Lamberton Conservatory

We went to Lamberton Conservatory on March 4th as part of our getting through winter routine (seeing flowers and green plants every month or so), and this is some of what we saw:

The turtles were moving this time!

The quail again!

Makes me want to be in Arizona now!

Mmm, an orange!

Purple Shamrock – how cool!

I can’t wait to go next month!

George Eastman House – ‘The Dutch Connection’ and ‘Ag H2O’

On Tuesday we went to the George Eastman House to see The Dutch Connection and Ag H2O. The Dutch Connection had just opened, so the flowers were wonderful.

Seriously, if you point your camera in any direction and shoot, you can’t get a bad photo.

The smell of the flowers – I wish I could share it with you, as I’m sharing their beauty. It was wonderful!

These flowers are just amazingly beautiful!

I just love the flowers in the various places:

And I love the orchids all over:

What’s not to love about flowers this time of year, and what’s not to love about the George Eastman House!

It is so gorgeous! And the Ag H2O exhibition was very interesting. Check it out for yourself!

Ad Art on Buildings

Over the past year, I have been taking photos of what I call Ad Art on buildings. You’ve seen it all over the place, but maybe haven’t thought much about it. Well, we’re going to make a poster of some of the more prominent ad art, old and new.  There are so many cool ones, such as this one from the old Addis store:

These remnants of painted ladies are beneath the ad, near street level:

Higher up and at 3rd story window level, you see this:

There are faded out ones you can’t make out anymore:

And there are ones that have been repainted (love them!!)

But the one that has people buzzing these days (can it be preserved? can it be registered so it can be preserved?) is this one I just took a photo of last night:

Check out the Ad Art on buildings around where you live. You’ll be surprised at how much there is, old and new!

Lamberton Conservatory on New Year’s Day

On New Year’s Day my Mom and I went to Lamberton Conservatory in Highland Park in Rochester, NY.  It was bitterly cold outside, so it was great to be able to go inside and smell the humidity and see the plants.

There were several quail babies!

And turtles

It’s so nice to see the colorful plants and flowers during this time of year.

Triple Dipping?

Start Rant. I don’t understand why young people think old people need to retire in order for them to get a job. And they think they can fill the old person’s shoes, too. There was a comment made about old people “triple dipping.” Triple dipping, according to this person’s definition is a person on social security, a person who has a pension, and and person who is also working. I’m glad my widowed Mother is triple dipping, otherwise she may not be able to be independent. I’m glad she is able to work, and that she wants to work. I hope she can work until she leaves this place. I hope I can work until I leave this place. I think we both have quite a bit to offer. I think many older people have quite a bit to offer.

On the other hand, I think young people have quite a bit to offer, too, and you just need to figure out how to do so without whining about older people. They’re *not* taking your jobs. End Rant.

Oswego – Tugboat and Great Lakes Barge

I went to Oswego to go swimming one last time, and just happened upon a tugboat getting ready to pull a Great Lakes barge out of the harbor, and then push it to Rochester, NY.  It was partly full of powdered cement after having emptied some at Oswego, and was from Canada.  Here’s the tugboat, Evans McNeil, blowing its horn:

And here it is starting to pull the barge. That tugboat has a diesel engine the size of a train engine!

It continues to pull it, getting it turned into a position so it can start pushing it:

And now it’s pushing it out from the harbor into Lake Ontario:

And about to enter the lake:

On its way to Rochester:

This reminds me of the book “The Little Engine That Could.” This is the little tug that could.

Oswego HarborFest

Last night we went to the Oswego HarborFest to see the fireworks. Here’s the fireworks barge:

Waiting for the sun to set, hoping those mean-looking clouds don’t decide to pour on us:

There were three sailing ships in the harbor, which I didn’t get to see sailing (because I was working), but here they are resting. I was on the fort side of the harbor, so I didn’t get the photos I wanted to get:

Sun has set, mean-looking clouds still hanging around:

And finally it was dark enough for the fireworks. There are hearts, flowers, stars, smiley faces and so many phenomenal fireworks, and for some reason my first video (with all of these cool things) didn’t download, but here’s the ending (sorry for the wiggly video – an ant was crawling on me and I couldn’t get rid of it!):

How to download video from a Canon Vixia HV40 to a PC

Okay, so I have *tried* for hours to get this video camera to download its videos from tape to my old work PC laptop, and nothing, but nothing worked, until yesterday.  I was determined to get this thing to work.  And I want to share what I had to do in case anyone else runs into this problem on their PC.

I had to buy a firewire cable.  That didn’t come with the camera.  Go figure, right?  Amazon.com had the cheapest one.

I had to download a new Codec.  Yeah, what the heck, right?

I had to download ffdshow:

And I had to download HDVSplit:

I put all of this software on my PC laptop, opened HDVSplit, and viola, now I can see my camera and download my video.   Most of this information I obtained from a board on overclock.net.

Happy 2012!

Happy 2012!

In case you don’t believe that Syracuse, New York is devoid of snow, here’s a couple of pics I just took on Montgomery Street, outside of work (Onondaga Historical Association), a few minutes ago:

Unbelievable. It’s supposed to go up to 53 degrees F today. Enjoy your day!

Happy Ending!

I still take quite a few photos when the mood strikes, and I upload them to Flickr, but that’s about it.  So I figured it’s about time to write a post, before the end of 2011, so I can start with a clean slate.  Let’s see, since Letchworth with Mom, I’ve captured photos of the old John Deere / Case Supply building in Syracuse, now being converted to our local PBS station, WCNY.

(I didn’t take this photo, I would have centered it better, hee hee)

A couple of months later, I was told to get my hiney back there, because they tore out the middle section of the complex:

And on the northwest side, they found an interesting structure in the middle of another portion they tore down. Safes are inside of this little structure. The safe on the top floor will be opened and displayed.

I documented via photos and web (not done with the web yet) the Octagon Schoolhouse Cemetery, and filed for an historic marker, since this cemetery has NO marker or sign, at all.

I’ll find out next year if the marker is approved.

My apartment was full of ghoulish things for Halloween (not mine), but I do like the lights in the window.

I try to capture the full moon on December 10 over Irondequoit Bay.

There are some funky clouds in this one:

I try to go for a ride in the snow at the New York Museum of Transportation, but alas, no snow:

This was our engineer:

After the snowless trolley ride, I checked out the museum, and the buses outside. How about this old greyhound bus?

Next I learned that East Rochester used to be called Despatch, and yes, it was a big railroad town. I have rare film footage of a factory there that built railroad cars. Cool beans! This is the railroad side of Despatch Junction:

Here’s part of the old factory where they built the RR cars:

I think the side of this building says “Merchants Despatch”

And we had a great time at Aunt Avie’s and Uncle Jerry’s home for Thanksgiving this year. Here I am holding my cousin’s new baby girl. Don’t you love the way my cousin looks at his daughter?

And then there’s Christmas. I haven’t downloaded the photos yet, but the old apartment windows are highly decorated with icicle and other lights and dripping with fake snow, since there’s no real snow. Yet!