life in the old lane

That is all that was left of the dessert table from yesterday’s buffet. I took almost 500 photos. Hope to get about 40 shots of employees and maybe 10 filler shots. Don’t think this one will make the final cut!

I am positive this one will never see daylight, except here on the Old Bat Blog.

Speaking of bats. I found a dead bat on my walk to work this morning. That made me sad. But, it made be happy to know that we still have bats. 

The new MacBook is getting doing great. Today, I managed to round up an installation file for Mac Office 2011. Seems like waybackwhen I paid an extra $12.95 for “forever download rights”. And, what do you know – I downloaded it and fired up Mac Office 2011. I even saved the “Purchase Key”. Thanks to Gmail for saving all that good info for me.

I got Virtual Machine up and running just now – now the smoking hot MacBook can channel a 2009 PC. I hate it when my Mac makes Windows sounds. But, that way I can legitimately log into my work system. 

On a move frivolous note, I most my little “toys” working. Stuff that makes my computer feel like my computer. And tonight’s last adventure will be trying to get my little scanner working. I’ll try once. And if it fails – I’ll just toddle off to bed. 

 

 

Spent 5 hours shooting and about 3 hours tagging photos with names. I had hoped to finish the tagging today – while I could still read my own writing. But, it isn’t happening. 

And that is about all I did today. I did go to a little “artist talk” – the assignment was to photograph the artist. That didn’t take long, but I took the opportunity to take the load off and scarf up some snacks – since I was photographing lunch not eating lunch today. Even missed my nap. 

Tomorrow – Back to work at the hospital to get some rest!

I decided to do the old school thing and start with a clean installation. So far: I have migrated my photos and Lightroom and Photoshop. Also have 1Password, Dropbox and Evernote going. That is basics. No printers, scanners, mices, MS Office, VM, or tax or investment software running yet. 

Need to decide how I am going to deal with these 4 USB-C ports and nothing else. Well except for the single USB-C to regular USB dongle that I ordered. I’ll at least need a couple more dongles.  

SpeedTest is on board. And, the new Mac seems to have a better radio. 

Enough with the computers today. Time for a shower and then dinner with some of the Asylum Sisters.

 

Went to work “late” today. I usually leave the Old Bat Cave at 6:30. But, I was going to the dentist today – so I didn’t leave until 8:00. The Old Bat’s teeth are “stable”. 

Then late this afternoon, a big thunder storm came roaring through. It was sheets of horizontal rain. Apparently it made it’s way into some of units around the windows. I was on the lee side of the building – my windows didn’t even get wet. Oh, and there was hail. But, it was being being swept back up – I seem to recall that that is how hail gets bigger. In all my years living on the upper floors – this is the first time I saw hail going up. 

After that, Happy Hour with the Bar Belles. Bastille Day dinner with friends. And then – it arrived:

My not new MacBook Pro – late 2016 – arrived. 16gig. 512 SSD. 4-USB 3 ports. No ports that fit anything that I own. Money saved by getting a used one will be spent on dongles. lots of dongles. 

Trying to decide – do a clean install or just clone the Airness. I am really tempted to just let “migration assistant” – install everything from TimeMachine. Then someday, when I get old and have lots of time – then I can do a clean install.

I can not remember if I did a clean install when I got Airness 2.  That was in September 2012. If I didn’t then my current build goes back to 2009. Oh well, this is a pretty upscale problem. 

 

I am never happy to find the Brinks truck outside my building. Especially when it is time for our monthly statements. The Asylum gets so much money that they haul it out in sacks? Don’t know. There is a so called bank in the building, but it doesn’t have an ATM machine. So, what’s the point of having a bank if it doesn’t give you money? 

But, I digress.  The Orange Lord is in Paris. Sorry France. Please forgive us. Methinks  he went to see the Bastille Day Parade. Don’t think he was at the top of his World History class. I seem to recall that the successful storming of the Bastille was the turning point of the French Revolution. Which, Note to Orange Lord, didn’t end well for the First Estate and that would be you. 

Found out today that we have 800 employees looking after our 500 residents. Thats a lot of photographs. One hell of a lot of photographs. 

I’ll make another pass a tweaking the header. It isn’t very good, but, I had to try.

Sort of practiced for retirement this morning. I am not sure I am ready for it just yet. I have a pretty sweet deal where I am. And, I have darn near automated myself (and the administrative assistant) out of a job anyhow.

Started getting serious about my massive “environmental portraits” project late this afternoon. Planning almost done. Time to spring into action. It is just way outside of my comfort zone of insects, flowers and the odd street shot. Bees don’t complain about the product. People – not so compliant.  

