I took the car back to Valvoline today to see if they might have messed something up on yesterday’s oil change. They said everything looked okay but they drained and refilled it anyway. My cynical side wonders if that means they did find something but didn’t want to tell me. Probably not.

The oil pressure light was off when I started the car but I expected that. We had been driving around looking at lights for quite a while before it popped on last night and the engine was nice and hot, whereas this morning it was bellow freezing. I drove around for a while after leaving the shop just to see if warming it up would trip the light again. It did not. Is the car clear to give to Bellana? No clue, but we’ll do it and see what happens.

I made a couple of stops along the way. I stopped at the Spicket dam and took some film pics. I also stopped at St Mary’s Cemetery and took a few more. I might have actually been in Bellevue Cemetery though. I’m not sure where one ends and the other starts. I also stopped at Goodwill and dropped off a bag of jackets. The winter jacket I replaced the other day was in the bag. The leather jacket Jen bought me for Christmas in 2007 that I still wore all the time even though it was pretty ratty and the lining was falling apart was in the bag as well. I was sad to let that one go. The sentimental value of a gift from our first christmas together is very high, but I asked her if I should donate it or keep it and she voted for donate, so off it went.

As for fun with film, I took my camera and Dad’s 50mm lens. I want to bring that pairing to Disney but I feel I need to test it a lot first. I learned quite a bit today. First, the viewfinder gets REALLY dim when the aperture is small. I started at f5.6 and it was okay. I bumped it up to f11 at one point and I could barely see anything. I took to opening it all the way, f2, to focus, then closing it down to take the photo. That brings up the second issue: Focusing is a royal bitch. That’s a problem with manual lenses on all cameras, but it seemed especially difficult for me today. I hope I got things right, but it was a bit of a struggle for my old-person-eyes. Speaking of old person eyes, I can barely read the light meter on that camera. Dad’s camera has an arrow that moves around as you change the shutter speed or the aperture. When it points to the middle of the meter you’re good. My camera has an arrow that points to the shutter speed you need to use based on the aperture setting. It’s almost impossible for me to read the values. My eyes just don’t want to make it out, and it’s worse when the viewfinder dims. I eventually switched to the Auto setting, which is just Aperture Priority. I am thinking that’s what I’ll do at Disney. My manual film camera suddenly isn’t as appealing in full manual. It’s cool though, I can still go manual like crazy with the DSLR.

I did not finish the roll of film in the camera, so I will need to take it out again before I can send it out for developing. I think I have eight or nine shots left. It’s hard to tell exactly. Maybe the cat will come out and say hello and I’ll sneak in another pic of two.

I also had my digital point and shoot with me so here are some driving around picture. Enjoy!

And that, friends is the story of the oil light. I hope you enjoyed your stay today. Come back any time.