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Gary Field Testing The Peak Design Capture Pro
Field Testing The Peak Design Capture Pro You can read a little bit about the Peak Design Capture Pro camera carry clip here.
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Gary & Ginger on the Silver Trail at Busiek
Gary & Ginger on the Silver Trail at Busiek Yet another short hike at Busiek
I’ll grow tired of taking pictures here soon, I promise. The problem is I’ve not had much opportunity to take out the new Fuji, and I need to get accustomed to it, and quickly.
Busiek Silver Trail. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Busiek Silver Trail. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Looking back before climbing the hill. Busiek Silver Trail. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Hiking the Ridge – Busiek Silver Trail. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Gary on the ridge – Busiek Silver Trail. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Descending the hill – Busiek Silver Trail. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Climbing up the Silver / Yellow Trail at Busiek. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Beginning of the Hike
Busiek Silver Trail I’m really struggling to decide which one of these two pictures I prefer.
I like them both.
A short 3-mile hike on the Silver Trail at Busiek.
Busiek Silver Trail -
Office Fur Factories
My Two Office Fur Balls — They’ve left just enough room for me to sit between them. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this, but recently my office has become very popular with the household felines.
Tubby cannot be seen, probably in his favorite spot standing over one of the heating vents, toasting his poor frozen Burmese underbelly.
And at the end of the day they are still in my office. And Tubby is still standing over the heating vent. -
Busiek Orange Trail
Ginger waiting for Gary before the main climb on the Busiek Orange Trail. A warm break in the weather sent us scurrying out to get some miles on the trail, this time we opted for Busiek’s Orange Trail.
The Busiek Orange Trail Tuesday the whole area was under a few inches of snow and the temperatures were dropping to -5°F at night, and not rising above the mid-twenties during the day. By Friday the temperatures had jumped up and on Sunday it was nearly 70°F, and all the snow had disappeared.
The Orange Trail is not one we do often because, quite frankly the long walk along the creek flood plain isn’t very challenging hiking-wise. Because a lot of the trail running alongside the creek has been graveled it’s not the most comfortable of hiking surfaces either. We decided to go clockwise around the trail to complete the lower flatter part of the trail first.
You get to the Orange Trail via the White Trail The main climb of the trail wasn’t too arduous — obviously I’ve improved a bit since last week’s hike, I managed the main portion of the climb without stopping. Though I did have to stop at the top to get my breath back.
The start / end of the Busiek Orange Trail 
Ginger disappears off into the distance as I take pictures of the trail-side moss. Coming back down, the new-ish switchbacks on the trail go past some very nice seeps and I was hoping that the snow-melt might have set them running. As it turned out, I was to be disappointed. Even though the lower portions of the trail were quite muddy and soft in places, the seeps were almost bone dry.
Going down the switchbacks on the newest part of the trail. As is often the case at Busiek we didn’t see a lot of wildlife, a couple of armadillos and a few birds. Wild life aside, we did get to meet and chat to some Ozark Marble Hunters — Marble hunting is a great idea to encourage people out. We spotted some of the marbles earlier in our hike, but at that time didn’t know that they were part of a hunt. Just as well we didn’t carry them off! They were gone when we came back. Ozark Marble Hunters on Facebook.
Trail-side moss. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Trail-side moss. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Wild Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium). Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Wild Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium). Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
You get to the Orange Trail via the White Trail. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
You get to the Orange Trail via the White Trail. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
You get to the Orange Trail via the White Trail. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Ginger disappears off into the distance as I take pictures of the trail-side moss. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Ginger waiting for Gary before the main climb on the Busiek Orange Trail. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Going down the switchbacks on the newest part of the trail. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Going down the switchbacks on the newest part of the trail. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Last of the ice.. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Last of the ice. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
The start / end of the Busiek Orange Trail. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
It was muddy so I have to take the obligatory gross muddy feet picture. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.The total hike was a smidge under six miles. Google Earth says nearly 1,000′ of elevation — that’s a wild overestimation 4-500′ maybe?
