Just me, a hub, dad, grandad --who thinks young, acts like an adult (most of the time), who thinks technology is wonderful. A transplanted Canadian who has dual citizenship, but pays taxes to the US...works in DC lives in Northern Virginia.
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Mother nature has gone nuts... cyclones in Burma, earthquakes in China, tornadoes in the midwest US, and in our area RAIN! We have had 7 inches in like 3 days.... who said there was a drought!
So this morning was nice and sunny and I told self that I bet the Potomac is in rare form at Great Falls today...and I was right!
Here is the river in August 07 at less than normal flow...
And here it is today (May 13, 2008) after 7 inches of rain, and taken from about the same spot..
Not a good day for kayaking!
I have never thought of myself as a serious, or even very good, photographer. But at the urging of a couple of good friends, I am going to give selling my photos online a shot.... got the site up today, so here goes! I am absolutely positive that millions will not be made, but what the hell... every millionaire starts with making that first single penny!!! What a hoot......
Well it has been about a month since I quit my job and decided to retire. Today I noticed they finally shut down my email address at work so I guess that makes it official. So far the time away from the job has been pretty good...I haven't missed it one iota. I thought for sure that I might miss some of the folks I worked with, or that were part of the agency I was with, but to my amazement I haven't. I have been approached by 3-4 organizations/individuals who want me to consider going with them, all even letting me work out of the house, but I have politely told all of them, "thanks, but I am going to not consider any of that sort of thing for awhile." I might hook up with them down the road, but for now I have absolutely no desire. I think I was really more burned out than what I realized. I really need time to recharge...
I find my days very full. I am up by 7am, read the newspapers, both print and online, drink a great cup of coffee--even have time to grind my own beans, and have a bite to eat. I am showered and dressed by 8 or so, then finish off reading, and by 9 I am into my schedule for the day. I do try and plan my days, and have got lots of to do lists. But I don't really fret if I don't get through them...after all, there is still tomorrow.
I am trying to get some things done around the house....this morning I repaired a wire clothes hanger thingie in one of the closets. It was starting to come out because of too damn many clothes--some of which are now available at Goodwill. For the past 3-4 days the weather has been just perfect and I have spent most of the days outside---have my tomatoes planted, plus peppers, yellow squash, and cucumbers. I cleaned out the winter debris from the flower beds, and transplanted some plants. It was hard work---worked up a real sweat and it felt very good.
I am doing a lot of photography experimenting, and going through the British photo magazines I have bought over the past couple of years and doing the tutorials that come with each issue on a DVD. (Memo to US photo magazine publishers--- if you really want to be successful, you had better take a look at the British versions---much better.... I will spend an hour leafing through the millions of ads and occasional articles that you put into yours, and a few days going through the tremendous stuff in the Brit's version...as I result I declined to accept the pleas from the US guys to renew my subscriptions). Done tutorials on doing HRD processing, landscape photography, low light photos, and much more.
My basement is getting much better organized, thanks to the shelving I put in, but that is truly a long range project. The mother of all yard sales I planned for this spring has now been postponed until fall--there is just too damn much crap!
But the one thing I really am enjoying is that I am writing a book about my life. No, I am not being egotistical here. Rather, I am doing it for my kids and grandkids. Nobody knows I am doing it, but I wanted them to know about my life, plus the lives of my parents and grandparents...a history so to speak of my side of the family.Since my mom and the rest of the crew are 3,000 miles away, neither my kids, and especially my grandkids, know much about them. Now they will, if only in a printed version. Lots of tears shed while writing, but since I am doing it when nobody else is around..who cares, right?
The one thing I do have on my to do list is that I am seriously thinking of becoming actively involved in Obama's Presidential bid... have always had the desire to get into such a campaign, now may be the time... which I have lots of...
And so goes retirement.....
I have tried to grow clematis plants in my garden for years but without much success....but this year, guess what!!!
Ok Hillary...cut it out! You are representing what I think is the uppermost problem with American politics, and maybe with America itself...our total interest in the short term. I refer of course to Hillary's suggestion, plus the same for McCain and Dubya, that we have a federal gas tax holiday this summer. How in the hell does that solve our energy crisis, and how the hell does it benefit the economy over the long haul?
