Columbus Day Weekend Trains: Nine minutes of video shot with my phone from various trains we rode through the holiday weekend: the Amtrak Northeast Regional, an NJ Transit commuter between Elizabeth and Penn Station, and the subways of New York. Gets a bit loud in places.
Houses, Trees
Two suburban panoramas from around New Jersey: houses along a street in Union, trees starting to turn colors up in the Watchung Hills.
Both photos shot and stitched with my Nokia 6120c. More shots from the weekend here.
New York Saturday
We spent Saturday in New York to check out art in Chelsea and meet up with a friend. (Sorry to all our other New York friends, there was really no time for all of you wonderful people!)
Here’s some of the art we looked at in Chelsea:
- Thomas Connolly’s New York landscapes
- Dan Witz’s In Plain View
- Melanie Vote’s Trepidations
- Thomas Woodruff’s Solar System (The Turning Heads) (which, by the way, consisted of velvet canvases mounted on rotating assemblies)
- Joanna Pousette-Dart
We also dropped by the New York Central Post Office, shopped around Union Square and the Strand, and I found an excellent new messenger bag at the Penn Station Kmart, of all places.
More photos from the day, including a “PHILATELIC” sign at the Post Office, Michael Scott’s favorite New York pizza place, the lights of the Strand, and OMG Jeans Store:
Caturday!
While browsing through galleries in Chelsea we spotted this cat prowling the halls of 525 W 25th, eventually settling in the sun by a side door. A litterbox sat in a nearby supply niche, indicating that the cat was there with some superintendent’s blessing, possibly to catch rodents.
(Monday note: I’m cheating a bit here and backdating this entry to Saturday because I forgot to post it then.)
Shoulder Update
I brought my shoulders and the X-rays to an orthopedic surgeon last Wednesday and he tells me it might be tendonitis. I still have more mobility and less pain than a rotator cuff tear would give me, and the gradual development of the pain points to a growing inflammation causing painful impingement.
A very long-needled syringe was then used to inject Triamcinolone acetonide directly into my right shoulder. In two weeks the joint should be unswollen enough that I can restart strengthening exercises and get more Triamcinolone in the other shoulder, without needing surgery or therapy. (Hopefully.)
Clouds
It’s been an interesting week to photograph clouds, what with the clear skies and clashing cold and warm fronts of early Fall over DC. Still no new camera after the catastrophe so I just shot these with my cellphone: Altocumulus (possibly perlucidus?) ethereally lit from slightly below by the morning sun over Union Station, Altostratus thinly diffusing a river sunset, Cirrus (fibratus?) clouds over Kennedy Center, and Cirrus spinatus over NW DC.
End of the SD1000
So as I was saying in my last entry, suddenly, disaster struck! As I was maneuvering between tourists to get a photo of the giant squid, my camera slipped out of my hand and crashed to the hard marble floor, bouncing spectacularly as pieces of plastic flew off the camera lens ring and battery cover. I picked up the camera (a Canon Powershot SD1000) with a sad “Argh,” and finding the electronics and screen still working, tried snapping a test photo:
Looks like the CCDs might have gotten messed up in the fall; any photo I take now comes out slightly fuzzy with horizontal lines all across, and the exposure bias seems to be permanently stuck at a very bright -2/3 EV, giving any subject an unearthly bloom of glowing brilliance.
So that’s it for this camera. It’s lasted me just three weeks shy of a year since I got it, and snapped 3,512 photos in that time. For a replacement I’ve got my eye on the Powershot SD1100IS, mainly because it’s almost the same camera, just slightly upgraded, for cheap. Plus, I should be able to use the SD1000’s battery on this one, so I effectively have a spare battery and charger to go with it. Still, that SD880IS is tempting too…
Union Station Centennial and Natural History Ocean Hall
Amy and I checked out the Union Station Centennial last Saturday. There were historical exhibits, memorabilia, model train sets, and best of all, historic train cars and locomotives out on the tracks. We got to look inside a 1957 Rosa Parks-dedicated Metrobus, pester the guys at NARP to send our membership cards, and walk inside an old Chessie Club Lounge Car, a Gadsby’s Tavern Dining Car, the Cannon Ball, and other luxury parlor-and-sleeper rail carriages from the early to mid-20th Century.
After a lunch at Uno Grill (formerly Pizzeria Uno), we walked over to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to see the new Ocean Hall. It had been just a week since its grand opening, so the hall was still crowded with locals and tourists alike. Eventually we beat a retreat to the ground floor cafe to get some coffee and catch our breath, but I got a few photos:
Half an hour later we returned to the Ocean Hall (now slightly-less crowded) and were able to browse the prehistoric displays at leisure and catch a glimpse of the Giant Squid — when suddenly, tragedy struck! (But that’s another post.)
View the full photosets on Flickr:
Caturday!
Here is Pandora, moments before and moments after engaging in a quick flop maneuver atop her little lounging rug patch in the living room.
Walk Through DCA
After dropping off my parents at National Airport, I went on the long walk from Terminal A (the original 1941 airport building) to Terminal B/C (the newer, larger airport) to catch the Metro to work, stopping in the historic lobby to check out the exhibit hall and watch a plane take off:
There’s a somewhat kitschy 9/11 commemorative painting hanging in the terminal hallway, which I’ve been meaning to get a picture of. I post it here now with a detail closeup, without further comment:
I also dropped by the DCA airport chapel to get some photos to add to my collection. Especially fun was this closeup of the chapel phone by the Master Switch. Can you spot the typo?
Does he come in with his bowler hat, cane, and Führer moustache to do a vaudeville-style routine in which he eats his shoe?