Yep…the title sez it all…we’ve had really nice weather pretty much since we returned from St. Croix. We had to close up and turn on the A/C a couple of days when it got hot and humid again but mostly it’s been highs in the low 80s and lows dipping into the high 60s…which means open windows and the doors get opened in the morning and closed at dark…which comes earlier now that we’re off of Daylight Saving Time. 

Neil went ahead and ordered new iPhone 15s and Apple Watch 9 models for both of them…their iPhone XS versions are 5 years old and watches 4. The problem is that the batteries are wearing out and neither of their watches lasts from morning to night more days than not and they have a similar issue although not as severe with their iPhones. Connie got a pink iPhone 15 because she doesn’t like the larger size as it won’t fit in her pockets. She’s disappointed that they no longer offer a gold one though. Neil got a Blue Titanium 15 Pro Max because he likes the bigger phone, wanted the better camera it has over the regular 15, and got the blue because it shows the least amount of fingerprints. Watches…he got the large size but not the Ultra model and she the small size as it fits better on her wrist…black for him and light gold (Apple calls it Starlight) for her…again she’s unhappy not to be able to get the darker gold…but that would have required her to get the stainless steel case instead of the aluminum one and it’s more expensive and heavier. They stuck with GPS only watches instead of GPS/cellular…the latter is more expensive but can make calls without a nearby iPhone…and since they’re never without their phone that capability wasn’t worth paying for. 

One thing Neil is happy about is that the new watches and iPhones support a better geolocation capability via BlueTooth…and since Connie misplaces her phone around the house a lot using her watch to home on it with an arrow pointing which way to go will work a lot better than having Neil call her phone so she can hear the ring tone. It’s never really lost…just left behind someplace in the house…but then they both have CRS (can’t remember squat) so that should help with the problem.

Neil continues to test out his new 600mm lens…albeit just out back at the pond…and he really likes it. I’ve got some new pictures with it down below. He also needs a pile of additional things for his upcoming (April) trip to the Serengeti in Tanzania…more memory cards and batteries, bigger backup external SSDs for the 30,000 to 40,000 shots he’ll take in 10 days there, and a new tripod head for their trip to Costa Rica and his trip to Glacier NP without her (both next summer). Connie says that with 3 trips scheduled next year it seems to agree with Neil’s statement that it’s a lot of bucks…but then when we moved out of the rig in Feb 20 and into the house we intended to start international travel…then came COVID in March 20 that basically shut us down. So…her theory is that taking the 3 trips next year and the one to the UK this year and spreading them out over 20-24 results in a 5 year average travel budget of about what they had originally planned on.

They’re still negotiating on where to go traveling in 2025…but long range plans that far out don’t make a lot of sense at this point. They’ve both got a bunch of places they want to go and Africa is really the only place that is on his list but not hers…so they’ll work out something of a plan probably in late summer or so for 2025. 

Thanksgiving is coming up…and we’re going to break our last couple of years tradition of doing a duck breast…he got a whole chicken that he’ll brine overnight and then spatchcock (that means you cut out the spine and flatten it out). It will then get smoked on our pellet grill for 4 hours or so and tossed onto the regular grill to crispy up the skin. We’ll have this delish sounding loaded sweet potato casserole on the side…it’s a mix of baked and chunked sweet potatoes, bacon, sour cream, cheese, and scallions so how could it be bad. For dessert we’ll have our 2nd favorite (behind pecan pie brownies but they had them last year) of crisp…which is sorta like cobbler but has crunchy oatmeal/brown/nut stuff instead of dough. We found the recipe probably 30 years ago and it was originally blueberry crisp…but we vary the fruits we put in routinely, he’s going to use blueberries, dried apricots, and dates this year…he’s never tried dates but we like ‘em so why not…and again, how can it be bad. Dunno what wine the sommelier (Connie) will pick for us though…either Pinot Noir (Neil’s favorite and the only red wine that goes with poultry) or either Chardonnay or Buttery Chardonnay if white…both of those are made from the same grapes and I don’t know how they do it but instead of the crisp tart taste of Chardonnay the Buttery is much more mellow and smooth. Don’t worry though…he’s got the stuff to make pecan pie brownies and is going to do them next week as well probably…but they always get cut up and frozen in packages of 2 which is perfect to thaw and cover with ice cream or whipped cream…and they even eat them nekkid sometimes…yum.

