Sk8er Boyz & Girlz
Apr. 23rd, 2017 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
howeirdAs expected, unsettled weather, so no bike activity. Drove to the community center and dropped off the rent. No one else in the place, but the coffee and hot water were on.
Started heading for downtown for no apparent reason, but instead turned into the skate park lot, which is also home to two baseball diamonds and a large playing field. There was a game going on in the near diamond, Giants vs. San Jose, adults in very authentic looking uniforms. Some kind of well sponsored rec league.
But since I had my camera, and baseball is not photogenic in the first place, and this was a "safety first" field with tall chain link all the way from 1st to 3rd base sight lines, and bleachers only 3 rows high, shorter than the fence. No photo op unless one is on the field.
The skate park, on the other hand, is easy to get around along the edges, and the two small safety fenced areas only have a 3' tall fence. What was missing were talented skaters.
Eventually a pair of grade schoolers whose parents were paying close attention & helping set up a jump target, did some serious no-fear skating. Much more impressive than any of the older skaters. Also, they were on quality skateboards while most of the others in the facility were on scooters, and some idiots came in on bike, even though those are supposed to be prohibited. The park is too small for bikes.
Set the camera for 800 ISO, 1/3200 with aperture auto-set. And clicked over to the highest speed repeat setting (7 fps, I think). Excellent even lighting from high, thin cloud cover.
The lens is a little slow to focus, but I'm happy with the results. It is much lighter and smaller than the Nikon version, part of that trade-off is it doesn't have VR, which may have made these photos sharper.
Back home, copied the photos to the PC and posted some of them. I'll process them and Flickr the results any day now.
Played online till 4:40, then headed for MV and met Janice for coffee. She had decided to take my advice and not go to the folksing in San Mateo. Strange but true, the weather cleared up by 4:30, but the idea of a potluck where people had to BYOeverything, including tables, did not appeal to me.
Had our usual disagreement about Syria. I lost a young relative to Syrian terrorism, and have family near the places which have been shelled by Syrian military, but J seems to think most Syrians had nothing to do with that, the way most Americans have nothing to do with our bombing Afghanistan et al. It wasn't till I was on my way home that it dawned on me that every man in Syria has served in the Army. They have universal conscription there. So they are all guilty. Now I'm doubly unsympathetic to the plight of their refugees.
Home, took out the garbage, nuked a beef pot pie for dinner, added frozen mixed tropical fruits for dessert.
Read a chapter in Nancie's Fruit book, which is really Southern Fruit. The chapter on pawpaws. I had never heard of these things, and she explains it's not known outside of the south because they don't ship well. I'm going to see if I can buy a potted one to put out on the porch. Or somewhere.
Watched the most recent episode of Elementary. Sherlock has a tattoo which puzzles me. It says Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, one per line, each line a little scroll, all the scrolls tied together. AFAIK, he has no sisters.
Sometime in the afternoon I planted several milkweed seedlings in the carport garden. There was a space rich in compost near the flourishing sage bushes. Keeping my fingers crossed, because everything else I have planted there has fried.
Set the alarm for 6:30. I think I'll park the car in front of the house, in front of the front door for the short amount of time when Contractor goes over the contract with me and I head off to work.
Plans for tomorrow:
Be ready for 7:30 contractor arrival
To work early.
Continue working with the new program
Other duties as assigned.
Home.
Started heading for downtown for no apparent reason, but instead turned into the skate park lot, which is also home to two baseball diamonds and a large playing field. There was a game going on in the near diamond, Giants vs. San Jose, adults in very authentic looking uniforms. Some kind of well sponsored rec league.
But since I had my camera, and baseball is not photogenic in the first place, and this was a "safety first" field with tall chain link all the way from 1st to 3rd base sight lines, and bleachers only 3 rows high, shorter than the fence. No photo op unless one is on the field.
The skate park, on the other hand, is easy to get around along the edges, and the two small safety fenced areas only have a 3' tall fence. What was missing were talented skaters.
Eventually a pair of grade schoolers whose parents were paying close attention & helping set up a jump target, did some serious no-fear skating. Much more impressive than any of the older skaters. Also, they were on quality skateboards while most of the others in the facility were on scooters, and some idiots came in on bike, even though those are supposed to be prohibited. The park is too small for bikes.
Set the camera for 800 ISO, 1/3200 with aperture auto-set. And clicked over to the highest speed repeat setting (7 fps, I think). Excellent even lighting from high, thin cloud cover.
The lens is a little slow to focus, but I'm happy with the results. It is much lighter and smaller than the Nikon version, part of that trade-off is it doesn't have VR, which may have made these photos sharper.
Back home, copied the photos to the PC and posted some of them. I'll process them and Flickr the results any day now.
Played online till 4:40, then headed for MV and met Janice for coffee. She had decided to take my advice and not go to the folksing in San Mateo. Strange but true, the weather cleared up by 4:30, but the idea of a potluck where people had to BYOeverything, including tables, did not appeal to me.
Had our usual disagreement about Syria. I lost a young relative to Syrian terrorism, and have family near the places which have been shelled by Syrian military, but J seems to think most Syrians had nothing to do with that, the way most Americans have nothing to do with our bombing Afghanistan et al. It wasn't till I was on my way home that it dawned on me that every man in Syria has served in the Army. They have universal conscription there. So they are all guilty. Now I'm doubly unsympathetic to the plight of their refugees.
Home, took out the garbage, nuked a beef pot pie for dinner, added frozen mixed tropical fruits for dessert.
Read a chapter in Nancie's Fruit book, which is really Southern Fruit. The chapter on pawpaws. I had never heard of these things, and she explains it's not known outside of the south because they don't ship well. I'm going to see if I can buy a potted one to put out on the porch. Or somewhere.
Watched the most recent episode of Elementary. Sherlock has a tattoo which puzzles me. It says Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, one per line, each line a little scroll, all the scrolls tied together. AFAIK, he has no sisters.
Sometime in the afternoon I planted several milkweed seedlings in the carport garden. There was a space rich in compost near the flourishing sage bushes. Keeping my fingers crossed, because everything else I have planted there has fried.
Set the alarm for 6:30. I think I'll park the car in front of the house, in front of the front door for the short amount of time when Contractor goes over the contract with me and I head off to work.
Plans for tomorrow:
Be ready for 7:30 contractor arrival
To work early.
Continue working with the new program
Other duties as assigned.
Home.
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