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Blah Blah Blog - LiveJournal.com

07/24/17--16:13: Freaky Monday

lisaloopner joined me at Japanese Gulch yesterday hoping to see the owls I saw a week earlier. They never materialized, but Lisa wasn't surprised by that at all. It's rare to spot owls, and even more so if you're actually looking for them. I was bummed, because I didn't confirm that MapMyRun started, and it hadn't, so the walk wasn't recorded. If it was a walk on roads, it would have been easy to just sign in on the website and draw it, but the trail system doesn't show up on maps, so it's not possible to do that. Instead, I went again today and walked the route again. I only made one wrong turn! And I came down via the tracks instead of the center trail because there was a fallen tree I didn't feel like climbing over two days in a row. Oh and I spent a bit of time wandering around when I started trying to find a new place to leave the Podo. Other than that, I did the same route.

I don't stop for many photos when I have company, so only the first two of these pretty squares are from yesterday.

The sky remained completely clear for today's time lapse, so I deleted it after processing. Yesterday's was pretty, though.

I also did a 13-hour one from our front stairs on Saturday. Thought I included it earlier, but it turns out I didn't.

Had my teeth deep cleaned today. That was miserable and my gums are pretty sore now. I've always been a once-a-day brusher, and I think it's time to finally commit to twice a day.

07/25/17--16:06: Inspiration in waste

The sky was almost completely clear this morning, but I set the Podo up on the fence behind the swim center just in case any of the wisps I saw happened to float by. I'd parked on the residential street across a big lawn from there instead of in the park, and got almost to the door when I realized I forgot to grab a lock out of the car. Annoying, because that's a big lawn, but it's funny that it happened, because of what I saw on the way back. A woman was walking her dog right toward the Podo, and in my mind I pictured an awkward encounter where I saw her mess with it and had to ask her to stop. She was paying so much attention to where her dog sniffed that she walked right by it! Which is great. Seems like one of the main ways harm comes to dogs is when they find something bad for them in an environment outside the owner's sphere of control.

The swim was nice, but the video was just like yesterday's. Nothing to see, but I noticed some shadows moving across the roof of a nearby building in the last few seconds. From now on if it's a clear day, I'll try to find a spot with interesting shadows in lieu of interesting clouds. From the swim center, I drove over to Trader Joe's, then Grocery Outlet, and finally stopped by a gas station in the neighborhood for an unusual breakfast as part of my research for a Live in Everett post.

Not sure if I've mentioned it here, but we're trying to get our first real project in the house started. The main bathroom upstairs has a tub that we don't use or need, so we'd like to completely remodel that bathroom and put a washer and dryer where the tub currently is. It'll be so much nicer than taking everything downstairs into the dusty garage. It's been hard to find someone to come give us an estimate, though. We wanted to work with the guy who remodeled our bathroom in Seattle, but he's decided to move his family across the state. A friend's father-in-law is a contractor--who even bid on that first job--expressed interest at first, but isn't getting back to me. I finally asked for recommendations on Facebook and have two appointments lined up. One's coming tonight at 6:00, and another tomorrow morning at 10:00. I just made dinner so I wouldn't have to worry about the timing with cooking and eating later, and it's in the fridge.

07/26/17--13:18: Wednesday rolls in

I was a little bummed when I pulled out of the garage and saw very clear skies to the East, but figured since I was planning on walking at the marina anyway, the bluff would at least provide some shade. But then I saw some puffy clouds to the North, and when I parked the car, there was a huge one moving in from the West.

Obviously you need some horsepower if you're launching a boat, but it's still strange to me how similar all these trucks look to each other. Maybe I just don't appreciate the finer points of trucks.

Lots of birds to see everywhere today.

Sealed with a kiss.

If I had a boat.

Pretty squares.

I really like this spot for time lapses, the only disadvantage is that it's a tree, and you can see a little movement.

Here's a closer look at the plant and its plume. It's funny that it looks so small, in real life those plumes tower over everything.

