Random Eye Dull Photo - There be Dragons!

Saw this cool colored dragonfly up in New Hampshire.




It had a tiny red spot on the side of its neck. Not sure what it was...

Random Eye Dull Photo - Butterfly Pounce

This weekend up in New Hampshire my sister hosted a family get-together. As part of the weekend activities, my sister put together a nature photography scavenger hunt. One of the pictures we needed to get was a butterfly. This was my favorite of the ones I managed to snap:



I liked how it looks like the butterfly is pouncing on the flower...

It sure is hard to photograph a butterfly in flight. Talk about chaos!

Arcade: Mission Accomplished

I finally replaced the broken flight stick in my home-made arcade
machine with a true heavy duty arcade controller. I seriously doubt
my nephews with be able to break this. I forget which arcade game it
came from (snagged on eBay a couple years ago), but it works well with
discs of tron, which was my goal.

Accidental graffiti

It's the little things that amuse me. Some of my recently cut hair
fell in the trash this way... (ok I admit, I adjusted it slightly
after I saw it.)

Stuck in a rut - literally

Today was fun. I went for a drive with a friend with the intent of going hiking. We were driving around Sutton, MA, looking for a place where the Massachusetts Mid-State Trail becomes a trail again rather than following a paved road.

We eventually found a dirt road turn where the trail headed into the woods. Since there wasn't any parking at that junction, we decided to drive along the dirt road. After a few minutes of driving, the road quality got worse and worse. Eventually, it became a rocky mud thing that somewhat resembled a dirt road, but definitely wasn't suited for most cars. I was kind of enjoying the adventure, and decided to push onward. "What's the worst that can happen?" is something I think I said to my friend at some point. The road was bad, but the worst I expected was getting some scrapes on the bottom of my SUV from some larger rocks that I might accidentally hit.

Well, it turns out something worse could happen. While my friend was outside the vehicle helping me navigate some extra large rocks - I managed to drive a little too far off the edge of road and wedged my front right tire between two very large rocks. Woops! I was being a bit impatient and rather than slowly creep around some rocks in the middle of the road, I went a bit faster and thought I was clear - and didn't even see the brush covered rock on the right that the right tire dropped over. From my friends point of view in front of the car, it looked like the right tire had just bumped into a very large rock and stopped forward progress.

The rock on the right that was behind the right tire was so well hidden, it was a few minutes before we even realized that's why the car wasn't moving. At first I though it was no big deal, that the vehicle was stuck from going forward because there was a rock in font of the right tire. And when going in reverse didn't work, I just assumed it was because left front tire was slipping on a muddy rock. After getting out of the vehicle I saw the right tire nicely placed between two very large rocks and instantly got that "OH Crap!" sick-to-the-stomach feeling.

It wasn't looking good. Both rocks were a couple feet in diameter - not something that two people could reasonably expect to be able to move. Moving the one behind the tire definitely wasn't an option - it was under the car and appeared to be well rooted in the ground. The one in front was big enough to weight about 800 pounds, maybe more. Again, not something easily moved.

So, the first thing we tried was using the car jack to raise the front of the car enough so the tire would be lifted and we could put other rocks underneath. It seemed like a good idea, but due to the way the vehicle was titled on the edge of the road, the jack, while positioned adjacent to the front tire, was actually lifting the whole back end of the vehicle. Eventually the back right tire came off the ground rather than the front right one! The weight of the engine combined with the slope of the road was working against us.

Plan B: While the rock in front of the tire was quite large, it appeared to be sitting mostly on the surface of the ground. So, there was a chance we could move it. I began to dig behind the rock while my friend went searching for something decent to use as a lever. Surprisingly, he quickly returned with 2 good quality 2x8 planks about 4 feet long that just happened to be on the side of the road not too far away. Perfect! After more digging and the coordinated use of the levers between the two of us, we we able to slowly pry and push the rock over enough so the tire was no longer obstructed. It took us about 2 hours in total to get the vehicle free. At that point, we decided we probably shouldn't push our luck and reversed direction back to better road conditions.

I think in the future, I'll keep a few more tools in my SUV than just the standard jack and tire iron. And maybe not treat my Toyota RAV4 like it's a Jeep. But where's the fun in that?

Random Eye Dull Photo - Yellow Mushrooms

Spotted these colorful mushrooms on the first sunny day after what seemed like a month of rain.

"Wait for Me"

I'm really enjoying the latest Moby album - "Wait for Me". After just one listen all the songs feel like old friends. I especially like the melancholy "Mistake" and "Jltf". Such a nice way to present those god-awful feelings of times gone bad.

If you like Moby's earlier more ambient-style moody music, this new album is definitely recommended.

More Douglas State Forest

Another trail in the forest... was a nice day for a hike.

Ominous skies

Crazy cloud formation directly overhead this evening... I've never
seen anything like it before.

[EDIT: thanks to The Crow I now know what these clouds are called - Mammatus clouds. Here's a link to a good description of them.]

Enjoying More with Less

Here's an interesting side effect of being self-employed and making about 1/4 the amount of money I was making at my previous corporate job. I find I'm enjoying things a lot more.

Sure, I can't afford to go out to eat every day like I used to, or buy just about any gizmo that piques my interest. But having less money, I find I'm actually much more content. I appreciate what I can afford much more. In the past, if something broke, I wouldn't think twice about buying a replacement - and this time getting something even better than what I had before. Now, if something breaks, I take the time to try to repair it. And it's a very satisfying feeling when I've successfully repaired something, knowing I'll get some more life out of the product... and I saved some money.

If only I could have appreciated the frugal lifestyle while still making a nice salary. I could have saved a whole lot of money. But, as my mom once said to me in my younger days- money burns a hole in my pocket. If I have the spare cash, I tend to spend it. I don't go into debt - I always pay my credit card balance in full each month - but other than maxing out my 401K contributions each year at my old job, I didn't do much in regards to savings.

I guess this is just another reason why I'm very happy with my decision to quit my job and try the self-employment route. Who would have thunk it? Less money is a perk! I suppose it does make sense. Since I have less money, everything I do have is now more valuable to me. I don't take things for granted because I can't easily replace what I now own.

One of my favorite Buddhist sayings has always been, "True happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have". (No, really, it wasn't that pop singer who made up the phrase...) I always knew the statement was true, but just had a hard time living it. Now it's much easier for me to enjoy more with less.