Early

Happy weekend, my friends! I got up super early this morning, probably because I went to bed at 6:30 last night, and I was out early enough to see the total lunar eclipse. It was very cool; I had a fantastic view through the branches of the denuded maple tree in the front yard. I tried to get some pictures but failed miserably; one of these days I'm going to take another photography class. So often I can visualize what a picture should look like but can't make the camera do what I want.

Oooh, that reminds me of a story: A long, long time ago, I was in Electric City, taking some samples from a quarry, I think, and I came across this fence with hard hats all over it. In all different colors. The sky was really blue and if you looked at it a certain way it looked like balloons and I could just see the picture I wanted. This was in the pre-digital camera days, so I was fiddling with the controls on my old 35 mm and snapping shot after shot from different angles, even laying on the ground and shooting up. Before long, a gate opened, and this little tiny and very strange looking man sidled out. Because the gate was open, I could see that the yard was full of all sorts of metal objects and other junk. I don't remember what he said, and he wasn't mean in any way, but he TERRIFIED me, because it was clear that his driveway didn't go all the way to the street, in the words of one of my coworkers who definitely should not be throwing stones if you know what I mean. I stammered out what I was doing, and he grabbed a hard hat off the fence, plopped it on my head, took the camera and took a picture of me. Then he gave the camera back and scurried back inside the yard and shut the gate. I ran out of there so fast your head would spin, and naturally, not a single one of my pictures was worth a damn. Except that last one of me. It actually wasn't bad. And I can STILL see in my head what that blasted hard hat picture should have looked like.

Oh well, what can you do, right? Anyway, back to this morning: there was a pretty thick frost on the ground and my rake was still laying on the ground where I left it the last time I thought about cleaning up the leaves on the ground. While I was standing there, just watching the moon, I thought I would warm up by running the rake for a little while. This was completely unsuccessful because the leaves were frozen onto the ground in a sort of mat-like fashion. It almost might remind one of a orange and yellow quilted lawn-cozy, in fact. I was tempted to see if I could just roll it up but my hands were already freezing. I figure those leaves have been laying there for months; they can lay there a little while longer. Or a lot longer, if I'm being totally honest. And you know good and well I always am.

Now I'm working hard at whomping up some hippie Christmas presents, and man, does my kitchen smell awesome. That doesn't happen very often so it's extra enjoyable, mmmmmmmm. I think I might take a blanket and pillow in there and sleep on the floor. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Camera

My camera has been acting up lately. The battery will only hold a charge for a couple of milliseconds, and every time I turn it on, the settings visible on the screen have gone crazy. There are all kinds of symbols and menus showing, and it's set on 8M. I can't figure out how to change it, and the manual was lost three bases ago. Must be something wrong with it.

Well, I thought to myself, it IS getting kind of old. I've had it for quite a while. I started trying to figure out just how old, so I went back through my pictures and dug out the oldest ones I could find. These two of Lloyd are from the summer of 2004 and were taken in our yard in Pensacola. These aren't the EARLIEST ones; I was pregnant with Weston then and I have some belly shots from the spring but I look hideous in all of them, and I'm very vain and didn't want to post them. I did notice, though, that I should probably go shopping, because in one of them I was wearing the same sandals I wore to work today. I also see that Lloyd still has those same boots. And shorts. And I'm a little suspicious about the shirt. He, however, does NOT need to go shopping. So, double standards aside, the camera is pretty old, for a camera and sandals. Not for boots and clothes. Lloyd's boots and clothes, I mean. Anyway, maybe it's time for a new one. Camera, that is.

But then, I squeezed off a quick video of Shane vacuuming the other day, right before he sucked up a sock in the hose. On purpose. When I downloaded it, I expected it to come up really quick; I just had the one little movie. But no. It took forever, and all of a sudden a whole passel of pictures I'd never seen before showed up in my iphoto. Fifty seven of them, including the four you see below. They were all pretty similar in composition and subject matter, and they gave me an idea about what might be wrong with the camera. Now that I think about it, I've had similar problems with the printer, the phone, the coffee maker and the alarm clock. Not that a solid diagnosis is going to help me since the manual is still missing. Also, it just took me about fifteen tries to type 'diagnosis'. There's probably something wrong with my keyboard.

Well, I guess I have some important business to attend to. See you at the thrift store! I'll be the one in the shoe department that can't make her phone work.