Winter Solstice Sunrise at Buzzard Roost Arch

Winter Solstice Sunrise at Buzzard Roost Arch
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Up early today to catch the sunrise through the arch at Buzzard Roost. This only happens around Dec 21-23, and today was a great day to catch it. The morning started off with a 2 mile hike into the Buzzard Roost are under the dakness of the mornning. Clear sky and lots of stars were out as Tim Ernst and myself headed to this scenic spot. After a nice hike to the arch, we set up and within a few minutes we had our images and was on the way home. A great day!
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A day off.

This working 6 days a week 12 hours a day is for the birds. At least I have a day off during the week to get some things done. Saw an old friend at McD's today that I used to work with who is now with the fire department. It was good to talk to him and tell him about all the crazy things at the plant. Some of the stuff is just crazy to people that don't work there. I am just love having a wireless hot spot to check the email and catch up on the blog while eating a bite. Of course it seems all my last posts are from here! D'oh!

Life goes on! It seems like life is in the fast lane and not enough people take the time to see what is around them. I know my daughter is growing up way to fast. Won't be long till a hug or a kiss from her dad will not be cool and we will just say hi and bye just like everyone else. She will always be my little girl no matter how big her pants get! It's a nice day out and I think I will go enjoy some time out side mowing and cleaning up around the house. Hope things slow down enough to do some more posts later. Have a great day!
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Yet another post from McD's

It's sad that my last post was from Mc D's and I have not had much time to do much blogging. Today I meet Lynne at Mc D's and we are going to do some local geocaching around town. I have been working on my McNeil blog over the past few days and hope to have it finished in a few days. Lynne did the edit of my journal and it looks great! The only thing is that there is one day missing in the journal. It seems that I was abducted by aliens and there was no record in my journal for that day. I don't remember anything but the flashing lights around the tent......well maybe not? I will check and see what is up with the missing day.
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I Blog.....but nobody reads.

I was looking at a t-shirt site the other day and found a funny shirt that said “Nobody reads my Blog!” and thought it was very funny.  So I go home and tell my wife and daughter about the shirt and they did not laugh.  I am still laughing when I tell them again and they tell me “That’s not funny!”  The heck it is!  I guess I am a little left of center.  Wack!  I guess it is like those Sonic commercials on TV, either you get it or you don’t.  It does not take much to get a chuckle out of me. (I bet Becky reads my post!)

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Blogging from McDonalds

Well, I took te laptop with me to breakfast today and decided to blog while here at the Russellvile McD's. Just got back from Alaska on a photo trip to the McNeil River. saw lots of bears and had a great time. I am having a hard time getting back into the grove of things. It is amazing what two weeks off will do to you! My laptop is several years old, but still works just fine for stuff like this.

I bougt me a new Targus backpack to carry my laptop around a bit more since there are so many wireless hotspots around town. I used to carry the laptop in a Targus laptop case, but it was too bulky and heavy. This back pack seems to be the solution for the time being. I am a bag nut, so if I see something better, I will get it. I hope to upload some Alaska pics to the blog soon.
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Eagle Landing

Eagle Landing
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Blogging here from Alaska. I just got back from the McNeil river and am posting a few images to the blog. This image of an eagle landing in Homer out on te Spit. Have a few more images to upload later.
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Barn Owl2

Barn Owl2
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Have not posted in a while and I have been busy getting ready for my Alaska trip. I was at the Hawk Center the other day and Lynne had a new bird that needed to be photographed. This is a female Barn Owl and what a nice bird. You can get more info about the Hawk Center or donte toa great cause at http://www.hawkcenter.org
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barred owl

barred owl
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

A pic of one of the owls from the HAWK Center. This is an educational bird that was injured and still has some problems that would not allow it to survive in the wild. If you wouldlike to donate to a great cause visit the link http://www.hawkcneter.org
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Becky saw my post.

I got an email and saw that my lovely wife had left a comment on my blog. Thanks babe! So I guess I better be careful about what I say or I might get into some trouble! Thanks for reading!
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Great Horned Owl #2

Great Horned Owl #2
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Here is a pic of a Great Horned Owl taken at my friend's home where she spends a great deal of time nursing them back to health. This is just one of the owls she has and uses for an educational bird. Will post more pics soon.
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Lottery winner!

I was informed last month I am a lottery winner to go back to McNeil river to photograph the Alsakan Brown Bears. I have been there once, and many people have tried to win the lottery to be able to go to McNeil. They only let 140 people in a year and there are a lot of people that apply for a permit each year. Winners if they are Alaska residents will pay $150 to get the permit. Out of towners like myself have to pay $350 for the permit. A small price to pay for a great chance to photograph bears.

Now all the list making, planning, buying, etc. is taking place right now. Join me at my McNeil website for all the info:
http://ozarkimages.squarespace.com
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New top case in for BMW.

I decided I needed a top case for the R1100RS to go along with the BMW system cases. This will be a nice addition for the motocycle which will allow me to carry a lot more stuff for my daily commute. I ordered it 3 days ago from Bob's BMW and it was delivered today! WOW! That was quick! The box was about 17 pounds and packed very well. I ordered a lock to go along with it because BMW does not include it in the price. It was easy to install and went right on without any problems. I think I am going to like this case.

