It “snowed” here in Charlotte today. Sheesh! *
*”Snow” in a very strict sense of the word. There were flakes coming down from the sky that melted when they hit anything.
Where The !@#$% Is Spring?
Category Archives: Random Thoughts
Riding The Bus
Kathy & I took the bus into town yesterday to have lunch with a friend. It was a good way to get there and not have to pay for parking, the price of which borders on extortion. We’re very glad we don’t have to pay for parking any more!
We’re fortunate that there is a bus stop conveniently located just outside our neighborhood. The stop serves 3 different routes, two of which go directly downtown, and a ride is only $2.20 each way. In another year or so we’ll be able to buy a monthly unlimited pass for $44.00 or a 10-ride pass for $9.35. Not a bad deal!
The bus stop is a 10-minute walk from our house, which is about as far away from the bus stop as you can get in our neighborhood. While we were waiting for the bus, one of our neighbors drove by, saw us, turned around and came back to ask us if “everything was OK.” We assured her that everything was fine, that we were just waiting for the bus to go downtown.
It was nice of her to stop and ask, and I know I’m probably missing the point, but I just thought it was interesting that seeing someone waiting for the bus seemed like there might be a problem.
I didn’t take a camera with me, so I’ve used a picture of a bus from Italy. It’s one that we also rode, just to a much more interesting destination (sorry Bob!). 🙂
Cheaper Than Moving to Arizona
Here in the southeast US, winter takes two forms. The first is “the leaves are gone and it’s cold,” and the second is “OH !@#$%.” This coming weekend appears to be “OH !@#$%” and it isn’t even officially winter yet! The forecast is calling for 8-12″ of snow and low temperatures in the 20s. We’ll see, but it looks like the confidence is pretty high. Yikes.
One of the things that Kathy & I have been talking about for this winter is what temperature to set the thermostat at. Now that we’re home every day we don’t want to leave it set at 65 degrees like we did when we worked. But we don’t want to keep it set too high, as we’d like to keep from blowing the gas bill out of the proverbial water. So ‘what to do’ has been the question.
Perhaps not coincidentally, I have found myself somewhat more sensitive to the cold this year (yes, I know that it hasn’t gotten cold yet!). While my philosophy has always been to make sure I am wearing adequate clothing before turning up the heat, I’ve been finding it necessary to resist turning it too high this year.
At one point I told Kathy – jokingly – that maybe we should think about moving to Arizona. But at some point yesterday we decided that even if the gas bill doubled – which it won’t – it would still be cheaper than moving to Arizona! Although I will admit to looking at cruises leaving this weekend to see if we could escape to the Caribbean! But we opted to tough it out here at home, and turn up the thermostat if we need to.
Flooding in Venice
I was just corresponding with a friend about the recent flooding in Venice, Italy. There had been some flooding in the spring but of course it was gone before we got there. They had put up temporary elevated walkways in the spring but even those are under water now. Glad we didn’t need to deal with that then!
I’ve attached a photo I pulled from the news and combined it with one of mine. You can see the tops of the trash cans in the flood photo, but the tables and chairs are under water (assuming they didn’t take them in).
Truth
Nature is where the truth is. Spend more time in nature.
Word of the Day
I was looking at the National Hurricane Center website this morning and saw a tropical disturbance in the gulf referred to as a “gyre.” I’d not seen that term before so I had to look it up:
“In oceanography, a gyre is any large system of circulating ocean currents, particularly those involved with large wind movements. Gyres are caused by the Coriolis effect; planetary vorticity along with horizontal and vertical friction, determine the circulation patterns from the wind stress curl.”
Wow…science and vocabulary in one lesson!
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UPDATE 9/3/18: I either didn’t spell it out well enough or people aren’t reading what I wrote, but you actually have to sign up to get emails! The link is on the left hand side of the page if you are on a computer or at the bottom of the page if you are on a mobile device. A comment doesn’t do it. I didn’t think it was that hard! 😉
As I’ve mentioned previously, stopped posting my blog to Facebook. I’ve had several people who used to follow my blog from Facebook ask me how to be notified of new posts. Many people use Feedly, The Old Reader or some other service, but many do not or don’t know how. I finally got around to doing something about it and have added a “GET NOTIFIED OF NEW POSTS” section to the left side menu of my blog, just below the lists of My Links and My Photo Friends.
