Around the 'house

Around the firehouse. Today's pictures were taken a week ago late in the evening. In fact, most of the engine bay lights were out. I had my new 50mm lens on my camera and was playing with depth of field. Notice the third picture how there is a definite in-focus area? That's a shallow depth of field. Also with the 50mm I can't just stand there and get the entire engine. So here are bits and pieces of our fire engines. The last picture is the sign up board that is mounted between the bay doors for volunteers to sign into a riding assignment.

Dragonfighters: FDNY Engine 9 Ladder 6

I'm finishing up Chinatown week at the firehouse. It is Fireday Friday. My little downloaded printout of all the firehouses near where we would be was topped with Engine 9 Ladder 6's house. The Chinatown Dragonfighters. We swung by early and everything was closed up. I was able to get some pictures of the door and others of the station outside. We stopped back again just before lunch and the Ladder was out so I got pictures of what I could. Engine 9 and Satellite 1. Satellite 1 was sitting back in a dark corner and looked like it had been there a while. Satellite 1 was put in service back in the Super Pumper days and remained even after the Super Pumper days ended. While there we talked to one of the firemen about the station and the FDNY in general. He, too, started out as a PA volunteer. We again returned even later to just hang out and wait for the parade to get down our way. The buzzer buzzed and Ladder 6 was off to a stuck elevator. Watching that tiller truck maneuver down the street was awesome. They got another run just as the parade ended. I'll post some more from this station some other time.

The Gold Dragons

Here is some more from the Lunar New Year Parade in New York City. These are the dragons that came by near the end of the parade. My video card filled up after 2 seconds, so my son changed the card and I ran about a block to head them off so I could get video. In the first two pictures that is the Manhattan Bridge in the background. We were standing along Allen Street between Division and Canal Streets. This area was really open, I've seen pictures from Sunday that others took along Mott Street (near the beginning of the parade) and it was a lot more crowded, but it looked to have a lot more energy. And the parade probably started on time over there.

Chinatown, NYC (PG 138)

I've got to keep the Chinatown theme going, but I'm not going to tell you what this building says. Well, I'll tell you this much, the bottom says "Air Conditioning and Refrigeration". The top part you'll just have to figure out on your own. It sits, by the way, on the corner of Allen Street and Canal Street in the Chinatown Section of Manhattan, New York City.

NYC Lunar New Year Parade

I told you it would be a theme week. Here we have some more of the parade. These were some of the floats that passed us. I didn't pay a lot of attention as to what the floats represented but is anyone else creeped out by the second picture? There were 6 or 8 of these things on that float. And the last picture is a dumpling. At first I thought it was Mr. T, the Peirogie Man (guess you have to be Slovak to get that joke). But I think it was actually Dumpling Man.

2010 Year of the Tiger

How about a quick game of "Guess where I was Yesterday?" I'm tired so the answer is New York City. Chinatown to be precise. Yep, Junior and I left home at 6:20 Sunday morning and got back at 7:40 that evening. We drove up to watch the Chinese... I mean Lunar New Year Parade. Besides a lot of wasted time the parade itself was very cool. Lots of dragons, lots of drums. My only complaint was the information I got off the Internet said parade starts at 11:30. And some that said 1:00. I asked around in NYC and the answer was Noon. Or 1:00. The parade got to us at 2:08. That's 4 hours of walking around waiting for it to start any minute. We did do some fun stuff but could have done a lot more had we known. More on the throughout the week. It's a theme week. And more videos, too.

Birdwalk 2/14/2010: The Heron and the Wren

Here are a couple of the birds I ran into on my quick birdwalk last Sunday. Quick because it was windy and cold. And windy. And cold. The first three are the Great Blue Heron. Please excuse the third picture. I'm not quite sure I even like it. I've seen other bloggers lately (who actually know how to use a camera) posting what I would consider a blurry picture. I don't know if it's "artistic" or if it just merely shows motion but I thought I'd try it. The next three are of a Carolina Wren that was bee-bopping around and generally letting me close. I also saw some sparrows but only got some crappy pictures of them and the ever present Belted Kingfisher. He and I have been playing hide and seek for a while now. Sometimes I win, Sunday he won. No pictures.