Category: Family

Summer, 2017

John5 Comments

These three iPhone photos were captured in 2017 at my daughter’s wedding reception. I didn’t bring the Nikon on this trip which was a bad choice as I didn’t get many good photos of the reception or bride and groom so I’ll not bore you with those photos.I still don’t know why I didn’t bring the Nikon!

As you can tell in the photos, the sky was threatening rain all day but never followed through. My daughter and hubby are still happily married I’m glad to say! I did my best to clean up these not-so-good photos, a note to me, always bring the Nikon for important events like this!

Leftover Photos

John12 Comments

These photos never made it into previous uploads so here they are. One photo was taken at Calico Basin a few days ago, the other two are from yesterday on the way home from the park where no bird photos were captured.

Sunshine and 95 hot degrees are forecast for Las Vegas today. Hey, it’s Las Vegas!

In a few days, I’ll be back home in Michigan finally to be with my family, I’m so excited! I’ll be on an antique car tour with dad too which I am very excited about!

Faith

John4 Comments

This is an amazing airbrush painting that was given to me in the 1990s by a young man who painted this. I was attending  an event related too my ham radio hobby doing public service at a rest area along the I-69 freeway in Michigan. The man worked at the location maintaining the facilities and grounds as a state employee. I held on to the painting until last year when I shipped it to my daughter and her husband. She had seen it in one of my photos and liked it very much. I miss that painting but it’s in a home now with a Godly couple. He is risen!

Just Like My Daughter

John10 Comments

As a man, I don’t fully understand the huge affinity that young women and women have for horses. I like them for their beauty, great strength, and graceful moves. They are so much work though as I remember from years ago when my folks had a home in northern Michigan and kept two horses. One of them scared the shit outta me!

I was a complete noob at it as I am today, the horse reared way up and nearly tossed my 21-year-old butt on the ground. Nope, this isn’t for me! Real horsepower comes from pistons and crankshafts, right? Yep! The girls riding the horses across the dirt lot are different girls than those behind the horse in the arena behind the brown horse.

When my daughter was very young, she was always fascinated with horses as she is today and rides four times per week. Not too long ago, she asked me to purchase a horse for her which I would gladly do for her, but horses aren’t cheap just like cars. I didn’t like refusing her request but it is what it is. Perhaps someday I can do this for her!

The landscape photos are just for good measure… 🌴🌞

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Mixed Photos

John4 Comments

Here is a mix of my stuff and not my stuff. Do you think the DHL driver was fired for his miscalculation? That’s a whopper of a screwup! The sunset photo from the other night that’s not cartooned is actually straight out of the Nikon, with no processing except for the file size reduction.

The photo that has Fremont Street in it was taken on the way to lunch a couple of days ago. Fremont Street looked pretty darn busy in there. Very early this morning I had a phone chat with my dad to see if he’s back in Michigan safely, yes indeed. What is it like to fly during Covid days?

This has me wondering if I can make the journey up there next month after I receive the second Pfizer vaccine injection. He was not asked for his proof of vaccination card, I thought it would have to be shown to board the aircraft but everyone has to wear a mask the entire flight. How uncomfortable this must be, right?

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Loopy for Loopers

John7 Comments

I have something a bit different for you this morning. Some of you know of my love of outboard boat racing that comes from my childhood during the 1960s. A few days ago, I found these photos online. The boats with the white cowling belonged to my dad’s competition Richard Austin, also a Michigander. The boat with the gold-colored cowling belonged to my father. Very similar boats, with basically identical engines.

