Today, I want to recognize and thank a couple of my friends.  First there is the publicist at The Maa of Pricilla.

Can you believe she actually featured me as her friend in this post on Monday?  I can, because she is a friend.  Patty, the publicist, has been a regular visitor and commenter here on this secondary road.  If you don’t already know Patty, Pricilla, Abby, Sherpa, Harry, Stinky and the rest of the cast, be sure to drop by.  You’ll enjoy keeping up with the news from the Happy Goat Farm.  Fridays feature the farm cats, on Mondays we’ve been introduced to some of her wonderful friends and . . .  Why don’t you just stop by the blog.  Click on Pricilla’s badge to see the latest post on her blog.

I have mentioned Rebecca before–usually referring to her blog The Freaky Frugalite.  She has once again come forward in comments and in e-mails to provide help with some technical issues on this blog.  Are you aware of her other blogs?  There are several of them.  I particularly like The Older Geek.

You should bookmark this site if you haven’t already.  You’ll find lots of helpful advice for bloggers whether you use WordPress or Blogger.  The handy navigation buttons located below the banner will help you find posts on topics of interest.  A number of times, I have been about to write Rebecca with a question but checked on this blog where I found the answer to my question already given in an easy-to-understand presentation.

So thanks Rebecca and thanks Patty.  I tip my hat to you.

Update

About the time I posted this, I received notification that Rebecca had answered a question about adding smilies to my smilie plugin.  :yea:   I found it here.  I tried it and it worked! :cheer:   Life is great when you have such fine friends as these two. :dance:

I was reminded this morning of a scene that I had witnessed a few years ago while looking out my window.  I’d like to share it with you today.

Summer Afternoon

Oppressive heat of day has passed
Warmth of late afternoon drapes the landscape like the winter quilt upon your bed
Evening, waiting in the wings, has not yet made her entrance
As I gaze out my window at the beauty of the bucolic scene
The neighbor is quietly feeding his cattle
Then I notice her as she gracefully moves through the tall grass of the low land
She stops, lifts her head, perks up her ears and looks in the direction of the neighbor’s barn
She sees no threat so the young doe lowers her head and begins to chew on the lush grass
Slowly she makes her way across the lowland
Stopping from time to time she searches her surroundings for danger
The neighbor caring for his cattle poses no immediate threat
Yet she watches and listens as she makes her way toward the pines
Only eight feet and she’ll be at the edge of my lawn
Another few feet and she’ll have the cover of the pine trees
Two rabbits eating grass on the fringe of my lawn are in her path
One more step and the rabbits startle
Fright speeds their retreat as they run for the safety of the pines
Their sudden panicked motion strikes fear into the heart of the doe
Instinctively, she rears, whirls to run away
In that same moment she realizes that it was only a couple of rabbits
Her racing pulse slowly returns to normal
She turns to continue her journey and soon reaches the smooth lawn
I continue to watch as she enters the pines
Soon after, a frightened rabbit exits the pines in full panicked flight
The rabbit disappears into the tall grass, retracing the doe’s path
The scene is finished
Turnabout is fair play

It started as a joke.  Something clever that some folks might not understand.  A concept that . . . well judge for yourself.  I created this motivational poster and posted it on this blog:

If you don’t understand the message read the number in the top line as “one-zero” not as “ten.”  It has to do with the binary number system, where the digits are 1 and 0.

I knew my sons would immediately grasp and enjoy this play on number systems.  What I didn’t know was that yin and yang in the poster would kick off a family discussion.  Within a very short time, I received yin and yang in animated gif format.

I liked this animated play on duality.  Did it stop there?  Of course not.  Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.  Right?  Right!

So, to protect the guilty I won’t name names, it wasn’t long after that another animated gif arrived in my e-mail inbox.

This one is fascinating.  At least to me it is. 🙂  I’m thinking you can’t call it yin and yang when there are three elements at work in three dimensions.  What would you call it?  Maybe yin, yang and yong?

Could we add yeng?  Four dimensions.  I remember studying that briefly in on of my math classes at the university.  Okay, mathematically we could move to four, five and beyond dimensions.  The problem comes in illustrating that graphically.  Sorry Charlie. 🙁  That won’t work.

