enough already.

I've been through the wringer with the prospective α7 kit. I ordered an α7ii and Minolta lenses, and then picked up an ea3 and ea4 adapter to find what works best for me. 

The answer, sadly, is now None of the Above. 

My brief dabble with an α7Rii seemed to focus with the ea4.. but it had to go to pay medical bills. Now I find the α7ii +ea4 won't focus the Minolta lenses; it just racks from end to end and randomly allows me to take an image, but only one focused to infinity. So whether it's a bad setting on the 7ii or a malfunction in the ea4 adapter, I now have no autofocus capabilities. Yes it's a fun camera with the Pentax primes, but the eM1 now has two excellent AF zooms (Lumices 12-60 +100-300) and a dual PD+CD focus system as good as the 7ii can match.

As to those Pentax lenses.. well I still have the K-s2 body with its unhappy solenoid. While no match for the Sony 36x24 image possibilities, it's a fine little camera - and will be more so once the solenoid is replaced. It can autofocus the 17-28 fisheye and Σs 28-105 +70-300, even when exposure is in M mode with the solenoid issue. And once that foul part is swapped out, the tiny 18-50 and 70 Limited will be play with full automation!

And then we have the happy µ43 kit: the eM1 and two zooms do everything quite well and play cheerfully with the Pentax primes. I even have the .71x PK speed-booster to create more lens options!* 

I believe it's time to cut the energy I'm wasting on Sony and A-mount.

*e.g. the DA70 f/2.4 Ltd is also a 50mm f/1.6

anything is possible..

but weather models can crank out some curious results at times.

We're on the cusp of another 3" snowfall beginning in six hours.. and again the NWS is shading things toward the warmer, less-drastic end of things. Last week when the forecast expected 1-2" NE Portland got over ten inches - that's not in the cards overnight (don't ask about Sunday night!), but odd things are happening. The Winter Storm watch has been dropped here, now maybe 1-2 inches will land at 750 feet. But how's that done?

According to the output at left, for 4-6 hours just after midnight (with temps 31° and dewpoint around 30°) the snow turns to .36" of rain. Not sleet or fz-rain, just rain. That 0.36" would be about three inches of snow if it magically remained frozen - like it shows at 11PM and 6AM. Curious, captain.

If this isn't breaking a law of thermodynamics, it's at least bent or twisted a bit.

Then comes Sunday night, where a low center could stay due west or make land further south. Last week it stalled completely just south of Astoria and spun up moisture that pounded Portland/Vancouver while leaving us the 3" that remains today. While speaking in ominous tones the model output is 1½". 

And the next few days we're in and out of the snow zone, with white mornings and damp sunsets. That'll teach people not to live in our elevation band - though I've never seen a forecast look like that for multiple days around here.

Time will definitely tell.. whatever the models say.

Yet another white February

Februarys on average have been the snowiest month at our 760' home over the past eight years. This month has lived up to its reputation - though it took its time. 

Last week brought about 3 inches of snow to our hill-top, which kept itself chilled on the driveway. I finally shoveled it off after two days of waiting (upsetting my piriformis muscle, oops!) and it melted off swiftly, allowing for a shopping trip.

Yesterday we had another 3" storm. A small bit of low pressure visited the north Oregon coast all day, spinning 10" into NWS Portland and 6" or more to Vancouver. No shopping today!

And now the trifecta: 2-5" is forecast for late Sat through Sunday?!? After that comes a few days of overnight snow and afternoon rain.

Hm. Saturday will be a popular shopping day..

subnormal

 

We're living in dry times around here. How dry?

Not drastically dry - just under 75% for the four-month period. But when you look at the bigger picture, it's been unusually dry! 

In the eight years we've lived up here, we have never seen all four of these months below average in a year. We've had drier Novembers, but Oct Dec and Jan had not been this dry before. More than that, these four months are wet ones: 54.1% of our annual average should now be in the bucket. Each of these months has averaged more than 100% of the PRISM statistical average for this site from the 2016-22 water years. October and February had never seen a sub-100% month.. until Oct 22. 

We shall see what Feb '23 brings us. We've definitely had a few damp months in the springtime too, so our annual number is still in reach. 

If we reach normal though, it won't be in a normal manner. But rarely is 'normal' done that way.

A New Year's Dream

It was very sobering to be tottering about in a hospital,  pretending to be an old guy - and I had plenty to contemplate in the nights of uncomfortable, cpap-deprived sleep.

The easy topic of self flagellation is the pile of camera gear that sits in a back room, awaiting serious pruning. It's time to derail the camera train that visits our porch, settle down and raise some great images. The act of switching systems is expensive, exhausting and takes time away from learning and using the gear at hand. 

It's nuts!

I've had sufficiently excellent gear since my K-5 a decade ago. I've had a dozen or more equally great ones since then, and I have a fairly new one now with more life on its shutter than I probably do. 

• Pick a setup, 
• sell the rest, 
• don't look back!

Please?

Another change has happened with the new year. My weather station's batteries died while I was in the hospital, and no way could it justify sending my wife into a 2" downpour to swap batteries. Given a fairly new station a mile down the road from us (one that includes data my station does not), I'm now just taking data from that site and have taken down site KWALONGV31 /Coal Creek Crest. 

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.

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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%..