A Recap of COVID-19 up to this point.

March 31^st, 2020

A Recap of COVID-19 up to this point.

I think the COVID-19 Virus became real to me on Feb 25^th.  On that day my sister Laura sent me a txt asking if we (my 89-year-old mother and I) had enough food if I had to shelter in place for a month.  I shrugged it off, but it got me thinking.  On Thursday the 27th I noticed Amazon didn’t have Purell, so I ordered from them a big supply of TP, Paper Towels, Kleenex, Napkins, rubber gloves and Laundry Sanitizer to be delivered the following Monday.  I came up with a list of stuff I needed and another food if I had to take care of my mom if she got sick for a month.

On Friday the 28th, I saw that Amazon was out of FaceMasks.  I have a pack of 100 I use if I get sick around my mom and another 20 N95 Masks I bought because I was cleaning the basement.  I also have a full face respirator mask (P100) for the same reason.  But masks go fast, so I thought of a cheap way to make decent ones from the disposable chair pads I use with my mom.  They are basically the same design as face masks, so I went back on Amazon and bought several hundred stretchy strings used for kids to make masks and a hope punch and a big supply of those pads.  Again, this was on Friday the 28th of February.

Saturday February 29th, I got up early and went to the Market.  As far as I could tell, nobody was doing disaster buying but me.  They were out of Purell, but not anything else.  I bought a shopping cart of staples, put in the car and went back in and got another cart of frozen foods (Veggies and Meats).  It was an icky feeling.

Sunday March 1st, the hording began.  I was one day ahead.  By Sunday night they had pictures on the news of paper products being gone off shelves.  A month later people still have to wait in lines for TP and hand sanitizer.

Funny note, From July 4^th to the 8^th (2019) my mom was in the Hospital and came out with some heart meds.  My sister Laura asked how she could help on the day mom was released, and I gave her a grocery list inkling hand sanitizer asking for several bottles.  She got everything including 4 huge 32oz bottles of Hand Sanitizer (Aloe) that were on clearance.  The bottles were so unwieldy, I stuck them in the basement.  Now they are like gold, been using them a month, gave one to our church and still have plenty for a few months.  Thanks Laura.

Today the 31^st

I’m at my condo.  My mom is doing well.  I’ll talk about the humidifier later, but she is fine and she is with Mary; who hangs with mom from 9am to 5pm on Tuesday and Thursday and does her bath and bedding and such; Ruthie does the same on Saturday.  I try and get out and do stuff why they are there, but doing the Lock-Down for the Virus, I can really only go to my Storage Units or my Condo.  

I didn’t pack today or clean.  Really just hung after I got here around 11am and I will leave around 2pm to go home.  The condo is looking vacant and the next step is cleaning out the garage, moving the furniture and then getting the last of the stuff out in boxes.  Another Day.

Well I’ll try and keep these more often.

Charles

Taking Care of Mom: A Journal

June 4^th, 2019

I’m sitting here in the computer room across from my mother’s room.  I can hear her whimpering, but not asking for help. Let me check…

Okay, today is a day where she is too stiff and tried to pull on her pants. So, I just helped her get them over her feet while she sits in a chair I bought for this reason and she does the rest.  A typical morning has her dressing across the room and myself in the computer room in case she needs me.

The first week in June, 2017 my father went into heart surgery to correct one of three blockages.  He was able to be active at 91, but the Dr worried it would lead to a heart attack.  This is the easiest of the three, the second is also do-able, but the third may not be.  First things First.

He passed 4 months later, and I moved in with my mother.  I went back to work at Microsoft in January of 2018, but left the first week in August after computing and splitting my time between my mother, the house and property and work which was getting a distant third in priority.  So its been 10 months since I retired.

Taking care of mom is much harder than expected.  I’m steeling myself for worse to come, but I had hoped to have years where we could travel and do things, but that was really just 6 months.  Early in 2019 she got ill, broke her hand and while both got better it left her a level down in mobility and strength.  Its hard to imagine taking a car trip or doing any travel now.  Today a PT comes in to work with her, the first of two months worth so I have hopes to reverse the trend.  I’m also trying to have us both eat better as well.

This is the hardest point in my life and I feel like I’m failing every day.

Speech Given by Daniel Fried on his retirement after 40 years in the US State Department. 2/24/2017

Speech Given by Daniel Fried on his retirement after 40 years in the US State Department.

