An Interesting Few Months
It has been an interesting time since last November. The two biggest changes in my life happened between then and now. First, in November, I got a new camera. It’s a Nikon Coolpix P950 and there is a TON to learn about this camera. Right now I’m still at the point and shoot stage, but that’s okay because it’s where you start to learn about a new camera. It won’t be long before I am messing around with all it has to offer.
One of the neat things is that I can take hand held photos of the moon. Now, granted, the photos would look better if I used a tripod and a timer or remote, but just being able to capture something that far away hand held is pretty exciting.
I was pretty excited when I saw that. I think most everyone that enjoys taking photos wishes they could take photos of the moon. I could many years ago using a tripod, but that was with my Canon, and back then I had pretty good conditions for taking moon shots. And, FWIW, that is a zoom shot, but at only half the distance the camera is capable of taking. Anything beyond that would definitely need a tripod.
And it’s pretty good, too, for other kinds of photos that I enjoy taking, such as head shots of ducks.
It’s going to be an interesting Summer learning the ins and outs of this camera, and I am looking forward to it.
The other change in my life has been my new Schnorkie puppy. What a delight he has been! I got him right before the big Texas storm, but wasn’t able to pick him up until the weekend after when all of the snow was gone. It was a good 3 hour round trip and he had never been in a car until that day so I ended up holding him for about 45 minutes of the drive back. That made for a great bonding time and now he sticks close to me as much as possible. He loves sleeping next to me, and sometimes in my arms, too. It didn’t take long for him to learn to give good kisses, but sometimes those kisses come with razorblade “toofies”. Although he knows his name I think he thinks his name is NO. The neat thing about this puppy is that not only is he full of life, he is also enjoying life. He loves meeting people – and barking at them – and just plain playing, whether it be inside or outside. He has brought a lot of happiness back into my life, and has also gotten me up out of the chair and moving again. [Hopefully that will help me lose the weight I have gained since losing Bentley and with the COVID-19 lockdown.] I still miss Bentley tremendously, and will for quite a while, but this little guy fills a void right now. As for Lily, well, she’s not all that happy about having a rambunctious 3 month old puppy crawling all over her and pulling her hair, especially since she’s blind now. I think she’d like to pack her bags and move in with her mommy in Florida!
And then there was the storm that took out Texas. We knew it was a powerful storm and all of Texas took precautions for such, but no one had an inkling that we were going to be dealing with prolonged power outages, with lows around 0° and tons of snow. It was cold, there was no doubt about it! And while we were dealing with the power being out and trying to find food, the old water pipes slowly froze; and when they started to thaw back out, lots of burst pipes and spewing water. I was one of the lucky ones because my little quad of apartments had no burst pipes, hence no water damage, but others in my complex weren’t so lucky and faced flooding and damaged belongings and living spaces. Many have had to move out temporarily while repairs are being made and others moved because the damage was very extensive. Cold water came back on shortly after the power came back, but it was nearly two weeks before hot water was restored here. Lily and I stayed toasty warm under piles of blankets and I read quite a bit thanks to a torch flashlight. This is definitely not an event I would like to experience again. Once was enough.
And now it is Spring, the flowers are blooming, the redbuds and dogwoods are flowering, and the birds, bees, squirrels and insects are all dashing about doing their thing. You would never know that storm was just a few weeks ago, if you relied on the weather to tell you.
“Spring is Nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!'” —– Robin Williams
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