07/27/17--16:46: My perfect summer weather

After so many very clear and warm days, it was a nice surprise to find it so cool and cloudy out this morning. We always get some nice days like that in May and June, but it seems a little late in the season for it. I'll take it, though.

Found a nice spot on a hockey goal to leave the Podo. The cloud cover makes the video pretty subtle.

There weren't any super nice flowers of this type around, but I loved the color so I had to get a photo anyway.

The pool was probably the emptiest I've ever seen it. And a guy in the locker room was leaving as I arrived! I got in the pool 20 minutes after it opened, so he might have stayed longer than the 5-minute guy, but not by much.

Had a very nice lunch, but won't talk about it now because it was for an article. I've decided it's easier to say "article" than "Live in Everett blog post."

I could have done even more stops today, but decided to do some on Monday instead. I ate out a lot this week.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that today's swim soundtrack was Lip Locked 298, and I really liked this track from it.

07/28/17--08:11: SchadenFriday

07/29/17--05:11: CATURDAY

BONUS Saturdogs

Many thanks to:
Animals Being Dicks
Señor Gif
k00l 4 k@+z
Almost Famous Cats
Cats, Beavers & Ducks
Derpy Cats
FAT CATS
FUCKYEAHFELINES!
CHEEZburger
Every Day is Caturday
Cats and Dogs
The Cat Reviewer
And everyone else who happened to put a cat or dog where I ended up seeing it this week!

07/30/17--13:53: Lucky salmon

I wasn't sure if a couple of weeks away from Langus was enough for the mosquito problem to get better, but I was really in the mood to go there this morning, and decided I'd let the sky tell me what to do. If it seemed completely clear, I'd head to the gulch, but if I saw any cloud activity, I'd do Langus instead for the time lapse. The sky was neat, so that's where I went.

I was lucky because there was also fog down in the lowest part. I could feel the temperature drop ten degrees and I walked down into it, it was great.

I think the salmon habitat they're working on is going to be much bigger than I previously thought. They've brought in a bunch more equipment and suddenly they're clearing out a lot more areas. If they do what I think they're doing, a lot of where I like going now will be underwater, but today I was able to take advantage of the work they're doing and walk much further through a lot of different areas that weren't accessible before.

It was a really great sunrise and I'm glad I went out there.

Pretty squares.

Did a hyperlapse on the drive home. There's a little extra spinning because of the side trip to go get the Podo.

Today's time lapse is really neat. Takes a while for the cloud action to start, but the fog before that's pretty cool.

After I got back, we went out to breakfast at our neighborhood bar, then over to the farmers market, which was really nice. I especially wanted to go this week after the manager was on the latest Live in Everett podcast. I think she's the one who helped me find the cheese vendor today!

Now we're home watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind. My kinda day.

07/31/17--06:00: Up close and personal

Right now it's actually Sunday, but I'm writing this for Monday, and it's about Friday. I've got a lot to do Monday and am not planning to even take a walk. And I haven't written about Friday's yet. Two birds, one stone.

A few days ago I decided Friday would finally be the day I put the Podo on the fishing pier that's right by the ferry. It was really nice out.

The views from that fishing pier are really cool. I love the new perspective on an area I'm very familiar with.

Those clouds were slow-moving so they're in a lot of photos, and the entire time lapse.

I love this spot.

As nice as the time lapse came out, I ended up wishing it was facing another direction.

I've been calling this one "Jupiter Station."

"Family"

My mp3 player battery died, and I decided since I wasn't listening to music anyway, I may as well finally take a good look at that abandoned building. I bet it was neat when it was in use.

I was surprised how many people were fishing and crabbing at the pier where I left the camera. Glad nobody moved it.

Pretty squares.

This is a fun one. It's funny how something as massive as a ferry seems so twee in this format.

08/01/17--12:31: Square day

I had such a nice time this morning out at the marina. The sky was really clear, so rather than dwell too much on what I wasn't seeing in the sky, I took the opportunity in the extra light to take a better look at stuff all around me.

Of course, my attitude would be different if I was out at noon instead of sunrise, that's for sure. It was still nice and cool out.

