aware of its protected status and wary of game wardens, he dropped it immediately and made a quick departure.
"Yes, Ranger, I heard that blood-curdling noise as well. What do you suppose it was?"
I'm going to a 60th birthday celebration for a lady friend tonight, which means I have to go get the requisite greeting card today .. one of those disadvantages to being a single guy. It seems as if every woman I've ever known loves to spend time in a shop looking for just the right card, so a wife would come in handy today. <gg> The good news is that the celebration is taking place in a Mexican food restaurant, giving me a good excuse to go off-diet.
Justin
Chachalaca ... Here's a fact sheet with photos:
http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/chach.htm
Exposed aggregate ... Concrete-speak for exposed gravel. In the final stage of laying concrete, small gravel is sprinkled onto the surface and mashed into the wet concrete somehow, and then washed before the concrete completely dries. A disadvantage of the surface is that it's not easy to walk on barefooted. But the whitewings enjoy pecking away at it.
End of school for today.
Headmaster Justin
"For me and I suspect you... "singleness" is number one. "
Agreed, Ksquared. But I have the view that people in a good marriage, especially one in which children are raised successfully, have a fuller, richer life than I do. Not likely I'll ever have that at this point, but I do hold out hope, excluding the child-raising part. I'll be happy whether it happens or not, which is a pretty good spot to be in.
This is getting pretty far off-topic here, so I should turn to thinking about photographing the whitewing doves as you suggested. I have an exposed-aggregate patio which seems to attract them for some reason .. do I remember that birds eat small pieces of gravel? Anyway, it gives me a very close-up view of them from the back door.
One of my photographs that I have hanging in my house is of a chachalaca perched in a mesquite tree. When I took the picture 25 years ago, it was a protected species in the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge located on the Mexican border in South Texas. In more recent times, it's been seen in nearby urban neighborhoods ... or I should say heard there, as it has a very loud squawk. It's a fairly large bird and is also known as a Mexican pheasant.
Have a good week.
Justin
"Scorpio is the sign of sex..."
A lot of good it's done me. <frown>
So as a Gemini, are you saying that you wake up in a different world every other day? <g>
Can relate to some of your reasons for not marrying. Never had any desire for children and prefer to be alone much of the time. After having roomates in college and the first two years of my working career, I discovered I enjoyed living alone without the hassles of other people under the same roof. My parents' 63-year marriage seemed to work for them, but it never looked like much fun to me .. definitely not what I wanted for myself. But ... I believe that a good marriage is the best lifestyle to have, with singleness second, and a bad marriage a very distant third.
Also can relate to your head-vs-heart love stuff. <g>
Any good hunting stories from my youth? Not really. Had BB and pellet rifles as a kid. Shot a lot of sparrows that the dogs loved to devour and a lot of blackbirds that the dogs didn't seem to care for. Also shot a lot of bullfrogs, and their fried legs made for good eating. Moving up to a shotgun, I shot quite a few mourning doves and whitewing doves in season. But it's been 30 years or so since I last fired a gun of any kind. Not oppposed to it .. just lost interest along the way. This year, I often have a large number of whitewing doves in my yard. They're beautiful birds, and I'm content to let them be. This morning as I drove down my street, the neighbors at the end of the block had a huge flock of whitewings on their front lawn .. quite a sight as they all took flight when I approached.
Justin
"'not' was the operative word in that sentence"
And my ignorance of astrology was the operative malfunction in that conversation ..<g> It may or may not matter at this point that my sign is Scorpio. And so is Hillary's. Her birthday is very close to mine, which is more than enough to negate the astrology stuff in my mind ..<gg> If I have any noticeable or latent similarities to her, I don't want to know about them.
As for being a Virgo, I wouldn't measure up in the "self-disciplined" requirement. And as an accountant, I was never "detail-oriented" in the grunt work of accounting, but was more interested in the creative side of accounting, which sounds oxymoronic. But accounting was a fertile area for anyone who had a little imagination and could think of alternative ways to do things more efficiently and be an effective problem solver, and I was able to make my mark in that area and get away from much of the stereotypical accounting work. It was always a supreme compliment to hear someone say, "But you don't seem like an accountant."
Every now and then I meet a never-married single, and the conversation inevitable gets around to "Why We Never Married". As best I can remember, none of us has totally figured out the answer to that question, and we agree to settle on "It just happened that way."
