Monday ~ October 23, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 23, 2017
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Happy Monday!

Long time between posts.  Since I have talked about my pending surgery on this blog I probably should give you an update.

I had the procedure on Friday the 13th of October.  For the most part the surgery went well.  They had a lot of trouble getting the breathing tube down my throat and spent almost an hour doing that.  I had a really sore throat for about a week.  The rest of the procedure went fine and after about four days of pain I’m doing pretty good.  The one consequence of the surgery was the solution they use to paint the surgical area.  Apparently I’m allergic to whatever is in that mix and I developed a painful and bothersome rash that perfectly followed the application of the scrub.  Still haven’t got that under control yet but I did get some meds this weekend for the problem.

I have been going on walks each day increasing the distance a little each time.  Some observations about the experience.  I am surprised that it is taking longer than I expected to get back to normal.  I was weaker and had less endurance than I thought would happen. I got off the pain pills four days after the surgery.  I was uncomfortable but the pain was bearable.

I see the surgeon tomorrow and assuming he gives me a clean bill of health I plan on returning to work on Wednesday.

Last evening was the first time in a long time that I felt like picking up a camera.  Saw this beautiful sky and had to make some images of it.  🙂

There was a huge update (release) Friday of Photoshop (now called Photoshop CC – 2018) and of Lightroom (now called Lightroom CC.)  Lots of changes and new features.  I have been taking some lessons on the new things and I haven’t really had time to explore all the new features.  Exciting stuff.  More to come.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ October 01, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 1, 2017
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Happy Sunday!

I have a couple of images for today.

Yesterday I got a hair cut around 11:00 a.m. and Jeanne wanted to go with me because I said I’d buy her lunch.  🙂

She walked around and looked at all the building art while John was working his magic on my hair.

Afterward we went to a new (for us anyway) restaurant called Barrel House.  It is where the former restaurant Crust had been located.  The food was decent but the service was bad.  I’ll admit we were there a little before the noon hour but I had to flag down a waitress to wait on us after ten minutes.  Then After she brought our drinks we didn’t see her again until I waved at her again.

I realize you can’t make a judgement of a restaurant based solely on the performance of one waitress but it did leave a bad impression on me.

After lunch we drove down to the river.  There was a man and woman throwing bread crumbs at the Ring-billed gulls and so I had to capture the first little guy.  Later as we drove to the lock and dam we come across this Turkey Vulture with a face only a mother could love.  He let us get very closed before he took his food and moved on.

Fun afternoon.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ September 28, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 28, 2017
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Happy Monday!

I love this time of year!  I know it means some nasty stuff is coming in a few weeks but late September, October, and November are my favorite months.

I thought I would give an update on my medical issues.  Tuesday evening Jeanne saw me taking a couple of aspirin and asked me, “What was I doing?”  I gave her the “Duh” look and she said you are not supposed to be taking any aspirin eight days before your scheduled surgery.  Long story short, a few texts and phone calls and my surgery has been rescheduled for Friday the 13th.  Thank you Jeanne!

Although it means a couple more weeks of discomfort I think it is for the best.  There are some things I have to take care of at work and at home so this will make it easier to get those accomplished.  I also have a chest cold, which has me coughing a lot and that probably would not be good for the recovery process.

So now I’ve told you way more than you wanted to know but I am so deeply grateful for the sentiments and well wishes so many have given me.  I feel truly blessed.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ September 27, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 27, 2017
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Happy Wednesday!

Saw this on the way to work yesterday.  It changed a little by the time I found a place to pull over and grab a camera.  Still I love to see and photograph God beams from the clouds.

I start the preparation today for my surgery on Friday.

One more thing, I am so enjoying WarCraft 2.  The game has little to offer in the way of graphics or features that we “gamers” have become accustomed to, but it is just pure fun to play and experience.  🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ September 26, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 26, 2017
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Happy Tuesday!

Technology is wonderful and the new, innovative things it can allow us to do is amazing.  With the new technology comes a learning curve.  Sometimes it’s pretty steep.  I recently added a new speed light to my bag, the Nikon SB-5000.  It is the latest lighting solution for the Nikon D5 and D500 in that it communicates wirelessly with those cameras.  Unfortunately that communication is not exactly built-in and you must have two devices that plug into the camera to make it work.  I spent the better part of one morning last week trying to figure it out.  Happily I finally did figure it out.

Then there is technology that doesn’t work.  I added a gaming computer to my network a couple of weeks ago because I love the old PC games of the early 90s.  Finally got everything configured and running great with one exception.  The wireless printer on my network would not work with the new computer.  All together I probably spent 8 hours researching, installing, configuring, and testing (not to mention cussing) trying to get the printer to work with the PC, all to no avail.

Finally out of total frustration I contacted HP.  Now a world-wide company like HP (in my view) is not known for their customer service.  However yesterday I had a technician remote into my PC and he worked more than an hour and a half to solve the printer issue.  I was amazed!  One because it made me feel better that it took him that long to solve the problem.  But more important that they would invest that amount of time on one issue.  He asked if I would mind talking to his supervisor because he was way over the normal time allotted for a service call.  I was happy to sing his praises to his supervisor and the added benefit was that the service was at no cost to me.  🙂

Finally, if you happen to be a gamer and remember many of the great games of the 90s there is one that stands out for me.  Warcraft 2.  It is a DOS based game that no longer plays on Windows OS.  Angie and I used to play that game on my old network and she loved it as much as I did.  So when I bought the PC it was with the intention of finding a way to resurrect that wonderful game.  After a lot of searching on the web and reading many forums I found a way to not only load the game on my PC but to run it in all its glory.  I have to admit that I spent a couple of hours (really a lot more) playing the various levels of Warcraft 2 this past weekend.  🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ September 22, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 22, 2017
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Happy Friday!

A couple more images from my wanderings through the countryside this past Tuesday.  Hate to see “Old Glory” in this condition.  I really hate to see the disrespect that some are showing to our flag and our nation.

I rarely pass up a chance to photograph a windmill.

Hot and humid in our part of the world today.  I’m ready for some cooler autumn weather.

Enjoy your weekend and be careful.

Wednesday ~ September 20, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 20, 2017
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Happy Wednesday!

Yesterday I didn’t have any lunch meetings or anyone to go to lunch with so I did what I haven’t done in a long time.  Grabbed a quick meal and then went wandering through the countryside with my camera.

I have three images for you today.

Not the golden hour, “obviously” but still I’m happy with these landscape images.

This is not my replacement tree, I’m still looking for that but I did like the way this guy looked sitting on the hillside.

Enjoy your day and be careful.