I'll try to check that out, Bill. This phone still baffles me. I still only know the minimum needed to get by. Do you suppose it could be that the camera actually sees the "real" colors, and the person viewing the scene can't see them? Instead of the camera enhancing the colors deceptively? Either way, it's a little spooky.
Ha! Ha! .. Let me give it another try. Do you suppose the sky was really that blue but I couldn't see it because of the contrast with the headlights and other things in the picture? Or does the camera sense the color blue in the sky and enhance it? Here is another picture taken without headlights or flash that surprised me. There is no way I could see all the details in the trees and bushes. Just mainly the contrast of the sky. So the camera is certainly better than your eyes when it comes to contrast. I suppose this is routine stuff to know, if you are a photographer. Which I ain't.
I found this online for the Samsung Galaxy S10e under the highlights section of features. Night Mode Imagine taking stunningly clear night shots. Upgraded Night Mode brightens up super low light scenes, making colors pop even in the dark.
@Von Jones That would be great for identifying prowlers, etc., but if I take a selfie in the dark there is a good reason why I want it to stay poorly lit.
8/14/2020 (Friday) Back to the tractor battery... It weighs 41 pounds, you have to remove things to get to it, then lift it up and out at an angle, because the hood is in the way. I replaced it once before and swore to never try it again. Called the tractor dealer in the morning on the chance they might come out and replace it, maybe do a simple service check while they are there? "Can't do that. Have to bring it into the shop. $150 to haul it in, plus $78/hour labor." That seems awfully high, but more important, it would mean at least 2 trips out there and 2 days of waiting. They agreed to come out just to replace the battery that afternoon, still $78/hr including driving time. I wanted this to be over with. While waiting out there I tried to take the front grill off the tractor and get at the battery that way. No luck. By 4:30 it was clear no one was going to show up, got slightly annoyed at the battery, and yanked it out the same way I did it before. Scraped skin on arms now make the wheelbarrow incident look like it was a pillow fight. The hard part was done. It's easier to put one back because you have gravity on your side. You can buy a battery at a lot of places with no waiting. Called tractor place to cancel. They apologized profusely for forgetting, and offered to come out Monday afternoon for free---just the cost of the battery. I said never mind, but they kept insisting. I put everything back together, minus the battery, because I wanted to see how they would do it, starting from scratch. After I got home I found one of those online paid Question/Answer people who volunteered one sentence for free: "The TC30 tractor grill should be removed to replace the battery." This was obviously a theoretical answer.
8/17/2020 (Monday) Back out to the farm at noon to do more waiting. A young man showed up at 5:15. He was going to remove even more tractor parts than necessary to get to the battery. Never even considered removing the grill, even after I asked about it. He thought the 12" tail wheel on the bush hog was fine, but I don't think he understands how rough the land is out there. I wish they had sent someone more experienced. Meanwhile the satellite TV went out. Always something. No TV and no internet makes waiting around out there go very slow. The only thing you can do is clean house. But I mopped the floor last time, and the place is cleaner than my house in town, so it seems pointless to do any more cleaning.
8/18/2020 (Tuesday) The cat litter on the lawn seems to be working. Haven't seen a ground squirrel in quite a while. Maybe this time of year they take a vacation anyway? But there is a new problem in the front lawn. Chinch Bugs? This happened in just a few days. About 1/4 of the lawn is already dead. Maybe due to the very mild winter and lots of rain this summer. There may be a patch in the back lawn too. Will try to do the water/coffee can test today to see if I can find them and make sure. According to this man, the chinch bugs inject a toxin in the grass that apparently kills the roots too. Usually you have to worry about grubs and fungus with St Augustine grass. Never bugs before. The fire ants have moved into town big time this year also. Got into them mowing the lawn. Nothing seems to work on them locally. They say you shouldn't treat your whole lawn, because it will kill the good ants, too, and good ants are beneficial. I guess you shouldn't try to control Mother Nature. Just go with the flow. {sigh}
8/20/2020 (Thursday) I wasted the whole afternoon learning about chickens. It all started because something reminded me of eating chicken at the guest house in India (30 years ago). They only served the "drumsticks." The bones were unusually long and straight, and the small end was always chopped off, but not much meat. A little like these, served skinless. They were very spicy and really good. Natu Kodi Curry. . [natu kodi translates to "country chicken"] It occurred to me maybe it wasn't really chicken at all, but some other bird. So I started searching for long-legged chickens in India. I believe these are called Aseels (Asils), which were first bred in India, and are common in West Bengal where I was staying. Not sure if these are completely grown but they already have long legs. The males were bred for fighting. While searching I ran across an hour long video called The Private Life of Chickens. It goes to great lengths to try and convince you that chickens are smart. I still have doubts. My grandmother kept chickens for the eggs. We never had to buy eggs. She had brown chickens and white chickens. The first eggs I remember seeing were brown.
