Verna and Bob's Weblog

Bob

Temporary Spa Shade

new-shade.jpgWe have had our spa since last July. We enjoy it a lot, especially on the warmer days. If we get into the spa late in the afternoon, however, the sun going down on the west side of the house shines directly into the spa.

I asked the gentleman who installed the screen patio enclosure to come out and install a roll-down shade for us. He installed a couple more extruded aluminum supports (the same material used for the original patio) to hold the shade on the west end of the patio.

Image: Before and after – click to enlarge

I say temporary in the title since this shade is a cheap Chinese plastic shade that won’t last in the Arizona sun. We are already planning on getting a custom shade from one of the warehouse home improvement stores. We saw one we really liked at our friends’ house on the Colorado River. The supports installed today will be permanent.

April 9, 2012 by Arizona Home & Garden Retirement

What’s For Dinner?

rib-eye.jpg

Verna prepared this sumptuous Easter Saturday meal this afternoon; pan-seared ribeye steaks with Danish-style stuffed potatoes and blanched asparagus. Not to worry, neither of us could finish a meal this huge, so we split it and still had leftovers.

April 7, 2012 by Arizona Food and Dining Holidays

Javelina in the Wash

javelina.jpgVerna and I were about to take the dogs out for a short walk at just about sundown this evening. When Verna opened up the patio door, the dogs began barking excitedly. Up on the bluff behind the RV drive, she saw some javelina walking toward the wash on the west side of the property. She restrained the dogs since javelina are known to attack, especially if they have young nearby.

I ran and got my camera and went out into the courtyard where I had a view of several of them in the wash. I snapped this photo of one of the bigger ones staring back at me. The yellow dish on the ground is where Verna puts water out for the little critters and birds. I was about ten yards away from this guy when I took the photo. Click to enlarge.

April 5, 2012 by Arizona Critters

Vulture Mine Historical Marker in 3D

This is an accidental 3D image that Verna took of the Vulture Mine Historical Marker near US 60 and Vulture Mine Road in Wickenburg, AZ. I say “accidental” because she snapped two images of the same scene as the truck rolled slowly down the road. I took her pair of images and combined them into a red cyan anaglyphic image that can be viewed with a pair of 3D glasses. Click on the image to enlarge.

The Vulture Mine Historical Marker is located about 12 miles north of the actual Vulture Mine itself. The remnants of Vulture City which sprang up in the mine’s heyday are scattered around the mine shaft. There is a souvenir shop in one of the old buildings where you can get your map of the self-guided tour of the area.

Just in case you don’t have your pair of 3D glasses handy, you can see the 2D image here.

April 2, 2012 by Bob's 3D Stuff Culture

Preparing to Photograph the Eclipse

filter.jpgI ordered some solar filters for all of our cameras so we can try to get images of the annular solar eclipse in May. The filters aren’t very substantial since they are made with cardboard tubing and have polymer filters, but they are cost-effective (~$10 each) and they work.

Image: Solar filter over Canon SX-40 with inset of solar photo I took – click to enlarge

The filters come with an adhesive felt liner that you install to allow a snug fit when you slip the filter over the objective lens of the camera. Once installed, the filter doesn’t interfere with the auto-focus mechanisms nor with any other camera function.

After some experimentation, I found that trying to use the cameras in auto modes (other than auto-focus) does not give good results; camera motion would blur most images. I tried using a tripod, but getting the image centered in the camera was taking too long. The eclipse would be over before getting all the proper adjustments.

I finally settled on using the camera in manual mode where you can independently set the film speed, aperture and shutter speed. I settled on ISO 3200 film speed, F5.6 for the aperture and 1/1250 second shutter speed. Holding the camera in my hands, the image was good enough to resolve sunspot 1445 currently transiting the solar surface. I uploaded a large image of the sun to the image viewer. Click on the link to view.

April 1, 2012 by Nerdliness Photography Retirement

BBQ Season Back

ribs.jpg

Now that the weather is turned to (mostly) spring weather, the grill comes out of storage to active use. Today, we enjoyed pork baby back ribs with Verna’s killer potato salad and bake beans. Yummers! 🙂

Tomorrow, we’ll be grilling rib eye beef and salmon steaks for surf ‘n’ turf Sunday. Click on the image to enlarge.

March 24, 2012 by Arizona Food and Dining Retirement

Avalon 1998

Categories

Archives