Some Photos Of The Fourth & My New Smart Phone

 

I wrote a post a couple weeks ago about the Fourth of July, a big holiday here in the U.S.

These two fireworks photos are from last year.

In that post I talked about what the holiday used to mean to me, and what little it signifies to me now, i.e.: it used to be a great time with family, friends, and fireworks, and this year (because family is out of state or out of the area, and friends were working) unfortunately it was reduced to going out into the back yard, hearing and seeing no evidence of anyone celebrating the holiday, and -- well, cooking hot dogs on my small grill.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any of this safe-n-sane illegal activity going on this Fourth. Thddddt.

I did put out my flags, my Australian flag being the biggest one of them all:

I lost my Union Jack, unfortunately. It was a really big one, and a really nice one. It must have developed legs. Over one Fourth several years ago I flew just the Union Jack and the Australian flag out in front of the house -- no Stars and Stripes. It was my way of protest, I suppose, as they had just banned fireworks in the city.

Why the Oz flag, some may wonder. Because I grew up on all that music.

This year, I flew two American flags, sticking them into the yew trees (no flagpole). Below is one of them. The wind was strong enough it almost made this one fly away.

So, my Fourth was spent writing on my action novel and roasting hot dogs.

My small but handy grill. Picture from July 4th, 2012.

The hot dogs were of two kinds: standard and kielbasa. With mustard and horseradish they tasted very good. I bought some potato salad. You can't have a Fourth of July dinner without potato salad. My mom came over and we enjoyed the meal -- but the evening was uncommonly quiet for a Fourth.

Roasting hot dogs on my grill, July 4th, 2015.

I decided to forego that other Fourth of July tradition: beans. I am not a fan of flatulence.

The weather, of course, was magnificent. Usually the Fourth is a damp day that turns into a semi-sunny afternoon, leading into a dry evening. During normal years, The Fourth is when our cloudy, warm summer June weather turns into cloudless, hot August weather.

Of course, this year has been different. Sunny May, hot June, and sunny, hot July for the most part. It's like California sent us some of their sunshine. Bright sun + 85 degrees = California weather.

MY NEW PHONE

This past week, I got a new phone! It's sort of a smart phone, although without the massive touch screen.

My new, free, kinda smart phone. All the apps were free, too. Can't beat the price of free. Easy on the battery, too. It always shows three bars. No charger needed!

It was very inexpensive (it was lying in the middle of the road), and the monthly bill is very cheap: like I said, you can't beat the price of free!

It will replace my previous cell phone, which by now is an outdated model and a bit more bulky to carry around.

My old -- now outdated -- cell phone, which was about $3 at the drugstore. No matter where I go it's always four bars of signal. This phone would get four bars of signal on Mars. No charger needed, either -- just one 9 volt battery and it's lasted more than two years!

The only thing my old one is good for anymore is making very loud ringtone noises just after the theater screen runs those "turn off your cell phone" warnings. Which it does very well.

A quick pic of how I look today. Completely anti-fashion. Wearing my UW wool hat, although I am not a UW Huskies fan, even though I went to the U. The U alumni organization (which I never joined) always sends their magazine to the wrong address (it figures), and when I do get it, it always has an article begging for people to send their money. To one of the most expensive public colleges in the NW US.

Unbelievable.

Have a great day wherever you are, and hope your weather is as hot and sunny (82F, about 24C) as ours is here.

CC

Happy Third Week of July

Sunset, HCC, July 3, 2008.

It's been one of those months so far where the sun has been shining, but sometimes hasn't (very bright haze, grey skies, then 90 degrees); things are looking up, sort of... making gains, and then going backwards... you get the idea.

The Fourth of July was a relative dud. Friends had to work, hardly anyone in the area blew off even safe and sane fireworks. Either the economy is really socking it to those who normally would light a few fireworks off, or the killjoys that are trying to ban even sparklers are finally getting their way.

I put out my flags, cooked some hot dogs. It was a beautiful night, actually. It was not unlike the one in the picture below:

HCC, August, 2008, cheap digital flash snapshot camera.

I've been weightlifting, something that I mentioned in another post here. I had to cut back the amount of weight I was pressing to improve my 'form', so I could get more building effect -- feel more 'burn' -- from the presses. It feels better after workouts, yes, but it doesn't feel great to cut back on the weight to do it.

Ah, yes, the psychology of numbers.


I have made some pretty good gains with the weights, though, and that always feels good.

Your most basic toolkit is your body, and it's much better to build it than let it go -- especially something to think about when some simply can't.


