normal, the hard way

The August normal for rain on the hill-top is 0.99 inches. We're making a 3-day run at it, and given our forecast for the 31st we'll come close but likely a pinch short. Before the 25th we stood at 0.02", so it's a mighty effort to close the gap. We can always reach 90° again in September, so summer has probably not vanished entirely - but it's a very nice respite.

As far as annual rainfall though.. normal is not going to happen. In order to be our driest ever Oct-Sep water year of our nine-ish years living up here, we just need to stay below 15 inches in September. Since our wettest Sep is about 5½", that's a pretty safe bet. Wetter months have happened though, so a few typhoon remnants at the right time can make the unlikely come true!

Update: we made it to normal, thanks to a surprising damp last day. No forecast had more than 1/2" but we reached 2/3", and ended August at 118% of normal. A few showers spilled into September, so we need only 14" and change to have a 'normal' year. Yeah, .. no.

Six weeks later -

 and I'm back in the hospital, fighting another pancreatitis event. This time I'm at OHSU in Portland, where hepato-biliary folks are hopefully available to chip in with insights. A sleepless night full of new tests and an early chat with four MDs in my room.. yes I'm a bit punchy.

They gave me a room with a nice view, though mostly of clouds and campus.

Hot spell?

 

It's been in the forecast for several days now; the weather service has backed off a bit*, but WxU is holding strong. If NWS has its way their peak is Wed at 90° here.. which is 100° around Portland most likely. Definitely good weather for sleeping outside under the Perseid meteors!

Looks like we picked up a portable swamp cooler just in time.

* Thursday models are showing more heat again, so the WxU could be about even with NWS forecasts.

Update - NWS remains at mid-90s peak on Monday - but WxU has boosted things a bit!

2nd update. WxU wins again! 

NWS never gave us a 3-digit forecast.

Portland hit 108° on Monday..

Major Shakeup!

I've been going through a Search phase recently, contemplating my options and placing an occasional bid on bodies that are more fully featured and modern than my classic eM1 but at an 'affordable' (=borderline-absurd) price. This means dealing with a flip-out screen, which is not my preference - but all the tip+flip screens are on current-generation bodies, and those are beyond my budget.*

I tried for a silver eM5 iii and watched for G9 and eM1.ii deals, but they stayed beyond my bidding budget. 

In the end, an all-black eM5.iii came within reach - so I reached. This has all the eM1.ii features but in a lighter body (with a smaller battery).. and the flip screen. Oh well, for all the updates gained, I can manage it.

Those updates within the 5.iii are the 4Mpx denser sensor, more touch screen uses, a high res multishot mode, AF limiter, more options for button assignment and faster processors. Oh yes, and 4k video again .. assuming I ever do so shoot video, which is an entirely different issue!

Oddly enough, I liked shooting video ~15 years ago, and the Casio P505 flip screen was a nice feature! Maybe I'll regress to 2006 instead of my early-60s childhood and adapt more quickly than I expect?

Kit Impact!

• The Sony experiment is well and truly over with this purchase. DXO sensor rankings are too close to call between the K-s2 and the 20Mpix 4thirds (G9, eM1ii, eM5iii). The Pentax can handle the job of slide duplication at 20Mpx well enough, since the 3:2 format won't be cropped with that sensor. The manual-focus Sigma macro will stay a while also.
• The backup 'small' body position is open! Does the gx7 make more sense there, or should the recently acquired Air A01 take that spot? Hmm.
• I'm pretty sure that I cannot afford a better overall kit than the eM5.iii, 12-60+35-100/2.8 and my fun primes!

*Some x-T Fujis have this screen, but then wx seals and IS vanish - which I'd also regret losing. Nearly all Alphas have tip screens but the features I like come & go  with every model update. Also: living with Oly and Sony menu systems at the same time has absolutely no appeal. 

keeping weird in my kit

I am about to give the Olympus Air A01 a try!

It's an EM10 camera within a tube - a few buttons and a µSD card slot, but a full wifi/bluetooth chat line to a local phone. It was a bargain for the feature set, but it's gained a reputation for spotty phone connections. Sure it will do fine with the 10mm fisheye so I never have to aim (or even move off a 20' focus point since it's fixed at f/5.6!) but I hope it can be happy with my Pixel5. As a simple camera for high/low perspectives and possible time as my telescope eyepiece, it's ideal. A normal microSD charge port can recharge the unit from a portable source, and it can do Live Time/Composite tricks like an eM10 and uses the talented 16Mpx sensor that gave a big boost to overall interest in the µ43 platform.

I'm thinking that the G9 is enough camera for pretty much anything - but I'll hold on to the eM1 for a little while, with its tilt screen and Oly Live features that the G9 doesn't quite duplicate. If the A01 works out, the eM1 can step aside for the next user.

This may be a weird call - but I'm not alone in seeing potential in the A01!

And of course I liked the K-01 quite a bit. So why not give it a try..