Learning Curve

I have taken over 1500 pictures since October 1st, trying to catch all the interesting things I see, which is apparently almost everything. I have read 86 pages of the instruction booklet, but am too stubborn to read the other 150 pages yet to see what else silly I didn't know. Like how to adjust the exposure - I thought that's what Auto did, but my daytime shots were washed out and wrong.

Another thing I learned is that the digital zoom doesn't work unless you have the camera set to the correct aspect ratio. I didn't even know what that did, but now I do. I'm keeping it set for more zoom. I can never have enough zoom or enough macro.

I learned that you can take pictures in vivid color mode, which thrilled me to no end, and probably requires an apology for the eye aches some of the photos cause.

I learned that sometimes, the reason everything is out of focus is not because the camera is too high tech for my old brain, but because the dog put a snotty noseprint on the lens, or somebody's fingerprint made a smudge.I learned that I can take pictures in all kinds of funny modes, like fishbowl, miniature, sepia, color swap. I had big time playing with those.

I don't know what I'll do with all this knowledge, and I can't imagine what I'll learn in the back two thirds of the manual. I am sure that I will keep taking way too many pictures, and that no matter how much I read or learn, sometimes taking a good picture is about just showing up with a camera and pressing the button.

Happy Friday

These pictures aren't too bad considering I was driving when I took them. Honest, I never took my eyes off the road. And I'm pretty sure I was slowing to a stop for the last one, otherwise it would be a great deal blurrier. I took them on Wednesday, but Happy Friday anyhow.

They lose something in the small size, I like them better clicked and enlarged to get the feel of them. I can't tell you the number of times I've felt compelled to point my camera out the car window or the sun roof, because the sky was so blue, the clouds were so white and the midwest landscape just cried out to be remembered. It happens most often in the fall, just before the crops are harvested and the trees are bare. There is something so bittersweet and beautiful about it that I wish I could just pull over and soak it in. Maybe because I know what's coming. I've never been one to look forward to winter, especially since I moved here, forever ago.

Wasn't the moon something this week? This shot sucks compared to what I saw - the clouds were hugging it just so, the planes were buzzing past, and as I put the camera down, one plane flew right across the bright white of the moon and it was something else. I wished there was someone in the car with me to say Would you just look at that!? to, but I had to settle for me and my camera. The blurry picture is better than nothing I suppose.

I know that change is in the air: the cold front blasted through yesterday, wreaking havoc with the scenery and ushering those glorious last sunny days far from here. Change is in the air, all around.

I'm going back to work, part time, my first real job in almost 15 years. It's time. College sticker shock is reason enough, but there's plenty of good reasons for getting a job now. I'm thankful to find one in this economy. I was beginning to feel old and obsolete after throwing my hat in the ring 7 times for one nibble. But that nibble bit, and on this Halloween I'll be doing the spookiest thing I've done in a long time - starting over again, again. The best part is I will get to feel good about what I'll be doing, working at the local college in the testing center, where hopeful people will be coming for their GED's, continuing education and work testing. Hopefully my work will help other people find their own work. I like that idea, and I'm thinking that this change can only do me good.

I hope interesting things are afoot in your world, and for some of you (Ms. Moon!!) I know they are! Have a great weekend.

I'd Like Some More of This Too, Please....

We have been on a run of extraordinary October weather. Here is the forecast for the coming week. This is the longest stretch of October consecutive days of 100% sunshine since 1934. We are basking in temperatures 30 degrees higher than a week ago. Everything is sunny, warm and golden. I'm trying not to be too greedy, but of course I want more.

I'm soaking every drop of sunshine in, and taking pictures to get me through the coming winter, which is predicted to break records for low temperatures and blizzards. One weatherman said this winter will make Chicago residents want to move. As if it doesn't already.

I'll cross that bridge when I get there. For now, it's all sunshine and smiles here.

Hope it's lovely where ever you are.

I'd like 25 more please

How often can you say you know exactly what you were doing 25 years ago today?  Some days I can't remember what I did 25 minutes ago. But today, my long term memory is perfect.


When we decided to get married, the date was easy to pick. It was the first weekend without a sailboat race, 10-4-1986.

About a million kisses later, there are no more sailboats, but there are kids. Who knew? I was never getting married and I was never having kids. I'm glad I was wrong.

The years flew right by, they really did. And how we are celebrating? No fancy trips or dinners tonight, just salty popcorn and cold pizza from the concession stands. Our youngest (#4) has a volleyball match, and our oldest is golfing in the regional qualifiers today in perfect weather. Very exciting stuff.

The symmetry here is that sports are driving the schedule, and that just like the day we got married, we both are fighting nasty headcolds. We got sick on our wedding day, and kleenexes went everywhere with us on our honeymoon, and here we are 25 years later with kleenexes and stuffy heads, just like old times. That fancy dinner can wait until we can taste food again.

It's been a great ride. I couldn't have imagined this future, and I can't imagine where the next 25 will take us, but one thing I'm certain of - it will be interesting and there will be kisses.

Happy Anniversary Honey.

XXOO

Playing Catchup

I've been wrangling two teenagers and a dog, doing dishes and laundry, driving the mom taxi, going to volleyball games and golf matches, trying to wrap my head around the hoopla that is modern Homecoming week, trying to navigate the stressful college selection process for the oldest, trying to figure out my new camera which I alternate between loving and hating, interviewing for a part time job at the local college, finishing my book and trying to write a relevant review and fighting a really snotty headcold. Oh and next week is our 25th wedding anniversary. We have no plans, mostly because I'm too tired to think that far ahead and I don't want to plan anything else. Our google calendar looks like a 64 color crayon box, and the greatest gift I can think of is not cooking anything and not doing dishes either. I imagine I am not exactly a hot date lately. My dad taught me to sing the old gray mare just ain't what she used to be and now I see the humor in that song as I sing it in my head when I feel overwhelmed.

Anyway, Nightwoods was a very satisfying read for me, because I loved the writing style, loved the characters, was very drawn into the story and did not guess the ending, not exactly. I hate when stories and movies are too predictable. I gained a lot of life philosophy to ponder reading that book, and I marked dozens of pages to reread and let it sink in a bit better.

The new camera is a high end point and shoot, the Canon G12, which is really heavy after my Powershot, and full of technomagic I don't quite understand. I'm enjoying the extra couple mm's of macro but I'm struggling with anything but letting it decide what to do on automatic, and it shoots more slowly than I had expected it to, but I'm still learning. Here's a few pictures from the past two week's walkabouts.

There is a chill in the air, and the gardens are eking out their last blooms as the trees are beginning to lose their leaves. I'm trying to pay attention, because I know the long season of browns and greys and whites will be here soon, and I'll be ticking off the days until the ground awakens again next Spring.

I've enjoyed visiting your worlds through pictures, and love that blogging lets me see the subtle changes in the seasons all over the continent and the globe.  Hopefully I'll see or think enough of interest to share here more often, as I admit to being a lazy and inconsistent blogger, especially when my life is crazy, which I expect is the new normal.  Also, hopefully I'll figure out how to work my new camera so it better captures what my eye sees, because there is something striking or beautiful around every corner.

Until then....