Random Bob Pulls Roof out of... Somewhere

So, yeah. I haven’t really spoken about it here, but we’re looking into buying a house. In fact, we sort of have been since mid-December.

We have been watching the market pretty closely for some time now. Since before we moved up here, in fact. Housing cost was an important factor of where we wanted to live: we have aspirations of a farm life for us someday, and if I have to work to 99 years old to afford it, well suffice to say that my farming years are long gone by then.

We’re still in California, so it’s not like we can buy 20 acres right now though. It’s expensive compared to, say, Oklahoma still Always will be. But, it is California, and not Oklahoma.

Housing prices have indeed tumbled here as they have in pretty much the rest of the country. For us, the real thing we were watching for was, are mortgage payments less than or more than rent payments? Well, for a decent-enough house (that still needs some “pefecting touches”), we’re at the point where we can rent to own, and for a hundred or so less a month. It makes sense now. Because at this point, if we wait a year and housing prices tumble an additional $10K or so – keep in mind they do have to bottom out eventually – we’re still sitting pretty, as instead of “throwing away” $1100 monthly for a rental house, we’ve paid down $900 a month on ownership rights, plus we get to write off the interest on our yearly taxes. So we come out ahead during that year anyway.

But that’s all boring. Here’s the good stuff.

In early December, a few properties caught our eye. They were still high, but we felt it was the right time to start actively looking, instead of being passive watchers. So we walked to our nearest realtor (next door), and made some appointments. Next thing you know, we’re trying to low-ball a nice house that’s in foreclosure, and damned if they didn’t drop $20k right off the bat. Still was rich for our blood, but it got us to really think about how much a buyer’s market it could be right now. Low-balling is in. It’s the new acid jeans. It’s the new bell bottoms. It’s the new internet porn. It’s in, it’s hip, all the cool kids are doing it.

There’s myriad things to consider, though. First, our market didn’t have the extreme highs found in So Cal, so we don’t have as far to drop. Second, we’re an isolated market. There’s only so many homes, and so many people to buy them and live in them. We’re not really expanding nor contracting, so a home might sit and drop to a certain price, but it’s not going to drop and drop and drop (like Detroit). At some point, it’ going to get eaten up, because dammit, people need a place to live. There’s also the issue of financing. The rates are pretty low right now. But in actuality, they’ve gone up a smidgeon from the end of last year (a month ago). The markets, they are volatile. What happens if we wait for a price drop that isn’t all that much, then the rates go up a point? We’re actually losers on the deal then, no?

We’ve been mulling all this over, looking at homes that we felt were close to our price range and we could low-ball a little and get a better deal on. And damn if we’re not this close to it right now. Yeah, we are. We made an offer on a house that’s a short sale property. The bid was accepted, sort of. If the bank wants the money.

See it’s weird. We were told to start escrow by the listing agents. Then 3 days later, we get an addendum to the sale paperwork from the bank, essentially saying that they “tentatively” accept our offer, but reserve the right to keep it listed until February 6th, at which point, if they don’t have any higher offers, and maybe if they feel like it, and jupiter is in Saturn’s moon or some sh!t like that, they’ll take our offer and begin escrow. Those chummy guys, those bankers!

It looks like it’s going to go through though. That same day we signed the addendum, we drove by and saw a “Sale Pending” sign on the lot. And lo-and-behold, the property has been de-listed from the MLS. Folks, it looks like Random Bob might get his roof over his head.

Which is a far cry better than where it has been, which we won’t discuss here.

The Mighty Taco Almost Mighty Stuck

Yes it’s true: we almost got the Mighty Tacoma stuck today.

It all started when we woke up this morning to sunshine and still winds. We figured, hey, let’s go and do what we wanted to do yesterday, and hang out at the river all day! And it was so.

Now, we’ve been to the river before, many a time. And the Taco is well-equipped for off-road outings. What it’s not well-equipped for is mud bogs. Yes I got some decently-aggressive All-Terrain tires, but they’re not mud boggers, and they’re not even Mud-Terrain tires, either. So when you hit that thick, slimy, goopy mud, you’re f*cked, unless it’s very thin to hard bottom below, and/or you are carrying a lot of speed to float over it (and it’s not long enough for you to get buried axle-deep when attempting this).

I was not expecting it, and thus had a) no speed going for me to speak of, and b) it was soft and next to a river, so no hard bottom below. Queue being stuck.