I won’t use your email for any nefarious purposes, but if you are interested in being notified of new posts instead of remembering to check, this is another way to do it!
Over And Out
Kathy & I finished up and walked away from work this past Friday. After 40 years – banking for me and accounting for her – we decided that our time was more valuable than making more money and that we were ready to move on.
I keep waiting for that “OMG WHAT HAVE I DONE?” moment, but so far I’m amazed at how right it feels. Of course we’ve just come off what would ordinarily have been a 3-day weekend, so maybe it will seem more “real” today. But then we leave for Italy in just 4 days so there won’t be a lot of time to sit around and think about it. Perhaps when we return home.
Living The So-Called Dream
There was a recent post on The Online Photographer titled “How to be a Professional Photographer” where Mike Johnston commented about how difficult it was to make a living as a professional photographer. There were a number of comments both in support of his post as well as lamenting the difficulty of the profession. There were also a few humorous comments.
The joke that I’ve always loved about being a professional photographer goes something like this: An amateur photographer is someone who has a good job so they can buy nice gear and travel to exotic places to take photographs. A professional photographer is someone whose spouse has a good job so they can buy nice gear and travel to exotic places to take photographs. Somehow that’s never worked for me – I couldn’t get the spousal support I needed to pursue my passion. I’m kidding, of course!
Kirk Tuck chimed into the conversation with a thoughtful comment and a post on his own blog. Most of Kirk’s post was his usual well-reasoned commentary. He is a professional photographer with a lot to be proud of. He has seemingly mastered the business side of the business while staying current with technology and changes in the marketplace. His is a voice to pay attention to when it comes to operating a photography studio as a business. The statement that got a little under my skin, however – probably because it is a bit of a sore subject for me – was when he said that “retirement is only for people who didn’t like their careers.”
Of course the publishing world is full of people writing about how everyone should be pursuing their passion/finding their North Star/determining the color of their parachute, etc., and that if they aren’t living their dream they need to (after buying the author’s particular book, of course) set off on their own path of self-discovery and do their own wonderful passion-inducing thing. Wouldn’t that be lovely? In my opinion, very few folks are fortunate enough to even figure out what they are passionate about, let alone have all the skills and (to a certain extent) good luck required to actually make a living from their work. And that assumes they figure out what they are passionate about early enough in their life to actually do something about it!
The rest of us get jobs. Even if it is banking or insurance or hospitality or something that isn’t terribly glamorous, hopefully our jobs provide enough of whatever kind of satisfaction we are looking for, pay enough to cover the rent and save with a little left over to spend on something fun. If we’re really fortunate we are able to keep our jobs long enough to call it a career while saving and investing responsibly so that at some point we can walk away from work and do something – anything – else. Not that our work sucks or that our careers have been a failure, it’s just that instead of “pursuing our passion” we found a good enough job that we were able to do long enough to finally be able to walk away. That’s not failure, it’s a different kind of success!
Retirement is a subject I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and preparing for. I’ve had a great career and am proud of what I’ve accomplished over 40 years in banking. Even though I haven’t been “pursuing my passion” by someone’s arbitrary standards, I’m very happy with the direction things have taken and am looking forward to being able to explore the world with the person I love without the constraints and distractions of work. And that is something I’m very passionate about!
Last day at work – for both me and Kathy – is May 25! 🙂
Means of Expression
It always interests me to see how people tend to refer to their equipment in more specific terms the newer or more expensive it is. I was reading a recent blog post that was commenting on the age-old (at least 10 years!) argument about whether phones were “real” cameras. Never mind the argument (which I think is silly), but the writer stated that “there are significant differences between my iPhone 8’s camera and my OM-D E-M5 Mark II, not to mention some newer full-frame cameras.” Well, no sheet, Sherlock!
The thought that went through my mind when I read that sentence was that, if he were shooting with a 3-generations old Android phone (like me) or a hopelessly obsolete mirrorless camera (like me) he might not have been so quick to mention his gear. Is that what is referred to as “humblebrag? As in, “I had a hard time finding a suitable parking place for my Porsche?” Anyway, my weird thought twists on this Saturday morning.
I hope everyone has enjoyable holiday week/weekend, whichever holiday (if any) they choose to be observing.
