Is This a New Type of Stomach Fun?

Four years along with gastric bypass surgery. Am I seeing a new situation right now?

If I don’t eat enough I get stomach aches. They are literally hunger pains. When I eat something, they go away.

Every so often something in my metabolism (maybe?) changes and instead of being able to go a few hours without getting any pain, I get maybe an hour and a half or so. I get pain much faster, and it’s a little more severe. This has happened 3–4 times since the surgery. It lasts about a week then it stops and goes back to “normal”. I assume I have a virus or something that affects my metabolic rate and I just have to ride it out.

I’m in one of those periods right now and it’s lasted a couple of weeks. Longer than usual… if usual is even a thing. I think there was one instance where it was longer than this but it’s hard to remember. This time though… am I seeing something different?

When my stomach is hurting and I eat something, the pain goes away. When I drink though… drinking water didn’t used to have much of an affect at all. This time? I think I am starting to notice that drinking water actually makes me feel worse. Even more, there have been a couple of times in the last few days where I was feeling okay, I had a drink, and I started hurting?

What?

Water hurts and food helps? What the fuck, stomach? I’m ready to go back to “normal” now, thanks.

In other, unrelated news, our HBO Max subscription (which is a bundle with Disney and Hulu) doesn’t include House of the Dragon? Really? The fuck?

Fathers Day Riverwalks

Happy Fathers day to all who are fathers or who play the roll of a father in someone’s life. Whether you are a biological father, a step father (like me), or a single mom who covers both the mother and father responsibilities (a good definition for the word “hero” if I ever heard one), then today is your day. I don’t know about the rest of you, but the one accomplishment I am most proud of in my life is that in September of 2007 a six year old girl and a four year old boy let me be a part of their lives, and in the nearly 19 years that have passed since then they haven’t changed their minds. Frankly I am honored and I hope I’ve been up to the challenge. I’m sure I’ve failed left and right, but over all… here’s hoping I’m doing right by them.

That’s not really the point of this post though, it’s just a nice bonus. The point of this post is photos! I went on another morning photo walk today. This time I hit three riverwalk type things in Lowell, MA. The Wamesit Falls Overlook, the… whatever the riverwalk along the Merrimack River near the Rourke Bridge is called, and a third little thing that I never saw before but noticed as I drove past that was basically a gazebo and a boat launch and a lot of graffiti.

I finished three rolls of film. One roll of Phoenix II 200 in 120 in my Lubitell, a roll of the new Kodak Ektacolor 400 (that is supposed to be just Portra 400 under a different name?) that I loaded in the Nikon N90 yesterday to use at my nephew’s graduation party (but only took a few shots), and another Phoenix II 200 (this time in 35mm), again in the N90. I took those three rolls and the four rolls I shot on last weekend’s photo walk adventure and shipped them off to The Darkroom Lab earlier. Give them a couple of weeks and then I’ll share any of those that don’t suck… assuming there are at least one or two that don’t suck. We’ll have to wait and see.

The rule on these little jaunts is to shoot film while walking away from the car and then digital while walking back to the car. The twist on the digital last week was that I used a lens that came in the kit with the N90. I used the other lens from that kit today. It’s an AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8. I got a lens with exactly the same specs when I bought my broken Nikon F401 last year, but despite the identical specs it is definitely a different lens. I have dubbed this one 50mm f/1.8 number two. I actually used it on all shots taken on both Nikon cameras today. The N90 and Z5 (with the FTZii adapter, of course).

But enough of my yappin’, here come some pics!

First, a bunch from the Wamesit Falls Overlook, which is a riverwalk along (and in two places, across) the Concord River.

Expect lots of white water through the trees pics

Not sure what that concrete wall thing is doing there

Same bridge, looking in the opposite direction

Lowell, MA has old mill buildings everywhere. I don’t know what this one is now, nor do I know what blew that hole in the wall

Falls through the trees. Yes that is a mattress on the left

I’ve heard of going over waterfalls in a barrel, but on a mattress?