They signed up for the Trusted Traveler Program with TSA…it gets you shorter security lines, you don’t have to take your shoes off, and you don’t have to take your laptop out of the bag…100 bucks for 5 years. They signed up online back in October and got to the schedule interview step last week…so they’re on for a Feb 12 interview up in Orlando. It’s a Monday so we’ll just head north after our Sarasota Orchestra concert on Sunday, do the interview and they drive home afterwards. 

Lessee…what else…can’t think of anything so let’s get some pictures. These were all taken with his Nikon Z9 and the new 600mm lens…mostly in full frame FX mode but a couple in crop sensor DX mode so that makes it effectively a 900mm lens and all were handheld since it’s a really light lens for being 600mm and the mirrorless bodies have excellent vibration reduction capabilities compared to older non mirrorless bodies.

Tricolor Heron…also known as a Louisiana Heron but Tricolor is the more widely used name.

Adult White Ibis…gee, I wonder why it’s called that.

Snowy Egret although you can’t see the golden feet in these shots…and in the second one if you look close its eyes are closed.

A pair of White Ibis.

Mr. Snowy again…although on our side of the pond this time.

A sort of bedraggled Osprey on the dead tree across the pond…it was raining a lot that day. We’ve seen this specimen (at least we think it’s the same one since it keeps coming back) 4 or 5 times in the past few weeks…always sitting in the same tree in the same place.

One of the Ibis came up out o the water almost in our neighbor’s backyard.

And lastly…another Tricolor Heron.

As you can tell…this is a really sharp lens even handheld and that makes running and gunning for shots a whole lot easier than if one has a tripod. A regular 600mm lens is about 17 or 18 inches long and weighs 7-8 pounds which added to the almost 3 for the Z9 body makes a tripod (another 6-7 pounds) almost required for any length of time out and moving and leveling the tripod takes a lot of time…plus you can’t easily get down to ground level or eye level with the bird to improve the shots…not to mention the 3.5 times it costs compared to the 600PF. The 600PF is not really cheap…it runs almost $5K but it’s 11 inches long, weighs about 3 pounds, and is easily hand holdable. The secret is that it uses a Fresnel lens…large focal length lenses require a main lens with considerable curvature in it almost like half of a tennis ball. Instead of grinding this out…a Fresnel lens is designed like the one you’ve always seen on lighthouses. The designer essentially flattens the lens out by grading a thinner overall piece of glass in concentric circles…the outer circles have the same curve as the outer edges of a non Fresnel lens and the circles get gradually flatter towards the center…so the final lens is about 1/5 of the depth of the single curved lens it would be other wise. This makes it a lot easier and cheaper to grind and lowers the overall cost of the lens. He’s actually gotten decently sharp shots down to about 1/80 of a second with it…10 years ago you would have laughed if anybody claimed you could do that with a 600mm lens and been right…but with advanced lighter lenses, the vibration reduction tech in the body and lens (which dampen out camera movement) and shooting 20 frames per second instead of taking a single shot like we used to do back in the film days with 36 shots in a roll…one just fires off a burst of 15-30 shots while the AF keeps locked on. Between the VR and AF you’ll get a couple of those 30 perfectly tack sharp focused on the eye which is what you want…then you toss the rest when you’re reviewing the images later. An additional advantage of the high frame rate is that for higher shutter speeds (like anything more than about 1/320 of a second with this combo) about 90% of the shots will be tack sharp and you’ll have a bunch of slightly different poses so you can get the foot raised or the bill open or the fish in mid swallow…and choosing the best shot out of 20 or 25 perfectly usable ones makes nicer overall shots. He’ll be taking this lens on all 3 of his outings next year…along with one of his shorter zooms (100-400 or 70-200) and perhaps his 24-120 for really close shots. He’s gotta do some comparison shots for sharpness between the longer two of those zooms and see whether the better reach of the longer one or the slightly better image quality of the shorter of the two makes the most sense. Weight and size wise they’re about the same but the shorter one provides a much bigger gap in available focal length…so unless the difference is considerable he’ll take the 100-400.. Might even take the shorter 24-70 over the 24-120 for size and weight and just not worry about the 70-100 focal length range that won’t get used that much anyway.

