Smoke Month Arrives

 If I didn't call it on this one.

Just a couple of weeks ago, my lovely PT Eric cursed us all by commenting on how the smoke hadn't been too bad this year...

NEVER ever say this heading into August. August is universally smoke month (and I will never get over the year that it continued through September right up to October, which is definitely possible this year) and the more confident and chipper you are about the smoke that hasn't yet materialized, the worse it will be. I didn't make the rules and I don't like them, but they are what they are. 

Anyways, yes, August arrived and Spokane - the largest city between Seattle and Minneapolis, by the way - got absolutely razed (well, apparently arsoned, which... what the actual fuck???).

 And damn, Eastern Washington is even more "on fire" than it typically is this time of year. Which is to say: really fucking on fire. I can't even wrap my head around what Eastern Washingtonians are going through right now but feels apocalyptic and relatively horrifying.  

My travails do not compare at all to that horror and devastation, but the smoke isn't exactly easy with my particular constellation of illnesses. 

And so it begins.... has begun... will begin anew... After a "smoke storm" we are gradually returning to an "on shore flow" pattern that clears most of it out. But it isn't clear-clear and it could change with the winds as long as Eastern Washington is doing its depths-of-hell thang. 

I'm a little worried this will just be the new normal until late September, but we can only pray for really favorable breezes and the odd monsoon, I guess. 

The chaos of August has actually been a mild bit muted in other areas. Zach, my brother-in-law, is a fairly chill guest and he and Andrew largely spent the days out mountain biking (smoke bomb permitting). 

Things got a bit more claustrophobic once the smoke set in, not gonna lie. 

There are really only two areas one can do much other than sleep in our house: the main floor and Andrew's office. Andrew's office is, well, Andrew's office. Andrew retreated into his lair for several hours at a time, leaving the rest of us to inhabit the main floor in tentative bonhomie that nonetheless wore down a tad with the constant toil of being-perceived by each other. (I personally perceived that our house guest had brought some kind of respiratory illness into the house, and while it didn't seem deathly, I'm still not enjoying that spreading around our household now... and I have some misphonia for coughing and sniffling that made me jump every time one of those events occurred... and then feel bad about visibly startling everytime, because it's not his fault really) 

We all survived, and, yes, I need a she-shed with excellent HVAC in our backyard already. 

Otherwise, quite quiet. The playdates I thought were happening got cancelled. The meet up with an out-of-town acquaintance evaporated when they decided to go home a few days early. A few other things got cancelled due to smoke. And that darned office summer party has been taken off the schedule since Andrew needs to head back to California next week. I am not denying little twinges of relief there. 

We did have some excursions, just me and Allan, including a return to Seahurst to break in the new buckets

Allan had so much fun at her last Seahurst playdate making "potions" and "castles" with somebody else's buckets, we decided to make a thing of it. 

I took her out on Sunday, and Zach and Andrew took her to Alki on Tuesday morning when I was at a doctor's appointment. The buckets seem to be more than acceptable for sand salads, potions, and kitty palaces. So, all is well. 

I personally enjoyed a lot of up-close views of the crows and gulls squabbling over pilfered sandwich bread and playing in the water. 

It was a nice vibe. One of those "we could come to the beach every morning and just relax for the rest of the summer..." kind of feels. 

And then the smoke rolled in and that's enough of that.

So... kind of a mixed bag. I can't breathe and I'm exhausted but... 

Alive. So far. For a while longer. 

Cheers to the onshore winds. May they keep kicking around the area until the rainy season!

CoolPix but Are they Great Pix?

 We must be in August because my hair looks more like this...

... than the usual "full bodied straw" look. 

When the humidity gets about about 45% (which actually it doesn't here for most of the year), my "Irish curls" (which are really waves, as curls actually spiral while my hair is just kind of scrunchy) become significantly more noticeable. The camera always flattens it out, but in reality, I look like an 80s glam rocker once the humidity hits about 55%.

FETCH ME THE AQUANET!

According to beauty influencers on top of the movement (and hairstylists in other sources) Irish curls-really-waves are a type of hair that tends to texture unevenly. The under layers and lower parts of the hair are much wavier while the top of the hair is relatively straight. It waves up when there's moisture and flattens out when its dry. Also, at least in my experience, if you so much as look at it funny, the whole thing gets really really straight until you add moisture at which point it crinkles up again. 

If I actually wanted to style it, many stylists have told me I need a "curl activator" with some manual scrunching or adding in a sea salt spray and letting it get really beachy. 

I take the shortcut of "leaving it alone for as long as humanly possible and letting it become much much crazier than it looks in pictures." 

