That helmet decal post?

I just got around to reprocessing the photos with the Gimp to color-correct them so that the helmet is actually the correct color.  The high brightness of the reflective decals caused the camera to badly underespose the photos.

Here's a link back to the original post to see what the helmet really looks like.

(Crossposted to motorcycles)

Once more unto the breach

We got about a foot of snow from the storm, and it's heavy, wet snow because the snow changed to sleet for a while after midnight.  It sticks to the blade of the shovel, which makes shovelling it exhausting work.  The Goose and I got the front walk and about six feet in front of the garage doors cleared before I called a rest break.  (She actually stayed out a bit longer than I did; don't know how much more she cleared.)

I'm about to head back outside for the second shift.

All dug out

The driveway, at least, is now clear.  About ten minutes after I went back outside for second shift (in the first shift, I'd managed to shovel the front walk and about six feet in front of the garage doors before I had to take a rest break), our neighbor from across the street came over with his snowblower.  With his assistance, about another hour of work saw the driveway cleared, the steps up to the back deck shoveled out, and a start made on clearing the deck.  If he hadn't come over, we'd now be probably about to the corner of the driveway, and taking another rest break with at least two more shifts to go.

We offered him a cappucino and a refuel for the snowblower, but he wouldn't have any of it.  A belief in a deity is not required in order to accept the existence of good Samaritans.

And thus I diverge to musings and ponderings, which I will merely collapse into the observation that I believe it is a better thing to do good simply because you believe it's the right thing to do, than to do good because someone told you you'll go to hell if you don't, or to do good in order to be seen to do good.  Or in other words, good works done out of fear of punishment if you don't do them don't really count, on a karmic level.  They're still good works, but don't expect to benefit from them in a hypothetical afterlife.

Snow adventures

• The deck has been completely cleared of snow.
• The snow from same has been used to erect a snow fort with a four-foot parapet around the deck.
• As a consequence of the smalls' complete refusal to put anything away after they're done with it, leading to the sled being somewhere unknown in the yard buried under at least a foot of snow, it has been conclusively demonstrated that a sheet of Tyvek cannot be used as a substitute sled without a steeper slope and/or a firmer snowpack.
• And, once again, I am wiped out.  But this time, I'm done for the day.