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.

Post Office

I made it to the Post Office this morning before work. My five rolls of film that are ready to develop are on their way West, heading to the lab. I won’t start feeling all giddy and excited until I get a notification saying the package has arrived. Then I’ll start refreshing my order status all day long, waiting for word that the scans are done.

Nerd boy over here is about to get nerdy.

Here’s the clock from downtown. Heading South toward the post office:

And here’s the clock again, this time heading North toward home:

Finally, today’s photo a day photo submission is this view from behind the post office parking lot. Somewhere I have pictures of this gazebo that aren’t through the trees from a nearby parking lot. Maybe I’ll dig one out and share it. Later.

Shipped

I went to the post office at lunch today and dropped all of the vacation film into the mail.

It’s on the way to you, oh film developing lab.

May the post man speed you to your destination, oh package full of film rolls, and may the developing process be successful, and may the images all come out okay and prove that I am not incompetent and terrible.

Aye, man.

Dumb Ass

Jen needed to go out and run an errand this afternoon. I was going to clean the snow off of the car for her and I figured while I was at it I’d go to the post office and drop off my little package full of film cannisters.

I got all the way to the post office parking lot before I remembered that today is Martin Luther King, Jr day and all government offices, including the post office, are closed.

You dumb ass.

Post Office Crazy

I went to the post office at lunch. Shipping film off to get developed was not the primary reason for the expedition, but it did happen. I keep track of which rolls of film were shot on which camera/lens/film in a notes document shared between my iPhone and my Macbook Pro. Roll 00 was the one that was in Dad’s camera when I took it. Roll 01 is the roll that broke. Roll 02 was the one I shot at Hampton Beach on the 4th of July, ect, ect. Roll 08 was the first black and white roll (Kentmere 100) and it’s sitting in the film draw in my desk. Roll 09 is in Dad’s camera as we speak. Roll 10 is the one that went out in the mail today. Why out of order? Roll 10 is the one that used Dad’s Pentax lens with my Nikon camera via an adapter I bought on Amazon. That is the gear setup I want to use at Disney World in two weeks. I needed to see some shots taken with that setup to make sure it worked, so that’s the roll that went to Old School Photo Lab today. Rolls 08 and 09 will get developed after the Disney stuff is done. Probably roll 11 too because I’d like to be able to shoot a few color film shots on Christmas morning. I need to finish roll 09 first because I don’t want anything in my Nikon until we’re in Florida. That may involve a trip to the ocean at sunrise tomorrow. We’ll see how the weather looks.

None of that is what this post is about though.

This post is about the traffic. Holy Shit! The Post Office is one mile from my house. Unfortunately you have to drive through Methuen center to get to it. That one mile took almost 15 minutes. Wow. I was in the post office for probably three minutes (done and done) and then I was back on the road. I had to take a left coming out of the parking lot though and the traffic was so bad that I took a right and circled downtown to get home. That took 10 minutes. The straight, no turns route took longer than the roundabout way out of the way route. It’s christmas so… yeah.

Also the Post Office’s front door was gone. Where did it go? Why did it go? Was it something I said?

Here are two stop light pics. Stop Light Theater at it’s best.

Film Delivery Fail

I packed up my four rolls of film that are ready to develop in a padded envelope. I printed out the shipping label and taped the ever loving shit out of it to my padded envelope. I then went to the nearest mail box and…

…I guess mail boxes only have slots wide enough for letters? You can’t stuff four rolls of film in a padded envelope through that letter sized slot. So how long has this been a thing? Can I blame this on that DeJoy piece of shit?

I guess my four rolls of film in a padded envelope will have to wait until Monday to ship out. It’s bad enough that the whole thing cost more than I expected, and the volume discount was negligible. At least the shipping is free. No stamps for this guy.

Yeah, next time I might try to send my business to a lab with slightly lower prices and shell out the dough for the stamps like a big boy.

Packing List Fail

I mentioned recently that I ripped the hell out of one of my pairs of jeans the other day and had to order some new clothes. I ordered a couple of pairs of jeans and a few shirts. I got a delivery message that same day with a delivery date of today. Nice.

Today I noticed that a second pair of jeans is also ripped to shit. At this point in the story please note that I rarely buy clothes and the two ripped jeans are probably 3-4 years old. I think it’s been that long since I resupplied.

Well that sucks, but at least the post office will be delivering two new pairs of pants today, right? Good timing, I guess.

That’s what I thought at least. The postman brought me a package today and it was very small. Way too small for two pairs of pants and a few shirts. Small enough that it actually held one shirt. The hell?

I checked the delivery email again. Big letters: DELIVERED, then a link to one of the shirts I ordered. Then in small letters: Processing, then links to everything else. Oh you sonofabitch. I just suck at reading. Really, I am just not that good at life.

I guess I am down to one pair of jeans now. Unless of course the third pair is also ripped and I just haven’t noticed. How much do you want to bet on that?

Post Office Adventure

I made plans to drive to Portsmouth on Saturday afternoon. At the last minute those plans fell apart. I made new plans to drive to Portsmouth on Sunday morning. At the last minute those plans also fell apart. I did some Googlin’ and there is a post office down the street from work that opens at 8:30. Nice. I can mail the disc by noon on Monday without having to sneak out of the office for a wicked early lunch.

I get to the post office a little early, address the envelope, take the obligatory picture of the addressed envelope, the clock hits 8:30 and inside I go.

I have to punch in at work at 9:00. I’m seventh in line.

Ummm…

One counter open. Dude in front of me has three huge boxes that are all going different places using different services. Woman in front of him has a package going to the UK and doesn’t know how to fill out the customs forms.

Ummm…

Suddenly the whole mailing in the CD by noon on March 2nd is feeling like the most challenging part of the challenge. Fortunately a second counter opens. I watch the post mark go onto the little envelope. I pay my less than three bucks. I hop back into the car and drive to work.

And realize that I forgot my ID badge and my glasses. I blame this on the couple of inches of snow we had over night. I was thinking more about shoveling the little snow bank at the end of the driveway than I was about getting to work. Oh yeah, I can’t open the door to the building without my ID badge. I had to stand there like a chump waiting for someone else to walk up. And with no glasses… I can read the monitor okay, but my eyes get really tired and I get huge headaches.

Happy Monday, everyone!