Walking Around Boerne

On Sunday we traveled up IH10 a bit to Boerne, which brought back memories of the time I damaged Sylvia's Dad's truck using the rear end of a deer at 4am.
First, we went to Market Days in the town square to look at the same kind of stuff that can be found at the Market Days in Leon Valley or any other small town that wants to end up losing money on a noble idea.
And to try our best at avoiding mud. (I was coughing a lot, because at 3am that morning I was loading the band's trailer in the cold cold rain).
Syl bought some blueberry/habanero and other similar jams from a vendor who it turns out also sells at Artisan's Alley here in town.
Enough of the complaints--let's walk the main street and poke around some shops!

Closed
Closed
Closed
Hey...nope--too Alamo Heights-ish.
Cross the street.
Closed
Closed
Stop to take a picture up a tree:
This was fun because other shoppers(?) had to look up too and couldn't figure out what was so important that I needed a picture.
Made you look!


We started finding a few antique stores that were open, and the fun began.
I soon found the big brother to our Pyrex salsa containers, at a very low price due to inconsequential chips in the lid. SOLD!

I almost bought a publicity print of Don Knotts as Barney Fife, but the signature didn't seem right to me. It would have looked great next to my autographed print of Julie Newmar in her CatWoman outfit.

Found some great ViewMaster discs from the '60s and '70s, like the moon landing, and would have gone back for them had I managed to locate the ViewMaster viewer itself instead of just a non-stereo-vision screen projector.
After teaching myself how to make 3-D photos a few years ago, I soon found that nobody I know is able to view them correctly without lots of effort (not gonna happen) or lots of expensive equipment (also not gonna happen).
However, I do know how to make my own ViewMaster discs.
Someday...

Later, I spotted this great old Chevy pickup hiding between some buildings:
It was very cool.



After the New Year's Eve show in Kerrville, our singer forgot her jacket.
Because I'm sweet, I brought it back to SA instead of trading it to a 9-tooth pig farmer for some chops.
But since I'm also a bit of a dick, at our next show last Friday I dragged a ladder onto the stage and hung it up as high as I could.

Still haven't found out how she got it down, but whoever helped her is on my list.

Random Stuff

While waiting for the plumbers today, I took apart our old cordless house phone.
We've been cell-only for a long time, and it was a POS anyway, so I was collecting screws and spare parts from the base unit (got some good stuff).
Then I noticed that the adjustable external antenna didn't even have a wire up the middle, so I'm guessing that the two spirals of wire with the foam are the new antenna protocol.
And by new I mean 2003 as opposed to 2000:



This is my new grill--a Christmas present from Sylvia:
It's the one I wanted, and after a few meals has proven to be the perfect grill for us in both size and features. Easy to clean, doesn't take up much room, LOVE it!
Best part is that my brother assembled it for me on Christmas Day so I could concentrate on getting the house ready for our party later that night.
If you look at this post from August you can read about the end of my old BBQ, as well as my newest bass. I got a case for that bass for Christmas, too.
Awesome.


Last week we went to Holly's to take pictures of her horses.
I have a bunch of stuff to work on from that shoot, but it'll have to wait until I can get my computer fixed. As I mentioned last time, this spare one doesn't have PhotoShop and in fact can barely handle the internet, so my more important (to me) photography will have to wait a while longer.
In fact, besides the horses I have a few other shoots sitting patiently.

While at Holly's I took the opportunity to sight-in my .22 and shoot a group to check for accuracy after all the recent work I've done to it:
That's 3 shots into one ragged hole at 30 yards.
Center-to-center this measured out to 0.157" according to my calipers, which is extremely good for the same gun with a heavy aftermarket target barrel, let alone a 25 year old thin factory one like mine.
And I'm still not done tweaking this gun!
Very glad to finally have proof that I'm on the right track.


Oh, and the plumbers did a great job so far, with high hopes for complete success when they find the right parts and return.
The leaky faucets are now dry, and the most-corroded metal drain pipes have been replaced with PVC.
Plus, my home-brewed fixes were approved by an expert.


No promises as far as how long you'll have to wait for another post, but I'm 72.2% more optimistic than I was just yesterday.
Oh yeah--Happy New Year!

Merry Computer Failure!

I'm in the middle of trying to get my old and crappy tower to work with this modern internetty thing you kids are so fond of these days...

Thanks to my tech Buz, at least we're online again in time for the big party tonight so we can settle arguments like men with dueling Googles.

This 'pooter doesn't even have PhotoShop, so many of my presents are going to be even later than I had planned.
Massive Christmas Fail on my part.

Thanks for visiting Views Of Texas.