This flipped one is the only one I didn't save in the square format.

Here are the rest.

There were so many ducks, geese, and herons around. Many cool encounters.

Today's the first day in years that I've heard a dial tone in person.

After watching this time lapse, I finally realized I should point the camera down so more of the water shows if it's a really clear morning.

I spent a lot of time during this walk thinking about how great it really is to live here. It's on the water, but not outrageously expensive, or a tourist trap, or too small. I can get to tons of great walking spots in ten minutes, and have an awesome pool a few blocks away. Plus it's in the middle of a bunch of other cool places. Not a lot of cities have so many other ones on their border as we do: Marysville, Snohomish, Mill Creek, Lynnwood, and Mukilteo. I'm really glad Garrett was born here, because I doubt Everett would have been on my radar at all otherwise.

08/02/17--16:51: The new Jan Brady

Recently I figured if I could leave my Podo on the boat launch at the river, it'd make for a good video because there's more water there than where I normally leave it. I hadn't looked very closely at the launch, though.

This was the sort of view I hoped for.

Obviously it would be different because the Podo has a wide-angle lens, but you get the idea. But I saw when I got there that there wasn't anywhere to hang the Podo high enough. The only poles are the ones that go all the way through into the riverbed, and they're far too wide. The boat tie would have made for a nice video, but of course if someone came along to launch a boat, they'd need it. So I left on the back edge of the bottom of the platform and hoped for the best.

A quick lap around the parking lot was nice because the skies here are very smoky right now, which made for a very eerie scene.

When I got to my normal spot, I really wished I'd left the Podo there. There was one layer of fog on the water, and another thick one on the farmland on the other side. This is from a bit further north, but you get the idea. I have no idea why the fog looks a little glitchy here but the thing floating in the water doesn't.

Fog's the best. It was a little hard to keep walking rather than just stand around and watch it.

There's lots more houses to be built down there, but this might be the last one they'll put up along the trail.

I've seen several cows down there across the river, but can never get a good photo. The contrast today make for a great one, though.

The sun rose while I was up North, so the walk back was very different from the walk out.

When I got there, I wondered why a van was in the gravel parking lot before the park was even open. On the way to the car, I saw why.

Pretty squares.

I'm told this is a recent satellite photo of the area. Now, in the middle of the afternoon, I can't even see a few blocks away from the house.

There was a guy fishing when I got back to the boat launch, standing right in front of the camera. It seemed like he didn't even notice it, and he was apologetic. I told him not to worry about it and said the battery was probably dead by the time he got there. That turned out not to be true.

Today I did something I decided I'd do months ago, which is get a much more drastic version of my haircut once the weather turned hot. This'll take a little getting used to.

08/03/17--17:19: Smoke gets in your eyes

Despite the terrible air quality, I figured I should get out for a bit, and that maybe a typical tank farm Thursday would be the best choice because the air by the water should be less smoky. I don't know if that's really true, but I always heard from people who were there that when pollution was really bad in Los Angeles back in the day, there was at least a little relief if you were at the ocean. Plus it seemed like it'd be a dramatic spot to see the sunrise.

Today was the second time I went to set up the Podo and realized the pad that holds it in place inside the case had fallen out. It's really necessary because if it's not pushed all the way against the plastic, you can see a reflection from its lights, even though I've painted over them with black nail polish. So I took it out and balanced it on a rock, and left the case next to it so there'd still be a sign saying a time lapse was in progress.

Strange debris on the beach. The biggest I've seen since that boat was there.

I was starting to think I'd never see the sun, when all of a sudden, there it was!

Pretty squares.

More of a water time lapse than a sky one. And you can see me in it toward the end.

I figured I'd do a hyperlapse of the drive home since the sun would look neat in it. The car phone mount is in the corner of the windshield and the dashcam software uses the wide-angle lens, so the small streaks in the corner look huge.

