Happy Monday  ~  326

I have always maintained that all weekends are good.  Some are better than others.  This weekend was on the low-end of the scale for me from a photography standpoint.

Friday I was not feeling well so I decided to take a PTO day and deal with my issues at home.  I won’t go into all the details but as I got to feeling better later in the day I decided to tackle a couple of projects that I had been putting off.   One of those projects was a toilet that wouldn’t shut off properly.  Three trips to the hardware store, a banged up and bloody forehead and four hours later the damn toilet now shuts off properly.  🙂

Next up was to install a range extender antenna on my #2 Phantom.  When I opened the part package they had sent me two male connectors instead of one male and one female.  Now someone of normal tendencies would have logically contacted the company and ask them to send a replacement part.  Waited another two weeks and then do a proper install.

But not me.  So I disassembled the range extender on #1 Phantom (to get an idea of how it looked) and then modified the one male connector so that it would accept the male connector.  It was way too windy to fly Friday but once everything was put back together I tested the controller and it would power up the Phantom, so I’ll have to wait (from the looks of the forecast) at least a week to give it a range test.  My guess is it won’t work and I’ll have to contact the company and ask them to send a replacement part.  🙂

Finally Friday I re-gripped my golf clubs.   When I used to build and work on golf clubs I could re-grip a set in under an hour.  Well, apparently that is another skill that has gone asunder because it was three hours of frustration and two destroyed grips before I was done.  Fortunately I anticipated issues so I ordered three extra grips.

Saturday was a very nice day weather wise.  Too windy to fly so I decided I would mow the yard and then go to Green Island to do a photo shoot.  Halfway through mowing the yard I decided that today was the day I tackle the large bush that has been trying to eat half of the house.  My intent (honestly) was just trim it back to a manageable size.

So with tools in hand and a determination of steel I started my duel with the bush.  9 hours later I had a pile of branches and limbs that towered 6 feet high and a stump that looked like it had plenty of fight left for round two.  But I could see the corner of my home again.  This is the same bush that tried to eat my Phantom this past winter.  By the end of the battle I knew I had been in a fight.  I was sore in places I didn’t even know I had.

Sunday started off windy, cold, gray, and rainy and got progressively worse as the day went on.  Finally around 3:30 p.m. the rain stopped and Jeanne and I went out looking for images.  Nothing (I mean nothing) to shoot at all our normal places so we headed up to Mud Lake to see if we could find the new Owlet.  My friend Andreas has shot some images of the young owl as it prepares to leave the nest.

We hung around for an hour watching and waiting but nothing happened.  This is the only image that I could find to shoot.  The river is very high and there was a strong current.  You can also see the white caps on the water.    I came home with only 6 images on my camera.  As we were driving out of the park and it was starting to rain again I shot 5 images of a Robin and he had his back to me.  🙂

Then to add insult to injury (as they say) I checked Andreas’ blog and he had captured a wonderful image of the young owl sitting on the edge of the nest looking like he was ready to test his independence.   From what I could tell I suspect Andreas got there after we had given up.  Nice job my friend.

With the forecast for rain most of the week I may have to dig out and dust off my micro lens and start looking for small things that don’t move.  It’s hard to get out of a rut when you’re deeply entrenched in one.  Jeanne pointed that out yesterday when I came out of the house with my long lens.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Sorry for the long babble.  Hope you enjoy your week.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.