Tag Archives: Out and About

Photo Project: Out & About

Phase 1: Day 11 – Out and About

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Out and About: Pallets Awaiting Recycling

One of the benefits from this stay-at-home period is that we’ve stopped eating restaurant food, and the positive impact on my weight has been notable.  We started tracking our weight daily over 10 years ago, and every week I’ve been consistently hitting new lows on the scale.  Since our last restaurant meal on March 16 I’ve lost 10 pounds, and I’m down 16 pounds since we returned from our Florida trip.  Kathy has been seeing similar progress.  So I’ve been wearing clothes I haven’t worn in years and starting to fill boxes for Goodwill.  It’s a problem I’m happy to have, as I’m guessing that a lot of people will be having the opposite situation to deal with, on top of whatever other challenges they face.

It looks like we’ve managed to avoid the first tropical storm of 2020, although it is gray and gloomy here today from a different system.  We got our walk in between the drops this morning, but will have to see about tomorrow when the chance of rain is supposed to be higher and the temperature lower.  After seeing 90 this past weekend, tomorrow’s high is forecast to be only 60!

Photo Project: Out & About

Phase 1: Day 10 – Out and About

Out and About: Discarded Shopping Carts

I’m sitting at my desk this morning listening to my computer shovel data from my old 2TB hard drive to the first of my new 4TB hard drives.  It’s an interesting sound, somewhat reminiscent of the computer sounds of old.  Not quite the KA-CHUNK of the old floppy disk drives, but more than the silence from solid state drives.  I would have preferred solid state drives for the new ones, but the cost of drives that large is prohibitively expensive.  I’d much rather spend that money on photo gear and travel.

Our son and personal computer assistant Kevin helped me install the drives yesterday.  It’s interesting how relatively simple computer hardware can be, as long as everything works when you plug it in.  We learned yesterday – after a few attempts – the importance of first being sure that everything is plugged in!  But we figured it out and everything is working fine today.

Today I am working on getting all my data on to the two new internal drives and two new external drives.  I calculated that my old “backup” drives were at least 10 years old, so I was due for an upgrade/update anyway.  This should give me capacity for a few more years of travel and photography, even with the larger files from an anticipated new camera in the near future.

Photo Project: Out & About

Phase 1: Day 9 – Out and About

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Out and About: Discarded Insecurity Cameras

Kathy & I got out early for our walk this morning in order to beat the “heat.”  I say “heat” in quotations because we are actually – finally – seeing seasonal temperatures in the mid to upper 80s.  Our thermometer actually hit a high of 91 yesterday.  Pretty toasty.

When we get out early we can walk around the parking lot of the Walmart that is outside our neighborhood and stay in the shade most of the way.  The back of the store is often a target-rich photographic environment, which has provided me with content for the next few days.  I’ve never actually been inside the store, but have walked miles around the perimeter of the parking lot.  And taken pictures of their detritus.

These cameras have evidently reached the end of their useful lives, and were piled in an old shopping cart behind the store.  Probably waiting for someone to come and haul them away along with the old shopping carts.

Photo Project: Out & About

Phase 1: Day 8 – Out and About

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Out and About: Bumper Sticker

Kathy & I had an exciting adventure yesterday – we went to Lowe’s!

Even though the hardware stores have stayed open during this time and many of our friends and neighbors have been going regularly, we’ve pretty much avoided going anywhere but the grocery store.  We had some things delivered from Home Depot a month or so ago, but were out of bird seed and needed to pick up some other project stuff that they don’t deliver or charge for.

It was interesting to see the number of people out and about.  People buying plants, paint, lumber and other home improvement stuff.  I haven’t gotten desperate enough to start repainting rooms yet, and hopefully won’t get that far!

We stopped at a Publix supermarket to pick up some cheese that we can’t find at our local store, and it was pretty much a normal Friday there.  Except for an empty toilet paper aisle.  I still can’t figure that out.  How come after all this time they haven’t been able to catch up?  Or are people still panic buying and hoarding the stuff?

It’s going to be in the 80s here today and tomorrow.  Enjoy your weekend! 🙂

Photo Project: Out & About

Phase 1: Day 6 – Out and About

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Out and About: Fire Hydrant

Mark commented on yesterday’s post about the forecast for a more active hurricane season this year.  I don’t remember seeing that, but they seem to say it every year.  And it does seem like storms in general are getting more severe than they used to be.

Does it also seem like the world in general – not just the weather – is getting more severe?  It was already headed that way with all of the confrontational politics, factional internet & news sources and anti-social activities in social media.  Then the virus thing came along and has sparked a round of paranoia, fear and uncertainty that I’ve not seen or felt before.  We don’t know who to trust or who to believe.  Heads turn in shock if someone sneezes.  People with masks stare accusingly at those without masks.  Business owners are opening in defiance of the law – sometimes backed by armed “militia” – under the guise of exercising their “constitutional rights.”  We’ve all become a little stir crazy, I think.

On the positive side, it’s been a great time for those who just want to be left alone!  Other than not making the occasional trip to the mall or the department store, life goes on.  We’re just not traveling our eating out like we’ve done, but we’re also seeing the positives of that.  Once we do start to move around the country and the world again, we may see some changes that are less than ideal, but the things we want to see – the scenery, parks and natural beauty – will still be there and unaffected by all the mayhem and hoopla.

Hopefully there won’t be too many hurricanes, otherwise I may have to visit Wyoming again. 😉

Photo Project: Out & About

Phase 1: Day 4 – Out and About

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Lounge Chair at the (closed) pool

It’s hard to not write about myself when I’m not doing much and am trying not to get cranked up about all the junk in the media.  I figure there isn’t a lot of value in my sharing of links to interesting news articles, etc. because everyone already has their own established routine and sources.

One thing that I don’t talk about much is how much I love to read.  It is one of the many advantages of not having my head stuck in a television or video game.  I read mostly fiction but toss in a few non-fiction books that interest me, with a variety certain to throw off any algorithm trying to make meaningful recommendations.  Mostly the non-fiction stuff puts me to sleep. 🙂

For whatever it’s worth, I thought I would share a list of the books that I have read so far this year.  I’m kind of proud of the number of books I read, but my purpose is not to brag.  Perhaps someone is looking for a way to read more and doesn’t know where to start.  Thank goodness for the Kindle and a reasonably stocked library of e-books, since our libraries have been physically closed for nearly 2 months.

Blue Moon – Child

Back Spin – Coben

A Time to Kill – Grisham

The Hunt for Red October – Clancy

Bad Monkey – Hiaasen

One False Move – Coben

Razor Girl – Hiaasen

How Not To Diet – Greger

The Final Detail – Coben

A Very Stable Genius – Rucker

Crooked River – Preston & Child

Skinny Dip – Hiaasen

Patriot Games – Clancy

The Last Odyssey – Rollins

The Boy From The Woods – Coben

The Warsaw Protocol – Berry

The Demon-Haunted World – Sagan

You’ll note a lot of books by the same author.  That’s because I’m trying to go back to the beginning of a series and read the books in order.  If they are stand-alone books, I want to see the development of the author’s style over time.

Also, know that I read strictly for entertainment, not for content or analysis.  Ask me to discuss a book a week or two later and I probably can’t.  Sometimes I feel like I could read the same books over and over and remember something new each time.