What have you been up to lately?

[Butterfly Maiden]

Went for a walk along Highcliffe Beach this morning with Sophia.

Sunny and quite breezy, but refreshing nonetheless :smile:

[ewomack]

The wife and I had our latest Covid boosters and we reacted as we usually do, which meant we spent the weekend in bed. To pass the time, and help drown out our groans, we watched all three of the "Lord of the Rings" movies. I hadn't seen them for 10 or 15 years. Though still highly entertaining, I noticed an almost distracting amount of rather huge plot holes this time through. Maybe my "suspension of disbelief" functionality wasn't working at full capacity when the films first came out? I don't know. I still enjoyed them and they did help us pass a large amount of time.

And another shocker: those films are now 20 years old. Yikes.

[Ylem]

We both got our flu and COVID boosters today, I feel ok, but both shoulders sore enough to get out of yard work

[Bigzmey]

The wife and I had our latest Covid boosters and we reacted as we usually do, which meant we spent the weekend in bed. To pass the time, and help drown out our groans, we watched all three of the "Lord of the Rings" movies. I hadn't seen them for 10 or 15 years. Though still highly entertaining, I noticed an almost distracting amount of rather huge plot holes this time through. Maybe my "suspension of disbelief" functionality wasn't working at full capacity when the films first came out? I don't know. I still enjoyed them and they did help us pass a large amount of time.

And another shocker: those films are now 20 years old. Yikes.

Are you watching the new Lord of the Rings series on Amazon Prime?

[Nakedgun]

Yesterday (Sunday) my wife and I went out to the desert to ride our off-road motorcycles. Temps upper 70s to low 80s while we were there, and with a breeze. This seasonal change means she will be able to start going regularly, again. Logged 49 miles, and feeling it, today.


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[DeanD]

The wife and I had our latest Covid boosters and we reacted as we usually do, which meant we spent the weekend in bed. To pass the time, and help drown out our groans, we watched all three of the "Lord of the Rings" movies. I hadn't seen them for 10 or 15 years. Though still highly entertaining, I noticed an almost distracting amount of rather huge plot holes this time through. Maybe my "suspension of disbelief" functionality wasn't working at full capacity when the films first came out? I don't know. I still enjoyed them and they did help us pass a large amount of time.

And another shocker: those films are now 20 years old. Yikes.

I remember watching the first one at the cinema (20 years ago! eeek!), and there was a stunned silence when Boromir cut the head off one of the chief orcs. Then a loud female voice came from the back of the cinema: "It was only a flesh wound!"... It certainly ended the silence (and the drama!) (Just in case you don't get it: you have to be a Monty Python fan as well as a Tolkien fan. )

[pakarinen]

We both got our flu and COVID boosters today, I feel ok, but both shoulders sore enough to get out of yard work

My arm was a bit sore after my COVID booster, flu shot scheduled for next week courtesy of my employer.

My wife got her flu shot at her employer (major hospital) and she could barely raise her arm afterward. Weird - she never had that much of a problem before.

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of new carbon fiber tripod.

[pakarinen]

Shipping my Manfrotto 475B pod out today. Might have a buyer for my SW AZ5 mount. Time for an 80ED frac maybe...

[Ylem]

Shipping my Manfrotto 475B pod out today. Might have a buyer for my SW AZ5 mount. Time for an 80ED frac maybe...

It's always time for an 80ED

[OzEclipse]

Yesterday afternoon, I gave a well-received talk about Nightscape Photography to the Canberra PhotoConnect group.
https://www.canberraphotoconnect.org/

A large selection of my images have been used to illustrate a five page article in Australian Sky and Telescope about Queensland Astrofest [ https://www.qldastrofest.org.au/ ].
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They have just appeared in the current issue. The author, one of the event organisers, used my images taken at the event as well as my three images that won the three sections of the astrophotography competition. He asked me before the event to do the images for the article.
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I joined the moderator team of a 7000 member Facebook Astrophotography Group a few weeks ago.


Joe

[Bigzmey]

Yesterday afternoon, I gave a well-received talk about Nightscape Photography to the Canberra PhotoConnect group.
https://www.canberraphotoconnect.org/

A large selection of my images have been used to illustrate a five page article in Australian Sky and Telescope about Queensland Astrofest [ https://www.qldastrofest.org.au/ ].
.
cover.jpeg
.
They have just appeared in the current issue. The author, one of the event organisers, used my images taken at the event as well as my three images that won the three sections of the astrophotography competition. He asked me before the event to do the images for the article.
.
pages.jpeg


I joined the moderator team of a 7000 member Facebook Astrophotography Group a few weeks ago.