8/23/2020 (Sunday) Plans for the day got derailed because I bought some unsalted chicken broth for the cat. That's my excuse anyway. She licks all the liquid off of wet cat food, even pâté style, and reluctantly eats the rest much later. I tried adding 2-3 tablespoons of the broth. She loves it, eats it all at once, like soup. Toyed with the idea of making broth from scratch, until Google said you need bones. Then I started thinking... The chicken we ate as kids had a long thin needle-like bone alongside the drumstick. Now they are gone. It took so long to find a picture of said bone, I was beginning to think it was my imagination. The next question was, has this bone disappeared due to selective breeding? Or do some breeds of chickens not have these? Couldn't find an answer to that. Then I stumbled on an hour long video of how to butcher and clean a chicken. I remembered my aunt's method. It was barbaric. Wanted to find out if things had become more civilized. That pretty much took care of the afternoon. What lengths a person will go to, to avoid de-cluttering.
I can't seem to let this chicken bone stuff go. Chicken walking with plunger stuck on its rear end to simulate the weight and length of a dinosaur tail. This is part of research indicating that birds are descendants of dinosaurs. A different, but related, topic. Birds of a Fibula The reduction in the size of the fibula (see previous post) seems to be related to a feedback system between two genes (PTHrP and Indian Hedgehog) at the embryonic stage when both the fibula and tibia start out at similar lengths. One gene enhances bone formation and the other inhibits it. Modern birds of different sizes and ecologies all show evidence of this fibula reduction, which suggests it is a 'non-adaptive' process. In other words, a change that does not by itself lead a population to become more adapted to its environment, but is often a byproduct of another adaptive process which does. The best guess is it leads to a longer tibia, but it is not easy to identify exactly how that would work. . Reference Maybe a smaller fibula allows them to dance better? That might make them more attractive to mates than all that noisy crowing and clucking.
(9/6/2020) Sunday - Part 1 A lot of time spent trying to figure out how to fix stuff with little success. This is the way things have been going lately. For example ... Another battery puzzle Last week I hooked up the new battery charger to the riding lawn mower (just for fun). Four days later the light was steady green, meaning it was fully charged and was being "maintained," except now the mower won't start. ...Click, click, click... Hooked it back up carefully for another 4 days, thinking maybe I did something wrong first time. Same thing. Test meter rapidly cycling all over the place. By now the lawn was going to seed, and I was desperate. But even if you got the mower started once, it would stop if you happen to rise up off the seat. Jumped it off the truck battery. With bottom firmly attached to seat, reached around and unhooked the jumper cables, not an easy feat. But the hood was still up (hinged at the front). Drove up the steepest hill on the lawn, shifted in reverse, and slammed on the brakes. Hood slammed shut. Got the lawn mowed. An hour later the meter showed 12.9 volts but mower still wouldn't start??? And why did it happen in the first place? The mower was starting fine before I fixed the battery? This is where I left things. Hoping someone here might have a suggestion. ......... Added later.... As usual, trying to put this in writing made me remember some details while typing. I bet the wires are not making a solid connection with the battery. I did remove some heavy corrosion on the terminals with baking soda first but did not unhook the cables. It scares me. I want to find out right now, but will have to wait until Thursday. I should have just deleted this whole post. If that is the problem, I could have just written: "Had a little trouble starting the mower but figured it out.".. Oh well.
(9/6/2020) - Part 2 The video of the ice cream truck has attracted over 3400 views and I now have 9 "subscribers." I never had "subscribers" before. And a small argument has started in the comments about the truck/van. Ice cream trucks must be really popular. It makes me feel pressure not post silly videos to YouTube anymore. But I will anyway. Finally got to try the mower on the dam Sunday afternoon. A view of the mower just to prove I really used it. It's hard to point the camera behind you with the sun reflecting in your eyes and hold it steady while bouncing around, without driving the tractor into the lake. Video makes it look like you're going faster when you look back. Carried both phones in case the smartphone slipped out of my pocket. Sure enough it was gone when I got back to the house, but I knew I last had it while taking this picture. Jumped in the cart and traced backwards. On the way back, stopped every 100 feet or so, and called it from the flip phone. It was laying in the middle of the road. Except for going to the trouble of getting a new phone, I can't say I would have been too unhappy if the tractor had run over it. I still hate that thing. There is no cup holder on the tractor and no place to carry anything. I need a bag to hang on the roll bar. Anyone remember those water bags they used to tie to the front of cars in the 50's?
That was it. ,Bad corrosion between the battery terminals and the cables. I feel stupid. Years ago, tried to take the cables off a fully charged battery. Big white spark. Cracked like a whip. Made me gun shy about messing with them. Left the new charger on the EZGO battery this time. Thought I'd fix that one too while I'm at it. The outdoor faucet is leaking badly around the top when it's on. It's one of those no freeze faucets. Back to YouTube after I got home. Fingers crossed THIS replacement part is all that's necessary. Sprayed more of the fenceline. It's getting late in the growing season. Progress today is the Green line. Red was last time. It wasn't bad at all. The only stretch left is on the steep hill between two trees down over the road where you can't drive. Will save that 'til next year. Only one tree down. Got the road cleared with the pry bar. That is the handiest thing. Tracks from a wide vehicle out there, but they did not go all the way to the dam. No gravel on the spillway and the tree is still on the fence. Good reason to believe it was Fence Man. I had given up on him. Gives me a reason to call him.