Life in the Bristolwood

A couple weeks ago, Mark’s cell phone kinda bit the dust!  He had the phone replaced last year and at the time, our (old) phones were no longer being manufactured, so he received a remanufactured one.  I also had problems, so I got mine replaced as well.  Long story short,  Mark kept getting phones that were worse than the previous one.  When the phone’s screen went black, he called Sprint and they (finally) replaced his phone with a newer model.

My three-year-old HTC Mogul has some problems, but they seem minor, compared to Mark’s blatant problems, so I just lived with them. Well, when Mark got his new Touch Pro 2,  my eyes went green!  Yes, I began to covet his phone.

Mark, being a fair man, called Sprint and asked if I might get my phone replaced as well.  Well, the woman gave us a great deal, so *my* new phone arrived yesterday!

This is a grubby photo of this most awesome phone, but you can see its “face” is all screen! (The back of the phone is all speaker, so the phone can be placed face down on the console of the truck or Explorer and used hands-free.) I love it! Goodbye old phone.  Goodbye I-pod.  This phone can do so many terrific things and Mark just keeps finding more and more applications.  Something tells me that tiny Micro SD card will need an upgrade from 4 gig to 16 gig.  Or maybe even 32 gig! 

If you don’t hear from me for awhile, have no fear! I am just getting to know the new phone a bit better!!

The past couple of months, we have noticed trucks from the phone company up in Rochester working on the lines.  We have also seen contractors from another company with huge spools of bright orange cable working along our road.  Well, Mark is so excited!

We currently have our phone, television, and internet through a cable company.  Well, all this bright orange “stuff” points to “Fios” or fiber-optic cable.  Mark is over the moon!  The fiber-optics are supposed to be much more efficient and faster as well!

Now, when will they “hook up” all that bright orange cable they buried?

But not like you would think!

The kids wanted to go shopping today, so after helping Mark in the garage this morning, we got some blankets, activities, and the Scotties, and headed northward to Victor. The kids agreed to meet some of their friends,  so they told us to pick them up in about four hours. 

Mark drove around the parking lot looking for the “perfect” spot….The winds howled today and our moerate temperatures dropped to nearly startlingly cold.  We won’t discuss wind chill because I am sure it was mighty cold out there!  Mark wondered how we would survive in the truck,  but I told him not to fear. After all, we packed some blankets! He did find the perfect spot, too.  In a parking lot that isn’t really used much, there was a mountain of snow at the edge of a steep grade.  With the pile in front of us and the hill protecting us on two sides, we were parked in a small cove!

Mark sat in the front seat with Angus and I hopped into the back to keep Murphy company.  I had brought along my little netbook and some knitting, so I was all set to get comfortable!  The Scotties each had his own little bed so we were all getting settled in quite comfortably, thank you!

Of course, Angus had to check out the scenery before he could relax…

The snow fell continuously the entire time we were waiting, but the winds quickly dispersed it before it could light! At times, the snow was literally coming down horizontally…

And we remained safe, warm and dry in our cozy space.

I got out the netbook and played awhile, visiting Scotland….(hi Bill!)

And Syracuse….(hi Terri!)

And I visited some more blogs. 

Mark put a movie on his laptop and we watched that.   We really do live at an incredible time, technologically.

The time seemed to fly by as we enjoyed our little living room on wheels.  Soon, I could see the security lights shining in through the ice-frosted windows.

I did go into BJ’s for a little while to pick up a few items and I also got Mark a Subway sub for dinner.  How thoughtful of Subway to make it so convenient to grab something to eat!

The clock soon said seven and we were off to the mall to pick up the shoppers.

The drive home was hairy at times with blowing, drifting snow all over the road.  As Mark put the truck into four-wheel drive,  Michelle and I marvelled at the sound of snow crunching under the tires as we made our way home.  We have not heard that sound in a long time!

 All in all,  I think Mark and the Scotties would agree….what a lovely little diversion this was!

Uh oh!

Since my post earlier this week regarding the “land of too much”, I have been going through a lot of “stuff” trying to decide how best to put it to use.  (eradicate it!!!)  Michelle,  being a rather keen student of observation,  has been watching my antics with some interest.  And so……

Late this afternoon,  she came wandering into the bedroom.

Mom, since you are getting rid of stuff, do you *really* wanna save this?