I've started writing an action novel with lots of bad language (woops) and, of course, plenty of violence. The amazing thing about writing fiction is that there are no limits except the ones you set for your characters. Some of the characters go over the top a bit.

Sunset over Highline College, July 3, 2008. Taken on a cheap digital flash camera that -- although it was a 640X480 camera, it had very rich, saturated colors.

One of my friends is trying to arrange a jam session with himself, me, and a couple other guys -- and maybe it will happen this summer. I haven't really played with other people in a while, and as my own playing style is different from most (Mick Taylor's slide combined with Mick Cocks' rhythms), I'm not sure how it will fit in, but where there is a will there's a way.

My #2 guitar, which recently has been the one I've been playing the most.

I still have been working on some songs I have been threatening to get down for a while but the work involved sometimes makes it easy to put off.  But my playing has improved quite a bit.

A totem pole somewhere, I think it's at HCC. Taken on a $10 cheap digital camera.

I still have a couple posts in the works on a Seattle photo trip, and some nature pictures I took, as well as some photos of a Classic Car show that was in my city last weekend.

I've started a couple small articles on my long distance radio listening hobby -- articles that I may post from time to time. I also wrote an article on depression (I'm not depressed, but there was a news article about it a couple months ago that got me writing about it) that I may soon include here for my readers.

And all of you readers are much appreciated!

I'll end this blog post with something from Mr. Celery:

You just look deep into Mr. Celery's eyes and you can see where he's coming from.

Happy third week of July from CC.

THISTLE

Sometimes the most beautiful things are the thorniest.

Thistles being one of them.

I suppose you could say love is another.

I saw this Canadian thistle, sprouting up amongst the tall grasses and blackberry vines.

Such a splash of color! Light lavender and green, brightening up the wayside.

A thing of great beauty, but what pain it can cause!

Especially if you try to get close.


Having feelings for someone can be painful sometimes, and it isn't always easy to know when to cut your losses and move on.

But I don't give up easily.

If it fades away, and I hope it doesn't -- at least it won't be for my lack of trying.

THE INVISIBLE MAN

Many times in life I've felt invisible. And sometimes I actually have been.

No, not that sort of invisible, but the kind where you can be anywhere and people just don't know you are there.

An example:

One night (when I worked overnights) I was on a lunch break in downtown Seattle. I went down to Elliott Bay Books (doesn't exist anymore) and on the way back to my previous place of employment (doesn't exist anymore) I had to pass Pike Street.

Pike Street at the time was notorious for being a skid row kind of area of downtown Seattle. It still has some of that reputation, but like most of the rest of Seattle, it's become slowly rich and gentrified.

When I approached Pike Street -- on my way back to work, mind you -- there was a huge fight brewing. It looked like a cross between a large fight and small riot -- mostly the former. Five or six people yelling at each other, throwing stuff. The cops hadn't shown up yet. I needed to cross the small riot to get back to work.

The Invisible Me and a bit of railroad archeology -- definitely not Pike Street.

So I thought -- screw this. I'm just going to mind my own business and walk right through and past all these people, pretending that they're just naturally going to ignore me -- I'm going to be invisible.

And I did. Not a scratch, not a punch, not an insult -- nothing came my way. It was as if I truly were invisible. Maybe there was an angel of some sort protecting me. But either way, it felt like I was invisible.

I once wrote a song called The Invisible Man, not about that incident described above, but about a similar one that occured about the same time in my life. The music was good -- the words weren't, so I trashed it.

Invisible Me (holding camera) and Timmy the Cat.

I don't have a massive online presence, aside from the few standard places everyone goes.

I put this blog up as a means to promote some of my music projects, and perhaps connect with a couple of people. Over the past month I've seen a few people from the U.S., Denmark, UK, France, Israel, India, Netherlands, Poland, China, and Thailand (and most recently, Romania) check in.

How much of the blog people actually have read is anyone's guess, but it's cool to see any of you bother to read what drivel I'm writing at the moment!

PS, anyone can feel free to comment if they read anything that they like. I'll always comment back.

Have a great day wherever you are, from the Invisible Man.

THE CALL OF THE WILD

For exercise, I not only bicycle daily, but I also do strength training, working out with weights three to four times a week -- I use a barbell with iron plates. I have my weight bench and weight set in a sunny storage room which has a lot of boxes of stuff -- including boxes of books.

About three or four weeks ago while I was taking a break from working out, I looked through one of my boxes of books and found "The Call Of The Wild", by Jack London.

My parents had bought it at a thrift store a long ago, and they never read it. I had seen it around, but I had never read it, either.