I tested it out and my full face helmet fits inside the case. The guy at Bob's BMW said it would not fit, but I had hopes that it would. It was a close fit, but I was happy to see the lid close whih the helmet inside. This case will make my daily commute better because I can take my favorite bag with me. I carry a Timbuk2 medium sized messenger bag to carry all the crap I tke to work every day. What's in it? I should take a pic and post it on flickr. Let's see here car keys, knife, ink pens, video iPOD, card reader, D-ring, flash light, sun glasses, reading glasses, cell phone, 2 USB flash drives, wallet, mints, gum, duct tape wallet, beenie, book to read, loose change, key ring of tabs from energy drinks, and my lunch. That's a buch of crap and there is still room for more. I love those bags!
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New HD for the studio.

After all the hard drive crashes over the past week we decided to get another disk for a back-up drive. I bought a 500 gig Lacie Big Disk USB drive to use as general data storage as well as for back-up data. Who would have thought I needed a half a Tera Byte drive, but it turns out I do. As a mater of fact, with the other drives on the system it brings the storage on the computer to almost a Tera Byte. Media storage is a good thing in the days of geek technology.

I have pulled all my hair out trying to setup my crazy server. I guess I am not getting it! I will have to call one of my IT geek friends to help me get this thing up and going. I want to set up a FTP server for the studio with this and maybe I can make it happen. More research to do on this subject.

I am really loving my new video iPOD! This thing is so cool and with 30 gigs of storage I am sure I will not be short on any type of entertainment. I can watch videos, movies, view my favorite photos, and not to mention the gobs of music I can stuff on the thing. The new iPOD is much smaller than last years model and has much better battery usage. I get about 14 hours on run time on it so far. I would only get about 10 hours on the old iPOD, so I am loving it!
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Katmai National Park

Katmai National Park
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

Just thought I would post this pic to the blog. This is my wife's favorite image and it makes her smile when she sees it. So if she reads my blog today, she will get a smile.
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Another HD crash!

Well, I guess I should have known it was time to get another hard drive when the last one crashed.  It ran about a week and had the same problem again.  I think the drive had a problem and I will replace it and start over again.  I have enjoyed my new iPOD and I am glad I updated to the new one.  Of course my daughter is glad also that I upgraded, because she got my old one for $100.  Now that's a sweet deal!  I have been trying to get my server up and going without much success.  I have a server that was given to me and it runs on Server 2000 and I have the disks, but have no admin password to get back in the system.  So it looks like I will be formatting and loading Windows server to get the thing up and going again.  It's an old system, but it will work just fine for what I want to use it for.  That's about it for now.

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Recovering from multiple HD failures.

Well, as I have said before there are two types of computer users...those tht have had hard drive failures..and those that will. After 6 years of one of my computers running non stop, Windows got stupid and could not find it's self. The day before the crash i had copied all my photos to another drive on another computer and the very next day the HD crashed. It' s all up and running again, but the computer that Becky uses at the studio decided to do the same thing. That was not as easy of a fix. after about 8 hours of placing programs back on and loading pre-sets we werre back up and running. Got to get some serious hard drive back up of some sort.
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New iPOD

Well I broke down and got the new iPOD video the other day.  It's only been a year since I had my original iPOD, but it was too tempting to get one.  My daughter wanted to buy a Nano, and I asked her what she really wanted, and she said "I really want one like your."  So, I decided to sell mine to her and take my Christmas money and get one.  I have not loaded any video's on it yet, but it's on the list to do.  This is my first day to use it and it jams just like my previous one.  One thing I like is that it's a little smaller as well as lighter than the previous model.  The bigger color screen is really nice.  So far I am enjoying it!

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The name says it all!

blaze1
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

I was out Geocaching Friday with PigNewton and we went to a cache that is near a salvage area for a local wrecker service when we spot this. Poor owner, I guess the tag says it all.

This is at the cache "Think about it", the way point is GCRHHF if you want to check it out. It is a puzzle cache and it took a few days to solve the puzzle.

Talia and I on Tater Hill

Talia and I
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

My daughter and I on Tater Hill. A great day for a hike.

Me on Tater Hill

Me on Tater Hill
Originally uploaded by bmwrider.

A shot from the Tater Hill hike today on New Years Day. Lots of fun today!

Happy New Year!

Well it was a great day today for a hike. Becky wanted to hike up Tater Hill located near her gradma's home. Becky had said when she was about 5 years old they hiked up Tater Hill on a New Years Day. So we decided to do that today. Talia had a friend with her today and we all decided to take the hike to the famous "Tater Hill". Most towns have small mountains near them called "Tator Hill". The map makers ran out of names and just started calling them Tator Hill.

We arrived at the foot of the hill and gathered our packs and proceded to climb the mountain. Having my GPS with me I took note of the elevation. We started at about 540 foot elevation and would end up at about 870 feet. We took off across the field and headed up the mountain. Saw lots of deer tracks along the way. As we entered the forest there was heavy leaf cover on the ground. We were slipping and sliding like it was ice or snow. This will be intresting on the way back down. Doc followed Becky up the mountain, while the girls were up ahead of her and I lead the way up the hill. After about 20 min we were on top of Tater Hill. Nice view of the farm land below and Annies Chappel. Upon top we rested and took some photos of our big adventure. The hardest thing was getting Doc up on the rock.

Going back down I slipped right away and hit the ground hard. It looks like only one way down was on our butts! We started sliding down the mountain and it was like sliding in the snow. The girls were screaming like it was an amusement ride. At the bottom of the mountain we all had dirty pants. What a fun day.
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