Now we skip the second stop, which was the boat launch with all of the graffiti because it was such a short visit that the digtal camera never made it out of the bag. So instead we move on to the VFW Highway and the Merrimack River.

The Merrimack River and the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the United States

The Roarke Bridge and UMass Lowell Crew’s dock

A 40 something year old temporary bridge

I had never walked right up to the bridge before, but today is the day!

I’m just tryin’ to find the bridge. (Led Zeppelin joke, thank you very much)

The Roarke does include a foot bridge but you couldn’t pay me enough to step onto it

So there you have it. Another couple of hours on another Sunday morning, wandering around like a nerd with a bag full of cameras. I am thinking the next time I do this will be just after the 4th of July. I have an idea about going to the Esplanade in Boston and seeing the aftermath of the Pops concert and the fireworks. We will see.

For now though, in closing…

Exhausted

I’m so tired I can’t Even…

I was in Boston at 2:00am this morning. Maybe I’ll tell that story someday.

I went to my nephew’s graduation party today. It was great. We may have set my step daughter up on a blind date. Probably not. Maybe I’ll tell that story someday.

Grad Party

I have three nephews and one niece. The oldest of the four of them graduated from high school this month. Tomorrow is his graduation party.

My stomach has been a right prick for the whole past week. I loop between mildly nauseous to uncomfortable hunger pain to stuffed. Yup. Also, I can’t sleep because my stomach keeps waking me up. I am completely exhausted. Hoo-freakin’-ray.

Is that why I fucked up the laundry today? I have been in charge of the laundry since the day 16 years ago when we moved into the house and for the first time ever I had something go into the wash white and come out pink. I only wash in cold water and I used a color catcher thing and somehow my wife’s white sweater and two of my white socks all came out pink. The fuck?

What else… I am bringing a film camera to the graduation party tomorrow. I just loaded my first ever roll of Kodak Ektacolor 400. The film formerly known as Portra. A pro-level film. Pretty much a given that I’ll do something to screw it all up, right?

Right then, what else… nothing. I got nothing else. I want to go to sleep. G’night, folks.

Jealousy

I mentioned yesterday that I went to a wake for the parent of an old friend. The old friend is also a former band mate. Back in the 90’s I was the guitar player and sometimes the lead singer (yikes!) and she was the drummer.

That’s right. Our band had a woman playing drums more than 25 years before Rush had a woman playing drums. How cool were we?

Speaking of Rush (again), that’s what this post is going to be about. Rush. Again. The 50 Something Tour. The grand come back. The historically nerdiest band in the world assuming their rightful place as the coolest band to ever come back from retirement and the death of 33% of the lineup. The feel good story of 2026.

Back in the 90’s, the band we were in was made up of all Rush fans. There were three of us and we were all fanatics. We used to try to play The Spirit of Radio and I could almost sort of get there. Not really, but kind of. There was one, maybe two (memory fails me) occasions where the three of us went to see Rush together. Pretty sure we saw them together on the Test for Echo tour in… 1996? 1997? Probably ’97. I can’t recall. Was there another time too? 2002, maybe? I can’t recall.

Our Rush loving drummer had a sister who was a guitar player who was studying at Berkeley College of Music and was approximately 1369742987149176284691327469 times better than I was. I was always sort of expecting that I would get the axe and she would replace me. It’s kind of insane that they never did that. It would have made the band infinitely better.

The guitar playing sister moved to California at some point. She was at the wake last night. I hadn’t seen her since… I don’t even know when. At least 1999, probably earlier than that. The first thing she said to me last night was, “are you going to see Rush?” Did I mention she was a Rush fanatic too?

Side note: All of you people making jokes about how Rush is a boys only club can just fuck right the fuck off. I know more die hard Rush fans who are women than who are men. I married one. So there.

Back to the story, she asked me if I was going to see Rush and I said we got tickets to see them in New York. At this point I had completely forgotten that she lived in Southern California. If I hadn’t forgotten that I would have known what was coming. She said she saw them in Los Angeles. They played four shows… she saw two.

They have only played four shows on this tour so far and she saw two of them. I think I turned green with envy. I mean it. Literally. Green.

