Reality is not what it is cracked up to be...

...or what you can do with Fractals and Photo Editing software when it is cold outside...

On Ice

ICE

Let's play on ice.
Crawl on ice.
Lay on ice.
Sit on ice.

And then, admire nature's work just a little while longer.
As I lay on the creek's ice, I put my head low, nearly touching the slick surface with my ear.

I could hear a trickle of water running below me.
I sighed, what a beautiful noise this was.

Behind me was an 'ice wall'. The creek had gone through some rapid temperature changes along with a rain on New Year's Eve. Two days ago, it had been -20 at the house.

The water sculpted itself into interesting shapes in and around the boulders in the creek.

To photograph it was a challenge in itself.
I had to scoot on my butt, or crawl from boulder to boulder.
To risk my Nikon DSLR in this environment was crazy [at least to me it was!]. So I crawled, and scooted.

I'm sure had anyone seen me, they'd have scratched their heads.
Why was this crazy lady crawling around icy boulders and peering into rocks?


What in the heck was she doing laying down on a swath of ice with her ear near it?

Well I suppose if you had to ask those questions ... you just wouldn't understand the pleasures of winter's beauties and formations.
Or the mysterious sounds of water trickling under the ice.

Just ask Morris. He found pleasure in it too, although he seemed to get around on the ice much easier than I did.

Great Experimental Failure to Get Hubby to Fix the Dryer

So now we are at the point where frozen 'Man Pants' don't bother him. Of course they have dried by the time that he puts them on.

He quips quite heartily that 'look how much money we are saving by not using an electric dryer!'

I hate to admit that he actually may be correct.
What's even worse?
I amused myself by standing the frozen jeans up today against a tree and took photos of them.

I posted them on Facebook for a giggle.
Now that got a reaction out of him.
*MY PANTS on Facebook!*

I shrugged. I told him that it was a funny photo and those who saw it there thought it was funny.

He muttered something to himself [or me, but I have a tendency for selective hearing in these cases].
Maybe he didn't think it was funny.
Maybe all along I shouldn't have been trying so hard.
Maybe all along I should have been posting pictures of HIS PANTS on Facebook.

Maybe I went about this whole thing wrong.

You think?

TIA ~ mini stroke

Numb and tingling sensations in one arm?
Difficulty with speech?
The Doctor leaned over and told him that he'd had not one, but two 'mini-strokes' or TIA's.
He didn't want to hear that.
In fact he grumped about it all the way home and the next morning when he had to look at the medications he was to begin taking.

*Why do I have to take these?*
Well he knew darn well.
He was being like an obstinate child and pouting a bit at the same time.

I tried to reassure him, that these meds where merely 'preventative medicine'. No one likes to hear that they may have health issues.
Ignore them and they go away?
No they don't.

Exercise and good eating habits don't always keep you from the risk pool. Things such as age and how your body metabolizes cholesterol, along with blood pressure factor into this equation.
It is especially hard to take when your doctor proclaimed you extremely healthy for your age at the last visit.
Easy to concentrate on that and not the current matter at hand.

Denial.
Anger.
Sad.
More Anger.
[Your body has betrayed you!]
Depression.
[How could your body betray you like this?]
Uncertainty.
[What happens next?]

Next there will be tests. But the gloom and doom of another 'Event' does hang over our heads.
I can't deny that. But at least I am prepared that not only can it happen to him, but to anyone.

Isn't it awful to find out that you are not super-human anymore?
Hard wake up call to answer to.

*A transient ischemic attack (TIA) is an episode in which a person has stroke -like symptoms for up to 1-2 hours.

A TIA is often considered a warning sign that a true stroke may happen in the future if something is not done to prevent it.

A transient ischemic attack (TIA) is caused by temporary disturbance of blood supply to an area of the brain, which results in a sudden, brief decrease in brain function. (A decrease in brain function is called a neurologic deficit.)

A TIA is different than a stroke. Unlike from a stroke, a TIA does not cause brain tissue to die. The symptoms of TIAs do not last as long as a stroke and do not show changes on CT or MRI scans. (Strokes usually show changes on such tests.)*

Taken from:

Medline Plus, National Institute for Health

Topaz ReMask Review 2

I promised another ReMask 3 review, well sort of. This subject dealt with editing the faces of two subjects.

