Tag: college kids

New Years Eve Visit

The kids just left. They got here about 1:00 and stayed for four hours. That’s more than I expected. I’m very pleased. I got to visit my mother and my father today too. That was tough, but I’m glad I was able to do it.

A nice big chunk of the packing has already happened. Well… our packing. The kids… not so much. That’s okay. They are coming over around 1:00ish on Monday with their bags. I’ll load them into the car and then load all of our bags, including all of the stuff that’s only there for the car trips.

As for the rest of New Years Eve? I had a less than good nights sleep last night and I was crashing hard around 3:00 this afternoon. I made our late lunch/early dinner a little after that and it fueled me up a bit. I’d say that staying up until midnight is a 50/50 call right now, but I’d still like to do it. Over the last month or two I’ve been setting an alarm for 5:00am so that I can get my exercise for the day done before anyone else wakes up. I might push that to 6:00 tomorrow… or maybe 7:00… we’ll see.

On an unrelated note, Jen and I have started watching the new Quantum Leap. It’s not a reboot. It’s more like a sequel with a redesign. We’re only three episodes in (or is it four?) but so far we’re liking it. The time traveling dude has yet to say, “oh boy” though, so it doesn’t feel quite the same.

Five hours and 21 minutes until 2023.

Oh boy.

Everything is in Flux

We are booked to fly to Disney World on Wednesday January 4th and to fly home on Thursday January 12th.

Two of the four of us likely will keep those flight reservations. The other two? Probably not. It’s still all up in the air right now, but it looks like Jen and I will be driving to Florida, probably leaving on the evening of January 2nd in an attempt to both get South of New York City by the end of that night, and to get to the Orlando, FL airport in time to meet the kids when they land. The reason is medical and I am not going to mention it because it is minor overall, but it is just safer to not fly.

Coming home, the flight is in the late evening. Jen and I will probably leave in the morning, possibly after spending a little time at a park though equally possible we will just leave from the hotel, and take two days to drive home. The kids will get home on the 12th and we’ll get home on the 14th or maybe 15th if we dawdle.

It’s going to be insane, but we’ve done it before and it will be a fun addition to our already epic trip. Just think of all the extra film photos! Wow!

In less chaotic news, we are supposed to head to Norwood tonight to pick up the car we bought for Bellana two days ago. The hope is that we will leave as soon as I punch out of work. I am going to need to bring a protein bar or two with me and have them for dinner on the drive. I thought we were going to have to stop at Dad’s on the way back, but maybe now we have to stop at a grocery store instead? I don’t know yet. We probably won’t know until it happens. Once it’s done though, our brief experiment with being a one car household will end.

It’s been a crazy few days here in our house. It’s going to be a crazy next 2-3 weeks too. I am so freakin’ ready to go to Florida. I would leave right now if I could. After last night with the cat and all of the other shit that’s gone down I just want to get the hell out of here for a couple of weeks. I want to crawl into a hole and hide. Granted, I want to take the bathroom scale and a film camera and my new mirrorless camera into the hole with me, but the idea still stands.

Let’s Freakin’ Go.

Used Cars and Cropped Sensors: A Boxing Day Story

Happy Boxing Day, whatever the hell that is.

Today has been a day for used car shopping. I mentioned that we had become a one car household. Well, that didn’t last long. We gave our Mazda CX5 to my step daughter. After a week of driving it she was very displeased. I’m not sure exactly what her issue was but she wanted to trade in the car and get something smaller with better gas mileage. Okay, so maybe I did know what her issue was. We said no, just give us the car back and we’ll help you buy a new car. Today became that day.

We journeyed South to The Auto Mile. If you live in Massachusetts, you know of what I speak. We found something suitable at the second dealer we visited. A not-too-terribly old Hyundai Elantra. We then spent eons handling financing and paperwork and insurance calls and all of that. The car may be ready for pick up tomorrow, or failing that Wednesday. When we pick it up Bellana will take ownership and we’ll take the Mazda back and be a two car household again.

The car purchasing process went very smoothly, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the second most stressful shopping experience one can have in modern day America. The only thing worse is buying a house, and that is WAY worse. In the end though, all went well and Bellana will have a more suitable car going forward. I am pleased.

The other note worthy story on this day after christmas has to do with my awesome new camera. My seriously ass kicking new camera. My old camera is a Nikon D90. The sensor on that camera is cropped, meaning it is smaller than a full frame sensor. The term “full frame” is not a standard, as every camera manufacturer has it’s own spec, but basically it’s supposed to be about the same size as the film that is exposed when the shutter opens on a 35mm camera. For Nikon, cropped sensors are called DX and full frame sensors are called FX. They make lenses that are specifically designed for one or the other, though they can be used interchangeably. the catch when you mix DX and FX is that the focal lengths the lenses see are different and, I didn’t know this until late last night, the resolution on the images might be off.

