Early Morning Dinosaurs

Next month I celebrate my third anniversary at Pacific Science Center. Many things have become routine, but I still find myself in awe of the place. Hopefully, that feeling won't go away anytime soon.

I get to work at 6 a.m. It's still dark most of the time and I'm pretty much alone in there. It's still spooky and scary and totally awesome to walk around in the dark through all the exhibits. I especially like the dinosaurs. They're turned off, there's no sound, and very little light. But their eyes still glare down and those teeth look terrifying. Love that!

Hope to be writing something similar many years from now.

Sweet Cache

My geocaching buddy/grandson and I went out to run some errands and find a cache today. Kelton turns four next month. He's got this treasure hunting thing down quite well. This particular find was soggy and in need of serious repair. But it was still fun and we topped it off with a trip to the bakery just around the corner for some maple bars and apple juice. Sweet times.

Tough Old Cat

Joyce and I were out walking on our road yesterday when we spotted this black cat. He came right up to us and started purring. We recognized him right away - it was Midnight, one of our old cats who vanished years ago.

Midnight was one of four kittens we took in from some friends. They were the friendliest cats we've ever had. Great molers and mousers, they were always purring and wanting attention. But one by one they all disappeared. We've never seen any of the others, just Midnight. He's sorta feral now, mean as heck with ragged ears but he still purrs for awhile before running off to wherever he lives now. For as old as he is and living outside, he's actually looking pretty good, so somebody must be feeding him somewhere and giving him shelter.

Cats. Weird little critters.

Sunrise Moon

Sunrise is my favorite time of day, so you'd think getting good shots at home would be simple for me since we've lived here so long. It's not. The Orchard Compound is carved out of the forest so when the sun comes up it takes quite awhile for the light to actually get into us, especially in winter. So, this shot is pretty boring. A few minutes later the light was better on the trees, but the moon was gone. A few minutes earlier the moon was brighter but everything else was too dark. This was taken looking to the southwest with the sun off to my left. A few more clouds up there would have helped, maybe catching a bit more color from the sun. Next time.

You know what they say, the first rule in improving your photography is to shoot more often. Just need to get my lazy butt out of bed and shoot more!

Hobart Hell Hole

The property next to The Orchard Compound in Hobart, WA has been the scene of a bloody suicide, a recent shooting, years of illegal dumping, and some squatters who moved in and have been stealing from all the neighbors. My wife, Joyce and I are on a mission to have King County clean this place up once and for all. The video below gives you a sense of what's been buried on this small piece of land for the last quarter century. What you can't see are the years of abuse, violence, heartache and more. The unimaginable that is buried there makes us cry just to think of it all. Please, can someone help us get King County out here to close this little bit of hell and help some family move in and bring life back to this place?

Hobart Sunset

I've been so focused on the awesome sunrises this week almost forgot about sunset. On Wednesdays, Joyce and I telecommute from Hobart. So, as I was sitting at my desk at home today, just happened to notice the great light at sunset. When I grabbed the camera and ran out, there was a great sunset to the west that I started to shoot. But when I looked over my shoulder I saw the moon and this great vapor trail from a passing jet way up high. But what really got me you can't see. At this time of day, the bats are very active. They zip between the trees at dusk. And believe it or not, there had to be at least three big bats fluttering around when I shot this, but they didn't show up.

Either way, east or west, it was a great evening.

No Pat Down, Just Search

Pacific Science Center is preparing for a great new exhibit at the end of March. It's all about geocaching and GPS technology. So, I'm doing some research. That means doing some geocaching when I can. Today was another gorgeous winter day in Seattle, so I went out for about 20 minutes and found a cache near Key Arena. It was kinda sad since the arena, which I still think of as the Coliseum from my youth, is rather empty since the Sonics left town. The other thing...this was a puzzle cache which means you have to do some puzzle solving to find it. The puzzle involves Sheryl Swoopes' number. But today the Storm announced they've released her. Anyway, a fun search. No pat down involved as the sign says. Just a nice walk and some fresh air.

Seattle Sunrise

Although sunrise is my favorite time of day, yesterday's was more or less bland. Not so this morning. The sky held many colors. I almost worked right through it, but my beloved called to remind me to look outside. Joyce is blessed to be working on an upper floor of a downtown Seattle skyscraper, so she has a gorgeous view. My office has a panoramic view of Pacific Science Center's loading dock and dumpsters. And within a couple of week's our office will move to a room with no windows at all, so I need help remembering to look at what's going on outside.

Hopefully, if you're in the Seattle area you, too caught a glimpse of sunrise today. Looking the other way brought a terrific view of the Olympic Mountains. Well, just the VERY tops of the tallest peaks. There was a huge fog/cloud bank shrouding everything else. But it was still beautiful.

Sunrise Geometry

I've been thinking a lot lately about Pacific Science Center's arches. Trying to come up with a new way to photograph them, a different perspective, something I've not seen before. So, I wandered outside this morning at sunrise to see what I could see.

Unfortunately, the sunrise was rather uninspiring. The sky held very little color, which may be a good thing. No red sky in morning warning to worry about. But nothing leapt out at me as I wandered around beneath those famous landmarks looking skyward.

But as they usually do, the arches continue to amaze me. The many shapes that emerge are fascinating. And while they're concrete structures in the heart of the city, they're also teeming with life. Birds are everywhere! Somehow, I managed to snap this and not get one of those feathery inhabitants in the shot.