Staying the Course -- "On the Road Again"

[Superbob]

With thanks to Willie Nelson for his classic song, I am moved to get back on the course again. Missing the old STC friends here; maybe they will start checking in again.

I think our old-fashioned Staying the Course thread can co-exist nicely with the goals-oriented one that some of our go-getters got going a month or so ago.

STC is about whatever is happening along our courses, or whatever thoughts we may be having. Of course, health is a big deal. How we're doing in keeping our weight control and fitness goals, all the better to keep our mended hearts in good shape. But the floor is open to whatever Coursers may want to discuss.

Having a companionable dog is an important part of my life. Sweet retrievers have walked me through my 60s and (almost) 70s decades, but Ellie's passing a few weeks ago at age 14 has left me without a "best friend." Even though I resolved to wait til a cool, crisp autumn day to adopt a new walking dawg, I found myself leafing through the Petfinder pix of adoptable pets the other day, and seeing one that caught my fancy. I was about to go to the shelter to apply when I had second thoughts about this one being the ideal match and about the toll the hellacious hot summer is exacting on us all right now. Really better to get the fresh start in autumn.

Speaking of the joys of fall, I am already registered for our annual Heart Walk coming up in October and not only that but (thanks to good friends) am currently third-highest local fund-raiser for the Heart Association via this event. I won't make a pitch here, but if you are interested, you can goggle the Waccamaw Area Heart Walk and find details. It is the big public event of the year not just for me (a 2-time OHS survivor) but my wife, a courageous stroke survivor.

Speaking of my wife, she is battling some severe back pain and taking PT and pain management to try to get on an even keel. Best thoughts and/or prayers for her would be appreciated.

So we are staying our courses and dealing with whatever we encounter.

Will hope to see some old friends and new here -- and I will post a new starter the first of September.

Cheers,
Superbob

 

[Superman]

Glad to see you’re willing to keep this tradition going! Nice update. I hope you do find a new companion. There’s logic, then there’s that need not to replace, but rather to fill the void left by that missing family member. I’d be surprised if you make it to fall before finding a worthy successor to Ellie.

I hope you have some company on your heart walk in that regard.

We’re traveling the southwest. Mostly Utah but presently at our last stay in Colorado before getting the kids back to school. I’ve posted elsewhere, but I always like sharing in the STC threads.

 

[Superbob]

Wow -- what spectacular photos! Thanks for posting. Your photos are reason enough to keep the STC tradition going.

 

[Superman]

Thanks! I have to get them home to a real computer and work on them a bit (skies are a bit washed out for my taste on a couple), but it’s an area that makes photography easy. That waterfall is at the end of a 3 mile hike. Lower Calf Creek Falls. 126 ft tall and spring fed. Water at the base was about 50 degrees F. Great swimming after hiking in 90 degrees and sunshine! Fairly deep near the falls. Well over my head and I’m 6’ 4”. The falls forced the current away and created a natural lap pool. Nice slow even strokes would keep me in the same spot.

 

[user 16827]

Sorry to read about Ellie Bob.
It's never easy

 

[Chuck C]

Hi Bob,
I'm so glad that you decided to keep posting your STC posts. They are a life journal of sorts and fun to read and to hear what you have going on. So sorry to hear about Ellie. It is so painful to lose such a loyal friend. And best wishes and prayers for your wife's back pain to be resolved.
Sometimes the board can get so caught up on which valve to choose and dealing with all the various related valve issues and such and it is really nice to read your posts about life after OHS, and to have the reminder that life after OHS is basically life, with the same ups and downs as non valve surgery folks.

 

[Superman]

Still on the road. Toured Mesa Verde the last couple days. Amazing place. 1,000 year old architecture in North America. We don’t have Roman or Greek ruins here. But this is some of our oldest civilization.

These are from our tour of Longhouse. One road is closed blocking off a couple major cites, but we were able to join a couple ranger led tours and see much of the rest of the park self guided. If you ever get a chance and haven’t been, I highly recommend it. An inspiring look into the Western Hemisphere prior to any European influence.

 

[slipkid]

Beautiful. Stunning. Words fail to describe...


But whenever I hear the words "Mesa Verde" I think of this Sergio Leone movie though:



Or this - possibly coincidental - use of the Mesa Verde Bank name in Better Call Saul:

 

[tom in MO]

Sorry about your dog. I walk for health and when your dog dies, you become "That strange man who walks the neighborhood alone at night or at sunrise."

The best time to get a dog is when you see one you want. Our dog requirements are simple. We like to adopt the "difficult to get rid of dogs" and are poor house keepers. Thus they must be short hair (housekeeping requirement), black and usually are a pit-mix or full pit (difficult to get adopted).

 

[Superbob]

Really hate not having a dog right now. But fall is better, and not just for weather reasons. We got rear-ended by a big truck when we were just making a right-turn, with signal on. Wife's back pain exacerbated. Got multiple doc, PT, pain appointments. Maybe a personal injury lawyer. Insurance paperwork. Rental car, now going into second week 'cause our car is really messed up.

So we wouldn't have time to bond with a new dog just now. Greatly looking ahead to less awful, more arf-ful days.