Anyways, most of the time I can't help it and flatten it back down one way or another. 

This is how it looks after I've either brushed it or dared to exist in 40% humidity. Still unruly for "straight" styles, but a lot more temperate. Nonetheless, a great barometer for the weather of the day. 

We're now truly into August and all that insanity! Andrew celebrated by leaving for Eastern Washington until our visitor arrived. Hey, I don't like preparing for visitors either! But we survive!

Bring on the parties and whatnot!

To warm up for the whole shebang, last Saturday we attended a birthday party for some of the kids in Allan's homeschool group. It was listed at 1 - 3 pm.  A bit short for a birthday party, but brilliant in terms of wrapping up before anyone hit the overstimulated meltdown phase, so I supported it!

We made sure to be there in a timely fashion so as not to miss out on anything!

Spoiler alert, the party did not actually run from 1-3. We were, of course, the first people to arrive (surprisingly promptly at about 1:10 having apparently met very few of the typical transitional barriers that are typically encountered) and settled in just as the birthday family were bringing arm loads of activities and food for what appeared to be a bit more of a long-haul party than a two-hour quickie. 

There's a rhythm to most birthday parties. You have kind of a free play period in which food becomes increasingly available for the adults milling about and trying to balance granting independence and preventing mass casualties. About 30-45 minutes in, the grill yields fruit (or meat, really). Around an hour to 90 minutes in, there's some shenanigans with something sweet and frosted. A song or two. Maybe presents (depends on the family) and then people fairly rapidly start bailing after the first family gets up the gumption to leave. 

I knew we were in for it when the grill was still going after two hours!

In fairness, there was *a lot* for the roving gang of young 'uns to do. They started at the playground. Somehow ended up with balloon swords. Sat at the picnic table while adults loaded their plates with food. Ignored the food and ran off again waiving their balloon swords, splashing in the wading pond (no, no Allan didn't bring a bathing suit, despite many offers to help her pack it). Demanding a change of clothing and generally complaining about being wet. Complaining about the one kid (or kids) who won't stop splashing. 

General yelling... and later there were clay projects to be done and a pinata

I started suggesting we would want to go home "soon" at 3:30, as all of the kids were getting a bit wilder and closer to The Lord of the Flies making an appearance. But of course, there were many things that had to be done before we could leave. And it's just never ok to leave before the other kids leave. FOMO for realz!! 

Cupcakes did manifest while the children were splashing around in the wading pond. Then clay had to be played with. The clay didn't have blue and eventually the Steller's Jay sculpture got a little too smooshed, at which point I really thought maybe it was a good time to leave.  

Naturally, the pinata happened to get whacked open by somebody before the older kids got a turn. Allan had repeatedly begged to go earlier in the turn-taking because she was afraidshe wouldn't get a chance, so this was not received particularly well. 

Worse still, the candy was not exactly to her liking. I guess she likes Jolly Ranchers ok, but bazooka gum and tootsie rolls do not merit much esteem. The rest of the kids were pretty understanding, but sometimes you gotta take your losses and head out early. 

I would call it a generally successful party, but I will be kind of dead for the rest of the week. 

And of course we followed that up with a playdate with the same group on Monday. It was significantly ore chill. 

Apparently, we need buckets and shovels like ASAP because Allan has just discovered the joy of making "sand potions" and castles, so that's in the works... Anyways... 

Did I mention I mention the new camera rental? Yes, you're with me until the saga is fully completed at this point. 

This one is a bridge camera. It has some fancy schmancy technology that allows a much wider range of zoom, from very very zoomed out to very very zoomed in. And it's remarkably light compared to how it looks. Slightly lighter than the Sony Alpha. 

It does have quite the zoom. 

CoolPix

Compare and contrast with my Nikon... 

Nikon

In the first picture, the crow was perched on a light post many feet away, while in the second phoot, the crow was a few feet from me (waiting expectantly for me to offer peanuts). I probably could have zoomed in more on the Nikon and kept the full body in frame for preference, but the distance between the two is pretty impressive.

Here's another Nikon that got a little bit more of a zoom. This one was in a tree, but at a pretty near level to me and very definitely close by expecting to be fed. 

Nikon

Now the zoom part is impressive, but for me there's a way that the Nikon really brings the crows into focus that feels a little different.

I struggle to put a finger on it, but it's not a surprising thing, as the sensor of the CoolPix is smaller and I hear that can impact the crispness. 

The DSLR can give a lot of detail without it feeling over-processed. 

Nikon

I like how you can see the beads of moisture (it was a damp day). 

