SCROLL SAWING

Since I am retired now, I have decided to take up a new hobby.  Besides puttering around in my small wood shop, in the back patio, I've gotten interested in the Craft of running a Scroll Saw which I purchased over at Sears.  It is a Craftsman 16" Variable Speed Saw, and is pretty much a entry level saw.  Entry level means that it's not real expensive and does not have the reputation of being a heavy price, like others that are on the market.  I have always relied on Craftsman to make a good product, and so far, they have never failed me.  Most of my woodworking tools are all made by Craftsman, with the exception of my Drill Press.

Before I started using this, I did some reading on just how to get started in the Craft.  As I expected, it's not as easy as you might think.  The saw blade is very thin and is only 5 in. long.  It has teeth, just like a band saw, but much thinner.  You can change the speed of the saw, depending on what kind of material you are working with.  The table tilts to the left to a full 45 degrees just by loosening the red knob at the bottom of the table.  It will saw wood, plastic, aluminum, and steel.  The Red knob in the back is for blade tension.  Have the blade to tight and it will break . . . too loose and the blade will "walk" and then break.  You have to be careful and get to know what speeds are right for what material.

It also has a dust port located on the bottom, where all the dust collects for a shop vac.  Other than what I mentioned, the saw is fairly simple.  You just have to jump in there, and learn as you go along.  Being in the Machinist Trade for many years, I can pretty well figure out what speeds cut well with what materials.

So, with all that in mind, I jumped right in there and made a simple wood duck.  It came out good, but took me over an hour to saw it.  I'm starting out simple and work my way up as I get more experience.  Then, I made a Cross with a Heart on it.  Had to get some experience changing the blade to make cut-outs.  Was a bit frustrating at first, but the more I did it, the better I got.  Now, I'm just starting to saw a Ships Wheel, that will be more of a challenge.  This project will take allot more time.  Learning as I go along.

Until the next time  .  .  .  Thanks for reading & commenting
Les

BERMUDA CRUISE TO KINGS WHARF

Last year, we had taken a Cruise aboard the Carnival Ship, Pride and enjoyed it so much that we decided to do one again this year, but this time trying something different with a Cruise Line.  For this Cruise, we chose Royal Caribbean, sailing aboard the Explorer of the Sea's.  Their price was pretty good for going to Kings Wharf.  The Ship would stay in Bermuda for 2 day's, instead of sailing from one port to another, like we did the last time.  We made reservations way back in Feb. of this year for a sailing date of October 20th.  Of course, I was so ready to go and could hardly wait until the day got here.

The Bus picked us up at 10:00 a.m. sharp to leave for Bayonne, NJ.  The Ship set sail at 4:p.m.  You needed that much time to get there, and go thru customs before boarding.  To me, customs is a real pain in my butt.  I really don't care for it at all!  Checking you bag's, you, and your Passport is a necessary thing that has to be done these day's, but no one say's you have to like it.  We were issued our ID cards for our Cabin, and after waiting a bit we boarded the ship to set sail for Kings Wharf, Bermuda.

It's nice to just stand around, meet other people, have a drink or two, walk the ship to see what's all there, while the crew does all the work.  Our Cabin was not all that fancy.  An inside Cabin with a bed, and bath is just fine for us.  We don't see paying over $800.00 for a Balcony with a view.  If you want to see the ocean, just go up on deck and take a look.  Your not in your Cabin that much anyway.

Sailing weather was pretty good, but a bit on the chilly side when we left Bayonne.  As we headed South East the weather started to turn warmer, which made me happy the more.  2 day's at Sea gave us plenty of time to walk the ship, have some great food & drink, see some shows, and just enjoy what is around you.

Arriving in Kings Wharf 2 day's later, the weather turned warm, but very windy.  We took a tour aboard a Catamaran, that sailed to the other side of the Island where we could do some snorkeling in the crystal, turquoise water. I had my own snorkeling equipment, so didn't need what they had.  Enjoyed doing that, seeing some of the local fish that were around the reef's.  They are pretty to see.  We also took another Tour aboard a Glass Bottom Boat, where we could see an ole' wreck that was sunk more than 100 yrs. ago.  Great stuff!

Taken by me, here is our ship, tied up to Kings Wharf in Bermuda.  Nice and warm, but very windy.  All those Water Jet Ski's can be rented for a price that you pay for.  Just 1 hr. was $85.00!  No thanks.

Here we are at a place called Horseshoe Bay doing some swimming.  The only bad thing here was that it started to cloud up and then rain!

Kings Wharf is a Historical place that was once used by the British many years ago, thus the name.  The old cannon date back to the early 1800's.  The stone walls are still the original ones.

By the second day, is was cloudy and raining, but that didn't stop me from seeing some History.  Over-looking the entrance to Kings Wharf is this old gun emplacement that used to guard the area during WWII.

