Month: February 2014

Retro Tech

Timothy Price7 Comments

DSCF9092

In our reorganization, Laurie pulled out a lot of old equipment. This 4th Generation iPod and DLO iBoom are a couple of the gems we’ve had around for awhile because they are now obsolete for our purposes because we have newer computers and iPhones. While the Gen 4 iPod and iBoom are only 10 years old, they might as well be 100. The iPod/iBoom combination produces fine, loud audio, and has a nice retro tech look, but while Gen 5 and newer iPods and iPhones up to the iPhone 5 will plug into the dock on the iBoom, they will not play. I suspect they don’t have enough power to drive the system. The Gen 4 iPod is thick, clunky and power hungry compared to the thin, more elegant iPod touches and iPhones. So these classic pieces are now a retro tech couple, united until death does them part.

Catio Concrete

Timothy Price11 Comments

45CU2424

It’s not really concrete, but a cement top coat used for refinishing concrete surfaces. The refinishing cement is really intended for fairly smooth slabs, but the slab in the catio is very rough concrete, so getting a really smooth top coat didn’t happen.

A lone leaf decided it needed to break in the new cement floor, since I have the cats locked out of the catio while the cement cures. In the second photo, there are three dominant shades of gray. I mixed the first batch of cement following the instructions exactly, and the mixture ended up being too thick, so while it poured out of the bucket, it started setting up almost immediately, making it difficult to spread, and almost impossible to smooth as per the instructions (it’s the darkest shade of gray along the back wall).

I made the second batch soupier than the first, but I got it a little too soupy, so it spread thinner than I wanted it to (lighter shade of gray in the middle). On the third batch I got the mixture figured out so it spread well at the thickness I needed, and I was able to get it a little smoother (middle shade of gray in the foreground). I used the same mixture for the the next 8 batches needed to cover the entire slab. I also ended up spreading and smoothing the cement on my hands and knees with a hand trowel. Our air is so dry here, that even the wetter mixtures started setting up as soon as I poured them out of the bucket, making it difficult to spread with the 18 inch-wide cement spreader the instructions suggested I use.

While I was photographing the new floor, I noticed my little chainsaw and level on a bonsai shelf made a nice composition. The last two photos are the candles we have behind the couch in the sunroom unlit and lit.

45CU2427

 

45CU2429

 

45CU2428

 

45CU2432

 

 

Vida Loca

Timothy Price3 Comments

45CU2420

Around 4:00 PM, Di Anne came back with her lunch of fried platanos that she had picked up from one of the street vendors, and told me that there was a guy on the street with a snake I should photograph. I went out and found one of the street vendors who prints hats and T-shirts and makes jewelry packing up for the day. I asked if he had a snake and he said “yes” and motioned to his friend who brought out a healthy Ball Python. His artwork has a nice local flavor at very reasonable prices. He told me he is out selling his goods on Central Avenue most days.

45CU2418

 

45CU2421

Fashion Laur & Puzzle Cats

Timothy Price9 Comments

DSCF9134

Since the dance room/photo studio is still full of stuff from our reorganizing, I had to get a shot of Laurie in her cute outfit of the day as she was literally ready to step out the door. The cats were all stacked up like a puzzle on me when I woke up, and the house was so cold that after some effort to extract myself, the cats stayed in place locked together. Even Mama Manx, who is always spring loaded, and normally jumps off the bed from my slightest movement, held firm on the edge of the bed waiting for the heat to come on.

DSCF9127

 

Lithobius forficatus

Timothy Price4 Comments

IMG_1536

It’s the time of year the sugar ants start prowling the kitchen for anything we have left unsealed. With the reemergence of sugar ants comes a lot of other insects, arthropods, myriapods and arachnids — what most people refer to as creepy crawlers — and with this reawakening of the “creepy crawlers” out comes my macro lens.

Today’s photo is of a Lithobius forficatus, commonly known as the stone centipede. We have lots of these 30 legged centipedes in the garden where they stir around in the soil mostly under rocks and wood eating lots of pests. One pest that centipedes eat are roly-polys or pill bugs, which are actually crustaceans. I don’t know of other predators in the garden that eat roly-polys. For those of you who are herpetophobic or ophidiophobic, larger centipedes will kill and eat small snakes and lizards. Centipedes also eat spiders and insects.

IMG_1537

 

The Black Widow

Timothy Price25 Comments

IMG_1529

“And here, my prize, the Black Widow. Isn’t she lovely?…And so deadly. Her kiss is fifteen times as poisonous as that of the rattlesnake. You see her venom is highly neurotoxic, which is to say that it attacks the central nervous system causing intense pain, profuse sweating, difficulty in breathing, loss of consciousness, violent convulsions and, finally…Death. You know what I think I love the most about her is her inborn need to dominate, possess. In fact, immediately after the consummation of her marriage to the smaller and weaker male of the species she kills and eats him…(laugh) oh, she is delicious…And I hope he was!”

Those words are part of Vincent Price’s introduction to “The Black Widow” on Alice Cooper’s 1975 album “Welcome to My Nightmare”.

While I was working on the gray water system this afternoon, I found a black widow where they like to be — in wet, humid areas — like the underside of the cover for the distribution hub for the gray water system. She seemed a little stunned  by her sudden exposure to the sunlight, and allowed me to do several photos of her underside from different angles; but then I got too close and she scampered under some of the mulch. While I was cleaning out the pipes, she ran out on the cover to dry herself after I apparently got her wet. She allowed me to do several macro shots from a top view while she was drying out; therefore, the series gives you a detailed look at Vincent’s prize “The Black Widow”.

IMG_1535

IMG_1548

IMG_1544

IMG_1541

IMG_1530

IMG_1531

Up, Up and Away

Timothy Price5 Comments

45CU2411

While hot air balloons are a common sight every fall in the Albuquerque area, this balloon flying over the house at sunrise on a very cold February morning was a surprise. Although, with the temperature inversions common to the area, the temperature might have been warmer 200 feet above me where the balloon was than where I was standing photographing it.

45CU2412