iPhone

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Doctors, errands, chores, dogs, blood draws, mailing eBay sales, voting- sheesh, what a day.

Don’t forget to vote!

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Another walk this morning with storm clouds moving around and some glorious rain showers. I’ve photographed this tree so many times, but it’s my favorite in the neighborhood. The way the light hits it and how it gently leans away.

Got my haircut today. I’m always amazed at how good it feels to take off some hair. I was a month late this time due to life; it was greatly needed. I feel like a proper human now.

I hope the day was kind to you.

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Got out on my first 4-mile walk since the surgery. Felt good. We had lots of clouds and light rain; it was glorious.

Worked on the new photo blog for a few many hours, got a guestbook working (I think…needs some testing if you have time), and added a nice little touch for the primary film shots: a thin black line with the film name that sits right below them.

I hope the day treated you well.

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A look down my film scanning tunnel. I was checking for light leaks, borders, and placement.

Feeling much better, 6 days out of surgery now. Off all pain meds and feeling like it’s time to start exercising again.

It’s been fun having all this time at home to work on the blog and scan film.

I hope it’s been an awesome Sunday.

👾Click for Stray Pixels👾

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Apologies, but it’s a reframing of yesterday’s shot with color. I never even left the house today.

The good news is I’m off the hardcore drugs, and I was able to shower today. Lots of swelling, but healing nicely. Oh, the life of post-op. Got some good work done on Cliff538Pixels, including a way to post pictures from the archive and make it clear they aren’t new. Got the first From The Archive test picture up.

I babbled a lot more than normal on Masto today; I blame the drugs.

Toast with me. To good health!

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Another day of healing and fighting off the fog of drugs and lack of sleep. Hours after the surgery, you think, “Oh, this isn’t bad at all; I feel pretty good,” then you wake up the next day feeling like you got hit by a semi-truck.

Good day, though, lots of reading, journaling, and behind-the-scenes work on the new blog. Working on the stats page and figuring out how to bring in film vs. digital. Went outside for a short walk to blow the stink off, as they say; got an iPhone shot I liked. Judging by how I walked, I definitely don’t need to be driving anywhere…

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Well, you can’t get rid of me that easily. I lived. LOL. Although missing 50% of my thyroid now. Tough way to lose weight. I’m really glad I did the surgery; I had a nodule that was growing 4mm every six months, and it was inconclusive on whether it was cancerous or not. So, it was either get it removed or do a fine-needle biopsy every 6 months, which is no fun. But while the doc was in there, he found a golf ball-sized mass pressing up against my windpipe!

I’ll find out soon if there was any cancer in there. The one bad thing about flying airplanes for over 40 years is the constant exposure to excessive amounts of radiation.

Anyway, no Stray Pixels today, because you don’t want to see the neck scar! I’ll have to come up with a good story about how I got it. Thyroid surgery is boring. I need a good knife-fight story or a caught an arrow in the neck drama!!

Pretty damn sore today, but glad it’s all over.

I pushed out the new blog today and had some good testing on it from my Mastodon friends. Thank you, everybody. You can read the details about it on the about page.

It’s been a really fun experience setting up and running a blog without a professional service. I’ve learned so much, and I know there is much more to learn. I’m not leaving Micro.blog or abandoning my other blogs; each serves its own purpose. I’ll have to see how things go with the new blog after I hopefully hit my 365-in-a-row posts on this blog. Should I keep posting daily photos, or just post when I want on the other blog? Time will tell. It’s always good to have options.

May we live in less interesting times!

I really appreciate you stopping by.

Thought I’d post a picture I took last night during sunset in case I’m too out of it after surgery.

Wherever this picture finds you, I hope it was a good day!

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It’s sure easier on vacation to get shots you like! Back to the daily grind, and it becomes harder to get good pictures.

Today was overcast and rainy all day, which is pretty nice and pretty unusual for the desert. I just loved it.