The tour reaches its second location tonight. They are playing the first of two shows in Mexico City. I have a valid passport. There’s no legal reason why I could not be there. I should be there. We all should be there.

I can’t wait.

That Was Sad

I went to a wake tonight. A parent of an old friend.

Alzheimer’s.

My mother didn’t have that, but she did have dementia and that’s probably close enough.

Watching someone you love go through that is just dreadful. It’s about the most awful thing you can experience. I felt sad for my friend and sad for my mother.

Give the people you care about a hug.

Can I Go to Bed Now?

This post is not going to change the world. It’s just me being sleepy.

I have had a seriously shit night’s sleep each of the last two nights. It is about quarter past eight in the evening and I am running out of gas.

My back is sore, my legs are killing me, I’ve had leg cramps the last couple of nights and they have been pretty awful. My stomach has been a jerk all day. At first it was one of those post-stomach surgery random occurances. Later it was because I ate my lunch too fast and messed up my already screwy stomach even more. Yippee.

Work was nuts today. I have to go into the office tomorrow. How is it not Friday yet? I am going to a wake after work tomorrow too. Everything is just crazy.

Donald trump is a fascist and a pedophile and a rapist and a fucking scumbag. News broke today saying the FBI foiled a plot to attack Sunday nights white trash circus event on the white house lawn. I don’t believe it for a second. Just like I don’t believe either of the two assassination attempts were really. I hate that this orange taco nazi raper of children has made me so damn cynical.

I need a nap.

And a vacation.

And a new drummer for my band.

That’s not too much to ask, is it?

A Couple of Musical Thoughts

After taking half a billion photos yesterday I quietly turn my creative thoughts to musical stuff.

I say quietly because I didn’t make any noise today even though I wanted to. I guess we’re starting with a failure but whatever.

The first musical thought… I am hoping to write and record demos for 10 songs this month. As of half an hour ago I am up to seven songs in progress. They are all just MIDI tracks right now. No lyrics or melodies or guitars or anything. I’m working on it though. A little progress on most days after failing to do anything for about the first week of June.

The other musical thought tonight is a little more abstract. Generally speaking, the world is kinda shit right now. We have pro-nazi assholes and pedophile protecting pieces of shit everywhere we look. We as a society have just devolved into this awful clusterfuck of awful. Through it all there is one thing…

We have this one beacon of positivity. This single shining example of goodness and rightness standing up in the middle of the ocean of bullshit. Rush. They have only played four shows in one city and it has been absolutely magical and magnificent and perfect and wonderful and I never ever want it to end.

Our tickets are for a night that is just over a month away and it feels like we’re going to be waiting for an eternity to be able to join in the magic, but the day is coming and there will be other shows in the meantime in whose social media posted glory we may bask.

Rush. We don’t deserve them but we need them. We need them to help us claw our way out of the cesspool. I can’t freaking wait for Madison Square Garden in late July.

Huge Photo Walk

I went on an epic photographing journey today. I went to two locations and I walked something like four miles. Who even am I?

I paid for it with chores though. The cellar has been put back together after twice being blown off by a contractor. I won’t say it is “clean” but I will say it is drastically “cleaner” and that’s good enough for me. Speaking of contractors, yet another is scheduled to come by tomorrow to fix a piece of broken furniture in my step son’s room. Along with cleaning the cellar, I got everything ready for that too. Now it’s time to post some photos and then its time to nap.

I had a bunch on my photo to-do list this morning. One, shoot the sunrise (which required me getting out of bed at 4:00am and being on the road toward Hampton Beach, NH by 4:20… yikes!). Two put a roll of 35mm film through my new (to me) Nikon N90. Three, complete the Frugal Film Project for this month. Four, use the crap out of the 70–210mm zoom lens I got with the N90 on my Nikon Z5 via the FTZii adapter that I mistakenly called the F2Zii adapter in a post yesterday. Five, if possible finish off the roll of film in my Nikon FG-20 that’s been sitting there since March or so. In all five cases, mission accomplished.

