Thursday, June 30, 2011

Thursday June 30th's Path

Frederick County,Maryland
On the road to work.


A fresh cut field
A roll in the hay.


Fort McHenry Front Range Tower
Fort McHenry Navigational Beacon needs some work.


Soon to be replaced
This green light will be replaced, new steel added and some new electrical wiring installed to better serve the ships entering Baltimore's Inner Harbor.


Lehigh Cement Baltimore Distribution Terminal
Across the harbor from Fort McHenry, Lehigh Cement loads a ship with grey cement headed for parts unknown.

Muskrat Kits

Muskrat Baby
Muskrat little ones gathering food on a pond bank near my home.

Kits
Two Kits and a Dragonfly.

Monday, June 27, 2011

That'll Be All, Detective. Thank you.

Peter Falk
Peter Falk aka "Columbo"
Deborah Feingold

Born in New York City, Falk was the son of Michael Peter Falk, owner of a clothing and dry goods store, and his wife, Madeline, an accountant and buyer. His family was Jewish, his father of Russian ancestry and his mother of Polish descent with Hungarian and Czech roots.
Falk's right eye was surgically removed when he was three because of a retinoblastoma; he wore a glass eye for most of his life. Despite this, Falk participated in team sports, mainly baseball and basketball, as a boy. In a 1997 interview in Cigar Aficionado magazine with Arthur Marx, Falk said, "I remember once in high school the umpire called me out at third base when I was sure I was safe. I got so mad I took out my glass eye, handed it to him and said, 'Try this.' I got such a laugh you wouldn't believe."


In 1971 the TV series Columbo ran its pilot episode, recalls Peter Falk to biographer Joseph McBride:

"Let's face it, we had some good fortune at the beginning. Our debut episode, in 1971, was directed by this young kid named Steven Spielberg. I told the producers, Link and Levinson: "This guy is too good for Columbo" ... Steven was shooting me with a long lens from across the street. That wasn't common twenty years ago. The comfort level it gave me as an actor, besides its great look artistically — well, it told you that this wasn't any ordinary director."

Singer Johnny Cash recalled acting in one episode, and although he was not an experienced actor, he writes in his autobiography, "Peter Falk was good to me. I wasn't at all confident about handling a dramatic role, and every day he helped me in all kinds of little ways."

Besides his fame from his Columbo character, actor Peter Falk also starred in several movies,including his performance as a questionable ex-CIA agent of dubious sanity in the comedy The In-Laws. Director Arthur Hiller said during an interview that the "film started out because Alan Arkin and Peter Falk wanted to work together. They went to Warner's and said, 'We'd like to do a picture,' and Warner's said fine ... and out came The In-laws.

Here are a couple of my favorite clips from the movie:
The coffee shop scene from The In-laws.

"Enormous amount of red tape in the bush."

Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011)
From Wikipedia

Friday, June 24, 2011

Pictures for Friday June 24th 2011

 Rain in the East
A self-supporter in the rain.
A very big spider
My son Mike spotted this monster right when I was getting ready to fold this tarp.

 It is carrying a tennis ball
That is one big spider!

Here's Looking At You
I decided that I really didn't need to fold this particular tarp, right this instant.
Anybody know what type of spider this is?

Catbird
Catbird perched in a shady spot.

I-70 Morning Commute
A self-supporting communication tower near New Market, Maryland.

Pirate of the Day: Edward England


Edward England, born Edward Seegar in Ireland, was a famous African coast and Indian Ocean pirate from 1717 to 1720. The ships he sailed on included the Pearl and later the Fancy, for which England exchanged the Pearl in 1720.



His flag was the classic Jolly Roger with a skull above two crossed thigh bones on a black background.


He differed from many other pirates of his day in that he did not kill captives unless it was absolutely necessary. However, this ultimately led to his downfall, for his crew mutinied against him when he refused to kill sailors from the Cassandra, an English trading ship, captained by James Macrae. He was subsequently marooned on Mauritius with two other crew members, where they fashioned a small raft and made it to St. Augustine’s Bay in Madagascar. England survived for a short while by begging for food and died around the end of 1720.

From Wikipedia.com

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Fort McHenry Tower Demo

Rear Range Tower
Fort McHenry Rear Range Tower

An Inside Look
A Long way to the top.

Tower Climber
Buckle up


Hull Street Closed
Street Closed for the crane

 The Crane arrives and sets up.



Tower light is rigged for removal


Tower light will be reused



This light has guided hundreds of thousands of ships
The Guiding Light


Top section of tower is rigged



The final bolts removed
The tricky part

Natty Boh looks on
National Bohemian Beer guy, Natty Boh, in the background.

Liftoff!
1 down 3 to go


Nuts and Bolts
Hardware removed from the tower

Bound for the scrapyard
Remains of the day







Saturday, June 18, 2011

Birdhouse Eviction

Bluebird House
I recently went to clean my Bluebird house from the nest of Wrens that produced 7 healthy fledglings.
 But it wasn't empty.

SSSSS
A new tenant had taken up residence.

Wren's nest with a snake in it
A small snake had made the empty Wren's nest home.

I didn't recognize what type of snake he was but I knew we didn't want him in the birdhouse.

Eviction Notice served
So I grabbed an arrow and knocked the nest to the ground.

Juvenile Eastern Rat Snake
The snake quickly slithered away into the nearby woods.
Later I looked him up by comparing the pictures I took to snakes native to the area. Turns out he is a juvenile Eastern Rat Snake (Scotophis Alleghaniensis).
It will mature into a large constricting snake that will be 6 feet in length or greater and be shiny black in color.  Eastern Rat Snakes are not venomous, but may bite if handled carelessly. Rat snakes are relatively slow moving and will most often freeze when first encountering danger. This is why so many are killed on our roadways. They are excellent climbers and do get quite long. I've caught and handled these snakes in the past and just thought of them as Black snakes. Learn something new every day... 

Friday, June 17, 2011

China Building World's Largest Radio Telescope

China's New Radio Telescope
A 3D rendering of the proposed Radio Telescope in China that is currently under construction.

Read the full story HERE.

Lucky Charms and Bullet Holes: Medevac Missions in Afghanistan

A US Navy critical care nurse cares for a soldier with stab wounds on a Medevac helicopter north of Forward Operating Base Edi in Afghanistan.
Photo by Kevin Frayer/Associated Press



An injured Marine receiving care
U.S. Army flight medic SGT Jaime Adame, top, cares for seriously wounded Marine CPL. Andrew Smith following an insurgent attack.
Photo by Kevin Frayer/AP

Infidel
U.S Army medic SSgt. Bob Winchester of Alaska, from Task Force Lift “Dust Off”, Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment.
 AP Photo/Kevin Frayer

Red Cross Target on a Blackhawk Medevac Helicopter
A United States Marine who was wounded in an explosion from an IED is carried to a U.S. Army medevac Blackhawk helicopter from Task Force Lift “Dust Off” Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment, as he is evacuated from an area north of Sangin District, in the volatile Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan.
(AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)


The "Dustoff" helicopters are distinguished with the emblem of the Red Cross and under international law are supposed to be off-limits to enemy fire.

Afghanistan's insurgents make no distinction.

Read more about "Dust Off" Medevac missions HERE & HERE.