Snow and Spirit

We got a little snow yesterday. Not a lot, just enough to more or less cover the ground. There are still spots where some leaves and grass are sticking up, but the ground is more or less white. It’s not the first snow we’ve had this season, but it’s the first that was still there the next morning. I was thinking of going out to shoot some film photos this morning but the roads are icy and I don’t wanna. Stupid snow. I hate snow.

You would think that a little snow on December 11th/12th combined with wrapping a bunch of presents over the last two days would give me a smidgen of christmas spirit. Nope. Nothing. I am notoriously late in developing that particular seasonal spirit but I’ve been trying to make it happen this year. I’ve been plugging in all of the lights most nights and watching christmas specials with Jen and all of that, but it’s just not getting through this year. It will, eventually, but I was kinda hoping to not have to wait until christmas eve, the way I often do.

Last year Jen was having trouble getting into it and we spent an evening driving around looking at people’s lights and that helped a little. I am guessing we’ll need to do that again this year. If the weather cooperates maybe we could drive to Stoneham and check out the displays at the Stone Zoo. Maybe we could go into Boston and take a stroll through the park and down Comm Ave. I don’t know. Something. The kids are coming home from school this weekend but we haven’t worked out a schedule yet. We know they will spend most of their time at Dad’s to start with as they will be spending two weeks in Florida with us just after New Year, so we want to be fair to their other house. Maybe if we get some time with them before the holiday I can talk everyone into going for a lights drive. Maybe having them nearby will be enough to make me feel a little holiday spirited.

I’m sure I’ll let you know.

It’s possible that my current lack of spirit has something to do with a savage gift wrapping injury I sustained on Saturday.

Paper cut.

Wrapping paper cut.

Ouch, babie. Ouch.

A Christmas Present Wrapping Injury. Really.

Intense

Patches with the super intense gaze.

Sunday Errands or Stoplight Theater

I just came home from running a couple of early morning errands. I took pictures of stoplights because… I haven’t a fucking clue, I just did.

DSCN2759 — This building will end up on film eventually.

DSCN2761 — Entering Massachusetts. Methuen, Massachusetts.

Wasn’t that fun? Stoplight Theater is now a thing. Just like Scenes from a Cart Corral.

Night Pics

I had to drive to Wilmington tonight to pick up a potential xmas present at a Target that may or may not be built on top of the location of a warehouse in which I spent the last year of my life before returning to college in 1997. The whole neighborhood is new, but I think my building is still there, just significantly remodeled, and the Target is actually next door.

I took my point and shoot along for the ride and took some awful, awful pics.

On the way home I tried to take a pic of the city’s xmas tree but the light turned green and I ended up with this masterpiece.

When I got home and got out of the car I saw that the moon looked awesome through the hazy clouds and I ran inside to put my best lens on my DSLR so I could take a pic. It ended up being an exposure compensation test that gave me four really awful, awful pictures.

No exposure compensation. The trees are cool, the moon is not.

Exposure compensation at -3. The moon looks awesome but everything else is non-existent.

Exposure compensation at -2. Still too much.

Exposure compensation at -1. Better, but maybe not enough. Somewhere between -1 and -2 should be the sweet spot.

Next I continued the exposure compensation olympics by aiming at the xmas lights on the roof.

Exposure compensation at -1. Or was it -2? I think it was -1.

Isn’t this the most fascinating post ever? I knew you’d love it!

Wake Up

I didn’t mean to wake her up, but I did. Sorry to wake you, Patches.

I’ve decided I am going to try and use Lightroom Mobile more often. I set up a shared folder to move files back and forth from my MacBook to my iPad and iPhone. I could use the photostream but I don’t want to have every picture I take cross between devices, only some of them. It probably means I am going to ruin every picture I take, but let’s see how it goes.

Shelves

The bathroom lives once again. Like the new color? I already forget the old color.

There used to be a walk in shower but now there are shelves. I like the shelves. I liked the walk in shower more, but we are good with this.

Dark

I hate when the sun goes down during the work day. I hate it even more when there is an hour and a half drive that follows.

Night Light-ish

We have a little xmas decoration in the bathroom. It’s like a night light. I tried to take an artsy picture of it and failed miserably. I even messed with it in Lightroom on my iPad but the fail was so massive I couldn’t do anything to save it. Oh well.