Best Of

We maintain a couple of poles out in the garden for... well... whomever feels like sittin' atop them.
Today, it was a red-shouldered hawk. Light wasn't great, but I had a good view of it.


manual exposure; white balance set for cloudy weather.
DSC_0296 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
auto white balance 🤪

bird flew from pole to pole; it was out there hangin' out, lookin' for prey, for 20 minutes or more.

got strafed a couple of times by a crow.

I find myself on a surprise work trip to Vegas this week, so last night after work I drove down to the strip to see how the street conversion is coming for the race that’s just around the corner. I’ve driven the strip over 100 times through the years, but I gotta say theres something special about driving it knowing it will be a racetrack in a week or so. The amount of construction is truly staggering - from the grandstands and luxury boxes to the catch-fences and track lighting to the crowd control. I did learn quickly that the race is a touchy subject with the locals - they hate it. I suppose I get it to an extent - their city gets torn up for a month, and they are more or less priced out of attendance. On the positive side, I don’t think I’ve ever driven on a smoother stretch of pavement…:-)

Lighting and luxury seating setup



Turns 11 & 12





Grandstands right before start/finish





Track layout

We are thinking about a suv. The wife hates hiway driving. I'm hoping
a bigger vehicle will calm her down. Right now if I drive on a busy hiway,
The only way she'll ride along is if she sits in the back seat. She's ok on
quiet hiways. We are going to start looking at used 4runners after the
the new year. Maybe even a Sequoia.