Thursday. Another good night's sleep, getting up at eight without the alarm, heading off to breakfast and back, here now at the apartment as it approaches ten. Feel pretty good, none of the complaints of these last few days. They come, they get a lot of attention, they go and you don't really forget, but you treat them as a kind of history without any of the energy they held when they were present. If that makes any sense.

Due to meet some of the usual crew for a drink at Roy's before heading off to dinner later at a place they've discovered in Jack London Square. I'm going to be careful. Yes I am. Take it easy. A Guinness at Roy's, another something or other at this new place, otherwise take it easy and cruise. Interested to see if I take my own advice. Again, not sure what happened starting this weekend, but I don't really want a repeat. Not so soon. Might make me paranoid. More paranoid.

Nothing much left in the picture pile. I've scanned a few of the black and white negatives I've found recently, ones from the 2005 Cherry Blossom Festival Parade, but those will run out in the next couple of days. It's January, it's overcast, it's cold. What's to shoot? I suspect a younger, more energetic photographer would know, but we won't use that as an excuse. I'm a laid back retired kind of photographer, not looking to push the envelope too far, not looking for the perfectly imagined picture, just, you know, one or two with a particular look I find satisfying.

Later. A long session in PhotoShop going through (again) my old Cherry Blossom Festival Parade photographs. I missed last year's parade, woke up that morning unable to walk. A bad foot. I remember it now, but never really determined the cause. The foot hurt (a lot) and then, after a few days, it didn't. I looked at the journal entries for April that year, looked at the folders of photographs and confirmed there weren't any on the day of the parade or the days right after.

Anyway, an enjoyable three or four hours putting together another page of artandlife photographs. Why had I missed so many? Why hadn't I labeled the individual artandlife pictures with the year they were taken? I haven't put up any of the new ones or the changes I've made so far, but I've made progress and will probably finish all of them tomorrow.

I set out for a walk just after noon. It's been raining all day, an on and off drizzle, but I wanted to get out, test the double vision, test how the head is behaving somewhere other than in front of a computer. Oh, and take a picture or two with a new lens that arrived this morning via UPS.

Good, god. Another one?

No excuses, but it fits a range I don't have covered, 70 - 300mm, f 4.5 - 5.6, with vibration reduction. I wouldn't have touched it without vibration reduction. Anyway, out the door, no drizzle as I started, a bus downtown to sit out in front of Peet's to have coffee and look out over the corner at 12th and Broadway, seeing two of everything unless I closed one eye or the other. If I concentrate I can bring it together looking straight ahead, but it slips when I look to the side. Everything's clear, just double. Not widely double, but the world slips and every object overlaps.

A walk then along Broadway thinking the vision has somehow improved. Because of the coffee? Because I've been out for a while and it tends to clear up when I've been out for a while? Who knows? I was raining on and off, so I took but two or three pictures. How sharp is it out there at 300mm on a full frame camera? I took this one at the lake, then cropped the picture down to see how the ducks looked where I was focusing. Same with the reflection in the window, taken again at a full 300mm. Like the picture, although it's far from sharp. We'll test again tomorrow, but properly. Test it with one of the D2X cameras, see how it looks at the equivalent of 450mm. These sad attempts tell me nothing.

Off to Roy's and then to a new restaurant my compatriots have discovered in Jack London Square. I went by Somar as I was walking back home and ran into Mr. R who was getting ready to open the bar. They had a new set of photographs on display that I rather liked. He hinted I might like to do a show. I'll have to think about that. Somar is more visible than my morning restaurant, although it doesn't really matter if I end up spending my time avoiding this one as well. Anyway, mentioning I had breakfast at the same place every morning, he asked me if I'd heard about the new Spanish restaurant in Jack London Square? Well, yes. I had. We were planning on dining there this evening. Interesting coincidence.

Nine in the evening. Back from dinner feeling pretty good. A single Guinness at Roy's, more than a single serving of sake at a sushi restaurant (Ms. R suggested the sushi restaurant, much to my relief), but nothing to worry over. We're feeling good, we're not particularly buzzed, we'll see how the rest of the evening goes and what the morning brings. Ding-a-lings.