10X versus 30X zoom

My new Kodak camera has the greater 30x zoom compared to 10x my old one has, and it sure does take some getting used to. I find I try to zoom in too close, and have to readjust as I tend to make the photos fuzzy. There is a focus feature which shows up in the viewfinder, which tells me when the picture is ready to take. What a fun time I am having learning to use the camera.

Photo of the day

I am learning to use my new camera, so I will be posting photos I am taking. Please enjoy as I learn.

What hoot!

My friend Joyce emailed this to me. Thank you Joyce for the chuckle of the day.

Sent by an over 70 yr old...................!

When I bought my Blackberry, I thought about the 30-year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a cell phone that plays music, takes videos, pictures and communicates with Facebook and Twitter.

I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grand kids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

That was before one of my grand kids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world..

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say Iget lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it's red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife and everyonein the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. I had to take my hearingaid out to use it,and I got a little loud .

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside that gadget was the most annoying, rudest person I had runinto in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say," Re-calc-u-lating." You would think that she could be nicer. It waslike she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sighand then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then if I made aright turn instead. Well, it was not a good relationship.

When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven't figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have to run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms andthe dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings..

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those

cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused, but I never remember

to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or Plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual." Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look .

I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, No, but I do toot a lot."

Us senior citizens don't need anymore gadgets. The tv remote and the garage door remote are about all we can handle.

A camping trip at it's finest

Every year we make the trip from Whidbey Island to eastern WA, to meet with our friends of The Fishin' Club.
We all stay at Coulee Playland resort on Bank's Lake and look forward to enjoying lots of fishing, camaraderie, a potluck dinner and some nice warm weather.















There are a couple of routes you can take to get to Bank's Lake, we prefer the beautiful drive up over the North Cascade highway. This year there was an exceptional snowfall, and still evidence of it to be seen.
















I heard on the news, that the road crews had to clear some 60 feet of snow from some areas of the road in preparation for the opening of the highway. That is a lot of snow removal.
















We arrived at the campground late on Thursday, launched our boat, parked the RV in our campsite and settled in for a few days of fun.
Picture taken of the lakeside campsites as we came back from a fishing trip.
















Our little Sunrader RV. Compared to most other RV's it is small, but we get good gas mileage, and it has all the amenities a person needs, in short, it suits us and our budget.

















Friday evening, Kevin cooked on the B-B-Q oysters he raises, while the rest of us played a game. I was never fond of oysters, but these, which were smothered in a seasoned butter after they were cooked, were tasty.















mmmm,mmmmm good!















Mr C and I love to motor into some of the smaller bays around the lake in search of bass. This one is surrounded by towering walls of rock and you could get a kink in your neck if you scan the heights for any length of time. I am always interested in what manages to grow on the rock face.


















Looking up at the craggy rocks way above our heads. It is amazing how the trees and plants manage to survive in such a bare environment.

















Looking back out of the bay at what is known as Lover's lane. This is where you can get through to go further on up the lake. As we have a small (12 foot) aluminum boat, we don't go too far from the campground, as the weather can change very quickly, the lake becoming extremely choppy, not a good thing to be out in, in a small boat.
















Not worth keeping a fish which is not much larger than the lure, but fun to catch and release.
















Then there was an incident when a crawdad pot was tossed out, by someone who will remain nameless *grin*, the two halves separated and sank to the bottom. Fortunately Mr C was going out in the boat and was able to snag the unsecured half with a boat hook, and return it to shore to be firmly secured to the other half.
















Saturday is the day we all overindulge in a potluck dinner. We usually eat anywhere between four and five pm so those keen fishermen who want to, can go out for a few hours fishing before nightfall, and the rest of us can sit around the campfire, burp, and tell stories. *chuckle*

First my car, NOW my camera

Sheesh! I can't win for losing. Last week my car broke down, then, thankfully at the end of our mini vacation to Banks Lake WA, my camera refused to work. I turn it on and you can hear it making noise but the lens does not come out. I smacked the camera a few times thinking a piece of grit may have found it's way down beside the lens, but no, it still does not want to work. Oh! well, it is probably time to retire my Kodak Easy share anyway. It did take very nice pictures and I liked the features, so I want something similar which will not cost me an arm & leg. Anyone out there have any recommendations. I did go online and came away very confused, as there are many, many cameras and the ones I look at seem to cost a whole lot, I really do not want to spend too much as I still have to buy my airfare to New Zealand, and that is expensive.

I didn't have to make lemonade after all

Well, all the woes with my car turned out OK. A friend of mine drove me to my first job then on the way back we stopped to see what progress had been made by Ben, my mechanic, in fixing the Buick. What a guy! he had it all done and it was ready for me to drive it away. Ben told me that I was fortunate indeed in making it to his garage, as the problem was a burned out camshaft sensor and the car would not start for him in the morning, so he did the repair right where I had parked it.
Mr C is back from Holland and had a grand time, he is now busy getting the RV ready for our annual trip to Bank's Lake (Near Grand Coulee Dam). We were going to leave Friday morning, but as my am client had canceled for tomorrow, we will leave as soon as I have the RV packed. I am so looking forward to getting away for a little R&R. Mr C has our fishing gear ready, I have plenty of good food, a bottle of wine and a book to read, ready to go into the RV tomorrow.
See you when we get back.

How do I make lemonade out of these lemons?

Just when a person thinks all is going well, a wrench is thrown in the works. Mike is in Holland shooting in a pistol match, and just before he left I asked which of his two vehicles I could use if my car failed, he said the blue van. I really though my car was OK until it broke down yesterday. My mechanic drove me home and as soon as I had put my groceries away, I went out to bring the blue van up to the house. DANG! it would not start, it was deader than a Dodo. I called the office and canceled work for today, and I can ill afford to lose any wages as I am trying to save for a visit to my homeland, New Zealand later this year. I am afraid the repairs to the car is going to take a large bite out of my savings, I may not be able to afford the trip at all, and that is very upsetting.
Well, that is enough crying, whining for now, just had to get it off my chest, and I really can't see how to make lemonade out of this mess. Perhaps buy a lotto, nuh! "if wishes were horses......."