Category: Travel

New California Film Day

I got the scans of my three rolls of film that I shot in California today! Happy new film day! Here are a few highlights to celebrate!

First, Pacific Beach…

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Next, Mission Beach… at this rate you’re all going to think we’re beach people when we are not… but when in San Diego, you go visit the Pacific Ocean.

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Up next is the Mission at San Juan Capistrano…

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And finally a few random spots on the road. There’s a scenic view spot on route 5 and a rest stop in the mountains overlooking Palm Desert, which we thought was Palm Springs but apparently we were wrong, and outside the visitors center in Joshua Tree.

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I still have a ton of digital photos to post and I’ll get to them eventually. For now though, the only question remaining is… when do we go back?

Kites

I took a shit load of photos in San Diego but I haven’t posted hardly any of them. What am I waiting for? Am I waiting for the film? Could be. I shipped four rolls of film to the lab in Los Angeles the other day and three of them were from the trip. I got the notification that the package had arrived yesterday. Now I just have to patiently wait for them to do their thing and develop my stuff.

For now though, while we wait for still more bad photos, here are some pics of kites on Mission Beach.

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The last one is my favorite.

Mission Beach

A few random photos from our day at Mission Beach in San Diego, CA. We did go for a swim in the Pacific Ocean. While, as a New Englander, the idea of having an ocean to the West instead of the East might seem wrong and also kinda silly, it is the biggest swimming pool on the planet Earth so its pretty impressive. 

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We tried to see the sunset on the water but the clouds did not cooperate. When I say we tried, it wasn’t just this day. It was every day we were there. The clouds never let us see the horizon.

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Fun with Moving Day

How’s this for a wacky movie day experience.

My step daughter rented a u-haul pod to ship most of her belongings from Massachusetts to her new school address near San Diego. The plan initially was to have it dropped off on campus, then we would show up and unload it, and they would pick it up when we were done.

Nope.

The campus has a one hour parking limit and that includes movie trailers and the like. So what to do?

How about have the pod dropped off at a u-haul storage facility sort of near the campus, then we rent a van and go to where the pod is stored, unload the pod into the van, then drive the van to campus and proceed as expected.

The plan worked like a charm with only one minor hiccup. The storage facility was half an hour away from the campus. No biggie. We got it done. Van rented, pod met and unloaded, van unloaded, van dropped off. Now all that is left is to unpack.

California Camera Woahs

I meant to take my Nikon FG-20 to San Diego but when I was packing the bag I wasn’t paying attention and I grabbed my Dad’s Pentax K1000. No biggie, I love that camera. I just worry about traveling with it because I don’t want to damage it.

Spoiler alert…

I loaded a roll of Kodacolor 200 while we were in the hotel and then I shot it at Pacific Beach and at the Organ Pavilion at Balboa Park. When it ran out I tried to put in another roll. It wouldn’t unwind. Huh? I got it loaded but when I tried to take a shot I couldn’t advance the film. It was jammed up badly. What the hell? I assumed it was the film canister and opened the back, flashing the hell out of the unrolled film, and rolled it back into the can and tried to reload it. Same thing. 

I declared the roll of film dead and loaded another one… and the exact same thing happened. I thought I must have somehow mangled the advance mechanism. The roll itself seemed to get jammed into the slot and I couldn’t move it at all. 

I was so mad… and sad… and heartbroken… and mad. Dad is no longer with us and I had this silly little thing that he bought in the 80’s and then forgot about and never used again but it was his and now its with me and I was just so fucking mad at the idea of it being dead.

This morning as I was getting ready for the day (mattress shopping is first on the agenda) I opened it up and tried again using the same roll of film that got stuck on the second try yesterday. It loaded up without issue and seems to be working fine. I don’t know what I did different yesterday (nothing) but it seems okay now.

Major sigh of relief over here. Let’s see if there are any troubles going forward. Fingers crossed.

Pack

We don’t leave for California until Saturday morning but we’ve started packing already. I said packing but I should have said over packing because… ya know how it is.

The point of this trip is to help my step daughter move into her new place near San Diego so she can start school a week later. Did I also mention that on the way home my wife and I are taking a detour to Cleveland to see Rush again? Yes, that is happening.

In other news, clouds are cool.

Home

We are home, safe and sound and in one piece after a great two day New York adventure. I’ll share the details eventually, but for now it’s getting late and I am tired from traveling and I want to go to sleep.

I will leave you with this. Sort of a preview for a larger post that’ll probably come tomorrow.

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I’m on Vacation

I’m on vacation and it is wonderful. Today is the first day. It’s Saturday so is that technically not vacation because I would be off work anyway? Explain it to me.

I did a nice bit of music work today. I also went with my wife to her favoriate computer store and bought her a monitor. It has all been sort of spoiled a little (just a little) by the toothache. Three days ago I could take Tylenol and the pain would more or less go away for hours. Now? Three Tylenol buys me an hour. Maybe less. Sometimes a little more. It’s hard to judge. I want to take it on the same schedule as my vitamins, every five hours or so. I’ve been feeling huge pain for a couple of hours but if I stay on the schedule I have to wait until 9:00pm and I still have 15 minutes to go. I am literally writing this to try to distract myself from the pain and the desire to take some meds.

My dentist appointment is the day after tomorrow. That seems like a really, really long wait. I will survive though. Trust me.

We are starting to plan the nitty gritty details of our Rush trip next week. Train from Boston to New York on Tuesday morning. Rush concert Tuesday night. Train back to Boston Wednesday afternoon. What do we do with the rest of the time? Not sure yet. Am I bringing cameras? I’m bringing the little digital point and shoot. Should I bring a film camera? Will I have time to use it? Not sure. I’ll probably bring it even if I don’t have time or opportunity to use it. 

What else? We’re going to see The Odyssey tomorrow. I hope I can handle all of the historical inaccuracies folks like elon musk are complaining about… sorry… I can’t… I tried to type that with a straight face but that critique of the movie is so absolutely fucking idiotic. As if the movie were based on historical events and not an epic poem. Not a work of complete fantasy fiction. Cut the shit elon and fox and maga and all of you nazi fucks. It’s a story. Yes its thousands of years old, but it’s just a fucking story. Get over your racist asshole selves.

Okay. It’s time for the 9:00pm Tylenol. Wish me luck, universe.

PS: I think I set this account up to automatically cross post to Threads. If it works, this will be the first post to do it. Did it work?

Prime Destination

Ever since our honeymoon in 2009 I have told anyone who would listen (whether they want to or not) that if I ever was forced to leave greater Boston my first choice for a new home would be San Diego, CA. 

I have been to San Diego three times. On our honeymoon in 2009, once in 2011, and then again in 2012. I have not been back since. I keep trying to find an excuse to return but it just hasn’t happened.

Until this coming fall. 

We’re not going for vacation. It’s going to be a working trip. I am not going to say what we’ll be working on yet but come September I am going to be in my second favorite city. We haven’t booked flights yet but that’s okay. 

We’re going. Oh yes, we are going.