HMMMMM...

update: I've added a books read list to the sidebar for 2008 - inspired by both My Utopia and the many boxes of unread books. The goal is 1 per week - we'll see!

Hmmmm! It’s been a while since I’ve posted. It is amazing how life’s inertia takes over and the days/weeks slip away. Much is happening in my sphere - there are work searches, projects that were put off for the gray days of winter (like unloading boxes from storage and sorting our photos), tackling the backlog of “want to read books” that have been building for a while now and setting up the project room to be more than a staging area.

The winter blahs are upon us. Even though we don’t have the cold and snow that many of the rest of you face, there is still a feeling of confinement that comes with the insipid days filled with gray skies and misty rain. The cats go out because we put them out, as otherwise they would destroy the house due to cabin fever. Even the fox are largely absent during these stretches of crappy weather. We nearly lost all the potted plants to an unexpected frost and now the project room is also a nursery for those plants that are in recovery (the greenhouse isn’t heated). The well equipment, surrounded by only a reed fence for screening, has been covered with a white tarp and warmed with a 150 watt bulb for the coldest nights. It looks like a lighted iceberg behind the screen at night. Taking down the Christmas decorations put us both into a depressive tumble – now is usually the time of year we start looking for a Hawaiian or Caribbean break. Alas, this year we’ll be lucky to exit the driveway.

This time last year we were working murderously hard to finish the remodeling projects at the Seattle house. It is still hard to believe that it was nearly a year ago that the Buffledog and I set out on our road trip – we left on February 12^th and it seems like last month! A lot has happened since then...and, shamefully, we are still settling into this house and community. There is still a disconnection with this community, perhaps work will change that. “B” is volunteering with the Camber of Commerce now so that should help, but it is so unlike us to not plug in quickly. There have been a variety of activities and gatherings that have crossed our paths in the last few months, but we were collectively uninterested. We chose instead to fluff up our space. It will be interesting to see what spring brings.

I just saw that this is my 401^st post! How could I have had that much to say? Hmmmm….

Prints and Patience

One of my projects for this year is going to be to digitize all of the slides I have taken over the years. Now that I have the appropriate space and time to do such a monumental project I would be remiss to not follow through. What started this was the search for some photos taken several summers ago that “B” had asked to be enlarged for display in the hall gallery – 2 are pictured here and there are a few others in the PBase gallery. I unpacked all the slide carousels and started looking for clues as to where these particular prints might be hiding - there are a lot of carousels. Fortunately they were at least numbered in sequential order and before long the right group became apparent. Out came the long neglected screen and projector and after a little cursory cleaning and lens polishing the system came to life.

The first carousel went in and then another and then another and when I heard the garage door open beneath me I realized I’d been totally engrossed in the journey through the past for several hours – I had long since located the slides for which I was searching.

I probably should back up here some 40-odd years. When my grandpa would visit when I was a child he would bring along his slides and movies and for several nights we’d have a presentation. Long after everyone else was bored or sleepy I would sit with rapt attention as Pop brought out his more recent work as well as some things that we’d seen before. It was a treat for me to visit the old ghost towns along with his forays into the Navaho Nation where he gleaned his inspiration for his silver and turquoise craft. What always struck me was the depth that was in the slides, a depth that isn’t achievable in prints without some 3D manipulation. It was from these nights that my interest in slides was spawned, although not realized for many years to come.

That depth of color and near 3D quality was once again apparent as I was clicking through slide after slide. There was also vague awareness that all of the carousels were simply loaded from what ever had been processed and edited only to toss out any real mistakes. That brought me to this thought: that since the switch into the digital world of virtually unlimited storage and no processing cost that I had lost my sense of timing and set-up and relied more on quantity for “the grab”. Don’t get me wrong, I love the freedom that this allows and the experimentation with subject and frame, but viewing the quality of the slides and knowing the discards of crappy pixel captures I find that I want to return to a more disciplined photographer. The slides were all taken with a very modest camera/lens set, far different than the digital set that I have now. Here’s hoping that I can find my solid ground again.

What to serve when an ass comes to call:

… why … bird food of course!

You can imagine my surprise to look up and see Beauregard (my name for him) clopping down the driveway. He had apparently escaped from his pasture and was out looking for fame, fortune, ladies and treats. We’ve heard his brays like clockwork around feeding time every day, but had never met this four legged neighbor. He is a handsome devil, is he not? His people have the property behind ours and I promptly put in a call to let them know that Beauregard was out roaming the neighborhood, but I could only leave a message. I made several attempts to lead him toward the pasture for safe keeping until his folks could retrieve him, but he was having no part in being led anywhere! Beauregard was content to graze around in the front and discovered the bird food in the platform feeder – he kept coming back to the table. Zoë was most interested and kept rolling around in the dirt begging him to play – although she would run away if he started towards her. After about an hour of aborted attempts to pasture him I decided to at least see if he would follow me towards the back of the property. Zoë and I took off down the property line I had cleared earlier in the fall and this time Beauregard got the hint and followed at a distance. We got about half way and he passed us with some recognition and resolve in his kindly eyes. We watched his ass disappear over the rise near the property line. I put in a call to the sheriff to let them know that Beauregard was loose.

Beauregard & Zoë (click to enlarge)

A thankful call this morning let us know he found his way to his stable.

Having an ass in the yard for New Years, I’m thinking, is a good omen!