New Tires on Our 2019 Kia Sorento

 October 10, 2025: New Tires on Sorento

Sunset on the Taconic Mountains viewed from Hairpin Turn of Mohawk Trail, Clarksburg, Massachusetts

We recently had four new tires put on our 2019 Kia Sorento prior to taking a road trip. We had planned on a drive to Florida to meet H & D in Miami, however, several things cropped up including the fact that H & D got sick,  the Better Half was not feeling up to it due to her ongoing back ailments. So the BH and I decided to take a long weekend road trip to through Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine. (I still need to post some photos from that). 

Anyhow I opted to buy tires at Cheney Tires in Watertown. I've experienced great service and work at that shop. The tab for that came to $700.98 Cheney's, by the way was sold not long ago to Steve Shannon Tire and Auto Centers. 

Coffeen St Sunset Photo, Watertown, NY

Sunset Coffeen Street Hill, Watertown, NY   photo copyright Gary Walts May 2, 2025

 This photo shows sunset at Coffeen St and RT 81 in Watertown, NY. I snapped while on my way from the Orion Art Gallery on Mullin St. I was there for the mixed media artwork show opening for artist Taylor Soderquist. I took a number of other shots while standing outside the gallery.

Sunset Sailing on the St. Lawrence River, Clayton, NY

 It was a beautiful day here in the North Country. Sunshine, breeze, 68 degrees. Around 6:00 we took a drive to Clayton and Cape Vincent. A sailboat illuminated by setting sun on the St. Lawrence River in Clayon, NY caught my eye. I used a Sony 6600 camera and a Minolta 500mm f8 auto focus lens. 

Sailing on the St. Lawrence River, Clayton, NY. photo copyright Gary Walts

Earlier I stacked firewood. iPhone shows I walked 4,264 steps.

Sunset On Wilson's Bay and New Work at Clay St.

 September 5, 2024

Sunset on Wilson's Bay, Cape Vincent, NY.  photo copyright Gary Walts September 5, 2024

We hired a builder/contractor  Keith Scoville, Copenhagen,  to replace/repair the soffit and facia at our ClaySt, Watertown apartment house. He started yesterday, the 5th. Much needed repair should improve the buildings sale appeal.

I finished repairing the the cellar door threshold. 

In the early evening we drove to Wilson's Bay, Cape Vincent to photograph the sunset. The photo above is one of them. iPhone app says I took 6,405 steps.

Dinner was pork chops, mashed potatoes, carrots and a tomato salad made with our garden tomatoes. 

Great Photo of Me Playing Guitar at Watertown Farm Market May 22, 2024

 

Me playing at Watertown Farm Market, photo by Tom Murray

Wednesday, May 22, 2024 I played guitar on the opening day of the 2024 Watertown Farm and Craft Market. It was very warm, over 80 degrees and humid. There was a strong, steady breeze the mad the 2 hour gi was there. I asked him to snap a photo of me. He use Photoshop to change the background into a sunset and the result was fantastic. 

Here is photo after Murray replaced the background with Photoshop:

Me playing at Watertown Farm Market, background replaced with Photoshop.
photo by Tom Murray

Ice Fishing Sunset Photo, Chaumont NY

 I snapped this ice fishing sunset a couple weeks ago, Feb. 4 to be exact. It's Chaumont Bay, Lake Ontario. Lens was a Minolta AF 500mm f8 mirror ( catadioptric) lens. Sony a6600 camera.

Lens was a Minolta AF 500mm f8 mirror ( catadioptric) lens. Sony a6600 camera.

Today I took care of some business related to our apartments. Had some confusion & mixup with tenet electric bill and ours fora vacant apartment. Then I I did some work there patching holes from a wiring job I did as well as replacing some soffit on the front porch.

Saturday March 12, 2022Snowy Morning

A Currier & Ives style winter scene greeted us this morning in Chaumont, NY. View from our front porch.  

Awoke this March morning to a snowy landscape outside our windows, reminiscent of a Currier & Ives print. I put in some guitar practice, shoveled some snow and made some guacamole. Near sunset we took a drive and I snapped some pix as then went down. It was a beautiful sky. Temp today stand around 25 degrees. Currently (11:30pm) it is 15.  

A Currier & Ives style winter scene greeted us this morning in Chaumont, NY. View from our front porch. 

At the end of the day I snapped this sunset at nearby Pillar Point, Town of Brownville.

Sunset on Pillar Point, NY, Town of Brownville. Sony a6600 camera with Minolta 200mm f2.8 lens. 
Photo copyright Gary Walts 2022

Geese at sunset photo made with Sony a6000 and 500mm f8 lens

I made this photo in Chaumont NY, a small village on the shore of Lake Ontario. I used a Sony a6000 camera with a Minolta 500mm f8 auto focus mirror lens attached via the LA-EA4 adapter. The camera was mounted on a tripod.

Geese at sunset in Chaumont NY March 2019. Sony a6000 camera, Minolta 500mm f8 auto focus lens with LA-EA4 adapter that preserves autofocus and other features when used with the a6000.   photo copy write Gary Walts 2019

Sunset photos on the St. Lawrence River, Cape Vincent, NY December 29, 2018 Sony a6000 camera

Saturday, December 29, 2018, I take a drive to Cape Vincent, NY, a picturesque village on The St. Lawrence River, about 12 miles from our home in Chaumont. The tree photo was snapped with my iPhone 6 and then cropped and filtered with the Instagram app. The giant su setting on the water with some birds was taken with the Sony a6000 camera and a Minolta 500mm f8 auto focus reflex lens. The LAEA4 lens adapter was used to mount the lens to the camera.

