Nobody is Promised Tomorrow. . .
So, I’ll just recycle an old image.
Other than work, it was sort of a blah day.
Spent some time getting increasingly annoyed by the Orange Lord. But, then I decided to be gracious. He has proved once and for all that any white male can become president of the country formerly known is the leader of the free world.
25 days until Kona.
1202 days until the Presidential Inauguration Wednesday January 20, 2021.
Cheers.
I wasn’t having the finest day today. Another one of my cell block mates died today. Nevermindthat she was “old”. And that she just didn’t wake up this morning, which is about as good as it gets.
As, I said wasn’t having the best day, a little retail therapy was called for. So, I got my ticket to Kona. Leaving and arriving on Halloween. A long day of flying. Amtrak is really expensive right now. So, I’ll just fly all the way. This is a first world problem. No doubt about it.
Oh funny story from the asylum… one of our friends has Parkinson’s and she can no long drive – so the asylum sisters rallied around to drive her to her boxing class. Yep, boxing. You gotta love old ladies.
Took the camera to Fed Ex late Saturday Sept 21. This afternoon, UPS brought it home. It works again. And they fixed a couple of other little things in addition to the frozen shutter. It costs $195, but considering that the camera didn’t work at all…It seems like a bargain. Took a few photos with my cheap 600mm lens. Seems to be all good as new. Better actually. Because Olympus fixed something that had always been an annoyance. Not to mention they cleaned it all up and replaced the grips. So, I figure I just got a really fine $195 used camera.
The Last Great Photo Shoot – got the codecs sorted out, with a little help from HandBrake. Now, I feel sure that the photos can be displayed on the in house TV setup. Did a little happy dance about that.
Took a bunch of pictures for The Last Great Photoshoot. I sneaked out for a few minutes and caught a hover fly.
ps – I wore your ring along with mine today. I still wear my wedding rings. Everyday. Which, I didn’t always do while you were alive. But, I remember that you always wore yours.
Oh, and I talked to a Georgetown 3rd year med student today – that was your class.
Well, Carlton, I guess you would like a report of how things are going. Things are going “just like they are supposed to”. Your money is OK. I presume that AA is OK. Tennis is still being played. I am OK. (That was your order of importance. I still know my place.) The world in not OK. But, neither the living nor the dead can fix the planet. I am not sure that the world has ever been OK since the humans took over. We are not the very finest species. If we are created in god’s image – she really must be a bitch!
Basically, Carlton, you got outta Dodge just in time. Things were getting a little weird around the edges when you left. But now – it is full blown Looney Tunes. Or, since you were more given to eloquence – queue up some Yeats:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
That worked in 1919 – and it works 99 years later. The center is not holding. I am far from the best but I am definitely lacking any conviction.
One origami butterfly was not my only fun. I also get Alexa AKA Computer setup to call for help. Well, actually call for anything. But, I think it will be good to have Computer at the ready, in case I need assistance. As in “Help I’ve fallen and can’t get up”. Right now I can say “Computer call THE DESK” and it gets security here at the asylum. But, if I change the name from THE DESK to FOR HELP in my contact list then I can say “Computer call FOR HELP”.
I really see a big future for AI-type appliances as our population ages. Now, where is my robot cat? Little old ladies need robot cats. Not lame ones like the Hasbro cats – they are fine if you have dementia. Otherwise, not so much.
I worked on the Last Great Photoshoot. And then I worked on it some more.
Notice – the butterfly is an “aloha” print butterfly. Getting into island mode.
September has run the table. October comes in tomorrow. Hard to believe that 3 years ago today I had just signed Carlton and myself up to move into the Asylum, I have just purchased 1st class tickets to Hawai’i, Carlton had just bought new tennis shoes and a new bike seat, and the President of The United States spoke in complete sentences. A lot has changed. Not everything has been an improvement.
A friend who will be 101 on Tuesday mentioned that her husband had died in 1989. Which only means we should plan for the long haul but live for the short run.
Roped a couple of friends into being photo editors for me this afternoon. All of their points were well taken.
Today’s tech adventure was getting my new lamp connected to Alexa, known around here as “computer”. COMPUTER LIGHTS ON makes me feel very powerful.
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…