18 Years Ago Today

18 years ago today I got down on one knee and asked the love of my life if she would marry me.

Even after all this time, I am still shocked that she said yes. I mean, I knew she was going to say yes. We had talked about it quite a bit before the moment actually came. It’s just that I had lived 37 years being solidly convinced that I was never going to find anyone and I was going to be alone forever and then suddenly here I was popping the question and getting a “yes” in return. It was fucking amazing.

May 24 and 28, 2008 - Game Night and Memorial Day
Look at those two crazy kids

I don’t think we’re doing anything special to celebrate our 18th proposalversary. I’m planning on making hamburgers for dinner, which is always cool. I do tend to set off the smoke alarms when I cook burgers in the kitchen though. Cross your fingers for no issues.

Tomorrow evening we’re going to see a Star Wars movie because my childhood obsession still burns brightly and I cannot function in a world where a Star Wars movie is in the theaters and I have not seen it. Here’s to The Mandalorian and Grogu. I have remained utterly free of spoilers and reviews thus far. I just have to stay that way for about another 31 hours. Cross your fingers for no spoilers.

Yesterday I tried to use a post here to alter space and time so that my film photos would get developed, scanned, and uploaded to The Dark Room’s site. It didn’t really work. If it had the pics would have been available immediately. Instead, I got the notification overnight. It was after 1:00am, which means someone in California was putting in a late night. Your hard work is appreciated. I won’t be able to share anything until I get them downloaded, run through Apple Photos, then uploaded to Flickr. Suffice to say, my new camera works.

In closing, allow me to stand in front of the universe of the interwebs and once again declare my love for my bride, Jen. I would propose to her again in a heartbeat. I love her like crazy. Our actual wedding anniversary is a little more than a week away. Another chance to shout my love from the virtual rooftops.

Love you, sweetie.

Force the Issue

Yesterday I wrote a post complaining about how long it takes a package of film to get from my house in Massachusetts to the development lab in California. I wrote the post on Monday, fully expecting that my package would not arrive at its destination until Friday.

Shortly after publishing the post I got an email saying my package had arrived. Really? So quickly? Amazing! Did my writing about the situation somehow affect the outcome? Did my post somehow warp space and time to allow the package to arrive right at that moment? Who knows.

Now here we are, a day later, and I am waiting for the lab to tell me the photos have been developed and scanned and uploaded to my account. I’m waiting… patiently… impatiently. It’s only 2:17pm in California right now but I’m thinking… I’m wondering… I’m pondering…

If my post somehow altered space and time yesterday… would posting again today have a similar result? If I write about it again, will the outcome I am hoping for come to pass shortly after I click publish?

Let’s find out!

Might Change My Workflow

This is another in an endless line of posts about getting photographic film developed. As usual the main theme is that I am an impatient asshole. Consider yourselves warned.

When I first started mailing film off to a development lab I was sending it to a place in New Hampshire. The lab is close enough that I could probably drive to it and drop it off in person. It’s a little too far to do as a spur of the moment, off the cuff kinda drive, but it was close. When I dropped the package in the mail it was usually at its destination the next business day.

Then I changed labs. Instead of shipping to New Hampshire I was shipping to San Clemente, CA. All the way across the country. The service was a little cheaper, and to my very ignorant untrained eyes the end result looked a teeny tiny hair’s width better. Was it actually better? I don’t have a clue. The question was, does the slightly lower cost offset the extra 4–5 days of travel time to get the package of film to its laboratory destination? At first I thought yes. Now?

My plan for this summer is to shoot film once a month. Last year I was trying to go out and take pictures of stuff any time the sun was out in the early morning on the weekend. It got the point where I was sneaking out of the house 2–3 days each week. That was silly. This year I am going to blitz for one weekend, weather permitting, each month and that will be it. This month had an extra day because I needed to test drive my new camera, but outside of that I plan to stick to once a month.

Next month I think I am going to go back to the lab in New Hampshire. Hell, I might even drive there. Probably not, but if I can find some excuse I might. At the very least I will compare prices between the two labs directly and if it’s even remotely similar I am going to go with the faster shipping turn around time with the closer to home service. 

I dropped four rolls of film in the mail on Saturday. I don’t expect them to get to California until Friday. I am generally a patient person and that wait should not bother me… but in this case I am completely impatient and it does bother me.

Damn it, I am such a freakin’ nerd.

Thanks, DX Code

…and now we wait… again.

I got up early this morning and took my new eBay purchased camera out to finish its test roll… and then I loaded a second test roll.

