6/21/13

Hmmm...something's wrong here...

I think there's something wrong with my camera...

I kind of noticed when I took pictures of our irises in the yard...

What I got from the camera was this:
and the flowers are really this color:
I had to do some tweaking in my photo-handler software to correct it this much... the leaves are not really that color green...

But I really noticed it when I took pictures of some quilt squares...

I was asked to contribute blocks to a group quilt and before I mailed them off, I took pictures - but I also scanned them...
now, these are pretty specific colors and it's quite apparent that there is, indeed, something wrong with my camera:

the block on the right are the real colors the one with the bright green is correct (editing note: two different computers showed them reversed, so I have NO idea what you are seeing...)- got them from my scanner - the block on the right is what my camera saw...



 the block on the left with the darker center (edit note: same issue as before) (scanned) is closer to the real deal...the bright blue-blue is wrong...

Pictures of some things seem okay - Roxie, for instance...a little washed out, but still acceptable...
Stop pointing that thing at me!
Sigh... last time this happened, I simply bought a new camera... I'll have to think on that....

6/17/13

And, now...a word from Dave:

The advantage of living where we do in the Dallas area means that, because our house sits atop a limestone cliff, the soil under the house doesn't shift as it gets wet or dries as it does in so much of Dallas County, making for a much more stable foundation than many houses in the area. 

The disadvantage of living where we do in the Dallas area means that, if I wish to change out the mailbox by the street, about six inches down through the topsoil I run into, oh yeah, a limestone cliff. 

But the mailbox needed changing out; it really should have been mounted a little closer to the street, and the metal post it was mounted on was rusting through at ground level and I didn’t know how much longer it would stand up to the regular opening and closing of its door.  And besides, it was showing its age. 





So I spent a good portion of a Saturday morning drilling and chiseling my way down another few inches of limestone in order to set the post. Because no matter that limestone is a "soft" stone, it takes a lot of work to drill and chisel my way through it, and to get the kind of depth I really “should” have for the post, it would have taken me at least three more weekends to do that, and that wasn't in the cards.  

Not no how, not no way; not in Texas summer heat.  (The only reason we hadn’t officially hit 100°F yet is because they take the “official” temperature out at D/FW Airport, away from the heat-sink that is the city; Love Field, a little north of downtown Dallas, had hit 100°F last week.)  So, last Monday, off to Lowe’s to get mortar mix for laying bricks.  (I had gone there early on Sunday morning, but got there a full half-hour before they opened.  It was raining hard at the time, and I didn’t feel like either (1) waiting for them to open, or (2) going back later.) 

On Tuesday, an hour in the heat (it was 95 and the mosquitoes were out in full force...at least the mosquitoes here in Dallas aren't like the Gulf Coast mosquitoes. Although, to be honest, people tend to exaggerate the size of Gulf Coast mosquitoes, with stories about them carrying off babies and small dogs when, in fact, most Gulf Coast mosquitoes are actually no larger than a man's hand) and all of the bricks in the column around the lower upright post were laid.  

Wednesday, filled the brick column with concrete, in order to give the mailbox to be mounted atop said post sufficient stability.  

Thursday, mount the mailbox (already attached to the upper portion of the two-piece post) on the lower post, add numbers and reflective stickers (because it’s now closer to the street and a little bit more in danger of being sideswiped; plus, its matte brown color means it blends into the background foliage more than the old mailbox, and therefore harder to see when you’re driving down the street).    
It’s not quite perpendicular to the street, though I think there may be a way to square it up a little more.  But I’m not digging it up to reset it because that would mean starting from scratch, which would probably involve digging a little deeper into that limestone just six inches down.  

Still and all, I think it looks okay, and besides, the house's foundation is stable because, oh, yeah, did I mention that the house sits atop a limestone cliff?