Our consummately professional and constantly bantering Toyota saleswoman contacted us to wish us a happy new year and let us know that she’d love to discuss new-car-smell options with us .
We have a RAV4 Hybrid, and it’s been a solid vehicle with a combo of AWD, phenomenal pep, super gas mileage particularly in town where the electric drive gets the most use, and perfect reliability.
Just out of curiosity we asked about the RAV4 Prime, a plug-in hybrid version that can run on electricity only for about 70km before the hybrid gas/electric system kicks in.
She laughed and said, “you can give me a deposit on a RAV4 Prime today, and you can expect delivery in two to three years.” She wasn’t kidding. . .
Apparently they can’t get enough of them and have long waiting lists.
Back in 2014 I wrote six blog posts on what I called “Paul’s Photo Tips.” Today I took my own advice regarding “Tip 2 – Read the Manual.”
I hadn’t looked at the manual for my Nikon D7500 in years, and on this quiet, rainy day, with the cat on my lap, I read its over 300 pages. Much of that information will also apply to my D7200.
It was a valuable exercise, as I was reminded of features and functions that I rarely use, and many of which I’ve never even tried.
I also got refresher on setting up autofocus and metering optimized to the kind of nature and wildlife photography that I mostly do.
And something that I’ve never taken advantage of is setting up the programmable dedicated function buttons to suit the sorts of situations I often shoot in.
It was a quiet day on Byrne Creek today. It seemed even the birds and beasts were hunkered down on a cold, drizzly day. I did get a few shots though. . .
Started out the New Year with an environmentally friendly car wash.
We wash our car about three or four times a year, usually at a commercial wash that recycles/filters water.
Today I just backed it out of the garage into the drizzle, wetted it down, used a wetted soft cloth to gently wipe away dirt, and used two gallons of our emergency water to rinse off.
No soap, zero environmental impact. All drains lead to habitat!
And refreshed water in some of our emergency stock. . .
We took a ramble ’round Deer Lake in #Burnaby on the last day of the year. The previous post has some nature views, and this one is of some wildlife seen.
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