I did not ship out the film for developing yet. I am planning on taking the N90 to my nephew’s high school graduation party next week (CONGRATULATIONS!!!!) and I might try to sneak in a second photowalk next Sunday too, if the weather cooperates. I’ll wait until after that to ship out the film. As usual, the day of blog post is only digital photos. Unlike all of my previous posts with images shot on my Z5, this one has a zoom lens. Not only a zoom lens, but a 70–210mm zoom lens!

First stop, Hampton Beach where the sky was completely clear and I saw the sun come out of the water. Success!

I love how the sunrise lights up the windows

The huge zoom let me steal a shot of this dude fishing. He was far away but the lens brought him close.

I drove up the coast a ways to get a different view. This time from way up a hill. The tide was so far out you had to walk half way to France to get to the water. It kinda took some of the granduer out of it for me. Oh well.

The next stop was the two Rail Trails in Newburyport, MA. One is called Clipper, I think, and the other is called Harbor… I think. The plan was to shoot film while walking away from the car, and then to shoot digital while walking back. So these first shorts are on the Harbor trail after I turned around. The sun reflecting off the water was kinda brutal. My Z5 and N90 both had fast enough shutter speeds to handle it, but my FG-20 and my Lomo Lubitell were struggling. I’m a tiny bit nervous about how some of those shots are going to turn out.

Zoomed way in on that little boat heading out to sea

See what I mean about the sun reflecting?

Hey look, a lighthouse! I think it’s a restaurant

The new lens managed some blurry background at f/4!

What do you call a boat like this? Is it a catamaran?

The new lens managed some major blurry background at f/5.6! Wow!

I took a lot of pictures of stairs for some reason

And there you have it. A shit load of pointless pics that I had a lot of fun taking. The film version will come… someday… maybe.

Scheduling SNAFU Again

The pricks did it to us again. Yesterday one of the contractors that was supposed to work on our house blew us off. After their arrival window closed they called and said they had to reschedule. My wife booked 7:30–10:00am today and got them to guarantee they’d show up.

They didn’t show up.

My wife called them at around 11:00am to tell them to go take a long walk off a short pier and they put her on hold for 40 minutes then sent her to voicemail. Boy did she let them have it. Both barrels.

In preparation for this work I had to tear one of the kids bedrooms apart and then totally destroy our entire basement. Since we’ve told them to screw, I started putting things right again. The bedroom is back to normal, an one area of the cellar is done. There is still a couple of hours worth of work to undo. I’ll take care of that tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, I was sort of planning on taking a bag full of cameras to the ocean for sunrise this morning, but the rescheduling screwed all of that up. Instead, I am going to try to do it tomorrow. The forecast at the coast looks pretty good. The only downside is that sunrise is at 5:04am, which means I have to be out of bed at 4:00am. It should be worth it. I’m thinking of hitting a couple of spots near Hampton Beach, NH and then maybe a riverwalk somewhere. Maybe in Lowell? Not sure yet.

I got ready for this by putting film in all of the film cameras, and like a schmuck I burned one shot on the medium format camera. Dumb ass. I also put one of the manual focus lenses that came with my last eBay purchase onto my digital camera to give it a test drive. It worked great.

The lens is smart enough that the camera can control the aperture but not smart enough to auto focus. I have focus peeking turned on though and that is a HUGE help for an old fart with weak vision like me. I’m not sure if I will use it tomorrow, but I might. We’ll have to wait and see.

Other than that the only news right now is that my step daughter is coming home today. She’ll only be here a couple of days before she’s off again, but that’s fine with me. Any time with either of the kids in the house is time well spent.

Also, as a bit of forewarning to regular readers, once I get the cellar put back together you can expect a barage of music posts. I have five songs in progress right now and I hope to start putting guitars onto the demos soon. Duck and cover, everyone.

Until then, never forget that donald trump is a fascist and a rapist and a pedophile. Release the complete, unredacted epstein files. I don’t care if it brings down the entire US government. If it is bad enough to do that then the US government deserves to be brought down.

Finally, on the Rush 50 Something Tour, is Anika Nilles doing a drum solo?

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