Category: Generic

Divisible by Eleven

Friday May 8th. Yeah, it’s my birthday. Again. I’m 55 years old. I am divisible by 11.

It’s our only full day in Michigan. I might write up the reason for this trip at some point, but not today. Suffice to say we spent a long day here (and even though it is after 10pm and I am super old, the day is not over). Tomorrow we go home. We will cross the US/Canadian border two more times but one time will be at a new location.

There is a teeny tiny possibility that we might stop very briefly at Niagara Falls. The first time my Dad ever let me shoot a photo with his SLR (a Pentax K1000) was at Niagara Falls. I have a film camera here with me but it’s not Dad’s K1000. Still, it would be fun to take a shot or two of the Canadian falls on film again.

Speaking of SLR’s, I have one coming from eBay at some point next week. I had planned to wait a few weeks before I went out to shoot film again, but now I’ll need to shoot a test roll through the new camera so I can get it developed and prove everything works (oh please let everything work) before I take it out for real. That will hopefully happen next weekend. Fingers crossed.

Until then, I have a long, long drive on the books for tomorrow. An hour or so North of Detroit to a half hour North of Boston. Wish me and my wife and my step son luck on this crazy journey.

Back in the USA

We drove across Quebec and Ontario for ten hours or so and then crossed back into the US in Michigan.

Now Jen and I are in the hotel room where the WiFi doesn’t work. I’m Sad because the three rolls of film I shipped out last week have been developed, scanned, and uploaded to The Darkroom site and I can’t get them onto my laptop.

Crud

Winter is Over

I shipped off three rolls of film for developing two days ago. If things go well I’ll have a few more on Tuesday.

Winter is over, folks. It’s time to blow absurd amounts of money on film photography. Bring it on!

I mean… winter is sort of over. It is still pretty cold out. I went to the store this morning and wore a winter jacket. I’m wearing a fleece jacket while sitting in the living room at home. Still… 35mm and 120 film rolls are out in the mail. It’s that time again!

In other news, in about two hours we’re going to leave the house and drive to the airport in Boston. From there we’re driving back to Burlington, VT and then driving home again. It’s going to be a long day of driving. Maybe I should bring a film camera with me. No… not today.

That Time of Year

It is that time of year again. The time where my loyal readers (all zero of you) start getting inundated with posts where I say something like, just you watch… tomorrow I’m going to go to the ocean and take pics of the sunrise.

I haven’t taken a photo-walk or anything like that since last August. Eight months. I have the day off tomorrow and the forecast calls for clear skies at sunrise. Let’s do this!

The way this works is… I say I am going to go to the ocean to take pics of the sunrise the next day, and then the next day arrives and I stay in bed. That’s how these things usually go. Will that be the case this time?

Probably.

Tough Day

Work kicked my ass today.

That was a tough one.

I have to get through tomorrow (Thursday). If I can do that in one piece I will get to Friday and I have Friday off. I desperately need tomorrow to not suck. I need things to not fall apart for just one day.

I think we can pull this off. Let me rephrase and say I hope we can pull this off.

Yikes, bro.

What Year is It?

It’s a weird throwback kinda night. Allow me to explain (and in doing, demonstrate how lame I am).

We never cut the chord with cable TV. We just unplugged the box and only watched cable shows via their Apple TV apps. We had to sign in to our Verizon account in order to use those apps, but that was okay.

Recently, Verizon sent us a new cable box and we thought… what the hell, and hooked it up. Tonight, for the first time in years, possibly decades, I am sitting in the living room flipping between the Bruins vs Buffalo in game three of their first round play off series, and the Red Sox playing the Fucking Yankees at home.

The Bruins just scored to take a 1–0 lead in the second period. The Fucking Yankees just scored to take the lead in the seventh inning and they are now in position to finish a three game sweep. The Bruins are definitely the underdog in this first round series, but the series is tied at one. with the exception of the third period in game one they have looked decent. The Red Sox, however, in the early days of the 2026 season just… suck.

Change of subject, remember the post I made yesterday or the day before about Dave Mason passing away? I just saw a fucking beer commercial using Joe Cocker’s cover of Feeling Alright and it made me both sad and angry. Fuck you, beer company.

Change of subject again, we knew this was coming but tomorrow it arrives. My band’s drummer is moving out west. The band is pretty much over. I don’t see us finding a new drummer and surviving this. I am happy for him. This is a great opportunity for him and his wife. It’s really exciting and I wish them the best in the future. For the band though… rest in peace.

Back to the hockey, the Bruins just killed off a Buffalo power play. The Sabers have yet to score a power play goal in the series and we’re halfway through game three. Good job, Bruins.

I was just going to wrap this one up and click the publish button but then the Bruins were awarded a penalty shot. Let’s pause a moment to see how it goes.

The shot went wide.

Let’s hope that’s not a sign or an omen or anything like that.

Not How It’s Supposed to Be

Today is Earth Day. April 22, 2026. Happy Earth Day.

This morning when I got out of bed it was 31 degrees out and there was ice on the cars. I live in Massachusetts where Spring and Winter are the same thing. Again, Happy Earth Day.

Blah.

Dave Mason died. He was 79 years old. I’m not a big follower of his solo career but he spent a year or so as a member of the original lineup of Traffic and that’s enough to allow me to call myself a big fan.

Traffic’s first record was good. Mr Fantasy. It was weird and quirky but it was good. Their self-titled second record though… holy shit. That record is amazing from start to finish. Mason wrote “Feeling Alright?” which was covered by… everyone, and a massive hit for Joe Cocker. I prefer the original. It’s not funky like most of the covers. It’s mellower and a little bluesier and maybe… what’s the word I’m looking for… less self confident? Maybe? I don’t know. I just prefer the version on Traffic’s second record to any other version I’ve heard.

Chris Woods the sax/flute/anything else he could get his hands on founding member of Traffic died in 1983. Jim Capaldi the drummer/percussionist/sometime vocalist founding member of Traffic died in 2005. Dave Mason the guitarist/vocalist founding member of Traffic died in 2026. Steve Winwood the vocalist/keyboardist/guitarist/bassist/anything else he could get his hands on/living legend founding member of Traffic is now the only one left.

It is silly to be sad about a 79 year old musician whose career dates back to the mid-sixties passing away. I mean… everyone around his age is nearing their end. That’s just how life works, right? Still… it sucks to lose them. By all accounts, Mason was a good human… even if he and Steve Winwood didn’t get along so well (at least that’s what I always heard). It sucks to lose the good ones.

Maybe if the temperature wasn’t below freezing on this Earth Day morning I would feel a little better about it. Maybe I’d feel well enough to try to write a pun using the title of Feeling Alright… but I just don’t have it in me right now.