My sister and I had talked a few weeks ago. We made plans on who would make what for our Thanksgiving get-together. I'd started cleaning the house (visitors are always a good motivator for me!) and knew I had plenty of time to get everything just the way I wanted it. Then the water heater decided to quit! So today we switched plans and all the things I'd planned to make had to be made to travel (2 hours!) and when dishes had to be washed in hot water, it had to be heated on the stove. Everything that was in the closet with the water heater is now on my counters. It made working in the kitchen today a challenge- but in the end the only thing I have to do is make mashed potatoes in the morning before we leave. Whew! This Thanksgiving holiday will go down in the memory books for sure! And I am so thankful I have an understanding sister who's able to go with the flow on this one too!
So since I was slightly preoccupied today, I only had time to take a quick shot. The moon very nicely obliged by looking full and bright tonight. I used a different light setting for this shot (I think fluorescent) and played around with some processing on it. Gave it a different twist for a change.
Wow, this is incredible. What a capture..... and this on a night when you are stressed to the max.. You're awesome! And -- Oh, does this little tale of your's hit home! Big time. (Why does everything crash just before or or a holiday or other "special" day?) One Christmas Day our garbage disposal quit and backed everything up into the double sink. How to get a plumber out that day or the weekend, which it was!? And I was 9 1/2 months pregnant, big as a horse, just waiting for baby!! Another year the refrigerator quit Christmas Day, and dinner was prepared walking over my husband who was on the floor trying to resurrect it for a few more days, at least. Two years ago the clothes washer or dryer went out two days before Christmas, and three years ago, same thing with the dishwasher, three days before Santa. Our 35 year old garage freezer -- totally full -- quit the day before we were to leave on a two month vacation last year too. (We quickly gave all the meat, etc. to our son and wife, neighbors, anyone who would take it!!) We are holding our breath between now and New Year's. Hope this little tirade hasn't jinked us!
Egad...what a lead up to the holiday!! You just made our travel day seem like a piece of cake. Our only prep for tomorrow is picking up my niece at her college and then driving over and following orders in my nephew and niece's kitchen! HAve a great day which you have truly earned.
Apparently your sister is not the only one that can go with the flow! You seem to be incredibly flexible to be able to manage in spite of all the obstacles placed in your way!
This is a stunning photo of the moon! I was thinking of you the other night as I shot mine. The clarity you achieve is something that is escaping me these days! I have never before noticed all the little spots of bright light on the moon either. If I didn't know better I would say they were cities down there!
Such a fabulous edit! Your day sounds like it was rather stressful but you pushed through and have emerged seemingly unscathed! Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Oh Ann you sound like you had a very difficult day. I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving and enjoy spending time with your family. I am starting to think about my Christmas baking and have lots of new recipes to try this year. I can't wait.
@aglennc Thank you Anita- oh my does your tale of woe(s) put one lousy water heater in perspective!! We did get it hooked up that night but then it was leaking and poor Jeff couldn't figure out why. But he persisted and had it fixed by 11 pm. He then suggested we could have Thanksgiving here after all. Sweet gesture, but not with only half the house clean and a few hours in the morning to put everything back together! I'm sending positive thoughts that this holiday season will be totally uneventful for you in regards to all things house and appliance related!
@grammyn I know we've both got Powershots- I'm not sure if yours is the XS50 like mine or it's the 40 but yours should be able to do it. For this shot the camera was set at ISO 200 on AV at F6.5 and 1/640. The +/- setting was at -1 and the AWB was set on custom setting 1 but I don't really know if it did anything or not. Most moonshots are taken with the daylight setting because the moon reflects the sun. But you can have fun shooting with other light settings in AWB. They change the color of the moon depending on whatever setting you use. However, all that being said, this shot looks the way it does because of the post-processing, not my photographic skills. I really played around with this one- first bringing up the contrast, sharpening, adding a tint and then putting it on a chalkboard texture (the sparkles @dibzgreasley are chalkdust!) and finally adding a grunge vignette around the border. I absolutely believe you can get a shot like this. One critical factor is you need a tripod! Other than that I'm sure your camera has the zoom ability etc. to get a shot like this. I hope that helps you the next time you give it a try!
@francoise LOL Most of it was already clean, but I did get out of cleaning the bathrooms when we switched places!
