life in the old lane

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.

There were also big ass bats in Darwin. But I didn’t happen on a whole bunch of them like I did in Cairns. 

Yesterday I allowed myself to be Tom Sawyered into becoming a “share cropper/weeder/fieldhand” in our community “garden”. I was told my section “is the sunniest location” Well, that just means that the weeds will grow all the better. And, it has some serious weed issues. 

But, I am not doing anything until the weather improves. Today I inspected “my” location and ordered a weeding tool. 

In the meantime – I am continuing to turn origami paper into recycling in my attempt to figure out how to fold a nice looking cat. Actually to day I switched to using money. That way, I can still spend the mistakes..

I have about aced the Japanese 5 year old kid version of neko – 猫 But, the more advanced models still escape me.

For years I made photo year books – because Carlton liked them. And, it was sort of an annual ritual. Sort out the prior year’s images. Make a book and archive off the images for that year. That would free up heaps of space on the computer. But, I haven’t done this since 2015. I may skip making the book. But, I really need to keyword and archive 2016 and 17. That will free up about 70 GB. Will make a concerted effort to get 2016 on the new little SSD drive this weekend.

Yesterday was International Bat Appreciation Day. I was so fixated on Carlton Birthday that is missed it. It will not happen again.

I love bats. Always have. Christmas 2016 I went to American Samoa just to see bats. So, I was overjoyed to discover that Cairns was stuffed with bats. Great big fruit bats. And, they lived in great numbers right out side the public library.

I did not have anywhere near correct gear. But the bats were big (2-3 foot wing span) and close – so even my 35mm lens got some good bat shots. 

The Cairns Central Library has more bats than Pago Pago. 

Yet another reason to go back to Northern Australia. 

 

Sorry, I am going to bore you with some more old Carlton pictures. But, I loved that man. Still do. He was my best friend. He left me all setup for my “next life”. A life that has been made much easier just by sheer luck of falling into a new  “family” here at The Asylum. 

This feature collapsed in May 2003. Carlton made it for another 11 years. 

Carlton is just kidding you. He didn’t catch that fish. Not even close. He would never willingly step foot on a boat unless he was water skiing. Not wake boarding. Old school water skiing.

Carlton lost his wedding ring in our yard whilst raking leaves. The guy who strung his tennis rackets was a relic hunter. The ring was found and I was incredibly touched that he cared enough to go to all that trouble to find it. 

Note to readers: you have been subjected to all these old photos because they are on my cute little SSD drive.

Note to Carlton: You wouldn’t believe what has happened since you moved to the next level. It is sort of like we are stuck in a Kabuki drama. Or maybe a really  bad production of Waiting for Gogot. 

Carlton had two birthdays. His mother said he was born on April 16. Carlton said he was born on April 17, I insisted that he “pick one and he picked April 17”. I explained to him that my earning capacity was directly connected to my security clearances and it was hard enough explaining that my father didn’t know exactly where he was born. And to add a husband that didn’t know when he was born might just find me sans job.

I tend to think of Carlton in “places” these days. Carlton on those crazy road trips we took. 

Carlton would be 83 tomorrow. But, I don’t think of him as 83. Or even 79 and in failing health. To me he is forever young and in some exotic place. 

I, however, am getting older by the minute. And in The Asylum.

Time to learn a new model. Last year was butterflies. I still rather like butterflies. But, time for a new challenge. The small green thing is supposed to be a cat, neko in japanese. I feel sure that I can get it figured out after a couple more sessions. Right now it. looks rather like a horny toad. A roadkill horny toad.

Weather permitting it will be back to the office tomorrow morning. 

Decided that my photos needed a sleek new home. And they needed the home RIGHT NOW. So off to the Apple Store. (Hey, I am old. I am into instant gratification.) 

All of us antique computer hacks remember when disk drives were as big as washing machines and held about 12,000,000 bits of data. So, this thing is seriously cool. Too me. Most likely not to anyone else. 

And in keeping with the new/old theme. A couple of my oldest digital photos. Taken with a Kodak DC260 in January 2000.

So what got me into this gotta have new external drive mode. Well, At breakfast this AM a friend was afraid that her computer had died and taken her photos with it. The computer was revived. And I copied her documents and photos to an old flash drive. Her computer is about 9 years old.

BUT WAIT … my photos live on a 10 year old FAT32 formatted drive. Time for an upgrade.