As she made her entrance into the room,  I looked up in sheer disbelief,  thinking “this” was long gone from our home!

Purchased early in 1999, this was our first digital camera! It was a Kodak DC210 and when Mark introduced me to the world of digital imaging,  I was over the moon!  To be able to shoot a photo, then immediately print it was just beyond my imaginings!   I had no idea the impact digital photography would have in the lives of people all around the world!  To print images is one thing, but to be able to trasmit them from a computer right away was incredible!

I was trying to think where we went from this camera. It would have been the Olympus c-5050 zoom from which I hopped into the world of D-SLR’s with the Nikon D-80. 

Wow.  It is simply mind-boggling how photography has progressed with the advent of point-and-shoot cameras, which then made the transition to digital models. 

I had to smile, remembering the old Kodak.  We would use four “Double A” size batteries in that camera.  We were lucky if the batteries didn’t die before we took maybe 20 photos!  I remember when we purchased the Olympus;  when I took 40 or 50 photos and the batteries were still going on,  I was awestruck!

Yup, the Kodak camera is now sitting in the bedroom.  It is unnerving the memories that silly big old clunky camera carries with it!  The kids were so little when we bought it and I still remember many of the photos in my mind’s eye.  Ah, memories, memories! 

Now the reality.  What does one do with one silly big old clunky camera, after all?

Yes, I have been thinking!

I thought I was going to be completely satisfied with the Nikon D-90 I tentatively bought last month.  Gads, I loved that camera and the photos it took.  It was awesome.  However…..

Mark has done so much research regarding cameras and he always enjoys a good hunt for the lowest price.  The Nikon D-90 is a much newer model and a considerably better camera than my D-80.  The place where we purchased the camera allows customers 30 days to try out merchandise and if they aren’t satisfied, they may return the merchandise.  And so, I reluctantly (gasp!) packed the D-90 back into its original packaging and said “so long” to it.

The other day, I decided to give a Nikon D-40 a good try.  The Nikon D-40 is a more “entry-level”  D-SLR that costs about 1/2 the price of the D-90.   Of course, the one I bought was purchased at WalMart, so it might not have been the very “best” price. 

I opened the box and charged the battery right away.  Upon putting the camera together,  it was amazing how much smaller and lighter the D-40 is than the D-80.  It really is kind of “cute”. So, how did it perform? The following are some photos of my plant life gracing the front porch and back deck…

Mark always kind of laughed about me looking at Ken Rockwell’s site as he reviews both Canon and Nikon cameras. He is a photographer who has such marvelous photos on his site.  Well,  many of the photos of his kids were taken with none other than a Nikon D-40!  He loves this camera so much and claims it is actually “fun” because it is so lightweight and easy to use.  If you go to his website,  click on the link for Ryan Rockwell. (his little son)  There are some super fantastic pool photos taken with a D-40 just a couple of days ago and they are fabulous.

I still would love to have the Nikon D-90 because it is a real treat to use,  but for now,  I am thinking perhaps the low cost D-40 might serve me well.  With the economy looking a little off-kilter at the moment,  I would rather spend less on camera equipment.  The worst part about purchasing digital cameras is the moment after one lays down their hard-earned cash on the counter and steps out the door, the depreciation factor begins chopping away at the value of the equipment….I am thinking I might just patiently await the price of the D-90 to drop, even if it is months from now. I have no great urgency!

On another note, the woodpecker babies mentioned in my last post have become so vocal,  Michelle and I discussed the fact we are thankful the “host tree” is situated far beyond the house.  Those babies are LOUD!  The poor adult woodpecker(s) are seen flying back and forth constantly as the squawking brood literally screams out for “more”!  The noise seems only to subside during the night hours.

I heard on the radio today that we have received almost four inches of rain this June.  I am certainly not complaining, as we have had our well go belly-up in dry weather, requiring water to be delivered.  That makes me so upset, but Mark explains it is far cheaper than paying to have a drilled well put in.  For now, our skies began clearing early this evening and we are promised a few dry days with warmer temperatures.

my blog will keep working now and displaying properly!

 Mark, being somewhat of a computer geek, (shhh….don’t tell him I said that!)  took pity on me and began doing some research on blogging and such.  When I told him all of the pictures displayed fine for me on my laptop and cell phone, he asked me to show him.  Sure enough, they were fine.  Further research on Mark’s part proved that because my devices are using IE 7 and not the newer version 8,  everything was fine.  There is a compatability problem with IE 8 and the default WordPress Theme I had been using.