What made it especially scary (butt pucker factor of about 7.6) was that it was on a slope towards the water, and we were close to it from the start. So with each bad move (and even any good moves), we kept sliding closer & closer to the water.

OH, the fun we had. First we tried to just go with some wood under the tires to get us moving forward, but eventually, it was apparent this was fruitless. Not because we couldn’t do that and go forward, but rather because what lay in front of us was a steeper slope into the water – and thus a taller set of soft, slimy mud and a steeper angle to try and climb at the same time.

Trust me. I know. That picture is one that I took after we tried that for the last time, and I got enough of a head of steam that I thought I could carry that up the embankment & to some ground I could get a grip on. And if you take a critical look at it, you may notice that you can’t actually see any tread on the back tire (I cleaned the treads on the front with a stick before the shot). Go ahead, click it for a larger version. I’ll wait. (...)

See, that’s the zinger, that’s the reason I was saying above that unless you have AT LEAST Mud-Terrains or better yet, Mud boggers, you’re f*cked when you hit this sh!t. Because even if you’re not on deep mud, the real problem lies in the fact that it just compacts and – worse even – cakes & sticks onto the tires, covering up any and all of your lugs, effectively rendering your tread pattern worthless, and setting you up with a nice set of slicks. Yes, it’s the best of both worlds (sarcastic): you’re driving with slicks, on slick-as-hell mud. Joy.

But all is well. I am home typing. Or rather, I was, as by the time you read this I’m no longer, but this isn’t a philosophical post, so let’s just move on. How’s it we got out? Well, after that picture you see – right after I tried the going forward and up the slope trick that didn’t work, over & over –we tried backing up. It took some convincing of The Girl that it might work – because I was going towards the water – but we eventually settled that going forward on sloppy, slimy, deep mud up an ever-deepening incline wasn’t going to work (obviously), so what the hell, right? Right.

We loaded up the backs of the tires with wood and brush, and I tried to make a makeshift “wood levy” to keep the truck from sliding towards the water as much as possible. It sort of worked. Well hell, it worked. I ended up backing our way out of the problem area. Eventually. After a few attempts. Over a bush, but what the f*ck ever dammit, it’s better than fishing a $35K (retail, not actual cost) truck out of the river, especially since I don’t have friends and thus would have to pay for it :(.

And now, I need Mud-Terrains. Yes. Deal with it.

On trucks & Off-roading

Airing down
It’s something that I always had heard about, but hadn’t ever really done on my truck: airing down the tires substantially while off-roading. The reasons for having not are simple, really. Airing down a lot means I’ll have to air up a lot at some point in the not-so-distant future, and an air hose is not usually readily available out in the boonies. Also, there’s the fact that really & truly, I’ve never been some sort of off-road master or anything. I have really just been off-roading so far as to say that I got my 4Runner dirty or whatnot.

But then we got a new truck, and we went all-out and got all the off-road goodies. And there’s a LOT more room for the dogs in the back, so going all out is more a possibility now; we explore a lot anymore, especially along the beaches & rivers. And lastly, I sort of solved the “airing back up” problem.

I had always heard that airing down the tires gets you much better traction, especially on sand. I know the mechanics of it: you extend the “contact patch” of the tire out, giving you a larger footprint for the same-sized vehicle. On sand, this allows you to “float” on the sand a bit better, without sinking in as much. How much? Well I wanted to find out, so yesterday I took the dogs out to the local dunes @ the bay, to experiment. I drove around in some areas I’m familiar with and knew I wouldn’t get full-on stuck to begin with. I felt how the truck responded, how it handled certain obstacles, and how it drove in the sand.

Then I aired the tires down. And what a difference it made. I was truly impressed I honestly was. I don’t have bead locks (which hold an unaired tire onto the rim when there’s little or no air pressure) so I didn’t want to get crazy with the amount of air I let out; I dropped from a streetable 36psi to 20psi – about 16psi difference. And I was instantly stunned at the difference it made.

Typically when aired up, as I take off in the sand the truck first digs down about 2-3 inches before really moving forward much. When they were at 20psi, it just went forward. I tested to see how much “float” I had, and drove at the same speed right next to my old “aired up” tracks. Just going down to 20psi shaved almost – if not a little more than – two inches off of the amount of sink I experienced in the sand. I was impressed.

Then I went to a sandy hill that I can’t climb from a slow start fully inflated. Usually what happens is the tires just start to dig and throw sand out the back, and the truck starts to buck and I go nowhere. With the tires aired down though, it didn’t even hesitate, not even a little. It just climbed right up.