I worked on some film-developing flows and techniques and used a small aquarium pump in my tub water to get better temperature control. Made some good progress. I just need to finish off a roll of 120, then I can develop two or three rolls.

Appreciate you stopping by, and I hope you saw some beautiful and friendly smiles today.

👾Click for Stray Pixels👾

Hope it’s an outstanding day, everyone!

Gotta go…

Parking at work; got this from the parking garage.

It’s a working day today.

Almost nothing today.

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River has been getting all the love on the blog; gotta get Daisy in on the action.

Another slow day on the photography front. I seem to be in film develop-and-scan mode now, and I’m finding it hard to get out and shoot. It is still too hot outside; it will be until mid to late October. I have some shooting (picture-making) ideas but need a good kick in the pants to get out there and actually do it.

I have a thyroid surgery coming up soon, which I’m trying hard not to think about much. I’m hoping the recovery will be fairly short, and I’ll feel well enough to get out and take some pictures during recovery. If not, maybe develop some film.

That 120 film is still staring at me. I’ve watched a few videos on spooling it and sacrificed a roll to practice with. Almost ready.

I hope the day was good to you, and as always, thank you for stopping by.

I was so busy today cleaning everything up and putting stuff away that I forgot about pictures. I took 3 pictures today of River getting his post-vacation bath, and this was the best one. I cropped in heavily to keep the focus on him.

One of those days where I wished I had a better picture.

Cleaning up after a big road trip is so much work that I need another vacation!

Vacation Numbers and Thoughts:

• Photos Shot
  • Nikon Z8: 589
  • iPhone: 693
  • 3 rolls of 35mm on the Nikon F3
  • 2 rolls of 120 on the Pentax 67
  • Polaroid: 0

I did not do nearly as much film shooting as I thought I would. There just isn’t enough time in the day when photography isn’t the main focus.

I was happy with a lot of the shots, but I’m still thinking about those old road signs I had to pass by. Painful. Again, I gotta work on a photography road trip.

I brought my Polaroid SX-70 and did not take a single photo.

Books read: Five. Very happy about that. I had ample reading time this year and loved moving from one book right into the next. I truly love reading. Physical Books purchased: Eleven. Two magazines all about books and reading. Ten stickers. One Haida Collection stationery set by Clarence Mills and a 6-DVD set by The Great Courses on The Story of Human Language.

Somehow, I completely forgot to journal. Digital or analog. I’m not happy about this, and it shows my habit is not as ingrained as I thought. In fact, I don’t even remember thinking that I should journal. I didn’t bring my paper journal, which won’t happen again, but I could have journaled in Obsidian and never even opened it. Sad. It’s important to me to look back on things with pictures, but having a journal ties it all together when you can read what you did that day, where you went, what you ate, etc.

All in all, a great trip.

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Finally made it home.

Now the cleanup begins.

Just a few photos from the trip that I never posted down in Stray Pixels

👾Click for Stray Pixels👾

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Long day driving, lots of wind, but a few great signs. I wish I had more time to capture them properly. I can really see a road trip where the whole mission is photographing old road signs.

May your hope be strong.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest — in the Gale — is heard —
And sore must be the storm —
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm —
I’ve heard it in the chillest land —
And on the strangest Sea —
Yet — never — in Extremity,
It asked a crumb — of me.
~ Emily Dickinson

👾Click for Stray Pixels👾

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Eight hours of driving today, too much for me. Safely in Elko, NV. Woke up to the remnants of evening rain and dew.

I hope you had a beautiful day.

👾Click for Stray Pixels👾

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Can you smell it?

Hello from LaGrande, OR. Good day of traveling; really long day of driving tomorrow. Going to get some rest.

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Tomorrow we begin our journey South.

Today was a day of favorites: coffee shop, hike, stores, and fish & chips. Prepping for an early departure tomorrow. Filled up with diesel, which has become painful at $7.00+/gal.

Pictures from the road tomorrow.

I hope you are reading a good book. If not, start one today!

