Since 2009, the retirement home of Shot On Site Photography... the source of the finest sighthound performance images in the world. As of August 1, 2022, the blog will become much more photo-centric. Not only will I post images from the homestead in the foothills of the Little Florida Mountains, and surrounding environs, but also tips about shooting, editing, archiving, software, hardware and more. The political rants will become few and far between (but not eliminated! It is 2022 after all!)
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
After All, What's Money For...?
Sunday, March 22, 2009
It's Not "Landscaped", wait! It is but...
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Monday, March 09, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Yard Life.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
An Instant Classic?
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Great New Products!
I almost forgot to post this.
Happy New Year to all!First of all, we apologize if you have received duplicates of this message or if you prefer not to receive our occasional communications. To remove your name from our list simply reply and put 'Remove' in the subject line.Dan & I are in Deming, New Mexico until the end of February for a little R&R with our dogs. In the past several months many of you asked if we could personalize our I'd Rather Be Coursing bumper sticker with your own dogs. Our answer then was that it is cost prohibitive to do so on a one at a time basis. But we thought it was a great idea... if we could do a large batch at one time.So the Personalized Bumper Sticker is our Winter Special. We'll take orders through Friday, February 6th. That gives you just over 2 weeks to pick your favorite photo. The attachment shows the choices for background color and text. The personalized stickers are 12" X 4" (larger than our generic stickers!). Here's the scoop on cost and choices:$19 for the 1st bumper sticker$3.50 for duplicates$3.00 for postageWe will invoice you through PayPal which can be paid online or by mailing us a check.Info we need from you:
Photo choice (check the photo # on our website) Please give me the event and date. A stretched or streamlined tuck will work best for the space available. Background color choice (yellow, blue, green, red, pink). Text choice (I'd Rather be Coursing/Love at First Sighthound/The Happiness of Pursuit). Dog's name (if you want it printed on the sticker). Rabbit preference (stretched, tucked or moving away).You can also order our generic stickers for $5 - we have most breeds available.Let us know if you have questions. We look forward to hearing from you.Dan Gauss & Margaret FairmanShot On Site Photography
Friday, February 06, 2009
Google "Chrome"
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Mr. Happy Tooth No More.
I brush every day; use one of those Oral B spinning, vibrating brushes. Floss nearly as often, and use an anti plaque pre- rinse, and a Listerine clone after. I don't drink sugared soft drinks, and I avoid fruit juices. I visit my dentist every... uh. Hmm. Yeah, I visit a dentist every
20 years or so....?
Okay, so I have a scheduling problem. It's associated with a recurring financial problem.. I can't afford to go t0 the dentist. No big, I thought, having only one emergency since my last root canal, sometime in the early Nineties.
Well... last month, while parked in Texas, watching TV and eating popcorn, I noticed.. my tongue noticed.. a big hole in the middle of a molar that wasn't there before the second handful of popcorn. This was a cause for concern. But not enough for emergency concern. There was some pain, but not the kind you associate with exposed angry nerve endings... more just uncomfortable. I figured I could just chew on the left side until we got to our Wintering spot in New Mexico. Which just happens to be 30 miles north of La Paloma, Mexico. Home to several English-speaking dentists, optometrists, pharmacists, etc.
I made the appointment with Dr. Oscar Daniel Perez at American Dental Care, located just a block and a half from the border, behind the famous Pink Store, (where we would have an excellent lunch afterwards, and use our free Margaritas coupons).
Border crossing from New Mexico into Paloma is, we'll say, informal. Park the car at the Duty Free shop in the US, and just walk on in to Mexico. (Returning would take only slightly longer).
For reasons I still don't quite understand, Margaret requires a dose of antibiotics prior to dental work, so we went first to one of the many pharmacies on the main drag. It may be of some interest to dog owners, that we picked up a 50-count package of Cephalexin, 500mg, for all of $4 and change, US. Just about any drug that's not a narcotic is available over the counter at great prices. The prices in Mexico would continue to amaze us, after our visit to the dentist.
When we arrived at the office, there were only a handful of people in the waiting room; all Yanquis like us, and either full time RVers like us, or dwellers of the borderlands region. It's easy to see what Dr. Perez's target demographic is.
Margaret was just getting her teeth cleaned. I was getting my teeth cleaned and, I thought, getting my filling repaired. That's when everything started to go south... figuratively speaking.
Dr. Perez looked at the tooth and what remained of the filling, and found evidence of decay around the gum line. He advised that it would be better to get a crown, than repair the filling, because I would just be paying for work on the same tooth twice. That made sense to me.
Then Dr. Perez's partner (and wife), Dr. Karla Marmolejo, commenced to cleaning my teeth. She promptly hit a nerve in the wrong side of my mouth, swabbed on some topical pain killer and went to work again, then stopped. She had a long conversation with Oscar in Spanish and he then took over.
This is where the real bad news starts. He told me there was a line of brown material over most of the gum line, top and bottom. He thought at first it was tarter, except it wouldn't come off. It's tooth decay. He's not sure why it's so prevalent, hazarding a guess about minerals in water, but whatever the reason, it's there. It will need extensive filling.