Which makes sense. With such a long contact patch, to throw sand out from underneath means that a lot more sand needs to move, and the sand in front is waiting on the sand behind it, which is being held down firmly by the length of tire above it. The rim rides a little forward on the rubber footprint, so the digging force is applied there, but with a long tract behind that holding the ground underneath steady, physics dictates that it’s easier for the truck to go forward from that spot than it is for the ground underneath to try and cover that much area and move. It makes sense, I just didn’t think that a mere 16psi would accomplish that much.

It’s like night & day. Really. Aired down, there’s about nowhere I think I couldn’t go with this setup. It’s beautiful.

Now I just need somewhere to go!



4Runner sand performance question also answered
I had felt for some time that it seemed to me that the 4Runner would float a little better on the sand than the Tacoma. I think I know why now. The tires I put on the tacoma are a little stiffer and have a higher air pressure rating. So of course I oblige and fill them up more. On the truck, I run with 38psi up front and 36 out rear. On the 4Runner, I ran with 32psi up front and 28-30psi in the rear.

I think that the few psi difference explains why – in street trim – the 4Runner floated better on the sand.



The “Air Solution”
The Tacoma has a power outlet in the bed of the truck. Yeserday morning, I stopped by sears to check out small compressors. They had a handful there, so I picked one and ran. The one I got said it would fill a certain sized automobile tire from 0psi to 30psi in 1 minute 50 seconds. “great” I thought, “since I’m only going from 20 to 35 or so psi (average), it’ll probably be about the same for me with my bigger tires; 10 minutes or less, baby!”

Wrong. That compressor’s going back. It took – I kid you not – at LEAST 5 minutes a tire to go from 20psi to 36psi. I don’t mind waiting a few minutes to get back on the road, but f*ck man, I stood around waiting like 30 damned minutes! Ain’t happening like that again; I’m going to get a more powerful one from somewhere. That is just not cutting it.



Bottom line
If you’re going to go mess around off-road, take the air pressure out. It makes a world of difference, even if you’re not going all-the-way and running with just 8psi. Seriously, don’t get stuck – get the air out of the tires and just go.

I’ll try to get pictures up maybe and link to them. If I remember.

TDK: a second attempt

Yes I’m a glutton for punishment (hurt me, baby!). But that’s not the entirety of the explanation. Firstly, someone got it for me for X-mas, and lo-and-behold, it was Blu-Ray & not DVD. Secondly, it still manages well above a 90% rating on the tomatometer. And Thirdly? Well, I am a glutton for punishment (hurt me, baby!).

Upon a second viewing, I can safely say that I really don’t like The Dark Knight all that much. It’s got these gaping plot holes that just scream out at you if you’re paying attention. Sure there’s action, sure there’s like 3 seconds of suspense somewhere, if you look hard enough. Sure, there’s a butt-ugly girl being paraded around like she’s hot stuff when she’s not. Sure, there’s lots of things in the movie that are singularly good. My problem is, together, they just don’t work. I don’t buy Maggie as a classy lawyer about as much as I didn’t buy Katie Holmes as one, either. I could “write” about all the things that I dislike about the flick, but it seems this will come out shorter if I list them, bullet-point style:

• How is it that a LARGE BUS pulls out of the side of a building on a main thoroughfare into a line of other busses, and no one blinks an eye, and say, maybe, calls the cops to report this strange bus that’s clearly not part of this field trip? That just pulled out of the face of a large bank? Maybe?

• Why does Batman suddenly need a new suit? His old one was bad-ass. The new one looks like GI Joe having a midlife crisis.

• Batman hires a big, slow, junk plane to haul him from a rooftop in Hong Kong. Apparently, there’s no air force or anything that can catch this lumbering, crotchety old plane? Really?

• When Batman jumps out of the building to save Rachel and they fall & land on the top of a cab, there’s the small issue of the fact that The Joker is still up on the top floor, with all his henchmen – with GUNS – in the middle of the party. And they’re still looking for Harvey Dent, who’s passed out somewhere up there. How do we rectify this situation? Why, we cut to a scene during the next day!

• What?!?!! I’m sorry, I don’t care how big Batman’s cock is, there’s no way that he or anyone else can take sonar samples of a bullet hole and reconstruct a freakin’ fingerprint. He’s rich & smart, he’s not Merlin the Magnificent.

• OK so we’re caravanning to take Mr. Dent to the County prison. There’s a large truck on fire blocking their planned route. The first one to notice this is the driver of the front vehicle. Not, perhaps, the f*cking helicopter that’s patrolling the route from the sky.

