My Boring Life
Ruth I’ve come to the realization that folks that successfully photograph lightening have one or more of the following:
1: really good luck
2: really really good reaction speed
3: extra (expensive) equipment
got some cool looking shots, but no actual lightening. I know what’ll be going on my wishlist for christmas/birthday/whatever!!
Apollo thinks its really odd how I sit in the dark with the camera in my hand trying to photograph lightening, he just doesn’t get it!
Had major thunderstorms rolling through all evening, some hail:
nickel and quarter sizes mostly.
Then after dark I decided to try for some shots of lightening. Didn’t get the shots I wanted, but had a couple cool looking ones anyway:
And a car passing by made for a cool shot:
Some asked me why we were using a prong collar vs an easy leader head halter, and the answer is multifaceted. I actually bought a head halter and put it on Apollo. And made some rather annoying discoveries (one of which SHOULD have occurred to me when looking at the package.)
1: the big one…..when he pulls to the point of choking himself he generally hits the end of the lead with some signifigant force. If he does that, even once, wearing the head halter he’s going to potentially do major damage to his neck. Oooops.
2: the package and all info on the head halter says that when adjusted properly the dog can still open his mouth normally. No dice. Maybe its a side affect of the mastiff head structure, but no matter how I adjusted the straps, if it was loose enough that he could yawn then he was also able to pull off the muzzle portion.
3: by the time I put it on him for the third time it was leaving a dent in his nose, even though it was too loose
4: and as soon as I strapped it on he flopped flat and refused to move, I was able to get him to his feet and out the door (so I won not him) but after that third time I said no more.
So onto a prong collar….have you ever actually handled one? They look mean as heck, but those prongs aren’t sharp, and you can even get plastic covers for them, or even plastic versions of the collars. A prong collar thats properly fitted and used doesn’t cause discomfort to the dog unless he pulls against it, especially one with the thick coat of the Tibetan Mastiff.
There are dogs for whom the Easy Leader is a good solution to the problem. I’ve seen it on dogs, and talked to people who use it, but its not a good solution for us. On the other hand I think a prong collar will likely solve the problem, and hopefully once he learns pulling is bad I won’t need it any more.
….the scope looks normal to him when he looks through it. So either I’m somehow holding the rifle weird, or I was even shakier than I thought I was that I couldn’t hold it still enough to look through straight. My one and only other experience with a scope was on the air-rifle at the Reserves booth a few years ago, and I don’t recall having any issues looking through that one. Oh well. Now if only mother nature will stop trying to see if we can grow gills so I can have a sunny afternoon to shoot on!
Is it just me or is the weather.com site unfriendly to any browser but IE? I’ve not tried Safari (though now that I think about it, the site does appear normal when viewed on the iPad), but when I attempt to use the site with either Firefox OR Chrome its screwy as heck. Is it just me or does anyone else have the same problem?
Lets see.
Broken tooth: has a temporary crown on, while we wait to see what the insurance says they’ll cover. The dentist is of the opinion that there’s some life left in that nerve afterall so we’ll see.
The rest of the plants have arrived, but mother nature is attempting to see if we can grow gills and so they haven’t been planted yet. Hopefully tomorrow.
Apollo has continued to grow at the same insane rate, unfortunetly his leash skills aren’t keeping pace. The more excited he gets the more likely he is to pull, and the more he pulls the more likely he is to end up choking himself against the collar in his excitement. To the point where I worry he’s doing damage. After discussion with the breeder we’re taking a multi-sided approach. More exercise to wear him out, more dog interaction with appropriate dogs (she feels he is possibly lonely, and considering how much he LOVES playing with other dogs she probly has a point), and we’ll be adding a prong collar to his closet this week. Its very difficult to get him enough exercise and interaction when he’s attempting to pull me down the street cause there’s a “PERSON who might PET ME”, so the prong collar will hopefully teach him that pulling is not pleasant, which in turn will make it easier for all of the above to get done. On the other hand we’ve had fun coming up with games to wear him out at home. I’m trying to get video I promise.
I broke a molar last night. About half the visible portion of the tooth, all the way down to the gum line. And the dentist can’t see me till tomorrow (of course, its the way the week is going). Odd thing is it doesn’t hurt at ALL. Not even hot/cold sensitive (which probly says bad things for the state of the nerve, oh well). But it makes eating interesting……
So a few days ago I posted about how in Indy the state SCJ decided it was illegal to resist police entering your residence without a warrant. And I commented about how I wasn’t moving to Indiana anytime soon.
Yah, so in today’s news I see this:
So basically the police knock on my door, announce they’re the police, and then hear a noise they deem (in their professional opinion) to be suspicious they now have grounds for breaking and entering. Regardless of whether or not I was actually DOING anything illegal. Yah, I have a problem with that.