A Band For Chase - The Heartless Bastards

OK so the Guggenheim Grotto isn't touring out west but this rockin' chick is. I've been hoping they'd come around here, but once again they're not... and now they're on tour again. The lead girl-singer really belts it out... Good good stuff. Chase Go see them for me on the 24thand beg her to come to the Beachcomber on Cape Cod...

4/24/09 DENVER, CO - Gothic Theatre

The Guggenheim Grotto

These guys are really good. I love this song... and such a creative video.

I Cleaned the Sensor on my Canon Digital Rebel Camera

Wow... it's been a while. I actually started this post back on April 7. Things have gotten a little crazy since then. In the midst of all the commotion, Sophie turned 6, Will met the Easter Bunny, I donated a small piece of my back for surgical education, and our neighborhood has become the home to a rather tame Turkey (gobble gobble). All noteworthy, but honestly....I feel like YESTERDAY was April 7. It's now a week and a day later.

Back on April 7, I took the plunge with my digital SLR and decided to try and clean the sensor myself. After reading several articles on the best ways how to (and how not to) do it," I figured I might as well give it a try since, with the rate I switch out lenses, and with the amount of dust I seem to collect on the sensor, I couldn't afford to keep taking it in to be cleaned at $50 a pop. And, even though every article and post I read warned "...don't blame us if you destroy your camera doing this..." many of them also said, "there's nothing to it..." so I figured it's worth the risk. To make a long boring story short and ultimately sweet, the cleaning went fine, but I found I had to do it 3 times, each time holding my heart in my throat as I dragged my modified pec-pad-coverd spatula across the sensor, a little harder each time... until finally... no dust.

There is a great article on the whole process here [Cleaning the CMOS Sensor on your Digital Camera]. If you decide to proceed, read this article carefully, and read all the comments. There are some really good tips. My camera is a Canon EOS Digital Rebel (350D). I used a silicone spatula trimmed to 14mm, covered with a pec-pad moistend with Eclipse solution. The article linked above has all the info and resources on where to get this stuff, but I bought from Adorama.

Spring Peepers

Tonight it's pouring rain. The temperature stayed above 40 all day and the wind is up. On my way home from work, lightning was flashing in the grey sky, but now the downpours have calmed to a drizzle and all the thunderstorms have passed along... for now anyway.

Outside my window is the sound of regular drip drip drips of rain freefalling from the second floor gutter and hitting the bent aluminum curve at the bottom of the downspout. Drip drip drip drip drip. It will do this all night. The other sound is the sound of the spring peepers. Tiny frogs that come out of the mud in spring all at once on a particular day and start singing. If you didn't know they were frogs, you might think some bunch of crazy song birds were up at night. Sweeet sweeeet sweeeet sw - sweee suh swee suh sweee sweet. It's a steady chorus late into the night. Every so often they all go silent, all at once, and then after a pause, they get into it again. At some point, they will stop singing altogether. I wonder if there is a leader frog that tells eveyone when to start and stop peeping. Hmmmm.

I LOVE Flash!

I just spent the better part of today trying to figure out why my stupid flash movie didn't work. I still don't know. Wouldn't work with the photos I prepped for it, but with test images, it works great. Tomorrow, I'll reprocess all the photos and see if they work. I really wonder why I'm in this business.

On the flip side... the boss just agreed to get me Adobe CS4 Web Pro... (sweet!)

I'm so tired I don't even know why I'm up right now. I have a bunch of photos that I want to upload, but it will take more energy than I have to get them done now. So, a quick blurb in the mummichog...

I found some motivation and started painting my storm windows yesterday. Yup.... that's right, the ones that have been stacked in the garage all winter. The ones I got last September so we'd conserve heat this winter. Well, I never was able to find a weekend to paint them, so they never made it up onto the house, and as I listen to the furnace blasting away right now, I cringe at the thought of what the heating costs are going to look like at the end of the season.

