The cameras and I went out again this morning… and I think we’re going out again later today as well. We’ll see how things go between now and then.
Ducks
Tag: Massachusetts
Sunrise Fail
The forecast called for clear skies at Salisbury Beach at sunrise today. The forecast was wrong. I was there and I took a bunch of pictures, but the clouds covered the horizon and there was no photo of the sun coming out of the water. It was a wasted effort on that front, but I went to Plumb Island after and got a nice pic of the lighthouse.
When the sun eventually did break through, it made the Merrimack River look nice.
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!
These are from a spot in North Hampton, NH, just a little north of Hampton Beach.
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.
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.
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.
What is that baseball doing there? Who left that behind?
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.
Nutz
Today has been insane. I took the morning off so that I could take Miss Robin Sparkles the cat to her vet appointment. I dropped her off, ran some errands, went home, re-watched most of last night’s three episodes of Andor, went back to the vet’s office to pick her up, came home, ran another errand, ate lunch, and punched into work at 1:00pm.
That’s when it hit. I had meetings scheduled from 1:00-5:00. Bam. All of them. One after the other. At the same time I was getting hit with all sorts of customer issues and questions and hectic stress and wow… It’s 5:31pm now. I can punch out. I need a nap!
Here’s a picture of the clock downtown. It’s not a good picture, and don’t let anyone try to tell you that I thought it was a good picture… because it’s not a good picture. Whatevs, I’m going to go cook dinner for the love of my life and then go to sleep.
Holiday Schedule
I took this picture yesterday. Not sure why I am posting it now, but I am… so there.
As mentioned in a post from nearly 24 hours ago, yesterday was a holiday in Massachusetts. Patriots Day. In my neighborhood, Tuesday is trash day. I got up early and got everything ready and opened the door to walk outside with a big trash bag and as the door was swinging in toward me, I remembered that whole holiday thing. The holiday trash pickup schedule punts our Tuesday to Wednesday. Aw, hell. I hate when I forget about that. I took the barrel out to the street anyway. Tomorrow’s an in-the-office day. Taking the barrel out now saves me about three minutes tomorrow morning. Yippee.
Now, onward to another super fascinating Tuesday. Yippee, again.
Patriots Day
Happy Patriots Day. No, we don’t have a holiday for a shitty football team. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a state holiday to remember the start of the American Revolution. Fucking irony, eh?
Today is Marathon Monday in Boston. As a result, it is also the day we have the weirdness known as the 11:00am Red Sox game. The game starts early so that it ends at about the same time the Marathon runners are reaching Kenmore Square. You go to Fenway Park, watch the Red Sox, leave Fenway Park and head for the Green Line station and catch the leaders as they fly by. I’ve only participated in this once but it was a really cool experience.
Every year when Patriots Day comes around I go to work like it’s a normal Monday but I promise myself, I full on swear to myself, that next year… next year I am going to go to the North Bridge re-enactment of the first shots of the American Revolution in Minuteman National Park in Concord, MA and then I am going to go to the Red Sox game and then I am going to watch a bit of the Boston Marathon and then I will still be home before dinner.
And then every year I forget all about it until I wake up and realize it is Patriots Day again and I forgot about all of it. Oh well.
So the Pope died on Easter Sunday, eh? Wouldn’t it have been more on brand if he had died on Good Friday? Sorry… too soon?
I can’t help but be flippant about everything on Earth today. On top of the continuing collapse of American Democracy, I watched season two episode two of The Last of Us last night and it absolutely destroyed me. I knew from talking to a gamer player a few years ago that last night’s twist was coming, but I didn’t know when. I figured it would be late in the season, maybe in the finale. Nope. Episode two. On top of the twist, the whole thing going on in the town (no spoilers!) was maybe the most intense episode of television I’ve ever sat through. Damn. Just… damn.
In an attempt to calm myself down after watching that show last night, here’s a cat.
That didn’t fix me so here’s another cat.
Winter Never Ends
Yesterday was April 9, 2025. It was 7:30am or so and I was packing up to leave for work. I asked Siri how the weather was and she told me it was 26 degrees out. 26… in the second week of April. I looked out the window at the car and said out loud, “at least there’s no ice on the car.”
Fast forward to this morning, April 10, 2025. I don’t have to drive to work today but when I got up at a little after 6:00am I did happen to look out the window at the driveway. Sure enough, this time there was ice on the car. It was 29 degrees out though so it’s practically a heatwave.
Winter never ends around these parts. It starts around the last week of August and it hangs on for dear life until sometime in late May or early June.
Southern California is calling me. Hell, at this point maybe it’s Mexico calling me. Should I start learning Spanish? You know, just in case?
Long Drive Recap
The drive from Methuen, MA to New Bedford, MA:
103.1 miles in one hour and 48 minutes. The GPS app (Waze) took me through a couple of weird routes, but there wasn’t any traffic at all.
The drive from New Bedford, MA to Methuen, MA:
93.8 miles in one hour and 28 minutes. The GPS took me on exactly the route I would have expected.
The total drive:
196.9 miles in three hours and 17 minutes.
In closing, here are a few toy camera app (Hipstamatic) pics from the gas station near our house that I stopped at as I was leaving on today’s drive.
Hands Off
Folks are showing up in Boston today. I’m not. At least not physically. Spiritually, I am there.
Inside the Red Head's Head 