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Busiek White Trail
You get to the Orange Trail via the White Trail You have to hike the White Trail as it runs along-side Camp Creek to get to the Orange Trail. This is one of my favorite pictures from today’s hike.
You can see the rest of today’s pictures here.
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Can’t Wait for Friday …
It’s a tad cold out The forecast says it’ll be 59°F (15°C).
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Father-Daughter Bonding
Lanie – on target with the Beretta. Pretty good groupings. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Lanie and I decided to brave the cold weather (24°F) and visit the range.
Okay the range is indoors but with the huge air changes necessary to clear all the smoke it’s not warm in there. There are some overhead heaters that make the top of your head warm, but that’s about it. As a precaution against the cold, I actually wore socks and shoes.
I’ve been planning a Friday afternoon trip to the range to test Katie’s .380 Sig before she gets back from vacation. I wanted to see if, as I suspected, it has a problem with the slide lock (that’s my excuse for going to the range with yet another gun and I’m sticking with it. You can believe it or not).
The day didn’t start well, my morning didn’t pan out as planned with an unexpected trip out to try and sort out a mid-meeting computer problem at St. John’s. The trip was a success, at least in as far as getting the errant video camera working again, but it cut straight through my to-do list. I arrived back home lunchtime with nothing (planned) done, and thinking I might abandon the idea of going shooting. Approaching the house I noticed Lanie was home, and I wondered if she might be interested in going to the range if I decided to go. I cleared a couple of things, called in at work, signed off for the day, and asked Lanie if she fancied going. She was all dressed, wrapped up ready for the cold before I’d finished putting the guns in a carry case.
Blurry Cell Phone Picture – Sig Sauer P238 & Beretta PX4 Storm Compact. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Lanie’s grandparents have a farm, so she’s familiar with rifles and shotguns, but, she’s just never fired a handgun. We’ve tried to ensure that the kids have a broad range of basic skills, and the safe handling and use of firearms is one of those skills I firmly believe they should all have. So in the course of the afternoon, we went through all the safety drills, and Lanie was particularly interested in why I have a gun, given that they aren’t available in the UK (they were a lot more available when I was a kid as I noted here). At the range I tried out Katie’s gun first — bullseye first (or second) shot, you’ve got to like a gun that enables you to do that. I then put a single round in it for Lanie. She hit the target and thought it was great. I slowly built up the number of rounds, and then let her load and fire as she wanted. She was getting very good groups and bullseyes, probably out-shooting me. As it turned out, I was right about the slide, it did fail to lock back on at least one occasion, but not all the time, so it’s probably not worth replacing the slide-lock spring right now.
Lanie doing fine with the P238. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Lanie doing fine with the P238. I must have taken this after she’d emptied the magazine. The slide lock worked that time then. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.When I fired off a full magazine from the Beretta Lanie was duly impressed by the noise and percussion, but didn’t want to try it. The size, weight, and potential kick put her off. We stayed for about an hour, and as we were getting near to leaving I persuaded her to try a couple of rounds in the Beretta as it is the gun she is most likely to use in the future. It really doesn’t seem to kick much more than the Sig. Lanie went from not wanting to fire it to, “can I try again?” in the time it took to take those two shots.
Lanie – on target with the Beretta. Pretty good groupings. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Lanie – on target with the Beretta. Pretty good groupings. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.I guess going to range in future is potentially going to be more expensive, but I’m okay with that. Oh, and I’ve got to clean Katie’s gun tomorrow before she gets home, and I’m alright with that too.
Target Shooting – Sig Sauer P238 & Beretta PX4 Storm Compact. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This is a mixture of shots from both guns. I did much better than last time, and the picture above is to prove it. Still low and left, but that’s so that there’s room on the target for the gun when I take a picture 🙂 . No excuse for the few stragglers though.
