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September 29, 2017

TESSA LEARNS TO READ

... i drove over to new hampshire for visiting (to include my niece's hot tub) and a bit of picture taking ... when i arrived adrien was reading to tessa ...

... as adrien sounded out the letters tessa tried to mimic her ...
 ... if you think of what's going on in terms of computing power, the processing tessa is applying to adrien's lip movements and the sounds she hears would probably require a pile of computers high enough to require an aircraft warning light ...

... so odd, the little girl i helped teach to read now a woman doing the same for another child ... i'm nothing but happy to admit that my eyes teared up ...
... i took a little wanderabout around the back yard, if for no other reason than compared to my first slr loaded with ektachrome modern digital sensors open up a whole new world of low-light exploration ... 

... this time of year the sunflowers always hold on ...

... i like the repetition of form ...

... little monsters ...

... a tiny hint of the next couple weeks ...

... now is time for supper with my niece, her husband, my daughter, my nephew, and a new friend ... the dogs, too ...

... what a beautiful day ...

September 26, 2017

WANDERING THE MIST

 ... in the dark we headed off down main street ... john waited until i was buckled in, "where do you want to go" ... you'd think he would've learned by now, "you're the man with the plan" ... with that we headed off to find some early morning mist ...

... maybe a half-hour later ... john driving and me quite happy simply enjoying the morning so i've no idea where we were specifically ... doesn't matter, i suppose, since all that really counts is that we were there ...

... especially for that particular vista i think you'll find john's album rather interesting ... 

... we'd company witnessing dawn ...

 ... we made a pause in the little town of industry ... it was foggy ...

 ... clearwater pond, in the fog ...

 ... hmmmm, did i mention it was foggy ... ??? ...

 ... diffuse light+clinging mist=sublime color ...

 ... yes, indeed, is again that season in these parts ...

 ... a "sandhill crane, Antigone canadensis ... these birds have been around in the same form for two-ten million years, making them one of the oldest of all living birds ...

... what a beautiful morning ...

September 15, 2017

NH VISIT

... plan was to be in new hampshire for a house-sitting weekend, but i drove over a day early so i could visit with sarah and gordy and baby tessa ... after a nice little morning respite in the hot tub, i took my camera and wandered the backyard ...

... end-of-summer munching ...

... tessa's old enough that she's starting to realize she can somewhat control all those heretofore mysterious attachments ...

... she's also learned the incredible power of "baby stare" ... from my own liz and adrien, i'm still traumatized ...

... completely absorbed in her eye game, she was spooked when i moved suddenly ...

... safe in pa's arms—some things are truly universal ...

... gordy decided to do a little nail trimming ... i honestly can't remember ever seeing any child so patient with this process ... however i can, for sure, recall a particular child with whom the process was so nastily unpleasant that i gave up even trying ... 

... a tomato races autumn ...

... rather proud of this shot because, if i do say so myself, this is the sort of thing that is rather difficult to manage in black and white ...

... baby tessa's happily gurgling as she bounces around in her jump-up thing, rufus and winston are dog-sprawled at my feet, gordy's taking a break from his chores ... i'm thinking i might give the backyard hot tub another visit ...

... what a wonderful day ...

September 10, 2017

GARDINER IN B&W

... liz came over and we enjoyed a delicious pancake and wicked-thick bacon breakfast ... after, she asked, "i'm helping ellen with an authors' signing, would you like to go to gardiner with me" ... with a quick check of my very not complicated calendar, "sure" ... top of the list, always, time with my daughters ...

... i decided to, as we said in the old days, "load my camera with black and white film" ... oddly enough, that's still relevant in this time of digital sensors which for every image actually record three black and white pictures, one each with red, blue, and green filters ...

... in a shop window on gardiner's main street, gentle detail ...

... a little sunday afternoon hair trim ...

... i met andrea ... she's a most intriguing conversationalist, but i was equally fascinated by the fact that she guessed my donut preference perfectly ...

... escaped from "area 51," perhaps ... ??? ...

... there's sixty years or more history here ...

... on the post office fence railing, a tease of a story ... try as hard as i could, however, the plot still eluded me ...

... pants ... waiting ...

... walking along i suddenly felt someone was looking at me ... i turned, searched about with my eyes, then freaked a tiny bit when i saw her ...

... little tomatoes, right on main street ... it was difficult with these to stick to black and white, but then i noticed the stars ...

... on an exterior wall that used to be interior, the imprint of a building long gone ...

... chris, one of the authors ... his is a most interesting face ...

... i wasn't the only person strolling gardiner's main street today ...

... i'm sure more will do so tomorrow ...


September 6, 2017

MAKING MY OWN MEDICINE

... feeling more'n a bit—well, i'll not go into the specifics ... in another part of my life i would've buried it all inside me, not allowing the world to see what was going on ... truth be told, i always thought this was what everyone else was doing, too ...

... instead, of the many mechanisms i've learned, i called a good friend, "want to go for a little wanderabout with me up to bangor" ... john said yes, if for no other reason than he is a good friend, and we were off ... in downtown bangor, a visual geometry i've always enjoyed, we strolled about with our cameras ...

... i like the three-dimensional detail on old buildings, something that is rather rare in modern times ...

... just a streetlight, but, for me, something external upon which to focus vision ...

... two versions ... without explaining the technical reasons, i'm curious to know which of these you most prefer ...

... one of the many tiny moments from which a city's day is comprised ...

 ... little things, so important to take notice ...