While soaking up the late afternoon sun (my weight room has large windows) I started leafing through the book, and I realized it's over 100 years old.

I decided to read it. It was a good story, and a quick read -- about 220 pages in three sittings (I usually read about an hour or two a day while trying to sleep or sometimes waking up -- my quiet time).

Jack London's writing style is very clear writing, and very descriptive in places.

It's a story about a big dog that lives on a sunny, California grape farm. The dog gets stolen and sold as a sled dog up north in Alaska, where such dogs were needed (as pack animals) during the Gold Rush.

The dog goes through several sets of owners. Some tragedies happen. In the end, you could say that the dog rediscovers his "inner wolf".

I don't want to give the entire story away, even though you could probably read the synopsis on Wikipedia -- but it's a good story, and very descriptive of how tough it was to travel the sled "roads" in the winter in 50 degree below zero weather.

A lot of the sled trails were actually frozen rivers, which apparently served as 'roads'. It was possible for a sled to break through the ice on the rivers and lakes during late winter or early spring -- and many people apparently died that way.

Jack London spent some time in the Yukon and Alaska during the Gold Rush and obviously used his experiences to create this classic book. It's his most well known book.

I have another of his books -- "White Fang" -- also about a dog -- hidden away somewhere, in another box of books. I'll have to dig it out and give it a read.

FOURTH OF JULY

You did not see this photo. You did not see those things go up in the air.

The Fourth Of July used to be one of my favorite holidays.

My flags out, Independence Day 2014... Yes, that is the Australian flag in there, too. Just because I can. One year I put the Union Jack out there, too. It looked beautiful.

It was a day when we would put out the flag, and in the early evening we would get in the car and head to my grandmother's house, which was 7 miles away (about 10 km). On the way there, we would stop by a fireworks stand, and my father would always buy lots of fireworks.

Something sparkling on the ground that did not occur.

Dad only bought 'safe-and-sane' fireworks: sparklers, fountains, pinwheels, and things that made smoke. Nothing that exploded or went into the air. Any time I've purchased fireworks -- with very rare exceptions -- I also always kept it safe and sane. Call it a family tradition.

Safe and sane. No noise. Brick pavement. Enclosed back yard. Garden hose (not visible) located just to left of picture.

Now, many cities are banning all fireworks completely -- including something as relatively harmless as a sparkler. Sparklers are about the sanest firework out there, yet even they are banned in many places.

Safe and sane. Several years ago.

But laws are not always logical in their application.

But I digress: As I said before, the Fourth of July used to be one of my favorite holidays, but not so much anymore... It's a holiday where the weather usually turns from grey to sunny (although this year we've had sun since May), and it happens to be in the summer, and occurs when the sun still sets as late as 8:45 and the sky is still light as late as 10:30 p.m.

So that part of it is still cool.

Another safe and sane shower of sparks on the ground.

I still put the flag out front, even if the holiday has lost its sparkle, being that I no longer have the freedom to even light a sparkler in my back yard without breaking the law.

I also grill hot dogs with friends. This year most of my friends have other plans already, but I'll grill hot dogs anyway. Sometimes the neighborhoods on nearby hills shoot off fireworks, and they are easily visible from my back patio. So I may see some of them this holiday.

Perhaps I might -- just might -- light a sparkler, if I have any left over from previous Fourths. Just don't tell anybody.

 

I once used this as my Facebook profile photo.

Have a great, SAFE, and sane Fourth!

Just Another Day In June

 Mr. Bullfrog relaxing in the bright June sun.

Most times when I post on this blog, it's about specific subjects. This one is more of a day-to-day post -- more or less about my day to day life in a sunny June in the Seattle area.

Mount Rainier from a parking lot in the White Center neighborhood in Seattle.

Today, as I write this, it's Sunday. And Saturday was spectacular -- 91 degrees (32C) and lots of sun. Usually we don't get into the 90's until August. And usually, the grass doesn't start turning brown until August or late July.

Brown grass in the first week of June along the Cedar River Trail in Renton. Usually this occurs later in the summer.

But the grass (at least grass that isn't watered by people) is already brown in most places. This summer looks like it will be a dry one. I have been in several other places in the United States, and aside from parts of California I don't think there is any better place to be during summer than in western Washington State.

Usually we have moderately hot to warm weather, and after the Fourth of July, it's dry until September. Our humidity is low, and the night air is cool enough to be refreshing.

This summer appears to be drier than usual, the brown grass being one anomaly, and the lower than usual Cedar River being another anomaly. The Cedar River generally runs fairly high in May and June, and by August, it is very low. However, several times this past month, the river has been low -- as can be seen in the following picture.