Joe

Quite an achievement Joe, congrats!

[Nakedgun]

~
Today (Sunday), my wife and I rode our off-road motorcycles in the desert, covering 44 mile. Some overnight rain kept dust at a minimum - a nice break.

My wife spotted something shiny off the trail so stopped to have a look. Turned out to be a pile of M793 25mm chain-gun ammo casings along with their disintegrating links left behind by the Marine Corps, who sometimes train in the area we traverse. No telling how long they had been there, exposed surfaces had the OD paint stripped off, with some rust forming on the links.

I picked up a few to bring home:

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[Greenman]

Gearing up to going back to being a wage slave. One of my ex-workmates set up a company making liquid handlers in 2015. His business boomed carrying out IVD during COVID, and he offered me a part time job in Sales for the UK, I work one week then 3 weeks off (on standby). This brings me in £1,000 pm and a bonus of £2,000 when I sell a system. With the current issues in the UK, this was a no - brainer.

First day of work today for 16 months - and I survived.

[Nakedgun]

Gearing up to going back to being a wage slave. One of my ex-workmates set up a company making liquid handlers in 2015. His business boomed carrying out IVD during COVID, and he offered me a part time job in Sales for the UK, I work one week then 3 weeks off (on standby). This brings me in £1,000 pm and a bonus of £2,000 when I sell a system. With the current issues in the UK, this was a no - brainer.

First day of work today for 16 months - and I survived.

~
Sounds like a nice schedule. I will be retiring mid-December, which will be my second time to try being unemployed.
I have a nagging suspicion I won't take well to it. Finding something with a work structure like you have would be ideal, but highly unlikely, alas.

Good luck!


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[SkyHiker]

Had my 2nd colonoscopy yesterday, at 10 year intervals. I wish it was at 100 year intervals. Gulping down 4 liters of PEG3350 in 3 hours is no fun, and is the worst part of it. After that, you won't complain about fasting and the procedure itself. However as I lay on the table with an IV plug in my arm my doctor was called away for an emergency surgery so I laid there for 2 hours staring at the ceiling. After he came back it was quickly done and I'm good for another 10 years. Happy to have done it and be done with it.

[Greenman]

Sounds like a nice schedule. I will be retiring mid-December, which will be my second time to try being unemployed.
I have a nagging suspicion I won't take well to it. Finding something with a work structure like you have would be ideal, but highly unlikely, alas.

Good luck!

Cheers, appreciated. Retirement has its benefits, but I was lucky for this to fall in my lap.

[pakarinen]

Sounds like a nice schedule. I will be retiring mid-December, which will be my second time to try being unemployed.
I have a nagging suspicion I won't take well to it. Finding something with a work structure like you have would be ideal, but highly unlikely, alas.

Working remotely from home for a couple years was great and I can't say I'm enjoying driving to my office three days a week now, but I'm pretty sure "real" retirement would drive me nuts in short order. If it comes to it, I'll sell plumbing supplies at my local hardware store 3-4 days a week.

[OzEclipse]

Meantime, like @Greenman I have come out of retirement and returned to work in Canberra for a while. Full time for one year, covering my old role managing a Stable Isotope Mass Spectrometry Facility accessed by 4 research groups while my replacement is on maternity leave. I will take a 10-12 week break from mid March to do a 4wd tour around Australia. I made that a condition of accepting the role.

In the words of Michael Corleone,

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To continue the godfather metaphors, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

vito.jpeg (10.66 KiB) Viewed 1524 times

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The net result is that I'm not really missing much astronomy time due to all the rain. Some temporary road closures, or fear of the road closing preventing my return to the city for work on Monday's, is interfering with some of my weekend visits to the property. For example, the week I started work, I waited all weekend and until just after sunset Sunday night for the water to recede as much as possible. It stopped raining Friday. The bridge opened but another country lane had about 1km of shallow still water over the road that I had to drive through. I don't make a habit of driving through flood water but this was a long straight stretch, I could see the other side, water was still not flowing, and I know the road well. It's completely flat and there was no chance of the water reaching much over the hubs of my 4wd let alone entering the bodywork.

Cheers

Joe

[GCoyote]

Starting with the usual fall clean up and preparation for winter. I got the
Covid booster and the high dose flu shot for being over 65 but almost no side effects this time around.

Hoping for a clear calm night for the Orionids now.

[Ylem]

Been doing the fall cleanup, the leaves are mostly still on the trees, but there is enough out there to keep me busy.

Planning to put the house on the market in the spring, so the more I do now the easier springtime will be.
At least that's the plan anyway