Gary's Outdoor Wanderings2: JUST ODD PICTURES

The weather has been turning cooler over the past week and the motorcycle stays in the garage for longer periods of time. Several searches of the vast clothes closet to find bits and pieces of long underwear sets turn up nothing. I never understood where long underwear parts disappear to from year to year. The Fall and Winter mornings are going to be cold on the lakes and I better find all that stuff pretty quickly. The insulated coveralls are ready for action as are the insulated Arctic Muck boots.

The past five or six days here at the house have been testing my ability to maintain a cool head as I've been dealing with an incompetent water company as well as a county that has a minimum degree of leadership. The water service on my country road is the worse I've ever experienced in my life anywhere I've lived. Three or four times every month there is no flow of water when the spigot is turned on. This happenstance occurs at any hour of the day or night. I visited the water company about this anomaly and explained how distraught I was over their inability to maintain water service. I told them my job is to pay, and I do my job well. Your job is to do what? Service? And how well are you doing you're job? The very next day the water went out. Can't win. Incompetence, incompetence, incompetence or - they just don't care. I really think its a southern thing as I've never seen such lack of motivation to satisfy customers by companies when I grew up in the north. Better off with a cistern or a rain barrel. I'll stop complaining now.

I'm having a lot of problems with my camera and I had been cleaning this connection or that one and wiping off contacts with alcohol and all the while shooting test shots around the yard and else ware while driving. All the pictures will probably be deleted but a few do have some merit I guess. Anyway, I thought I'd stick some of them up here on this blog just for something to do. Most all are nothing to write home about but some are OK shots that someone might enjoy looking at in passing. Besides its 4 AM and I can't sleep.

The camera has been developing an issue with the shutter button in that the shutter won't release reliably when the button is pressed. Often times I have to press it twice or three times and with more pressure from my finger.

This defect has already cost me two bald eagle shots that had the potential to be great pictures. It is either repair the shutter button or go for a new camera.

I mentioned in an earlier entry that I've sold the Gheenoe and now have no boat. That situation can not go on for long and I've got my eye on a new boat system that will fill that void. I can't do a new camera and boat at the same time due to cost issues. Then there's the old truck (that is still reliable as I write this). fingers crossed...

By the way, the following link will take you to a "You Tube" video that will show the boat and motor combination I'm leaning toward. Its very different than the Gheenoe in its simplicity but will allow access to all areas of stream and lake where I can find the critters and unique photo ops that I seek.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMPlYCjK_kY

The set up appears very stable and the seventeen foot boat will be capable of carrying camp gear as well as the large Australian Oz Tent that I absolutely love.

With all the above taken into consideration I've decided to send the camera off to United Camera to have the shutter release button replaced and the camera cleaned. This by no means will guarantee that nothing else will go bad but at least that issue will be taken care of. Every other function on that camera is perfect. The EOS 50D has been a fantastic camera and I'd purchase another one when this one gives up the ghost but, I don't see them advertised any longer.

My 50D Canon has over 100,000 shots taken and the shutter life expectancy is 100,000 so its a toss up how long the old camera will last. I certainly can't complain about Canon's quality. I have been looking very hard at the Canon 7D for the past year and have pretty much decided that the 7D would be the next camera.

Another camera has caught my attention however and that one is the Canon 60D, which I've ignored totally. It is less expensive than the 7D and has video incorporated into it. If that camera contains all the attributes as does my 50D I may consider it more seriously. But then, by the time I'm ready to purchase a camera - both the 7D and the 60D will probably go obsolete just like everything else electronic does. Such is life---or is it the American way. Not sure.

Anyway, life is good and one shouldn't complain even if the water service is poor and the electric goes off rather frequently for whatever reason.

Nature is out there to enjoy and it has become my retreat, my place to go where I can recoup and replace the electrolytes that society routinely drains from my essence.

I do hope you find a picture of interest in this mix of diverse subjects.

All these shots were taken over a couple days while I decided what to do with this camera. A camera has no preference where it finds interesting scenes to capture and sometimes the front yard will do nicely as a place to escape to and find some really interesting things to capture in the magic box.