I had a productive day. The normal weekly chores, plus I had to get hardware for my closet doors. They've been in the open positions for ages, and I stole their hardware to use on the ones in my office. Well, twice now, Sam has decided to pee on the dirty clothes in my closet, so those doors need to stay closed for a while. I can't be too mad, though. He's an old cat and if he's gonna pee and poop outside the box sometimes, I'm glad he chooses places that are easy to clean up.

08/04/17--08:48: SchadenFriday

08/05/17--06:10: CATURDAY

08/05/17--13:51: Do-over

It looked like conditions down at the river were going to be about the same as they were when I was there Wednesday, so I went again yesterday. That's probably the first time I've ever been there twice in a week.

Between the smoke and the fog, it looked like winter.

A nice pano, plus how I displayed it on Instagram.

The wide angle lens comes in handy sometimes. Here's the photo I took with it and the photo from the same spot with the regular one.

Pretty squares.

IRL emojis.

This came out cool, I love the fog.

Yesterday, Sam turned into an apostrophe, and Steve turned into a snake.

And this morning on the way to the mailbox, I saw a very hard-working spider doing his thing.

08/06/17--11:49: Access denied

I saw last time I was over there that the salmon habitat project seems to be much bigger than I originally thought, and proceeding at a rapid pace. But I wasn't expecting to suddenly find the road to the area blocked off today.

I suppose the timing's good, though. I'd already done the island loop, and was 3.3 miles into the walk when I got to that barrier and had to turn back. That led to 4.5 miles total, which was about right because the smoke was getting to me.

Not that I couldn't have just walked right past the signs, but I'm not going to. When I first contacted the parks department about that area, the only thing they said not to do is walk past construction signs, so I won't. Hopefully they'll reopen that road soon. The island loop was full of mosquitoes and annoyingly overgrown, so cutting that out and the Northern portion takes out my two favorite parts of the park.

The time lapse didn't work out. The sky was just flat and the sunrise (such as it was) was out of frame. I didn't even bother saving it. It was still a decent day for bird videos and pretty pictures.

08/07/17--14:50: Pole position

This Saturday, I'll attempt a hike I meant to do a year ago, when I took a wrong turn and climbed Table Mountain instead of hiking Chain Lakes Loop. It's been forever since I used my hiking poles, so I figured a little practice was in order.

I parked at the bottom of Japanese Gulch and headed up the trail I call OG, because it's the first one I ever explored there. It's a nice, steep way to climb to the Western side and is perfect poles. Unfortunately, the bridge that's out because of a mudslide is close enough to the bottom that it's before any of the forks in the trail, so when I found it, I had to turn back. It was still pretty dark, but I was able to get one regular photo with the flash, and a wide-angle shot without.

The next path up to the top happens to be one I'll only do with the poles, so that worked out. It's not even the trail heading up that makes them necessary, but the section near the bottom that gets really muddy near the creek. Oddly, that spot's right next to the nicest, most solid bridge in the whole park. But right after you cross it, just a mishmash of mud, loose boards, and rocks. And it hasn't gotten any better in all the time I've been going there.

There was some nice fog licking the edge of the top once I was up there.

The poles are great for hiking but terrible for the stuff that makes hiking fun. It's hard to skip past songs on the mp3 player, hard to get a drink of water, and especially hard to take good pictures. So I only grabbed a few pretty squares.

It might have been a great day for a time lapse, but it said the battery was dead when I tried to set it up. No clue how since I left it charging for a while yesterday. Oh well.

The fog was really neat when I got back to the bottom. That's the view of the Eastern side, so maybe it was a lot foggier up there.

I'm glad I went West, though, because I got to come down the trail I call Bowling Ball. It's got a creek crossing at the bottom which is super easy to do with the poles, but a little treacherous without. I took a wrong turn trying to find the top of that trail on the way down, but quickly realized my mistake, and managed to find the right trail on the first try after that.

At lunchtime, I had a contractor over to look at the bathroom we want to remodel. He suggested that I meet him at his current job site so he could follow me over or ride in my car. That was a little weird, but ended up being cool because I got to see inside the project on the property where the lion house used to be. That was totally cool.

