Texas Spring/Summer Thread

[pacerron]

Ron,
Your right. Nothing beats watching a pair of F-106s take off..........banging all the stages of AB that sound like a large can getting banged. It really is a unique sound. New Jersey's Air National Guard still flew F-106s when I was there in 1986. They landed with chutes to help slow down. That was cool to watch also. A co workers Dad up there was retired with the F-106s. His job was to replace runway centerline light lens that the chutes knocked off.
hugs, Brandi

I'm not quite that ancient

F4's and F-16's were in my time frame.

 

[bindian]

I just got Chloe to sleep. 2 more ounces of simulac and 3 poopie diapers later...............she finally gave up and rolled her little blue eyes closed. Now I can clear 42 emails and then get a nap. I may go home late Friday. Rebecca is doing real well. Daddy Greg works nights and last night was his first night back after Chloe came. He didn't want to leave Chloe and go to work. His schedule will be changing on the 1st. He will be working two 16 hours days on Sat. and Sun. and 8 hours Mon. night. So that will only make one night he is gone in Rebecca's work week. Other times they can say .................."tag your it"........... and get 100% of Chloe while one gets some sleep. So the Lord seems to be working their schedules around to be more new parent friendly.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

I'm not quite that ancient

F4's and F-16's were in my time frame.

Texas Air Force reserve still flies F-16s. I have a mechanic friend in the reserves. They have been to the sandbox twice now, that I know of. I got a neat little American Flag from him with a autographed document stating the flag flew over there somewhere in an F-16. Pretty neat. It's now framed and hanging in my living room. Once he sent me a jar of sand, once a rock.

Heck...........F106s are still flying as target drones. You know.............the planes with Orange all over them. Well, we might have shot them all down now. I think F4s are still flying in foreign airspace as front line fighters. Especially the ones with the guns.
hugs, Brandi

 

[pacerron]

How cold can it be at 0730?
Yesterday it was 48 deg.
Shall I jump in, or not:confused2:

 

[farmgirl19]

Neat pic, pacerron!

Which program do you use to try to "restore" the older pics that have faded? Might that one also do the resizing you spokje of earlier, as well? Once winter gets here, and I move more indoors, maybe I can attempt to learn a new subject. I also need to find an affordable scanner, that scans 35mm slides and negatives to save digitally. Any advice on that?

Light rain here. I really am thinking of hiring out as that rain dancer!

 

[farmgirl19]

Offerings:

If any of you enjoy plants, or has a wife that does, I am transplanting and thinning some of my plants that sit on my porch Spring thru Fall, and come into the garden room in the winter. I am happy to share what I have, if anyone wants to meet me somewhere to pick them up, or has a place that I could drop them off at along my way.

I have Aloe Vera, Spath (Peace Lily), Spider/Airplane Plant, and Nephthytis. I could also get some cuttings going of some ivy easily.

Let me know if you want any, as when I am finished with my repotting and thinning, anything not wanted or claimed by someone will end up in the compost heap.

I can't get out and trim the rest of the shrubs around the house today, and hate to not be outdoors during in these temps. After being 21 hours of "feet on the floor" for work yesterday, I am looking for a fun, as well as necessary chore to play at this morning, so this is it.

This weather is AWESOME for the middle of August! I have the windows and doors open, if they are where rain cannot come in too!

 

[pacerron]

Neat pic, pacerron!

Which program do you use to try to "restore" the older pics that have faded? Might that one also do the resizing you spokje of earlier, as well? Once winter gets here, and I move more indoors, maybe I can attempt to learn a new subject. I also need to find an affordable scanner, that scans 35mm slides and negatives to save digitally. Any advice on that?

Light rain here. I really am thinking of hiring out as that rain dancer!

Photoshop Elements or Paint Shop Pro are both economical and easy to use.
FastStone Image Viewer is a free program that you can download and do the above as well.

Epson or Canon make good scanners IMO. You probably would still want to have a flatbed scanner combination for doing prints as well.
Both companies make scanners that will do both functions with a light in the lid and supply film and slide holders for them. When you scan slides or negatives the light is supplied from the lid through the film medium to the scanner.
When you are scanning prints it is a reflective process.

The main thing to remember when scanning slides or 35mm film is that you have to use a very high resolution to save an image of decent size, even on your computer monitor.
A slide is basically 1" x 1.5" If you scan the way you are used too saving your camera images at 96 dpi you will basically
have an image of 1" x 1.5" since the screen resolution of today's monitors is 96 dpi.
So to overcome that you scan at higher resolution similar to the way you scan a print at 300 dpi to get quality and size, but much higher for the little slides.
As an example, when you scan a print at 300 dpi, which is similar to pixels but not the same, you will see it on the screen at about 3 times the original size since the screen is 96 dpi. It is always better to shoot pictures or scan them at high dpi. You can always reduce or resize down, but resizing up doesn't work very well.
It is all explained with the scanners and in most cases can be basically automatic.
But like auto-pilots, or automatic settings on your camera, you have to give a clue to what you want, or you may not be happy with the results.

