The Spooner Trail

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This is a view of a segment of the old fire road that The Girl and I walk most summer mornings. Captured with TG-7, 2025-06-05 08:35:12, 4.5mm, 1/640sec, f/2.8, ISO-100, SOOC.

We are back from morning walkies. As usual, we walked the old fire rood up near Spooner Summit in the National Forest. I have yet to see a snake there in the summer. Last year and the year before, there w as a wily coyote that I saw some yards off a few times. But, that critter has not been seen in a long time. I think I can say there is sufficient traffic that they keep away from the area where there are people.

The Girl has lots of chipmunks to chase and has reduced the gene pool a few times. While I do not encourage her to kill things and would prefer she did not, she is a high drive dog who loves to hunt. There are a lot of chipmunks in the area. I even see a gray squirrel now and again, but only for a moment.

Today I chatted with Older Son while hiking with The Girl. After her vet visit Friday, I have decided that her leg is about as good as it is going to be. She has no apparent reluctance to use it. The muscle of her left hip is filling in. She favors the leg a little in the afternoon after our hike, but does not seem to be any worse for wear. She might as well enjoy life and the chase is a big part of her enjoyment.

Who am I to say “No!” to that?

So, I let her range out 30 yards this morning. If she got out farther than that, I recalled her and she was good to return, although sometimes some encouragement was required. I paused once about half-way to the turn-around to give her some water (and drink a little myself). Then we took five at the turn-around, again to water and take a short break (“Smoke ’em if ya got ’em!”)

I kept her closer on the return route to the rig. She was a little overheated and had expended a lot of energy. So, it was appropriate. She did not seem to mind much, and got a couple of little bursts in anyway.

She also was good to call off if I ordered “Leave it!”. We returned home, still chatting with Older Son and ready to settle in for the afternoon. I might go get some lunch today or I might go roast some more hot dogs.

Then I have to get some work done before my week starts for real tomorrow.

It is a good day. I love spending time with The Girl and talking to my son. Life is good.

New NATO Band

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Omega Speedmaster Triple Date Reduced, on my wrist, with a new black and silver seatbelt nylon NATO, Captured with TG-7, 2025-07-26 12:08:33, 5.4mm, 1/40sec, f/2.3, ISO-800, SOOC.

I thought I ordered a 24mm NATO for a loaner Luminox watch. What arrived in today’s mail was a 18mm. I like the colorway of the band (black and silver), so I will keep it. It turns out that it fits my Speedy Triple Date reduced. So, I put it on the watch and then put the watch on my wrist.

I made the capture with the Olympus Tough TG-7 in macro mode. The flaking of the rhodium plating on the hands of my Speedy is evident. I will probably have them replaced when I next send the watch off for service. (I do not know when that might be.)

I think the colors go well with the watch. And, it gave me motivation to give the Seamaster a rest.

Life is good.

Daily Image — On the Trail

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I never tire of the scenery on our hikes up near Spooner Summit. Captured with TG-7, 2025-07-19 09:05:25, 18mm, 1/200sec, f/4.9, ISO-160, SOOC.

I decided to post something for the day. So, I selected an image captured over the weekend on one of our daily hikes. We mostly hike the National Forest fire road near Spooner Summit these days.

I did take The Girl to Carson River Park one day last week. It was a day where I was so slammed that I did not get out early to hike. Rather than hike in town, we went out to the rive so she could get into the water and cool off from the heat, which she did.

She also brought home a tick — a white-dot. I found it and removed it yesterday, to her dismay. (She does not like me to remove them.)

We will head out to hike a little later this morning. Although the Sun will warm her (and I will carry plenty of water), the temperature is not supposed to be as warm today so it will be pleasant up near 7,300 feet.

Life is good.

On the Trail

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I do not generally take selfies. I made this one for my loved ones. Captured with TG-7, 2025-07-08 10:15:14, 4.5mm, 1/200sec, f/2.8, ISO-100.

I have stated, many times, that I do not make many selfies. I know a lot of social media posters value these as documentation of having been someplace or in the middle of some event. But, I am not that kind of photographer.

Nonetheless, I make an occasional selfie for my loved ones. On the way back to the staging area, on our favorite trail near Spooner Summit, The Girl chased chipmunks and I made this self portrait.

It was a good hike and a good day. Life is good.

Focus Stacking

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The little Olympus Tough TG-7 has an internal program to do a macro focus stack. It works. Captured with TG-7, 2025-07-07 10:03:52, 5.4mm, 1/250sec, f/3.2, ISO-100.

The little Olympus Tough TG-7 gave me another surprise a few days ago. I knew about its capability to stack focus frames in-camera for macro photography. What I did not know is that it does it fairly well and takes only a moment.

The Girl and I were on our normal summer trail and I had the TG-7 in my hip pocket. I noticed the sun on the nut of the gate lock that keeps four-wheel traffic from the fire road.

