Friday, August 25, 2017

Siri's Hair

Got the dogs from the kennel yesterday afternoon. They both had baths while they were there. I think Siri's hair has grown back, finally.

 


 

Apocalypse

Brea and Siri were the guests of Animal Care Associates in Charleston this week, while Mary T. and I went to Tennessee to see the solar eclipse. I've tried taking pictures of the moon and stars before, so I already knew that I'm no astrophotographer. So I concentrated more on enjoying the experience than on trying to take pictures.

We were at a city park in Goodlettesville, Tennessee, a few miles northeast of Nashville. The traffic and crowds there weren't bad, the weather was good, and we met people from all over the country.  It was my first total solar eclipse.




 
Totality was around 1:30 pm local time. The temperature was in the 90s when it started and cooled off noticeably at the eclipse progressed.  We could see one star at the darkest point. People weren't really making a lot of noise but the park became very quiet as darkness fell. It was an amazing experience.
 


 
I know I said I wasn't going to try to photograph the eclipse, but I couldn't resist trying. These were taken with a point-and-shoot camera.  There were a lot of people there with expensive, professional looking cameras and telescopes.  We had our cardboard viewers and officially sanctioned eclipse binoculars.
 
 
I can understand now why some people travel all over the earth to experience this kind of thing.
 
After the sun reappeared we drove to South Pittsburg, Tennessee, to the Lodge Factory Store. Lodge is the last of the old time makers of cast iron cookware.  We spent a lot of money there. I could have bought it all online but that wouldn't be any fun. I wish they had tours of the foundry.
 
 
Then we drove to Senoia, Georgia, where the TV show The Walking Dead is filmed.
 
We went to the Waking Dead coffee shop, where we signed up for a walking tour of the town with a woman who has worked as a walker/zombie on the show. Some areas were closed off, including one large area where they were filming, so we walked around that and saw places that are featured in previous episodes.
 
This corner looked different during the zombie apocalypse.


 


 
 
 
 
 
Props used in the show, at the Walking Dead museum


Four of my favorite people, all of them still alive at this time. With this show you never know...

At Nic and Norman's, a restaurant owned by one of the actors and creators of the show. Good food!




That's enough for now. Mary is the big Walking Dead fan; I'm several seasons behind watching it, but I still had a really good time. 
 
 



Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Neighborhood Deer

I was returning from buying dog food and giving Siri a bath at Belly Scrubs this afternoon and saw these three deer eating pears in a yard near my house.

 
 
 
The deer around here are so used to people that I had to whistle to get them to turn around and face me. I opened the rear window so Siri could see them, and so I could see how she reacted, but she just stood and looked out the opposite (closed) window.