Merry Christmas, Y'all

I went in a totally different direction for our card photo this year:
We LOVE our "Sneaky Santa" ornament.

Hope all of my readers have a delightful holiday.

Tired Of Waiting

In our search for this year's Christmas card photo, on Thursday we listened to the people who said that the 'Museum Reach' part of the Riverwalk now has pretty lights.
Didn't take a single picture, because it was actually the exact same lame decorations as last year, just seen by people who didn't even know about Museum Reach a year ago, I guess.

On Sunday evening we made one last attempt, heading down to St. Paul Square and Sunset Station. Sylvia had seen the lights all over the locomotive while I was failing to find parking on Thursday--it was too crowded and I gave up.
Our return visit was at the perfect time of night, giving me time to scout around before the sun went down all the way so as to be in-position with a few minutes to spare.

Southern Pacific (Texas & New Orleans) 2-8-2 #794 was fully decorated, and it's headlamp was lit:
This photo was taken about five minutes before the "perfect" time--stars are starting to be visible but the sky is still too-bright of a blue.
When are they going to light this thing up???

As usual, the tree inside the station is beautiful, with the star in the stained-glass acting as a tree-topper.
Clever.



Back to the loco: Sylvia asked the security guards about the lights, and they said that different organizations are responsible for the lights on the grounds and those on the train, and were under orders to leave it alone.
They chuckled when she told them she was about to start flipping breakers if it doesn't get lit in the next few minutes.
Well, the Friends Of The SP 794 were either late or not coming down on Sunday at all, and I had already lost the sky light levels I wanted.

So we took matters into our own hands.
First, Sylvia threw a big master breaker, but nothing happened.
I was very proud of her balls.

After a while I got fed up (and cold) so I opened a steel box and looked inside with my flashlight.
A bunch of the breakers inside were labeled and I started flipping the likely suspects.
Lights started coming on!


The only breaker I didn't flip was labeled "Computer", and I was afraid of it.
Didn't want to accidentally enable the engine's smoke system, but in retrospect it might have been the one that powered all the rest of the lights--as you can see, I only got about half of the loco lit.


I was trying to keep track and return things to the way I found them, but within seconds the tourists started crowding around and "Ooh-Ahh-ing" so I decided to just leave the breaker box hanging open and get away while the getting was good.


Update: We finally put up the #1 tree tonight, and also decided to go in a different direction for the card photo.
I shot it in 5 minutes in the comfort of home, featuring our favorite ornament on the #2 silver tree that's in our front window.
Now we're both very happy with the results.

To be honest, there's only so many iconic SA locations that are decorated, and I've already used the best ones.
The new plan is to look for smaller "detail" scenes wherever and whenever they can be found, with me working hard to nail all the technical details.
My 50mm F1.8 lens is perfect for this approach, and really shined tonight.

Riverwalk Views

I'm back, and as promised here are some scenes I shot tonight while scouting around downtown for this year's Christmas card photo.
To tell the truth, it took me a long time to get back in the groove after so long away from night photography.
Camera settings and tripod handling is second nature, but actually seeing and feeling the scene in front of me, and finding my vision of it, didn't come easily.

Tower Life Building as seen from La Villita.

Back wall of The Little Church At La Villita.

Shot a very similar view from this spot 2 years ago, and our card last year was shot from street level behind me.

The old courthouse on the left, I don't know what's on the right.

Finally, something I like.
Sylvia and I both went "Oooh!" when it popped up on the computer screen.
Not really sure why it works for me yet, but I trust my gut.
Still, it won't be on our Christmas cards this year--I can do better.
I have to do better, because in years past the bar has been raised pretty darn high.


What was funny tonight was how many times people would watch me working a scene with my DSLR and tripod, then slide into my exact spot with their pocket cams as soon as we left.
Hopefully this doesn't come off as arrogant, but I could tell that they weren't going to get usable results just by glancing at their cameras and techniques.
Every copycat brought home pics that are dark and blurry because in all cases my shutter was open for 2 to 10 seconds or more and there's no way to get anything decent hand-held even if they crank up the iso speed. Not at night.
I was a little flattered, but Sylvia took it personally and seemed highly offended.
She scoffed twice, and one time said "Good luck!", which was also flattering.

The freak show of tourists and locals was interesting, too.
Inappropriate/impractical outfits and bad hygiene kept us amused.
We were cracking each other up the whole time with a running commentary that would have gotten us shanked if we didn't speak in code.

I had a wonderful time!
The best part is that I get to keep doing it until the card photo is found.

What's also nice is that I have two from last year and '08 that I'm fine with using, so there's no pressure.


BLISS Video from Friday night is streaming at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/crashtastical