Beach Umbrella in the sun

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Our beach umbrella in the early morning sun at Cocoa Beach in Florida. 

This beach umbrella has made several travels with us now, saving our skin for four years. We got it after a full day in the sun at Gulf Shores, Alabama. We figured that just buying our own umbrella would be easier than trying to get one of the umbrellas there at the beach. It turned out to be a good investment. This umbrella has been to several beaches now, although it has seen the most action at Cocoa Beach. 

But on our last day this past summer at Cocoa Beach, we didn't get to put out our umbrella. A tropical storm was out in the Atlantic, far enough away that it wasn't threatening our vacation. But the winds were pretty strong. Strong enough that it kept blowing beach umbrellas all around. So we decided to do without for the day. Which made us appreciate our umbrella all the more.

Not bad for a $20 umbrella from Wal-Mart.

Photo location: Lori Wilson Park, Cocoa Beach, Florida

A three-exposure (-2, 0, +2) HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, edited in GIMP

Observations of the past week (8/22-8/28)

Here are the Observations of the Past Week from Twitter and Facebook. This past week was a happiness week. Why? Read on:

Happy Monday to you! The day is as happy as you make it. Even on a Monday. (Attitude helps determine most everything else, after all.)

It's about time to get my groove on. If only I had a groove. (I'm still groovy, I just don't have a particular groove.)

Preseason football is a good start, but it just isn't quite the real thing. Kind of like William Shatner's hair. (Sorry about that, Mr. Shatner.)

Happy Tuesday! What's happy about it? Well for starters, it isn't Monday. (And that's always a good thing. Unless Monday was a holiday.)

I'm hungry! Anyone have any snacks to share? (Hunger hits at the most inopportune times sometimes.)

Did you ever think it might be fun to rent a hot dog truck for a day, and drive through neighborhoods giving away free hot dogs? (The more I think about that, the better it sounds.)

Happy Wednesday! Did you know that according to statistics Wednesday is the most productive day of the work week? Get busy! (It's far enough from the weekends that people aren't recovering from the last one or daydreaming about the one to come.)

Okay, who's ready to rumble? (Apparently no one was, because I got no response. I must be pretty intimidating.)

I called the weatherman to see when my next brainstorm would be. He said to stick an umbrella in my ear, just in case. (Don't you just love smart answers from weathermen?)

Happy Thursday! Thursday is named from "Thor's Day", with Thor being the god of thunder. So thunder on toward Friday! (This inspired a whole separate blog post.)

Had a bigger lunch than what I'm used to. Which means I need a longer nap than what I usually get. (Of course, I don't usually get a nap at all. So 50% longer is still nothing.)

Can't think of anything. I'm stumped. Too much football, I suppose. (And that was during pre-season games.)

Happy Friday! What more needs to be said? (Enough said.)

Anybody have a good thingamajig that I can borrow? (All I can find is a whatchamacallit. And it is the wrong size.)

At the second birthday party of the day. Glad I'm not the one getting older. (Just wish I was still young enough to have cake at more than one party a day.)

Gotta get to bed. Church in the morning! (Getting enough rest is important when it comes to giving your all in a worship service, after all.)

Fantasyland

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Fantasyland at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

Of all the areas of the Magic Kingdom, we probably spend the least amount of time in Fantasyland. We usually ride It's a Small World and see the Mickey's Philharmagic 3D movie, but that's about it. Jaylin often asks about riding Peter Pan's Flight, but we almost always skip it because the line is so long. 45 minutes or more for a 2 minute ride? No thanks. Sure, we could get a Fastpass, but most of the time we are already holding one for something else that we really want to ride.

Work has started on some big changes to Fantasyland, including a Little Mermaid ride and a Beauty and the Beast restaurant. But the word is that the rest of the Fantasyland renovation is getting a second look, because it was seeming to be too "girl oriented." Which sounds good to me, because we have a boy.

Also, to me this is a companion shot to the picture of Walking Down Main Street USA from last week.

Photo location: Fantasyland, Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Florida
A three-exposure (-2, 0, +2) HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, edited in GIMP

College Football Season!

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If you didn't know, college football season starts in just a few days. But then if you didn't know, you probably didn't care to begin with.

Soon, college football stadiums all over the country will fill with devoted fans. And even more fans will watch from the comfort of their own homes. Teams will do battle on the old gridiron to prove which one will have bragging rights in age old rivalries.

In our house, we like football of most any kind. But I especially prefer college football myself. Much more exciting than watching the highly paid players of the National Football League year after year. Fortunately, we all like the same teams, so our house isn't divided as are some of the other homes we know.

