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May 20th, 2000
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Mumble
Warm today. Two days ago the weather people were saying 100 degree highs over the weekend, but I notice they've backed off to 84 or 85. I can handle 85. One of my coworkers says she starts to feel comfortable around one hundred and I believe her. I do. Really. Over the millennia, my ancestors, most recently of Iceland, have culled out all the one hundred degree genes. We tried to keep them warm, but, you know, they all caught cold and died. You don't want one hundred degree genes near the Arctic circle. Eighty is chancy. High sixties is pushing the envelope, a brisk breeze blowing over ice meadows and exposed lava flows in the middle of summer, volcanos belching on the horizon, a fleece blanket thrown over your long haired unhappy horse who's standing there sweating, confused about the snow. Where's the snow? Where did all this grass come from?
Yes, it is Friday after work before the weekend. The McNeil News Hour is playing in the background and Wuss is out on the balcony sleeping on a chair. He is feeling better. He has been gaining weight. He is not peeing nearly as often. When I enter the apartment in the evenings the smell of cat piss only intrudes when the container at the end of his automatic kitty litter box needs emptying. He still gives me a short, but intense, three act mini-drama about the poor kitty cat who although abused and terribly hungry, still retains his belief that his kind owner just now returning from work will feed him some delicious high fiber tuna fish food if he can only communicate the problem clearly and loudly, even though he has been failing in this attempt now for months. Meoooooow! I am unmoved. Wuss finally settles down on the desk, curling up with his head on my left wrist and allowing me to scratch him behind the ears. He likes scratching behind the ears extra special.
I have been muttering over the photographs I took at the Million Mom March. They are not in
particularly good focus and they don't seem properly exposed which shouldn't happen when you use a trusted lens with your normal film and exposure settings. Look at the two pictures on this page. Muddy. No sharp blacks. One of the reasons I've been considering going back to developing my own negatives again. What developer did they use at the shop? How long and what kind of agitation at what temperature? I don't think the problem lies with the processing, I have my suspicions about the photographer, but maybe I need to buy developing tanks and thermometers and start doing my own black and white again. The developing of the negatives themselves is no big deal, but making the contact sheets will require trays and drying the contact sheets and that's a hassle. Still. It's been a long time. Maybe they've made it easier, coated papers that dry easily and such. I've been meaning to order some odds and ends from B&H. I could, um, add some of this stuff to the order. Mumble.
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The photographs were taken Sunday at the local Lake Merritt Million Moms March.
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