Sure, I hate the escalating gas prices as much as the next guy. But under the proposal, we will all save a whopping 18 cents per gallon. Let me do the math...We use about 20 gallons of gas per week in our vehicles... when I worked, we used about 10 gallons more. The tax holiday means I would save about $3.60 per week, times 12 weeks comes out to be about $43 total savings. Even if we go on a long trip, and the amount is doubled, we are still not talking about really big bucks are we? Big f'ing deal....yea, to some folks that is nice change, but to anyone in the middle class or higher, I bet you spend that much or more on a trip to a restaurant...we went out for dinner Saturday night and the bill came to $60, and it wasnt even a high class cafe. The same goes for the economic stimulus checks that are now being sent out.... all of them are short term (very short) solutions to long term problems.
At least Obama is on the right track....he calls them nothing but political gimmicks (and I am tired of them). What we need is a comprehensive energy policy on alternative energy sources, more fuel efficient vehicles, and a whole new approach to transportation. Yet you can bet there will still be people who will vote for Hillary and/or McCain solely on the basis of their advocating saving $43!!!
What nonsense! But it is so American isn't it.... short term results versus long range solutions. We have done that throughout most of the past 100 years, so no doubt we will continue.
Ok Barack, it is time to tell your preacher buddy, Jerimiah Wright to shut the hell up. He is screwing up your campaign and I will be damned if one preacher is going to throw a wrench into the election because of his egotistical ranting and raving. We had enough of the "values" folks in the last two elections, and we are suffering because of them. Let's not go through the same nonsense again with the religious types. (As I have said before, I have moved away from organized religion because they are screwing up the world, and have done so for centuries.)
I think Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post hit the nail on the head with his column today...
Historically and theologically, he was inflating his importance in a pride-goeth-before-the-fall kind of way. Politically, by surfacing now, he was throwing Barack Obama under the bus.
Sadly, it's time for Obama to return the favor.
I have never been much of a baseball fan--find the game far too slow for me. But I had a chance to go to the new Nationals Park in DC last night, so went with the camera. The Nats lost to the Mets (damn those Met fans are rude!!), but the new park is very nice. Couple of photos that I took... this one is at the main entrance
This one is a panorama shot I took, stitching together 3 shots into one..
And it was a gorgeous night for a game!!
We have had house guests all week (which is worthy of a separate post in itself---2 adults, 4 kids, all of whom ate like horses---and stayed for a week!) so yesterday took them to the National Zoo in Washington DC. Took over 250 photos as it was a glorious day...here are just two of them. Some of the rest are on my flickr site.
In her most recent post, Lewana relates the story of having to move two households one right after the other. And I immediately felt her pain, but I found a solution. Three years ago, I tore down my old house and built a new one in its place. When planning all this, the thing that my mind kept coming back to was "what in the hell are we going to do with all that stuff in the attic?" I mean, it was crammed full of junk that we had collected in the 20+ years we had been in there. Every time we thought about moving we came back to those horrid thoughts of "what about the attic" and the moving thought quickly left. The old house was a one level ranch, no basement, and not enough room on the one floor to store stuff...the attic was the only place.
One of the problems is that I could not stand straight up in the attic. I had to stoop over every time I was up there. After an hour or so my back would be killing me. So we slowly started bringing stuff down, when one day my builder came by while we were climbing up and down the pull down ladder that goes to the attic ..He came to discuss the demolition date, and it was then I had a brilliant idea. I shared my idea with the builder, and he agreed...
And on the day of demolition, we watched as a ton of junk from the attic came tumbling down with the rest of the house and was hauled off to the dump! Of course we took down stuff that we wanted, but this solution was the best idea I have had, or probably ever will have...and it saved me from having a hell of a sore back!
One of the things you find when you just about retire (I kinda hate that word because there is no damn way I am going to "retire"--I may quit work but not "retire."--but I digress)----is that you find a hell of a lot of things that have kind of slipped by over the past couple of years....like my basement, for example, which became the dumping ground of "I will get to it later" kinds of stuff..
So today I began the onerous chore of organizing it....and holy crap, the stuff one keeps, "cuz you might need it someday." But at least I made a dent after being down there for almost 5 hours. I took the plunge yesterday and ordered a bunch of storage shelves. They will arrive next week, but between now and then I want to get the stuff organized and packed in plastic bins so I can put them right on to the shelves. Besides, I have to make room for the shelves anyway..
And boy are we going to have the mother of all yard sales in a month or so!
Now excuse me while I pleasure myself with a nice glass of pinot noir....wanta join me?
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