Sunday. Home from the forming up of the LGBT Pride Parade in downtown San Francisco, having arrived around eight-thirty and leaving before ten-thirty when the parade started as has been my habit for these last now nineteen years. And it went well. Not tired, quite clear headed, no paranoid thoughts once I was on the way. Earlier though: Will the cameras be too heavy? Will I become too tired? Will there be any wildebeests roaming the streets looking to run down and devour any old photographers they may find?

Well. To bed last night not long after eight and to sleep sometime after nine, awakening then at half past five. Better too early than too late and so up to prepare to drive to breakfast and then drive right from breakfast to the 12th Street BART station in order to catch the eight-twenty train.

Drove to breakfast taking but one camera, the D500 with the equivalent of a 36-180mm f 4.0 lens, thinking I wouldn't take a chance on carrying too much equipment, although “too much equipment” has never been “too much” in the past. Realized, as I sat down at the table now earlier than the usual to allow time to read the papers and still catch that train, that I'd forgotten my reading glasses. No way then I could read the papers without the glasses. I'd worn a long sleeved shirt, leaving the light weight summer jacket behind, and that break in the routine caused me to go off track. I took it to be a bad sign.

OK, a quick drive back to the apartment to pick up the glasses and return to now read the papers rather too quickly, deciding finally to put aside the Times to read later, as there was no longer enough time to read all three Sunday papers. Time was running short.

Approaching eight. Hurriedly finished breakfast, the plain waffle with sliced bananas and strawberries and, in the car, decided at the last minute to drive by the apartment, drop off the D500 and take two cameras instead, one over the shoulder, one in the backpack, as I was obviously not feeling in any way tired or worn out at this point. A certain tension about making the train, but now otherwise upbeat.

Made the train with five minutes to spare. Off BART at Montgomery Street instead of Embarcadero to realize Embarcadero would have been the better choice, but on to shoot the forming up the Dykes on Bikes section as it was assembling for the parade. A good session although, with the extra security after Orlando, they'd barricaded the street, not allowing photographers without credentials inside. Not such a handicap when you're using a 200mm lens.

And that was it. A train back, a drive home and the pictures look good. Still, what happened? All this angst before setting out, all of it evaporating once I'd made the choice and hit the road. Again, the shooting session, just short of two hours, just over two hundred photographs, went really well. Felt good and the new method of using the AF-ON button for all focusing seems to be the way to go.

All of which adds up to?

I really need to stop this “let's hide inside!” phobia short. Forgetting the reading glasses because I'd at the last minute changed my habit of wearing a light weight jacket to breakfast was part of it too. I wrestled with putting the sun glasses in the shirt pocket and putting the phone in the front pocket, but totally forgot to include the reading glasses that would normally have gone inside the jacket. They sit right beside the sun glasses and phone. How do you go about curing yourself of something like this?

Later. Puttered with some of the pictures, but left off to lie down for a while and then walk to the Lakeshore ATM and back to the ice cream shop for two scoops in a waffle cup. I was hungry, but didn't settle on the ice cream, didn't settle on going to the ATM, until I was well out the door along the lake. You get going and suddenly many things become not only possible but happen.

Evening. Tired this afternoon and now evening after a long day. Which is good. No desire to process more photographs, one or two things on television I've decided to skip, although I did watch an Elementary at six I'd seen before, one of the early ones, but not really remembering any of it until the end.