Musings

Mental?

Yesterday, I managed to skip the most demanding…topic…that I keep in mind when I walk: inhale through nose ONLY. ONLY. It is not instinctive; it is not easy to maintain. And yet: very important (to not tickle your vagus nerve…better to keep it quiescent).

Often, I post photos of organic subjects. Not always. Like today. Pure material culture. Functional, manufactured objects. Features. Parts of larger systems. Vroom. Whoosh.

Long year

One year ago we were train-spotting in Missouri (among other things). What have I been up to? Mostly being a homebody.

Light in the dark

I went out just a few minutes ago, well after dark, because I needed a photo. This is the sky…dark on the ground, but magic above (with the camera’s computational powers).

Doldrums

Today’s new vocab: dunkelflaute. However, this is a pink dogwood. Most are white; I recall reading some years ago that the dogwoods are susceptible to a virus and the breeders haven’t come up with a resistant pink dogwood. It seems like that still may be true as there are fewer and fewer pink dogwoods in our neighborhood. And none are young trees. [I admit that’s a very local, spatially biased observation.]

Oh: dunkelflaute (German). It’s usually translated as dark doldrums, or meteorologically: anticyclonic gloom. It’s when renewable energy can’t be generated (e.g., overcast days for solar panels, or still days for wind turbines).

OOF

Proof I’m out of practice in taking computational photos…. Beyond being Out Of Focus, it’s busy and not particularly interesting. However, it’s probably slightly better than a cart of weeds and sticks, which I was contemplating using (and neglected to take).

Smell the flowers

A viburnum. In bloom.

No malicious cyber tools here.

Apparently They may attack the energy grid with malware. They is the GRU, and perhaps additional groups.

I’m leveling with you

There were two guys who were doing whatever this was planted on a tripod for, but they weren’t paying attention to this old lady walking down the sidewalk, so I was able to sneak a pic of their technology. This’s called a prism, and I didn’t know Pentax makes them, but that’s because I haven’t used a total station in…what?…two decades? Three?

Fact: I trained back in the Jurassic age (meaning before laser total stations like the guys had), rather uncommonly, on a theodolite and not a transit. I soon learned the latter, too. Both involved a lot of careful twisting with both hands, very systematically.

Digital sundog?

Seems like a good name for this brilliant rainbowed sun-ray….

Minutia

A lovely viburnum corymb. I read that Ötzi the Chalcolithic Iceman had arrows with shafts of viburnum and dogwood.

Full moon

It looks like daylight, but it’s a 3-second night shot, on a clear evening with a bright, bright moon. The magic of photography….