You're welcome to tell me your sign, but you'll have to 'splain what it means. I don't know Libra from Pisces ..<g>
Justin, sign-ing off
"You a Libra? Would not be my first guess though."
So ........ What would be your first guess?
Being mostly ignorant of astrology or whatever you call it, I have to ask why Libra as an initial guess or assessment?
"No one ever messed with the girl."
Being the father of teenage girls has to be an uneasy time. At my workout place, there's a young attorney who has preteen daughters. One day he was working with a lot of gusto on a weight machine, and a woman nearby said to him, "I know why you're working so hard with those heavy weights. You want to be prepared for all the boys that are going to be calling on your pretty daughters." His response: "I don't anticipate that any young men will get past my interview."
Since I don't have snow to shovel and my mowing is limited, I go work out nearly every day. I have an exercise bike here at home but rarely use it. Having a place to go to seems to work better for me .. for consistency as well as the social benefits, particularly for a retiree like me. It's coed (to use an antiquated term), which is great for obvious reasons, and there's the men's locker room for the usual camaraderie with the guys. As for your not having a place to walk safely, a lot of people walk in shopping malls for safety and comfort reasons, but I don't suppose you have anything like that in your small town?
I'm not good at judging women's weights, but I would think that 160 for your height and age would be somewhere near the normal range. I know a 60-year-old woman who is 5'10" .. maybe I could ask her about her weight, but then again maybe I would rather remain friends with her ...<g> I suspect that her age and height is all the personal data that she's going to reveal.
Glucose, glucagon, glycogen, insulin .... I think I'll just stick with the bottom line that protein is great, certain fats are good, nonstarchy vegetables are good, and starchy carbohydrates are bad. What does Power Protein say about fruit? In my blood-sugar testing, I found that eating an apple causes the blood sugar to shoot up, whereas eating an apple and peanutbutter (protein/fat) moderates the elevation. So it's like a lot of things .. balance is important.
Justin
"I start my day with some kind of eggs and sausage"
That's a great way to start a day, Ksquared. Your Protein Power guru sounds a lot like Atkins and Dr. Diana Schwarzbein, an endocrinologist who wrote The Schwarzbein Principle, which also recommends the high-protein/fat-low-carb diet.
I tend to have high blood sugar but keep it near normal with a diet similar to yours, along with exercise and a pill. I've tested my blood after eating various foods, and carbs like bread and potatoes definitely cause the blood sugar to rise excessively. But as much as I've read about the body chemistry involved, I still don't have a good grasp of the insulin/glycogen stuff. I'll go back and re-read your paragraph on the subject and see if I can get it ...<g>
Your 32-pound weight loss (congrats) is about what I've lost since going on the wagon. I tended to eat a lot of junk food when I drank. In recent years I've stabilized at 195 and don't seem to gain weight even when I fudge on the diet ... like knocking off a pint of Blue Bell ice cream.
Well, enough about health and diets with the weekend beginning ...
Justin
"this half Kraut"
I once had a ladyfriend who was half German and half Irish. She's the one whose ex-husband had given her a Lawn Boy for her birthday, and it seemed appropriate because she was such a workaholic. I joked with her that she would have a little more fun in life if she would allow her Irish half to fill in once in a while for her dominant German half ...<g>
German food tends to be a little heavy, doesn't it? Can see how it wouldn't fit in with your diet, or maybe you just don't like that style of food? I've rarely been to a German restaurant here in Houston, but when spending a couple of days in Fredericksburg, it's hard to pass up the German food at dinnertime.
As for Bandera, my only dining experience there was lunch at a cafe on the main drag .. barbecue, I think it was.
Justin
"Weeeelllll, you don't eat the shell"
Something similar to that likely that was said to President Gerald Ford when he chomped down on a tamale at an appearance in Texas. He didn't realize that Step 1 in eating a tamale is to remove the corn-shuck wrapping.
Justin
Colt, there's certainly nothing wrong with moderate drinking, and you're fortunate to be able to handle it that way. I, on the other hand, tended to stay with the collegiate method of drinking and eventually decided that I needed to give it up completely, which I was able to do cold turkey at 45. I can be around people who are drinking and have no desire to participate, so I'm more fortunate than many who have life-long cravings after going on the wagon.
"our sweet Ksquared" ... yes, I've figured out that side of her as well ..<g>
Justin