Interesting things found on the net.

And even more math nerdery. As you know…there are an infinite number of…well…numbers. However…the number 69 is the only number whose square (4761) and cube (328509) use every decimal digit from 0–9 exactly once.

And another number you might recall…115132219018763992565095597973971522401 is a 39-digit number that equals the sum of 39ᵗʰ powers of its digits.

I’m really concerned that the people that figure things like this out must have way, way, way too much free time on their hands. Either that or they live in their mother’s basement and have a pocket protector full of pens all the time with a white short sleeved button up shirt buttoned to the color with no tie and glasses held together with duct tape…and thus have no social or dating life…I’m not sure which though.

This one from our friend Gail via Connie (and before you get all on me ‘bout this being an anti Jewish joke…Gain is most definitely Jewish…and besides, it’s funny…and besides that there’s a reason that every stereotype exists. Besides…itsa my blog.)

A clearly inebriated woman, stark naked, jumped into a taxi in New York City and laid on the back seat. The cab driver, an old Jewish gentleman, opened his eyes wide and stared at the woman. He made no attempt to start the cab. The woman glared back at him and said, “What’s wrong with you, honey? Haven’t you ever seen a naked woman before?” The old Jewish driver answered, “Let me tell you sumsing, lady. I vasn’t staring at you like you tink; dat vould not be proper.” The woman giggled and responded, “Well, if you’re not staring at my boobs or my butt, sweetie, what are you doing then?”

He paused a moment, then told her, “Vell…… M’am, I am looking and I am looking, and I am tinking to myself, vair in da hell is dis lady keeping de money to pay for dis ride?”

Fishing.

Following directions explicitly.

And finally…in Japan in Ishikawa Prefecture (that’s like a state in the US or a province in Canuckistan) there is a Ryokan (or traditional Japanese Inn) named Hōshi (法師) (see, I even put in the Kanji lettering just in case ya can read it). The interesting thing about this inn is that it’s been managed by the Hōshi family for the past 46 generations since it was founded in the year 718 (well, it wasn’t actually 718 by Japanese date keeping rules but it’s been converted to something that non Japanese people understand). It’s the oldest hotel in the world still operating under it’s original management.

Ryokans are pretty neat…Connie and Neil stayed in one in 1983 when he was on temporary duty in Japan and she flew over for a week early in her pregnancy with Bryan. The floor in covered in tatami mats (woven straw like fiber) and since the mats are a standard universal size through the country since forever the rooms are specifically dimensioned to be floored with tatami mats with no extra. There’s a small raised mattress on the floor maybe 6 or 8 inches high and a pillow full of walnut shells or something similar. Most of them these days have small armoires for clothing. No shoes are allowed inside…one takes your shoes off at the door and dons a pair of slippers inside. Most have a small attached restaurant where you can dine on traditional Japanese cuisine…the tables there are about 12 inches tall and one kneels on the floor or sits on a little pillow or cross legged. The bathroom is down the tall…and is a whole different thing than any bathroom you’ve ever seen. Suffice it to say that there are no western style sit on it toilets…imagine a urinal mounted flat on the floor and one stands over it…although in some places there is a sort of western style stool over the top. The tub is large and designed for soaking only…so to clean yourself before hopping in the communal clothing free tub…one goes to the shower room. This consists of a set of faucet heads (which may or may not have a shower attachment) about 18 inches off of the floor, a bucket, a washcloth, and a small stool. One sits down, washes up, rinses off with buckets full of water from the shower…then hops into the bath itself…which is steaming hot. Generally…the coolest Japanese bath is hotter than any hot tub you’ve ever been in…and in really large installations (like 3 dozen people sized) the temperature varies from one end to the other. Japanese are very blasé about nudity…it just doesn’t phase them at all. Fortunately…the one they stay at was pretty small (maybe 5-6 rooms tops) and there were several baths to choose from so one could be communal or not depending on desires…and Connie most definitely wasn’t getting nekkid in front of anybody but Neil. He had been there for 2 months already though and he’s a guy so a mixed gender bath didn’t bother him at all. Anyway…they’re really cool places to stay…and largely are found not in big cities where you’ll find big chain hotels much more western style in amenities…but out in smaller towns and villages they’re just about all you’ll find.

Cyas.