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You can’t escape the EU’s tentacles even in Missouri
I live in America, remind me why I’m studying the 119 page EU General Data Protection Regulation?
— The joys of doing business online in 2018.
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Busiek Silver Trail
Ginger forges ahead up the hill while I catch my breath. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. A short Hike, and some musings on being unfit
It’s been quite cold recently — below 20°F (-6°C), so we’ve not been out. Wednesday saw the temperatures predicted to rise over 35°, which promised a great opportunity to go hiking. I re-planned my week to clear Wednesday afternoon by doing some diocesan work Friday morning (not forgetting that I’m also working most of the day on Saturday). So, I shifted a meeting, and we were free to get out.
We picked the Busiek Silver Trail, because it’s good exercise, with a steep hill and a longish medium gradient climb. It is also quite short at 3.1 miles, and therefore relatively quick.
Ginger’s been going to the gym several times a week for longer than I can remember, so I knew keeping up during the climbs were going to be a challenge for me. I hate fitness centers with a passion, but as a consequence I’m losing my fitness as we are too busy to spend the time going out hiking, backpacking or kayaking. Add in the inescapable fact that the years are passing and it’s not a good outlook. I can eat as healthily as I please, give up alcohol, walk 2-3 miles a day (I’m doing all of those), I’m still unfit. I may be unfit, but I am game to take on a hike on a warm January day.
It was a good hike, and Ginger powered up the hills while I had to stop a couple of times to get my breath back, and then stop at the top to recover. But, I got round. One big surprise on the hike was how soft the ground was. I expected it to be frozen, but puzzlingly it wasn’t. In some places the mud was quite heavy.
All in all, it took me two hours to complete the 3.1 miles. That might sound slow — and it is — but we are also talking very uneven, rough, and in places, downright nasty trails. Especially the part of the trail that is a 1:3 descent on loose gravel, which has to be taken very slowly if you don’t want to slip and fall. I might have been breathing hard in places and felt like I was close to maxing out my heart rate (I wasn’t; I checked it at 140 bpm on the steepest climb), but it was good to get out in the sun and air.
The chances of my suddenly discovering a stash of money that’ll allow me to retire again and regain my fitness by going off hiking at any time are nonexistent. I am beginning to accept that if I am to cut out some of the meds I’m currently taking, no matter how much I hate gyms, I’m not left with a lot of options but signing up.
Silver Trail Map (01-24-2015) -
Sunlight in the Nave
Early Morning Sunlight at St. John’s. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. St. John’s Episcopal Church, Springfield — Today the sunlight was streaming in low through the windows in the nave.
On the first Saturday of each month I attend the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew’s men’s group meeting at St. John’s. We start with an eight O’clock service (Holy Eucharist), and then go on to have breakfast in town. Today’s breakfast was at the Early Bird Breakfast Pub on Cherokee St. and very good it was too. Good food, and good company, an excellent way to start the day.
The poinsettias, and altar cloth all set for Christmas and Epiphany (Today is Epiphany) made for another nice photo opportunity too.
The poinsettias, and altar cloth all set for Christmas and Epiphany . Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. 
Early Morning Sunlight at St. John’s. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
The poinsettias, and altar cloth all set for Christmas and Epiphany . Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Late Night Cleaning and Polishing
Late Night Cleaning and Polishing – I first cleaned these brass ornaments, belonging to my mother, when I was 4-5 years old. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. It seems that I have another minor obsession going on. Having cleaned Katie’s handgun last Saturday, on Thursday I found myself indulging in some late-night cleaning, this time it was my Buck 110 knife that was getting the attention. The brass was looking a little sad and tarnished, so off I went to find some metal polish to clean it.
The smell of the ‘Nevr-Dull’ wadding that I used to clean the Buck took me back to my youth. It smells and looks pretty much the same as the Duraglit wadding I was given to use as a young lad when I had to clean my mother’s brass ornaments. It was a task I really disliked.
