Nobody is Promised Tomorrow. . .
While I am pulling my hair out trying to get cracking with final cut pro and video editing, my friends here at The Asylum are wrapping up their get out the vote campaign. 4,000 postcards. Ready to go in the mail stream. And that takes $1,400 in postage. Helping the USPS. Being crafty old people, the postcards will be dispatched over several days and at several post offices.
Grateful for nice weather, good friends, and coffee.
Mālama pono
Well, I pulled the plug on Big Annie. I wonder if she died? (And my legs are looking a little lumpy aren’t they?)
Busy today learning about video editing by editing video. Aren’t I supposed to be in my comfy chair reading “cozy mysteries”?
These are crows. But, the starlings are starting to get bunched up. A sure sign of autumn.
Grateful to be “overbusy” at this instant. Makes the days go by faster.
Last night I finally got my act together and took a picture of the Pentagon’s new 911 light show. There was a lot of haze and that made for an interesting rent in the fabric of the universe effect. (taken with Pixel 2xl out the open window. post-processed like crazy.)
On September 9, 2001, I watched events unfold very early in the morning via a dial-up internet connection. Carlton was playing tennis with the Park Superintendent prior to going to work.
Moving on to 2008. The Pentagon Memorial opened on September 11, 2008. I took these pictures on October 11, 2008. An evening selected because of the full moon.
Most of the pictures were taken in the area of David Charlebois’s bench. He was First Officer on the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Pentagon. David’s father was a friend and his mother was too frail to make a personal visit to the memorial – so I made these pictures for them. The kids were borrowed and they are sitting on David’s bench. Lives end. Life continues.
Grateful for today.
Mālama pono
Yes, this is “the light”. Waiting to get a flu shot at the grocery this morning – there was a big bin of generic disinfectant wipes in “travel size”. I took this as a sign that I should “travel”. Travel to Hawai’i is supposed to open up October 1. By the end of October, it might be good to go.
This was another busy day – editing video. No problem doing that. It was raining most of the day anyhow.
Grateful the have checked the flu shot off my to-do list.
I have friends who are near the western fires. And, some of my friends here have family who are too close to the hot zones for comfort. I remember being in Yosemite wondering if we were going to have to flee the Hetch Hetchy Fire. Not an easy feeling.
When we were with The Park Service, they had cool little notebooks that fit nicely into the uniform breast pocket. Carlton loved those notebooks and always took a couple of extras. When he died I found a bunch in his desk. They had the “10 Standard Firefighting Orders” printed on the inside cover.
The cover said that it was revised 4-67. So, we can excuse the reference to “men”. I always thought that these were pretty good rules to live by fire or no fire. “Men” has been changed to “forces” and “boss” has been changed to “supervisor” and these are still the “10 Standard Firefighting Orders”.
Be alert. Keep calm. Think clearly. Act decisively.
Mālama pono
And what is “the light” about an elderly Sony cd burner? Well:
You might notice that the CD Burner is dusty. So what? I am a bit dusty too. Or is it rusty?
Grateful for an excellent dinner. Courtesy of me, with an assist from Dining Services. Steak and eggs. With avocado and salsa.
Spent most of the day editing 27 minutes of talking-head video down to 7 minutes. It’s hard. And I want it to be professional. Nevermind that I didn’t start doing this until I was between 75 and dead. I have standards.
Mālama pono
Not all Little Red Wagons are red.
I worked hard today a being careful, centered, mindful. I tried to only do one thing at a time. I tried to accept that I can not do everything. Some days, I can not do anything. As Carlton would say Easy Does It.
At least I didn’t lock up my computer. I put the new 2TB SSD into service as my Final Cut Pro disk. I got my Lightroom catalog back on track. I had a very productive – my opinion – day at the “corner office”. And I got my own “bookkeeping” done.
I was checking my account with Folger Nolan and they had this photo on the main page. Does that image make you want to give them your money? I didn’t think so.
Looking out my window – with my view of DC. Wondering. Do I want to be here where I can watch the opening salvos of the 2nd American Civil War out my window? (Should I order new binoculars?) Or would I rather be in Kona? Where the news from the front will be slow in coming.
Grateful to have options. Getting old removes options. Enjoy the ones you have left.
The Asylum serves the world’s worst falfel. Usually they go directly to composting. They are hard. But they bounce. Thinking that maybe I should be saving them. I can use them as lethal projectiles in the 2nd American Civil War. Or as hardtack – the term was first used during the 1st American Civil War.
Mālama pono
Sunrise over the orchid.
I have had the “Inverse Midas Touch” with my computer since about 4 PM. Final Cut Pro locked my computer up like Fort Knox. After I got the computer and Final Cut restarted it announce that a library was corrupted and did I want to use a backup. For sure I did. And about 5 minutes later FCPX announced that its disk drive was full and I had two choices: death by firing squad or death by hanging. And, it would not let me stop or abort it.
Time to step away from the computer. A cup of coffee and some Googling later I discovered “Delete Render Files”. I now have enough space to try to figure out how to make my new 2TB external SSD drive my FCPX drive. I am not even going to think about this anymore today.
After that, I fire up Lightroom – and I notice that for the last couple of days it has been storing my new images in the “wrong” place. That has happened before and I know how to fix it – but prudence says this is not the time to do it.
Back to “work” in the northeast corner of the Old Bat Cave tomorrow. Hope the “Inverse Midas Touch” is over before I do anything to the system.
