Musings

Been playing, now and then, with the panorama and slo-mo (sic) video options on the iPhone 5s. Neither fit well in this column; still, here’s a sample panorama. Not earthshaking, but fun….

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »

The tree is up. And undecorated. (Tomorrow!)

The fire is lit. Well, a computer screen is flickering very realistically. Sound optional.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

I am adventuring. I’m pushing my personal envelope exploring…apps for this fancy iPhone 5S I’m carrying around these days. Today, I discovered a few new things.

The earbuds that came with are FAN-TAS-TIC. And, previous to today, I was NOT an earbuds fan. (Big change!)

Forecast.io (browser version here) had my location as “Middle of Nowhere.” That was pretty disheartening until The Guru explained to me that that meant I had not allowed it to know my location. (Ooops. Live and learn.)

Totally in love with Fitbit app (Fitbits are overpriced, but once you allow yourself to go with that, they can be motivators. I have the Fitbit One. Buy through REI if you’re a member and get the rebate…and (announcer voice:) SAVE!)

Along with the earbuds, I used the Tunein app (also browser version and ever-so-handy in both forms) so I could listen to weekend wrap-up hours from the Diane Rehm Show (without Diane this week, which isn’t too uncommon; I think her health issues are huge).

Okay; that’s it for promotions. I’m so trying to be 21st-century.

Posted at 7:29 PM | 1 Comment »

Back in the big city, and doing big city activities, like spending money on a new cell phone…just for me…with the number that used to be our shared number. The Guru hasn’t decided what number he’s going to use, so is temporarily cellphone-free.

I’ve downloaded a few free apps, and I took the 5s camera for a walk to get a few shots to analyze. I like the first one for demonstrating the capabilities of this seriously upgraded camera.

And I like this odd composition…as a street-inflected juxtaposition of the discards of a tree and a pedestrian.

Posted at 5:05 PM | 2 Comments »

Marquette, like many towns, has shifted the focus of its downtown from an industrial to a touristrial (??) and service orientation. In this case, they’ve left a major visual element of the old Marquette, this ore dock is partially preserved. The wooden trestle that bridged from land to dock is gone, and we watched mallards sleeping and preening on the pier-stubs.

This is a huge structure, wide enough to have two sets of rails so ships on either side could be loaded simultaneously.

Speaking of gravity fed, we very much enjoyed our upscale meal at L’Attitude, with a fine view of this dock from our seats.

Read more about Marquette on WikiPee here, or from the downtown biz org here. Read more about ore docks on WikiPeehere; there’s also a B&W photo of this ore dock when it was still in use.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »

If you had a vehicle you didn’t really care about and an artistic bent, what decorations would you add to it?

I’m wondering if any of these whistle as you go faster?

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Hubcap car

Yesterday.

I always understood that you were supposed to drain your laptop (and other device) battery every month or so to…essentially, keep the battery healthy. Today, I found out it’s just to keep the calibration of the software that tells you how drained the battery is up to date…and has nothing to do with battery life.

Of course, sometimes these things change….

Posted at 10:42 PM | Comments Off on Shine a light

Lots of drippy rain today—almost felt like Seattle or Portland. Tried out a new app five-ish when the sun finally came out—it’s called GPX Master. Our little GPS device is pretty much dead (but served us faithfully for years), and the Guru looked for a replacement using the iPhone/iPad…. Love that when you end the track, GPX Master uploads it to Dropbox.

Posted at 6:06 PM | 2 Comments »

Learned a new word from PCT hiker and lovely writer Carrot for a wonderful concept to have a word for…the word is petrichor, meaning the scent that follows a rainfall. Apparently, it’s not just the moisture we smell, but other complex scents from the soil and plants, caused/triggered by the moisture.

Anyway, rain in the afternoon and evening. But we’ve had so much that I didn’t get much of a hit of petrichor.

The “ichor” part of petrichor is the Greek word for the special fluid that is the blood of the deities.

Note: make a donation to Wikipedia, if you haven’t recently, and acknowledge how often you use it….

Posted at 5:36 PM | 1 Comment »

Sometimes the golden hour and a good place to pull off the road with just the right backlighting all happen simultaneously. I photographed this irrigation mechanism for almost ten minutes…sooo fascinating. (Thank you, patient Guru!)

Posted at 10:17 PM | Comments Off on Fine-spray