Hillside

This time, I got it. It happened again today where I was driving down the road, and I saw this field. I knew immediately that there was a photo there, and until I went home, got my camera, and tried to capture it, I couldn't rest. It's really gratifying when you see something like this and you're able to capture completely the beauty that you saw the first time you looked at it. Granted, I took about 40 shots, but out of those 40, this is the one that really shows what I see when I look at this field. I love this shot.

Okay, I'm officially dragging ass. It's 5:18 pm as I'm writing this, and I've been awake for 24 hours. I didn't have to work all night last night, so that has helped me to stay awake, but I am crashing fast. I'm trying to do the "old switcheroo" so I can be on a normal sleep schedule throughout our vacation in California. It's kicking me hard right now, but it will be worth it when we get there. I should be posting a lot of pictures all next week, so keep checking back!

Blast From the Past

What you're looking at is a minaturized version of something I used to make way back in the day. Now that I think of it, it really hasn't been that long since I made these things. This is a sink that's used in salons when you get your hair washed. It's made by a company called Belvedere USA Corp, my former employer. I worked there for about 11 1/2 years. Wow, that's a long time.

The process which is used to make these is really pretty interesting to watch, but not much fun to do. It requires heating the casting up to about 1700°, then covering it in porcelin enamel, which is basically ground up glass with different oxsides and pigments that give the bowl its color. Here's a few shots I took a couple years ago of the process:

The orange color you see is not the color of the bowl, it's orange because it's that hot. Believe me, this is not a job you want to do when it's 100° outside. Not pleasant at all. The job was pretty crappy, but the pay was good. Like I said, interesting to watch, not so much fun to do.

Laptop Bag

In preparation to our trip to California, I've been trying to decide for a couple weeks which laptop bag to buy. I really wanted something that didn't look like a traditional laptop bag, and really was close to buying this one, but since I was uncertain how my 17" Macbook Pro would fit in it, I finally decided to get a backpack. These things are not cheap, but I wanted something that I could put other things in besides my laptop. This pack was a little pricey, but buying it on Amazon saved me about $15, and with my free trial of Amazon Prime, I got it in two days with free shipping. Overall, it wasn't a bad deal. It has a ton of storage, and is padded really nicely for the computer. It's called the Swissgear Pegasus and it fits like a glove!

Favortie Shots #11: Hearst Castle

Hearst Castle, set upon the hills of San Simeon, is one of our favorite destinations when we visit California. This amazing place was built between 1919 and 1947, and was donated to the state of California in 1957. It's really remarkable to see it in person, and it's a place we visit every time we go West. Here's a nice collection of photos from Flickr of the castle.

Well, it looks like I'll be working on Saturday. Luckily, we'll probably only work 1/2 a day, but it stil throws all my plans out of whack.

Changing Weather

What a difference a day can make. Today, after I woke up of course, was beautiful. Cool temps, light breeze, and a beautiful sunset. I think it may have rained this afternoon, but I slept through all that.

I still haven't heard anything from my Union rep about Saturday, but right now I'm just counting on working it. It really stinks, and completely throws off my plans for the weekend, but I really can't afford to call in. I'm hoping eventually, if they hire us in full time, to become a Team Leader. Team Leaders can't have any disciplinary marks on their records, so missing work isn't a good idea for me.

Stormy Skies

We got nailed today with some pretty serious storms. Naturally, I slept through it all, but Steph tells me there were really high winds, and they lost power three times over the course of the day. I was getting ready to shoot when she told me the sky to the west looked cool. Although this is a pretty good shot, I probably missed this one by about 5 minutes. By the time I grabbed my camera and found an unobstructed view, the clouds had moved a bit.

Our vacation plans are progressing nicely, but we've hit a bit of a snag. They've scheduled me to work Saturday. I briefly considered calling in, but the attendance policy is a little harsh, and I really don't want the marks on my record. They tell us that we won't work all night, but I still really want the day off so I can prepare for our trip. There's still a slight chance I will get the night off, but I'll have to wait and see.

Fruit, Veggies, and Outages

Every week, when at the grocery store, I try to think of different things to bring to work for lunches. Oftentimes, just like at dinner, I find myself eating the same things over and over. I try to get as many fresh fruits and vegetables as I can, but Woodmans' produce leaves much to be desired. I'm looking forward to going to some local farmers markets this summer to hopefully find some better produce.

Well, we had another mass outage today. It actually started at about 1:40 am, went until 6 am, went out again sometime around 2:00 pm, then came back on about an hour ago. I called customer service again today, and actually got someone competent! What a shock! He was telling me that it was ridiculous that we've been having this problem since May and that it had not been fixed yet (tell me about it!). He gathered together all the info and charts showing the outages and forwarded then on to his supervisor. He will then send them to the local service office, who hopefully will get it fixed sooner rather than later. He's also supposed to call to update us within the next 48 hours. This guy was so good that he even got our account credited back to the start of the problems. He did this not only for the internet, but he also got us a $40 credit for our cable which we haven't even had much of a problem with! We should be getting over $100 in credit. That's really nice, but I'd rather just have my internet working, thank you. He also canceled the service appointment for Friday, since it's pretty obvious that this is a massive problem for the whole town, and not just with us. I guess the moral here is that if you keep calling and calling, eventually you'll get lucky enough to talk to someone who gives a shit.