Thus, the newer theme which Mark has already thought about helping me redo to make it a little more attractive!

Phew….I certainly *hope* everything will be a-okay now!

In other events of the days past….Ben was sifting our rocky soil through a coarse screen Sunday evening.  He used his hands to rub the soil through the screen, unaware there was a small hole in the screen.  He came in the house saying a piece of the wire went through his skin.  We called the pediatrician’s emergency number and they told us it should be fine to have a tetanus shot within 48 hours.  So, on Monday, he got a shot!  (Strange….every time I have ever had a tetanus shot, the pain afterward where the shot was given was nearly unbearable. Ben says he feels NO pain!)

Today, the kids had dental appointments.  Busy, busy!

I am posting this after Mark showed me the problems and the fix!  Ah, it will be good to get back to the business of blogging once again!

Last week, a package arrived at our house.  It contained a couple of camera lenses to test, along with a new Nikon D-90 camera.  (Oh, and a Nikon flash)  I had my heart set on the Nikon D-300, but as Mark read literature and compared the two camera specs side by side, he was convinced my socks would be knocked off by the D-90, which also happens to be less costly. It does have many of the same features as the D-300.

Don’t get me wrong….I love my Nikon D-80 and have been very content with it.  However, the camera has some “issues” that make photography somewhat frustrating at times.  It tends to consistently overexpose and I am often fiddling a lot more than photographing!  No problem with a non-moving subject, but a bit discouraging when action is involved.

Today, I decided to open the box and begin testing out the D-90. 

Wow! I took the camera out of its box and put it together.  I got a kit that included the camera body, along with an 18-105mm VR (vibration reduction) lens.  I decided not to adjust any of the settings….just use everything in default…to see how it functions straight “outta the box”!

Here are the results:

At this point, I am going to show a comparison. Please ignore the (very) shallow depth of field in the following photo.  I was using the GINORMOUS new telephoto lens and honed in, trying my hand at getting the stamens (?) in sharp focus.  The point is this…I had to fiddle and fiddle with exposure compensation to try to capture the right color in the following photo using the D-80.  The color is what this comparison is all about and I am here to tell you that the Nikon D-90 captured the colors accurately and spot-on!  There is a much greater blue color to the flower than the (compromised) mousy-purple I had settled upon. 

Okay, so you are probably thinking “this woman has gone NUTS!”  Perhaps. But, in my humble opinion, the Nikon D-90 ROCKS!!!

To all my faithful readers….I am sorry I’ve not posted today. Something is amiss in CyberLand. Two of my entries here have “evaporated” and Mark spent quite a chunk of time trying to resolve “stuff” with our provider. Hopefully, things will be soon resolved and….
“I shall return!”

If Mondays have earned a bad name for being the beginning of the week, along with its multitude of problems,  then today *should have been* a Monday!

As I was standing at the sink this morning,  I noticed a doe up in the woods.  I watched her for a second, curious as to why she seemed to be staring down towards our house.  Her eye was intent and as my own eyes searched the woods,  I focussed on a tiny little “blur” walking up the hill.

Immediately,  I called to Michelle upstairs…”bring down the Nikon….QUICKLY!”.  Michelle bounded down the stairs and I was off into the woods, my eyes glued to the doe.  As I approached, she began to get nervous.  I called out to her in a calm voice and she eventually went off deeper into the woods. Before she left,  I was able to shoot a fairly good photo of her with the tiny, tiny fawn.

I was about ten feet from the two deer and I quickly shot off several photos of the now abandoned little fawn nestled in the leaves on the earthen floor.  As quickly as I went up, I came back down to the house.  I had turned the camera off before coming back to the house.

When I came back, I turned on the camera and showed Mark the photos in the (somewhat) little LCD screen. I turned the camera off again,  and took it upstairs where I turned it on to show Michelle the photos.  She oohed and awwed.  I was all set to upload the photos to my blog, feeling so amazed I was able to photograph this beautiful little fawn.  When I placed the SD card into the card reader,  the photos I took today had all vanished.  They had totally disappeared!

