More tool time.

The old stick processor had lost it's free spinning way, naively suspecting a bearing had failed and needed replacing I dismantled it. Naively because the motor has simple sleeve bearings that can be a real bugger to line up again, anyway I lubed them and reassembled and the unit spins nicely again, though it really isn't worth the bother as I bought a replacement from Coles for only $6 yesterday.

Yes that is a solar panel underneath, it'll have its own story soon enough.

A wonderful colour car.

The Nissan beside Cubby has the most wonderful colour, but myself being a man means thinking of a name for it is difficult but it could be what they call indigo? as no camera/monitor seems to get it right, I suspect it's out of the RGB range that can be displayed. The respray this old beauty has had makes it about the prettiest car in Ingham.

A newly discovered feature of the Olympus SH-25 MR

After accidently seeing this screen on the camera I was curious as to how to get it. Just press the info button for a couple of seconds while the camera is off and this lovely navigation screen displays for long enough to read. I suppose it may come in handy, even if only as an easy way to check the time, since I seldom wear a watch.

Birds.

John asked if what he saw on the webcam was birds or kangaroos. I suppose the kangaroos will return when the mowing stops.

A pleasant water bill

Nothing nasty in today's water bill, plus since there's a minimum charge of $5 I've attained near perfection.
I think it may be most unusual to find people in Australia who use less water, now that I'm alone it has dropped by half.

Bokeh blah.

Quite a nothing shot done by a grumbly Jimmy this morning. Two current trends in photography rather annoy me, one is an overabundance of B&W shots, in my youth B&W was shot because either colour wasn't available (not until into the 1960s in Australia) or colour was too expensive, now hoards of people gush about it, The other is extreme efforts to achieve a short depth of field, usually by spending big on large sensor cameras and very bright lenses, I think far more often an increased depth of field is desired, which is something a compact sensor camera has a natural advantage over the "better" cameras.
Anyway this shot demonstrates that a compact camera with a bit of zoom, like this Olympus SH-25 MR can achieve a short depth of field too. Just set the camera to macro and zoom a fair amount (maximum is best) to your target from a further distance than you'd normally try.
I don't do black and white stuff, I leave that to those who have peers they want to impress. Years of watching TV in my younger days and having to imagine blue sky and green grass destroyed any desire to revisit that drab world.
That said, I was a bit disappointed in my SH-25 this morning, it does have two weakish areas, not enough zoom and a softness on the edge of photos, but this morning was a bit softer than I'd like, maybe my blue by mainly using the P setting rather than the sensible auto setting, and the lens may have wanted a bit of a clean.
Olympus have the new SH-50 being released shortly, it has the desired zoom but the lens sharpness is a mystery yet, also it lacks GPS and won't have as nice a colour, but I should consider I think.

Jellyfish flower

If I was naming them that's what I'd call them. Of course these would be a lot safer than the similar looking Irukandji jellyfish that abound in waters here, and will kill you so quickly that they seldom bother to put anything in the first aid boxes at the beaches.
The viewing tower at Tyto is in the background.

Cripple Jim

It seems that every time I put myself in a photo I look crippled, maybe that's how I really am?
Perhaps I should press Centrelink for a severely disabled tag?
I also need to buy a decent mini tripod so I can indulge myself easier.

Because I'm so cheap I suppose.

On watching a pre-season football match tonight I noticed the new bargain TV had what appeared to be something come loose in the backlight section. Maybe it happened a while back but now that I have noticed it the eyes are drawn to and annoyed by it.

I undid a few screws and had a bit of a fiddle, fairly successfully but I'll finish playing and screw it back together tomorrow.
Of course people who spend more don't get these problems I get constantly, but they miss out on the fun fixing them too.
Always disappointed in South Sydney's drab uniform but St George must have lost their mind and succumbed to the gloom merchants by wearing a black and red outfit instead of their usual lovely white and red.  There's way too much black in football uniforms now.

I had to check.

It appeared to me that Grace always used the right hand well to add washing powder but to me it just didn't seem right, so I went to the effort of checking the manual, which in this day and age is usually far easier to just find on-line. Usually but LG are a bit naughty by insisting I use IE despite me having software to decode the odd djvu file format they use.
Anyway as I suspected the left hand well is the correct one for my use, so I dabbed a bit of blue on it to remember in future.

Snake skin time again.

If it's one snake then it could be the same one that shed a skin nearby a while back, only it may be 20 metres long this time. It's always a bit of a surprise when you see these.

Nice light this morning.

The hills behind us looked nice this morning so I snapped a few piccies, of course a local cropdusting plane had to ruin the peace and tranquility. I suppose being a country area means not having access to properly working aircraft silencers, or fear of being branded a sissy by other Biggles inspired pilots for not having a plane that deafens the entire town, perhaps even the locals may be putting the silencers on backwards by accident thus amplifying rather than reducing the noise.
I can understand why so many planes are shot down in wars, there must be a lot of people like me who value a bit of peace and quiet.

Easy come, easy go.

