Delectare

Yesterday Sara and I did some work in the yard - pulling weeds, trimming hedges, etc. I pulled out the crappy tree stump outside our back window, and Sara planted a blueberry bush in the hole. We also moved the apricot tree hidden behind the hedge into a sunnier spot next to the house, and put a rhodie in it’s old spot. It’s much more suited to the shade of the hedge than the dwarf apricot was.

I tore out some more blackberries from the fence line, and made arrangements with Sara’s moms to replace the shared segment of fence in the back corner. We’ll probably end up doing it a few weeks in advance of the rest of the fence just because of dog issues. I’m looking forward to getting all the blackberries torn out. I just need someplace to put the debris…

It’s the time of year when the first bulbs start to poke their flowered heads above the ground, and the trees begin to show the first signs of a return to life. Even the bugs are coming back. For some reason all the life in our yard so far is out front. It’s so nice to see, I had to take a few pictures. And since this blog is (as I’ve said) a thinly veiled pretext for linking to my pictures, here they are.

In somewhat related news, I have new love for color management and new hate for applications that don’t properly honor color profiles. It’s never been a real big issue for me before, but the ladybug in these pics is supposed to be fire-engine red. It looks correct in Lightroom and Safari, but every other browser I’ve tried - including Firefox 3 Beta 3 with color profile support enabled - makes it look all orangey. It’s probably my LCD’s fault, but it doesn’t look correct on Windows under any application. If you’re reading this on a Mac and not in Safari, I recommend that you switch over and check out the pictures in it. I’m not going to tell you use it any more than that - I think it’s a worthless browser otherwise - but give it a try. Here’s the difference I see between Safari and Firefox.

After work today, Sara and I gathered up a few friends and headed to hills in hopes of getting a good look at the eclipse. After realizing what a nice clear night it was, we changed plans and drove to the top of Kelly Butte in downtown Springfield. We arrived in time to chase off a number of aging hippies and their uncontrolled dog who were celebrating the event by toking up in the middle of the park. After that things became a little more family-friendly, with a number of parents bringing their children out to check things out.

Dylan brought his telescope and some awesome lenses. I on the other hand didn’t even manage to remember my tripod, but Dylan was nice enough to loan me his manual-focus 200mm lens and use of his tripod. I’m sure he got some awesome shots with his giant reflector lens and telescope adapter. Leo and Sara hung out and took turns peering through the telescope at the moon and stars… we even got it pointed at some nebula, and I got to see Saturn for the first time. Pictures are great, but to see the rings with your naked eye is just something else entirely.

Well, we made it out and back safely, and had lots of fun in between! It snowed pretty much all weekend, and Kyle managed to do some dumb things with his car. That’s about all I have to say for now, here are pics:

Also:


Indeed, I have been busy.

Sara and I take our Groundhog’s Day celebrations very seriously, and are accompanying some friends out to eastern Oregon this weekend for some quality time with about three and a half feet of snow. We’re heading out after work, and will probably take 58 down and then 97 back up north to Sunriver. Alternate travel plans would take us out 126 to 20, but that’s just been reopened following two avalanches within a 1-mile stretch, which is somewhat unsettling. I’m sure they wouldn’t reopen it unless it was totally safe, but hey… the snow is still falling.

Anyhow, Sara’s parents are all pretty concerned about us driving at night in these conditions, even though we’ll be with friends in their AWD Subarus, carrying chains, etc. I’m sure my parents (mom at least) will be concerned too once they find out

Wish us luck, and say Hi to Phil for us if you see him. We should have internets out there, maybe I’ll post something up once we arrive.