I haven’t done much photography in the last little while but for fun I busted out the 100mm RF macro lens, took some pictures of the flowering weeds and they’re pretty in their own way.
The last one is not a weed, it’s a plant from the previous owners and I’m not sure what it is but it’s nice. Over the weekend I also installed some solar patio lights in the backyard and thought they turned out well.
Gives the backyard some nice character, need more lighting back there in case we do night activities but yeah enjoying our new home and all it has to offer. 🙂
So the Liberals are pushing the ridiculous Bill C21 which only addresses legal guns and with the help of the NDP, airsofters were able to get an exemption for the hobby. Score one for common sense but we have so much more to do, C21 should be scrapped altogether and my hope is that the bill fails to become law before the next election, I guess we’ll see.
One set is free, the other is still banned so yeah there’s still more work to do. As a legal gun owner (and former airsofter), I am tired of being used as punching bag, whenever criminals use guns the Liberals try to placate the masses by adding more rules or banning guns that are used by legal owners. It’s a farse and I hope that people realize that the Liberals have absolutely no answers to any of society’s problems. They’re pushing gun control because at a time of high inflation, an economy teetering on the edge of recession, Chinese political interference (that benefits the Liberals) and their governing record is abysmal and they have nothing to run on. Their last 8 years has been a complete failure, they’re personally corrupt and only have wedge politics, that’s it.
The next election can’t come soon enough and I would love nothing better than the total destruction of the Liberal party. It doesn’t stand for anything and this incessant team politics will ruin Canada.
Oh to anyone calling me a simplistic Conservative, feel free to look through my previous blog posts and you’ll see that nothing could be farther from the truth.
This morning I took Brandon to shoot for the first time and it was amazing. While Maggie has enjoyed shooting in the past, she was against Brandon participating till he was older and more mature and well that time has come. 😉
It’s been a while since I’ve been to Silverdale and they’ve changed a few things up. We went to the action range and Brandon mainly shot Maggie’s Ruger 10/22 and her S&W M&P22. He did try some 9mm out of my HK SFP9 but found the recoil a bit too heavy for him so he stuck having fun with 22LR which is fine. Whenever I bring a new shooter out it’s always about their comfort level and I do not push them to shoot anything beyond that.
Like every new shooter, Brandon held the S&W M&P22 hard, hard enough that sometimes he was shaking but that’s common from many new shooters to squeeze the gun super tight. I’m glad my 22LR guns eat the cheapest crap though the Remington Yellowjackets did vary in power a lot, sometimes while the bullet exited the barrel (I’d do my ACTS & PROVE) it wasn’t enough to cycle the slide and we had a few FTEs. I don’t think it’s due to the M&P22 being dirty, I cleaned it beforehand.
I’m glad he had fun, I really enjoyed taking him out and he was all smiles the whole time he was there. 🙂
So last week we headed down to Myrtle Beach for a quick impromptu vacation. I didn’t really want to go but Maggie was jonsing for some nice weather so whatever. On the way down we hit a huge snowstorm and because we were going south, I didn’t bring a snow brush with me which ended up being a big mistake. The first and only thing I bought on the trip was a snow brush from somewhere in Pennsylvania. The snow came down so hard I had to pull off at the first opportunity and we stayed at another hotel for the night. The next morning we continued down to Myrtle Beach and get there for dinner. We’ve been there before and did a lot of touristy stuff so this time it was more low key, Maggie did some shopping, we spent some time on the beach of course and I booked a boat tour looking for alligators. Unfortunately we didn’t see any, combination of early in the year for them and that they’re really hard to spot.
The nicest thing about being in Myrtle beach was walking around in 20+C weather and it revitalized Maggie at least. It was a short trip, we came back on the weekend and in the last photo, I parked in a spot far away, there are plenty of other spots but this guy and his big truck needs to park right next to me. I guess at least he’s in the lines…
Short and relaxing, that’s what the doctor ordered and it makes me wonder maybe I should retire and just enjoy life now. 😉
I’ll post an update on our trip over the weekend but wanted to do a quick post on a spur of the moment photoshoot I did last night. There was a large solar storm earlier in the week and it hit the planet last night producing some beautiful auroras. I’ve never seen them before so it was quite a treat and thanks to Cav and his finance Carrie for joining me last night!
The auroras were much fainter than the photos indicate, these shots were all 15 second photos so my Canon EOS R5 was able to capture a lot more light and while I could see the green colour, the purple as not visible to the naked eye. I did bring my night vision along and that was a lot of fun to use, on a near moonless night you could really see the auroras dance.
LOL Cav and I made the decision to go see the auroras around 10:30pm and since they were moving East to West, he came to me and we drove about 30 minutes North of my house to a random farmer’s field because it had a good view of the northern sky. Ended up chatting and taking photos (took a video through my nods with my phone, will post later) till about 2am so I’m pretty tired today but it was worth it.
This was definitely on the bucket list and man I can’t wait for the next solar storm to try this again!
