Cop Car's Beat

Super Moon in Derby, Kansas, USA

Thanks to Stu (of Eunoia) for posting a photo of the Super Moon from his perspective in Europe (he was at a railway station near his home in Germany.) He reminded me that Hunky Husband and I had photographed the moon from Kansas, about 5 miles from our home. From the house, we have a beautiful view of the moon on clear days/nights; but, we have trees in neighbors' yards that prevent our getting a clear view for at least 1.5 hours after the orb clears the horizon. HH invited me to go out to a OTC parking lot to view the rising. As it happened, there were trees, there, that prevented our viewing the unobstructed moon for the first 15 minutes. There was too little light for my camera to let me take a photo of the lace-effect that the trees lent the rising moon (I hadn't thought to set the camera to exposure priority before leaving the house and didn't wish to ruin our night vision by turning on a light in the car.)

We moved on up the road about a mile, pulled onto the shoulder of the road, and snapped a few photos. The first exposure is shown, below. The moon, by that time, had cleared the horizon by about 4 degrees.

My little point-and-shoot camera is a Nikon 1J1 with the 30-110 mm lens attached and zoomed out to about 80, I think. I didn't think to check the zoom at the time I took the photos. (What do you expect from one who takes photos through the windshield?) I did zero finagling of the image. It is just as I downloaded it from the camera.

Oh, the Conversations You'll Have!

Elder Brother, about whom I've blogged most recently in Tampa Bay Area, Florida and Good news/Bad news, paid us a visit over the weekend. As always, the whole Wichita gang was pleased to see him. Hunky Husband, in particular I think, enjoyed making fun of conversations between EB and me. For instance: HH came upstairs from his den just in time to hear EB say something about amines. Knowing that my understanding of chemistry is minimal, HH couldn't figure out how I had been led into such a discussion by EB (who started his professional career as a chemist). This triggered an explanation that might well be a chapter in my new book, "Oh, the Conversations You'll Have!"

 

The discussion followed this path:

 

Subject 1: I told EB about a comforter that our grandmother had made from her wedding clothes  (photo, above) - circa 1908-1916 - which fell into my hands in about 1993 (see Grandmother Hall's comforter - plus a turkey photo). Because I had washed the comforter before storing it, I had caused the dark colors to bleed into the light and the (cotton) batting to clump between the ties (see photo for ties). Thus, eventually, I deconstructed the comforter and made two smaller quilts* from it, one each of which I gave to each of our daughters (Bogie, of Bogieblog, & Dudette). One of the quilts is shown in the photo, below, wherein you may observe that most of the dye bleed was removed by subsequent washing.

 

Subject 2: I told EB that I had conjectured that one of the fabrics used was rayon which I had been surprised to find (Google is wonderful!) indeed,  had been available for clothing by the 1908-1916 time period. I had thought that rayon had come into use in the 1930s.

 

Subject 3: EB told me that I had probably been thinking of nylon which, indeed, came into use in the 1930s - which I full-well knew. From there, EB was off and running telling me about the structure of Nylon 6, 6.

 

Subject 4: EB rambled into a period in which his chemistry class in high school had used nylon hosiery for some experiment or the other - which led him into lecturing me on carbon chains and amines.

 

As you can see, there was nothing strange about the conversation EB and I were having when HH arrived on the scene. He just hadn't been present to hear the development!

 

*    According to Buffy (of Arrrgh!!!) who led me into quilting, a covering is not a quilt unless it is quilted - that is - unless the layers of the covering are held together by stitching. A covering that is held together by tying is a comforter. (I hope Buffy will forgive me if I have it all wrong!)

Treasured gift from Elegant Friend

Back in the late 1960s, Elegant Friend and I got together to paint in oils - copying whatever struck our fancy. That lasted long enough for each of us to complete one canvas. Eventually, my painting (copied from Franz Marc's Antilope) went to Bogie - who may or may not still have it. I don't recall the subject of EF's canvas. Fast forward about 50 years: Several months ago, EF and I started getting together to paint in acrylics. Each of us has completed several small canvases, none of which we would brag upon. Come to think of it, I didn't brag upon the antelope painting that I did - EF is the artist!

Unfortunately, last week, EF left our little town - moving up to Wichita to a "Senior Retirement Community". Moving from a house in which she had about 3000 square feet (main floor + nicely finished basement) to herself into a one-bedroom apartment (maybe 700 square feet?) EF had to rid herself of many belongings. Among the belongings for which she needed to find new homes were the first two paintings that EF had done. I pleaded with EF not to let them out of her family; but, she was convinced that no one in her family would care to have any of her work, so she gifted me with the second of the two paintings. 

The painting, photo below, was painted at the request of EF's late mother-in-law. I am now the lucky owner. As I told her, unless someone from her family comes to take the work from me, I shall treasure that painting "forever"!