Bribes

Remember when bribery was illegal? That was before the nazi in chief of the fascist states of america declared that it was a smart move to let a foreign government give you an airplane as a present. Our new air force one, which will stop being air force one and become trump’s personal plane once he leaves office, assuming he leaves office before he dies.

Yeah, this country fucking sucks. Can you imagine if Barack Obama told the public he was taking a passenger jet as a gift from an Islamic nation? Fucking fascists.

Change of subject. Two things to look forward to this week. First, I have my three year post-gastric bypass surgery check in at the weight loss clinic. I expect them to tell me that I am the greatest patient they have ever had, and that no patient they’ve dealt with has ever had such overwhelming success with their post-op program. I am hoping for a plaque or something to honor me.

Of infinitely greater importance, my step son Harry is going to graduate from the University of Vermont this weekend. I am so proud I am so proud I am so proud I am so proud. Did I mention how proud I am? We’ll be heading up there after work on Friday. I am really looking forward to it. I don’t know if you can tell by the context of this paragraph, but I am really proud of Harry.

Okay, Robert. Back to work with you.

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Happy Mothers Day

If you are a mother living in the US then today is your day. Happy Mothers Day to you. I hope you had a good one.

I learned something today that will make the whole nightmare that is shooting film easier. Turns out the post office in Salem, NH has a package drop box. I ordered developing for four rolls of film earlier and the package is already in the mail. Granted the post office was closed so it won’t be going anywhere until some time tomorrow but yeah, the post office piece of the workflow is done.

What else? Because I got up at 4:00am to go sunrise chasing, I didn’t do my daily exercise first thing in the morning. I did it at 4:00pm and somehow, someway, it was 1000000000000000 times harder to do in the afternoon than it is in the morning. Why is that? I don’t know.

I have made a command decision. Normally I try to make my work-in-the-office days Monday and Wednesday. This week I am swapping Monday for Tuesday. Why? Because tomorrow is Monday, I only got four hours of sleep last night, and I just don’t wanna.

Okay, there is a new episode of The Last of Us airing tonight. I need to go get ready for that, emotionally speaking.

Morning Photos

Finally! The sky was clear at sunrise on a weekend. I took four, count ’em four, cameras out with me. My digital, Nikon Z5, my two 35mm, Dad’s Pentax K1000 and my Nikon FG-20, and my new/ebay medium format experiment, Lomo Lubitel 166 Universal.

The 35mm cameras each had a roll already started. My goal was to finish them off. The Lubitel… what the hell, Robert. I’ve had the camera for months and had not completed even a single test roll. I had already messed up the first roll by over advancing it once and blowing a shot, and then flashing the film when the camera back popped open on its own once. My goal was to finish that roll and then put a second roll through and hope that something worked on one of them enough to let me know if the camera actually works or not. Besides all of that film fun, I just wanted to take a bunch of pics with my Z5 because it’s super fun.

I completed all of those goals. I now have four rolls of film to develop. I’ll place an order today and ship them out tomorrow. The two 120 rolls were fucked up even more than I already knew. I didn’t have any trouble with the second one… or so I thought. The camera can be setup to shoot in 6×6 format or in 4.5×6. I was using the 4.5×6 numbers for advancing the film after each (well… most… there are going to be a bunch of double exposures because I am too stupid to operate a manual camera, I guess) but upon further review, the camera is clearly set up to shoot a square format… so every single shot is going to overlap. Moron.

Anyway… here are a bunch of digital pics.

Hampton Beach, NH at sunrise!

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These are from a spot in North Hampton, NH, just a little north of Hampton Beach.

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These are from a little spot on route 1A just south of Hampton Beach. I don’t know if it is in Seabrook or in the town of Hampton Beach, but you can see the Seabrook nuclear power plant from here so… kaboom.

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After that spot I drove home, but didn’t go home. I went to the Spicket Falls Dam in downtown Methuen. We’ve had massive rains over the last week so the river was roaring.

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At this point I still had a few shots left in two of the film cameras so I went over to Greycourt Park where I got my brand new sneakers soaking wet by walking around in the grass. It was nice.

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What is that baseball doing there? Who left that behind?

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And there you have it. Finally, a photography kinda morning. You would think this would hold me over for a little while at least, but nope. I want to go out again right now. Right Freakin’ Now.

Street Legal

I just spent an hour and a half or so at the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. The dreaded RMV.

My drivers license expired on my birthday, two days ago. I needed to renew it (which could be done online) and I also needed to upgrade to the stupid fascist federal RealID card bullshit (which could not be done online). I had an appointment for 3:30 so I was able to get into the office, but the lines were long and I didn’t actually get into to do my business until around 4:30. Once I was at the window though it went off without a hitch.

When I got home, there was a visitor standing next to our driveway.

Morning Errands

Out running errands in the shitty weather on a Saturday morning. Let’s do it Hipstamatic style, what do you say?

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Also, as a bonus… cats.

Jen gave the cats some medication today. Something to prevent… something… heart worms? I think. It was just a drop of stuff on their skin. Lily was annoyed but mostly okay with it. Robin was pissed. She was not happy. Sorry, cat.

In closing, music to run errands to…