Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.

Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes. Turned another year older today. Seems like the birthdays are coming around faster every year. On the plus side of the ledger, they're still coming around. On the minus side of the ledger , I'm feeling every one of those years more and more every day.
Did my civic duty and donated blood today. I have a rare form of O+ that the blood bank really likes. Per FDA regulation you can only donate whole blood once every 8 weeks. The blood bank likes my blood so much they call and text me every 8 weeks on the dot to let me know I'm eligible to donate. I'm 2 pints shy of 21 gal. total lifetime donations.

No trip to the fair is complete without going to the fun zone.

Eyes wide shut

Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.

The summer heat finally arrived. Temps have been in the mid 90s all week. The forecast is for more of the same all next week. During the MOU euphoria the price of gas dropped from $5.79 down to $5.19. Now that the MOU is dead prices have started to climb again. So far only 10¢ but I expect it to go much higher.

One of the regular features of the fair is the garden railroad. Every year the layout of the track and theme changes. This years theme was fairytale and cartoon characters.

Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.

While not quite as popular as the pig races, The Flying Royals trapeze act draws it's far share people to their performances. According to troop leader, April, all the members (other than the 2 young boys) are collage graduates. I wonder what type of degree you need to become a member of a trapeze act? I also want to know what these guys eat, cuz I don't see a spare ounce of fat on any of them.

Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.

In part 2 of the county fair series we'll explore the art of woodworking, something I was never any good at. When it comes to woodworking my only skill was taking a perfectly good piece of wood and turning it into a pile of sawdust.

Best in show for the woodworking contest.

Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.

Two weeks ago myself along with three other members of the camera club I'm in along with members of ten other clubs were at the county fairs photo contest/exhibition representing our clubs. The contest is one of the largest in the country. This year over 4700 photos were submitted across 34 different categories of which about 1400 were selected . You can submit up to twenty photos. There is a $20 entree fee for every photo you submit. There are cash prizes for 1st-4th place for every category plus best in show. The contest is multi tiered. For tier 1 you submit a jpeg file that is judged by three judges. If your image or images are excepted you have two weeks to print, mount and mat your photos for tier 2 judging. Those that pass tier 2 muster are then hung in the exhibition hall for the length of the fair. This year the fair opened on June 10th and runs through July 5th. I'd love to show some of the outstanding photos in the contest, but photography is not allowed in the photo exhibit.
So tonight and the next few Fridays I will be posting scenes from the fair.
Tonight's focus is on animals at the fair. Some are there to entertain and some are there to be judged.

"And they're off" By far the most popular attraction are the pig races.

Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.

This month the camera club went to the Palomar Observatory located atop Palomar Mountain (5470 ft. elev.) in San Diego's north county. It was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the upper 70s. Along with images of the observatory and telescope I've included images from around the grounds of the observatory.
A little history of the observatory.
https://sites.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/about/history.html

Giant Snow Cone - observatory dome

Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.

It's been a week of nice weather. Sunny skies and temps in the upper 70s to low 80s. Supposed to be more of the same next week. Two weeks ago the price of gas dropped 30¢ over night and dropped another 10¢ this week. It's now at $5.39 a gal. A corresponding drop in the price of groceries sure would be nice.
A few weeks ago I volunteered to represent the camera club at the county fairs photo exhibit not realizing it was on a Friday evening, so I will be out tonight. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves until I get back.

These are the last of the photos I had not posted yet from my visit to the San Diego Museum of Art way back in Feb.

White And White #3 - Martha Alf

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Not only is an aircraft carrier a floating city it is also a mobile military airfield carrying 70-75 aircraft. Due to the limited space, navy aircraft have to be able to fold their wings or rotor blades in order to fit as many aircraft onboard as the limited space will allow. The different types of aircraft include attack aircraft, fighter aircraft, anti submarine aircraft, airborne early warning radar aircraft, and transport aircraft.

Aircraft are shown in chronological order during the Midways active duty from the mid 1940s to the early 1990s.
F4F Wildcat. Fighter

Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.

Back in April the camera club went to the USS Midway Museum for our monthly outing. The USS Midway (CV-41) is an aircraft carrier that was under construction during the latter stages of WWII and was not commissioned until eight days after the end of the war in September 1945, then spent the next 47 years on active duty until being decommissioned in April 1992. Here's a link to more info on the Midway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Midway_(CV-41)

Having spent a hitch in the Navy, most of it stationed on an aircraft carrier (USS Constellation CV-64), this is a subject I have a little bit of experience with.
An aircraft carrier is a floating city with it's own airport. Total population between ships company and air wing is around 5k and 70-75 aircraft. Like most city's on dry land, the Constellation included a post office, bank, doctors and dentists, a radio and tv station, library, chapel, barber shop and gym.

Shipboard life 101 (there will be a closed book test on this next week).
A short primer: terminology; onboard ship, floors are called decks, walls are bulkheads and the ceilings are overheads. No matter how large or small the diameter, there is no rope onboard a ship. It's always referred to as line. There are no kitchens. Meals are prepared in the galley. Officers eat in the wardroom. Enlisted eat on the mess deck. Drinking fountains (yes, there are drinking fountains all over the ship) are known as a scuttlebutt.
How to tell Port from Starboard. If you are standing at the aft/stern of the boat/ship looking forward to the pointy end of the boat/ship, Port is on your left and Starboard is on your right. Conversely, if you are at the pointy end looking aft, Port is on your right and Starboard is on your left.
Basic difference between a boat and a ship. A boat can be carried by a larger vessel, a ship cannot.

Length 1001 ft. Beam 121 ft. Draft 34.5 ft. Displacement 45000 tons.

Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.

It was an uneventful week here in the lower left. Mostly gray overcast skies. We did see the sun for a few hours Wed afternoon and yesterday morning. Also got a little bit of rain overnight three times this week. The price of gas has held steady at $5.79 where I fill up but I have noticed other stations have gone over $6. Some are closing in on $6.50. On the bright side ground beef was $1 a pound less than the last time I was at the grocery store. A small economic victory but I'll take my victories wherever I can get them these days.

Some more sights from the San Diego Botanical Garden.