I'll Take The Snow

Good ole Mother Nature has taken a toll on my attitude about winter.  There are those in the US that have had it worse than we have here in southern Ohio but I still want to rant.  All we heard for about two weeks was the Polar Vortex this and the Polar Vortex that.  At one point when it was sub zero and the wind made it worse I thought, wow how fitting is this, our furnace won't fire.  I figured it was the igniter and in the middle of the night nothing is open.  Turned out that the gas supply companies here in the Midwest from Chicago to the east couldn't push enough gas through the lines.  It was a gas supply "black out" like the electric in the heat of the summer.  Our furnace started funning but the air was cool and just couldn't get up to 69 degrees.  Our neighbors to the north of us weren't so luck.  we are in a fairly new plate and they had a pipe line break thus they had no gas at all.  Two homes out of the 155 here have electric heat....oh so expensive.....but they were laughing at this point I would imagine.

Last weekend Mother Nature did it again, she gave us upper 50 degree weather just to have the temps drop to negative numbers the next day almost.  This weekend we are to get the effects of the California rains in ice or snow, depending on which side the dividing line is along I-70.  Forecast is for 3" to 12".  Quite a spread if you ask me.

I'm tired of winter, but if I have a choice.....I'll take the snow over the ice. 

Trying To Catch Up

It has been a while since I have posted anything here.  No real excuse since this winter has been so crappy and we were pretty much locked into the house since the wife had hip surgery and the only running was for essentials by me.  She couldn't handle the ice conditions plus she really had very little stamina.  What I did do was take and clean up pictures so I will post a few of my endeavors hear.  Click to enlarge as usual.

 

Not my house but a neighbors.

 

 I call this Painted Sky.  I found these clouds needed no editing.

 

Contrast of color was just interesting to me.

 

Converted to black and white.  Used my 18-270mm lens at 18mm to create a micro.

 

 Another as above but left the color alone.

 

These too were in the bouquet that was sent to my wife after her surgery.  Intentional blurring.

 

 I titled this one Where Are They All Going? 

 

Just a vignette winter image with a little grunge thrown in.

 

Sunny day but cold and blowing.  The house on the right is the Christmas house.

Just a clear and perfect morning.  We hadn't seen the sun in maybe two weeks.  Taken near the end of the Polar Vortex.

 

There Is Beauty in Winter

 A Cherry tree loaded with buds just waiting for Spring to arrive.

 A dead tree in a tree line on a farm near by.  Hurrican Ike, several years ago, continued from the south into the midwest and this poor tree was a victim.

Twigs in the snow.  Actually this is an Indigo bush but it hides its buds. 

Knock Offs

Knock offs, are a means to attach a wheel on a car.  I decided to try to make a poster today out of a photo from a car show several years ago. 

Just Playing Around

Somewhat of a boring day so I thought I would get back into my Photoshop Elements 10 program.  I picked out a picture from a year ago that I took at night and thought I would work with my brushes, gradient and opacity tools.  I've titled it Targeted Star Burst

Contrails In Every Direction

Contrails going everywhere.  Where is everyone going? 

A Welcomed Sight

Two nights ago we lost gas pressure from the supplier due to the large area of the country hitting high demands on the system.  It's kind of like blackouts in the summer with electricity.  Our furnace was putting out heat but just enough to maintain about 68 degrees.  Some of our neighbors totally lost enough pressure to satisfy the furnace thus it wouldn't fire up.  This started about 9 PM and lasted until the next day when the local gas supplier went door to door to make sure everything was okay and lighting anything that needed manual restarting, like water heaters etc.

Most of the time when you see your exhaust stack spewing the steamy exhaust into the air you will say, there goes some more money down the drain, come on springtime or summer.  When I took this I was just glad to see it period.