The Cedar River on a sunny day in early June -- very low for this time of year. This is how low it usually is in August, our driest month.

However, the level of the river does go up and down (it is controlled by a dam upstream) so right now it's a bit higher than in the above picture.

June is also the time where many of us Seattleites get to do a lot of yard work because of overgrowth from the Spring. If one isn't careful, Himalayan blackberries can take over everything. This is where that handy tool, the weed whacker, comes in handy.

I have several weed whackers (the technical term is 'string trimmer'), and lately have been using a gas powered one which was impossible to start until I took it back to the shop and the guy there showed me how to start it: i.e., forget everything you read in the manual. Since then, the gas powered weed whacker works like a charm.

An arsenal of weed whackers. My gas powered one at bottom, and my most trusty electric one (the first one I bought, a Grass Hog) on the upper right. The electric whacker on the upper left has old wrenches taped to the cutting head, to make it more stable. The hedge in back was partially trimmed by a weed whacker. They are very versatile garden tools.

My first weed whacker was a Grass Hog, which I discovered would cut everything from grass to blackberry vines. There is a knack to getting a weed whacker to cut blackberries without bogging down. You sort of snap it across the vine. With the gas powered whacker, of course, less finesse is needed. If it has blades instead of nylon twine, it will really cut. You can even mow a lawn with it if you need to.

June is also the time for fixing things, like bicycles. I had one bike which had a broken shifter cable, and after fixing the cable in the late afternoon sun, I cleaned the bike up and lubed it. Another bike -- my main riding bike -- developed a broken tire, which I replaced.

The gum rubber tire on my main riding bicycle. As you can see, the gum rubber just decided to rip and give way...

As it turns out, gum rubber tires just don't last as well as the black rubber tires, which you can ride until they're completely bald (if you had to -- it's not smart to ride a bike with bald tires -- they can slip around on wet pavement). Gum rubber tires give a smooth ride, but they will split and rip when they get old. The older gum rubber just can't handle the air pressure anymore.

As I replaced the tire, I re-checked my repair job on the innertube. I had patched the innertube in late Winter, to save a few bucks. Unfortunately, the glue that comes with most tire patches is runny and never dries. You can use other glues (like modeler's glue) and mix it with the runny rubber glue, and it helps. But even that didn't work this time. So I relied on that old standby: duct tape.

A five month old innertube repair made with a tire patch, which was reinforced with duct tape. The duct tape helps keep the patch on the innertube completely sealed, especially when it's pressed between the innertube and the outer tire.

I reinforced the crappy rubber tire patch with duct tape, and it worked. It has held up for at least five months now, and the tire doesn't lose any more air than the tires with normal innertubes. On some bike forums, they say don't use duct tape, it won't work. Well, it works.

The fixed / replaced tire -- a black rubber tire, which is long lasting, and even has kevlar, so I suppose it will even stop bullets. :-)  The wheel is an old German wheel which rides well even though it is missing a spoke (that's my next repair).

During summer, I sometimes let my cat outside for an hour or two. It's the time she gets to have her adventure. I always keep an eye on her, though. 

My cat on an adventure. She had just been surprised, so her tail is a little bushy.

A few days ago, of course, it was Summer Solstice, and during this time of year the setting sun blasts its way directly through my bedroom window, which faces northwest. I usually keep the curtains open, but I closed them for the photo, to show the directness of the sun's rays.

Solstice sun directly hitting my curtains, June 13th.

I was able to snap a picture of the sun setting just as it went down over a distant hill, right at 8:45 p.m. (local sunset) on solstice evening, June 21st. Unfortunately I didn't get a better picture because the battery in the camera was about to die. The sky stayed lit until after 10 p.m.

Sun setting, Summer Solstice. Where's something cool like Stonehenge when you need it?

Soon it will be the Fourth Of July, a big holiday here in the U.S.. I have no plans, except maybe to grill some hot dogs and watch the fireworks shot off by people in the nearby neighborhoods.

A shot of my eye. Trying to figure out how to take close up pics with my Fuji digital snapshot camera.

I have taken a lot of photos over the past month, with both of my digital snapshot cameras (a Fuji AX and a Canon A520 I got at a thrift store for $6). I took some photos of the Seattle skyline and Alki Beach, and took a few photos of birds and a couple bullfrogs hanging out in a nearby pond. 

Hopefully, I can sort them out and make a blog post or two within the next week, using all the new photos. Until then, happy end of June!