I started carrying my Panasonic Lumix G3 a week or so ago. I have one micro-4/3’s lens, so I adapt something to the camera. In this case it was a 50/1.4 Fujian closed circuit camera lens. This lens is pretty soft wide open, but the center is acceptably sharp and the lack of edge sharpness gives the images a vintage look.
I liked the play of light at the intersection of Steward and Fifth Streets the other evening. So I made a couple of captures. This one has an interesting feel to it.
The Girl is home now and recovering. She had a rough couple of days, which required spending some time in hospital.
I noticed last Thursday that she seemed off. She didn’t eat her breakfast, which is not completely unusual, but relative rare. Then while I was in a meeting, she vomited some grass she had eaten. Again, that was not completely unusual, if relatively rare. (She is a grazer and usually just passes the grass.)
Friday she again acted oddly, not wanting her breakfast although we had a nice walk. I noticed that she didn’t seem interested in food or water as well. I worried over her much of the night and she asked to go out several times.
Saturday morning she seemed lethargic and uninterested in much. When offered a walk, we went part way (just a hundred yards or so) before she expelled a very watery stool. She refused water when I offered it, licking a little from my fingers but refusing to drink.
I called the vet and took her in to the urgent care clinic. He checked her over, found nothing obvious, and recommended supportive care and some testing.
I left her in his care. When he called later in the day, he reported that she had an ileus with a lot of inflammation and bloating. He would continue supportive care, hoping the hydration would reduce the inflammation and restore some of the function of her gastrointestinal tract. I could tell he was really concerned for her.
Sunday he called with news that there was some improvement, but that she was still not eating, lethargic, and not interested in water (of course not, with the hydration). That evening I called and he reported that she had eaten a little, the inflammation was down quite a lot, and there was no physical blockage.
Monday she was much improved, eating a little and happy. By the afternoon he indicated that supportive care was no longer needed and that she should come home. That made me very happy. So I retrieved the Girl and brought her home.
But I learned she was still very sick. I coaxed her into drinking water by adding a little juice from a can of chicken to it. I also convinced her to eat a little by adding some canned food to her kibbles (or rather, some kibbles to canned food) and adding a little chicken juice to that). She slept the rest of the day and much of Tuesday.
But Tuesday evening she asked for food and I noticed that she had taken water from her bowl. So I fed her (sweetening the kibbles again) and refilled her water bowl. Tuesday night she wanted to sleep with me again. But OMG was she noxious! Whatever was disturbing her system made some very nasty gas!
And then this morning she acted much better. She again asked for food and to go out. After I fed myself, she asked to go walk. So I took her out to Riverview Park for a walk. The park is still in rough condition, but it’s walkable. There is less risk of her picking up some toxin out there, at least in my opinion.
I think there is a good chance she picked up a toxin while we walked here in town. Perhaps one of the lawns was treated with pesticide or herbicide. Perhaps another animal was sick. But my suspicion is that she picked up something on our walks. Therefore, I’m going to be more careful with where we go and what she nibbles on.
This has to be the tenth pair of Merrel Moab Ventilator boots I’ve worn out. I wear out a pair or two of the three-season boots every year. I wear out another pair of the wet/cold-season boots every year.
I walk a lot. These are decent boots. At their price point, they are difficult to beat. They fit my feet well. They provide some arch support. They are reasonably grippy on the surfaces I encounter. They are cool enough on hot days and perfect on warm days.
I keep two pairs active much of the time. I rotate them so they have a chance to dry after a walk. After about six months the older pair is retired and a new pair brought into use. They break in after a week or so. Then I work both pairs until the older pair is sufficiently worn to retire it and bring a new pair of boots into rotation.
I don’t particularly like new boots (until they are broken in). But they are necessary and these work for me.
I wanted something I could shoot here in town on walkies. There are many open areas where it is safe to shoot a slingshot and there is no prohibition in the Carson City Ordinances (at least that I could find). No one has hassled me about it (yet).
Shooting a slingshot is a marksmanship skill. It requires good eye-hand coordination and an understanding of marksmanship. So it’s good practice for me.
This slingshot has a large palm swell. It’s a bit big for my hands, but still manageable. It is the first time I installed double bands. They are quite powerful and too much for .38 caliber shot. If I use that size shot, I get a lot of hand slap from the excess energy in the bands. However, .44 caliber shot works much better. There is enough mass in the larger shot to use up the bands’ energy.
I will eventually get a chronograph so I can measure shot speed. (It will also be useful when I start handloading centerfire cartridges later this year or early in 2018.) I’m curious how much energy the slingshot can produce.
In any event, this is fun and I’m enjoying the focus required to shoot it.
Saturday morning I decided to take The Girl and go walk the Mexican Dam Trail. It was a beautiful Saturday morning, even if I bit warm because I dallied too long over my coffee. But it wasn’t yet hot and their was enough breeze to be comfortable.
I was surprised by the amount of water still in the Carson River. The fields of the Silver Saddle Ranch looked good, so they are getting plenty of water this season. In fact, one field was mowed and there were bales of hay waiting to be picked up.
That brought back memories of working in the hayfield with FiL. That was good work and the companionship of FiL still brings a smile. Those memories…
I think I might take a tripod out to the river and get some extended footage. I could easily make a short video of that trail and the cottonwoods that grow along the corridor. I love being in the shade of those old trees and I love the sound of birds calling and moving about.
The Girl and I decided to walk the Riverview Park trails a couple of weeks ago. I expected that repairs were not complete and I was right. However, sturdy walkers continue to hike the “trails” and enjoy the park.
