Monday Blues

Your Monday Shoot: Picture some blue, blue skies. Wide stretches of blue are the goal here. Fluffy clouds are great, too -- but try to get the skies mostly blue. Interesting stuff in the foreground is groovy, too.

Okay, sure. I've got some photos with different shades of blue and different levels of cloudage, all illustrating this "day in the life." Let's have a look, shall we?


This was the scene this morning as I waited to take a city bus for the first time since moving to Tucson 21 years ago. I had just driven the car to One Stop without stalling once in the cool of the morning. The bus stop was just a little north of the garage, and the wait for the bus itself was maybe 20 minutes.

I had the sense to call for the relevant info before leaving the house. The fare on Sun Tran was $1.00, and it didn't need to be in coin, a problem I used to have in Syracuse and maybe in Columbus. One bus would take me the two miles and a bit up Craycroft, and a free transfer would get me on another bus going the rest of the way.

So I got off at 5th Ave., and contemplated the rest of the journey to work. It was only another mile or so. No bus was in sight, and the bus kiosk was a little back from the road, so that I wouldn't see the bus until it was fairly close. After a minute or so, I started walking. I didn't get far before a co-worker, coming in late, spotted me and gave me a ride the rest of the way. I was at work by 10 AM - not bad at all.

At lunchtime I shot another sky picture for you before hoofing it to one of about three or four restaurants within walking distance. I had the special, which wasn't very.

The rest of these shots are from the end of the work day, as I waited for John to pick me up. I love the way the windows on this building reflect the sky fairly accurately, but perhaps a tinge grayer, with maybe a smidge of green.

A dove did a brief impression of a flagpole eagle ornament, but skipped the part about open wings.

Wind feathered the trees, and the sky, while blue, was a little on the pale side.

I did fuss with lightening and darkening some of these, boosted the saturation of about two of them, and left the rest pretty much alone except for resizing and sharpening and cropping. There were a number of different shades of blue in the sky today, not all of thich I've captured here. But you get the general idea.

As for the car, they think it was overheating because of some little part that regulated one little fan. I'll know in the morning whether the mechanic decides that little $85 repair is all that I still needed, or whether there are further mechanical mysteries to be plumbed. Meanwhile, I'm going to bed. Good night!

Karen

Update: They also fixed a coolant leak, and filled it up with antifreeze/coolant. The head mechanic guy said it will probably spring more leaks soon, and he doesn't like the looseness of the steering wheel. So I've rented a car for the drive to Phoenix. Total repair bill, this time, $135 and change.

Oh, and last night I forgot to mention that I did a quick edit on one of the later chapters of Mages, mostly minor rewording, and started the second scene of "A Fire in Mâvarin" from the first chapter of The Mâvarin Revolutions. I worked on the latter a bit further this morning (in my head, not on paper) as I walked to One Stop to pick up the car. And last night I worked a little bit on what nastiness Lormarte is going to do in that same chapter of Revolutions. All I can tell you so far is that "a plague of frogs" is right out. - KFB