Thinking I had lost my marbles, I explained it to Mark.  He called Nikon who said it sounded like a faulty SD card, so we called San Disk to see if they could help.  They were helpful, all right! They gave us the name of some software that was developed for them by another company.  As we looked at the images on the card, the photos of the deer reappeared.  I was thrilled beyond measure!  But then when we saw that it would cost sixty dollars for the software,  Mark and I both felt deceived.

Mark called San Disk again, getting another representative.  He talked to her for quite some time and she gave him the name of a disk recovery program she personally had used, but it was of no value in recovering photos.

At this point, Mark told me he would somehow….by hook or by crook….have my photos restored tonight!

I had been doing an enormous amount of laundry, and when I went down to the basement to put the load from the washer to the dryer,  there was water all over the floor. Apparently, the gasket on the door of the front loading washer needs to be replaced.  Thankfully, I mopped up most of the water and the dehumidifier down there has done a tremendous job of wicking up the moisture left behind.

I had to run to Naples this afternoon for some produce.  Of course I stopped in Woodville.  This time, I found a goose family of six!

I love the second photo, although it would be better if they weren’t swimming about in what looks like pea soup! The way the parents have there bodies placed, it looks like a heart with the goslings in the center.

The carp were also going crazy!  It looked like a big pot of boiling water as the fish bounded about, splashing all over!

I made my version of Chicken Spinoccoli tonight as I had some cheese and spinach that needed to be used up. That dish is one that takes a great deal of time and effort, although everyone really likes it,  As I was doing (the ENDLESS!!!) dishes,  the hummungbirds kept coming by for a sip!

By the time dinner was done, I felt like someone had placed Vise Grips on my shoulders.  I had such a tension headache,  I could have SCREAMED! (that wouldn’t have helped much!)

I am feeling better now and Mark is currently used a freeware program I found online to retrieve those deer photos for me.  Shhhh….don’t tell anyone….Mark isn’t as nuts about wildlife as I am and when he first found out I had lost some photos, he thought, “big deal!”.  Michelle just whispered that Mark told her he thought I was nuts at first, making such a big fuss about losing my photos. She said as he looked at them,  he kept telling her they were so beautiful and now he understansds why I was distraught.

Wonders never cease……

I had taken quite a few photos of the little Red Robin sitting outside the window yesterday and was sadly disappointed when the photos were expanded.  The photo of the bird sitting sideways on the limb was blurry when enlarged making me mad!

After shooting with the Nikon D-80,  I took just a few pictures of the Robin using the Panasonic TZ-5. 

I am inserting both of the photos below. The first is the Nikon photo and the second, the Panasonic.

See how much cleaner and sharper the second photo is?  The Panasonic camera features VR, which is vibration reduction.  This is very helpful when the telephoto lens is extended and helps prevent “camera shake”.   Well, after shooting several photos of Bufflehead Ducks in Canandaigua the other day,  (hmmm….no one commented there!) I was surprised that any of the photos showed up with any clarity as the lens was set to 300 and those ducks were bobbing up and down like the ones at a carnival!!!!

I was convinced the VR lenses were unnecessary.  Perhaps not.  I did, however, look through many more of the photos I took yesterday and found some that were better than the one I featured yesterday. So, more confusion. More indecision. More variables to contemplate!

Are you confused? How about I add a bit more? Confusion, that is!

I took this photo and then decided to look up some info on the internet to make sure I knew its name.

Sorry. To be sure, it is a teeny-tiny Daffodil!  In reading on the net, I discovered that the American Daffodil Society ( yeah, there really is a “society” for everything!)  states that the pretty yellow flowers that greet us each Spring are to be called “Daffodils” unless one is using scientific monikers. Then, it becomes its Latin name, Narcissus.  Are you confused?

 Well, if you ARE confused, I bet your aren’t feeling nearly as badly as this poor little Daffodil who decided to bloom today.  The poor little thing smiled and then found out tomorrow’s weather forecast includes s-n-o-w!

Not confused at all is my bird friend, the Red-Breasted Woodpecker.  He eats like there is no tomorrow, snow or no snow!

 I was so thrilled to catch the male in te feeder today!  I had my camera (Nikon) in hand and thought perhaps I could get a really close shot of the boy.  Well, dummy that I am…..

Instead of keeping my camera positioned at my FACE, I pulled the camera away to review the photo. Just as soon as I did this, the little fellow poked his head outside the feeder,  looked me full in the face, then flew off in a huff!  Argh, argh, argh! I know better than that!!!