Sunday, February 8, 2015

Life under a waterfall

Not that we're complaining, mind you, but it seems like we have been living under a waterfall this week.  A seemingly endless series of fairly warm Pacific storms has dumped nearly 8" of rain on Port Orford with another inch or two on the way through tomorrow.

Because our two hounds require a good amount of outdoor time each day, my trusty Carhartt rain jacket has gotten quite a workout...as have my boots and soggy body.  My dear wife drys the beagles with old towels, leaving me to wetly rot away on my own.  Oh, the life of a geezer is tough!

Late yesterday afternoon a brief break in the storms provided a good opportunity for a dry dog walk around the RV park.  I took the Gopro Hero 4 camera along for the brief excursion and put together a short video to document the event afterwards.





We have been making plans for spring travel and have finally settled on Long Beach, Washington as our destination from May to mid July.  Our attempts at getting reservations at a couple of Idaho locations were thwarted by hoards of campers that made plans on January 2.  I guess that makes us a day late and a dollar short.

Regardless, we are looking forward to spending a couple of months with the beach about 50 yards from our front door and Juanita can't wait to drop some cash at Boardwalk Quilts in town.  Hopefully, a few low wind velocity days will allow some aerial video opportunities at the many scenic locations in the Long Beach area.  If not, I guess I can always go out and fly a kite.

Juanita and I have both been trying to shed a few pounds since late December with some success.  I don't want to bore you with specific accomplishments in this regard, but I can say that I have lost the equivalence of a bowling ball at this point with, hopefully, a lot more to come.  Juanita is also doing well but not stressing over the process.

Since my bride will soon celebrate (or not) reaching the golden age of 65 years, she has begun the frustrating process of setting up supplemental medical insurance and Part D Medicare coverage.  I already went through this process several years ago, giving Juanita the benefit of my extensive research on the subject.  That didn't prevent her from spending several frustrating and confusing hours on the phone with insurance agents however.  Such is life!

It looks like the river of atmospheric water will shut down tomorrow and allow us to dry out and enjoy some time outdoors.  I have all my cameras and flying machines ready to go......................

2 comments:

  1. Love the video. How did you get it to be so steady? A "stedicam" device?

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    1. Hi Bob,

      I just received a Feiyu-Tech G4 3-axis handheld stabilizing gimbal to be used with Gopro cameras...this is the first effort with the new device. Check it out at Feiyu-Tech on line. It is a bit expensive, but is the first device I have found that steadies Gopro video, even in high wind. I also picked up a couple of carbon fiber extension rods and will be able to simulate quadcopter flights and video from about 8 ft high. I will try to blend video from the Gopro and DJI Phantom quad and get some interesting effects. I hope!!

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