2/24/2017

More on Daniel Fried and his career serving in the State Department since 1977.

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/02/24/517101204/as-he-retires-u-s-diplomat-delivers-message-that-values-have-power?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news

Winning eBay Buyer Strategies

Winning eBay Buyer Strategies

I’ve been buying and even selling on eBay of late and for those who don’t use eBay much I thought I’d share some buying methods.

eBay Buying Basics (skip if you know)

eBay is an Auction with a fixed duration and ending time (usually 7 days to the second).  The seller lists a starting price and you place a bid which should be the highest you are willing to go.  eBay will make you the auction leader for the starting price and the price will go up as others bid until one of those bids is higher than yours.  When that happens, they are the auction leader at a little more than your highest bid.  Example: If the starting price was $12.00 and you bid $20.00, you will be the auction leader at $12.00.  If another bidder comes in at $15.00, the auction will go up to $16.00 and you remain the auction leader.  If the second bidder raises their bid to $25.00, they would become the auction leader at $1.00 more than your highest bid, $21.00.  If you want to take over the auction, you will need to outbid $25.00.  And remember, nobody knows the others people’s highest bid.

Two types of bidding strategies: Rational Actors and Last Second.

If all people bidding in eBay were rational actors, then each person would decide how much they wanted an item, place that bid and then the clock ticks down and the highest bidder wins.  There would be no advantage to bidding seconds before the auction ends if the other people have placed their highest bid.  The problem is, many or most people do not act rational.  They don’t put in their highest bid, but some incremental bid feeling that might help them get a lower value.  In fact, it doesn’t. With game theory, since your opponents for the auction are not acting rational, you can gain an advantage by changing your strategy to match.

Rational Actors – Best low stress way to bid

If you are not going to be available to watch the internet at the end of an auction or if you just don’t want the stress, then the best method to bid on eBay is as a Rational Actor.  Decide what is the maximum you would pay for an item including shipping costs, add 5% and bid that.  Why add 5%?  In my experience, when you lose an auction by $1.00 you feel bummed and if you win an auction by going that extra $1.00 more you feel smart.  Add a little to that maximum bid and if that helps you win it’s a good feeling.  If you still lose, well it was more than you were comfortable paying.  Bid when you see the item and then check back within 24 hours of the end of auction to see if you won.  Be ready to pay within 48 hours as most sellers request.

Last Second Bidding

If you think that other people will bid on an item and that other people will bid with less than their maximum bid, then you can gain an advantage by doing three things: bid only once, bid your maximum and bid in the last few second.  Why does this work? Your opponents are watching the bids go up and if they stop being auction leader they will put in a higher amount.  If you wait till less than 10 or even 5 seconds, chances are they do not have time to raise their bid and that means you will win the auction and for an amount lower than if your opponent had put in their true maximum.  This strategy relies on the idea that many other eBay bidders don’t put in their true maximum, but put in an incremental amount and if the price goes over they will enter a higher amount.  That is bad strategy you can take advantage of.  Now, watch it in action.

An eBay Win in Action

Check out the Play by Play of this completed Auction.  These comics went for $36.09 on 16 bids.  If you click on the bid link below, you can see only 4 bidders.  

Here are the steps.

