The Compulsive Ramblings Of A Philotherian: telescope

I think I need to start by saying that I hate having "iPhone" in the title, but cell phone seems so dated anymore, even though that's still what it is, lol. And I mean, it's not a lie, I do have an iPhone. It's an XR that I got for free on my aunt and uncles cell phone plan, so it's not like I'm being flashy and saying, "Oh look at me, I have the newest iPhone 14 Pro Max!" I mean, don't get me wrong, I would love to have one, but no way in hell I'm paying that kinda money for a phone... no thanks.

Anyways, since the winter months are starting to roll in I'm going to spend less time outdoors taking photos. Plus there's going to be a lot of travel and exhaustion this holiday season due to work and just shopping for the holidays, so I'm not going to be dragging my camera around a whole lot. I will, however, have my phone on me and will take pictures with that.

I feel like my brain isn't working properly. We raked the yard yesterday and it took well over 2 hours of strenuous, non-stop raking. I was so tired and sore last night. Raking really uses a lot of muscles that I don't normally use. It didn't help that the leaves were like 6-8 inches deep. I think we ended up with 9 huge piles of leaves by the end of the day. I took pics, so you can see for yourself.

With that being said, here are a hand full of photos that I've taken over the past week. Enjoy!

Such a perfect view of a fall evening out of the window.

Some wild ducks from the local lake came to visit Sunday evening.

I got extremely close before the cat scared them off... by chasing them.

This cool dude dressed as a Pirate on Halloween at Walmart.

The drive home Monday. Always such a pretty sunset.

This is South on Highway 67, it has amazing scenery.

Last highway sunset for good measure.

This was yet another beautiful sunset on St. Francis river.

The old bridge here gave prettier views of the river.

This was from my walk one day this week, I think it was Wednesday. That's the culty neighbors property on the other side of the lake.

Our entire road is just so pretty.

The Intex Ultra Frame pool looks so sad with pools of water and leaves on the cover.

Okay, so this is a picture from the ISS window when I was stationed there... not really, obviously. Since I don't have a cell phone mount for my telescope, I have to hold my camera up to the lens to try and get a decent picture.

I have my Barlow lens attached as well, so that makes it extra hard to get a decent photo. I just love how well defined the craters of the moon are with the Barlow lens attached.

This was the yard before it was raked. Minus that little pile that I started on in the center.

This is the other side. We do not have a flat yard, so there are really deep sections of leaves.

This was after all the leaves were raked into piles. It's amazing how green the grass was in places!

The other side. We did still have to rake the upper right corner by the fence still, but we did finish it all last night.

Max was a huge help, of course.

The fun and scary part, burning the leaves!

We got brave and did more than one at once.

I got some really cool slow-mo videos of the fire, but didn't feel like trying and failing to upload a video here without uploading to YouTube first and then embedding.

And lastly, the picture from today with all but 3 piles burned. Not it looks like some type of creepy alien markings all over the yard. Should be fun to stomp around in when I'm cleaning the glider's drop trays and wheels later.

There are lots of days where I don't pick up my actual camera and opt for a cell phone photo or two instead, so I thought I would pick out the best or most random pics on my phone from the past several months and share them here. They start from the end of December of last year until just a few short days ago.

I'd also like to add how different phone pics look on your phone versus how they look on a computer. I read someone say one time that iPhone photos only look good on an iPhone and they're not entirely wrong, lol. Enjoy!

This is a T-Ring that I ordered to go with my camera adapter for my telescope.

Here's the setup. Absolutely no instructions, had to figure this out on my own.

A fire in the middle of a snowy night.

That one time I took my moms youngest dog, Hyde, to pickup food with me. He thinks he's a tiny dog.

He loved looking at all the traffic.

He wants to be a tiny little chiweenie chauffer.

Fast forward a couple months to Ella's birthday. She got to go solo and get a birthday burger.

She has some crazy chihuahua eyes, lol.

Hyde upstairs, basking in the sunlight.

Here's the weird bug that was on the cucumbers over the summer.

This is just some of the strawberries that I got from Frank's produce. We made loads of strawberry jam.

Finally found my favorite hot sauce on the planet, Red Devil! I used to could find this for .99 a bottle at T&C in Piedmont, but they haven't carried it in like 8 years or longer. Amazon for the win!