Author: Peg

It is almost October. My very favorite month of the entire year. My real camera is fully occupied working on The Last Great Photo Shoot. But, I still like taking pictures – so here a few from this week taken with Shamu the Phone. I can not resist shiny buildings.

Reflections from a non-believer on the end of the end… We have a friend, a dear friend, here at the Asylum. She moved in as a hospice patient. But, until this week, she lived a full and active life here in our community. We knew that we were only going to have her for a short time. She is not “losing her battle” with cancer. She is like Carlton, she sort of said too hell with cancer – now what can I do today. She is a person of faith – so – hopefully she will find peace and comfort in her faith as she travels through her last days. 

But, what am I thinking – well – I am hoping she has a spirit guide or family amakua to help her to the other side. In the unlikely event that there is an other side. 

It is not sad. It is not depressing. It just is. Nobody is promised tomorrow. Life will continue without our friend, and our lives are richer for the months she shared with us. Some teach us how to live, others teach us how to die – Susan continues to teach us both. Aloha my friend. Aloha.

People should be more like dogs. My life would be easier. 

Back to my real job tomorrow. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was ready to spray paint a turtle neck sweater on the girl. Now this makes me rethink the photos that I have already post processed. Guess I need to run through them looking of evidence of what Carlton liked to call “bodacious tatas”. I guess I am a part of the “fake news” industry now. 

Busy day. Up and at it at O’dark hundred. Took pictures of some of the night shift.  Did some  Photoshopping. Went to my doctors office to visit with the nurse practitioner to get my blood pressure and sciatic pain meds renewed. Doctors office is 2.6 miles away. I walked. The nurse said “well, I guess that means you are fine”… I bussed and walked home. Took more pictures. Took a nap. Went to dinner. and now I am calling it an early night. 

And why am I not making my reservations to fly away home? To my ocean? To my modest lodgings. With a lanai. And a bath tub. And an ocean next door.  Not to mention Carlton is over by the blue dot. 

Feel sure that no one is obsessed by politics. Well, except local politics. And even that doesn’t matter as much as surf conditions and fishing. 

I feel like I got stuck in some sort of small time warp and I am living in the 1930s. And, then I recall Carlton’s favorite lines from the 1859: “I am now quite certain, that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but by blood.”   I have been concerned about  transient electromagnetic disturbances for years. That is my personal zombie apocalypse.  I used to be worried about natural EMPs. But, throw a high altitude H-bomb in the mix and we humans will  end life on the plant as we know it.  

Its time for some Hawai’i…

Carlton and I seem to have been stuck in 1859 – he with the run up to the Civil War and me with the Carrington Event. 

Knocked off about 20 people today in the Last Great Photo Shoot. And I did all the processing. I can not take another 16 hour day of post processing.

Someone asked me to take pictures at some event in November. Nevermindthat, I’ll be in Hawai’i by November. The is The LAST Great Photo Shoot. Looking forward to getting back to bugs, flowers and the occasional sunrise. None of these subjects complain that my pictures make their ears look fat!

Don’t get me wrong – I am glad that I am doing this. But I will be gladder when it is done.  

Glad too that Mr C isn’t around to see our dumb-ass Orange Lord. It would kill him…

because I spent the whole entire day from 9AM to 10PM working on the Last Great Photo Shoot. Well, I did eat dinner.

I will note that today is the 3rd anniversary of my move into The Asylum.

I made contact sheets for my clients to review. 15 pages of contact sheets. Looking forward to going back to work at the hospital tomorrow. AND looking forward to Hawai’i.

 

Well damn, the world was supposed to end today – and we are still here! Where is a good apocalypse when you need one? I was looking forward to it. More than I am looking forward to a nuclear attack. Oh, but look on the bright side. The day isn’t over yet… 

I completely missed this one – but after dinner (and wine) a friend noticed that the catch of the day was a cow! 

Took some more pictures today, called up my hotel in Kona, went for a swim, and updated my new iPad to iOS 11. Slick new keyboard. Some of my oldest APPs don’t work anymore.  No great loss there. All and all, it seems to be a great update for a newer iPad. But, for now, I am going to leave my iPad mini alone. 

High Sierra comes out on Monday – assuming the world is still here. I will not update Forbin until The Last Great Photo Shoot is in the can.

The Pen F doesn’t focus as quickly as the OMD-EM1. But, fast enough. It doesn’t focus the legacy 43rds lenses at all. It barely acknowledges that they are even attached. 

Handheld, available light not too shabby. 

 

Don’t often see the sun come in my windows. I am usually “out”. But, this morning, I was “in”.

I should have been “out”. I should have been photographing the night shift people. Nevertheless I am happy with the progress I have made. One woman asked me today “Are you spending ALL day taking picture?” No, I am actually spending all day trying to convince people to let me take their picture. 

At about 3PM, I bagged photography for the day and packed up my old camera for shipment to New Jersey for repairs. Walking outside, I find:

A bike that is have way too much fun for an old folks asylum. When I come back, the bike’s owner is suiting up and heading out for Florida. I ask, have you been out having fun?

We talk story for a few minutes about surfing. I never surfed Newfoundland. Apparently very few people have. He was visiting his auntie who lives in our building. Says he always makes it a point to stop off and visit her and get a good meal. 

Wonder what will happen next in our world?  Earthquakes, hurricanes, The Orange Lord and that kid in North Korea. May you live in interesting times. Why not go surf Newfoundland? Seems like a plan to me.

I am wearing worse than “Mom Jeans”. I am wearing “Granny Jeans”. Oh well, Granny I am. 

The new Pen F worked great. A couple of residents thought it was an actual Olympus Pen F ca 1962. They wondered where I got film for it. No film was harmed during today’s photoshoot. 

Dinner tonight in the Formal Dining Room. Our guest was a lady who moved in today. Her mother had lived here. She pointed out that where the soft ice cream machine is – in her mother’s day – that had been when you queued up for the cafeteria line. 

Actually, everyone stops off at the ice cream machine. Residents, staff, visitors, the letter carrier, the UPS guy, construction and repair folks, even the ambulance crew members will sneak a cone while they are collecting a patient. 

I am tired and tomorrow is another day on The Last Great Photo Shoot. So, it is off to bed for me.

 

 

 

As promised, the camera arrived. Set it up in my preferred  aperture priory mode. ISO 1600. Recording mode jpg… Which is what I was using for all of my interior available light shots with the dead camera. Up and shooting again tomorrow morning.

As a car-free person I have lots of options to and from work. I took the 3 bus option this morning. The 16 – 41 – 51. This minimizes walking. No matter how I go – it takes 45minutes. Well, unless I decide to walk the entire way. Then it takes 55 minutes.  Hospital is 3.2 miles away. Mostly up hill. 

Think I am starting to get things back together. No electronics broke today – YET. And, I got the doctor’s office mix up fixed up with no problem. And the vampire was able to suck three tubes of blood out of me. 

Tomorrow: work, yoga, play with Pen F camera… Then use said camera for photos on Wednesday and Thursday.

Back to work on Friday. At least that is the plan.

I decided to include the therapy dogs in the Last Great Photo Shoot. We don’t have therapy cats. Just dogs and birds.

Today’s photos – all from Shamu the Phone.