Nikon

And I appreciate the depth of field that really focuses the image on the crow itself. 

The Sony Alpha had a pretty similar quality to me... (I know I just shared these pictures, but I didn't have the camera very long!)

Sony Alpha

I took a series of these in mid-caw, ignoring my usual prohibition against auto-shutter. It navigated the movement really well, so that each picture was still pretty crisp. 

The Om meanwhile gave me some trouble figuring out the right settings, but undeniably caught a lushness pretty dramatically. 

Back to the CoolPix. There's nothing wrong with the images. They just feel a little different to me?

CoolPIx

 Another challenge with it is that when you are zoomed in, the small shakes involved in holding the camera are magnified enough that the autofocus can really struggle to keep hold on the image. I don't always love the Nikon as it can be fussy and have meltdowns, but the CoolPix is a whole 'nother level of constantly losing your image. Heaven forbid a bird actually moves! 

And it can grab some really "soft" looking photos.

CoolPix

For a slightly different comparison, I pulled the zoom back and bled out the color... 

Nikon DSLR

versus...

CoolPix

Maybe a bit more of a draw, although in larger size, I do like the Nikon DSLR picture better. 

But, also, there were more crows on the CoolPix visit so that never hurts... 

CoolPix

For contrast on the other side, this is with my Pixel 7a, which I have set on pretty low image size and resolution in order to save space. 

 I do give the CoolPix kudos for catching some level of flying better than I expected it to

CoolPix

Maybe a bit of a tie. I caught a little bit less with my Nikon a few weeks back, but I do like something about how the light bounces off the wings in both pictures. 

Nikon DSLR

So definitely not a terrible camera. It took some cool shots. It felt like more often than with the mirrorless or DSLRs the CoolPix was harder to keep focused and gave more fuzzy looking shots. But sometimes it took really "cool pix" and sometimes I take crappy photos with my DSLR, so definitely it's hard to landmark it. 

Still, the autofocus was by far the more annoying issue. It took a lot of work to get photos and - unlike the Sony and the Nikon - it just doesn't keep up with flying birds quite as easily. 

CoolPix

Caught a fairly cool finch, though, but again there was just a little squishy. I think I could tolerate that more if it wasn't so hard to luck into an actually focused picture!

And I do think this photo turned out pretty well

So perhaps it's more than sufficient for mid-zoom ranges and stationary objects. My bigger concern is that it doesn't seem to be exceptional at catching moving things and the focus definitely is less robust than the other cameras. 

At any rate, I wrapped up my opinions on the thing a few days ago and left it around for Andrew and Zach to investigate. Zach of course has been into photography for decades and has several specialized bodies and lenses of pretty much all type. So, I know Andrew was a bit curious Zach held it for a few minutes, and proclaimed it "a toy" and that's about that. 

At any rate. August has come fast and furious and I've gotten very little sleep, so I'm just riding for the coffee to finish brewing to maybe, just maybe function. 

Generation Alpha Full Frame Mirrorless

And just like that... August was basically here

Oh my god, August! Yeah, no I disavow any connection to the month. General warmth and tendency towards forest fires aside, August always gets weirdly busy. And while all of the things would be lovely events in isolation, the way that they all pile on relentlessly just kills me. 

Typically I plan "events" in my life with a remarkable amount of preparation and recovery on either end. Any one out-of-schedule event takes a lot out of me, and I usually need a week to really recover if not more. My social month cycle usually involves one or two family outings and maybe one social thing with a personal friend. Or some variation on that. 

In August we have three family visits, one of them lasting a week, all of them back-to-back or overlapping.

 In addition, a few other people will be "in town" for a hot minute and want to meet up. Again, all awesome in isolation. But with zero reprieve on either end. 

Also in the middle of this is Allan's birthday - which takes reverent and grave planning - a few office party type things, some additional play date type things, all colliding into maybe a week of "downtime" before school starts up again. 

Yes, I did omit my birthday. I don't like having my birthday in a month I hate, so I'm moving it to October. Carry on. 

Anyways, hooray for July, which has been remarkably civilized. A few regular playdates, a visit from my mom, a birthday party and ... oh wait, there was that time our neighborhood lit on fire. Several nights in a row. They're still setting off fireworks in the evening to this day!

uuuuuuh

I don't care for summer. The end. 

At any rate, it's less crazy at the moment, so let's just get into it shall we?

I did suggest I might give some updates on the second camera rental. 

The new hotness is a Sony Alpha Somethingorother with a Tamron lens that sees as far as my much bigger Nikon through the magic of... I don't know? Magic? 