08/08/17--12:42: Moonset

I certainly don't mind a good routine. It only becomes a rut if you don't enjoy it. Tuesdays at the marina are still quite fun.

The sky is still flat and dull, but the moon was full and bright, so I figured that the Podo may as well watch it set.

Redundant labeling.

I'm sure you know what I think when I see this.

The novelty of this hazy sun has definitely worn off. And apparently now we're breaking the record for days without rain? Ugh.

Pretty squares. And a truck. There are lots of interesting vehicles at the marina every time I go.

A little conference I interrupted on the way to pick up the Podo on the fishing pier.

The video is interesting because of the moon, but not really Instagram-worthy, so I just put it on YouTube.

I woke up last night and was so wide awake, I figured my 4am alarm might be about to go off. It was only 11:30pm. I watched some Deep Space Nine for a couple of hours and fell back asleep, and am thankful it's a mellow day. My team's weekly conference call is at 3:30 and a quick snooze might be in order before then.

It occurred to me that I might need to kill a little time on Friday before checking into my rental. Maybe a movie in Bellingham is in order. I'm almost certainly having sushi in Marysville for lunch on my way up. They have a conveyor belt sushi joint, and I love those, and it's been forever since I've been to one.

08/09/17--14:51: A day early

The tattoo's doing well, so I think I'll go swimming tomorrow. I thought about waiting until Friday, but I can't tell by the schedule if I can. The session I go to is the "parent/tot" swim that doubles as an open swim, and in the current schedule, that's listed as Monday-Thursday. So I'll go tomorrow and ask about Fridays while I'm there. So today was the tank farm, and the plan was to leave the Podo by the lighthouse.

I would have gotten there just in time to start the time lapse while a ferry was docked, but a sprinkler was on and hitting the spot I was planning to use. I found a decent alternative place on the boat launch, but the ferry was pulling away as I got the shot set up.

It's not often you get to see a heron groom like this. They usually don't get comfortable enough if you're near enough to see.

This dry weather streak we're having is not fooling around. I've never seen this retention pond empty before.

This isn't a particularly interesting or well-done piece of graffiti, but look how tall it is!

Pretty squares.

It's been a while since I was able to get a picture of myself with the Podo after the time lapse. Many spots don't have a place for me to stand, and the battery's usually dead anyway.

Secret friendship.

I wish the view of the ferries wasn't blocked so much. I like being able to see the lighthouse, though. I'll try again further out on the boat launch sometime, if there's a place to secure it.

Yesterday I had the camera pointing at Steve, but he wasn't there for long. Instagram videos have to be at least three seconds, and that video wasn't, so this morning I fixed that.

08/10/17--13:10: Where is everyone?

I was really surprised when I pulled up to the swim center to find there were only three cars there. That's enough for just the employees on duty as there are two active lifeguards and one at the front desk when I go. Two guys came while I was showering, and two were already in the pool. Just five swimmers for most of the time and I think it was never above seven, and I had the deep end basically to myself. Pretty great.

Looking at the sky, I could tell there was no point in setting up a real attempt at a time lapse where there's a view, so I just put the camera on my steering wheel and went in. I was surprised later to see the sun pop up in the small gap in the trees.

After many years of the four-at-a-time Netflix plan (down from eight back in the day!) I'm finally so caught up on my Netflix DVD queue that it was pointless to keep it. I've switched to two at a time, and currently only have one DVD actually out. maxauburn posted a scene from One Crazy Summer yesterday, and that left me wanting to watch the commentary track. It's a good one. The other two movies that are available are "very long wait" so we'll see how long that takes. My "saved" section (the ones that aren't available on DVD or their streaming service) is huge. I'll take some time later to browse their DVD offerings, it might even be time to take it down to one at a time.

The streaming Netflix service is still great. I'm currently binge watching their original series 13 Reasons Why, which is so much better than the descriptions make it seem. lisaloopner recommended it and I started it yesterday. I'm already almost done with episode 6.

Forgot to mention yesterday that my latest for Live in Everett was posted. The response on Facebook has been interesting, people really did love China Doll.