“That might make an interesting image…”

I paused a minute, while The Girl snuffled about, and set the camera to macro focus-stacking. When I pressed the shutter release, I heard the camera take several frames in quick succession. It then flashed an image for a few seconds and returned to ready mode.

The frame is pretty darned good. I am surprised.

I wonder what other things this little camera does this well.

Life is good.

Omega 150th Seamaster Pro

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My Seamaster Pro 300 150th was returned from repair. A wrist check was appropriate. Captured with TG-7, 2025-07-03 09:04:13, 5.4mm, 1/640sec, f/3.2, ISO-100.

My Omega 150th Anniversary Seamaster Pro returned to me a couple of weeks ago. The bezel was “tweaked” and did not function correctly. The repair was expensive, but necessary for my mental health.

It has been on my wrist consistently since it returned, not on its titanium bracelet, but on a BluShark seatbelt nylon NATO strap. It is my favorite watch. I will probably wear it a lot.

The 150th was released in 1998 and there were 1,848 of them made available. There are lots of watch reviews out there about this particular piece. Therefore, I will not attempt a review. What I do think about the watch is that it is lighter than the standard Seamaster because of the titanium case. The wave dial is absolutely gorgeous and readily readable. The lume is generously applied and works very well. I have no issue reading the watch at night without my glasses.

Mine is running two or three seconds fast per day on my wrist. That is definitely chronometer accurate. (The watch is a chronometer.)

I think this is a forever watch.

I am grateful. Life is good.

Hobart Reservoir

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We hiked from the staging area at the top of Ash Canyon Trail down to Hobart Reservoir. The Girl played in the water a little. I came away with a couple of nice captures. Captured with TG-7, 2025-06-24 12:20:46, 4.5mm, 1/800sec, f/2.8, ISO-100.

A couple of weeks ago The Girl and I drove up Ash Canyon Trail for our daily outing. We hiked down to Hobart Reservoir just because I have not done that before and I wondered how the fishing might be.

It is a bit of a hump to get back up to the staging area, but readily doable. I wonder if there is a better place to park and hike in. I would try my hand a fishing the lake.

Fairview Avenue Grab Shot

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While walking The Girl one evening, I paused for this grab shot. Captured with X100VI, 2025-05-21 20:21:50, 23mm, 1/30sec, f/8, ISO-640, SOOC.

We have taken to a short walk about dusk most evenings. The little loop is about a half-mile long and gives The Girl an opportunity to purge a little energy and mark her usual spots along the path.

I usually carry a camera because I like this time of the day and often the light offers something. It did a few nights ago.

Life is good.

Carson City Sunset

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Sera and I did our short walk along our loop near the house this evening. We were treated to a lovely sunset. Captured with TG-7, 2025-07-03 19:35:54, 6.37mm, 1/80sec, f/2.5, ISO-100, light editing in Photolab 7.

I think I am recovering from an intense weekend for Field Day 2025. I have in mind to write an AAR for that outing as there were some strong lessons to be learned. We will see if I can get it done.

My log remains to be processed. I started on it before we returned home. Now I need to set aside time to finish it.

The Girl and I walked late this evening, just after sunset. It is cooling nicely in the evening here in Carson City and I love it. On our walk, we were treated to a lovely sunset.

Life is good. I am grateful

Remainders: 30 June 2025

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One the way back down the Ash Canyon Trail, I paused to make this image of Washoe Lake. Captured with TG-7, 2025-06-24 13:26:36, 5.79mm, 1/160sec, f/9, ISO-100.
  • This essay on options is very good.
  • The Pudding has a lot of interesting topics that are presented in such a unique fashion. It is worth a look.
  • I am working on my Linux computer again. The instructions for installing R are found here.
  • I found another (old) set of instructions that include R-Studio here.
  • I do not recall if I wrote about it, but I am working with an install of Linux Mint. It is used by a number of amateur radio operators whom I trust and Jason, KM4ACK, uses it as the base for his ham radio software distribution.
  • One of the issues I am faced with is migrating a long list of Evernote notes into my Linux system. Evernote has abandoned development for the Linux OS, so another software is going to be necessary. It might be Obsidian. I found a thread on migrating to Obsidian from Evernote here.
  • Another set of directions is found on the Obsidian website, here.
  • I have a copy of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights produced by National Center for Constitutional Studies. It is pocket sized and very well produced. It is recommended.
  • I added a contact page to my weblog using Contact Form 7.
  • I added a plugin to add data from the EXIF files in a digital image to add data to my photograph captions using EXIF Caption and EXIF Details.
  • The Professional Citizen Project has some good information for prepper types (and the curious).
  • Grayl makes excellent water filtration systems for hikers. They also make a pack system that looks interesting. This is serendipitous given I just wrote about my milsurp patrol pack.

Life is good!