1. Bidder #1 (a***b) placed the first bid on Oct 10^th for the starting price of $9.99. 
2. Bidder #2 (s***c) came in on Oct 12^th at 2pm and put a maximum bid of $15.09.  The took over the auction for $10.49.
3. Bidder #1 saw this and bid $10.99 on the 12^th at 7:01:29pm and didn’t win, but raised the price to $11.49.
4. Bidder #1 bid $11.99 at 7:01:32pm (not enough)
5. Bidder #1 bid $12.99 at 7:01:35pm (not enough)
6. Bidder #1 bid $13.99 at 7:01:38pm (not enough)
7. Bidder #1 bid $14.99 at 7:01:41pm (not enough)
8. Bidder #1 bid $15.99 at 7:01:44pm and became the Auction Leader for the amount of $15.59 or 50 cents higher than Bidder #2 had placed.
9. At 20 minutes after Midnight on Oct 15^th, Bidder #3 (s***e) showed up. They placed a bid of $19.74 and became auction leader for $16.09
10. Bidder #1 woke up 6 hours later to see they were no longer auction leader.  Damn.  So at 6:35:10am they bid $16.59 (not enough)
11. Bidder #1 bid $17.59 at 6:35:13am (not enough)
12. Then Bidder #1 got mad.  At 6:35:23am (they waited 10 second and not 3 this time) they bid $25.00 and became auction leader at the price of $20.24 or 50 cents higher than Bidder #3 bid at step 9.  Whew.
13. Bidder #3 at 38 minutes after Midnight on Oct 16^th noticed they were not the leader anymore and at 00:38:45 placed a bid of $22.94 (not enough)
14. Bidder #3 at 00:38:56 placed a bid of $24.94 (not enough).  Little did Bidder #3 know that Bidder #1 had a high bid of just 6 cents more. 
15. Bidder #3 gave up and went to bed with the auction leader still Bidder 1 and the amount was $25.00 or Bidder #1’s highest bid.  But wait…
16. Bidder #2 who we had not seen since step 2 returned at 7am on Oct 16^th and placed a maximum bid of $35.09.  They took over the top spot with an auction amount of $26.00 and only 4 hours till the auction ended.  We will never know if $35.09 was the highest Bidder #2 would go.  We don’t know if Bidder #1 might have gone higher if he had noticed.  What did happen?
17. Mysterious Bidder #4, never seen before, swooped in with a high bid at 11:24:06 or 7 seconds before the end of auction.  eBay does not show how high Bidder #4 would have gone, but since it was me I can tell you I put in my maximum bid of $41.16 and won it for $36.06. 

I wanted the 54 comics at $1.00 apiece and with shipping of $14.51 that meant $39.50.  But I added my 5% and bumped up to $41.16 as I always do.  I made one bid.

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=401203503871&showauto=true

Mostly a great photography weekend at Pateros Washington and the Columbia River

Mostly a Great Photography Weekend (2-26-16 to 2-28-16)

I’ve been trying to get away one weekend a month.  Last month it was a cabin near Dayton, WA and this month it was going to see the Sage Grouse and their Spring Lek.  Feb 26th was early for a Lek, but the weather had gotten warm the last few days and I hoped that meant it might be a good first weekend.

Normally I go with my friend Mike as he introduced me to the Sage Grouse, but he can’t get away this year and I don’t want to miss out.  The lek is near Coulee Dam and we stay in that town usually, but a little further way from the lek in the other direction are some towns downriver on the Columbia.  Pateros is a small town on the Columbia River between Chelan and Brewster.  Wiki says it had a population in 2010 of 667.  One thing it does have is a great city boat launch, park and two hotels that look out over the river.  I stayed at one a few years back in the winter and found the river view amazing and the hotel empty.  This time I wanted to stay at the nicer hotel ($99/night off season) which offers a river view from every room.

My goal was to leave work, pack my camera gear and warm clothes and head out by 5pm.  I didn’t leave till 8pm, but still went.  Its 4 hours from Redmond and just a hint of bad weather on Snoqualmie Pass and none on Blewett Pass.  I pulled in just after midnight and got a room on the second floor of a sparsely occupied, but nice looking 3 story hotel.

Pateros

The moon had risen a few hours earlier and the view from my balcony over the river was great.  The other great thing about Pateros is that there are almost no lights and no building or houses on the far shore of the river.  You have a great eastern view and at night nothing to spoil the view.  But one problem did exist, the great room with a gas fireplace, frig and microwave and balcony with two metal chairs and a metal coffee table also had an Always On Bright Sodium Light.  No way to turn it off.

The sky was overcast, but the moon lit up the thin cloud layer and gave a pretty nice glow to the river and landscape.  Before going to bed I setup my Niko.

1) Nikon 5200 35mm F1.8 shot at F2 from 1am to 2:30am.  ISO 450 2.5 sec exposure taking 1 shot every 5 seconds.

To shoot the Sage Grouse, I had to drive an hour east and be there before sunrise at 7am.  I woke at 5am after 4 hours’ sleep.  Before leaving I setup a second shot.

2) GoPro Hero3 with the external battery shot from 6am to 10:45am 1 frame/second until it filled the 64GB memory card.  Amazing what the external battery will let me do.

