Monday. They said it would rain last night and maybe it did, but I didn't happen to notice any as I was dropping off to sleep around midnight. Why so late? Well, there's a program on (another less horrible than most Korean set in ancient times soap) that ends at eleven on the weekends and I indulged myself last night. Anyway, the sky is clear, the sun is bright: up at six, to breakfast and back by eight. Hup! Hup! Feeling good, I must admit.

I have no idea what the day may bring. Nothing on the calendar for the week, I'll have to check the web to see if anything is coming up. We'll finish out today and tomorrow with good rock solid guitar sessions (yes, this is my morning - hup! hup! - get my guitar lesson in pep talk), we'll eventually hear what happened with that MRI (I'll know soon enough, no reason to think about it) and, I suspect, I'll be filing my taxes and paying the government(s) a bunch more money than I'd first thought. Gotta do something about the spending. I'm too good at ordering online. My only consolation is I already own every camera gizmo any sane man might want or use and there isn't really much else out there of interest to a self absorbed camera nut. I hope.

This is rapidly going down hill, don't you think?

Not much variation from day to day, I'm afraid. I usually think of it as a minus except when I remind myself this is a journal and most things you do in a day, most thoughts you might think, don't really vary much. Do I really obsess over this stuff or do I just write it as it comes without an edit? More than a bit of each, I suspect. Less angst here than you might suspect, I suspect.

Later. A drive over for my monthly lab test to see how the blood thinner is going. I'd forgotten about it, finally looked it up on the calendar and discovered I'm three weeks overdue. Not something you want to do. I've been on this stuff for a long time and it seems to have settled into a nice narrow range not needing adjustment, but it does change now and again and you don't want it to become too thick or too thin. Paper cuts become more serious when your blood doesn't clot.

So I drove over and spent fifteen minutes trying to find a parking space, finding one finally, but one with a coin operated meter and I only had enough coins for half an hour. Into the hospital receiving area to get a ticket for the test, the guy taking my name saying I was third in line and then, when I noticed (having waited for twenty minutes plus) they were calling a guy who'd come in after I'd arrived.

I asked at the desk and the guy said, oh, yes, what was your name again? I told him to forget it (nicely, but with just the slightest edge) and drove back home. Cranky old I. Still, no need for a parking ticket, I'll go back tomorrow morning just after seven when they open. Parking will be simple and there won't be a line.

Still, I did check the “cranky” meter to see if I'd overdone it and I suspect I had. I could have waited, taken a chance on a ticket, but decided to leave instead. And get an ice cream cone on the way home. One must settle one's nerves and ice cream is one of those things that will do it. Yes.

After about an hour now on the guitar, enough for the day, but I'll pick it up again later. We're making good progress, no reason to stop.

Later still. A walk around the area or, more accurately, an amble around the area down by the lake to sit in the sun. Nice to sit in the sun. A photograph to note the leaves starting to sprout on the oaks, as good a reason as any to take a picture I've taken now a hundred times. A hurried shot turning around when I heard a flock of gulls behind me on the sidewalk. I should really set out and get a proper flock in flight, bring along something to feed them, they're easy, but we'll put that one off. I'm good about putting things off.

There was a crew gathered around a truck to the left outside the frame shooting what I assume is a BMW video ad. A light, a camera and a reflector. Bare bones for one of these I'd guess. Had I thought to become a photographer when I was starting school I would have done my best to get a gaffer's job during or after with one of these outfits to see how they put it all together, how all this equipment was used to take the photograph, yes, but also such considerations as budgets, staffing and the like to get it done. You get some of that in school, but there's nothing like doing it with someone who's out there doing it in the real world.

Is that a kind of photography you'd like to have done?

Nope. But best to learn how everything is done when you're starting out. You never know. Maybe you'll end up photographing Marilyn Monroe.

In a BMW?

In any damned thing she liked.