Grateful that instead of the plain yogurt I ordered for lunch dessert today they brought me an ice cream sandwich! I didn’t eat it. I stashed it in the freezer for an emergency. I feel certain one will occur soon.
And, as is my custom on Labor Day, I remind one and all that you enjoy weekends and holidays because of Labor Unions. I remain proud to have been a member of Local 142 of the ILWU.
Mālama pono
Tiny bubbles in the water.
I spent 11+ hours editing a video today. I took a break to visit with my Asylum Sisters (Outdoors. Socially DIstant. Masked.) this morning. Ate lunch and dinner at the computer. I made myself stop about 10 minutes ago. I was getting crazy. But, I did get to use “Motion” – which earned it’s $50 today. Until today Motion was just mocking me – saying: Old woman, you aren’t ever going to figure this out. You will not live long enough. Well, I learned how to tweak titles. Don’t think I can create one. But, I sure can change one.
Loving the new external display. It has a bunch of USB 3 and ThunderBolt ports. It delivers enough power through the Thunderbolt port to power the MacBook. And, I can plug a couple of external drives in as well. That is in addition to the big screen.
Back when I was younger, I would just skip the blog today. But, now that I am old, people might think I died. One day, that will happen. But hopefully not before I get this posted.
Grateful for a busy day. And good friends.
Now, I am going to make a nice coffee and toddle off to bed. Where I will find a new audiobook to listen to. Don’t think that my eyes want to look at anything else today. Tomorrow, hopefully, I will finish up the video. I will ship it off to the client for “review”. I will remind him that free videos are worth what they cost.
Mālama pono
I took the day off from projects. For fun and exercise, I walked down to Harris-Tetter (a grocery store). I have discovered that the sushi guy starts at about 7AM so, if I get there by eight, the sushi is about as good as it is going to be all day.
And, since it is a nice early autumn type day – I decided to make some soup. Now, I don’t believe that I have made soup since Carlton died. Fortunately, I still have a 2-quart pot. And, just like I used to do – everything that was in the freezer or fridge that was looking a little forlorn went into the pot. Added a cup of lentils, some assorted herbs, cumin and chili powder. Plus enough water and some free wine that is worth what it costs. Think it will be fine soup after it mellows a couple of days.
Grateful for a day of tranquility. And open windows.
I want to get on a bus. Any bus. But especially a bus going to the airport or the train station. How quickly I forgot how happy I was to go Trader Joe’s four weeks ago.
Mālama pono
The anemones have bloomed. I love these things. They are easy to photograph and huge fun to post-process. They are sort of the autumn version of the magnolia. But they are easier to reach. And easier to photograph.
I needed some fun this afternoon. Work exhausted me this week. I finished my task. And, don’t really need to spring back into action until next week. The “new improved” flu shot nagging system will be demo tested on Thursday. My job is to get the data from the new system into the old system.
My plans for the “long weekend” include a walk tomorrow morning to Trader Joe. Mostly for exercise. That’s a 2-mile round trip. I need to get away from the computer. And I need some exercise. Never mind that I am currently exhausted. And, I have several projects for The Asylum underway – so I will be getting plenty of time behind my computer editing video. Maybe I should take an online video editing course? No, I don’t think so. I got this far with “whatever happens is what I planned”. Why change now?
Grateful that my brain and body still work well enough to do all the stuff I ask it to do. Nevermind that the body gets tired, the eyes give out, and the brain is sometimes MIA.
This afternoon’s walkabout with the camera captured a honey bee hard at work.
Mālama pono
I knew that today was going to be busy. So I headed out on my fitness walk early. Caught the sunrise over the strip mall.
I spent the next 8 hours slaving over a hot spreadsheet trying to get some data clean enough to feed into “my” system at the hospital. The MacBook Pro balked at a 20,000+ row spreadsheet. But, with much patience and a few well-positioned F-words, I think the data are good to upload tomorrow.
Then after I was totally exhausted, I had an appointment to record operations in one of our kitchens. What I didn’t know was that they wanted me to interview the cooks and our executive chef. This was not a good idea. Especially to not tell me that is what was wanted. Not only was I totally unprepared, but I have an absolutely terrible grating voice. I have a voice that was just made for silent movies. But hey. They get what they pay for!
Many mornings, I see a nice homeless woman on my walk. But by grace, she could be me. Or rather a younger me. You don’t make it to my age on the street.
Mālama pono
New neighbors on my floor took delivery of a 28 bottle VinoView Wine Cellar this morning. My floor understands what it takes to get through 2020.
Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change. – Mary Shelly via Victor Frankenstein
That about sums up 2020 for me.
The display came in two big beautiful boxes. I love boxes. Big boxes. Little boxes. Fancy boxes. Plain old cardboard cartons. I must be part house cat. But, I took them to the trash room. Yes, what if I need to send the monitor back if it dies next week? Well, I am just screwed.
Grateful to Lord Sandwich. Not only for the Sandwich Islands – but for sandwiches. Carlton adored sandwiches. When he knew that he was in the end game, he said that he would be happy if we had sandwiches for lunch and dinner every day. And we did for about 6 months. Tonight I was going to make a ham and cheese omelet and avocado toast. Suddenly taken lazy and had a ham, cheese, and avocado sandwich instead.
So far with the new display, I just ran my desk chair up to max height.
Mālama pono