Sage Grouse

I was late getting to where I needed to go, but no biggie.  I was wrong.  The dirt road that is the only public viewpoint to the distant lek was not plowed and deep in snow.  I put my Xterra into 4WD, but soon was worried I would get stuck and backed out.  They wouldn’t be out anyway in the snow.  They need bare ground.

So instead I drove back to my hotel, had breakfast in their nice restaurant (and good prices) and was in bed at 11am.

Sunset and Astrophotography at Steamboat Rock

Before leaving my hotel, I setup two cameras to shoot while I was gone.

3) Nikon 5200 and an 8mm F3.5, ISO-100 first shooting 1/125 and then right before I left I adjusted it down to 1/25sec.  One shot every 3 seconds.

4) The Hero3 shot from 5:15pm to 11:45pm this time 1 frame every 2 seconds.  Oh, I got smart and unscrewed the balcony bulb so had a clear dark base to shoot from.

I woke at 4pm and was on the road to Coulee Dam by 5:30pm.  I ate there at a pizza place and after sunset drove to Steamboat Rock State Park.  As you enter the park, there is an old road, paved but going nowhere that cuts across the driveway a 100 yards in.  It makes a great place to turn off and setup cameras.  It’s well over a mile from the park and cars are 100 yards away and only every so often.

While it had been cloudy and then clearing, it was really clear and nice.  I had not planned it, but I decided to shoot some tripod based Astrophotography; picking a few objects and shooting 100 shots of short exposures to practice stacking.

5a) My Modified T3i I shot with my 85mm F1.5 (at F2) at Orion, a couple of nights’ shots of Steamboat Rock and the Beehive Cluster.  The 100 shots at M101.

While shooting M101, I started to notice something weird.  I was a mile from the lake sure and could not see the lake for the grass around the unused road I was on.  But above the grass in the distance it looked like someone was shining a spotlight around.  After M101 series was done, I pointed my camera in the direction and took a few shots.  I realized that several miles away on the far shore of Banks Lake, someone was driving a boat along the lake shore and shining a bright spotlight up and down the cliff bank (maybe 800 ft high) searching for something.  It was super weird and the boat made its way along the lake sure on the far side for miles till it was out of sight.

5b) I continued with the T3i shooting Andromeda, I then shot a series of Flats with the Lens cap on at two different ISO to help in the stacking.  Lastly, I shot the Pleiades at 100 shots. 

6) When I saw the weird boat thing, I pulled out my 60Da and shot the boat and what it was doing, I shot with a 24mm F1.8 at F2.  I then shot 100 wide field of Orion.

I left soon after around 9:45pm to get back to the hotel at 11pm just as the moon was rising.

The Moon rise and the Moon

The night had just a few hints of clouds as the moon rose in full view from my balcony.  I setup two cameras to catch it.

7) The Nikon 5200 now with a 35mm F1.8 lens at F2.  I shot 780 shots of time-lapse of the moon rising.

8) T3i with the 85mm focused on the moon for 700 shots

9) Lastly and most fun, I took my 60Da and mounted my Sigma 500mm and shot the moon and did a 5-minute moon video.  I then added my 2x Sigma converter and shot some more including 80 in a time-lapse series.  While the moon was low on the horizon and atmosphere make it pretty wavy, the lens showed they could provide a clear photo at this setup.

Last night and Sunrise

10) At 1am I setup the Nikon 5200 to shoot till the battery died with a 14mm lens.  I was still up after the first 1000 shots, so I replaced the battery and got another 1000.  It stopped around 4am.

11) GoPro Hero3 with my best external battery shooting 1 frame every 2 seconds. 2:24am start, 10:34am finish.  8 hours and 10 minutes of sunrise time-lapse.

Heading home and the Xterra Door

I slept pretty good, packed up and found I could not open the passenger door to my Xterra.  It was binding someplace.  After pulling and wiggling it opened.  Then I shut it and it was harder to open again, but I got it.  I shut it and tried a 3rd time and now it was stuck.  It would open about 1 inch and bind someplace. I could hear metal bending, so I tried to shut the door and forget it was a problem.  Yikes.

Decent drive home from 10am to 2pm.  After unloading I tried the passenger door again, this time I tried to lift up on it thinking it would help.  I broke off the door handle. I could also see that the inside part of the door that was binding was starting to come apart.  Oh well, a body place can work on it and I’ll pay.