As it happens I still have a few of my mother’s ornaments that I first cleaned when I was four or five years old. When I’d finished cleaning my knife I cleaned them too. I don’t think they’ve been cleaned in 15-20 years, so I’m going to have to give them a few more sessions before they are restored to their former glory.
Cleaning them brought back a lot of memories. The donkey in particular, as it was used in many birthday games of ‘hide the donkey’. One of the yachts must have had a thermometer on it at one time — it’s a cheap seaside memento. I have no idea of its or any other of the ornaments’ significance to my mother, but as she kept them 50-odd years they must have had some meaning. For me, they just remind me of my mother and my childhood.
No matter how much I might have hated cleaning and polishing when I was younger, I now find it a very relaxing, satisfying, and therapeutic task.
My Buck 110 knife after a minor cleaning session, late night, Thursday. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Buck 110 Knife. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.Post script: Sunday morning I got out the leather treatment/polish and treated my writing pad and journal covers. As I said, I have a minor polishing obsession at the moment.
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Win 10 Updates — Blue screens and software failures
Windows 10 Creators Edition: finding creative ways of ruining your day.
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Self Portrait with Camera
Self Portrait with Camera. Copyright © 2018 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
A deliberate grainy look. Shot in quite dark conditions as I didn’t turn the room light on.I’m having a bit of a nostalgic selfie binge at the moment. I’ll get over it.
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DeAtramentis Steel Blue
DeAtramentis Steel Blue I must be writing too much at the moment.
Another of my fountain pens ran out of ink. De’Atramentis produce some very good inks. This blue is one of my favorites. This picture was taken at my desk — of course.
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2017 Motivational Issues Summarized
The “I can’t give a f**k” is strong in this one.
— The struggle is real.
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2018, a blank page to write whatever you want on
Quick Refill I ran out of ink
So I needed a quick refill of DeAtramentis Cherry. That’s my current favorite ink (seen with my current favorite pen).
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Pause and Reflect
Pause and Reflect (Black and White) The tradition used to be to review my year on my birthday.
I’d take off for the day and perform some navel contemplation, introspection, and preparation for the coming year.
Somehow that changed when I moved to the US. Now I use the new year to the same effect. Today, I did a bit of mental housekeeping, some stock taking, assessing, route reviewing, deliberating, and planning.
2017 was a mixture of exceptionally busy times and bouts of sloth, the latter of which I’d like to blame on burn-out brought on by working too much during the former. I was especially peeved by spending a week of my vacation in the UK working. But, hey, those are the breaks, and we do what we have to do.
Today I’ve completed my reflecting, and tomorrow I’ll start on the plan for the year to come.
Finally, 2018 and 2019 are, if I allow them to be, big years for me psychologically. In 2018 I’ll get to be older than my mother, and in 2019 I’ll be older than my father. That’s a couple of tough ‘anniversaries’ to ignore. Coincidentally during our visit to England this year I discovered I still own property there — my parents’ burial plot!
Pause and Reflect (Black and White)
Pause and Reflect – Alternate (Black and White)
Pause and Reflect
Pause and Reflect – AlternateNow I’m off to do the dishes & scoop the cats before celebrating the new year in a few hours time.
Taking a moment for a self-portrait while reviewing my year -
Greater love has no step-father than this:1
Disassembled Sig Sauer P238 to spend his Saturday afternoon cleaning his step-daughter’s handgun.
While Katie’s away for the Christmas break, she has a friend cat-sitting in her apartment. As a consequence of that I’ve been given her Sig Sauer P238 to keep safe. It’s a pretty little gun, what with the ‘pearl’ grips and fancy scrollwork on the slide. However, I was most surprised to find some rust around the rear sight2, not good for a gun that’s only fired a few hundred rounds (if that). So, I put it aside for some cleaning and TLC while she’s away. Today, with 20°F temps outside, it was just the sort of day to do some therapeutic cleaning and oiling.
