Woo hoo! Summer is now here. Temps were in the high 80's for the ride home, time to put the Stock Screen on the Strom. There is a bit of a reflection of me in there as well.

So we are out driving (I believe this was on Route 5, South of Fryeburg, Maine) and it is raining on and off, not just piddly rain, but "Great Big Rain". The outside temp is bouncing between 65 degrees and 81 degrees as the rain comes and goes. We pass over these exempt tracks and I see this scene and do that "1-2-3-4-5...I need to turn around" thing.

I pull over, my wife has her nose in a book, I get out and am assaulted by a wave of mosquitoes. No big deal, we are in Maine. As I open the trunk to get the camera gear, the amount of mosquitoes grows exponentially, at this point, I have to control my breathing as I am sucking these guys down. I figure I need to get this shot so I head to the tracks (about 20' away). I'm setting up on the tripod, setting the camera settings and taking a few shots, when I realize that my leg, scratch that, legs, are covered in mosquitoes. This whole time I have been swatting them away, or so I thought. I see about 20 dead mosquitoes, I begin to realize there is more going on here than meets the eye. But I'm not giving up this freakin shot, I mean, I braved it this far, what's a few more shots and bites? While putting the gear back into the trunk (which I left open), I notice a massive swarm inside the trunk. These guys have decided the trunk is pretty cool. I try to stow my gear as best I can (at this point, I could care less if my 40D & 70-200 F4L are nicely padded, I almost dump it into the trunk (I actually do put it somewhat in the Domke bag).

I am still scratching after a few hours and a shower. Oh yeah, about 30 mins later, we stopped at a diner for dinner and I open the back of the trunk to see what's going on back there. A bunch of mosquitoes fly out, I believe I've just helped a small nation of nasty bugs migrate.

I've wanted to do this shot for a few days now. Today was the first day that I found myself wandering around without my cane at work. This was a hard shot to get as I can't jump all that high. I'm not so worried about my bum ankle, it is pretty secure in a brace, it's my good one that I am more worried about. It would be ironic and sad to injure my other foot while taking a photo that is celebrating feeling better. My interval timer remote shutter release has finally died, so this was shot with the 10 second timer on & me timing my jumps just right. I am digging the treatment on this one, the trees in the background look less like trees and more like explosions.

Today also marks the day that I have found the limits to my riding gear's waterproofness. My helmet, jacket, gloves, and boots leaked. My pants didn't leak one bit though. The only reason my boots leaked is because I inadvertently rode through a flooded road, twice. The water shot up my legs then down into the boots. My gloves have been drying since this morning and you'd swear I just took them off, they are waterlogged.

I'm sitting outside wondering what I am going to shoot when I hear the Ice Cream Man's tune playing in the 'hood. I know he is going to blow by our house (he rarely stops for the kids, this guy trucks right along) so I figure I can get a photo of the Ice Cream Truck. I did a "Triple Print" Preset in LR to give it an overprocessed photo look, something you may have found about 20 years ago when you got your photos back from the developer. Just prior to this guy driving down the street blaring that annoying tune, there was a Red Cardinal in the tree just to the left of his extended side view mirror. That Cardinal bailed when he heard the commotion.

First day that I have driven into work since early march. I packed up my camera gear and threw it into the back of the Tahoe (actually I placed it). On my way home, I took a longer route and noticed the fresh cut grass at Vaughn Woods, the local State Park. Just to the left of this is the flag pole, the groundskeeper had just lowered the flag for the day and was packing it up while I was setting up my gear. I'm not sure what he thought I was doing. I pushed the yellows to green to give it a more pleasant color. It was the contrasty lanes that caught my eye and forced me to turn around in the first place. The yellowish color to the grass wasn't cutting it (no pun intended there). The crop is almost all in camera, there was a bit of parking lot at the top of the photo, there is a rather extreme border between the field and the dirt parking lot that I couldn't seem to manage on the tripod, the shot was definitely level though.

So yesterday I am all happy about working on my bike. Big plans on finishing it up this morning, perhaps get a ride or two in today. I load the wheel with the tire that needed the beads to be set up into the back of the Tahoe and took off for The Home Depot. I figured if I wimped out on buying a compressor, I'd swing by a gas station and seat the beads for $1 in quarters. I had two frost free faucet heads to return from a project last week, I'm walking across the parking lot of The Home Depot, when the next thing I know I feel the sharp pain of my left ankle beginning to turn. By pure instinct, I go down immediately and I go down hard. The faucet heads go flying, one part shatters on the pavement (cheap fricken plastic). I didn't go down fast enough and my left ankle is shooting with pain, it takes about 3 seconds for me to realize that my plans for the weekend are pretty much F&$@#ed. Two very good Samaritans rush over to help, one is a nurse who very much wants tme to go to the local Hospital. I'm pretty pissed at myself, I've down this before, I know what I need to do. They help me back to my Tahoe which is pretty far away. On the drive back, I phone my kids (my wife is out of town today at a conference, this thing always seems to happen when she is gone ;-) The kids have the crutches, an ice pack, and the couch all prepped by the time I pull up into the driveway. 1600 mgs of Ibuprofen, two ice packs, and three movies later, I'm hobbling over to the computer to get a photo for today's PaD. For those of you who read this and ride, you know what my biggest concern is, this is my left foot, my shifting foot. I can actually ride with a right foot at 50% since the right foot controls the rear brake and it is the front brake that gives you all your stopping power. We'll see how things look and feel tomorrow. I still have a bike to put back together (the front tire still hasn't been set yet).