PowerShots, Rainy Days and Biased Wagging

This is my favorite PowerShot yet. I think it was one where
I just hit the shutter to keep the camera from doing its
automatic shutdown thing. I'm pretty sure it's trees by the
side of the road, but it looks like water in one of the gorges
around here. Neat!



Note to self. Don't deploy the SunroofCam when it's
raining out.



Yesterday, I established a new mileage record, 33.0 mpg,
on the downhill commute. When I got Pablo Passat, I saw
the mileage indicator, and I thought, who the hell needs one
of those. But I slowly became obsessed with it. There was an
article in either Harpers or Mother Jones recently about
'hyper-milers', people who get 70 mpg or more out of stock
Hondas. They use insane and dangerous techiques, like severely
tailgating semi's, turning their engine off, and letting the trucks
draft pull them along.

Little known, or rather, recently discovered fact. I read it in
the New York Times, so it has to be true. Somebody did a fair
amount of research and discovered that, if a dog likes you, or
another dog, its tail will wag predominantly to the right. If they
don't like you, the wag tilts to the left. So far, the three dogs I've
observed seem to like me. Odd. (Not that they like me, but
that their wagging is definitely biased to the right.)

I have almost two weeks of vacation time that I have to burn by the
end of June or else I lose them. So I'm taking every Friday off, and
have to find another week in there. Nice problem to have, I guess.

ToosDay

Not an auspicious morning. But we eventually got
some sun. Rain tomorrow. Looking forward to taking
some rainy day photos.



SunroofCam shot of the Cornell campus taken on my way
into work. You can't really make it all out, but there is a
fair amount of construction going on. Take, for instance,
that yellow blotch. I don't even know what it is, but I
assume we're raising money to pay for it.



Just so you understand. The SunroofCam is not infallible.



I dunno, I kinda like this one. I'm one block away from the
parking garage, I haven't had my coffee yet, this is more
or less how the world registers.



Who is the apparition in the window?

Monday

A pink tree at the Lincoln Street Diner. Never ate there.
Like their tree.



A SunroofCam shot of Ithaca Falls taken on the way home.



Let's take the long way home, up the lake on the way to the
FedEx outlet.




Two shots of my favorite store in Ithaca, Ludgate Farms.
They sell mostly organic and/or locally grown food. The
floor is gravel. The staff is friendly. This is the kind of store
that is gradually disappearing. But, given the Wall of Fire
(salsa and hot sauce), and the fact that we live in the
People's Republic of Ithaca, makes me optimistica that it will
live on.

A weekend with The Mickster

This weekend, we have been playing host to Mickey, a dog belonging to one of Rosemary's co-workers, who has found himself with five dogs. Apparently four dogs is a workable number, but five is too many. So we offered a weekend of 'respite'. Me, I think one dog is rather a handful, but I can see making the leap to two. I think it's positive for a dog to have a friend/companion/co-conspirator/partner-in-crime. Or mostly so - because the 'crimes' are not always fun to clean up after . Certainly Mickey and Ellie have managed to wear each other out, and that is a good thing. On the other hand, they seem to exult in chasing each other into and out of the pond - the bottom picture is of a mostly cleaned up/hosed down Ellie.

Towels are in short supply around here.

Is Ellie going to get a brother or sister?

Maybe.

Possibly.

Probably?

We have another dog lined up for a potential weekend visit - I forget the precise particulars of the backstory, but it involves a family with a husband going to Iraq, new construction, a family living in a small trailer during construction, and a dog. And we continue to monitor the various Britany rescue sites. Anyway, there is a concept brewing for Doggy Day Care/Weekend Spa. We now have such a great facility and Ellie is very welcoming of other dogs (although she has an instigative streak in her - she's not all honey and lilacs) that it seems a natural thing to do.

Misty Morning Hop/The SunroofCam

The misty morning hop shots were taken Friday 5/11 at 5:47 am. I have no idea how or why I was awake at 5:47 am, but, apparently I was.

A post or two earlier, I mentioned how much I was enjoying the freedom that digital photography offers, in that, once you've bought the camera, all the pictures are free. I said something like, "I could just drive down the road and stick the camera up out of the sun roof and click away at random and if I get 90% crap, who cares." Interesting idea, actually. So here are the first installments of the Sunroof Cam series . First we have a snap of Cayuga Lake from Rte 13 and then a shot I really like of Ithaca Falls. It makes it seem more hidden than it really is...


Once again, blogspot is just making a mess of the layout. I have the access to edit the HTML, and in theory ought to be able to wrestle this into conformity. but my knowledge of HTML is...imperfect.

YAY!!!! I just remembered, today, aside from being Mothers Day is Bruce's Official Last Possible Day of Winter Day. On May 11th of either 1977 or 78, I remember shovelling a foot of snow off the driveway, a week after having spent a long, leisurely but energetic afternoon playing tennis in 70 degree weather. And we have had snow nearly as late here in Ithaca, though the exact date escapes memory. But starting on May 12, I Feel Safe for the next six months.