Personal news, commentary and ramblings
The Library of Congress recently released some of their photos on Flickr. This particular picture is very compelling, but there are scores of others in the “1930s-1940s in Color” and “News in the 1910s” sets. Some other favorites:
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When I was 9, there were few things more exciting than the arrival of the Sears Christmas catalog. I bought my microscope and my chemistry set out of that catalog. I wanted to get the electronics set but never did.
I’ve had a pile of kitten pictures to review for several weeks now and having been doing it a few at a time. Tonight I finished editing and posted them to the Rynosoft Gallery for your viewing pleasure. I started with well over 500 pictures from our three cameras and was able to weed it down to 92. I probably should have cut more but they are just too damned cute! All four of us took pictures so credit goes to everyone. You can view the Photo Properties to see which camera was used. Most of the great shots are from Tina’s PowerShot S2 which Tina and I both use. Some are from my PowerShot S330 which is less than spectacular and the boys use an old Olympus that I scrounged from work. Most of the pictures of the kittens at the beginning of the album were taken by the boys.
Last night I rode on the memorial ride for Tracey Sparling, the young woman who was run over by a cement truck while trying to cross Burnside on her bike. The ride was mostly silent except for the constant tinkling of sad bike bells in the still night. None of my photos came out as well as this one which shows the “ghost bike” adorned with notes, flowers, candles, etc. See my earlier entry for more details about the accident. A number of people took pictures and posted them on Flickr.
Distance: 19.3 miles
Riding time: 109 minutes
Max speed: 32.6 mph
Average speed: 10.6 mph
Temperature: 75º
Soundtrack: Science Friday
Route:
What a glorious sunny afternoon to ride my bike the long way home. It was a tremendous effort to climb Powell Butte – one that found me laying down, gasping for breath on the side of the trail at one point – but it was well worth it. On my way down the north side of the Butte, I wondered how hot my brake pads were getting. My rims were plenty hot when I got to the bottom and as I touched the front rim, I heard the distinct sound of air leaking from the front tire. At least it didn’t blow out when I was flying down the hill at 35 mph.
It took me about 15 minutes to pull the tube out and install my spare. I was actually pretty refreshed when I got back on and pedaled towards home. How surprised was I when I came upon this at 162nd and Division:
The picture is pretty blurry (you can click on it to get the full-size version), but it’s a car that had run up a telephone pole and came to rest in a vertical position. Somebody at the scene reckoned he must have been going 100 mph or better. I asked around and they said it had happened about 15 minutes before.
Now picture this: me in the bike lane at that moment had my bike tire not gone flat 15 minutes before. Freaky, huh? More pictures on my Flickr page.
Steel Bridge
Originally uploaded by bhestand
I ride over this bridge nearly every day but it doesn’t look this good in real life.
Portland, Oregon
Originally uploaded by bardiebar
I had to wait a short time this morning for this to pass by the Steel Bridge. They had only opened the bottom part of the bridge, so I could have gone over the top of the bridge, but I chose to take these pictures. Check them out, I think they turned out really great!