Sunset on the St. Lawrence River, Cape Vincent, NY.                     iPhone 6 photo by Gary Walts

Sunset on the St. Lawrence River, Cape Vincent, NY.  Sony a6000 camera with Minola 500mm f8 lens.   photo by Gary Walts

Sunset photo with Sony a6000 and Minolta 500mm AF reflex lens

This is a sunset photo I made with a Sony a6000 and Minolta 500mm AF reflex lens. I used the Sony LA-EA4 lens adapter to attach the 500mm lens to the camera. The adapter permits the auto focus to work. Auto focus did not work with earlier adapters.

Sunset in Dexter, NY. Made wit Sony a600 & Minolta 500mm f8 reflex lens.             photo by & copyright Gary Walts

I snapped the photo in Dexter, NY.

Here is the same photo on Instagram after filtering and editing it.
Another sunset photo made with the a6000 & Minolta 500mm lens.

Sunset photo made with SONY a6000 camera and 500mm Minolta AF lens

Sunset, Chaumont, NY. Sony a6000 camera, Minolta 500mm f8 mirror lens iso3200, 1/250th sec. f8  photo by Gary Walts

I snapped this sunset photo in Chaumont, NY a few days ago. I took it with a SONY a6000 camera and a Minolta 500mm f8 auto focus mirror lens. I have owned the lens for many years. It is one of a number of great AF lenses  I have for my Minolta AF film cameras. Since the digital era arrived I had not used any of those lenses. The company I worked for provided me with digital Nikon cameras & lenses so I never bothered with getting a Minolta or SONY digital body that would accommodate those lenses.

Sony makes 2 lines of cameras. One uses the Minolta lens mount so that all the old Minolta AF ;geneses can be used with them. The there series of cameras utilize Sony's E mount lenses. I have been torn about which camera to buy. I settled on the Sony a6000 E mount camera. I got a terrific buy on it. With it I purchased the LA-EA4 adapter that allows the use of the Minolta lenses on the E mount cameras. That is what I used to attach the 500mm lens to the a6000. I have been having pretty good results with it.

My Mother goes shopping today

My sisters C & S  are visiting from Tucson AZ. Today they and the Better Half are taking my mother shopping. She is 80 years old and this is just the first recreational outing she has taken since she nalmost died a year ago March first. I have been taking her to her doctor visits and each month she has an easier time getting in and out of my van and going up and down the stairs at her house. It is incredible because a year ago we were told she had six month at best to live and that she would never walk again. Amazing.
The photo I am inserting here was made with an iPhone, snapped through a dirty windhsield at sunset. The Better Half was driving while I snapped the photo. I used instagram to add some effects.

Sunset on RT 12E, Limerick NY, snapped with iPhone and filtered with instagram. Photo by Gary walts

We were returning home after a fun day at my mother's home in Calcium. We had a surprise 50th birthday for sister S from AZ.

Chaumont Sky At Sunset

The nights have been getting cooler here in Chaumont, NY. around 35 to 40 degrees for the past 4 nights. The temperature inside the house in the morning has been 61 to 63 degrees. So I have been starting fires in the wood stove. I stoke it up pretty good to get the house warmed and then let it burn out. It has been rather comfortable.

The photo I snapped very quickly two nights ago as I was pulling into the village.

Yesterday I did some painting under the eves of the house outside my bedroom. I went to m,y brother T's house in Dexter and loaded up some of the firewood I from a dead Ash tree that I cut down a couple of months ago. While tha was happening I also had a pork butt smoking in my charcoal grill / smoker, along with a couple of Acorn squashes. I also made a roast corn dip with fresh sweet corn that I purchased at a farm market in Pulaski. The dip is a recipe from Emeril Lagasse that he featured on his Food TV show.
Here is the link to the recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/fire-roasted-corn-dip-with-crispy-flour-and-blue-corn-chips-recipe/index.html

It is one of my favorites and I make it frequently in the Summer & Fall. I also make it in the Winter and substitute frozen, un-roasted corn for the fresh. It's still good.

This morning I got up and did my usual two hours of guitar practice. Then I mowed the lawn, stacke some fire wood and at 1:00 headed out the door to go to the Post-Standard. This evening I photographed a field hockey game for them. I should get home tonight around 11:30 or midnight. A long and fruitful day.

Day Eightytwo: Another Dandelion

“To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.” Aaron Copland

Day Twentyseven: Chaumont Sunset

It was 38 degrees and rainy at 6:00AM in Chaumont NY this morning, the 27th day since I began this blog. How long can I keep up before missing a day? I'm not sure. I can always pop up a photo, it's the commentary that most likely will suffer. That's because I am not exactly a writer. It takes effort. I also type with 2 fingers which I've done for quite a few years. There in lies a problem. I am constantly hitting letters adjacent to the ones I want to hit on the keyboard. This results in a lot of typos that I must go back & correct. So, writing is more chore than joy. The photo here is another Sunset taken in Chaumont. The tree is in my neighbors backyard. The recent Sunsets have been particularly colorful.