Summary

• 11 Shooting sessions
• Just under 300GB of unprocessed photos.  Over 50,000 pictures taken.
• I’m doing this every year.

Dinner at the Eiffel Tower restaurant in Las Vegas

August 27^th, 2015

My sister Leslie and I went to Las Vegas in August for a few days of hiking, but also so Leslie could have a good Las Vegas experience.  I let her know we were going to have some good meals and she brought some outfits to match.  As a guy, I brought the same clothes I was going to hike in.

Our first night in town we ate at an Italian place at the Venetian.  It was great.  The second night I decided to book the Eiffel Tower restaurant at the Paris Casino. I’ve never been there, but heard it was great and looked out over the Strip.

Hot day in Vegas, so we took the monorail and walked around the strip till our 7pm reservation.  A few minutes before, we presented ourselves at the elevator entrance and greeters.  The people right before us were asked to remove their hats because of the dress code, and I was reaching for my hat as the greeter turned to us.  What I didn’t see in the email reservation confirmation was the dress code rules.  No Hats, Collared Shirts and pants required.  Well it was 106 out and while I had a collared shirt, I was wearing shorts.

But, they had a solution.  The greeter offered loaner pants.

You would think time would stand still as I mulled over this option, but in fact it creeped along with the seconds ticking by visible on the face of the greeter and my sister.  I was thinking of how many nice restaurants were nearby where shorts were allowed.  I was wondering how much humiliation I was willing to take in order to deliver on the promise to my sister of a fancy meal and most important; I wondered if I did say yes, would I just be in a bad mode the rest of the evening.  I didn’t want that to happen.

“Sure”

I could do this.  No big deal.  Great Story to tell people.  Not only could I do this, but I’d have fun.  I can do this.

“What Size?” she asked.

Okay, already it’s not as easy as planned.  I’m telling some girl half my age my pants size on a crowded casino floor.  I suck in my gut, give her the number which she then calls in to god knows who and we are allowed to approach the elevator.  I can do this.

We go up in the elevator and are met by a second greeter.  She says one second, leaves for a moment and returns with a nice department store type bag folded flat with something inside; I assume the pants.  I take the package and then hesitate.  It’s a really nice bag.

“I’m not buying these, am I?”

I started to wonder if the Eiffel Tower made their real money off expensive pants sales to schlubs like me.  I guess I wasn’t buying them.  I asked where I change and she motioned to the bathroom where I went while Leslie waited.

Now you might expect a place that would ask patrons to don borrowed pants, that place might have a bathroom to accommodate it.  You would be wrong.  A nice bathroom, but no extra room or nice place to sit down.  I had to take up one sink, put some stuff on the counter and pull them over my shoes and over my shorts.  I pulled them up to discover that the greeter on the casino floor had not heard me correctly.  These pants were 10 sizes too large.

Okay, can I do this?  Another not so frozen moment went by as I stood there in front of the bathroom sink holding the waistband of the borrowed pants pulled out from my waist a good 6 inches.  Clown Pants.  I’m now wearing clown pants.  I could take them off, I could tell Leslie we have to go somewhere else.  She would say she was okay with leaving.  Seconds ticked by.  I can do this.  I take the belt off my shorts, I feed it through the belt loops of the clown pants and I kind of take up the extra space in front by folding it over on itself and tighten up the belt.  I wash my hands, tuck in my collared shirt, grab my now empty department store bag and head out the door.

We are shown to our table.  The view is amazing and the sun is just setting.  We overlook the strip and onto the fountain at the mirage. 

The food is great.  Our waiter and servers are the best.  We are having a great evening.  I did it.  I did the right thing and we laugh at the pant size mistake and all is good.

The evening is winding down.  We have had our wine and the check arrives.  But I’ve got one more hurdle to get over.  The minute that little platter is set down at the table and the waiter says “Whenever you are ready…” I realize I have a problem.  My wallet is in the back pocket of my shorts which are now covered over with a pair of clown pants and a tightly drawn belt.  But hey, now it’s all good.  These are just the funny parts of the evening.  I tell Leslie and we have a laugh, I excuse myself for a trip to the bathroom where I unbelt and unlayer the pants, reach in and get my wallet and then put everything back in place for one last go through the restaurant.