... i watched him maneuver through the center of bangor, and i wondered if the little cart he pushed was his home ... i thought of my own home, and, in no way forming a judgment about him because i know that's something i'm not worthy to do, i remembered how incredibly lucky i am ... 

... red ... red-red-red ... of the finest of reds i've ever seen ...

... he was taking a break ... with a quick snap i was off my break ...

 ... on main street, jenny, a famous actress [she was in a movie john has seen, which for me is good enough] ... i freely and without reservation admit that, to say the least, i was captively charmed ...

... in the olden patrick times this could've been a not-so-good day, but, friend and camera and a bit of wandering, i'm rather proud i could find the things that made it good—very, very good, indeed ...

September 1, 2017

I WATCH THEM BUILD A B-17

... after doing a bit of research on the web, i decided to wander back over to urbana to visit the "champaign aviation museum" ...

... i'd become intrigued reading that at the tiny airport near the edge of the city "a b-17 flying fortress bomber is being built" ... as i walked into the hanger i was, to put it mildly, stunned ... taken from an angle i couldn't quite manage, here from their website (hopefully they won't mind) is a picture that gives a good impression of the scale of the museum's project ...
COURTESY CHAMPAIGN AVIATION MUSEUM
... i learned that somewhere around 90% of this aircraft is being built or machined by hand ... if you understand the nature of these machines, since all the parts are designed to be repaired or replaced, when finished this b-17 will qualify as a "repaired" aircraft ...

... up front, i will apologize for not remembering names ... at first i easily kept track, but, after the first hour, i'd met so many friendly people that it became clear to me i should've taken notes ... (anyone reading is in the know, by all means, i will most graciously accept editorial help) ... this gentleman was carefully sanding smooth the edges of a tiny structural member ... he worked on this one piece the entire time i was in the museum ... i asked him, "how many of these do you have to make" ... 

... "oh, dozens and dozens of them"

... they've been working on this aircraft for ten years ...

... rivet holders, ready for "rosie the riveter" ...

... each piece has to be formed exactly as to the design plans ...

... as a teacher it was pure joy to me when i saw this level of concentration ...

... one of the plane's flaps, i think ...

... the framework for a "nacelle," the torpedo-shaped structure that will hang off the front of the wing holding one of the huge radial engines ...

... there are hundreds of volunteers working on this aircraft ... considering that during world war 2 tens of thousands of women were involved in building airplanes, ships, and other machines which had traditionally been considered "men's work," it was nice to see this woman carrying on the tradition of "rosie the riveter" ...

... how i so remember this process from my time in the service ... each piece of aluminum has to be corrosion protected ... here, i believe, the parts have been anodized and are now being coated with zinc-chromate paint ...

... of the tens of thousands of pieces which must be built, inspected, and ultimately assembled into an aircraft that is going soar into the air ...

... every part has to be laboriously reconstructed ...

... this huge box contains the design plans for just the plane's radio room ...

... wright r-2600 "twin cyclone" 14-cylinder radial engine, which can produce over 1,600 horsepower ... fully loaded a b-25 had a horsepower-to-weight ratio of about 1/10 ... my hyundai's is only 1/25 ... !!! ... these airplanes could scream ... !!! ...

... within a few minutes of walking into the hanger paul (?) walked up to me and proceeded to guide me though the entire facility ... after about a half hour or so he apologized, "i've got to leave, i've something scheduled" ... having learned so much from him, and knowing there was so much more to discover, i was sad to see him go ...

... the "norden bombsight" ... using this unbelievably complex analog computer, the bombardier of the plane could take over control of the aircraft and, as was advertised, "from 20,000 feet drop a bomb into a pickle barrel" ... unfortunately, for the hundreds of thousands of people who lived near the targets this never turned out to be true ... when i was a kid the pictures of world war 2 bombers still had this bombsight blacked out ... during the war it was so secret that the bombardiers had orders that in the event of a possible crash landing they were to destroy it even if it meant risking their own lives ... of course, after the war we learned that it was well before pearl harbor the germans had already stolen the plans for the bombsight ...

... the tail gunner's position is almost complete ...

... there are other aircraft at the museum ... this is the cockpit of a c-47 (military variant of the legendary dc-3) ...

... probably first fighting off claustrophobia, from this rather utilitarian metal tube soldiers parachuted into combat in all theatres of world war 2 ...

... designed and built during world war 2 as the douglas aircraft  a-26 invader" (later, rather confusing, given the same nomenclature, b-26, as that of totally different bomber, the martin aircraft "marauder"), this particular plane survived a long career as a fire bomber and is now being stored for eventual restoration ... in my opinion the a-26 is one of the most beautiful twin-engined piston aircraft ever built ...

... as i wandered around meeting the volunteers and learning about the the b-17 they are building, i noticed that at the other side of the hanger the b-25 mitchell bomber was being pre-flighted ...

... it seems they were "taken her up for a little spin" ... after a great deal of preparation the mighty engines burst to life ...

 ... as i waited by the hanger for it to take-off one of the ground crew drove up in a little golf cart and said, "hop in, i'll take you out for a closer look" ... he brought me right to edge of the active taxiway ... i didn't have the proper "super-duper" lens to do justice to the scene, so i decided to see if i could do a bit of "recreating" of my own ...

... i've been to aviation museums all over the world ... every chance i get i enjoy wandering the expansive air & space museum in washington, d.c. ... this trip to ohio, i made yet another visit to the air force's huge museum in dayton ... but, square-foot-for-square-foot, the champaign is hands down the most fascinating aviation museum i have ever visited ... if i lived close-by i would most excitedly sign-up to be a part of it ...