Here is a "little guy" that I happen to see in the small bushes in the area.  He sure is a pretty tourquise-green and fast and heck.  Just after I pressed the shutter button, he was gone in a flash!

Shot from the 11th Deck, this Fleet Tug awaits a job before we departed.

I took more than 110 pictures, so there is just too many to post here.  Bermuda was real nice and we enjoyed it, despite the rain the last 2 day's we were there.  What I would have liked to do, is get away from the "Tourist Area" and see just what Bermuda and the people are.  But, you only have so much time there, and just can't see everything you want.  Our ship set sail for home, and then back to the much colder weather.

Until the next time  .  .  .  Thanks for reading and commenting.

Les

MORE ON LONGWOOD GARDENS

Like I had stated before, I had taken a trip down to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA with some of the members of the photography club here in Reading that I belong to.  The Club is named, Berks County Photographer, and is open to fellow photographers who love to shoot pictures.  We are not a real big group. We get together once in a while, exchange idea's, talk photography, compare camera's, and teach each other what we know and how to do different types of photography.  We always have a good time together.  We are not afraid to teach others tricks of the trade by those of us who know a whole lot about it.  There is so very, very much to learn about photography.  I have learned a great deal by just hanging around and asking allot of questions.  So anyway .  .  .

Longwood Gardens is a real nice place to visit, if your into flowers, trees, and gardens that are groomed and kept in immaculate order.  There is a place there that is called the Planetarium, that is just filled with all kinds of plants, flowers, waterfalls, etc.  Just about every type of flower, small tree, or plant is there for all to see.  They had on display some orchards, that were just simply beautiful to see.  I didn't know that there were so many different types of orchard.  They had so much color.

The above is just one of the many different type's of Rose's that were there.  Red one's, blue, yellow, white were all there.  The other Image below it, is one of me taking a shot of that strange tree with flowers on it.  I have no idea what kind of tree it was.

Longwood Gardens is open most all year, and is now open for Christmas Display.  I've never been there when Christmas comes, but I'm told that it is so pretty to see with everything all decked out in lights of all types.  I'm going to be going there on the 10th of December with our Club, just to behold the wonder of it all.  I'll post what I see with my Pentax.

Until the next time . . . Thanks for reading or commenting.
Les

To all my former followers, I have taken this time to start Blogging again, since I have been absent for some time.

There have been some changes since the last time I was here.  One of the big ones is that I have now gone retired.  No more working for a living, and putting up with the daily task of having a job.  I thought, since I have reached that magic age, to start reaping some of my benefits that I have worked so long for.  Let the younger age do it now.  I've done pretty much of my part, so now I can do some things that I've wanted to do for awhile that I just haven't had a whole lot of time to truly enjoy.

I still have my Pentax K10D and have been out to a few places, other than just snooping around.  We had taken another Cruise this past October aboard the Explorer of the Sea, owned by Royal Caribbean.  A week of going down to the Bahamas, that we have never seen before.  It was real nice, but I don't think that Royal Caribbean does as good of a job as Carnival Cruise Line, which we did last year.  We both thought that Royal Caribbean did not have the activities, food, and perks that Carnival did.  I'm pretty sure that if we take another Cruise in the future, it won't be with Royal Caribbean.  I'll post some pictures that I shot in a future blog.

A few weeks ago, some of the photography club members, that I belong to here in Berks County took a small trip down to a place called Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA.  It's a big place that has all kinds of different flowers, trees, plants with scenic gardens to walk around in.  It's nice, but I'm not much into flowers and plants really.  However, the place does have some real pretty flowers to photograph.  The Header shot is just one of them.  I shot a whole lot more.

                                                                           

 This is another shot that I took of one display that was there.  I edited it a bit with my photo program to bring out the color more.

I'll post more later on.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Les

I HAVE RETURNED!

Hello there, to all my followers that used to follow my Blog.  I don't really know who is still out there yet, since I have not posted anything for more than a year or more.  Not sure just how long it's been, but it has been quite sometime!

I still look pretty much the same as what you see above.  However, since I last posted there have been some changes in my Life.

First, there are a few reasons why I have not Posted anything in so long.  One of them is I've had some trouble with others out there reading my Blog and making fun of it.  I didn't take to kindly to that.  Don't know just why they would do this, but I just got tired of it.  I'm hoping that this does not happen anymore.  Another one was I was running out of Historical places to go around here.  I have been to most everything around, and showed where I was here on the Blog.  Maybe I just got tired of doing it or bored.  Needed something different than what I was doing.  There are still places to go and see, but they are a bit on the far side to travel.