• Then, they divert to the lower, underground version of the road, where there awaits an already-up-to-speed garbage truck that pummels a handful of cars. Followed by a Big Rig that is also perfectly up to speed, that T-bones a car and then continues to accelerate as only a small sports car could.

• Batman then proceeds to show up and time everything just right, to the point of being able to jet his car into the path of a shoulder-fired missile that saves Mr. Dent’s life.

• After all this, what’s left of the caravan detours up to some random road to get assistance from above. It just so happens that this is the road that The Joker predicted, and has people on the roofs of the buildings to fire cables to destroy said air support (helicopter). Meaning, he had already planned for all of his plan’s failures, and even more, WHEN his plan would fail and they’d take a detour.

• The Joker lets us in on the fact that he had the car that took away Dent from the scene of the street fight & also his girlfriend, being driven by his men, who took them to undisclosed locations full of explosives. They’re on opposite ends of the city, so Batman can only save one, because…. ? Apparently, cops are not on patrol around town and cannot be counted on to show up to an address and save a person.

• Now this is the major one here. This is the one that makes me want to reach for the remote & just turn it off. See, eventually The Joker is in prison, along with a fat guy that has a phone & bomb sewn into him. He blows up the building by calling this phone, thus showing us that he in fact had the last 5 bullet points incorporated into his plan in the first place. Riiiiiiiight………

• How the hell did The Joker know that there’d be a boat with conmen going across the river at the same exact time as a boat full of innocent civilians? Riiiiight………

• How the hell did The Joker get explosives into both of the ferries, in the engine rooms, and no one noticed??!!? Riiiiight………

So, yeah. It’s got some decent parts, but the whole is lacking, and mostly it boils down to the fact that the story isn’t strong enough – too many holes – and simply, the other ancillary stuff just can’t cover it up.

I know I am not alone, but I just can’t figure out why it’s so damn popular.

Recent Movies

Logan’s Run
We had not seen this movie before, but it’s always referenced, so we figured we’d try and get in on the inside of the jokes or whatever. This was a mistake. The concept… well, I can see why it’s always referenced, because it’s sort of the base of a LOT of future Hollywood movies (Blade Runner comes to mind, as does elements of The Matrix, and many many others). So conceptually, it wasn’t that bad. But there were these parts that required “actors,” and unfortunately it was pretty much devoid in this respect. Who was that ugly twit they hired to play Logan? Why? I wasn’t born yet, but I’m pretty sure they still could have gotten me to fill the part.

And character development? I guess that wasn’t around until the mid-80’s or so. And neither were people with perfect pitch or any form of musical talent.

One thing that I do wish would make a comeback though, is the opening text-as-background-story. It’s nice to read a paragraph or two, and have an understanding of what you’re about to watch, and I do prefer it to what Hollywood’s done lately. You know, how they have characters sort of shamelessly drop background plot points in completely obnoxious & unnatural ways that sort of make you cringe. I hate that. I’d prefer the short opening background story to make a reappearance.



Good Will Hunting
This movie’s old, but it’s supposed to be pretty good, so we thought we’d culture ourselves on it a little. If the title sounds familiar but you’re having trouble placing it, it’s the movie that Ben Affleck & Matt Damon wrote & starred in, that essentially thrust them into existence.

Side note: I had no idea that the title was sort of a “good dog” congratulatory saying. You know, Matt Damon is Will Hunting, and he’s good. “Good Will Hunting, Good Will Hunting. Now sit! Stay! Get a job!”

It was a good movie if not quite what I was expecting out of it. But I do think that it thought it was more touching & important than it probably really was. Just my opinion, I guess – as is most everything I bother writing down – but I think if you watch it critically, it’s “just OK” as opposed to “landmark cinematic experience.”



Deliverance
This one I watched online (legally, through Netflix) while The Girl was down south visiting her family. It was sort of the same thing as Logan’s Run, in that it’s an oldie that is often referenced and re-referenced, and I guess I felt the need to see it and know firsthand what all the references really are.

Though at this point I don’t think there’s really much doubt what everyone references, and ladies & gentlemen if you’ve not seen this movie but suspect that you know what the references are, let me assure you that you do. It’s not that cloaked. There’s some male-on-male raping action.

The only thing that really struck me about it was that the scene that is most oft-referenced, is so damn short. I really expected it to be some drawn out scene, full of suspense & intrigue, not a quickie, wham-bam-thank-you-sir-and-now-we’re-off sort of moment.

