life in the old lane

I didn’t take enough photos when I was in ND. Don’t know why not. There was lots to photograph. But, I was using color film. And, it was expensive to buy and process.

Speaking of expensive. Airfares to Kona this winter is out of sight. But, I made reservations today. Heading out Sunday, November 10. Mr C is having a hernia repaired on September 6 and he wants 8 weeks to “recover”. He should be recovered in 8 days. But, we remember what happened with his “little” skin cancer surgery this spring.

For the last 5 years or so we have gotten to Kona on Alaska and/or Delta. This year Alaska/Delta will take 20 – 35 hours to get from DC to Kona. Yes, boys and girls, 20 – 35 hours. This is at their “cheapest” rates. US Air is will to haul us from DCA to KOA for $860 in less than 14 hours, steerage. Or $882 in less than 14 hours, 1st class. We be riding in Row 3 this year. I am sure that USAir 1st class will be only mediocre. But, it is bound to be $22 better than steerage.

This is one of my favorite memories of North Dakota. Slipcovered sheep at the State Fair. Last summer when I stepped off the train in Minot ND for a “smoke break”… What should I see, but the ND State Fair.

I took the following photo on that smoke break. All these years later, ND is still fascinating to us city folk.

 

Well, the Declutter Program is over. It wasn’t a resounding success. Maybe one bag of stuff to trash and 3 bags to give away. Trash has been taken out. One bag has been given away and two more bags are scheduled for a trip to Goodwill. Problem is there is no reason to declutter. Have space for everything. No move on the radar.

Wow – windows open. The canons are blasting away at Ft. Myers. Hope we are not being invaded. Think it must be some special Tattoo Ceremony.

About the photo – I must have taken that picture on the way back east from one of our summers in exciting downtown Medora ND, population 101. 20 years later the population is 112.

What the … Amazon just bought our dead tree newspaper, the venerable Washington Post. The good people who brought down Richard Nixon. Does this mean I have to sign up for Amazon Prime to get my paper delivered same day?

It is like discovering that your Grandmother ran off with the UPS man.

A couple of shots from the vault. This was the summer of 1997 or 1998. We were “working” at Theodore Roosevelt NP in exciting downtown Medora, ND both of those summers.

I am scanning the Theodore Roosevelt NP images into the computer. I didn’t use high enough resolution on the last set. I knew better, I just wasn’t paying proper attention. Doing a better job on these – but sadly the images really aren’t as good to start with. I have thousands of old photos.

Had lots of pictures of co-workers – at their desks. Setting behind vintage computers. With those cheap-ass little computer speakers proudly on display. I realized that I still have a pair of those speakers. Not absolutely rock bottom cheap – but close to. Setting on my computer work area, sucking power 24×7. And, I think the only time I have used them in years – is when I was testing them to see if they worked. Guess what aren’t on my computer work area any longer?

Mr C is going to have an unpleasant week. He broke a chunk off of a tooth that he knows he has to have taken out yesterday so  he has to get that taken care of ASAP, he is going to see the orthopedic guy about some elbow bursitis on Tuesday, and on Thursday – he is having another chunk of skin cancer cut out (at the doctor’s office). So, I’ll have to be extra nice to him.

For the potential dental extraction – I stocked up the fridge with “mushy” foods.

But, it was a marvelously glorious early fall-like day here in the middle of summer’s dog days.

Our office went out for dinner to say Bye Bye to Joanne – who is moving back to Boston. Good time had by all. But, too bad that a good friend is moving.

Getting old sucks – today Mr C and I started talking about “Who will handle our money when we get too old and senile to do it ourselves”. This is real scary. But we know we have to do the serious thinking, planning and interviewing now, while we still have most of our facilities.

Gave up wondering about WordPress and the missing spell check. Will just use the checker built into Chrome. I give up pretty easy.

Not much going on. Which is not a bad thing. We had way too much going on earlier this year.

Got new version of WordPress today. I wonder if spelchek got fixed. Hmmmm not only does it not work. My little spell check thingie vanished. alt-shift-n doesn’t work.

Does deleting images from Lightroom count towards my “destuffing” goals?

Starting to checkout ways to get to Kona this winter. Mr C says he’ll be good to go by mid-October. He is going to have a hernia repaired Sept 6. Alaska doesn’t seem to have any slick routings to Kona this fall. Unfortunately, I think we’ll be looking a USAir. Might spring for business class. USAir leaves much to be desired.

This ad was in “today’s” Sunday paper. Notice that the lady has a California ID, an AMEX Gold card and a TWA card. TWA went under in 2001. I guess some purveyor of fine ladies handbags is also clearing out the closets.

I finished destuffing my closet today. Well, except for my sewing box and what ever is in the trunk. I’ll get to those things.

It is “Flu Shot Sticker” time again. I made up some samples yesterday. Hopefully management will like one of the styles.

The ZS15 does a really good job in “handheld night scene mode” – autofocus, f5.6, .25 second, ISO 1600. And the L1, takes a better night shot on total manual – focus infinity, f8.0, .5 second, ISO 200.

I may take more pictures tonight. Or not.

 

 

I am still playing with the vintage (well, as far as digital cameras go – vintage) FX01.

Peg’s simple solution to the Florida Stand Your Ground Law issue. Stevie Wonder has the right idea. He is just the wrong person to implement it. What if all of the black (and as many nonblack ones as possible) football players refused to play ball in Florida – either for pro or college teams? How many days do you think it would take to come to a to a reasonable accommodation? How grand would that be? An old woman can have a dream – can’t she?