Back at the table we pay and as we exit nobody gives any reminder to me.  But even so, I walk into the bathroom, dodge other guests coming and going while I remove the clown pants, fold them nicely and put them back into the department store bag, wash my hands and exist as if this was just another part of any dining experience.  I hand the bag to the elevator greeter and we head down and back onto the strip.

We had a great time, but I’m especially happy that I was able to not care about what was really minor impediments to an otherwise great meal.  There’s Leslie in one of the nice dresses she brought, I’m in the hiking shirt I later accidentally left at 10,000 feet near the Raintree Bristlecone Pine.  Clown Pants on, but not in photo.

The Trip to Hull Cabin – April 2014

Arrival

Well Mike and I were scheduled to fly out of SeaTac at 5am on Saturday April 26^th.  I’m to blame for that early flight.  I had to wake up at 1am and then be at Mike’s house by 2:15am.  Yuck.  I also had trouble packing.  Over the years I’ve gathered a nice set of camera gear and I wanted to use all of it.  In the end, I brought three large suitcases to check through to Flagstaff; one carry-on and one backpack for under the seat.  The airline charges $25 for the first bag checked, $35 for the second and $200 for the third.  But Mike had just one checked bag, so he agreed to check one of mine.  Nice guy to put up with a ridiculous amount of luggage.

We fly into Phoenix around 8am to find that snow and bad weather in Flagstaff have delayed our connection.  We wait and finally find the flight cancelled.  But US Air is going to take us on a Tour Bus; 2 ½ hours to drive to Flagstaff including a short stop for lunch.  It took a while for the Bus to be ready and arrive.  I think we finally got to Flagstaff at 2pm and it was still snowing.

The SUV rental had snow on it, we loaded up and headed out.  The goal was to shop for 5 days of food for Hull Cabin.  Kwang would shop as well and meet us up there; Hull Cabin sits 6 miles from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon just outside the park on National Forest Service land.

It was a blizzard heading to the Grocery Store.  We loaded up with food and supplies and two bundles of firewood in case the cabin did not have enough.  The only heat there is fireplace insert and it can get well below freezing at night in April.

Now off we went to the cabin.  Outside of town the weather cleared of snow; still cloudy but no problem driving.   We entered the National Park around 6pm; the fastest route to the cabin was through the park, we stopped off at an overlook and there it was.  The Big Ditch.  We got to the cabin around 7pm; meeting Kwang on the way.  We stocked the fire, unloaded the car, picked beds (Kwang and I took one of the two sets of bunk beds and Mike took the Futon in the living room with the fire), and settled down to a later Dinner with a Pot Pie that Kwang’s wife Heather had made.  It takes a lot to cook at 6,500 ft and we had to wait.  But in the end, it was tasty and we hit the sack full.  (Thanks Heather)

Hull Cabin Video Tour

Day 1

It was Sunday and we got up late.  The weather was kind of cloudy and a bit windy.  We drove into Canyon Village and walked around, looking at the lodges and buying some trinkets and looking over the edge.  We had breakfast at one lodge that morning and we skipped lunch.  We decided to find a good spot for sunset photography; Lipan Point.  We got there a little early, found a ridge to walk out on and waited for sunset.  I setup both my GoPro Cameras to take different Time-lapse shots and my Canon T3i DSLR to take another set.  Kwang and Mike setup for the traditional shots.  About 30 minutes before a couple of guys showed up to come down and shot as well.  They were together and the older gent was 57 and retired from Mobile, Alabama.  He was touring the southwest in a camper and seeing what needed to be seen.  He had already done Yellowstone the year before and was going to do the Northwest next year.  He talked so much I almost forgot to shoot the sunset.  Nice guy; just happy to be alive and seeing he US.

We got back to the cabin after sunset and had Pork Chops for Dinner.  We ate well at the cabin and in fact bought too much food.  It’s always hard to tell.

That night Kwang setup his Light Bucket scope (Dobsonian) to show mike some sights.  I setup two DSLRs to shoot all night Time-Lapse and stopped by to see some stuff as well.  I think we hit the sack around 2am or so.  Mike and I had switched beds.  I was cold in the bedroom away from the heat of the fire.  Mike had a better sleeping bag, but didn’t like sleeping on the slight incline of the Futon.  It was a better fit to switch.  I also am a light sleeper and wake every few hours.  When I did, I checked the fire and added a log if it got low.  That way it was warm the next morning.