 

[ATHENS1964]

An attempt by me with ND filter several years ago.

 

[Superman]

An attempt by me with ND filter several years ago.

What ND did you use? 3, 6, 10, variable? Just curious. No exif data in the png files (exposure time would provide a clue). Really small so they lose a lot of detail. I imagine they look way better (and they’re already nice images) on your home monitor at full size. Based on the water, I’m guessing 3 stops (or variable not dialed down too far).

I want to stack a 6 and 10 stop and do some clouds, but the skies and landscape need to be right. And I never have time.

I did an accidental exposure bracket of the one image. I accidentally closed the shutter at 7.5 seconds instead of 40, which helped the sky. So I combined it with a 40 second exposure. Saved the sky.

 

[ATHENS1964]

In the first photo I used the canon 17-40 L f18 2sec ND10.
With a lot of sun I have tried with good results an ND 3 stop filter and a polar one on top. I would recommend if you have to try a policy combination to give the detail of the sun and write the clouds well ND.

 

[ATHENS1964]

I searched on a hard disc I had and I put some, I hope you like it.

 

[ATHENS1964]

tamron 17-50 2.8 f32 0.15sec ND10

 

[Superman]

I was trying to make sense of your f-stops and exposure times. So an ND10 is a graduated ND with 3 stops for the sky and one stop below the horizon. I was using an ND1000 (good for 10 stops of light). A very dark filter.

Either way, #2 and #4 are my favorites of the ones you posted above. The colored pencils are cool too. I lack the creativity to identify images like that to photograph.

 

[Chuck C]

As this seems to be the place where folks are sharing photos of their adventures, I figured I'd share today's adventure with ya'all.

The wife and I had a great time celebrating our anniversary in San Diego today. Kayaking in San Diego Bay followed by dinner in Little Italy.

I'd like to invite folks to put on their best Lieutenant Columbo cap and try to solve the mystery of this photo.

Fact #1: The photo is taken from our kayak
Fact #2: This is not my dog in the kayak, nor have I ever met this dog before today.

How did this situation come to be? If you examine the photo it has some clues.

10,000 points to the person who guesses correctly.

 

[Superbob]

Another kayak overturned and the smart doggie on board it doggie-paddled to your kayak for a lift?

 

[Chuck C]

Another kayak overturned and the smart doggie on board it doggie-paddled to your kayak for a lift?

That's close enough- Bob, you win the 10,000 points!

Here's how the situation, with the dog in our kayak, came to be.

As I mentioned, we spent the day in San Diego to celebrate our 28 year anniversary. We had signed up for a kayak tour of San Diego Bay, which launched from Coronado Island. There were two other couples and a guide in our group.

It turns out that one of the couples could not swim. To me, a bit strange that they would sign up to go kayaking in the ocean with no swimming ability. Perhaps even less good judgement, in my view, that they decided to bring their little dog along with them. I did not get the impression that much "what if" pre-thought went into these decisions.

So, the guide gives us the safety talk before we head out into the bay. She explains how not to capsize; don't lean over the edge of the boat and so forth, and how to get back in the kayak if you do happen to capsize. Should we capsize, remember the letters BBF; which represent Belly, Butt, Feet.

After flipping the kayak back over:

-Belly- lift yourself up onto the kayak and flop onto it Belly first
-Butt- next, rotate your body so that you are sitting on your Butt- your feet will still be in the water
-Feet- bring your feet into the kayak last.

Well, as it turned out, the couple which could not swim managed to capsize their kayak, even though it was a very calm day. At one point the guide wanted to have all the kayaks in one spot- so we got together and held onto one another's kayak as instructed. As the couple with the dog approached, they reached for the adjacent kayak- could not reach it and they started to drift away. So, they reached a little harder, and extended their arms even further to try to grab onto said adjacent kayak- both of them reaching, leaning precariously far over the edge of the kayak. The little dog then comes over to the edge to see what is going on and that was enough weight all on one side to reach tipping point. Over they went.

The couple held onto their capsized kayak helplessly as the dog started swimming away. The guide and the other couple assisted the capsized couple, as my wife and I, concerned that the dog was heading right into the path of an oncoming boat, chased the little guy down and pulled him into our kayak. The three of us then watched his masters try to follow the instructions to re-enter their kayak- remember BBF.

The husband went first. He managed to flop belly first into the kayak. Unfortunately, something went wrong in the transition from Belly to Butt and he managed to re-capsize the boat. The photo was taken right at the moment of this second capsize, as we all looked on. Their dog seemed very worried as we watched them try over and over again, without success, to get back in the kayak. I had to wonder what was going through his little mind, lol. It's a very good thing that the company which rents the kayaks requires life preservers, otherwise this could have gone very badly for them.

After several failed attempts to get back in their kayak, it became clear that it was just not going to happen. So, we had them hold onto their empty kayak as we towed them back to shore. It made for an interesting adventure and all ended up fine, including their little doggie, although he seemed a bit traumatized by it all.

 

[Superman]

That’s exactly what I was going to guess.
Stories like that from vacations are the best.