 

[jinman]

I awoke this morning and looked at the clock. . . it wasn't there.:shocked: Then the sleepy fuzzy brain left and I realized our power was off. Farmgirl, could you alter your dance so the rain still comes down, but the power stays up? I sure missed my coffee this morning. I could never get into iced coffee unless it was laced with a healthy shot of Irish Whiskey. . . whipped cream optional. Anyhow, the power kept coming on for a few seconds and then shutting off, so I scrambled around to shut off as many things as possible. I got logged into TBN for about 30 seconds and then my backup battery died. It can only supply enough power to give me time to shut everything off. I was using my laptop and finally the WIFI and DSL Modem lost power. TBN is a lot more fun in the morning than playing solitaire and waiting for power to come on. Finally, at 10:15 the power came back on as I was heading out the door to Walmart. My wife had left earlier with my grandson to spend the day with her mom and dad.

Now the good news, we got 3/10" of rain and I think the better part of the storm passed over FG19's and Dennis's houses. I'm not sure because solitaire doesn't give weather reports.:laughing:

 

[farmgirl19]

Sorry, jinman I guess I am still working on perfecting my technique. :confused2:

I got 0.2", so am at 0.9" for the week. I was hoping to get an even 1 inch, but looks like chances have diminished.

My first trip outside this morning, I saw stars and a clear sky. As I was drinking my first cup of coffee, I saw lightning to the west and north, so hurried out to tend to livestock. Clouds begasn covering the stars while I was feeding, and by the time I was walking back indoors, a light rain began to fall. Maybe Western got lucky and got most of the rain, this time. I still have the house open here, but with the humidity, I'll be closing it up soon. Still, to make it to almost 1 o'clock, and the house just be 75*, that is something to get excited about.

 

[pacerron]

FG19
Has your tank ever been full since you have lived on the property?
It looks like it was really nice size with a pier and all.
Ron

 

[farmgirl19]

pacerron; Used to stay up to the bottom of that pier with water. The last 6 years of drought have been brutal. I used to swim, shoot snapping turtles, fish, etc., in the tank!

 

[farmgirl19]

Double post. :confused3:

 

[NativeSon]

Wow, it feels like fall this morning, 61*. Stayed below 90 yesterday. I'm ready for an early fall.

All the rain yesterday was west of us. Sure glad some of you got some much needed percip.

Charlie

 

[jinman]

Dang! Here it is on the 17th of August in North Texas and it is 63 F this morning. Who would ever have thought that would happen? Whoever is responsible. . . I thank you, my garden thanks you, my yard thanks you, etc., etc., etc..

 

[Bird]

Hard to imagine my 62 degrees in August. However, it's still so dry that my yard does not look good. So I've got the sprinklers running this morning in hopes of keeping it from dying completely.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

TxDon, did you get any rain Thursday night? The lady I spoke with at the courthouse lives in Lexington and said they got over an inch.

OTOH, here by the airport, only 0.03 in the last 2 weeks.

About to change internet providers. Been real sketchy here with Verizon for a while. Going with a small dish on a mast that points at the provider's system. Anyone use this and should I worry about lightning?

 

[sseelhoff]

TxDon, did you get any rain Thursday night? The lady I spoke with at the courthouse lives in Lexington and said they got over an inch.

OTOH, here by the airport, only 0.03 in the last 2 weeks.

About to change internet providers. Been real sketchy here with Verizon for a while. Going with a small dish on a mast that points at the provider's system. Anyone use this and should I worry about lightning?

Yes and no. I use Ranch Wireless, which is a radio canopy. Sounds familiar to what you describing. Ranch services your area. The mast is direct buried. I assume that this grounds it. Some of the guy wires alre also connected to our carport, whichi s also grounded.

We have occastional outages, but their tech staff is outstanding, and have always been friendly and helpful. Probably some of the best customer service we have encountered.

Upload/download speed is very fast.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Yes and no. I use Ranch Wireless, which is a radio canopy. Sounds familiar to what you describing. Ranch services your area. The mast is direct buried. I assume that this grounds it. Some of the guy wires alre also connected to our carport, whichi s also grounded.

We have occastional outages, but their tech staff is outstanding, and have always been friendly and helpful. Probably some of the best customer service we have encountered.

Upload/download speed is very fast.

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

 

[pacerron]

Wow, it feels like fall this morning, 61*. Stayed below 90 yesterday. I'm ready for an early fall. Charlie

You may get your wish. Maple trees are starting to turn here. Flocks of Swallows are migrating through as are
geese. Have to check with Jinman if they are geese, geese-es, goose-es, or goos-i :laughing:
Ron

 

[txdon]

TxDon, did you get any rain Thursday night? The lady I spoke with at the courthouse lives in Lexington and said they got over an inch.

Thursday early morning we got .19"
Friday early morning we got .08"