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The Perils of a Home Office
The Perils of a Home Office. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Sometimes it gets a little busy at my desk.
It is also difficult to keep one’s desk tidy when there is someone sleeping on the papers most of the time.
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Nail Gun
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Blue and Yellow
The wonderful blues of our blue bottle tree against the bright fall yellow of the Sweet Gum tree in our front yard.
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Diocesan Convention – ERD Workshop
Gary Talking About The Episcopal Asset Map. Copyright © 2015 Gary Zumwalt, all rights reserved. These pictures serve to prove that on occasion I leave the confines of my office and venture out into the real world to do some work. I had a very short time-slot to try and drum in the importance of getting the Episcopal Relief & Development, Episcopal Asset Map up to date. Judging by the small number of updates I’ve seen this past few months, I failed.
Gary Talking About The Episcopal Asset Map. Copyright © 2015 Gary Zumwalt, all rights reserved. 
Gary Allman, Episcopal Asset Map Workshop -Diocesan Convention 2015. Copyright © 2015 Gary Zumwalt, all rights reserved. 
Convention Attendees ERD Asset Mapping. Copyright © 2015 Gary Zumwalt, all rights reserved. 
Last Minute Preparation. Copyright © 2015 Gary Zumwalt, all rights reserved. Annual Convention is a busy time. When you are looking after all the AV, taking photographs and helping set up and breakdown between sessions, it gets super busy. The previous night I didn’t stop until 11:00 p.m. as I was preparing some late-arriving documents for the conference website. This morning I left my room at around 7:00 a.m. with the plan to go back and put some shoes on before the workshop sessions started at 10:00 a.m. It never happened.
Which is why 15 minutes before my presentation started I was sitting on the floor re-familiarizing myself with the presentation I’d prepared two weeks previously in the certain knowledge I’d be too busy to write it nearer to convention.
I can’t believe I need new glasses again. But looking at how far away the laptop is and how I’m trying to peer through the bottom part of my progressive lenses, it looks like I do.
Pictures by my friend and fellow Convention Photog. Gary Zumwalt.
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Clue: The Musical – Closing Night
Pictures from the closing night of Clue: The Musical
Another great night, and a good job by everyone. Alek and Katie joined for tonight’s performance.
And of course, another very quick processing job.
Click any picture to see a slideshow of all of them.
Quick processing job on the pictures from tonight’s show. October 31, 2015 | www.breakfastinamerica.me | Copyright © Gary Allman, all rights reserved
Some of the cast, crew & friends
Some of the cast, crew & friends
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Clue: The Musical
Clue: The Musical – Glendale High School Tonight we watched Lanie play Miss Scarlet
The cast and crew did an excellent job as usual!
These are a quick first edit. I won’t be able to edit more for a while as I’m busy preparing for and attending the diocesan convention at the end of next week.
And yes, Lanie glued red feathers onto her eyelashes…
Clue: The Musical – Glendale High School. Lanie is demonstrating poor trigger discipline there. I thought I’d taught her better than that 🙂
Clue: The Musical – Glendale High School
Clue: The Musical – Glendale High School
Clue: The Musical – Glendale High School
Clue: The Musical – Glendale High School
Clue: The Musical – Glendale High School
Clue: The Musical – Glendale High School -
Uh-oh! It looks like we need more bookcases
Uh-oh! Looks like we need more bookcases. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This is what three big plastic bins and ten cardboard boxes of books look like.
My books arrived along with my other possessions on January 12, 2009. At that time we had nowhere to put them and they’ve stayed in boxes in the garage ever since.
When we put up the dividing wall, Ginger’s books got packed away too.
Earlier this year Jim did some sterling work under the house installing an additional floor pillar to support the weight of this lot plus the piano on the wall opposite.
Next jobs – display shelves for Ginger’s blue glass that also got put away when the dividers were built and a display cabinet for all my old cameras.
Uh-oh! Looks like we need more bookcases. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Back to the Bookcases
They look even more like the plan from this angle. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. (See what I did there?)
Today I got a chance to put the final coat of varnish on the backs of the bookcases. Then this evening I indulged myself with an orgy of nailing with the nail gun. Always fun 🙂
It’s starting to look a lot like my plan.
This is what it is supposed to look like when I finish… Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Fishing Lures
Fishing Lures – I tried all these tasty looking lures and more besides – including the (almost) always successful Crawdad lure. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. No fish at all today.
I tried all these tasty looking lures and more besides – including the (almost) always successful Crawdad lure. I didn’t even get a nibble. The fish were obviously elsewhere doing fishy things that precluded them from being caught by me (or Tom come to that).
The backlight provided by the sun reflecting off of the hull of the boat really helped to make this picture. It is one of my favorites from today’s fishing trip.
You can see all of today’s pictures here
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Fall at Pomme de Terre Lake, Missouri
Fall at Pomme de Terre Lake, Missouri. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. The Fall color has really come along the past couple of weeks.
Fall at Pomme de Terre Lake, Missouri. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Fall at Pomme de Terre Lake, Missouri. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.You can see the rest of today’s pictures here.
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Fishing on Pomme de Terre Lake
Clouds Reflected in Pomme de Terre Lake, Missouri. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Working for yourself has its disadvantages and advantages.
Seven day weeks and long hours are a couple of the disadvantages. One of the advantages is that when a friend asks if I want to go fishing, with a bit of re-arranging, I can ‘Hang spring-cleaning’ and be free to go.