The temperature hit 48 degrees by yesterday afternoon, and I figured that would be good enough to get some paint down. I was wrong. It turned out that 48 was as warm as it was going to get. As I worked, the temperature went down. The latex paint I was using globbed up within minutes and when I thinned it with hot water, it went on too thin, so after fighting with two windows, I gave up. I got the chainsaw out and hacked up a few fallen trees and their branches into fireplace size pieces. I love the chainsaw. It beats painting any day, and I can use the wood to offset the heating cost next winter...(unlikely with our fireplace, but who knows).

Spring! 7:44 am

Hey it's officially spring (well not yet in Colorado)! So legend has it you can balance an egg on its end on the equinox. I've tried this year after year and it's never failed. However, I can't remember EVER trying it on any other day than the equinox, so maybe, with the same amount of determination, I could balance an egg on its end on say.... my birthday! I'll probably never try though, just because I wouldn't want to smash the mystery. Anyway... happy Srping, Happy Equinox. Now... where's the warm weather?

Whales...er Whale

I finally made it up to Provincetown, at the end of the earth, to look for north atlantic right whales. There are about 300 left in the world and each year, they come close into Cape Cod to feed on the baitfish-rich (krill, sand lances, etc) water of Cape Cod Bay. Last year they were in very close, and I saw a few feeding off Herring Cove beach, near Race Point in Provincetown. I got a late start, and arrived at the beach well after sunrise, missing all the magic of the sunrise over the sand flats. Still, the long shadows of the morning made for some great light and I had the entire beach to myself (except for a couple and thier dog that disapeared over the dunes into the National Seashore's "Beach Forest."

The colors and patterns were amazing on the sand and I had a hard time focusing on the horizon, where I hoped to see a whale. I did look up occasionally and eventually saw one whale. It looked like a finback though. It rolled to the surface, blew out a huge puff of spray and disappeard, rolled again another hundred feet in front of where it did the last time and then disappeared for good. The one big puff and straight line, deliberate path it made is why I think it was a "finner." The right whale has a very distinctive "V" shaped spout of water vapor, and they tend to roll around in the same place for a bit. So... one whale, and a hell of a photo trip. More photos on flickr later this week.

Brewster Oysters - Best in the World

The oyster farmers are out working on thier grants here in brewster. This is a grant by our home beach. The oysters live here in these cages, grow and fatten during the summer and are ready to harvest during the "e - r" months (SeptembER, OctobER, NovembER, DecembER, JanuarER... and even sometimes FebruarER)











Oyster cages on a farm off Brewster.










Wild oysters clinging to a stone on the Cape Cod Bay flats.

















An adult (harvestabale) oyster growing wild on the Cape Cod Bay flats. (The season ended on March 3rd though)

Everybody in the car...We are going OUT!

Did I write in here this morning? I guess I did... wow... long day. Anyway, the storm we were supposed to get today never materialized. It was another warm(ish) day with a full afternoon of blue sky. Of course we had to take advantage of it and neglect EVERYTHING that we had to get done this weekend. The list is endless, but I've all but given up on getting it done this year anyway, so why not! The choice wasn't difficult... 1. paint the bathroom to the tune of a screaming baby or 2. get out and enjoy the first really nice weather in 120 days while the baby naps in the jogging stroller. Done. We hit the bike path by 11:00 - all of us - two kids on bikes, Amy running (very quickly) and me taking up the rear, pushing the baby in our $5 yard-sale baby-jogger. It's only downfall is that it pulls to the left as I push it along, so I keep having to correct it. Someday I'll fix that too.

We stopped for lunch at "Local Flavor;" a sandwich joint on the bikepath, and on the way there, we saw our first blue bird of the year. My feet hurt and I think I have a sunburn, but man, it's nice to have these days.

Springtime On The Cape - Is Winter Over?

66 Degrees! Skunk cabbage is coming up along the swamp edges and the tips of daffodil stalks are coming up everyhwere. Sophie found a little crocus blooming by one of the downspouts, and I dug a mess of clams without freezing my fingers off. Oyster season ended 5 days ago and the time changed (spring forward) last night. I turned the outside water on and the kids rode bikes around and around the neighborhood (both collecting muddy dirt stripes on their backs.) The morning chatter of the birds is getting louder and there's only a few last remnants of snow in the yard. Dare I commit to Spring?? I think so, but I am prepared for a few more wintery blasts before... oh, say "Tax Day."