The above picture is from the University of Florida and the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, also known as The Swamp. It seemed like a big place when there were only around 10 or so people wandering around. I imagine when a visiting team walks in and sees the tens of thousands of fans cheering for the rival team, it can be downright intimidating.

And if you look closely, you can see Laura and Jaylin standing down by the field. 

Photo location: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

A three-exposure (-2, 0, +2) HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, edited in GIMP

Greetings from Tomorrowland

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Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, and the walkway known as Avenue of the Planets that leads back to the Central Plaza.

I like this photo because it looks like a postcard. Back in the old days (that makes me sound old, doesn't it?), Walt Disney World had lots of postcards for sale. In my day they were 25 cents each, and before that they were probably even less. They would have all sorts of scenes from around the parks, and of course you could buy them and mail them to the folks back home.

Times change, and people don't send postcards as much as they used to, so Walt Disney World doesn't have for sale as many as it used to. Just another memory from the "good old days".

And speaking of postcards, would you like to send a postcard to help out Jaylin's class at school?

Photo location: Tomorrowland, Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Florida

A three-exposure (-2, 0, +2) HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, edited in GIMP

Want to help Jaylin's class?

Want to help out Jaylin's second grade class at school? They are collecting postcards from all 50 states. If you would like to help out, please send a postcard from where you are to Jaylin's class. When they receive a card, they will find the location on a map and learn facts about that area. International postcards are welcome, too!

To help, just send a postcard to the address below. Postcard from Tennessee will even be welcome, because they can learn a lot about our home state, too. Thanks!

Address for postcards:
Mrs. Kolznak's 2nd Grade Class
Harding Academy
8360 Macon Road
Cordova, TN 38018

Sunrise and fog

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What's even better than a sunrise? A sunrise that you don't have to get up all that early for.

And besides that, a sunrise on a foggy morning is even better. Such as this one here, seen in our backyard. It wasn't a particularly heavy fog, but it was just right for catching the light rays streaming out from the sun as it started to come up from behind the trees.

There is always something cool about light rays through the fog. And a two-dimensional picture doesn't capture it nearly as well as seeing it in three dimensions, so that when you move around, you get a completely different view of the light rays.

It makes for a pretty nifty show!

Photo location: Williston, Tennessee
A three-exposure (-2, 0, +2) HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, edited in GIMP

The Burnsland List of Relevance for 8/22-8/28

People come from near and far each week to read the Burnsland List of Relevance. Actually, once they come near, they try to go very, very far.

1. Cool mornings - I have often said that I love the hot summer days. But these cool mornings are a nice for a little bit of a change. And it gives our air conditioner a break.
2. Garage doors - They are nice. When they open. But then when the opener doesn't work and you have to get out of the car and close the door, or run through the house to open the door, it's a pain. At least it didn't happen in the cold of winter.
3. Football - I love football. We all do at our house, actually. Preseason NFL football is a good start, but I'm really holding out for the college games.
4. Sleeping late - Something we won't get to do at our house this weekend, unfortunately.
5. Sunday afternoon naps - See #4. Unfortunately.
6. Hamburgers - It's a complete meal with all four food groups included. Meat is obvious; dairy from the cheese if you have a cheeseburger; lettuce, tomato, and onions are the vegetables; and the bun for bread. What? You mean the four food groups have been replaced by a food pyramid?
7. Pineapple - Have you ever had a hamburger with a slice of pineapple on it? Delicious!
8. Cars - Sure, we all complain about traffic, but it still beats walking.

If you are still reading this far, you survived to the end! Well done!

Walking down Main Street USA

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People walk down Main Street USA at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in the early evening. Although I generally try to get as few people as possible in my pictures, I do enjoy this one. You can tell a lot about the people here just by looking at this one slice of time.

Interestingly, there are many people walking down the street, as if they have just arrived at the park, even though this was taken around 7:15. But then we were just arriving too, having gone to the Contemporary Resort to look around a bit, and then to the Polynesian Resort for supper at Captain Cook's before coming back into the Magic Kingdom.

Even though it was almost two hours before the first performance of the Main Street Electrical Parade, there were quite a few people already saving their prime spaces on the street curbs. Instead of saving our own place, we used the time during the parade to ride more rides.

Then there is the older man at the right with the long braid of hair running down his back. I say "older" because his hair is gray. Not the kind of person that you would typically see with a long braid of hair.

And then there is the couple to the left of the frame who are walking toward the camera. I would guess that they are thinking, "Look at all these people coming in, and those others sitting on the curb. We're getting out of here before all this parade craziness begins!" And they probably had a much shorter wait for the Monorail than those of us who stayed for the parade and fireworks. They must be the smart ones of the crowd.