A month or two ago when I was researching upgrading my D90 for the first time, I am pretty sure I wrote a post about it, I was looking at new DSLRs and mirrorless cameras that were DX format so that I could use my existing collection of (three) lenses. The camera that Santa brought me is an FX format. I knew that my lenses would work fine (with an adapter as the mirrorless cameras have a new lens mount) so I didn’t think twice. Then, after uploading a bunch of pictures to Flickr, I took a look at the resolution of the images that were uploaded and was really surprised to see that it was lower than images from my D90. The D90 is a 12 megapixel camera and the christmas Z5 is a 24 megapixel camera. How could Z5 pics have a lower resolution than D90 pics?

To the Google I go!

Oh, that’s why. When the Z5 sees a DX lens it automatically crops the images down to 10 megapixels because there is a percentage of the sensor that the lens does not cover. It makes sense when you think about it. I just didn’t think about it at first. The images it takes are still seriously awesome, it just means I will need to get an FX lens to take full advantage of what the new camera has to offer. Nikon makes a few budget friendly Z mount prime lenses, including a 40mm and a 28mm, both with apertures that open up to less than f3. I think the 40mm goes to f2 and the 28mm goes to f2.8, though I might have those backwards. I’ll start with one of those lenses, probably the 40mm, and will hopefully be able to swing it before Disney World next week, though we did just buy a car so who knows. The lenses I have are perfectly fine so if I can’t get it done in time I won’t be upset, I’d just like to have 24 megapixel shots of Mickey Mouse if possible, you know?

And there you have it, the two major stories from Boxing Day 2022. What’s up for the rest of the day? Well first I am going to wait for my stomach to stop hurting due to trying to eat my lunch (three meatballs totaling five ounces and about 30 grams or protein, assuming Google gave me accurate information), and then we’ll see. I think I am going to start taking down christmas decorations, specifically the tree as it’s dead dead dead. I might also go food shopping because christmas is over and it’s time to start cooking meals for reals again. For now though, wish my stomach luck.

They’ve Left for the Week

Well, the kids have gone back to their dad’s for the week. They’ll come back for our family christmas eve thing and stay over for christmas morning. I am sad that they’re gone, and even more sad that I was in a meeting when they left and couldn’t run upstairs to say goodbye. Blah to my bad timing.

The kids leaving is also the official start of Jen and I being a one car household. The Mazda has been transferred to Bellana. It’s her car now. That leaves us with our Kia hybrid and… that’s it. Tomorrow will be the first day that the single car thing gets weird. I have to go into the office for at least half of the work day. That means Jen will be at home and the only car will be 40 miles away. There will also be a day next month when we both have to go into the office. We’ve carpooled before, but never with us working in the buildings we currently work in. I expect I will drop her off at her office on the way to mine, mostly because mine is further away.

I expect we’ll replace the car sometime after the weather improves. Maybe in the early spring. I’d like to get another hybrid. Really, I’d like to get an electric car, but that’s out of our budget. We might be able to handle a second hybrid, but it will be okay if we go with something else. I’m down for another Nissan Altima. I really loved that car. Or maybe a Buick Le Sabre. I had one of those and really loved it too. Then again, the closest I’ve ever come to having a truly bad ass set of wheels was a 1982 Thunderbird. I could go for another T-Bird. Heh, yeah right.

I miss the kids. We’re going to order some Japanese take out for dinner to try and cheer ourselves up. Sign me up for some Sashimi.

I Don’t Want to Work Tomorrow

The kids are here today. They go to their father’s house tomorrow morning and stay there until Christmas Eve. Then they stay over until Christmas morning before going back to their fathers until the day after New Year. Then on the 4th we hop on a plane and fly to Disney World for the better part of two weeks.

Christmas is one week away. That means we have five grueling work days to go before the first of the two holidays. Then we have a holiday, then four grueling work days until the second holiday which extends into a two week vacation. Damn, I hope it’s warm in Florida in January. We did February in 2020, now we try January.

I don’t want the kids to go, but if we’re going to monopolize their times on the trip to Florida then we should give dad equal time before we leave. It’s fair, even if it sucks donkey balls.

We finally completed the last christmas decoration of the year tonight. We bought this year’s ornaments and hung them on the tree. Can you guess what mine is? Of course you can. It’s a little camera. I’ll see about getting a picture of it later because what’s more artsy then a camera taking a picture of a fake camera?

We’re spending the day with Wes Anderson movies today. The French Dispatch is on right now. Is everyone in his movies a veteran of James Bond movies? I think so.

Oil Light Blues

Remember the posts over the last couple of days where I wrote about transferring one of our cars to Bellana and how I was getting all of the routine maintenance done first so that it would be in good shape for her?

Last night we took that car our for a drive around town to look at xmas lights. The oil pressure light came on.

What the ever loving fuck?

I’m going to bring it back to Valvoline this morning and ask them exactly that question. If they don’t see anything wrong I’m going to bring it to the dealer, though Lowell is a long drive with an oil light on.

Shit.