Tracks...

There is a thick crust of re-frozen once-slush snow everywhere outside my back slider window. It looks like its about 2 to 3 inches deep. On top of it, a thin layer of light puffy snow, only about a quarter of an inch deep, has accumulated, and has created a perfect medium for "releif in birdfeet." Everywhere there are little bird footprints. Thier meanderings in search of the remains of seeds that I have put out there, have created quite a design in the snow.

These days, the flocks ruturn each morning to eat a full tube of seads each day. There's obviously more birds showing up now than just last week - and a few more species too. The tube used to last a few days. Spring seems to be coming.... we just need the temperature to comply.

We Did Get Some Snow!

Yup! We got some snow. Not a really good snow-bomb nor-easter, but a good amount of snow. If the center of the storm had moved up the coast, just a wee bit more out to sea, we would have gotten wallopped... like Rockport did.

It wasn't bad. Even though, here in Brewster, we got mostly freezing rain over about 3 inches of heavy wet snow, we got enough to cover the ground and encrust everything. It was enough to close the schools too, so the kids had fun! They went out in the back yard and played in the freezing drizzle for a bit, and after I went to work, I hear they played with the wii all day long. Why not...

Running on the Beach

I went for a run this morning before work. There was a dark grey-pink sky when I left the house and as I got closer to the beach, and time ticked on into daylight, the grey gave way to an overall pinkish hue. I wasn't in a clearing and the the thick trees on both sides of the road blocked what might be happening on the horizon. Everything that was white, turned light pink. Pink houses, pink maple trees, my white long-sleeve t-shirt was now pink. Birds were chirping like it was spring and the air was still.

I reached the end of the road at the mouth of Paines Creek and crossed over the seawall onto the beach, and turned East for what is about a 3/4-mile leg over sand. The sky was filled with pinks and blues, but because the sun still rises in a more southerly arch, its morning magic was hidden by the hills, trees and houses to the south of the beach. It was dead low tide and the bright white lights of 3 boats glistened on the bay, way out beyond the low water mark.

It was beautiful out and I was exhilerated. I felt really good for the first part of the run, but right after I got off the sand and started the 2-mile leg back to the house, I started to feel like I was towing a wagon full of kids. It ws like an immediate switch. I didn't run too hard, and I didn't do anything out of the ordinary, but by the time I was done, I was worn out, and my legs had a pain I hadn't felt before. It wasn't that good work-out pain, but more like someone was peeling my skin away from my muscles mostly my thighs and calves. Well, it looks like we're in for 5 days of slush and snow, so I guess I'll stay out of my sneakers for a while. How the HELL does chase run for a hundred miles.... Chase??

Odd Ritual for Winter

So here it is, the middle of.. well I guess almost the END of, February, and it's cold and nasty out... soon to be nastier. It's early morning and everything out the window is grey, except for a faded hue of pink, low through the naked trees. The trees are swaying at thier tips, back and forth and it's 28 degrees out. There's a reported 20 mph blow going on and later it's supposed to increase to 40 to 50 with rain and a mix of snow. You can tell by just looking at the grey, clumped, frozen and frosted ground that staying inside is the best idea for today.

But not for this tree... This tree in Brewster blooms in early to mid February every year, no matter how cold it is. These little green-yellow flowers are more like curly leaves. Nothing like getting a jump on the competition, but still.... who's going to polinate? No bugs around. And we've got at LEAST two more good months of potential frosts and even freezes. It's also about the time of year that we see the first of the crocusses, but I haven't seen any. So why do they bloom so early, and what do they have to gain?

Down to... well past... the Big City

We just got back from a family reunion in New Jersey. Four hours each way and oddly no traffic. NONE! I've never been to, or anywhere near, New York City without sitting in traffic for at least part of the way. This is the GW Bridge. I'm sick as a dog. Not too many thoughts for tonight. (hack cough cough hack)

Raptor Love

I saw these two flying Wookies on the way to drop off the baby at daycare. Two very happy birds (wouldn't you think?) Happy Valentine's Day! Watch out squirrels - (pst. you're the gift)

(click image for a larger view)

Whale-walk... Kind of.

