This worked out different than I imagined

 So nothing quite happened as I expected it to happen when I drove to the Foster home to see Bentley. There was Bentley with his absolutely stunning colored coat and sleepy eyes. There was one of his sisters who was white and black in typical Terrier colors. 

Tucked into blankets was another one. The tip of her tail was white, three paws had a touch of white and ----  she had a few white hairs on her nose along with her chest.

She looked up at me and I knew right then that it was her I'd come for. I don't know how that happened or why but it did. She chose me when I sat down.

I had 'wanted' the one with the beautiful colored coat and I had thought I wanted a male pup. But her choice was me. It happens that way. I've been chosen by mules, dogs, and humans for some weird reasons. I knew it when I felt it.

Those eyes said. "Hey, I am here to steal your heart!"

She is so tiny and petite! I got a history of her vet check, vaccinations, and her date of birth. 

I visited a long time with the Linda the foster mom who does an incredible job of caring for her charges. We are following each other on FB so she can see how things go with us. 

Do you remember how sick and miserable I was on Christmas Eve? I was missing Rich so badly and had Influenza A. I was beside myself. Her birthday is Christmas Eve. [Charlie's is December 28th]

She cried for a while in the crate on the drive home and then was quiet and peaceful. 

The meet and greet was pretty anticlimactic, though Charlie decided that he really didn't want a lot to do with her.

We did some walking and potty stuff along with the usual puppy stuff. A lot of indoor - outdoor until she realized that she could go on the grass and snow like Charlie did.

After outdoor exercises and a meal. Pup sort of moved up by my feet and looked at me. I put her next to my feet and covered her up with a blanket.

Charlie deemed her safe to check out and ....sneaky doodled up to check her out.

....and she didn't move. She didn't attack with bared fangs and claws. She just looked at him sleepily and closed her eyes in comfort.

Her name on her paperwork is Brooklyn. I thought of calling her Brooky, Lena, ...I listed a question on Social Media and got 40+ offers of names. 

Overnight was good. We did a before bedtime outside walk and she did all the appropriate things she needed to do. I put her in her crate on a nightstand next to my side of the bed so I could hear her if she woke up.

Charlie took his place on the other side of the bed and we all fell asleep from our busy day.

At 1am, she started barking and crying. I'd slept in my sweats so grabbed a jacket and hat and took my charges out. Without hesitation, my new pup did her business and was ready to go back in.

We all slept well until I got up at 4:30 thinking it was 5:30. Back out and jobs done!

We did chow time in separate places and then play time and another trip out.

Charlie was conflicted. He wanted to be in the same area as me and her but he didn't want her to be too close. Here she is growling at her reflection in my stove and pouncing on the Kong.

Then they both crashed like good little dogs.

Charlie is pretty sure that the pup is going to eat him alive even though she has never tried to bite or scratch him.

He asked me why I brought a female Hannibal Lecter into our house. A tiny bundle of energy that curls up and falls fast asleep. He said she is just daring him to walk by so she can pounce. 

Well then. 

She has earned a name I can call out with two syllables.

Welcome Home

Hannah

Photo from the Foster Home she was at. 

This morning I woke up still missing Rich, still grieving, but the huge hole in my heart didn't hurt so bad. In fact I felt true happiness for the first time in months. 

Oddly enough, one more thing. 8 years to this day, I brought Charlie home to our home. How weird is that?

Well dang it...

I did it.

I purchased the 'Tough Camera'. Olympus Tough tg6.

And here are my first impressions with this camera.
The very first thing I did while turning it over in my hands was drop it.

Not on purpose, but because...well..., I just dropped it by accident.

I put the battery in and figured out how to charge it and got that immediately set up.

I put the Panasonic 'Lumnix' all weather camera next to it for comparison.
The Tough Camera has a lot more heft to it. Both cameras are weather sealed and pretty much impervious to snow and rain.

However the Tough camera has some exciting features that you normally do not find in point and shoot cameras.

Here is a photo of my Olympus OMD EM Mark iii, with a 14mm-150mm lens next to the Tough for size comparison.

The menus on both cameras are very similar so I will be right up to speed with the Tough camera.

The reviews said the Tough wasn't great in low light situations. My first shots were of some of my indoor decorations.

I let the camera pick the ISO in these shots and used P or Program mode to let the camera pick the f stop also.

These are straight from the camera with no adjustments.

Next I thought I'd try the 'Night Mode'. Olympus claims you can take a night shot hand held with a tiny bit of a longer exposure and NOT get a blurred photo.

Okay, they were not wrong.

I walked outside with Charlie and took a shot of the lights I put on the pine tree out front. The lights were too bright but then again, it was just and experiment. The shot was done with a 1/13th exposure.
I can easily see how I could get creative with this on a moonlit night with some snow!

I did another quick experiment with the macro mode. This camera has 4 macro modes. The white ring in the photo above helps light up what you are shooting in macro mode.
I only tried the basic macro.
There is a in camera focus stacking mode, a focus bracket mode, the plain macro mode [the one I used for the following photos], and a microscopic mode.

These are not touched up, but for the last two I laid nearly touched the flower petals with the lens. Normally that would cut out the light and the photos would be too dark. With the LED ring it lightens it up.

I'm sure I could have some fun with this and ice crystals in the creek!

One more macro shot.

This is a bead from a garland string. You can see the camera lens in the bead which is about the size of a large eraser. The white to the right is a white ribbon string which is reflected along with the other beads.

I'll bet you can't guess what I plan to do today!

Yep! Go for a hike! I'm just going to take this camera and see what I can pull off with it.
Can I take as good a photo as a full frame pricey camera? Nope. But I bet I can do some really cool things with it.

I'll experiment with the High Speed ... Slo Mo video feature along with some shots I'll do in the RAW mode with this.
The weather looks cold and dreary.

Perfect I think for taking a hike after all my morning chores are done.