life in the old lane

Yesterday I read an article: “The Top 10 Things Your Kids Don’t Want”

And that was about my whole day. We did have dinner outside this evening – first time this year. Finally. Spring.

Didn’t go to work today. The Asylum’s semi-annual meeting with “upper management” was today.  I felt like I needed to go. It was a waste of time – my cynicism was dialed up to “MAX”. 

Around noon it was warm enough to do some work in the “garden”. And, I took some pictures with Shamu 2.

I am starting to have trouble coming up with “names”. This weekend I couldn’t remember the name of a guy named “Bill”. And this afternoon – looking right at a fennel plant – I couldn’t come up with fennel to save my life. Should I be worried.  And, if I am worried – what should I worry about?

This is about as good as my bird photography gets. All taken with cheap 600mm equivalent lens on the OM-D M1. Handheld. BTW, the friend I was with was embarrassed to be seen with me since everyone else had killer big glass, massive tripod, camo gear. And, I was just armed with a micro 4/3 camera and Shamu 2 and black leggings. (Plus stormtroopers.)

I really don’t like The Asylum all that much. The Asylum the building. The Asylum which is filled with old people who lean on their walkers. The Asylum that is next to a strip mall. The Asylum that isn’t all that public transit friendly. 

On the other hand, I love my Asylum sisters. And, it is damn nice to have pretty good food (and good company) right downstairs. So most of the time I have this weird acceptance thing going on about The Asylum.

Went chair shopping today. Ordered a stool. Funny thing is – I had that very stool when we lived in the Falls Church house. I had “urban recycled” it and Carlton painted it. Funny to have paid some serious bucks for it’s classier relative. 

Also worked in the garden plot, did the dreadmill and took a nap. Busy day. Busy is good.

And today is the  17th anniversary of the blog.  

I am amazed that I kept it up for 17 years. I really just do it for me, but I am always pleased to know that other people actually look at it. Thank you!

I love technology! Thanks to son-in-law, this afternoon I learned that my telephone takes great pictures using software not optics. 

Now, what wonders would occur if killer glass were combined with the Pixel 2 secret sauce?

How about this trick…

I am cowering in bed under my quilt while a Stormtrooper stomps around my kitchen. The amazing thing is that this is just out of the phone. No Photoshop needed.  Oh and the Stormtrooper moves around the frame so I could have made a movie.Come to think of it – is this some sort of DIY virtual reality feature? Gotta round up my cardboard VR setup and check it out. (This could be fun, couldn’t it?) 

Now, if you can do this: Where the hell is my robot cat? Not to mention my jet car. 

And, a final farewell to Shamu – before returning it to Google. 

Only managed one photo today. With the Pixel 2 xl. I am still stunned at how good the camera is. I will do some serious testing – just to force me to pay attention to what the camera is doing.

One thing is for sure –  no more being snobbish – this camera does a professional grade job.  Not sure if it will record RAW images. Not sure about a lot of things.
This is 100% crop of today’s bus people photo. I am sure that the image stabilization helps big time when shooting on a moving bus.

Day off tomorrow. A trip to the old neighborhood and the dentist is on the schedule. May I’ll get some photography in as well.

No I did not need a new phone. What I needed was a new pocket computer and/or camera. 

It was a damp chilly day. A good day to do laundry. A good day to take the “dreadmill” for a spin. And a good day to get new Pixel 2 xl. It arrived before noon. 

Decided not to clone Shamu the Original but to basically start over from scratch. Like I would with a new computer. Because this thing really is a computer.  And, it looks like it will be a damn fine camera as well. 

No headphone jack – but Google did throw in a USB – USB C dongle as well as a USB C – headphone dongle. And a none to protective looking case.  This phone will be obsolete by the end of the summer. But, I didn’t want to wait. Google might not make an oversized phone next year. Heck, Google might go out of the phone business. 

Think I’ll run down some information about the camera(s) onboard this pocket computer.

The Kwanzan cherry trees are among the last to bloom – and I stood under this one whilst waiting for the bus this afternoon.

And that was about the highlight of my day. Not a bad day. Just a very ordinary day. Which – come to think of it – isn’t bad at all. Not when you are ¾ of a century old. 

And for bonus points, I didn’t get rained on. Of course, I had a raincoat, umbrella and my very oldest shoes. I did everything I could to stop the rain.

April 2014 wasn’t the beginning of the end for Mr C.  It was more like the beginning of the end of the end. But, I did take a picture of the Kwanzan cherry tree.

25 April 2014

Went to work today. Then I came home and went to work in my weed patch. The weather was warm, tunes on the Bose ‘phones were cool. But, the job is endless. Practice for eternity perhaps. No, it isn’t bedtime yet. It is only 5:20.

I got my fitbit April 16, 2014. One of my more successful retail therapy purchases that I made while Carlton was ill. 6,200 miles logged in 4 years. 

Speaking of purchases – Shamu the phone is getting long in the tooth and it is starting to be a little flakey. And battery life was alway bad. Now it is horrible. So, Shamu 2 is on order.  Shamu 2 will be a little smaller. But it is still big.

Work and yoga tomorrow.

But maybe I am not as interesting as a paper bark beech tree. Or any tree for that matter. 

I had laundry and a little trip to the grocery for tea and yogurt on today’s to-do list. But, I didn’t do either. So,  today was a good day. No time for “chores”.

And, the weather was springy.

Or is that turtle version of the sun salutation?

After moping around this morning, I put on my NPS sweatshirt and went out to survey my “project plot”.

There are a couple of small peonies. A nice clump of Leucojum aestivum and a couple of hosta. The rest is just crap.  Oh well. 

After a depressing hour of “gardening”… I went for a walk.

Found some birds. So today, I am a bird photographer. But turtles are more my speed.