Month: April 2006

Car Go Boom

Ever have one of those days? Yes, I’m sure you have. Today is one for us. It started out okay – until we actually got in the car to take my parents [they’re visiting here] down into DC to sight see. About one mile from the house, the car exploded. Not in fire, but in antifreeze. We began to inhale vast quantities of antifreeze steam through the car’s ventilation system. Something has broken in the cooling system and it’s not any of the hoses that we can see. It looks more like a water pump or seal – that’s going to be expensive. So expensive, in fact, that we might just have to ditch the car and buy a new one this week. So much for “European Delivery”.

In a lighter vein, we have rented a pair of Harleys to ride around the area. Only, now, we’ll be riding to our closest dealer to test drive some cars…

Cherry Blossoms?

Sorry – I haven’t had time to update the “status” properly, although now, the point is moot. Peak has passed and now there are but a few days left of the white-blossomed trees. I’m not even able to go downtown to look at the tidal basin until maybe tomorrow. I hope I can get some good pictures when I go there. Luckily, my parents are here and that means I’m on vacation and will get to play “tourist” for the rest of the week.

I just gotta plug away the rest of the afternoon, and then I’ll be off.

Stars? Nope. Not This Time…

In my ongoing quest to caputre long star trails, I made another attempt last nigh. This time, I tried an hour long exposure with the big dipper just above th trees and moving upward. It would have been a lovely shot. I let the shutter stay open for an hour and then closed it. All was well at this point. However, the camera has that really nifty feature of long exposure noise reduction that kicks in after a long shot. It came on and I waited for the shot to de-noise. About 15 or so minutes into the de-noising exposure [I can’t remember how long, but it was at least 15 but no more than 30 minutes] I noticed that the camera “busy” light was not on anymore. I checked the camera and discovered that my battery was completely dead. I lost the shot.

For my next attempt, I will put in a freshly charged battery to try again. The one I was using I had taken a good amount of shots with, so I don’t know how close it was to it’s charge capacity. If I can’t do an hour exposure with a fresh battery, I may try and get the “battery grip” expansion that allows me to put in two batteries at once and extending the exposure life past that 1.5 hour maximum that I’ve hit. Or, even better, I could try the external power adapter.