The Shoot Off Ep. 1 (Photography Reality Show)

Generally, I don’t watch reality shows.  I find they tend to be voyeuristic drivel, but when my head Tech Crew student told me he was going to be competing in an online Photography contest, I had to check it out.

Here’s the trailer for the series.  I’ll leave it up to you to guess which contestant was my student last year. (That’s a hint folks.)

Here’s the first episode.

And just for the record, although I am related to a Josh Rossi, the one that is sponsoring this contest is not the one I’m related to.

Cat on a hot [tin] roof.

So Friday I rented a kick-ass tiller so that I could finish the ramp in the back yard so I could park two of my old Fords back there. 

A friend of mine and I had plans to get together that evening and when she called I told her “I just need to rearrange the cars and clean up.  then I’ll head right over.”

She just started to laugh.  “I’ve never heard that before: rearranging the cars.”

Anyhow, they’re all rearranged.  Now the area between the house and the garage is obstruction free, and I can get any one of the cars out with moving at most one other vehicle.  And that block is just the Jeep, which is easy to get out of the way.

Tonight, when I was up on the roof getting that last picture, first I noticed the sunset.

And then I had a visitor.  Here’s Denny, right at the peak of my house’s roof, just looking like he wanted to ask “Whatcha doin’”

Yeah, the crazy cat climbed up on the roof just to see what I was doing.  And he’s running around on the roof like it’s solid ground.  Cats.  Go figure.

But, at least I got one project done this summer.  And with only 24 days left until teachers are back at school, my next project had better go quickly.

Stealing a scooter from a kid…

I was hanging out with my little brother and his family this evening.  Their two boys (12 and 8) had headed out to go play at the nearby school’s playground, and we decided to see what they were up to.

They were there, with their scooters, just sitting talking.  My brother hijacked one of the scooters and took off around the building.  I, of course, had to hijack the other one and follow him, yelling things like “Pull over, let me see your license.”  Well, at least until a small rock ran right out in front of me and jammed the front wheel.

Picture a husky, 6’-1” 53-year-old flying over the handles, landing flat on his face in front of the scooter.  If anyone around there had their cell phone out. you may get to sometime soon on YouTube.  Now that the physical pain is subdued, and the fractured ego is healing, I can admit it must have looked hilarious.

But it didn’t feel very hilarious at the time.  Just like they say, I can still see it all happening in slow motion.  Especially the part when 3 fingers on my left hand (I’m a leftie) bent a full 90° the wrong way.  I remember thinking they were going to pop right our of their joints.

But alas, I lucked out.  Skinned my knee (it looks glossy because I smeared Neosporin all over it) and simply sprained my fingers. 

Well, I’m off to take my 800mg of ibuprofen and hope it numbs my aching fingers enough to get some sleep.

No wonder none of the pictures on Google showed anyone over 20 riding one of those things.

Cloudspotting II

I was out atop the new parking structure for the Westminster College dorms taking pictures of the construction that is going on nearby, when sunset fell upon me.  Thanks to this week’s theme, my eye kept focusing on the clouds instead of the sun.  Here are some of the shots I got.

Sunrise, sunset. And a close up.

This week’s theme is “Cloudspotting” and these are my pictures.

Right before the dawn; Mt. Olympus.  Sunrises are almost always more spectacular with clouds, they way they reflect the sun’s light, the colors they glow.

Same with sunsets.  This one is out over the Sugarhouse area.

I love taking close up pictures of big, fluffy clouds.  It amazes me how solid a collection of water vapor can look.