I don’t care what Luke Bryan thinks, there are times when rain isn’t a good thing. Like, this morning. We awoke to the sound of falling rain, which normally would be cause for rejoicing in West Texas. However, when temperature has been below freezing for more than 48 hours and the streets are already coated… Continue reading Ice Storm 2015: From bad to worse
Macro photography with a focusing rail & Photoshop layer blending
I received several awesome Christmas gifts, including a new iPad air, a high-powered flashlight, and a set of electronic shooters muffs, but not every cool gadget is hi-tech. Take, for example, this macro focusing rail: One of the challenges of macro photography is the shallow depth of field, meaning that often only a tiny portion of… Continue reading Macro photography with a focusing rail & Photoshop layer blending
New Year’s Day at Casa Fire Ant
It’s 11:03 a.m. and I’m still in sweats. We just killed a pot of coffee, a tray of cinnamon rolls (Sister Schubert’s, of course) and a rasher of bacon (whatever a “rasher” is). The Rose Parade is on TV, we’re rapidly killing BTUs via the gas log, it’s 24ยบ, and we’re still iced in. In… Continue reading New Year’s Day at Casa Fire Ant
NYE 2014
Well, this is certainly not how we planned to spend New Year’s Eve. I’m sitting at the computer, hammering out one last inane post while listening to the sounds of The Twilight Zone marathon on SyFy and of Debbie making chili in the kitchen. There’s nothing wrong with any of those things – in fact,… Continue reading NYE 2014
Sleeping Child :: Great I Am
Mary, did you know That your baby boy Would some day walk on water? Mary, did you know that your baby boy Would save our sons and daughters? Did you know that your baby boy Has come to make you new? This child that you’ve delivered, Will soon deliver you. Mary, did you know That… Continue reading Sleeping Child :: Great I Am
Miley Cyrus Warned Us
I’ve been going back through some old posts – articles that I had deleted when I thought I’d kicked the blogging addic…habit – and I ran across one that I wrote back in April of 2008. I wrote it as a reaction to a Vanity Fair profile of Miley Cyrus. The primary focus of that… Continue reading Miley Cyrus Warned Us
“Code 7 – Dinosaur on Aisle 9”
You’ve been there. You’ve done your grocery shopping – which is stressful enough by itself – and waited at the end of an interminably long checkout queue, and you finally – finally! – get your groceries loaded onto the conveyor belt, ready for the checkout process to begin so you can move on to the… Continue reading “Code 7 – Dinosaur on Aisle 9”
Tumbleweeds
We had our first significant T.E. (Tumbleweed Event) of the season last week. It was actually rather mild compared to the springtime varieties, where the prickly beasties have been known to knock semis off the interstate and dig deep gouges in concrete streets*, but it was still good/bad enough to be a topic of conversation… Continue reading Tumbleweeds
Snail
We enjoyed on-and-off rain showers all day, and one consequence besides making the trees happy was the appearance of this guy. Or girl. Who knows? Anyway, it was on our back porch and seemed to be begging me to take its picture. So I did. Snails can be very persuasive. In case you’re wondering, the… Continue reading Snail
“Our Desired Future”: Exploring the water dilemma in Texas
Alert Gazette readers may recall this post from almost two years ago, where I tracked down and photographed the elusive flow of Comanche Springs in Fort Stockton. To my knowledge, that was the last time the springs flowed, thanks to a combination of drought and continued heavy irrigation in the Belding Draw area just west… Continue reading “Our Desired Future”: Exploring the water dilemma in Texas