Back to where we started–motivational posters.  I had to do this one after the recent gathering of blogger buds here at Secondary Rds Hq.

Here’s hoping your week is off to a great start.  And always remember that a day without sunshine is like . . . night. 🙄

Hooray for me!  Okay, now that I’ve written this, I think I’ll go take a nap.

See you on Monday.  Maybe.

I was recently contacted by Emma from Nature Center Magazine.  She asked if would be willing to be interviewed for her blog.  I agreed and soon received a list of questions in an e-mail.  These I answered in a reply to her.  Yesterday, she published the interview, which you can read it here.

The Interview starts this way:

Tell us what your blog is all about.

Thank you. Secondary Roads is about enjoying and appreciating life in retirement. No more board meetings, no deadlines, no more dealing with office politics and long-range commutes in heavy traffic. It’s about life on a rural dirt road, where wildlife and livestock greatly outnumber humans. It’s about happiness and contentment in solitude and in the wonderful world that is our inheritance.

Perhaps this haiku of mine sums it up best:

Alone I sit here,
Looking out upon my world.
Finding joy in all.

If you want to read the rest, follow the link above.  If you do, please leave a comment with Emma and thank her for the interview and wish her a happy birthday.  She already knows that my wife’s name is Sylvia, not Martha.  Thanks.

One of the better parts of country living is the night sky.  With minimal levels of light pollution, there is much to be seen in terms of stars and planets.  Ever since I was in High School, I have enjoyed observing the sky.  That means weather phenomena during the day and the heavens at night.

My goal for this summer was to capture an image of the Milky Way with my camera.  I like to do things like that.  Several years ago I bought a reflector telescope from a friend at work.  Within a few weeks, I was calculating the theoretical limits of a telescope of that type and size.  I then found double stars that would test the resolution limits.  It was an excellent ‘scope and was within a percent or two of the theoretical resolution limit.

What could I do with our point-and-shoot camera?  It’s a Panasonic that is now a few years old.  It has a “night sky” mode that seems to work well.  I’ve been waiting for a clear night when the Milky Way would be well above the horizon.

Monday was that night.  The sky was clear, I consulted the star chart and went out with tripod-mounted camera in hand.  I looked to the right and over the house I saw Ursa Major (the Big Dipper).

I noticed that the commercial air routes were particularly busy at that time.  I moved the camera to the left and up and caught a couple in the next long exposure.

Can you see the dim one on the lower right side of the image?  I never even noticed that dimmer trail until I was ready to post this image.

This was fun, but it was not the reason that I was standing outside under the night sky.    Finally, I pointed the camera toward the constellation Cygnus (the swan).  Then I pressed the shutter button.

I was not disappointed.  I had to come back inside and open the image file in PhotoShop Elements to see what I had.  I can’t say for certain, but I believe that there a couple of paths created by micro-meteors in this shot.

I had wanted to try to capture meteor images during the recent Perseid meteor shower.  Unfortunately, that was a cloudy and nasty couple of nights.  Perhaps I’ll try again next August.  It should be interesting.

Posting in cooperation with:

The help I’m referring today is with photos.  As I reported yesterday, we had a great time with blogging friends.  Unfortunately, we had a problem with photos.  Thanks to Lin, who shared some pics that she and Joe captured on Saturday.

One of my favorites is of Vanilla’s wife, JoAnn.  As soon she saw the garden she wasted no time checking it out.  Soon she found what she was looking for.

JoAnn shows off the prize tomato. (Photo by Lin)

The beaming smile, happy demeanor and her joy in finding that “perfect” tomato all serve to illustrate the bubbly personality of our friend’s lady.  Great job!  I’ll have to confess, I have a crush on Lin’s camera.

After a yummy lunch on Sunday, Vanilla and JoAnn left for home with a bag or two of veggies.  I never expected to see them again (the veggies that is), but I did.  Vanilla, he’s such a braggart you know, sent me this photo.

From Sylvia’s garden, to JoAnn’s kitchen and then on its way to Vanilla’s supper plate.     (Photo by Vanilla)

That looks very good to me, and I’m sure our friend enjoyed it.  That’s okay, Sylvia fixed me some nice veggies for Supper last night.  Yes, even before we saw this picture.

Hey.  Is anyone else hungry?