Yesterday I put in an eleven hour day to clear my essential work, leaving me free to go fishing today with Tom on Pomme de Terre Lake. I’ve not fished on Pomme de Terre before. I’d love to be able to report on the huge numbers of fish we caught. Unfortunately, we spent four hours out on the lake and caught nothing. Nada, nil, nowt. Not even a nibble. I did catch a good-sized (10-15lb) rock. Tom caught a submerged tree and lost a lure to it – so we agreed he had the best catch of the day.
Fishing Lures – I tried all these tasty looking lures and more besides – including the (almost) always successful Crawdad lure. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I tried all sorts of lures to try and interest the fish. Not even a crawdad lure (my fishing secret weapon) drew any interest. Not to worry, it was a nice quiet day on the lake with lots and lots of casting practice, and I did manage to catch a few pictures.
Fall at Pomme de Terre Lake, Missouri. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Fall at Pomme de Terre Lake, Missouri. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Fall at Pomme de Terre Lake, Missouri. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Coots on Pomme de Terre Lake. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Pomme de Terre Lake, Missouri. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Looking Across Pomme de Terre Lake, Missouri. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Outboard Motor – The powerhouse of Tom’s bass boat. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Bookcases – First Fit
Making sure they fit. Now these are out of the workshop I have space to stain and varnish the backs.
Once they are fitted I’ve just got the edge trim to make and fit. Of course, now I know why I’ve been putting this job off. It wasn’t the nigh on $400 of materials, nor the two days spent cutting all the wood to size. It wasn’t the two and a half hours it took to put each one together (each bookcase has more than eighty screws in it).
No, the worst part of this build was the two coats of stain, and the two coats of varnish, plus polishing and rubbing down. I had plenty of time to think about it, it took two hours per coat of varnish per bookcase.
Starting to look just like the drawing. This is what it is supposed to look like when I finish… -
YMC and Diocesan Council
Poor Lanie, she cannot escape from me taking her picture even when she’s gone away for a diocesan youth meeting Today I was off to Carthage first thing to grab a couple of interviews on video.
While I was there I took a couple of pictures of the YMC and Diocesan Council. It made a nice change to be there just to take pictures (okay video) and not be attending to talk or take part.
I was hoping to do the interviews in the nave, but the organist was busy practicing for tomorrow (and a bit for Advent too by the sound of it). So i had to improvise. I did one interview in the youth room, and I’ve no idea what the other room I used was for…
While I was there, it was a privilege to be able to listen in on Fr. Steve talk to the youth about the Episcopal Church, dogma, belief, and faith. I cannot speak for the kids, but I needed to hear that.
As I’ve already put in my 20 hours (and a lot more) for the diocese this week, I’m not sure whether to call this work or Volunteering!
Diocesan Council Meeting
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Miss Scarlet. Clue: The Musical
Now the musical has begun I can show this re-processed picture.
This is my attempt at a fairly quick edit of a green screen picture Lanie sent to me. So, to be clear, this is not my picture of Lanie, I just post-processed it. I can see sooo many errors in my processing, but I don’t have time to fix them right now. Maybe I’ll revisit it later.
Lesson from the green screen: Get the subject a good distance from the green screen to avoid reflected color – a lesson I learned taking (failed) green screen product shots.
The Original
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Lanie & Getzger
Lanie and Getzger Testing some new lights with Lanie and Getzger’s help.
It’s a shame the depth of field is just too shallow, one of Lanie’s eyes is slightly out of focus. I couldn’t get the pair of them to stay still long enough for a decent picture.
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Building Bookcases
Cutting the boards into Shelves. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This weekend I started work on a long-outstanding project to build a bookcase.
Not just any bookcase but an eight-foot long seven-foot-high recessed bookcase. The project would have gone a lot more smoothly if Lowes hadn’t refused to cut the 8′ x 4′ plywood sheets into 11½” boards. So I ended up making around 75′ of cuts with a circular saw. The saw-sled I made a year-or-so ago made it a little bit easier. But, it still took me several hours to do something Lowes could have done in around 15-20 minutes.
Having cut the sheets into boards, I spent Sunday morning cutting all the broads to length. I finished that just in time for us to take Getzger to the Blessing of the Animals.
There are 21 of these shelves in the finished bookcase. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. 
Making Bookcases. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This is what it is supposed to look like when I finish…
Now all I have to do is just (just … Ha!) assemble it all, stain and seal it. -
Hopefully I don’t need to write any notes this morning
Blue Kitty on my desk (again). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Lanie’s Induction into the National Honor Society
Lanie receiving her certificate This evening Lanie was inducted into the National Honor Society. Well done Lanie!!
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Hurricane Lamp
Hurricane Lamp. Copyright © 2015 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I love oil lamps.
I hate to admit it but they remind me of my youth. There has always been electricity where I’ve lived, but when I was young our neighbor across the road and two of the four village shops didn’t have power and used oil lamps.
My parents used an oil lamp for an anchor light on their sailboat, my sailboat had oil lamps in the cabin. Back in the UK, my Garden Room had several oil lamps too. Because of this, the smell of oil lamps is highly evocative to me. Unfortunately, the lamp oil we have now smells more like paint thinners than the paraffin (kerosene) smell that I remember.
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The start of the evening
The start of the evening The evenings are starting to get cool and temporarily at least, the mosquitoes have gone away.
Time to light up the chiminea and enjoy some time in the backyard.
I thought the beer was appropriate to the advancing season. Saved from last year, ‘Winter Grind’, a very nice coffee stout from Mother’s Brewing Company here in Springfield, Missouri.
Enjoying our first backyard fire of the year