I've also retired from working, now that I've reached the ripe old age of 66.  I was at my other job for just over 14 yrs.  Just didn't want it anymore.  Got tired of putting up with idiot employees, nit-wit customers, working every other week-end, and the job in general.  Guess that it was getting to me for a long time.  I've had enough of working a long day, coming home dog tired, doing what someone else wants me to do, and many other things that influenced me to call it quits.  I've been working since I'm 14 yrs. old.  I think I'll let the younger generation do what I had to do over the many years of being employed.  I can now collect my Social Security that I have paid into for so long.  I hope that the stupid Gov't doesn't screw it up for us "Baby Boomers!"  I really don't think that I will totally retire, and not do anything.  Will try and find a part-time job, just to keep me out of trouble.  3 day's a week is more than enough for me.  I don't want to sit around and waste away to nothing!

I have also purchased a new Pentax Camera.  I now shoot a Pentax K10D 10.1 Megapixal DSLR.  It has a number of different functions that my Pentax K100D did not.  It does a whole lot that I'm still getting used to.  The Lens's that I had will all fit the K10D, so I didn't have to worry about that.  I've added 2 more Lens's that I didn't have before.  One of them is a Pentax 80-320mm Telephoto Lens, and the other is a Vivitar 500mm Mirror Lens.  You can get right close up and personal with these!

That does it for right now.  As usual, thanks for reading and commenting.
Les

FLEETWOOD HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1966

Sorry that I have not Posted anything here on my Blog for a few day's, but there has not been a whole lot to Post about, until now.

This past Saturday, the 17th of September, the Fleetwood High School Class of 1966 had our 45th Class Reunion at the Lyons Fire Company, Lyons PA.  The Class Colors were Red & White - Fleetwood High School was known as the "Fleetwood Tigers."

Lets go back to 1966.  This was our school as it looks today.  There have not been any changes to the outside.  It still looks the same as it did, but now it is used as a Administration Building (I think), and has a Museum down-stairs.  The inside has not changed all that much, either.  The floors are still linoleum, as they were before.  The steel lockers that were on the walls are gone.  In their place are wooden panels, that have been painted the same color as the walls.  It looks like a big open space, where something used to be.  The gymnasium looks the same as it did years ago.  The stage and Class Tiger is still there on the floor, but is badly warped from a leak in the roof.  I could still remember where my Locker was.  The Walls have a fresh coat of paint, but most everything has remained the same.  Across the street, and out of the picture, is some tennis courts and beyond that was our Athletic field which you can still see, what is left of the track, we had for Track & Field events.   Back then we did not have all the fancy stuff that the new High School has.  There was no air-conditioning, no carpeted floors, no computers, and no fancy cafeteria that the new High School has.  The school bus's used to stop just to the right and behind the last car you see.  There are no school bus's here anymore.

So here is my Class today.  Each of us wore a "picture tag" with our name so we all could tell who was who.  I'm standing on the top row, extreme left.  Since our Class Funds were very low, we could not afford a Pro Photographer, so word must have gotten around that I like Photography and since I had my Pentax and Tripod with me, I was asked to shoot a Image of the Class.  I was a bit worried about using the Lens that I had thinking that it might not cover everyone.  It did just fine, as you can see.  I shot 4 of these, but deleted 2.  We all have changed in one way or another.  We all have gone our separate ways.  Most of us have Grandchildren now and some have retired.  I can look at this Image and remember so much from those day's.  Fleetwood High School did not really have big graduating Class's.  Not like other schools that had 500 or more.  I really can't remember just how many were in our graduating Class.  It was much less than 100.  There were other members of the Class that just did not come, or have moved too far away to attend.

In Memory of those who we lost over time.

The Reunion lasted until around 11:00 p.m.  I guess that we were all getting tired.  We had good food & drink, plus a DJ that played music from the 50's & 60's, that we enjoyed dancing too.  Now, in another 5 yrs. it will be our 50th Reunion.  Don't know what this committee will plan.  Maybe something different.  It's hard to believe that time has gone by so fast.  Where did time go?  It was a time when everything was much more simple, and we didn't have much of a care in the world.

Until the next time  .  .  .  .  Thanks for reading & commenting

Les

HIGH WATER

If you remember in my last Post I had mentioned that it rained so hard yesterday morning that you could barely see in front of you?  Well, this is what happens down on River Road just 3 blocks from our Home.

River Road is just off to the right.  Across the Road are Homes, but are up higher than the road.

This sign is more than 6 feet up on the tree.

The River is usually way beyond those 2 trees.  Allot of power out there with the water running so fast.  Would not be a good place to be.

These Images were taken just yesterday evening after I came home from work.  There were lot's of other people walking down River Road, even though the National Guard was patrolling the area just to keep people from doing something dumb.  I checked the River this morning on my way to work, and it was much lower.  The River is getting back to it's normal flow.  However, I'm thinking that there won't be any fishing around here for a while.  All the fish have been probably washed down stream.  More showers for tomorrow, and thunder storms are in the forecast.  Great!  Just what we need.  More rain.

Until the next time  .  .  .  .  Thanks for reading & commenting.

Les