Thank you so much everyone!! You were all so nice to cheer me on. In the end my husband did manage to get the water heater hooked up and running but not after the new one leaked a bit so he had to get to a plumbing store to get a new tool especially for tightening things on this contraption. He also had to get a replacement part for something the part that was leaking on the new machine! He was very frustrated for a while because it seemed the more he tightened it, the more it leaked. Come to find out, it needed to be loosened instead of tightened. But by 11pm Thanksgiving eve we did have a working hot water heater and hot water. The house looked like a cleaning product warehouse had exploded in the kitchen and the back room was being redecorated as a closet!! So we kept the switched plans and went to my sister's yesterday. It felt so strange to be walking out the door and loading the car with a turkey and all the fixins'! But it turned out great and we had a good time. I have spent the better part of today slowly putting the house back together and since I'd already done most of the house, I finished cleaning the it too.
@aglennc@olivetreeann my favorite holiday stories always have plumbing issues in them, but my fav brother in law usually tried to save the day, once by using a blow torch under the kitchen floor by standing in the basement and pointing thus torrent of flames at the pipe hoping to melt any grease that might be plugging it
@pandorasecho Oh no!! @aglennc@pandorasecho I am very thankful to be married to a truly handy man. I am amazed at all the things he has figured out how to fix around here. There was only one time I did not like how he went about "fixing" something and that was when he decided to cut down a dead tree with a ladder and chain saw. I had to walk away- praying I wouldn't have to make a run to the emergency room.
At eighty, my father in law decided to paint the second floor exterior of his home, by laying a ladder across the tops of 12 foot tall two step ladders and standing on it while painting. Handy men scare me.
This is a stunning photo of the moon! I was thinking of you the other night as I shot mine. The clarity you achieve is something that is escaping me these days! I have never before noticed all the little spots of bright light on the moon either. If I didn't know better I would say they were cities down there!
@grammyn I know we've both got Powershots- I'm not sure if yours is the XS50 like mine or it's the 40 but yours should be able to do it. For this shot the camera was set at ISO 200 on AV at F6.5 and 1/640. The +/- setting was at -1 and the AWB was set on custom setting 1 but I don't really know if it did anything or not. Most moonshots are taken with the daylight setting because the moon reflects the sun. But you can have fun shooting with other light settings in AWB. They change the color of the moon depending on whatever setting you use. However, all that being said, this shot looks the way it does because of the post-processing, not my photographic skills. I really played around with this one- first bringing up the contrast, sharpening, adding a tint and then putting it on a chalkboard texture (the sparkles @dibzgreasley are chalkdust!) and finally adding a grunge vignette around the border. I absolutely believe you can get a shot like this. One critical factor is you need a tripod! Other than that I'm sure your camera has the zoom ability etc. to get a shot like this. I hope that helps you the next time you give it a try!
@francoise LOL Most of it was already clean, but I did get out of cleaning the bathrooms when we switched places!
@dibzgreasley @pandorasecho @aglennc @777margo @cruiser @grammyn @salza @colinbarber013 @thresheg @nicolecampbell @pistache @francoise @daisymiller @rfilip
Thank you so much everyone!! You were all so nice to cheer me on. In the end my husband did manage to get the water heater hooked up and running but not after the new one leaked a bit so he had to get to a plumbing store to get a new tool especially for tightening things on this contraption. He also had to get a replacement part for something the part that was leaking on the new machine! He was very frustrated for a while because it seemed the more he tightened it, the more it leaked. Come to find out, it needed to be loosened instead of tightened. But by 11pm Thanksgiving eve we did have a working hot water heater and hot water. The house looked like a cleaning product warehouse had exploded in the kitchen and the back room was being redecorated as a closet!! So we kept the switched plans and went to my sister's yesterday. It felt so strange to be walking out the door and loading the car with a turkey and all the fixins'! But it turned out great and we had a good time. I have spent the better part of today slowly putting the house back together and since I'd already done most of the house, I finished cleaning the it too.
@aglennc @pandorasecho I am very thankful to be married to a truly handy man. I am amazed at all the things he has figured out how to fix around here. There was only one time I did not like how he went about "fixing" something and that was when he decided to cut down a dead tree with a ladder and chain saw. I had to walk away- praying I wouldn't have to make a run to the emergency room.