Diverted!

 For the first time since I was born I spent a few nights in the hospital. That's 24,071 days, more or less! (Time to start a new streak..)

I went from feeling fine at 8pm on Christmas Eve to an ambulance ride at 3am. My intestines had seceded from my body, closing both paths in and out and filling up all passageways with pointy, fist-sized rocks. My tests were good, but my inability to take my prescription meds left me with high BP, a bit of discomfort - and lousy sleep without my CPAP.

My body finally responded to softening agents and the barriers were lowered. More tests will likely be ordered next week.

10Jan update: it took several days to stop retching, which checked my 2023 box about losing weight. I'm up a pound today but down 15# since Christmas - exhausting, disgusting and highly effective. 

a white Christmas? Keep dreaming

 December has been calm though not bright - we are around 25% of normal for the month as of the 20th. A pre-Christmas chill is coming a few days too soon, and a tropical tap will erase any wintry weather with time to spare.

Our forecast over the last week has been very consistent: Chaos! A few days back we were looking at 6" snow on the ground this week.. but the Arctic front decided Seattle was far enough, give or take Olympia. We've been mid-30s and damp, while Anacortes had over 6" in our stead. Now the moisture is leaving and the front will drop for a very cold Wed/Thu spell. By Friday morning we could be under a coating of ice, which is very rare for us in the hill-top. By Friday evening the semi-tropical air will win out and a very wet Christmas weekend will erase the cold memories.

 

Here's the latest estimate for our transition at 750' elevation.  Over 1/4" of ice before we get above freezing. About 1½" of rain then takes over through the 25th, and more to follow.

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Transition Reality: mostly sleet not ZR, and less than 1/4" of that in total. Christmas Eve was all rain, but not warm enough to get the ice beneath actually melted. As of 3PM it's still in the 30s here on the hill-top.

 

Christmas Eve Update - here's a forecast of total 'rainfall' through 4PM on the 31st! We're ~6.2" short of our normalcy target. What does this show? 

Hm, 5-7 inches - that could work!

This would be the third consecutive month that we needed to make up over 50% of our deficit in the last week. We hit 69% and 95% for Oct/Nov, but have yet to reach 100%.. 

decisions

Sony's system has several choices for adapting A-mount (Minolta, Sony phase 1) lenses. Each does well when matched up with the 'right' camera and the 'right' lens. Does your lens have a motor? Is your camera body a 4th generation or 3rd, or 2nd? 

If some of your lenses have motors and some don't .. well, you need to sort out your priorities!

So here's my main two options:

• Current: LA-EA3 + a fully functional Tamron SP 70-300. I also have the native Sony 28-70oss, and Minolta zooms that work but without AF.
• Plan B: LA-EA4 would provide AF for the Minoltas 24-105, 70-210ii and 100-300 .. which means louder AF and a mere 4mm extra AF coverage (24-28mm). The Tamron would work fine with the ea4 - but only by using the more limited AF points of the ea4.

Most of my long shots are not AF dependent (e.g. Birds on Branches), and I'm old enough to remember how to pre-focus for the occasional BiF shot. 

I've heard the Tamron+ea3 has excellent image quality, for many users as good or better compared to their 100-300 Apo, but adapted lenses' performance is still short of native E-mount lenses.

The ea4 uses SLT tech and an infamous screw drive. How loud is it, and how versatile for manual focus? Some owners have reported that occasionally their AF pin stays in the lens, which limits MF; it seems to have a DMF setting which would retract the AF pin though. A dyxum post suggests that their ea4+ssm pairing is more accurate at long focal lengths than ea3+ssm. 

The Tamron is over 220g heavier than the 100-300, including the ~50g adapter difference - and the 70-210ii would be a bit lighter (and brighter)! I must say: that savings is worth something. There's also the autocorrection of native E-mount images to consider; the 28-70oss definitely gets treated, but who can say about the 24-105?

A-mount lenses transmit aperture and focal length to the camera for stabilization and exposure, which is nice. That's a bonus over my third option (an adapted Pentax 70-300apo from Sigma) without a $350 adapter. For that amount I could put both ea3 and ea4 in my bag!

12/16 Update - I picked up an EA4 adapter and it's on the way. Guess the Tamron can depart..

on to December..

We still have a week to go in November.. but the forecast now shows 'interesting' weather coming!

Too soon to determine anything with certainty. Forecast ensembles show a ±8 degree temperature range at 5000' elevation - so definitely snow, or not snow, or perhaps a mix with rain - are all in play! At least they mostly agree it will be damp enough to worry about whether that dampness is solid or liquid..

November will get perhaps another ½-1" of rain first, so we could reach 80% of normal.  So we'll head into December about four inches down in the bucket from Oct+Nov. 

The leaves are nearly down now, so at least branches will be less at risk if snow does fall. And the blackberry brambles will wait for 2023 for their comeuppance.