Thursday. Up with the alarm, back from the morning café running the usual routine, the sky overcast with the morning fog come in overnight from the ocean, a sunny day ahead. Good.

I did have that pint of ice cream last night for dinner, a bit of a splurge given my habit of not eating in the evenings, went to bed early with what appeared to be the beginnings of a mild ocular migraine. Have no idea what to attribute it to. Ice cream? I do eat my share. We'll see. No need to pay too close attention to something like ice cream, of course. Beets and cauliflower now, obvious culprits. If I ate them.

My never ending soliloquy about using the long (heavy) lens on the camera may well come to an end this morning. The thing is useful in getting closer (obviously) to things quite far in the distance. Sports and wildlife photographers use them all the time. I do have a bird sanctuary just across the street and it's the obvious first target, a place I can drive to easily with the lens, step out of the car and be shooting in the space of maybe four minutes. We'll see. Now that I've laid it out I don't see how I can crap out. Although I can and do.

Later. That was easy: pop out the door, drive down to the lake, find a parking spot - better to use another entrance in the future - take out the rig, shoot some pictures, get back in the car and drive the three minutes home. All that fuss, so little muss. But typical.

OK, we experiment more later. I used the 2x teleconverter on the 200mm f 2.0 lens. Let's try it on the 70-200mm f 2.8 zoom. Let's go back with the larger lens and see how it goes now that I've learned more of what I need to know to properly use it. Stop it down below the full open f 4.0 for starters.

I did just go there, turn around and come back. The pictures really were done down and dirty but offer a glimmer of promise. Now that we've started, we might as well finish. I live by a bird sanctuary on a lake. Why not take advantage and photograph the birds? Add to the arsenal (and the interests). The interests are what count at this stage.

That's enough of this hup, hup. We can only take so much hup, hup.

I'm the one that seems to need it. The brain, it's slow, it needs more hammering than most.

Later still. A nice day, it is, a walk to the usual place for a bagel with cream cheese and coffee, a walk back, taking my time. A picture or two on the way, but nothing more, nothing coming into view that said “photograph me”. Such is me. Maybe another trip with the large lens, maybe not. Probably not, but at least the thought came up. Things do change here, but slowly, ever so slowly.

Evening. Time to head down the hill for sushi and sake, not a lot of sushi, not a lot of sake, but then that's the routine. A fair amount of time on the guitar so far, going over a new blues riff that takes repetition to get down. It all takes time and repetition to get down, but somewhat less time each time I'm hoping. Which is good. Two years the instructor said, we're coming up on one.

A nice day. The people in the sushi shop know me by name, know what it is I usually order, the sushi chef mentioning how cold is was today. Cold? High sixties? Cold? He's a Korean sushi chef, for a Korean summer's day it is indeed cold, but not for an ex-Seattleite, let me tell you.

Babble, babble.

Probably so. We're just back from our sushi and sake and have what I'm sure is a sake buzz. Nothing too over the top, let me tell you, but worth the trip. Well worth the trip(ping).