Day 2

Monday had a special plan in place.  We woke around 6am in order to get rolling by 8am.  Kwang had booked Mike and I a photo tour of Antelope Canyon on Navajo land near the Grand Canyon.  Kwang was headed home to Flagstaff to handle some building plans and to switch scopes for the next few nights.  Well Mike and I got lost on the way there; with a Garmin and everything.  It has to do with a road closed and we should have taken 89T and not 89A.  The Tour wanted us there at 10am for the 10:30 tour.  We got there at 10:25 and they had given away our seats.  We expressed our disappointment and were walking away, when one woman said she had called another tour company and we could join their tour at 11am.

The tour drives a few miles up a sandy dry river bed to the opening of the canyon.  There are probably about 100 to 120 people in the canyon in groups of 6 to 8; the canyon can be as wide as 40 feet or as narrow as 3 feet.  It takes a photo tour two hours to go through and back; stopping to catch the shots of light beams falling into the depths of the canyon.  Mike had a blast, but my camera decided to not work.  Turns out I had accidently loaded a bad battery, so I just enjoyed the view.  Great Tour guide who played the Navajo flute and told stories during our half-way break.

When we were done, Mike and I ate in the town of Page, AZ just down the road from the Tour Parking lot.  Page is also known for the big Navajo Power Plant that burns coal for electricity.  A big source of jobs in this town and also set to be closed because it does not meet EPA regulations.

Drove home and beat Kwang to the cabin.  That night, Kwang setup one of his astrophotography rigs; scope and mount and laptop, and we spent the night aligning and him showing me the software.  It was super cold and I decided to pack it in around 3am.  Kwang did too though he was not feeling the cold like me.  He has a snowmobile suit for the long nights and I had just long underwear.

Day 3

Tuesday Kwang and I slept in.  Mike took off to enjoy the day at the park.  This was going to be the hallmark of the next two days as Kwang and I stayed up late and slept late.  Mike had the rental SUV to himself.  When Mike got back he made Spaghetti dinner while we setup for the nights viewing.  Good food again.

Kwang and I setup both scopes that night.  I learned the run the scope with my own laptop, he setup his more fancy scope and mount to take a series of shots that lasted till first light around 4:30am.  I also setup two more DSLR Cameras for night Time-Lapse and a GoPro to capture sunrise.  We packed up around 5am, but I stayed up till 7am to get the Sunrise shots.

Day 4

Wednesday we woke around 11am.  Mike had left early saying he was thinking of doing some hiking into the canyon.  As it turned out, he hiked the Grandview Trail.  That is 6 miles round trip down into the canyon and back; an elevation change of 2600 ft.  He got back to the cabin near 4pm footsore, but happy with himself.

Kwang and I packed his gear up.  We had to leave the next morning for home so no late night astronomy.  It takes several hours to get the gear stored in Kwang’s truck.  When we were done and Mike was back, we decided to drive to the nearest town of Tusayan and eat dinner at a steak house.  Then Kwang would head home to Flagstaff with his gear while Mike and I used the showers at the canyon campgrounds; our first real showers since we arrived.  When we were done, we walked along the canyon again taking shots and drove to a Grandview to take a night shot with the moon.

Day 5

Thursday Mike and I were up at 6am.  I had to pack all that crap and I’m afraid Mike did more cleaning than I did.  We got done early and were gone by 9am.  That allowed us to spend an hour walking along the Rim taking pictures.  I’m afraid we overstayed a bit and ended up rushing back to Flagstaff to make our 3pm flight out to Phoenix and from there to Seattle.  We made it.

In Phoenix

Okay, funny thing.  We had an hour layover in Phoenix.  We are waiting at the gate and loading is set to start in about 5 minutes.  I head into the bathroom and while there hear some garbled message and the seat number 12F.  That was my seat.  I come out and ask Mike what the announcement was, but he had not paid attention.

The Gate Agent told me that seat 12F was broken; it would not lock in a position and folks in 12F, 12E and 12D had to wait to board while the fixed it.  Well, it took a while.  Eventually everyone was allowed to board except me.  Finally, I was the last person on and got cleared the seat was fixed.

We landed in Seattle, claimed bags and car and were home by 9am.  Now the real work begins with the processing of the photos.  I will link here when they are ready.