Later This Evening
Wednesday. Drove up to my sister's place in Lake Oswego (Portland) Friday, setting out at nine in the morning and arriving at seven in the evening, which is about right from my memory of past trips. Not so bad, really, but you don't want to drive much farther in a single day. At least I don't. Brought the laptop, but realized when I arrived I didn't have the external power supply (it's in the bag, thought I) for reasons understandable but stupid. I had two batteries and I used them both, but no entries posted on the trip. Back last night around nine after another ten hours on the road, feeling tired but reasonably coherent when all was said and done. Tired this morning after plenty of sleep and I am thinking ambitiously in terms of a nap.
I don't know how long Hummingbirds live so that's probably the son or grandson (or daughter) of Hummingbirds I've photographed at my sister's feeder in the past. Shot standing hand held at 1/20th of a second with the lens set at 200mm so it looks more like a painting than a photograph - nothing wrong with that - but I should have noted the 1/20th of a second at the time I was shooting and made an adjustment. Normally you'd want at least 1/200th of a second at 200mm, but the vibration reduction mechanism built into the lens seems to really have had an effect. So, I shot a couple of pictures in Portland with the new lens. Good.
And what else?
I took naps. And ate. And took more naps between an occasional run to the local Starbucks for coffee and a paper. I wanted to let the family know I was bright eyed and bushy tailed to the verge of being out of control now that I'm retired.
Then again Mr. McQueen, a fellow worker bee with me in the old days at the container ship company, was evidently either not reading his email or out of town when I responded to his suggestion that I drop by and say hello in Salem on my way back home. Which is too bad. I haven't been to Salem for almost sixty years. I can vaguely remember a train (pulled by an actual found in black and white movies steam engine) travelling with my mother in the late 1940's. I wonder what kind of a steam engine? I remember walking near it at the station as we were getting on the train, the pistons and drivers clouded in hissing steam. I suspect it wouldn't be all that difficult to find out what it was on the web, but I'm too busy taking naps and writing here. You can say that about so many things these days.
So, I am now back at the apartment, retired, no tasks looming in the immediate future other than the usual pay a bill (the last car payment went out this morning over the wire), pay the rent and answer long overdue email, all of which can be accomplished later this afternoon. So I think I'll go take a nap, to recharge my batteries you understand, and maybe take a sip from that bottle of red wine sitting on the kitchen counter later this evening.
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