I casually outed myself in that post. I figured it was time. While I was writing it, the first two words in the most recent post were "My wife..." and that removed all doubt that I should mention Garrett.

Word on the street is that the smoke may start lifting tomorrow. That's Seattle news, though, so we'll see what happens.

08/11/17--06:00: SchadenFriday

08/12/17--06:00: CATURDAY

08/13/17--13:39: A break

A year ago when I went to Mt. Baker to attempt to hike the Chain Lakes Loop, I took a wrong turn and climbed Table Mountain instead. Yesterday I returned to have another go at it.

Check-in time at the condo I rented for the night is 4pm, but the owner messaged me just before lunchtime to let me know I could come any time after 1pm. I didn't end up taking advantage of that, because I'd already decided to enjoy the trip up. First stop was a conveyor belt sushi joint up in Marysville. We don't have one of those here and I really like them. I left happy and very full. From there, I drove to a movie theater in Bellingham. Not really knowing how long it would take to get there, I decided to just go, and check the showtimes when I arrived. No sense in making more of a plan than that. Thankfully, a few of the movies I wanted to see were about to start, and I chose Girls Trip. It's hilarious and I'm looking forward to watching it again with Garrett when it's available for home viewing.

From there, it was on to Glacier, where I'd be staying the night. My original plan was to have a burger or something there and bring a pizza back to the room, half of which would be for breakfast and half would come home. I forgot the ice packs I was going to use to keep it cold in my trunk, though, so I just ordered a pizza to go and had a cocktail while they made it. I ate half in the room while I watched the Jeopardy! teen tournament, wrapped the other half up for breakfast, read a bit, and fell asleep.

I wanted to get to the trail head as soon as possible, and I gotta say, it's really hard to choke down half a pizza right after waking up. But I'm glad I ate there instead of later on because it was pretty messy.

It was raining a little bit when I headed out! The smell of rain after two months without it is intoxicating.

The road up the mountain is terrifying but at least it's gorgeous once you get there.

I'm really glad I went back, because I saw how hard it is to find the trail I was looking for even knowing where to look, and that there's a couple of ways to walk up the one I did last time, making it even easier to mix them up.

There was no escaping the smoke completely. I ended up with a bit of a sore throat.

Still beautiful, though.

Stopping for photos on the trail with poles is challenging enough, and I didn't feel like taking the time to create Instagram posts that wouldn't actually send for several hours. And I never felt like doing it afterward, so these never got the square treatment.

There are lots more nice photos on flickr. And I ended up with one of the nicest time lapses I've done.

And of course you need proof you were there.

I didn't go the whole loop trail, or even try to come close. It's a challening 8.5 mile hike and I figured I'd be pretty miserable if I exerted myself too much in the smoke. Plus I got to a spot where I'd have to slide down a bunch of snow, and I wasn't in the mood to do that or to climb back up it. So I just did a few miles total, and kept it fun.

I took Highway 9 instead of I-5 both ways, and it was really lovely. I really hate the freeway and I'm happy to take the scenic route even if it takes a little longer. I probably saved a little time going up because I wasn't in the Friday rush.

Garrett was originally supposed to come back from Canada today, but showed up yesterday while I was in the shower. I like that the bathroom we shower in is above the garage so we never get surprised by the other one driving up while we're in it. We had a lovely afternoon of movies and he made us one of the Hello Fresh meals that came while we were both gone Friday. We forgot to check on the Hello Fresh and Blue Apron accounts and ended up getting a shipment from both. Oops.

Today was a lovely walk over at the island, made even lovelier by the rain that came at the tail end of it. It was cloudy the entire time, too. I didn't get a ton of pictures, though.

There's a nice new sign at the start of the hunting trail, and they had to clear a lot of vegetation on both sides to put it there, but just a bit further up, the trail is overgrown. Kinda silly.

The bridge to the island has some cool history lessons in tile form, I should probably get photos of all of them.

Toward the end of the walk, it was rainy enough to look a little foggy. So nice.

