NC State vs UNC

NCSU is not having a great season, but has shown some recent glimmers of hope. Today is the opportunity to upset the UNC Tarheals (11 point favorites). I can't watch the game because were driving to the coast, but at least I can catch it on the radio.

You have to love those Tarheals. They sure know how to throw a tailgate party!!

Infrared photography

Just one more funky Infrared picture. This one is looking out over Falls Lake. The tint is weird, but I think the contrasts are dramatic. Double click on it to get a bigger view.

Update your software

I am a big fan of Google's free software for handling photos, Picasa. They just released a new version with some pretty significant improvements. If you are a Picasa user, you should update. If not, why not? The new features can be found here.

Also, the nice Apple people posted 2.2 for the iPhone with some cool new features and some quality fixes. Just sync your phone and it should ask you to update.

LIFE Magazine's photos

Google is a pretty cool company. They just keep doing interesting things, many of which don't seem to have immediate financial value. Good for them.

They recently posted a huge collection of LIFE's photos going back to the 1800's. It offers an interesting look through history and some phenomenal photography.

Click here to explore.

Artsy day in Duxford

I was playing with my old Nikon D70 yesterday. Always good to take time and focus on a particular aspect of photography, hoping that you have the skills when the great opportunity presents itself.

The first shot was 20 second exposure shot in infrared. The D70's sensor is pretty receptive to infrared, so all you need is a very, very dark filter. I did nothing to fix the parallax problem (all the trees seem to be leaning in) because the picture just isn't that good and I'm lazy.

Notice the blurred trees and clouds. This is one of the challenges of very long exposure shots.



Given the blurring on the preceding picture, I thought it would be fun to try some intentional blurring. I always like shots of grass with the seed heads blowing. Again, not a great picture, but you can see the softening of seeds caused by the breeze and a half second exposure. Compare that to the sharpness of the blades of grass.



Oh well, just some camera fun.

Winter gone bad

Weather just doesn't seem to get it. I want golf in North Carolina and skiing in Utah.

Today, it is 52 degrees in one place and there were snow flurries in the other. Unfortunately, the snow is in Raleigh where the wind chill is in the low 30s or high 20s. It is 52 degrees up at 8,000 feet in Park City, and it is only noon there.



Can someone please straighten this out? Thanks.

The fall harvest

When most people think of the fall harvest, they picture something like the grape vineyards of California or a field of pumpkins. Not here in the community of Duxford. Our fall harvest is pine straw. A good bit of our neighborhood was a farm 75 years ago, but it has been overtaken by pine trees. These are now quite large and are prodigious producers of pine straw. So why pay $4 per bale for a ground cover when you can rake your driveway for free?



I finished harvesting my driveway in the morning. I come home that afternoon to find one of our neighbors harvesting in the street. I am kind of bummed that I hadn't thought to mooch the "street straw". Oh well, perhaps today will be windy.....

Football Saturday

How does it know to rain on football Saturday's? We seem to keep running into these, even though the weather has been drier than normal for late October and November. Julie and our friend Liz Hervatic wisely decided to blow off the opportunity to sit through rain and watch the game.



Mark Reid (neighbor) and Darrel Baber (college roommate) had no such fears. With beer, Bojangles and football, we are invincible. For those of you outside the Southeast, Bojangle's is like KFC only better. The chicken is quite spicy and the biscuits are delicious. If you are hungry and see one, give it a try (but don't think about your health).



NC State was playing Wake Forest, who was ranked in the top 25 and favored to beat us. But even a Baptist school can't stand up to such a clear mesaage from God. This is our practice field tower at the bottom of a rainbow.



Sure enough, NC State wins in the last few minutes of the game. Wake has two opportunities to try and retake the lead, but amazingly, State's defense held them both times.



Again, I think this was God telling us that all was right on football Saturday. What a gorgeous sunset.



One parting shot. If beating Wake wasn't enough, here is a picture of a SUV with a Wake Forest sticker. They had parked right next to us at the game, but without one of the magic parking passes that says that it is OK. The heavy set man on the left? That would be Mr. Tow Truck driver. Bye bye!



Now it gets more important and harder. Our last two games are Carolina (at UNC) and Miami (at home). The main goal is to beat Carolina and screw up any hopes they have of making it to the ACC Championship game. If we beat them, then a win over Miami would make NCSU bowl eligble with 6 wins. I'm not counting us out, but I'm sure not holding my breath either.

GO STATE!!!!

I came. I ran. I conquered (sort of)

Sunny, 50 and a light breeze. Perfect!

Went and ran my 10k, sore calf and all. The goal was to do it under 8 minute miles. My normal habit is to start way in the back and pass people. A great motivator. It's easy in the beginning but eventually you catch up with people running your speed. My miles:

• 8:22, hampered by having to weave through too many people
• 7:39, oops. Too fast, too soon
• 8:04, much more reasonable
• 7:47, like a horse that can start smelling the barn
• 7:41, downhill, following a cute girl
• 7:28 pace for the last 1.21 miles

My chip time was 48:40 (give or take a second). That's about 7:50 miles, so I am happy. Your chip time is different than the clock time. The clock time starts when the gun goes off, but with a few thousand runners, it takes you a good while to get to the starting line. The chip (attached to your shoe) measures starting line to finish line for each runner.

I'll be walking with a limp for a few days from two very tight calves. One was injured before the race. I think I favored it today, therefore screwing up the other one a bit. Ice and advil are my friends.

Now all I have to do is keep the same pace up for another 20 miles and I have a Boston qualifier!

I haven't run in a big race for a few years. It was exciting to be around the crowd of people. Such a mix. The collection of 2% body fat strings that seem to glide the course. The people carrying enough extra weight that it is amazing that they finish. Good for them. The collections of social runners (women mostly) who chat and giggle the entire run. It hurts to know that some of them finish ahead of you, talking the whole way.

All in all, a lot of fun.

UPDATE: Now that the results are posted, I can see I finished 290th. Lots of room for improvement, but I was in the top 25%. I noticed that I would not have won the Males, age 70-99 category. The one entrant beat me by about a minute. I hope I can run 7:45 miles when I'm 71. Go Neville Wood!!!

Visitations

Lots of visits with friends:

• Lunch with Wayne Riley (from IBM) who I haven't seen in about a decade
• A weekend visit from Jim and Kathy Covaleski. They came down from DC and hung with us for what turned out to be lovely weather.
  
• A quick visit from Tim and Jenny Huntley and their incredibly cute little boys.
  
• Tongiht, a weekend visit from Liz Hervatic. She was coming in from Santa Monica for something else, but is staying with us.
• Dinner tomorrow with John and Patty Steigerwald
• Football game on Saturday with Liz and my college roommate Darrell

Whew!

On Sunday I am supposed to go run the Old Reliable 10k race. I had been training quite happily for a few weeks when some form of old age and stupidity got in the way. I had been so careful to avoid my old problems with my knees. Instead, I get some strained/sprained/tight muscle deep in my right calf. Looks like between massage, staying off it, Ibuprofen, and ice, I am ready to run again. Just the same, it stinks to lose a week of running when I was so poorly prepared any way.

Here is a picture of the last time I ran this race. I had a leg injury, so I couldn't run it competitively. Instead, I dressed in a grandma Halloween outfit and a pair of steel-toed hiking boots. I still managed to finish in something around 7:30 miles. Ah, to be young again.

The cane seemed appropriate. If you double click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see my knee brace sticking out from under my gown.



If you are wondering, no, this isn't a race that people get dressed up for. It was pretty much just 3,000 people in running singlets, and me.