Day 60 - Real fast time

Ever wonder about a nanosecond? It is the time it takes for an electrical signal to travel through about 1 foot of wire - the length of the wires in front of my keyboard. Back in the 60's (last century) this was becoming a BIG problem. I heard Grace Hopper (a mathematician, computer scientist and Navy admiral) speak about nanoseconds sometime in the 70's. She carried a piece of wire with her to illustrate the point that the old designs for computers were being restricted by the time it took signals to travel through the wires. Thanks to miniaturization, that PC or laptop you are using to see this is not the size of several file cabinets and can do the billions of calculations required to display this blog in a few seconds.

Day 59 - Bed time for Zoey

Zoey thinks bedtime is immediately after mealtime. Usually she curls up in a dining room chair, but tonight she curled up on the bed we call Granddaughter's bed. She will probably join us when we go to bed.

Day 58 - Shopping time

Frederick's 50 year old shopping center had a face lift last year, with a new facade and roofline. This clock sits atop the Staples at the entrance. It also added a few new stores, most notably (for us) a Bonefish Grill.

Day 57 - Time to pay the MVA

Every other year the Maryland Motor Vehicle Adminstration wants a chunk of change to let us keep the van on the road. Our time is March and the $$$ doubled since last time!

Day 56 - Beyond time for repair

Time has by-passed this house "up the road a piece" from us.

Day 55 - The measure of it all

As a follow-up to the PhotoHunt post yesterday, I decided to show you some measuring tools. The metal ones are "store bought"; the wooden ones were bought at tool auctions. Below are 3 examples of rules commonly used by carpenters: a 2 ft. folding rule (oldest), a 6 ft. folding rule and a 20 ft. measuring tape (newest). Notice the hinges on the 2 ft. rule - it folds into a 6 in x 1in x 0.25 in package. (I have not yet bought into the laser devices.)

PhotoHunt - Wooden

Here are some old wooden tools I collected at farm auctions some years back. Shown are a scribe and several molding planes. I have used a few of them sparingly, but they all were well used by the time I bought them.

Day 54 - Small icicles

We still have some icicles left from the snow and ice Thursday night. The flag will stay for another few weeks.

Day 53 - Pointed colors

These push pins sit on the kitchen cabinet under our bulletin board awaiting an old fashioned post. On this gray day, I found the colors intriguing.

Day 52 - After the eclipse (revised)

After I posted the pictures below, I decided to try my recurring theme "rear window view" in moonlight. The above was taken from my ground level office. To the left of the bird bath and on the other side of the fence is a deer. There were 15 of them grazing in the snow-covered field.

I took these pictures from our dining room window a little before 1:00 AM EST. The snow had stopped, the sky cleared and the eclipse was over. Looking up I got some reflection from the window in the picture of the moon through the trees. Below is the shadow of the same tree on the snow. I set the camera on my tripod and let it do the exposure automatically (about 6 seconds). I did go out earlier to see the eclipse at about the half-way point, but did not want to set up the tripod in the snow.

Day 51 - Study in blue and white

Another close-up: this time the snow on the blue tarp that covers our wood pile. I had not noticed the woven pattern in the tarp until this picture. I can not get the same detail that gawdess did in her Feb 15 picture.


Update on "The Awakening"
Today is moving day for the statue. It was being loaded on trucks to be moved about 5 miles down the Potomac and re-installed next to the river at the National Harbor.

Day 50 - Moon and trees

As I was driving home this afternoon, the sun was setting and the moon was already up. This was taken from our backyard looking over the neighbors' trees.

Day 49 - Small things in the yard

Karin's suggested Project 365 topic for this week is tiny, meaning use your macro setting. I wandered around the yard today and found these. The dogwood buds will bring us pink flowers in April, the brown weeping maple leaf will be replaced by new reddish leaves, the acorn will be food for the squirrel and the onion is the first (of many!) weed to be pulled from the flower bed.

Day 48 - Shadow of time

I was experimenting with lighting with this clock that sits on the shelf over my monitor. The clock was a parting gift when I left one company back in the nineties.

PhotoHunt - Free

The picture above is the United States Air Force Memorial, which was dedicated in 2006. We are free because we have had, and continue to have, dedicated men and women serve our nation in times of war. I thank them for their service and sacrifice to our nation. The picture below shows where many who gave the ultimate sacrifice now rest and the last picture is where many work to keep us free.