It's about 2/3 the weight of my Nikon in its current form. While this isn't exactly light-as-air, it is lighter than a 4 pound weight! And, when something pendulously bobbles from a thin strap around your neck... every pound counts. Two pounds is intrinsically a lot less damage than four. I still find myself holding onto the camera with one hand to keep it from bouncing against my belly button. And it can add up. But still the difference is tangible. The fact that it is a few inches shorter also helps in terms of the bobbling and ergonomics. 

Picture-wise, I think it is about on par with the Nikon. I don't suddenly look ineffably brilliant - and I doubt I'll be getting any amazing hummingbird pictures with either - but it suits my purposes anyways.

 

I still haven't had as much of a chance to check out how it photographs raptors in flight and forget about ever catching swallows in anything but a splotchy blur, but stationary things look about how I would expect. 

I've taken a range of pictures (deleted most) to get a sense of how it functions. Needless to say, it always looks better on the viewfinder than on my computer or phone, but such is the nature of photography.

How many? 

Well. 

 When I went to transfer the photos off the SD Card after a photo walk, there were well over 250 photos!

Yeah...

... no. I actually have maybe taken (and not deleted) about twenty. 

Last Saturday, Allan and I went outside intending to take a walk and then got sucked into gardening instead. It is very cool that Allan actively wants to do "chores" like weeding and watering, so off we went into the yard with the crows to terrorize some willowherb and hawksbeard.  As we got into it, Andrew returned home from a hike, found the camera in a pile of stuff I had set down when it was clear we wouldn't be doing a photo walk, and seems he took off with it to apparently take 1.5 gigabytes of photos. 

After a minor heart attack, I have zipped them up and sent them along. 

He would like to emphasize (unprompted) that he is not trying to steal my hobby.

Honestly, he made the rental so he can go wild. But I still hyperventilated a bit thinking I would actually have to review that many photos.  

That method of rapid-fire photography is admittedly one of the better ways to happen into a few good shots. Unquestionably. The more you take, the better your chances of magic. But I find it incredibly overstimulating and - for me - counterproductive. It often means I can't engage with even looking at my photos, because they all just kind of blur together and I don't ever feel confident that I'm picking "the right one".

 I get overwhelmed when I have more than a few shots of the same scene. I end up hating them all, because each has some way that they're worse than the others, and none quite capture the true amalgam the multiple shots compose. Choice fatigue is real, yo!

Anyhow, it's been nice to have a smaller camera, as it increases the likelihood I would actually want to take it anywhere with me. 

Like on our walks around the pond... Which have been a bit quieter in Birdland of late (somebody sent a lullaby perhaps?)

I think it's just that the birds have all completed their mating shensnigans and the fledglings are screaming a wee bit less for their munchies at their advanced ages, so it's just more business as usual after an upsurge of activity. 

The pond itself is having a moment, though. When I first noticed it had gone from a non-descript slaty color to "bright green" I thought somebody had added food coloring or something. The, um, earthy watery sludge smell tells a different story. 

For a few days, the pond was basically teal, with all the white froth looking a bit like a bridesmaid's tulle. But the waterfall has turned white and frothy again. I think the pond isn't quite as glaringly green. Fingers crossed. 

The crows however are everywhere!!!!

The babies are babes no more. I think they are more like teenagers now. This means their eyes are no longer that glassy blue - more onyx with a smack-dab of sapience - but they still have red mouths and rowdier personalities. Many give off constant raspy caws with extra vocal fry for reasons never specifically clear. They are much bolder now and have retrieved peanuts that we left on the fence posts for them a few times. They also did not fly away when we came into the alley to water some of the plants. They spar a lot like puppies, but seem to generally get along alright. It's kind of amazing watching them all grow up so quickly. 

I'm not entirely sure where their parents have gone off to, although I'm still fairly certain that they have largely chosen to abscond to further reaches of their territories to avoid their very raucous children. Pretty sure the Cemetery was harboring many parental refugees.  

Allan would call this baby a crowrb. Baby actually isn't a baby. You can tell from the darker eyes and black mouth. 

But definitely baby is about ready to molt. Everything is looking a wee bit scruffy. 

Any any rate.

It's a boisterous time out and about... 

From all walks of too-smart-for-their-own-good wildlife. 

Love squirrels... outside... they can stay outside. 

I stopped feeding the squirrels some months ago, after too many started coming around and battling with each other. I never really wanted to feed squirrels as much as the far more timorous crows, but they sure arrived assertively to claim the peanuts. Nowadays, they've largely given up on the free meal, and I can leave some food out for the crows if I see them outside. But I try to be very careful, nonetheless.

