TGIF everyone. And happy Friday the 13th to we triskaidekaphiles.

It'll be a fine day here today (already saw a nice sunrise) - high in the low 60s (17 C) with partly clear skies most of the day. But more rain coming tomorrow starting around 7:00 AM.

Here's the last of my "after the rain stopped" shots from 3 days ago, taken a few paces from my front door...

   

For those interested (and I realize I'm probably the only one, but I need to document this for a bet with my neighbor) here are my predictions for the NFL playoffs:

Saturday:
          San Francisco over Seattle easily
          LA Chargers narrowly over Jacksonville

Tomorrow:
          Buffalo over Miami easily
          Minnesota narrowly over New York Giants, but this one could go either way
          Cincinnati over Baltimore, but if injured Baltimore starting QB Lamar Jackson plays it will be very close

Monday:
          Dallas over Tampa Bay (But Dallas has a habit of choking, and betting against Tom Brady is risky.)

I expect Kansas City and Cincinnati will face each other for the AFC title, with KC winning a close one.
And for the NFC title game I have San Francisco beating Philadelphia.

SUPER BOWL:
          I'm picking San Francisco to beat KC, 34-27.

Wow, another week flies by.
Next Thursday is our photo club meeting already.  That was one of the reasons why I went to the automotive museum.  I needed some photos to share with the group.
Here is one that I just processed.  
The title is: WHEN AIR WAS FREE

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Happy Hump Day, everyone.

Our rain over the past two days limited my photo ops. But yesterday afternoon the rain stopped and I got out for a walk.

Plants and flowers after a rain are subjects that appeal to me. Here's one photo taken yesterday just 8 paces from my front door...

   

Good morning all. Some really nice images we've had to start January.

No recent images from me.

Good day/evening Foto Friends.

Taken in my front yard this past Saturday...

   

The number of bees seems to be decreasing at an alarming pace. I've read that nearly every species of insect is facing a similar reduction in numbers. Not a good situation.

My NFL playoff predictions:

On 12/18/2022 I wrote down my predictions about which teams will make the playoffs, and how they will be seeded. The 14 playoff teams have now been determined; I guessed right for 11 of them and got most of the seedings right.

I think the NFC championship will feature San Francisco against Philadelphia, and I expect San Francisco to win and advance to the Super Bowl. In the AFC, it will be Kansas City against either Cincinnati or Buffalo. (I'll go with Cincinnati to upset Buffalo in the second round of the playoffs.) But Kansas City is hard to bet against, and I think they'll find a way to beat either Cincinnati or Buffalo and advance to the Super Bowl.

So that puts me with San Francisco vs Kansas City. I'm predicting San Francisco to win: they are on a roll with 10 straight wins, they have the best defense in the league. Plus their offense has caught fire. San Francisco leads all teams in point differential (points scored vs points allowed).

You can't hold KC scoreless, but the SF defense will slow them down. And the KC defense is no match for the SF offense.

So I'm predicting San Francisco will beat Kansas City 34-27.

Yes, that's it.
 None of you have come up with anything like a challenge. So I'm throwing it out at you.
Can you photograph what you had made as your new year's resolution?

After 23 inches of snow here there have been many photos showing drifts and cleanup. On one of my FB friends page someone commented, in jest, "Yes, we all have that amount of snow, can we move on to spring?"

So, in that comment this will be my last winter photo unless something spectactular happens.

This morning, looking through the fog and grey skies. I turned it into a B&W since my world is that color now! 

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Is it just me, or did this week just FLY BY? 
Geez, and I have been doing next to nothing.

Since I am still up, and I don't plan on getting up early in the morning, I thought I would start the daily before I went to bed.
In my effort to clean up my computer, I came across some photos here and there that I hope I never shared with you before but felt that they still might be worthy of posting.

So, until the morning, I will "leaf" you with this:

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Happy Thursday y'all!

A beautiful blue sky, light wind day today and 15 F temps!

Snow removal continues. Our condo parking lot is clean. We live on two intersecting emergency snow routes so they keep them clean all the time. Will be getting out for a very important appointment this afternoon, my bi-monthly massage!

Just shot this photo quickly through a screen and a window so is a little soft. These are sparrows. Just as I started to take the screen off they flew.

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Here's a local sunrise taken 2 mornings ago...

   

Very little processing on this one: Because I shot with a faster shutter speed (to minimize blur caused by shooting handheld) than the low light level dictated, I had to increase the exposure in Photoshop Camera Raw. The only other adjustment was to correct perspective distortion in Photoshop. It probably looks like I intensified the colors but I didn't, and I didn't even need to sharpen. Mother Nature created this colorful scene; I was lucky enough to be there with my camera.

I hope you all are having or had a good day.