The time lapse came out so cool! Unfortunately, it appears I didn't charge the battery very well, and ended up with 230 or so pictures instead of the normal ~1,300. This will definitely be a good spot to use in the future, especially as the mornings are darker. And I'll definitely have to go on a weekday when there's more traffic.

Decided to go ahead and get a hyperlapse of the drive, too. I did one on the way down the mountain, and there were some cool views in it, but the switchbacks made for too much motion. So I didn't save it. This one's cool, though.

More movies and cat cuddles today. Our neighbor just stopped by to make sure it's ok if he puts up a makeshift barrier between our yards where the fence doesn't go all the way across, so his dog can run around without being able to escape. Really, the whole fence needs replacing, but that'll be a big expense, so whatever he does now is fine for the time being.

08/14/17--16:04: Dark? Already?

I originally planned on a swim this morning, but yesterday's time lapse gave me an idea for another one, so I went down to the marina.

Good choice. It was super nice down there today.

I need to play with wide-angle panoramas more. I can see lots of errors in this, but it's dark enough that they're not noticeable at first glance.

Regular vs wide angle photo of the same spot.

I love wide-angle shots but I wish they had a version that doesn't make the edges of the ground curl up.

The last part of the sunrise was quite dramatic even though it wasn't colorful.

Pretty squares.

I saw my first otter there! I've only seen one other one, scurrying across the walking path at the tank farm. Please note, there are two videos, hover over to get the arrow to switch to the other.

The stairs on the back of the yacht club are a great spot for time lapses! I'll have to do a bunch more there before the building's torn down. I might have composed this a little differently if I could see, but it was too dark when I got there.

08/15/17--16:23: Phew

Today might be a record with five conference calls. I've done four so far, and thankfully my involvement in the final call should be short. The first one was pretty early, but not so early that I couldn't get a nice swim in.

There was a neat sunrise this morning but the center of the sky was clear. I left the Podo on the back fence of the swim center and am happy to see a few clouds showed up.

There were some swimmers I didn't really recognize this morning, but they were all in the lanes, and were all gone by the time I left. I even had the entire pool to myself for the last ten minutes or so!

I was really surprised when I went to the mailbox earlier that the sky was mostly full of a very interesting, thin layer of clouds. I ran back in for the Podo and let it do its thing. last third or so was a clear sky so I edited that out.

And here's a video from a car wash yesterday. It was my first time at a Brown Bear, and it wasn't nearly as fun as the one I normally go to. What can I say? I like my car wash with rainbow lights. I certainly don't need the attendants to be forced to dress like missionaries.

When I was a kid in Albuquerque, we went to Octopus Car Wash, where you'd get out of the car and could watch through windows from the hallway, and at each step, animatronic animals worked on it. I clearly remember monkeys wiping the car down, and I think an elephant blew it dry.

08/16/17--15:45: Time to get some practice in

My goal for today was to find a new spot on the river for today's time lapse, while keeping an eye out for more options. Later on I realized what I should be doing is getting ready for the eclipse.

The moon was pretty, and this is one of the best pictures I've managed to get of it. The one with the crane from a while back is probably my favorite, though.

The sky was a bit subdued, but there were some good pastel streaks.

This particular view amused me because the clouds and trees seemed planned out to not touch.

Another case of things seeming to line up.

Pretty squares.

I saw an otter swimming in that third square. Really strange that the second and third times I've ever seen otters in the wild were this week. And I saw cows! And one may have even seen me.

Someone found and moved the Podo again! I really don't get why the people who have moved it didn't read the labels first. If I saw something like that I'd definitely take a good look at it before reaching for it. At least this person did a better job putting it back. And didn't steal it.

I realized I didn't really want to go anywhere to try to see the eclipse if it was possible to see it from home, so I set a calendar item to remind me to have a look where the sun was at the time it'll start next week, plus at the time it'll be at its peak. From what I could see, the back yard should be a great place to set up the Podo that day. I'll do a practice one tomorrow and see what happens. Unfortunately, I'll be on a call at the time I'd really like to start, but I'll make do, and have a few more chances to practice. Since there were some clouds, I went ahead and made another video.

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