Carson River is still near bankfull. I moved here in 2007 and have never seen this much water. There is still snow in the Sierra Nevada. Jobs Peak (and sister, and Mount Rose) all have snow on them.
We were not able to walk the trail down to Empire Golf Course like I wanted to. There is too much damage, or at least too much water in the pot holes, for an attempt on our last visit.
I’m tempted to go walk the trail early in the morning. I might be able to bushwhack around the pots and regain access to the trail that runs along the perimeter of Empire Golf Course. I miss walking that trail, as much as I like our regular routes here in town that do not require a trip in the 4Runner.
After the flooding from last winter, I have walked past this little detention pond a number of times. Each time I pause and wonder whether this was a design failure or an implementation failure.
They built a very nice rip-rap lined spillway along the left side of this image. However, when the pond filled and overflowed, the discharge passed along the left side of the sidewalk. Until recently, when it was repaired, there was a large rill that was scoured by the flow.
When I pass, I pause and shake my head a bit. I’m really glad this isn’t a large reservoir. That would be catastrophic.
Yesterday on walkies I carried my slingshot and was practicing shooting at found objects. (I followed the four safety rules, of course.)
This morning I discovered that one of my favorite pens, a baby blue Fisher Bullet Pen, was missing from my pocket. I had it clipped to the edge of my left slash pocket. I carried shot loose in the bottom of that pocket.
Apparently, while retrieving shot from my pocket, I snagged my Bullet Pen and released the clip. It fell to the ground without me noticing.
I decided to walk my route, which I probably would have done anyway, just in case I might walk across my missing pen.
Have I said that I hate losing things? I’m still looking for a lost/misplaced 12-ft tape measure that I’ve had for 40 years.
Well, as Lady Luck would have it, I walked up to my missing Bullet Pen. I’m surprised someone else didn’t pick it up because it really stood out.
I moved it to my left cargo pocket, where it will live with a few spare poop bags, my Olloclip auxiliary lens, and my pocket flashlight.
Lesson learned…
It was a rough couple of weeks for the Girl (and of course for me was well). She healed quickly after her surgery. Yes, the mass was a soft tissue sarcoma, but it was low grade and the margins were clear. She has a 15-percent chance of recurrence. I’ll take it.
I made the image on the day we returned so her sutures could be removed. I can do it, but the clinic gets pissy about it if I do. [Heh…] Her wounds were healing nicely and we were released to normal activity again.
However, that afternoon she seemed sick. Her symptoms were coughing and gagging and she ate more grass than usual. I was concerned.
She was not better the next day, refused to go walk, didn’t want any food, and seemed really off. So I called the vet and we returned for the urgent-care clinic that evening (at 1600h).
The vet found nothing obviously wrong and gave me a plethora of diagnosis/treatment options. I elected to go with some supportive care, left the Girl there, and returned to pick her up later in the evening.
She seemed better that Friday (a week ago), so I thought we had passed the worst of it. However, over the weekend I noticed she still wasn’t acting normal. Something was just off.
I struggled with the decision to return to the vet for another visit. It was partly cost and partly the uncertainty that anything definitive would be determined. I hate spending money on medical care with a null outcome. (I have a long history of spending money on medical care with no outcome.) So I thought I’d wait until the weekend passed and see if her condition changed.
Monday came and she refused to walk again. We walked to the mailbox and back, then I drove us up to the old orphanage and we walked the site. She was not feeling well. She kept me up most of the night wanting to go out and just feeling miserable. But, early in the morning she vomited up a bone shard (that I had not seen her eat) about the size of a half-dollar coin.
I thought that might be the problem. So I decided to wait until after the 4th of July holiday to see if another vet call was required.
By Wednesday she was her usual self once again — pestering me to go walkies, asking for play, asking for treats, eating normally, and generally being the pain-in-the-ass that I love.
Her wounds are mostly healed. The rough patches of scar tissue receded. Her fur is growing back (what little of it there is), albeit slowly. She is back to telling me what I want, once again, like most of the women in my life.
It was a rough few weeks. It was horribly expensive, in terms of money, time, and energy. But my constant companion is healthy and happy again. Life is good.
I recently purchased a slingshot (catapult in other locales). It is partly a toy and partly a part of my preparedness kit. I bought mine from Simple-Shot Shooting Sports, after spending some time reading reviews and watching YouTube videos.
It is a simple device, comprised of a set of thermoplastic frame, elastic bands, a pouch to hold the shot, and some means for fastening bands to frame. The Ocularis uses an interesting friction-fit connection that is fast, easy to set, and simple to adjust for optimum band length.
It is an improvement on the slingshots I built 50-some-years ago when I was a teenager. Back then, I harvested a fork from the olive trees across from my suburban home, which I then trimmed. I fastened bands from store-bought rubber bands my mom provided. I scavenged a pouch from old jeans or other heavy material.
I learned to double-up the bands to get more strength from the system. The tie was a simple larkshead knot on the frame. The same for the pouch.
Shot was mostly found materials, usually rocks in the half-inch size range. I preferred nicely-rounded stones which were plentiful in the Southern California desert. Targets were targets of opportunity — cans, bottles, fence posts, errant pigeons, and whatever. We didn’t shoot each other with the devices.
My new slingshot provides a lot of focus and fun without having to make a range trip for more potent weapons. The Girl accommodated the band “snap” on release quickly and is no longer spooked when I release a shot. Successful shots require skill and I can practice on walkies without having to worry about my shots hitting unintended targets. The maximum range of the slingshot is not more than a couple hundred feet and most of the energy is spent on the sandy soil so I’m not worried about bounces traveling far beyond my target.
This is fun. It’s practical. It’s cheap. It’s better to be outside than at the computer.