Arlington National Cemetery

The Pentagon with Washington, DC in the background

Day 47 - The Awakening

This unusual statue has rested at the tip of Hains Point for the past 27 years, on loan to the US Park Service by the sculptor, J. Seward Johnson, Jr. It is a 100-foot statue of a giant embedded in the earth, struggling to free himself. We were fascinated by it when it was installed and have been back from time to time. Hains Pt. is just a few feet above the Potomac River and occasionally floods. There have been fantastic photos of the statue reaching out of the warter and snow. Last year Mr. Seward sold the statue to the developer of National Harbor, a new development just a few miles down the Potomac from its current location. Next week it will be removed from Hains Pt. and relocated. I wanted one last chance to photograph The Awakening and so traveled down to DC today for the shots you se here.

Day 46 - Old fountain?

Late this afternoon I went back to Carroll Creek for today's pictures. This will be a recurring subject in my efforts to photograph the world around me this year. This picture was taken from the walkway along the creek. What do you think it is? Here is a close-up view.

And a side view.

The whole structure around the Carroll Street bridge over the creek is a mural. The artist was William M. Cochran and the mural was a community project which is described on this web site. Here is another detail of the wall. You can almost feel the joints between the stone blocks.

There are other examples of Mr Cochran's work in Frederick. I'll share some later in Project 365.

Day 45 - My valentine

Here's the love of my life, capturing the pixels to share with all of you! In her hands, these pixels become a beautiful picture. Happy Valentines Day Marianne and the rest of you around the world.

Day 44 - Birds in ice

Yesterday's sleet and freezing rain left us with another coating of ice. It made for some beautiful scenes ( and some downed trees and slick streets in some areas). The birds had a hard time finding the acorns today.

Day 43 - Primary election today?

Usually there is a crowd of supporters handing out flyers for their candidates - today none. The other candidates didn't even have signs. Turnout was light in our little town, though there are reports of heavier turnout in other areas around DC.

Day 42 - A bird and a bag in a bush

Just an observation, no political statement implied. On windy days like yesterday, bits and pieces of plastic and paper (sometime a whole Washington Post) get redistributed around the neighborhood.

Answer to David from Melbourne

David posed this question on his blog: "Does your family read your blog?" and asked for answers on our own blogs.

My answer is that some of my family read my blog regularly, others read occasionally and others haven't said. My wife reads Lew's Pics regularly and usually finds my typo's before many of you get to see them (see item 18 in her list of 100 things). My blog is mainly a daily sharing of my view of the world through the lens of a camera. I just started blogging this year, though I have read Marianne's and other blogs in the past.

If any of you have not seen David McMahon's blog, it is worth a visit. He is an excellent photographer and writer and takes pictures that are both beautiful and unusual. His camera and observations cover a part of the world most of us never see.

Day 41 part 2 - Windy

It was windy today - nothing like you folks down through the mid-south got recently, but the flag was flapping hard. Update after the 11PM news: there some trees down, power outages and fires in the DC, MD and VA area as a result of the 50-60 mph wind. No damage at our house.

Day 41 part 1 - Sunny side of the tree

I went out in the yard late this afternoon just as the sun was hitting the maple full force. A nice warm sight for a cold, windy day.

PhotoHunt - Heavy splitting to do

In May, 2006, our next door neighbor had to have a large oak removed because one side of it was dying. Since he did not have a fireplace, he offered the wood to us. The tree guy was happy to not have to haul it away. So we have free firewood for a couple years and a lot of free exercise! The log on the right is about 2 feet across and we have some larger ones!

Day 40 - A little narcism today

As I went out to get the paper, I was greeted with a thin coating of sleet on the van. Ampersand's photos inspired me to try a reflection portrait.

Late in the afternoon, I tried another self portrait with the sun setting behind me. Note that some of the reflections (white post) are actually inside or on the other side of the van.

Day 39 - Misplaced barn?

Actually not, it was there first. The housing development surrounded the farm and the farmhouse. They actually built a gas station (since abandoned) in the front yard of the old house.

Day 38 - And the clouds keep on rolling

This was supposed to be our sunny day this week - so said our local TV meteorologist! Early morning looked like this
and early afternoon had some blue among the clouds

and midafternoon (Marianne quickly got her shadow picture)

and later, the sun peeked under the clouds to catch the distant farm

while setting through the clouds!

Day 37 - Rusty visits our deck

Marianne has named our resident squirrel "Rusty". (No name for his mate yet.) He had just buried a walnut in the flower bed next to the deck and was checking the deck for acorns.

Day 36 - Lines in wood

Marianne found three wooden squares with different patterns which now hang in our rec. room. This is a close-up of one of them.

Day 35 - Thin wet line

In the gray, wet morning, I got this close-up of the fence in our back yard. (see day 32 for another view)