Anyways, speaking of "hobbies" - The World Cup is over!!! I feel a bit empty. But what a way to go. Quite a weekend! 

As you can tell, Andrew really enjoyed watching the soccer-football with us

He did rally (about as much as France ever did) after the fifteenth time I started shouting at a close call, and eventually got his phone out to keep himself occupied. Yes, we're a very big soccer household here... 

Allan - having taken her weekend half dose of vyvanse - was extremely energetic for the entire round. C'mon FRANCE, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD!!! And MBAPPE DOESN'T CARE HE GOT THE GOLDEN BOOT!! And so on. 

In fairness, it was kind of a friendly exhibition game with a crazy number of goals because nobody felt like mounting a defense.

 Naturally, a more riveting game like THE FINAL drew a bit more attention!

Bwahahahahaha, ok, yeah he did wake up for the half time show, which I imagine was a very disorienting way to come back to reality!

The halftime show!!! 

(That was weird. Like really weird!)

We started out with some Muppets, which was not necessarily expected but ok. I like muppets. Solid intro. 

Then, I went to grab some lunch and came back in the middle of some kind of music video featuring Madonna looking like she's the human equivalent of a youthening glitter glow instagram filter. This blended into a White Stripes marching band of some sort. Some ode to Norway even though Norway was definitely not in the final, but everyone did get a lot of mileage out of those Haaland memes, so... fair...

The number of lusty fangirls about to start following Man City next season is going to be interesting. (No, I'm not lusty for this child, even though I think he's awesome. He kind of reminds me of my youngest nephew? Anyways, yay Norway! Everyone gets a racoon holding a liquor bottle!)

All this was followed by the Kpop sensations BTK... 

... I have been informed that it's BTS and BTK is a serial killer...

... but seriously we all watched Kpop Demon Hunters and we know that this entire boy band is in fact a bunch of demons attempting to drink up my soul like soda pop (my little soda POP)

Which feels pretty evil. I'm not down for that nonsense, for reals. 

..YOU WILL NOT BREAK THE HONMON ON MY WATCH, BTK!!!!!

Ok, Jinu, (one of them is Jinu, right?) lick my soul, baby... who'm'I kidding? 

Mmmmmmmmm yes, yes ok... 

I'm down on my knees, baby... 

What were we doing in this stadium again?

No wait, Demons were vanquished by... Ted Lasso...? I don't know. I watched like an episode one time and ok anyways he's gone and we have...  

White guy with a guitar... singing kind of a soulful love song maybe? I'm told, it's Justin Bieber?? Last time I saw Biebs was in Zoolander 2, which I thought was pretty funny but what do I know, nobody else in the world did. Anyways, I'm failing to understand what his soulful guitar ballad has to do with anything but ok. 

Ok, ok, Shakira seems fair given she's been to like almost ever World Cup game I've seen. 

And let's wrap that up with Miss Piggy and some kids?? Alright we did that!

... whew

I don't really watch the Superbowl stuff, so this was a novel experience. It didn't really have anything to do with soccer and was kind of distracting, but honestly it didn't seem to do much bad for the players except make the Argentine players a fair bit more violent! I'm not saying they aren't always pretty rough, but once you get a yellow card you back the fuck off, boys! You spread those fouls out, luvs! I don't know what that red card nonsense was, but that was just poor planning. 

I was, incidentally, disappointed that they hadn't reserved a second show for the overtime halftime show. Not that a bunch of overheated players running through the sprinklers wasn't awesome. 

At any rate, Andrew did manage to stay awake for the second half by playing some game on his phone, and I think he actually even put the phone down for the last half of overtime. 

Still, I think if I don't want him to "steal my thing," probably I've found the right thing to keep to myself for all time! Unless he can find some way to photograph it, in which case, all bets are probably off. 

***

But yes, back to the camera. I was about 96% ready to embrace the mirrorless Sony (and I still think it might be the right camera for me) but then I saw this online video about a bridge camera that can digitally zoom to about 3000mm and that's a hell of a parlor trick. So that was... enticing. It turns out that this particular bridge camera can struggle with low light situations (which is the default light around here much of the year) but there is a wide world of bridge cameras, including one that is lighter than the Sony (barely) and zooms out about twice as much. 

So, the quest and its question continue. I absolutely forget what it is but it's out for delivery so let the shenanigans begin. On Monday because the UPS guy came when I was in the shower. 

Seems I'll have one week to play around with it before August explodes in my face and I lapse into some kind of overstimulated coma! Happy happy joy joy everyone!