👾Click for Stray Pixels👾

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Hikes, Bookstores, Farmers' Markets, Coffee shops. I’m in my happy place.

The farmers' market was amazing. Over 100 booths and a little bit of everything. We found a proper used bookstore that was bursting with books, on two levels, with stacks all over the floor- how it should be, in my opinion.

One of my favorite writers is Karl Ove Knausgaard, and I found a hardcover first-edition set of My Struggle. Sadly, it was missing volume 1, but that will give me something to search for.

All the extra little bits down in Stray Pixels

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. I hope you found some peace today in this hectic, out-of-control world we live in.

👾Click for Stray Pixels👾

All iPhone shot and processed

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All film shooting today, so just a few iPhone shots to get the pic of the day.

Found our best halibut fish & chips place yet, just about perfect. Spent a few hours in the local bookstore, which was a delight. Will be back again to spend a few more hours. Purchased two books and two magazines that are dedicated to readers and books.

Explored the village of Fairhaven for a while and went to a local park for a hike. I could really get into this nice, simple lifestyle, LOL. Going to be hard to go back to work.

👾Click for Stray Pixels👾

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Nothing good down here, just mostly posted for the sake of memories.

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I shot mostly film today, so just a few iPhone pics.

I love trying all the local coffee shops, and one here stands head and shoulders above the rest. Camber Coffee has my heart for their coffee, attention to detail, food quality, and atmosphere.

Someone smiles when they think about you.

👾Click for Stray Pixels👾

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It was nice to sleep in this morning and have leisurely coffee while researching a local hike. We found our hike, loaded up, and went to start the truck; click, click. Huh, that’s not right. Try again; click, click. The batteries are dead, real nice. ¹

I plugged in my portable jump-start battery, and it started to get hot and swell. Well, shit. That’s not good. Next, I’m going to have a runway lithium fire on my hands.

Luckily, we are in a small town with local maintenance shops. Called one up; they ran out and gave us a free jump-start. I drove over and had them replace both batteries to the tune of $600. This trip is getting expensive. ²

Off we went on a nice hike along the Yakima River, then had ice cream and a nice afternoon at camp, doing laundry, cleaning solar panels, and organizing.

Tomorrow we will be at the coast. The ocean is my happy place. There is no place I’d rather be than by the ocean. Someday, I’m going to live by the ocean again. Hopefully soon.

I appreciate you stopping by, and I hope it was a great day.

Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾👾👾

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I’m not much of a drinker; it decimates my sleep, my wife doesn’t drink at all, and it just does not make me feel very good. After a nice little buzz, I just don’t feel that good. So, it’s just not worth it to me these days. But there’s always a but, right? When I’m traveling, camping, or exploring, it is nice to have a local beer early in the day so it doesn’t affect my sleep. While on vacation, I’ll try and have my Beer of the Day post.

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1. The Phoenix heat is notoriously hard on batteries. I’ve lived in the desert off and on for 8 years. In my experience, you have to change your batteries at a minimum every 2 years. ↩︎

2. The air conditioner was $3500; diesel fuel, on average, has been over $5/gal. But on the bright side, I didn’t even get all pessimistic; it’s nice and cool here, and after the panic of the 115°F with no AC thing, this was easy-peasy. ↩︎

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Just a short 3-hour drive today to Ellensburg, WA. Set up camp and drove into town to check it out and take a walk around town. Wouldn’t you know it, it’s a super cute downtown with tons of historic signs and old buildings. Did Cliff bring his camera? Nope. So iPhone shots it was. I need to work on going back downtown with my camera for some proper photos.

I kicked myself for not bringing my camera and resigned myself to iPhone shots. I wasn’t expecting much to be photoworthy in town, and my main concern was food; I was starving. Learned another lesson today.

Taking two days here to take a break from driving. Planning a nice hike tomorrow and hopefully some photography time and reading.

Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾

I took a picture of the community bulletin board because you can always get a good feel for the town by looking at what’s posted. I’m trying to snap a photo of every board I come across; I think it will be neat to look back in 20 years at what was posted. Now it’s on the internet forever.

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Short drive today to Eastern Oregon. Beautiful day, cool temps (71F) and easy driving. Tomorrow we get into the foothills of the Cascades.

Down in Stray Pixels is the story of our first day; I’m not sure it belongs on the front page.

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* As you know, if you’ve read much of my blog, I’m a terrible writer and storyteller. I would love to write better, but it’s a skill that will probably evade me for the rest of my life. I try my best below.

Our first day of the trip was an eventful one. We drove 5+ hours from Phoenix to Las Vegas in 100°F temps and ended the day in 115°F/46°C temps, all our weather apps screaming about an excessive heat warning for the area. A little background first, I guess: we pull a little 20' RV trailer behind a truck. With two big dogs, it just makes everything easier. Finding hotels that take large dogs is getting harder and harder these days. We park, plug in power, and the A/C turns on and starts to blow cold air; so far, so good. Soon after, the breaker blows and the beautiful cold air stops. Shit. #&#@*%.

It’s still over 100° inside the trailer; we are all sweating, and the dogs are panting, looking at us like we are crazy. I checked all the breakers, reset everything, and ran up top to pull the cover off the AC unit to see if anything obvious was wrong. Nothing. Nada. It’s not working.

We are now, at least in my view, in an emergency situation. It’s 118° inside the trailer now with no airflow at all. It’s 6 pm, and I can’t get the AC working with the few tricks I know. We call the RV park office and ask if they have cabins to stay in; they don’t, and only one casino takes dogs that they know of. I start the truck, put the dogs in to cool down, and we start making Plan B and Plan C. We can call an RV mobile repair service, but it’s late; who would be working this late on a hot afternoon? We can try to find a hotel to stay in, or drive back home and get things fixed there. But something has to be done quickly; it’s been a long day, everyone is tired, and we are now insanely hot, dripping with sweat, with no place to sleep.

I start calling mobile repair services, and I get a not-very-friendly dispatcher on the phone, explain our dilemma, and he says it will be an hour or two before a worker can get out. I’m just shocked that anyone is willing to come out in this heat at 8 pm. The family hunkers down in the truck; I’m trying my best to get the AC working while we wait.

Darryl shows up about 7:30 pm; he jumps out of the truck with a smile on his face and wants to know the story. Before I can even tell him the whole story and gush about how thankful I am that he’s here, he’s up on top, pulling covers off and probing around with a Fluke meter, testing amperages. Darryl looks about 30, with cropped hair, lots of tattoos, and big ear gauges. I think he looks like an angel sent from heaven. Darryl has a friend with him, and I start chatting him up; it turns out he’s just riding along. Mike is a Porsche mechanic (I take note of how Mike pronounces Porsche, and vow to say it the right way from now on) during the day, and I start peppering him with questions about the job, how they treat him, pay, etc. I love mechanics. I was an aircraft mechanic for years before I started flying, and I love knowing about other technicians' jobs.

Darryl is off the roof now; the compressor is pulling too many amps and won’t start up normally. He can “soft start” it, and says it may keep working if you don’t blow breakers anymore. I’m about kissing this guy’s hands in appreciation, and he tells me this will keep happening and that I need a new unit. I’m waiting for him to tell me that he can get it done in 4 days, but he says he can be out tomorrow morning after he drops his kids off at school and put on a bigger unit that will cool things down much faster. If they have any more in stock, he has to check with the shop, since they have been replacing units all summer, and he’s not sure what’s left.

Some more backstory. Ever since COVID, I don’t believe people when they tell me they will do something. Sending an email, calling at a set time, “I’ll get right back with ya” whatever it is, most people don’t do what they say they will. I don’t hold it against them; I don’t get angry. It’s just the way it is. I’m very much a pessimist about these things, and I have facts to back it up. Most of the time in my life, when people say they will do something, they don’t. I don’t even care anymore. I know that I’ll have to follow up to make things happen.