And seriously, why was there any argument? What they should have done is ran after the fat guy and caught him, and then either a) killed him and buried them both, or b) taken him in as proof.

They should have “delivered” him to the authorities, or they should have just neutralized him & subsequently the entire future of their issues right then.

Random bob takes a few hours off with the DEATH; Sees Visions of... Walmart?

Back from the dread
Unbeknownst to you, dear reader, I damn-near died on Friday. At least once, maybe twice.

I don’t get sick all that often. I mean, I get minor sick on occasion – you know, a slight sniffle, maybe enough snot to fill a tissue, that sort of thing – but I don’t get sick often like most people do, in that I don’t spend weeks at a time at 60% capacity, complaining and feeling like general poop. No, instead what I do, is I save that up, and once every 3-5 years, I get so sick I almost die. But while it only lasts about 4 days typically, instead of the 60% the general public feels, I spend the first day of it at about 80%, then the next two days at about 25%, and the 4th day somewhere up the ladder again near 80%. This is typical.

This last time was ever-so-slightly atypical however, in that it wasn’t 80%-25%-25%-80%, it was 40%-80%-25%-80%, just to switch it up, I guess.

And honestly, friday night (night #3) might have been more like 10%, really. It was bad. It was as bad as I can remember. I had to leave work early – I haven’t missed so much as an hour’s work since 2004. Then I headed home on a warm-ish day, with the heater cranked up to full & the windows up to keep it all in. Had to talk myself into getting out of the truck when I finally reached the house, because dammit it was already cold as it was outside, plus I was going to have to walk through the shade, and then the heater in the house wasn’t on yet, to make matters worse. And once I got got psyched up enough to run to the house, I rushed inside and turned the heater on full there too, and had to hustle to make the tub ready for a warm soak, as hot air was not cutting it, and not fast enough. And it doesn’t matter how fast a spigot can turn over some warm water, when you’re as sick as I was, it’s never fast enough. And the shower at my house? Slow on a good day to begin with.

The tub seemed like a good idea. Hell, it was a good idea. Falling asleep in it might have been a little less good, but dammit, it felt oh-so-right at the time. Like heaven. Right about until the time I woke up because I was underwater, and it got just a smidgeon worse when my consciousness arose just enough to try and return the heat to the tub, only to find that the water heater had been tapped out.

I need heated towels. How cool would that be? Well, hot, I guess. At least warm. Anyway.

I spent the rest of the night either staring at the moving picture box, asleep, or sweating profusely whilst shivering, and sometimes a combination of two of those three. Maybe even all three at some point, I’m really not too sure, it was all kind of a blur to be honest. The sweating though, it was killer. When I eventually made it off the couch for good last night and into the bed, I took with me the sweats I was wearing, because I could not be convinced to put my already-shivering body onto sheets that were not somewhere north of 100º. It wasn’t happening. Then, at some point in the middle of the night, I awoke and had to take off the sweatshirt & pants, because I had sweat so bad that they were literally soaked through. Yes, I know what literally means. Yes, I understand the difference between literally & figuratively.



The Angels, they sing for me!
When I woke up the next morning, it was like a Christmas miracle in January: I was freakin’ healed. Still a little weak maybe, but still, pretty much healed. Waking up may not seem like much, but during the bulk of the day on Friday, I was pretty sure I was going to die from this. I had thoughts of how pathetic a death it would be, being undone by the flu. The Girl having to call everyone and tell them the bad news. “What was it? Did it he die while saving animals from a fire?” “no.” “Did he die while facing down armed robbers?” “no.” “What could it have been?” “the flu.” “oh…”

Morbid, I know. But that’s about how I felt at the time. SO glad Saturday came around!



Seen but not believed while sick on the couch
It was all kind of a blur, so I may at some level be making this up, but I swear I think I saw a commercial for Walmart advertising how awesome their gift cards are. Like, some mom got one for her kid, and she’s telling us how much he likes it, because it can use it on almost anything at walmart!

What, you mean like Cash? Like he could use Cash on almost anything at walmart? Like that?

Seriously, let’s get this straight OK? Gift Cards are a total waste of time, money & effort, put bluntly. Think of about this: if they’re as good as cash, why not just give cash? And what’s more, the reality is, they’re not nearly as good as cash. You give me S20, I can buy $20 worth of whatever I want, from wherever I want. You give me $20 in walmart gift cards, I can only spend it at walmart. That I never shop at.

