I’ve hired teenagers to mow our lawn for the past two summers, and one of the challenges in those arrangements was remembering to leave a gate unlocked so they could access the back yard. Because of travel plans and other scheduling uncertainties, that sometimes meant leaving the gate unlocked for days at a time. Our… Continue reading Installing Lockey Mechanical Digital Lock: Abandon hope…
Shooting an iPad: It’s what we do.
My mom’s iPad recently cratered. It wasn’t a huge deal, since it was a hand-me-down of my 1st generation model, and I replaced it with another hand-me-down of my 2nd gen tablet. I was able to coax it to life just long enough to wipe it clean and destroy the SIM chip, and I planned… Continue reading Shooting an iPad: It’s what we do.
Blue Bell, Buzzards, and a Band: Labor Day in the Texas Hill Country
Our long national nightmare has ended Our Labor Day weekend had a definite theme: Hills, Heat, and Humidity. Three consecutive days of 100°+ temperatures were bad enough, but when you factored in the humidity levels (~90% in the mornings; >70% in the evenings), even the slightest physical activity entailed copious sweating. Fortunately, we had plenty… Continue reading Blue Bell, Buzzards, and a Band: Labor Day in the Texas Hill Country
Fort Stockton by Foot (and then some…)
Next time you’re in a small town, grab a camera and go for a walk. I’ll wager you’ll notice some details that are either missing in the city, or easily overlooked. I did just that last Saturday in Fort Stockton. For those who aren’t from this part of the country, that’s the west-of-the-Pecos burg where… Continue reading Fort Stockton by Foot (and then some…)
New Toy: USB Turntable for Digitizing Albums
This arrived from Amazon yesterday afternoon…my first new turntable in, oh, about three decades. It’s an Audio-Technica AT-LP120-USB direct drive model, and it’s pretty awesome, considering my rather modest needs and expectations. We have a turntable but it has a few shortcomings. First, it doesn’t play 78 rpm records; more about why that’s important in… Continue reading New Toy: USB Turntable for Digitizing Albums
Hotter’N Hell 16.09
The photo shows one of the computers on our tandem bicycle following our ride this afternoon. The number in the lower left corner of the screen is the temperature in degree Fahrenheit. No, it wasn’t 10º in Midland, Texas, in August; the computer is obviously not designed for hot weather as the temperature readout only… Continue reading Hotter’N Hell 16.09
Hands on with the Nest Cam
I purchased and installed a Nest Cam wifi security camera yesterday and so far I’m finding it to be exactly as advertised: easy to install and configure, and impressively useful. The device itself is small and elegantly designed. We already have Nest smart thermostats in our home, and the camera integrates seamlessly into the account… Continue reading Hands on with the Nest Cam
Dispatches from the Texas Hill Country: The Charred Edition
We spent another long* weekend at Horseshoe Bay, where the six-week dry spell was broken, albeit in an insignificant way, by a quarter inch rain shower on Saturday morning. Normally, we would have groused about the disruption of our plan for a morning bike ride, but in light of the drought conditions we were happy… Continue reading Dispatches from the Texas Hill Country: The Charred Edition
Our Excellent Summer Texas Music Tour
July was Live Music Month here at the Gazette, as we had the opportunity to hear – and sometimes dance to – the music of an interesting variety of Texas bands. Here’s a quick rundown of what we saw and heard, and also a brief review of each venue in case you want to visit… Continue reading Our Excellent Summer Texas Music Tour
An exercise in observation and creativity
I was captivated by this photo someone shared on Twitter and tracked it down in the Library of Congress archives. It’s an undated, uncredited picture of what some have dubbed the “Mark Twain Tree” (which is how it was titled on the Twitter post). I can’t confirm this (and, in fact, I doubt it; see… Continue reading An exercise in observation and creativity