Anyway, I watched Stardust over the Roku box last night, a Dreamworks movie I had no thought of seeing when it first appeared in the theaters. I like De Niro, not a surprise, but seem to recall watching a trailer at the time and writing it off on the spot. Well, I watched it last night (until nine) and remembered again why I'd skipped when it was released. Of course I skip out on most everything, anymore. So, a pale image, a copy of a copy of a fairy tale to keep you sometimes amused, sometimes depressed over the course of an evening.

All you do is carp.

Maybe I'm just getting my head around the idea it really is hard to make a good movie, something everyone else out there has come to terms with the fact that one or two hit, but most of them are clunkers.

Or you're the clunker. You could have spent the time more productively on that much needed rewrite could you not, my bucko?

Or learning Latin, for that matter.

Or mastering math.

To meet a Latin number. (cha, cha, cha!)

So, an attempt at reality: to bed last night at a decent hour after the movie and a bath, up ahead of the alarm on a sunny but chilly morning, out and now back from breakfast. A nice day out there, chilly but bright. A haircut at eleven, otherwise a clear day ahead. We'll put off doing the laundry for another day.

Let's see. The doctor's office called yesterday and said the Protime test had been good, two in a row now, but go get another one in two weeks and, if that's good, we'll going back to the four week schedule again. I've been doing this now for so long I no longer think about it. The test number is up? The test number is down? The number is on target? I no longer pay attention to what it means, not that I've ever paid all that much attention. Yes, the fact is you can bleed to death if it's too thin or throw a clot if it's too thick. Better to live in denial, I guess, and just get on with the program, whatever the “program” entails, something the world warns you about. Keep your eye on the doctor (and the nurse).

Later. A bus to the ATM, a walk then to the appointment, my hair stylist sitting, waiting, as her ten o'clock appointment who'd bumped me to eleven had shown up last Tuesday at ten. The haircut and then a bus back to the apartment. Bus to - coffee at the Rotunda building - clip! clip! - bus back - home! Hup! (Thank you very much.)

A walk over across to the lake to try the 300mm lens with a 1.4 teleconverter, giving it an equivalent of 420mm at f 5.6. Just the usual suspects vacuuming the grass near the white column pergola where I've found them in the past. None of them had the time to raise their heads to check out the fellow with the camera. No wonder they seem to grow so fast. Not a great picture, but a picture none the less.

More time then futzing with the computer before heading out briefly to test the ten stop neutral density filter with a down and dirty photograph of the sun. It seems to work. I had the filter on the 24-70mm lens, not the telephoto, but we'll try the telephoto later around six when the Venus transit is well underway. I used the D3 just in case it fried the sensor (I've read more than one not so authoritative source saying it wouldn't, although it might fry an eye) and moved the camera lens over to the disk slowly, taking a quick glance to see how bright the light. Bright, the sun, even with the darkest filter I could find.

I was hungry and of course walked to the morning restaurant again for a turkey sandwich and another dish of ice cream. And coffee. Not very inventive, but I really don't like any of the other places around here when I'm eating on my own. With friends, well, there are one or two that are often better, so I have indeed sampled more than just the one. I like sitting out on a patio, like the waitresses at my place (who take good care of me) and I've become a cranky old fart who evidently no longer warms to change. Sounds like a Republican, although, well, although I'm not. As you may have guessed.

The news is now droning on in the background, it's just after three, time to get started on the guitar if I'm to get in the time I want to get in today. So we will. I will. I now have that release bend down cold and can do it in my sleep, but I only have two days left to get it down while I'm awake. (moan) Or something. We're drifting. As we do.

Later still. Three exposures of the Venus transit across the sun. It went behind clouds later or I'd have done more. Still, three is enough, the neutral density filter worked (with the addition of UV sunglasses for looking through the lens and focusing, no need to take any unnecessary chances). So much for celestial photographs, we'll now try what the filters were designed for: motion studies in daylight, time exposures similar to those commonly taken at night: car headlights as long snaking lines against a static dark city. I'm curious to see what can be done.

Maigret at six. I find I enjoy these. Nice to say thumbs up about something, old one note broadening his repertoire. On Tuesdays at least.

I took a somewhat larger dose of the pain meds this afternoon at the usual time, the upper sinus-upper palate thing has been acting up over these few days and it seems to have helped. I'm still under what the recommendation is for a day, they're not considered particularly strong given the better known meds that make the news, but nice to see. Nice to feel. Or not feel, maybe the better expression.