A Bad Feather Day

I'm finally taking some pictures off my camera. At the end of June I spotted this little guy out side the front door. It's amazing the Mockingbird is everywhere here in FL. The little one could barely stand on the concrete block.

Mom and Pop weren't too happy me being so close. I retreated back into the house. I could only take pictures from the window. The problem was the blind was down, and I didn't dare lift it, in fear of scaring the family. That's why the picture looks so strange. The white portion is the reflection of the blind.

Been Bummed Lately

I have pictures to post, but watching people being walked out the door at work, has left me a bit down. It's not that the company I work for is decreasing its operations, they're just sending jobs out of the country.

I still haven't figured out how this "consumer economy" of ours is supposed to right itself, if the consumers don't have jobs.

I was having the above conversation one afternoon with one of my co-workers, when I noticed a strange bird. Finally something different to shoot. It turned out to be an immature little blue heron.

Godzilla and other Critters

Not much has been happening. As you can see I got a picture of a family of ducks at work.

The girls barked at a Wood stork.

I couldn't figure out why my camera was taking so long to focus. Then I looked at the lens filter, and noticed it was dirty. It had brackish water spots on it. I cleaned it, and found cloth was black. No wonder I couldn't focus on the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly that visits the back yard.

Tuesday, I arrived at work to find an email from K.D. She wrote that there was "Godzilla" outside the accounting conference room. (10 years of working in the place, I didn't know there was an accounting conference room.) A half hour had passed since she had emailed. But it didn't matter. He was still outside.

I told Katie I was going to break, as I grabbed my camera. Her replay was, "but you just got here".

The picture doesn't show the real size of this Tokay Gecko. He must have been 10 inches long.

Life Has Gone to the Birds

Walking to my car tonight I spied a woodpecker. (Actually there were 3 of them, but this one wasn't a shy as the others.) I put down my bag, and retrieved the camera. As I was pulling it out of the bag, Kim drove by and asked, "is everything OK?"

How couldn't it be OK. I'm a bird brain. There are birds everywhere around work. Everything is wonderful when I'm outside.

I like this one. The little guy looks like he is going to take a nap.

I forgot to post the Osprey.

Last month before I went on vacation, Kathy and Deb were coming in from break. K.D. says, "there's an Osprey eating a big fish, on a light pole, in the parking lot." I walked briskly back to my desk to pick up the camera. Even though I have Osprey pictures up the ying yang, I just couldn't help myself.

Fort De Soto

We had always stayed away from taking the canoe to Fort De Soto, because of the heavy boat traffic there. Since we're on vacation, Linda and I decided to give it a try. We were pleasantly surprised to find that they have a 2.5 mile canoe trail. Either no combustion motors or low wake in the area. It is not an area that the personal water craft people will be seen.

We seen the usual suspects like the pelican.

I had no problems getting close to this Blue Heron in the Mangroves or the Dobule-Crested Cormorant. I couldn't say the thing about the King Fisher that was flying from one tree to the next. I would get close, and off that nervous little bugger would fly. One day I will get a good picture of those obnoxious little birds.

Another bird that drove me crazy was the Red-Breasted Merganser. I would aim the camera, and down into the water she would dive. She would reappear 10 feet away from the original spot. I finally got a shot.

The day was topped off by the manatees. No pictures.

Charlie Treed a Squirrel

I haven't had any pictures that have thrilled me lately. As I was making chili, Linda came into the house. "You have to get Charlie in here. She has a squirrel in the tree." It is a photo opportunity!

If you look at the photo closely, you can see the squirrel in the Macadamia Nut Tree. He tried to stay as still as possible. I'm sure Charlie's jumping ability frightened him.

I was so excited to see what I had shot, I forgot to put the meat in my chili. Now I have to wait for the pressure to go down in the pressure cooker.



It takes forever to upload video.

I’ve Become a Kindle User

The Decision to Purchase a Kindle

I showed Linda the demo at the Amazon store. She asked about prices.

I showed Linda some price comparisons. Since I purchased James Patterson’s Run For Your Life today at Costco (Art Linda’s stepfather likes his books.), I’ll use it for the price comparisons. Costco sold it for $15.09. Amazon sells the hard cover for 16.79, and the Kindle version for $10.00. That’s a five dollars savings from Costco.

More importantly, I don’t have to buy a book right away to get the savings. I have Traitor to His Class by H. W. Brands, Nothing to Fear by Adam Cohen, American Lion by John Meachem, The Coldest Winter by David Habertam, and Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, sitting on my book shelf waiting to be read, because Costco had them at such great discounts. Most of the books above could have been purchased for the same price or lower via the Kindle store.

Then there is The Panic of 1907 by Robert F. Bruner and Sean D. Carr. I purchased it at Borders, for 30% off the $ 30.00 cover price, using a coupon. (I have to go to my Hotmail account and print the coupons). That still doesn’t get close to the $10.00 at the Kindle store.

I figure in most cases, we would save approximately $5.00 per book. At the rate I read books, the Kindle will pay for itself in approximately 18 months. Linda liked the idea.

Kindle Blows Books Out of the Water

I’m reading Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. It is over 700 pages of small print. It weighs almost 3 pounds and is 2 ½" thick (it can be used for a weapon or a bar bell), versus the Kindle’s 1.5 pounds and less than ½" thick. If it were on my Kindle, I would be able to increase the size of the print. If I don’t know the meaning of a word in the book, I have to go to my iBook and look it up, or one of the two volumes of my 1968 World Book Dictionary (I can now use the dictionary that comes with Kindle). The ebook version would allow me to move the cursor in front of the word, and the definition would appear at the bottom of the page.

It’s easy on the eyes. I can read outside, without the sun reflecting of the page, causing me to see spots.

Oh yea, you can download a sample of the book. That would have been a blessing, before I purchased Debby Applegate’s The Most Famous Man in America: the Biography of Henry Ward Beecher. I seen her speak on Book TV, and she made her subject seem captivating. The book could be used in lieu of sleeping pills.

The Down Side


The price, bye bye 2 or 3 person Kayak.

The magazine selection. We can get Time delivered to the house for 20.00 a year in color, why pay 17.88 a year for a black and white version? (Why pay any amount for the magazine?) If they had The Economist, I would get a subscription.

Amazons shipping. They sent this via United States Postal Service in conjunction with FedEx. Pony Express would have gotten it here faster. It shipped from Campville, KY on February 22nd. It arrived in Orlando (approximately a 2 hour drive from here) on the 24th around 1300 hours. It didn’t leave Orlando until approximately 0200 hours February 26th. It was delivered here on the 27Th. They charged me approximately 10.00 for this “service”.

I took measurement of the box, gave it a weight of 10 pounds, and checked UPS. This would have taken 2 days to reach me, and it would have cost the same amount of money in shipping.

Conclusion

I’m so happy with it, I even read the instructions that come loaded on the devise.