Went to Myrtle Beach last week and got back today in the afternoon. It was nice to be in 20+ weather for a few days and to watch Brandon play in the ocean (which was freezing cold) anyway we’re back safe and sound and I’ll post updates tomorrow or later in the week with pictures. 🙂
Well this August long weekend was certainly busy. Things started early for Brandon and I, we went to the cottage mid day and when we got there built the patio furniture that we bought back in May lol. We also built two desks that can be used for computers then went to play some Pokemon Go, had dinner and met Maggie at night after her badminton match. Saturday as usual Maggie went to the Belleville farmers market then we went to JYSK to pick up a new center beam for one of our beds. Their stuff is a bit on the cheaper side, a bit to cheap if you ask me and one of the beds broke. I have a feeling it won’t get any better so we’ll probably have to replace it soon.
Maggie & Brandon headed back while I took photos and tidied up a bit more, I’ve been really bad and we haven’t done any short term rentals yet, that’s on the list of things to do and it’s definitely on the top of the list. I took the scenic route home and the Lexus NX is no IS lol… The drive is still enjoyable but I mean the NX is an SUV that’s high up in the air, with the IS it had grip for ages and you could really throw that thing around the corner. When I got home, Brandon wanted to go swimming so this time Maggie joined him in the water and I took some pictures. 🙂
Hehe now that I know what to do with the pool to keep it clean and clear, it’s definitely quite nice to have and they spent about an hour and a half splashing. Poor Slinky could only watch us from the inside of the house… A bit later I did let him onto the patio however watched him closely as I’m worried he might run off somewhere.
Sunday Eddy & I went to near Algonquin (to our usual spot) to do some astrophotography and it was a ton of fun. Clouds were in the air but we really lucked out and the weather cooperated once we got on site. Oh on the way up Highway 35, a black bear decided to run across our path and it’s a good thing it did it during the day because it would have been difficult to see at night!
The sunset looked quite nice so we took a quick stop to take a few photos. I brought my BNVDs up and also played with the DBAL A3 as you can see, the blue light behind me is from the thermacell mosquito repellants and they work pretty damn well! The bugs were pretty bad when we got on site around 930pm but by 11 were mainly gone. I saw a fox run by us on the road under nods and man it’s so much fun to play at night. I took a time lapse with one of the cameras and it turned out pretty well, I’ll post that a bit later.
Got back around 330am and by 830 I was up and about. Not too tired and it was a rather lazy day at home, except I had to help Maggie build a drawer set she bought from Structube and that was an absolute nightmare. It was pretty expensive too but total particle board garbage, I told her never to buy their stuff again. The instructions were pretty poor, there were what I felt a lot of redundant screws and it just took so damn long… She bought a second for Brandon’s room but I told her there’s absolutely no way I’m going to spend 4 hours building a second one as it was an absolutely horrible experience.
Live and learn though sigh the long weekend is over and it’s back to the grind tomorrow.
LOL kidding but I did get two new toys and mmm I can’t wait to use them! First is a set of Opfor Night Solutions BNVD 1431 night vision googles. They’re a Canadian exclusive (due to American ITAR laws) which blend the PVS31 body with Photonis ECHO tubes with PVS14 optics. This mishmash was created by one of the leading Canadian suppliers with hand picked tubes and the resolution, brightness & clarity is certainly much greater than with my old PVS-14.
Delivered today too was my DBAL-A3 civilian laser system. My old PEQ15 was giving me some problems so I got rid of it a year and a half ago and frankly it never felt right that I didn’t have an IR laser so I’m glad to be equipped with one again. I haven’t shot or played airsoft in like forever so will need to rectify one (or both) of those things soon, I’ll keep the PVS-14 as you can never have enough night vision and Brandon can use it. Just need another helmet now lol…
So this was certainly a busy weekend & it started with a 6th birthday party for Georgia. Man where does the time go, I remember hearing her cries outside the delivery room and now she’s getting so big. It was just our family and we had it at the park where the kids could play, then we went back to Estelle’s house for lunch and cake.
Hehe she’s so sweet and 6 is a very great age, some of my best memories of Brandon were from that time. Afterwards I went to pick up a trailer hitch for the Lexus NX then came home to unpack, ugh there’s still so much but we’re making progress…
Today Brandon and I went to look for osprey in the morning and was quite successful.
I think there were 4-5 nests with chicks and it was really great to see these awesome birds. After lunch we played Pokemon Go for about an hour and a half then back home for more unpacking (well I unpacked while he played games). Overall it was pretty leisurely and tomorrow I get back to work, sigh my “vacation” is over already and it went by so damn quickly but that’s how it always is.
On Thursday I went to Montreal with Eddy to watch the Canadian F1 Grand Prix and it was absolutely amazing… Got back around 5pm today, am pretty tired but it was so damn worth it.
A few photos from Saturday’s a qualifying (and an impact in the Ferrari Challenge race 1) I edited with the my Surface, will post more later.
So worth it, Eddy and I are already making arrangements (along with some more friends) to go in 2023.
