Fun and Games Dept

Sunset., originally uploaded by iMachias.

I was doing errands around the house when I glanced out the window and saw some amazing colours in the sky. I decided that I HAD to get a photo or two and ran out to the car to get the “big camera” (which is becoming increasingly outdated by the minute) and snapped a couple of shots.

I found the colours of tonight’s sunset to be absolutely stunning.

218.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

I find Central Park to be one of the most amazing things about the Big Apple. It is a beautiful thing to find such an expansive retreat in the midst of such hustle and bustle; a place where families, friends, strangers or even those seeking solitude can come to relax and take some time to unwind.

Central Park is such a beautiful place.

Earl, Jamie and I spent some time in Central Park today, just relaxing and enjoying the last weekend of summer. I snapped a few photos to share.

Since we were not armed with a blanket or lawn chairs, we opted to sit on a rock in the Sheep Meadow. Nearby, two men played guitar and sang. I didn’t recognize any of the songs but nonetheless they were pretty good.

I liked that they were doing that.

In front of us, an older gentleman picked out his spot, kicked back and read a book. With all the texting that was going on around us, it was refreshing to see someone taking time away from the technological to find some enjoyment.

There was a beautiful slice of society enjoying the weather today and I found the experience to join them to be quite grounding.

I look forward to more visits to Central Park. I seem to find things there that I don’t find in similar (and larger) spaces closer to home.

217A.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

Friday night it was the New York State Fair and this weekend we are in the Big Apple. The summer is going out with a bang.

For now, I sleep.

Moonlight., originally uploaded by iMachias.

It’s around 4:30 a.m. and I just woke up with a start. Feeling wide awake, I looked outside and saw that the full moon was shining brilliantly. I decided to see if I could snap a photo of the last full moon of summer and this is what I came up with. It’s my first attempt at playing with the manual settings on the “big” camera.

I don’t think it’s too bad for my first attempt.

If you click on the photo to get to it’s page in Flickr, you’ll be able to see my camera settings on there.

Now I’m going back to bed.

214.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

My supervisor was out of the office today so I took the opportunity to move to a new cubicle. This new space is in the same quad as my original cube and is 180 degrees around the maypole from where I used to sit. The difference with this cube is that it’s in the corner of the room, whereas my old cube was out in the middle of the floor. Being the old guy of the group I was having a hard time hearing telephone conversations; this can be a problem when you work a tech support position on the telephone. The new cubicle is a much quieter space and was previously occupied by the former old guy of the group. He was part of the lay-offs in April. Now I wonder if I have moved into the last seat before final departure.

Since the cube is identical to my original spot (aside from the walls), I set it up identically to my old space. I even took the lightbulbs out of the overhead light fixture; I strive for a cave like feel to my workspace.

214B.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

Earl is out of town on business (Knoxville, Tenn. to be exact) so that left Jamie and me alone at the Manor looking for some grub. So I took the doors off the Jeep and we headed to a local BBQ place. Jamie hadn’t ridden in the Jeep without the doors and since it’s September and all, it got a bit chilly on the ride home. The food was good though.

Jamie took his own picture during the ride.

He looks like he is having fun.

I was slightly off kilter today; not in a bad way, mind you, but just a little bit off my game. The after work diversion was a good diversion. Er, that’s what I said.

209.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

So as I mentioned last night, the latest version of Mac OS X (10.6), also known as “Snow Leopard” was released today. The ‘family pack’ arrived by FedEx as promised. So far I have upgraded two of the Macs in the house, I have two more to go tomorrow.

I’ll chat about it more in a techy blog entry, but so far, so good.

I was asked by someone what “Snow Leopard” was today and I found that question to be delightful. For those not familiar with Macs, “Snow Leopard” is the code name for OS X, which is like Windows on other PCs. “Snow Leopard” is the latest version of the Mac operating system, much like Windows 7 is the latest version of the Windows operating system.

One of the things that I forget about my blog is that people actually read it. I am referring to people that are “out there”; the silent ones that don’t make any comments or send me e-mail but rather people that have found something likable about my blog and tune in on a regular basis to see what I have to say. I am flattered by this but this occasionally catches me off guard, especially when I’m at a family gathering and I’m telling a story or doing some part of my schtick and my audience acknowledges that they read this on the blog. I sometimes forget that this cyber-world ties into the real world.

For those that read silently (“lurk”), I thank you. It is much appreciated.

Earl and I are in Earl’s hometown today for a family gathering; it’s birthday weekend for both my father- and mother-in-law. It has been good to see everyone, catch up and hang out. We also met our newest niece Mackenzie.

Rick and Helen are the proud parents of this beautiful girl. She’s a charmer and I believe the first redhead of her generation.

The party was good. The conversation was interesting, ranging from the benefits of taking a cruise to Alaska to Obama’s Health Care Plan to Cash-for-Clunkers. I have a bit of a culture difference from this side of the family when it comes to Canada; I blame it on my love for that country and the fact that I grew up close to the border under the influence of various Canadian broadcast outlets. They say I talk funny too.

The power of Facebook was prevalent through the party. I’m not quite as active on Facebook as I used to be but it’s still a good way to keep touch with friends and family. Because of my blog, I was treated to a few YouTube videos of various family members belly dancing or playing spoons at a wedding reception. I found it all amusing.

Earl and I are now relaxing in our hotel room. It wouldn’t be a trip to Philly without a midnight stop for cheesesteak; we’ll probably head into Center City for a little while before calling it a night.

Central Time, originally uploaded by iMachias.

I just completely lost myself in a Friday evening for five hours and I feel magnificent. Once again I was playing with my school clock collection, something I haven’t really done over the past year or so.

After restoring the clock from my elementary school my OCD kicked in and I could no longer accept the fact that there was one room in our house that did not have a clock from my clock collection, and that room would be the kitchen.

The reason I never put a clock in the kitchen was mostly by design but partly due to laziness, the kitchen walls (at least where a clock would go) are all outside walls and our outside walls are stuffed to the gills with insulation. The thought of fishing the necessary wiring for a clock in the kitchen was overwhelming; I have a hard enough time pullng wire through inside walls let alone finding my way through insulation, so I went with a quartz clock instead and left well enough alone.

Until tonight.

About a week ago I saw a beautiful clock from a Kansas school from 1919 or 1920. It wasn’t an ebay find, but rather I stumbled upon it through an online search (on Bing!). It was at an antique shop. I contacted the owners to see if they would ship it up here and a week later, here it is.

This clock is slightly different in design from it’s younger siblings in the house and uses a different mechanism than the others but a little wiring ingenuity and it’s clicking right along with the rest of the clocks throughout the house. Pulling the wiring through the wall only took about five hours and I didn’t even have to rip out the wall to do it.

The exercise of installing the clock was oddly relaxing for me and I feel great that accomplished something I couldn’t do.

I haven’t cleaned the clock up yet, aside from removing several layers of dust. The paint splatters from it’s former classroom actually match the paint in our kitchen so I’ll probably wait awhile before repainting it, if I ever do. I kind of like the history of the clock being on display like that. Earl told me this is one of his favorites in the collection. That’s always a good thing.

I think it’s one of my favorites as well.

190.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

How relaxed do I look today?!? I am very relaxed. It was a successful weekend being off the grid. Who would think that a geek like me would find such comfort in being unplugged?