Look, gift cards only make sense if you are paying less for them than their value. That should be the tradeoff for the lock-in. Otherwise, you’re getting f*cked pretty hard. You drive there, you wait in line, you give them cash money of a particular denomination – say $20 – which they then turn into a plastic version that’s not accepted at all the same places cash is accepted, and has fine-print limitations on top of that at the one place it is accepted. Seems like a total scam to me.

Was it real? Was I delirious to that extent? I hope so. I hope that wasn’t really what they were trying to get me to believe: that a card of a particular denomination as a $20 but with less utility is somehow better. But then again, it was a walmart commercial. Totally feasible.



Literally. Not figuratively.
The sweatshirt I tried to put back on Saturday morning could not be worn. It was still sopping wet. I had to throw it in the dryer with a towel for 20 minutes before it began to be dry enough to wear, and an additional 10 to get it to what I would consider “dry.” So, yeah. There.

A VERY busy day, leads to missing my old DSLR

A busy day begins
It’s been about a year since I sold my old DSLR, and today is the day that I have regretted it most. It’s after 9pm and I’m still feeling the sting right here, man, in my heart.

It was a busy day for me, so let me set the stage a little, m’kay?



The Girl leaves me
It started quickly. I closed shop last night and didn’t get home until 11pm or so. Which isn’t that bad really, I mean I do that regularly, but it got considerably worse in about 4-½ hours, which was about the time I had to get up and take The Girl to her scheduled departure at the airport. They wouldn’t reschedule the flight for us on such short notice; they’re a**holes like that. Yes you read that right: the ‘bob is alone for a week or so, as The Girl leaves for her faux home, visiting relatives in So Cal. It’s off to a peachy start by the way: she’s sick. Not just sick of So Cal, but literally, physically ill. Serves her right, I say. Leave the ‘bob? C’mon…

Anyway. Our airport is more like a small box in a big field where planes occasionally accidentally fall out of the sky, so it was not like it was hard to get in and out in a hurry. Which I did. Which put me back at home – and back in bed – by about 6:15am, allowing me to get about 2 more hours of sleep before the dogs finally roused me to feed them. Shortly after that, I shaved and got cleaned up enough to go and meet my new boss.



I have a new boss at a new place of business. Sort of.
Oh yeah, I should probably mention this as I haven’t before now: I found out a week or so ago that I (along with ALL the managers) are being transferred between stores. I start there next Monday, and today I wanted to stop by and get my actual schedule as well as the door codes & whatnot. Nothing too special, but oh yeah, IT’S BACK IN TOWN, so that driving expense I had to worry about 6-7 months ago? Nixed. Sweet.



Then my day began
So after all of this, it was time to get down & dirty with what I was going to be doing today: taking the dogs out. I decided to go exploring with the pups, along the south spit. We had been there before, but it was a little rainier and we didn’t go as far or explore as much as I would have liked. This time however, with all day to devote and no real other plans (other than the aforementioned & completed tasks!), we set off to go as far down as we could get.

And we did. Go as far as we could, that is, without getting a boat, anyways. And this is about the part where I tell you how badly I miss my DSLR. We followed some paths along the beach and a little bit away from it, and ran into the local Eel river. We stopped at a handful of spots up to our final destination so that the dogs could play a little more intently (rather than just following or riding in a truck), and along each spot there were shots that I could envision, but could just not get with the P&S camera setup I currently have. A landscape of the green, rolling hills butting up against the ocean, a lone, old abandoned house along the river in the flats, and…



The DSLR “Coulda-been” moment
We reached the end of our journey when we reached the mouth of the river. It was a very pretty day all around, and the end was simply awesome. I wish I had had a DSLR with me. We got to the mouth of the river, and when we got out to walk around I spotted what I thought was a pile of driftwood on the opposite bank along the mouth of the river, but later I discovered it was actually a group of Sea Lions huddled together. I noticed this when the pile of driftwood started to move. I whipped out my Point & Shoot, and got the best shots that I could of them. Sadly, no matter what I did, I could not get any shots that really showed them off well. Mostly, my shots seem to show a greyish two bodies of sand, split by a greyish flowing river, with greyish, blurry blobs somewhere in the not-so-visible distance.

So, now I ache. My old Canon rig was old and not all that great, but I could have gotten some good shots instead of some good blur. A long way to explain the opening sentence, but there you have it.

And if you’re brave enough, you can try to find a Sea Lion or 20 in the middle of some blur, here.