I went to Methuen, MA’s little downtown area and snapped a few pics and I went to the Spicket Falls dam and took a few pics. That was all it took to finish off the roll of Kodak ColorPlus 200 that was already in the camera.

I loaded a second roll because the camera came with two lenses and I figured I’d shoot one test roll with each lens. So I switched from the 70–210mm to the nifty 50mm, drove to Walnut Grove cemetery and then crossed the street and took a walk down the Methuen Rail Trail. That killed off the second roll.

When I got home I put in an order at The Darkroom for those two rolls along with two additional rolls that I finished a couple of weeks ago. One 35mm and one 120. I just dropped them all off at the post office. Now, as previously stated, we wait to see how things look. The new camera definitely seems to be working from a functional standpoint. Now I just need to find out if it is riddled with light leaks or not. Does the shutter actually work? Who knows. We’ll find out when I get the scans back from the lab.

I had a moment though… a sort of, oh my christ you suck moment. I had just rewound the second roll of film. That was when I realized I never set the ISO on the camera. The first roll was ISO 200. The second was Kentmere 400… ISO 400… I never changed it. Shit. My second test roll is going to have all sorts of incorrect exposure.

Knowing it was miles too late (sorry for mixing units, my Physics teachers would be so disappointed in me) I pressed the ISO button and was wicked psyched to see that it was set at 400! I forgot, this new camera is fancy. It reads the DX code on the film cartridge and sets the ISO appropriately. I didn’t need to reset the value, the camera did it for me. I could have overridden the camera setting, but I wouldn’t have done that. I wanted it set at box speed and it was. Thanks, new camera!

But for now though… we wait.

Nothing Going On

It’s Friday night. The weekend is here. Thank fuck, you know? The weekend… finally.

We have nothing going on this weekend. I have to pick something up at the drug store but other than that… nuttin’.

Man, is that weird or what? It’s been a long time since we’ve had a weekend with nothing going on. 

Like… weird, right?

Check In Appointment

I had my four year anniversary of Gastric Bypass surgery check in with the surgeon today. In summation: All is well.

We talked about energy levels and how protein intake might affect them. The take away being that I have an appointment with the clinic’s nutritionist in a few weeks. The last time I met with them was… over three years ago, I think.

We talked about a couple of slightly embarrassing digestion issues and the take away was to try adding a probiotic and see if it makes a difference. I can so that.

I asked a question that wasn’t really worrying me until I actually got to the appointment today. My weight has been steadily increasing over the last two years. Not a lot, but enough for me to take notice. I asked her at what point should I start getting worried about that. She basically said that I don’t have to worry about anything but if we someday get there, there are things we can do. That made me feel better.

On the way home I stopped at a river-walk along the Merrimack River in Lowell, MA. I had my new/old/used film camera with me. I am trying to work through a test roll and I took a few pics. Unfortunately the weather was crap and it was starting to rain so I bailed after a short few minutes. I’ll try again over the weekend. 

Other than that… not much happening today. Oh, except for one thing… My wife, Jen, bought tickets to a showing of The Mandalorian and Grogu next week. Opening night, thank you very much. I can’t wait! The first new Star Wars movie in about seven years. This is the way!

Tired

I don’t think I have recovered from all of the driving last week. Somehow I feel like I am not terribly tired but at the same time I am terribly exhausted. I don’t get it. I just want to nap, I think.

Well, I want to nap but I also want to put a roll of film through my new camera so that I can find out if it works or not. Functionally I think it is working fine. The question is whether or not it leaks light. I won’t know that until I get a roll of film developed.

I have a doctors appointment tomorrow morning (my annual post-gastric bypass check in with my surgeon) and I was thinking of taking a quick stop along the Merrimack River in Lowell, MA on the way home. I checked the weather though… rain. Shit. I guess I’ll take the camera with me when I go on the off chance I get lucky. We’ll see. If not I might be able to take it for a walk through the bird sanctuary in Methuen on Saturday. We’ll see.

In other news, the new Star Wars movie comes out in just under two weeks. Friday May 22nd sees the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu. I would like to see it opening night, but as long as I get to it on opening weekend I will be happy. I asked my wife and my step daughter if they want to go. I hope so. I don’t like going to the movies alone, but I will. I could always drive up to Burlington, VT again (see previous posts for recaps of the million and a half drives to Burlington I’ve taken in the past 2+ weeks) and see it with my step son, assuming he’s interested. He might not be. I don’t know. My family isn’t quite as in love with Star Wars as I’ve been since 1977. In love is the wrong phrase… clinically obsessed is probably more accurate.

Okay, back to work with you, Sir. This is the way.