Busy Morning

The snow came early. It was supposed to switch from rain to snow by 9:00am or so. At least that’s what weather.com told me last night. When I got out of bed at 5:30 it was already snowing. Not a lot, but enough to cover everything.

I did my fake running and tried to have a shake for breakfast (and failed, see the previous post). Then I cleaned off the cars and took the Mazda for an oil change. It went a lot faster than I expected so I drove to Lowell for my 9:30 appointment at the Mazda dealer (a recall that involves a software update) and stopped to snap a few film shots along the way.

Now it’s 9:17 and I’m in the dealer’s waiting room. They are telling me it’s 45-60 minutes for the update. What is this, an Apple Watch? Sheesh!

Next on the agenda is going back to the mall to get the effing security tag taken off my new winter jacket. I might try to snag a couple of near-last minute xmas things while I’m there, and maybe a black and white film pic or two? After that it’s back to the grocery store for the stuff we forgot to get last night (how typical of me), and then I t’s home to ride out the rest of the storm and wait for kids to start showing up.

Busy morning, but it should be a good day. Here’s hoping.

Random Lunchtime Stuff

Some random thoughts as my lunch break winds down…

I read a great article from Guitar World yesterday called 20 Ways to Improve Your Les Paul. The need to have my 1978 Les Paul Custom repaired/upgraded is never very far from my mind, but I don’t have the money to spend on it and I am nervous about trying to sell another guitar to pay for it because what if I am overwhelmed with sellers remorse? Worse, what if I sell it for a lot of money and then find out I didn’t sell it for nearly enough. Oh, the stress! Anyway, the article made me want to get on with it, even though most of the things it suggests are things I wouldn’t do. Fifties wiring and PAF clones are about all I have in mind. That and frets… yikes!

Speaking of Les Pauls, I haven’t played my new Les Paul, or any guitar for that matter, in weeks. I am starting to go through withdrawals again, and I have zero calluses left on my left hand. I am soft and smooth and in for a lot of pain and unpleasantness when I do start playing again. Crap.

Speaking of Les Pauls again, I just finished listening to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in its entirety in one sitting for the second time in a week. I don’t know for sure that Steve Hackett played all of his leads on a Les Paul, but it seems that way. There’s clearly a Stratocaster on the next Genesis album, but The Lamb and the three records he played on prior to that all sound like Les Pauls to me. I think he played through Hiwatt amps back then, but I don’t know that for sure. When I saw him in 2019 he was standing in front of a Marshall and a single 4×12 cabinet (he was also not playing a Gibson Les Paul at that show, but a Fernandez Les Paul copy. I think it’s the same (or similar) model I saw Robert Fripp play that same month). I wonder if it was a real Plexi, or even cooler, and old JTM45. Oh, to go back in time with a pile of cash.

I need to go grocery shopping tonight, and I want to get an oil change for the Mazda, which is about to be Bellana’s Mazda. I want the car to be all up to date with everything when we “sell” it to her. I also want to go back to the store that sold me the jacket yesterday and get them to take off the damn security tag. I am pretty ticked off about that. I hope to see my parents this weekend if possible, but it really doesn’t seem like I am going to have the time. There are too many things going on right now, only some of which are related to the imminent xmas. I am hoping I can throw the wife and step kids into the car at some point over the weekend so we can all go out and look at xmas lights. I want that to include a visit to Boston too, but I know it won’t. I wonder if New Years Eve in the city is a possibility? The last time we did that it was followed a couple of months later by a global pandemic, so maybe it’s bad luck? Who knows.

Okay, lunch is over. Time to go be productive for a couple of hours before calling it a work week. HoHoHo, Merry weekend.

New Winter Jacket

I finally went out and bought a new winter jacket last night. I was getting tired of wearing a coat that was two sizes too big, and there is snow in the forecast. I am going to need some warmth, you know?

The jacket was absurdly expensive. I mean… wow, was that expensive. Also, when I got it home I found that there is still a security tag attached to the pocket. I guess I have to bring it back and have it removed. Ugh. Shopping in a store is almost unbearable. Shopping in a store in a huge mall 10 days before Christmas is so far beyond the pale that I can’t put it into words.

It is raining out today. It’s going to rain all day today and most of the day tomorrow and at some point it’s going to turn to snow as well. Yippee. No film shooting this morning. I need to go out and run a couple of errands before work. Today would be the perfect day to bring a camera with me, but nope. Rain. I mean I’ll still bring a camera with me, it will just be a digital camera, not a film camera. Blah.

On an infinitely more positive note, the kids are coming home this weekend. The storm is going to be worse in Vermont so we expect them to ride it out up there and come home when it’s clear. That means we don’t have an ETA yet, but their Christmas break starts after today’s classes. Come on home, you two!

Nine days until christmas.

15 days until New Years Eve.

16 days until New Years Day.

19 days until we leave for Florida.

With the holiday in the mix, it’s only 14 days until I go on vacation.

I am so ready. So very ready.