01-31 Trip to the Hobby Store

Sky helped me on the Cub again today and since he wanted to go to the hobby shop, I decided we could make a stop on the way home. He bought two balsa-wood models and left with a smile on his face.

01-30 Checking her email.

Our Little-boo is already in the 21st century. She's "checking her e-mail" downstairs. The little red rocking chair she is sitting in is the one that I had from the time I was her age. It's seen the coming of the Beatles, Batman, the assassination of MLK, the moon landing and several hilarious episodes of the Red Skelton Show and Carol Burnett.

01-29 Making a mobile.

Lindsay and Gina make a Princess mobile this morning.

01-28 Lakescape #3

Mallard Duck at Creve Coeur Lake.

01-27 Ice Pellets and such.

We had a little wintery mix today, snow/rain/sleet/ice pellets, which made the roads a little slick. I shot this lakescape of Creve Coeur lake right in the middle of it all.

01-26 An old friend returns.

I dug my Pentax MX out of the closet yesterday and dusted it off. This is a replacement camera for the one that I had from my freshman year in college until it was stolen several years later. This one is in much better shape. I love the camera, it's the one that I had all the way thru journalism school, had pictures published by USA Today and on the wire of AP. I used to take it everywhere. I can pick up this camera and everything immediately falls into place, it feels good in my hand, all my actions are instinctive, it's just a great camera.

I later switched to Nikons (love the FE) and then to Canon when the eye-controlled autofocus came out. I like my Canons but hate the plasticky (is that a word?) feel to the lenses. Give me the size of a Nikon, the weight of a Pentax M and we're in business.

01-25 Cool Tennies!

My 4-year old daughters cool tennies.

01-24 Sky comes out to the airport.

Sky came out to the airport with me this morning and helped me put in the front seat. We got it all in but two of the bolts and then he wanted to sit in it.

01-24 Interesting colors and pattern.

Saw this pattern of shapes and colors while waiting in the drive-thru of a Taco Bell restaraunt.

01-22 I'm not Edward Weston.

But I like peppers. I shot these at the grocery store when I went to pick up some apples and cereal for my wife.

01-21 Lakescape

We're supposed to have some thunderstorms later today,

that will clear out the fog.

01-20 So foggy even the Geese are walking.

The low overcast and fog continue to plague the St Louis area. Hopefully a chance of Thunderstorms later today will come true and blow out the fog. These Canada Geese are on Creve Coeur Lake, on thin ice.

01-19 My Cub is on its gear!

Got my Cub fuselage on it's landing gear today. I am so stoked!

01-18

Saw this tree reflection amongst the ice driving to the airport.

01-17 Hawks and Eagles

It was a very grey and misty, foggy day in St Louis. I promised my wife we would go out to eat so that really didn't matter. After that, we decided to drive up to Clarksville to check out the wintering eagles.

We saw this Red Tail Hawk sitting on a powerline. We thought we'd scare him when we stopped the car, but he couldn't care less.

This Eagle has fresh-caught lunch in his talons on his way back to his perch.

01-16 Going to the airport to work on the Cub.

Sky and I went out this morning to work on the Cub. It's still very foggy and wet and warm in St Louis. Not to worry, I took this when we were stopped at a light.

01-15 Fog

Today was unseasonably balmy, moist and foggy. It was warm, almost 50 F and it melted most all of the snow we had on the ground. But all the moisture had to go somewhere and it went up about 100 feet and stopped, creating the foggy, misty day.

Diving home tonight, I played around with time exposures out the mist covered windshield. I like this one for all the colors in it.

01-14 Flock of Canada Geese

I was sitting at our dining room table having my morning coffee when I heard this flock of geese honking as they flew overhead. I quickly grabbed my camera which I had from shooting the clouds at sunrise and pointing it out the window, shotgunned three frames. This was the only one that had the whole flock in it, but I like it. I love the colors of the clouds in the background.

01-13 Marigolds

I was coming into the house when a splotch of color caught my eye. It was my wifes Marigolds, long since departed to that Flower Garden in the sky. I was surprised that they still had color in them. It got down to almost -10F last week but these few hardy flowers still added color and hope to an otherwise dreary landscape.

01-12 Icicles at Creve Coeur falls

Went over to the falls at Creve Coeur Park to capture this scene. Legend has it, an Indian maiden, broken-hearted over a lost love, fell to her death there. It was all frozen over and I would have fallen and broken something if I had tried to get another angle.

01-11 Where's our little white dog?

Out in the mid-day sun, one of our Amerian Eskimo dogs nearly disappears agains the snow. It's like the proverbial trying to take a picture of a Polar Bear in a snowstorm-except he won't eat you for lunch. He'll gladly eat your lunch though.

01-10 Working on the Cub.

Sky and I are restoring a 1946 Piper J-3 Cub. We're working on the interior right now, more specifically the baggage compartment. Here he makes some fine adjustments on the new lid we're making for the airplane. The old lid had rotted and was usuable only as a pattern.

01-09 Linds' new sweater.

We were going to the home of the head the Ekie Rescue Group for a "Rescuers Party" last night. Linds wanted to wear her new princess sweater. She looked so cute, I had to take a picture.

01-08 Old Barn

This old barn is out by the airport and is used to keep farm equipment in. Its paint is peeling, the wood is old, rotten and splitting if not missing and it's falling apart. Yet it makes an interesting photo subject.

01/07 Snow Day

It snowed overnight. We got between 3 and 4 inches. It's so cold that the snow is mainly crystalline and it's so light and fluffy it drifts very easily.

Sky took a picture of me snowblowing and then we all played Beatles Rock Band with Lindsay singing lead on Hello Goodbye.

01/06 Driving over to St. Joe...

My friend Glenn was coming home from Idaho this weekend when he stopped to spend the night in St. Joseph, Missouri Saturday night. When he came out Sunday morning to start his F-350 diesel pickup, it wouldn't start. He opened the hood and thought the fuel pump was cracked. He called around and couldn't find a garage open and all the rental car companies were closed. He rented a car monday after having the truck towed to the Ford Dealership.

The found the problem, the fuel had jelled. He hadn't put in additives because he didn't think he needed to and he filled up with biodiesel. After letting the truck warm-up, the truck started right up.

We drove over at 6 AM today, picked up the truck at 10:30 and headed back. We're supposed to get between 3 and 6 inches of snow tonight so it was none-to-soon. I rode over to keep him company and we got caught up on our respective families holidays.

01/Putting on the Shock Cords

My son Skyler and I, under the supervision of Glenn Peck A&P-IA, put the shock cords on our Piper J-3 Cub landing gear this afternoon. The shock cords are like big, layered rubber bands and are the shock absorbers for the landing gear. You have to stretch them out to twice their length to install them and without a tool, it's almost impossible. Fortunately, Glenn has the tool. We were able to get all four of them on in a hour.

01-04 The Job Search Continues...

Monday Morning at 7:30. The hunt for a new job continues. Sent out seven cover letters and resumes in the blind today.

01-03 Eagle Day.

A Bald Eagle sits sunning itsself in a tree near Winfield.

01-02 Old Fire Engine

An old Fire Truck at Creve Coeur Airport.

01-01 New Years Day Pancakes

My wife made us golden-brown delicious pancakes for breakfast.