So, to be honest, there is a part of me that thinks Darryl won’t show up tomorrow. I’m not proud to admit that, but it’s the truth. It drives my wife crazy. She’s the opposite. Of note, through this whole thing, my wife is calm as a cucumber; she knows it will all work out. She, in fact, is the one to suggest calling all the mobile repair services. She makes dinner for us through all of this while my pessimistic brain is screaming, “It’s not alright; nothing is going to work out, you’re going to end up sleeping a miserable night in the truck.”

As Darryl leaves, I shower him with thanks, tell him I’ll pay any late-night fees, etc., and ask about tomorrow and times. He says, I’ll call you tonight with what units we have in stock and what time I’ll be here in the morning.

You know what. Darryl calls a few hours later as we lie in bed, sweating profusely, with the AC trying to cool down the now 118° trailer. Says they have the larger unit in stock, and he’ll be there about 9 am after he gets his kids off to school. I’m smiling now, happy, hot but happy. My faith in humanity is slightly restored by this amazing man that I found on my first phone call who actually does what he says he will. Now, I get to lie there begging the circuit breaker not to pop, wiping sweat from my brow, wondering what we will do if the AC quits again…

9 am, Darryl is there with the new unit. As we heft this beast up on top, I ask him if he got some sleep last night. No, he says, when he got home, the neighborhood was having house parties, so he drove around with his golf cart, partaking in a different drink at each house. Oh, to be young again.

New unit installed, blowing ice-cold air. I send off $3500 for a job well done. I was shocked at the price, but truth be told, I would have paid double that to save our trip. We headed north as fast as we could; the lure of cooler temps as we climbed in elevation drove us forward. We want OUT of this heat.

A massive thank you to Darryl. You have saved our trip and restored my faith in humanity. People taking care of people.

Notes:
I know how lucky I am. I know that millions of people live in those temps with no AC and, in many cases, no home. I flew for UNICEF in Africa for 6 months, flying into 40+ different villages across Sudan, Ethiopia, and Uganda. I’ve seen the horrific conditions that many people live in day in and day out, in 120°F temperatures. I tell this story as a very privileged man living in a first-world country, surrounded by amazing people. The privilege does not escape me.

The one thing that my time in Africa taught me was that no matter the conditions I found myself in, I could never, ever, ever, ever complain. When you’ve seen true suffering. I’ve seen people with limbs hacked off with a machete, mothers giving birth on the dirty metal floor of my airplane, children starving, people with horrific diseases begging for help, begging for a ride to wherever you are going, because they know it’s better than where they are. It’s seared into your brain.

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Our longest day driving at 7 hours today. Working our way North still. Tomorrow we start the Westward segment to Washington.

Happened upon the Frosty Stand today, and I sure wish I had more time for proper pictures. Just quick snapshots today as well. There is something special about these old abandoned businesses. A little piece of history, a little remembrance of better times. It always reminds me that nothing stays the same. Nothing. Everything changes. Everything we have, and everything we have built, will rust and decay. There is something very photogenic about them. I can see a photography road trip one day that just focuses on old buildings, decay, and rust.

I can’t tell you how happy I am to be out of the heat.

I hope it was an awesome day wherever you were. Thank you for stopping by.

Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾

iPhone shot and processed

Five and a half hours of driving today, no real photography time, just quick stops for snapshots with the iPhone. Today’s goal was getting out of the heat. Drove north as fast as we could to escape from 115F/46C to 79F/26C. It’s been a wildly adventurous start to the trip. Hopefully, within the next day or two, I’ll have time to write up the story. It involves heat warnings, 115F heat, no AC, late-night emergency callouts, desperate searches for a hotel that accepts large dogs, misery, sweat, $3500 dollars, despair, and then finally meeting wonderful people, lots of hope, and cold air.

I hope today brought you something good. Thanks for stopping by.

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