Typically for me the new barely used coffee plunger developed a crack this morning, oh well , such is life. At least it was only $4 wasted.

Custom pink.

Many will loathe it but it was time to add a personal touch to my current daily use camera.

I like pink yet have no homosexual tendency, but at least I'm old enough not to have peer pressure to worry about.

Gelantipy.

Not a place you see often on road signs, it's merely a dot on a map now but it's the first area where I ever lived, not that I can remember that now. I was born at the Orbost on the sign and this road is where my Dad worked on a road gang after leaving school.
This is an old photo of mine due to wet weather here of late limiting my desire to get out and see things. If we get more it'll flood and I can get interesting photos, if the sun shines then I can get out and find interesting photos, but I'm not fond of damp grey gloom.

One win, one loss, not bad.

The birthday pressie was a good-un, plus I still have the winner from Xmas, I must cash them in sometime.

I'll think about it.

I have the capacitors to replace the five bad ones on this old video card now, but I'll just sit on my hands for a while until I find a good reason to do it. I think I'd only do it to make a computer to give to somebody so it can wait.

Options.

I thought of having some tomato soup last night.

However the tin was getting old an was a bit swollen and pressurised, still I thought it may be OK, but after flushing the tin a bit cleaner I thought things were a bit suspect inside so I bravely made the choice between possibly involuntarily voiding all my body fluids for a while, or chucking the contents away. I chose the safe but wasteful option.

A lovely surprise.

This arrived in the post today from Rhonda and kin, I'd forgotten all about my birthday the other week and this added a smile to my day.
I'll scratch them later, I might keep the Ferrero Rocher's for a bit though, then I can smile every time I open the fridge.

Tick Tock Homer

Rhonda bought us this lovely clock some years ago, but I'm afraid I have to pension it off. These types of clock are too loud, when I'm sitting down with the TV running with a nice relaxed sound level I keep noticing the ticking.
On the plus side battery-less Homer still shows the correct time twice a day.

Clippers

Further to the last post, these are my faithful clippers, I've been using them since shortly after moving here so they've given nearly a decade of splendid and painless service, although it must be said their life has been a bit easier since I copped some hair loss from being prescribed Lipitor, since ceased due to other side-effects.

I've oiled them every time I've used them (shown here) and am convinced that's the key to their lifespan.
They're  el cheapo Tiffany brand, and I even bought another set as a spare when they were on special for not much more than $10 shortly afterwards, but have yet to open them. Sadly though when you cut your own hair it's too hard to have the fancy store bought styles, as a result I always seem to look like a Wilson McCoy drawn thug from the Phantom comics.

Pizza maker.

I spotted this in the supermarket yesterday, I know someone who might be curious.
Since I'm alone these days it's not really of interest to me, my former healthy appetite has dwindled to a rather minuscule one of late.

Shaver, why bother.

I found a shaver I last used a few years ago, charged it up then figured I'd better clean it up if I want to use it.
Finally after some time I gave it a blast, ouch, back to retirement for you, I remember now why I don't bother shaving, running the hair clippers over my face is far easier and painless, even if it does look terrible.

True.

Snooty.

The coffee at home had become stale and lost the enjoyment factor, so grabbed something fancy from the supermarket the other day.

I've been happy with mere instant coffee for a million years, and it's fine, but the best coffee is always fresh coffee and being alone now I can't get through the big tins I've always bought in time for them to stay fresh, so If I have to buy smaller amounts then I thought I'd waste money on this fancy plunger.
Now enjoying coffee again.

My power saving measures appear to be working.

The power bill arrived this morning and the only shock was a reasonable drop in usage.

The steps I've taken to reduce the bill have worked and there's pretty well nothing more I can do unless I give up the comfort of air conditioning.
Interesting that the meter appears to have been read on a Saturday, this would have happened due to us being underwater on the scheduled day, it's really nice to know they put a bit of extra effort into it rather than just run up an averaged account.

Painful graph.

I spotted this when checking out the COPD that Grace died from and it has a very true look about it, Grace stopped smoking a few years before she died but only because she had become housebound and wouldn't ask me to buy them, it would seem to me that the result of quitting was increasing her lifespan by a year or two.

Smokers always believe they won't be the ones to get cancer, so Grace won on that score, but I have to believe the smoking still got her and left me widowed. Not all smokers are susceptible to this problem though, and I truly believe my Mother to be one else I'd surely be a semi-orphan by now, but smoking has more ways to kill you than cancer.

Good discount.

Tasted OK too.

No reason.

Sorry about splashing myself about again, its been a bit warm to go out much of late so just to keep some pictures coming here, this is me out the back this morning.

It appears my collar could use a woman's touch.

Mixed feelings today.

Having my wedding on my birthday was nice for a long time, now there's a down side to it.

It didn't cheer me up either to see a vehicle had bumped into the end vase and snapped its spike. Luckily this time it only shortened it and actually made it a much better fit, but it's bound to happen again in the near future. I'll have to fashion up a spring loaded setup for it.