I’ve stripped down the P238 a couple of times, and I’m not surprised that Katie hasn’t cleaned it. It’s a fiddly thing to strip, and fiddly to reassemble too. Of course now I’ve got it clean, I probably ought to take it down the range, check it’s working okay — and then clean it again. I bought Katie some less ‘girly’ wooden grips. I’ve no idea where she’s put them, or I would have fitted them while I was at it.
Cleaning and checking it, I’ve noticed that the slide lock spring is weak or compromised, and doesn’t always engage when the magazine is empty. Checking online this seems to be a common problem with these little pistols.
Overall, I like the size and weight of the Sig Sauer P238 — it makes my ‘compact’ Beretta look huge — the night sights are good, and it’s very well built. Apart from the slide lock issue, I’ve found that the safety is a bit stiff; possibly difficult to operate reliably. I realize the safety has to be stiff to prevent it from being accidentally disengaged, but that begs the question, at what point is it too stiff?My only fundamental issue with this style of gun is that I prefer a Double / Single Action trigger mechanism and a decocker, which lets you safely keep a round in the chamber with the hammer down.
Notes1 tongue very much in cheek — for those who cannot detect humor and a play on words when it is intended.
2 It’s a Sig problem, as I discovered with my Sig P938. It also rusts on the rear sight.
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Ten Years On: Happy To Be Here
Happy To Be Here. Copyright © 2017 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I’ve just indulged in a couple of ‘retro’ self-portrait sessions.
I monitor several sources to alert me of ongoing and upcoming scams using stolen pictures of me. In the process of checking them out, I started taking a wander down memory lane looking at some of my older self-portraits. That, in turn, reminded me that 2017 is the tenth anniversary of my 2007 365 Days project. At the start of the year, I was tempted to give a third year of self-portraits a go. I’m glad I saw the error of my ways and didn’t do it; I’ve been far too busy.
However, I couldn’t let ten years go completely unremarked; so, by way of celebration, I decided to take a couple of simple self-portraits standing at my desk. Of course — as I should well know — nine times out of ten there is no such thing as a ‘simple self-portrait’; especially if you haven’t taken a ‘proper’ hand-held self-portrait in many, many, years. For a start, with a different camera you have no idea where to point the dang thing to ensure that you are framed correctly. In theory, with my new camera’s tethering capability, I should have been able to see the picture I was taking on my phone. But the Gremlins were out in force and I could not persuade my camera and phone to talk to each other. Oh well, it had to be a traditional ‘click & chimp’ session instead. And then because I didn’t like the sour expression of the subject (that would be me), I had to set up and try it all over again.
I decided not to try and ‘copy-cat’ myself, at least one sensible decision then. To assess how kind (or unkind) the passage of time has been, I found a roughly similar unpublished shot, taken back in February 2007.
Apparently I was having a bad selfie day when I took this. It’s one of over thirty-five pictures I took while trying to get my 365 Day’s project picture.
Ginger calls this my “intransigent bastard” look. Not quite what I see, but her assessment is probably closer to the truth than I’d like to admit.
Happy To Be Here. Copyright © 2017 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Taken at my desk using only my monitor screen for lighting. This picture’s a .jpg image taken straight out of camera.If I had been thinking I would have dragged out my old camera to take the pictures so that the lens distortion would be the same (anything to make my face look a little less full).
The conclusions?
Yes, I am fatter around the chops, I’m thinner on top — unfortunately, that’s the only place I am thinner — a lot greyer, and (interestingly) my nose appears wider. I can’t see a whole load of new lines and wrinkles, but then I’m biased.
Older? Yes. Wiser? I doubt it. Happy to be here? Absolutely.
Happy To Be Here – Black & White. Copyright © 2017 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Ginger calls this my “intransigent bastard” look. Not quite what I see, but her assessment is probably closer to the truth than I’d like to admit.