The name Looper is derived from the way the fuel and exhaust flow works inside the combustion chamber in these two-cycle engines that burn Methanol, not regular gas. This is a quote from this website:

To combat Quincy Welding’s Quincy-Mercs, Konig radically changed his motors from the cross flow or deflector piston design to the flat topped “loop charged” design being used by other European competitors at that time. Quincy Welding’s deflector piston Mercs could no longer keep up with the redesigned Konigs, so O. F. Christner went back to the drawing board and created the Quincy Looper racing engine. Chris designed a loop scavenged block that would allow the use of a flat top piston design. The inlet ports “loop” the intake charge away from the exhaust ports. These Loopers had exhaust stacks out both sides of the engine. The 1st production Quincy Loopers, known also as Merc/Quincy Flat Heads, were produced in the fall of 1963. Thanks to the Quincy Loopers, speeds in D hydro increased by almost 30 mph literally overnight. In the early 60’s a 75 mph D hydro could run up front. Most racers ran round-nosed hydros and 2-blade propellers. (Photo is of a restored C Looper owned by Frank Novotny.)

So as you can see here, there was a ton of new technology coming forth in those days in two-cycle racing engines. The boat registration numbers and letter are also the namesake of my Instagram account too although nobody would know this. On a different note, there’s a 30% chance of rain and 66F forecast for today. Happy Tuesday!

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Christmas, 2019

John8 Comments

This morning I’ve pulled some photos from deep inside the archive. Are you a deer hunter? Neither am I, but my dad has hunted since he was a boy. There are several deer on his office walls. That cloudy Michigan sky was taken along the road I used to live on, and don’t I look so handsome going for the Nikon selfie! I flipped the image since it was backward in the mirror. Have a great week, friends!

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A Rainy Night In Las Vegas

John26 Comments

The sky dropped rain on the city yesterday on-and-off through the day. It was raining when I hit the sack last night and it was still raining when I awoke at 5:45 this morning. And it’s still raining as I type these words, the rain tapping on my dining room skylight is a pleasant sound. A sound I rarely heard here in the Mojave Desert.

A reminder of where I come from where rain is a frequent visitor. I captured the icy scene in my backyard yesterday afternoon as small hailstones tapped on the skylight which makes a very different sound than does the rain.

I feel a bit lonely this morning. Living by yourself isn’t a lifestyle for everyone, usually, I am fine yet the rain also can augment that feeling of being cut off from the family. This feeling never stays around long, the day is young.

Photo Fun with iPhone Photo Applications

John6 Comments

Man oh man have I been bored all day! A short joyride broke it up a bit but not enough. I thought why not grab the iPhone and take some random photos around the home and drop them in my photo apps on the MacBook. What apps are on the phone? Pro Camera, the stock camera app for the device, and Lenka for strictly black and white photos. Just for fun on a gray, dark, and cool day. I hope you have some happy sunshine where you are!

At a McDeath drive-thru this morning (i eat that shit very rarely), both lanes were very busy as it was not too far from noon. A woman in the car ahead of me was obviously deeply involved in something on – you guessed it, her phone. She should just glue the damn thing to her face! I noticed that the cars ahead of here were more than a car length at least, yet she couldn’t pull herself from that phone.

I didn’t want to blast her with the real horn that my truck has, not a squeaker like in those foreign cars, so I shouted out the window saying “can you move up!” She had the Gaul to give me a shitty look. Back at ya, wench. So rude. People in this city can be so terribly rude and arrogant at times and I’m frankly sick to death of people like her.

Younger folk today were not taught by their parents to have manners, so it seems. It’s not nearly enough to have me decide to move back up north to the crappy Michigan weather though. I really like this place, sans the asswipes!

In other very interesting news today haha, I received yet another spam call today. They are becoming more frequent recently, hello, Block List! The calls are usually about an expired warranty on my vehicle, but this time I was told by a robotic voice that my Social Security is soon to be canceled! What? The government simply does not make calls like this and how sad is it that some people actually fall for this scam.

I received an actual call from my dad down in Florida a bit ago, we had a nice chat, talked about his heading home to Michigan next month and about the vaccine. His shots were two weeks ago and he feels fine, yay! I’m still waiting… I mentioned the spam call about Social Security, and guess what? He received the very same call today!

I mentioned that if the damn government wants to do something good for we the people for a change, how about tracking some of these turds down and stomping them out? My sister has also received this same call. One thing is for damn sure, the freaking viral pandemic has not put one tiny dent in the evil things that some human beings do.

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