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My Photographs You like photos? I love taking them. Click here, if you wanna see some of my work
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Friday, Feb. 29, 2008 - 3:15 p.m. Below are a bunch of photos from the local orchid show a couple of weeks back:
All of these photos were taken using my older Minolta Dimage point-and-shoot digital camera, not my digital Rebel SLR, using the macro setting. For an inexpensive digital camera, it captures some sharp close-up images. Too bad Minolta went out of the camera business (all they are making now are lenses for other camera companies) last year�. In case you don�t live in the U.S. and wonder why it has taken me so long to get these photos posted, I�ll explain: We are going through the worst winter here in the last 25 or 30 years. Since I am a snowplow operator, that means I haven�t done much but sleep, plow snow, and repeat over the past couple of months. How bad has it been? Well, the temperatures haven�t been as brutal as they were in the really bad winters of the late 1970�s- those years saw ice on the local lakes until early April and measurable snowfall on the ground from mid- November to late March in both 1977-78 and 1978-79. But we have just about set a modern record for both amount of snow and days with measurable snowfall. I am on nights this week, and have only been at my desk in the tool room for about 16 hours. Otherwise, we have either been sent home to rest or been called back in and behind the wheel of my plow truck. Last night�s Alberta Clipper storm only dropped 2� of wet snow on us, but it kept me busy until time to go home. A simple way to see how much winter we have had is my overtime hors worked. An average winter over the 26 winters I have been doing this is 140 hours worked. Last year was above average- we put in 170 hours. The worst winter I have worked prior to this one was my first back in 1983-84. That winter, we had two (official) blizzards, plus a bunch of smaller snows. We also used to get called out for frost on bridge decks, but we don�t have to do that anymore with the brine application truck. Spray the bridge decks twice a week and frost never forms. So back then, we usually picked up 20-30 hours on those early morning callouts. Like I said, we just don�t have to do that anymore. Anyway� that year I ended up with 261 hours. I remember at the time thinking if all winters are this bad, I think I might have made a bad career choice. So�how many hours have I worked so far this winter ? With another full month of possible snowfall (and related overtime hours to work)? Right around 250 hours worked, as of today. Even if we don�t get another speck of snow, this one has to be the most hours spent pushing snow in my 26 years of working for NDDOT. It can end anytime it wants to, please�. BTW- how long will it be before somebody starts pushing the science of global cooling (caused by our use of internal combustion engines) again? I was in high school back during those horrible winters in the 1970�s, and I remember being taught that the excessive use of automobiles was causing pollution in the upper atmosphere , causing the sun�s rays to be blocked. This was causing the string of extremely cold winters and mild summers that we had for the second half of the decade back then. The only way the dropping temperatures would stop would be if we cut back on our use of fossil fuels and started walking everywhere. At least that was what the alarmist scientists were preaching back then. Now- its global warming, caused by the same use of fossil fuels. A couple of years with colder than normal temperatures, and all that changes. I�m not a scientist, but if we have to go back to long, cold, snowy winters again I will vote for global warming over global cooling every time. p.s.- please don�t lecture me about my stupidity on the whole �climate change� issue- I�m just stating an opinion here, that�s all. If anyone dares question global warming, the followers of the cult of �An Inconvenient Truth� generally get very angry. I didn�t write this to provoke them. Just making an observation on what I have seen over my 47 years of living on this big blue sphere. And after all, one�s religion is their own personal choice (IMHO)�.
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