Today, the kids (minus the baby) and I went for a walk out to Great Island in Wellfleet. Two right whales had been spotted offshore earlier this week and I thought maybe we might see them if they came in close enough. I always though it was too shallow in there, but last week a small finback whale was IN Wellfleet harbor and later got stranded on one of the bay beaches just to the south. So, I guess they do come in there. Anyway, off we drove to Great Island as the snow cover melted and the temperatures rose.

We parked at the trailhead and hustled downhill through the short evergreen path, still covered with about 2 inches of very wet snow, to point at which it met the water. It was just the turn-of -tides, at a very high tide, and the path from this point, continued UNDER water and sea-ice-slush that had been pushed up by the south wind. The trail, although under water, was marked by a split-rail fence and we could see that it hugged the shoreline all the way around the cove out to the distant dunes that made up the causeway out to Great Island (which isn't really an Island). So, figuring we'd have the path on the way back, we too, hugged the shoreline and marched out along a single-file "bushwhacked" path of trodden salt marsh hay mixed with ice and snow, bordered to the left by water and to our right by the steep brambly banks of the hill we had just descended. The hay gave way to sand as we approached the dunes, and finally, we met up with the other end of trail as it ascended out of the shlushy retreating tide.

Just beyond this point the trail took a turn through a cut in the dunes and we found ourselves on Cape Cod Bay. The sun had come out, it was 50 degrees, and we had the entire beach to ourselves. Someone had built a driftwood "hut" just to the north of us, that captured the interest of the kids. It was a sculpture that seemed to have many hands that worked on it, and was in many ways, still a work in progress. We ended up spending a good deal of time in and around it and we even collected some of our OWN driftwood, and added it to the sculpture. We flopped on the dunes and threw big stones into the quicksand of the soft sea ice that was being pushed up on the shore. There were shells to be collected and castaway buoys to be inspected.

Once the kids had had enough of the thing and it's surroundings, we turned back south again to continue our walk. But, by now, the littlest was tired and the oldest was "bored" of walking, so we cut our trip short and headed back down the path that we started on. The tide had gone out... WAY out, and we had the real trail to walk back on. Still, it was covered with chunks of slushy sea ice, but each chunk sat solidly on the dry sandy trail below. The kids had a blast hopping from chunk to chunk and crushing through some of the smaller ones as they landed. A short hike, but a good one just the same... oh yeah, and as for whales... I looked to the horizon occasionally, but never saw any spouts. I'll look again in a couple weeks.

Snowman!

The week's worth of mid-teens degree weather finally broke today and put a thaw on all the crusty snow cover we have. It was a perfect day for building a snowman, so we did. I love his hair.

Decisions decisions...

Well, this weekend turned out to be one of the best so far this year. Max had a great basketball game on Saturday and Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous day. It eventually got all the way up to 47 degrees! (click images for the full size view)

BUT, at 7:00 am, it was still only in the high 20's so I had to make a decision whether to go all the way up to P-town to look for whales or not. Amy wouldn't let me do both whale watching and clamming... and really, I don't think I could have pulled it 0ff anyway. Maybe, I could have gotten them both in if I got up and out of here at 5:00 am, but not in this weather. Anyway, I took the kids down to our local beach which is less than 2 miles away and we dug some nice steamers. The air was warm, the sun was out, and there was no wind. So, even though the water was absolutely freezing, wet hands warmed up once out of the puddle.

We found enough for a full meal for two people, and that afternoon I took them over to Keith's house. He and I slurped them down with a couple beers each - Anchor Liberty Ales. There's just something about same-day fresh steamers. Oh man were they good. The best part was that the steamy clam stink and the filthy pot remained at Keith's house. Sorry Keith.

That night I put the kids to bed and fell asleep on the bean-bag chair as I usually do. Last night was the super bowl and I slept right through it. I guess it was a pretty good one too... oh well.