Here is the original shot.
I wanted to tone up the skin for the woman on the left and give her skin a less dark and sharp color that was the result of a flash.
I wanted to warm up the washed out color of the baby on the right.

Step one.
I opened up ReMask 3 and 'cut out the faces'. This is what it looks like when I 'cut' out the faces.
Here is what it looks like when I click on the 'keep' part.
Now that I had my faces separated from the original I could get to work on the skin tones.

Step Two:

I used two layers, one for the baby and one for the older woman. I used Topaz Detail 2 and used the preset 'Skin Soothing and Brightening by JD'. Then I used the plug in from Artizen 'Dreamy Effect' and softened the focus just a touch.

Step Three:

Back in PS5, I lightened the levels a bit.

Steps 4 and 5:

Lastly I used ReMask 3 again and edited the figures out of the back-round and use Topaz Simplify to give the back-round a slightly less important look so the view would concentrate on the baby and the woman.

So if you think ReMask is just for difficult subjects, mind you it works very well in the everyday editing.

The result. A much nicer skin tone on both subjects, I think. Yes it is just a snapshot, but Great Grandma is sure going to like this version than that of the original!

On Thin Ice ~ by Morris

So SHE gets her gun belt on, boots, hat, gloves, camera...and I'm thinkin'.

Cool!

Time for a walk!
I like walks in the woods.
I like smelling things, I like running in HER snowshoe tracks.
I like standing on HER snowshoes and making HER trip and make bad words.

So we went to the creek.
SHE said something about walking down the Valley.
I like the Valley.
I don't like the Valley.
Well sometimes it is Okay.
But not when there are coyotes there who would see me as their own personal little snack.

I like the deer pellets and the yellow snow to roll in on the deer trails.

SHE likes to get into all sorts of funny positions to look at things like icicles and waterfalls and pretty rocks.
Click, click goes her camera.

So here we were by the old coyote den falls and she is kneeling down in the creek [on rocks ] going click, click, click and mumbling to herself.

I decide to walk across the ice and check out the opposite bank.
When all of a sudden...
crack
splash
cold
whoops!

I hear her mutter and make a squeak of some sort, then click, click... Sweet. SHE takes pictures of me coming up out of the water! SHE calls really worried like sounding.

So I run along the edge and cross the rocks to her.

Then I shake and shake and shake.
HER face gets full of icy water and SHE doesn't even cuss at me!
SHE tells me how lucky I am and warns me to not walk on thin ice.
SHE checks me over and we move on down the valley.
Well you'd think a little fella like me would get frozen cold.
But I didn't.

In fact I walked through the spring and to the end of the valley. I'm just a cool dude.
Although we did find fresh coyote track, SHE looked at it and I looked up in the hills and growled.
After all, I'm one tough little guy.

[Don't tell anybody, but I think SHE felt scared for me for a moment. I think SHE does have a nice soft heart.]

When we got home SHE gave me her sweatshirt to cuddle up with on the couch and I went right to sleep.

Dreaming of thin ice and my favorite person who squeaks. Maybe we can go tomorrow?

Poopsicles by Morris

SHE does not like me in the mule pasture when she is filling the stock tank. The mules like to hang out there and leave frozen goodies.

SHE has no idea how hard it is to pick out the perfect poopsicle.

You have to search around for just the right one.
Sniff at many at then viola, you have found just the right one.

In fact you know it is perfectly right when it makes HER cry out in disgust! Only SHE is on the other side of the electric fence and can't get at you.
So you just take your time.

SHE begins to get frantic and hollers bad things at me.
[I have edited the language because I know people who read this would not like to hear lots of human swearing words]

*Morris darn it! You drop that right now! Bad Dog! Bad Dog!*

I hear *Morris...blah blah blah blah...blah Dog...Dog...*

*Morris you stop that NOW drop it, or else!*

I hear her pretty loud and clear now, but I cannot give up the goods.
Well who is she kidding?
I've got the good stuff and just to prove it, I pick it up and lug it to another spot. Man that was a very heavy Poopsicle.

SHE picks up some snow at lobs it at me, as IF that is going to stop me!

So I turn my back on her just to prove a point and munch away happily. After all, isn't SHE the one that is always explaining that mule poop is mainly chewed up hay and pretty harmless?

Heck, I'm just getting my veggies then, right?