The good news is... or part of the good news is, it's not an emergency situation, (except for the original crown thing). I can get it done in stages, and since we'll be living here it won't cause a scheduling issue. I'm getting the crown done in two weeks, before we pull out of Deming for the last big road trip with the Express. The rest will be done over the next year, after we've moved into the Mountain House.
He wrote out an estimate. That's the second part of the good news. To see what all this would cost in the US, click on the amounts:
Bridge. 4 teeth... $600
Extractions. 2 $50 each
Porcelain Crown. 1 $150
Fillings. 12 (yeah, TWELVE) $50 each
So there you have a brief report on my very first visit to Mexico. I'll be saving a lot of money, and tequila is unbelievably cheap at the Duty Free.
And speaking of Duty Free.. this one came as quite a shock to someone who's used to the Duty Free shops on the way to Canada. Here, you park your car in the lot, go into Duty Free, buy your $12 Cabo Wabo, walk into Mexico, cross the street, walk back into the US, get in your car and go home. Get drunk.
We're going to like living here.
Monday, January 26, 2009
You People Are Great!
While we're not exactly swamped with DUTCH T-Shirt orders, we've gotten more, in a short time, than I would have expected. Some people have even donated the $28 and decided to fore go the shirt so the whole amount goes to Dutch, which is cool. Other people are sending cash, with no strings (or T-Shirt orders) attached.
Thanks to bloggers Steve Bodio and Todd Birchfield our original post went nearly viral. On the first day we broke all visit records, logging 247 visitors!
We received donations from Great Britain, as someone had cross posted Steve's post- which linked our post- to the British website, The Hunting Life. We're still getting several visitors a day from that site.. and a lot of them are off to the bookstore, as many of the comments were about Dutch's landmark book, Gazehounds & Coursing. I think he may be moving a few copies this month.
I've heard from the quilt raffle organizers, and they've raised over.. well, a lot of money, and that was before you all read about it here, so a lot of money may turn into a
And if you follow the live traffic feed over there on the sidebar, you'll see that a goodly number of blog visitors have left via Dutch's bookstore . Dutch has confirmed one book sale... a very expensive book, in fact.. as a direct result of our post.
So.. why not keep up with the good news:
Buddy came home from the hospital on Saturday, and in Dutch's own words, "is on the mend". The snowball effect of which is that Dutch was able to bring out his hounds yesterday.. hounds who hadn't run in nearly a month.. to put the fear of
Other than the fact we had to walk 2 hours before jumping the first one, a good time was had by all. We'll be doing it again tomorrow.
Monday, January 19, 2009
17 Miles of Bad Road.
To get to the hunt area, it was required to navigate the above pictured county "road"; dust, washboard ripples, and soft powder ruled the day. We had to do this twice a day.
By virtue of winning the "Sprint Stake" on Saturday, defeating several of his litter mates, and his mother, along with a shag-coat longdog and a whippet, Sandia got to join the Cup hunters on Sunday.
When the dust cleared, and the scores were tabulated, Sandia wound up in 3rd Place... along with three other hounds.
He's pictured here with Margaret, and judge, Paul Sagar from Great Britain. I thought he might end up 2nd or 3rd... I just didn't expect all the company.
And we'd like to congratulate the winner, Frank Cassano's nice Saluki, Haba.
It was a beautiful weekend of spectacular coursing, with lots of sunshine, cool temps, (mostly) good sportsmanship,
and most importantly of all....
...nobody blew up!
*The Coursing Conservancy. Sorry, no link- website not available to the public.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Watch This Space.
World's biggest bumper sticker! Time to change out the Express' rear window graphic. Photos to follow.
And if you're partial to normal size bumper stickers, remember we carry with us a stock of all sighthound (and more) breeds to all the trials we attend. (Pharaoh Hounds currently SOLD OUT.. Thanks guys!!).
Also, bumper stickers and more are available at our Cafe Press storefront!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Only In the Southwest.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Prostate Health? Drink 17 Beers a Day.
Now there's research in many parts of the world that shows that beer can also make us more healthy. From cardiovascular health to prostate health to reducing hot flashes in menopausal women.
Ah beer. I know lots of folks who will
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Convenience... At a Price, Of Course.
As we approached the toll plaza, I noticed that in addition to the "TXTag" lane, (a prepaid option, similar to that used on toll roads all over the country), there was also a sign for "Pay by Mail". That's different, I thought. I wondered how that worked. Could it be as simple as it sounds? Camera takes a picture of your plate and mails you a bill? So, when we paid the lady in the toll booth I asked. And that's exactly how it works.
What a great idea, even though there's a dollar charge added to the bill. I use almost that much in gas to slow and stop, then idle while we exchange cash (an item we're occasionally low on) for a receipt, then have to accelerate back to freeway speeds. What convenience to just.. keep.. going. I like it. Wish they did that in Chicago, and Oklahoma, among other places.
Friday, November 21, 2008
We Hit the Big Time
Then you write something like my satellite radio rant the other day, and suddenly you get linked by Rolling Stone online. Yeah... that Rolling Stone. How cool is that?
I bet that's never happened to Patrick... or Steve... or.. or.. Todd. :-)