Photo location: Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Florida
A single RAW exposure tonemapped in Photomatix, edited in GIMP

Days of the week and their names

Here is a list of the days of the week and where their names come from. Don't know why, but I find this interesting. Maybe it is because my class was the first to have computer literature substituted for etymology, so I missed all that cool word stuff way back when.

Sunday - The day of the sun. Pretty obvious there. With the sun being that big thing in the sky. There is no evidence that Sunday was related to NFL football and tractor pulls ("Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!") until the late 20th Century.

Monday - The day of the moon. Again, except for a missing O, it is relatively obvious. And probably not coincidentally, they usually show a shot of the moon sometime during Monday Night Football.

Tuesday - Originally "Tiw's day" named after Tiw, which was the Old English form of Tyr, the Norse god of war. I guess we have something to fight about on Tuesday.

Wednesday - This is where it gets a bit confusing. Wednes is a Middle English form of Woden, from the Norse god Odin, who was linked to the Roman god Mercury. Which explains why the Spanish version is Miercoles. And if you say "Odin's Day" really fast, or maybe really slow, it does sound a little like Wednesday.

Thursday - A form of "Thor's day" with Thor being the Norse god of thunder. Evidently, people felt like thundering on Thursday because the next day is...

Friday - Which was not named after the restaurant. But rather it comes from a variation of the Old English "Frige day", which was not named after the refrigerator. Frigg, sometimes known as Frigga, was a Norse goddess who happened to be married to Odin. She is described as the "foremost among the goddesses". Just as Friday is the foremost among the days to most people.

Saturday - Named after the planet Saturn and not the god Saturn, actually. Bet you didn't see that coming. In ancient astrology, it was believed that the planet Saturn in some way controlled the first hour of that particular day of the week, so they decided to name it "Saturn's day". Of course the god named Saturn was the god of agriculture, and Saturday is a good day to go out and cut the grass. 

So now you know. Impress your friends!

Laura at the beach

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Laura at the Cocoa Beach Pier in the early evening. This was our first nightly walk on the beach during our trip to Cocoa Beach. And it turned out to be our most daring, too.

When we first got to the beach for our walk on this particular night, we read about the bacteria warning at the beach. But we decided to go ahead and walk at the edge of the water.

After getting back to the hotel room and reading more about it, we decided that - just to be safe - we would avoid the "contaminated" water there altogether. So although we walked along the beach each night, we made it a point to stay on the dry sand after this.

Fortunately, it all turned out okay, and we didn't have any problems at all.

Photo location: Cocoa Beach Pier, Cocoa Beach, Florida
A single RAW exposure tonemapped in Photomatix, edited in GIMP

Observations of the past week (8/15-8/21)

Here it is, our regular weekly feature of Observations of the Past Week from Twitter and Facebook. Of course, "regular" doesn't necessarily mean "normal".

Some days riding in the car is like having Max Headroom in our back seat. (And if you don't remember Max Headroom, you weren't around in the 80s.)

First day of school! Is it time for a school holiday yet? (Always looking ahead. That's me.)

Don't you just love when the power goes out for no reason at all? (Especially when you haven't saved your work in a while.)

Monday Night Football, how you've been missed. Thanks for making up for there being nothing on TV. (Of course, it's pre-season football. But you take what you can get.)

We had an armadillo in our back yard last night. Odd to see them alive instead of with their legs up on the highway. (And no, they aren't cute. No matter what you see on TV.)

I put in a movie, and Jaylin asks if he can turn it down. What? (It's like we're in one of those cheesy "let's switch places" movies.)

I may or may not be about 50/50 today. But I'm not sure. (Ambiguity is such a vague term.)

Dear Target shopper: Leaving your car running while you are shopping is probably not the best idea. Sincerely, Everyone Else In the World. (I guess we all have to do our part to contribute to Global Warming.)

Tried the new Facebook Places on my phone, and was informed that it isn't currently available in my region. What? (A big splashy media rollout, and then it isn't available? Nice.)

It was Thursday. The sun was shining. Love was in the air. Unfortunately, all the love was for Friday. Thursday felt scorned. (Thursday tries to be such a drama queen.)

Friday the 20th doesn't get anywhere near the attention as its cousin, Friday the 13th. (I think it is some sort of discrimination.)

No matter how much you beg, I won't show you my collection of unmatched socks. (I'm sure I'm not the only one with such a collection.)

There has been a nice breeze blowing all day today. Except for the two hours I was out cutting grass. (At which time, of course, it was as hot as a furnace. A furnace with no breeze.)