Going to putter around with the header tonight. We’ll just have to see what happens. Maybe nothing. I am guessing nothing when you consider my upload speed!

Every now and again, an entire day goes by with no new photos – So, it’s a random photo or two from the past. Today – I landed in early march – on the train home from Grand Canyon. 

A pretty ordinary day. Work, yoga, lunch at hospital, home, read, nap, dinner at asylum… With periods of outrage over current state of affairs. 1288 more days until Inauguration 2021.

At dinner we fondly remembered the Presidents Bush. That is how bad it has become. 

 

For no apparent reason, other than the promise of a good beer and GREAT grilled cheese sandwich – I went to work twice today. That about used up my entire day. I rode my favorite bus – the 41. 

And I pondered my relationship with Mr C. A friend said that she had had boy friends, relationships and husbands – but she had never be truly loved by a man. She had never had a true partnership with a man. 

Carlton was not an “ideal” husband. He never gave me flowers, he didn’t believe in presents, we ate ONE meal out in all the years we were together. He didn’t take care of my car. (I resented that! Car care was “man’s work” IMHO.)

He helped around the house. He mowed the grass, when we had grass. He provided me with an annuity that keeps me in the style to which I am accustomed. 

Most importantly, he was my sea anchor. A stabilizing force in any storm. I counted on him to be there for me – no matter what. When he was dying he worried about me as much as I worried about him. He took care of me while I was taking care of him. I was truly loved by Carlton. 

So, never having been truly loved by a man is one drama that I missed in this life. 

Ok, the peach was a fun subject.

But, I had the peach for a little snack. And, about that time I dug out my little off camera LED light thingie. Decided to play with it. I had only myself left to use it on. I didn’t even have the peach pit. It went out with the trash.

Ah, out by the cutting garden there is this great dystopian looking wall. So, Shamu the Phone played with that light. Speaking of dystopian… I got a new dystopian novel. Not about zombies. Or nuclear winter. But, something scarier. Total economic meltdown. The Mandibles. 

This evening’s Asylum humor: A 90-something couple go see a divorce lawyer. They want a divorce. The lawyer says, he can do it – but wants to know why they waited so long. Seems the couple was waiting until the children were dead. 

And a little history reminder from my friend Billy in Hawai’i.”Box of Rain” was the last song ever performed live at a Grateful Dead concert. (The final encore at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 9, 1995)

Alexa, Box of Rain.

Enjoying breakfast in bed this morning and up pops the sun. So I decided to snap a sunrise photo or two. Forgetting that I have an antique lens on the camera and that it does lens flare – big time.

So, what to do but turn the lens flare into a photo op.  IT’S NOT A BUG – IT’S A FEATURE!

It was a lazy sort of a day. Finished off with a nice dinner in our “formal” dining room. With the Asylum sisters and a guest from the real world. 

Did some thinking about my up coming photo shoot and recruited an assistant. Oh, and I dug out my flash. I am still under whelmed with flash photography. Flash sort of knocks out the background and in this case the background is what tells the story. Bottom line – this project is like house painting. It is all about prep work. 

I just asked Alexa if she knows Siri – she says “only by reputation”. 

Time to tell Alexa nite nite. 

Happy 80th Birthday to Spam. That salty, fatty, pink product much loved in Hawai’i. July 5, 1937 the first can of Spam rolled off the assembly line somewhere in Minnesota. 

Did you know there is a Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota? According to Google Maps if I leave my apartment at 10:48PM tonight I can get there by 9AM Sunday. I love Google! Who knew I could get to the Spam Museum on the bus. Remember a couple of weekends ago, I was madly making a demo  video of our Asylum staff. The major portion of the video being photos of the staff in a “ken burns effect” slideshow. My “clients” liked it and they pitched it to Asylum Management. Management approved it. 

So, now I have to get going with the project. The thing will most likely be shown of several large hi-def TVs. I damn sure want to make a prototype and see it on the big screen. Gotta know just how tack sharp the images have to be. One of my “rules” is “At least one thing must be in focus”. Another rule is “No greenish skin. Except for some of my granddaughter’s friends”I usually avoid the green skin problem by shooting B/W – but my demo  was color, so color it will be.  This is most likely my last great photoshoot. Start to finish maybe 200 hours. 

Hey, maybe this is a good excuse to buy some new gear!  Except I am pretty sure that I have the right gear. Might need a better computer to render the videos…  

Gee, do I need to say anything.  The Dead on the earmuffs. Grilled scallops on the menu tonight. Free wine too.