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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Re: the story in the Wash Post I linked in my last post---it is now only 8:35am and already 320 people have commented on the story on the Post's website.... very interesting.
Tell me something I don't know Scott... and the more and more I hear of this, the more I think Dubya and his regime should be put on trial... January 20, 2009 can't come fast enough.
My mother is a retired teacher...one of my sisters is a teacher... my wife and daughter both teach...and I taught at a college for a few years...so it is inevitable that I would value education, especially life long learning. I remember my mom harping on me from as far back as I can remember..."don't ever stop learning!" She, herself, has taken Elder Hostel classes for as long as I can remember, and she is 89. So following her dictum, I enrolled in a photography class as one of the first things to do in my retirement. I have always wanted to learn as much as I could on any subject; photography is no exception. (To my family's chagrin, I currently can't stop myself from buying photo magazines and books, and I surf the net constantly looking for photo stuff..) And I am glad that I am taking the course.
We had our second class this past Wednesday. It runs for 6 weeks, one night a week for 3 hours. It only cost $100 through the county adult education department There are 12 of us in the class and range in age from college students to old farts like me, and in ability from rank beginners to those, again like me, who have had a digital camera for a number of years. It is a class, however, for those who have SLR cameras, so all of us are pretty committed- as indicated by the fact that we shelled out pretty big bucks just to get the camera. One guy bought a Nikon D3 camera (a gem at $5,000) just for the course (don't you just hate rich, young people.) So far, the classes have been very good. The instructor is an older lady (probably my age) who has gobs of experience in photography. She has been teaching this course for about 6 years. Her goal in the course is to get us to be comfortable using manual settings, as opposed to the programmed settings, and that is exactly the thing I wanted to get out of the course. And so far there have been numerous "ah ha" moments for me. I guess I was familiar enough with my camera to realize what I didn't know, and when I finally realize what a particular thingie is for, I rejoice!
Ain't learning fun?
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.
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