New Camera Day

Happy new camera day, everyone! I bought a Nikon N90 35mm film camera from eBay about a week ago and it was delivered today. 

The last two cameras I bought from eBay were broken (a Nikon F-401 with a broken aperture dial and a little Nikon Coolpix S7000 point and shoot that every image comes out blurry) so I was nervous about this one. Would it work? Would it show up in pieces? Who could really say?

Fortunately it seems to be in good shape. It’s practically mint condition, which feels weird to me. It had batteries in it already, which made me a little nervous, and all of the functionality I know how to test seems to be working fine. When I change the aperture or the shutter speed the light meter display changes. When I set it to a slow shutter speed it takes a lot longer for the shutter to close than when I use a fast shutter speed. I can set the ISO and the metering. Most important, with the first of the two lenses I’ve tested, the autofocus works. That sound you hear is my huge sigh of relief.

I won’t truly know if the camera is okay until I shoot a roll of film and get it developed and scanned and see the results. For now though, so far so good. I put a roll of film in it and took a few pics in the back yard. One of these days I’ll take it out in town and finish off the roll. I might go for two test rolls. One with the 70–200mm f4–5.6 lens and one with the 50mm f1.8 lens. I already had an AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8 and this new lens is the same name and the same specs but the physical lens itself is a little different. One is probably a minor update of the other. We’ll see how it works.

I have been wanting a camera like this for a while now, but it was the addition of the zoom lens that drew me in and made me pull the trigger. The lens is in really great shape. Like… how is it in this good of a shape? This kit is at least 30 years old. Was it stored in a safe or something?

I don’t know what the back story is. I just know that for now at least I am feeling good about all of this.

That was a Rough Week

I’m still not ready to write about the reason behind all of the insanity last week. It’s not really my story to tell. Suffice to say I drove about 100000000 miles over the last 10 days or so.

First, I was off on Friday May 1st. That day we learned that my step son’s girlfriend had an issue that needed immediate attention. She goes to school in Burlington, VT but her family lives near Detroit, MI. On Saturday May 2nd my wife and I drove from Methuen, MA to Burlington (about three hours) to pick up both kids and drive them back to our house. 

On Sunday May 3rd I drove them both to Logan Airport in Boston (about 40–50 minutes or so) so she could catch a flight to Michigan. Then immediately I drove my step son back to Burlington (3.5 hours or so) and after dropping him off at his apartment I drove straight home (three hours).

On Monday May 4th I went to work, then on Tuesday May 5th I had the day off. I was supposed to be taking my wife to a doctors appointment but that fell through. I was also supposed to pick up my step daughter at Logan Airport. She was on a trip to California. Turns out her flight didn’t land until 10:00pm so it wouldn’t have interfered with work. It did mean I didn’t get home until super late which made Wednesday morning rough.

On Wednesday May 6th I worked from home and as soon as I punched out for the day my wife and I jumped in the car and drove to Burlington, VT again. We picked up my step son and then drove further North, crossing the border into Quebec. We immediately went to a hotel and went to sleep. 

On Thursday May 7th we did some major driving. We drove all the way to Lapeer, MI. It was about 9–10 hours. Almost all of it on highways in Canada. When we arrived we brought my step son to where his girlfriend was and my wife and I got to meet some of her family. Most notably, we got to meet her 18 month old niece who was absolutely adorable. After that we went back to the hotel and crashed.

On Friday May 8th we spent almost the entire day just being there for the kids as they went through everything the family needed to get through. My wife and I were distantly on the periphery, but my step son was more involved. In the late afternoon my wife and I excused ourselves for a while. We drove about an hour North in the hopes of seeing a Great Lake (Huron) up close but when we got to the spot we were looking for you couldn’t actually see the lake. You could see little canals running into it, but not the lake itself. We did catch a glimpse from the highway at one point though. That will have to do.

Saturday May 9th was the super crazy day that just sucked the life right out of all of us. We drove home. We crossed into Ontario again and then headed East. We crossed back into the US at Niagara, NY and from there drove home to Methuen. I think it was about 11 hours on the road. We were toast.

On Sunday May 10th my step daughter cooked a Mothers Day brunch for my wife, which was lovely, and we all just decompressed a little from the insanity of the week. Eventually we drove my step son to a bus stop in Manchester, NH (about half an hour away) and he took that home to Burlington. I went grocery shopping and then proceeded to flake out for the rest of the day. I needed the rest.

Now it is Monday May 11th and I am in the office (an hour drive from home) and it’s not even 11:00am and I am already pretty desperate to go home and go back to sleep. What a crazy week. Just… wow.