tbaroundtheworld

Rental cars are a funny thing. They're always unique, but you have them for such a short time that it's relatively hard to develop a decent relationship with them. Woe be to the traveler that ends up with a government gray compact that gets parked in a big lot in an unfamiliar place. I'll admit to walking up and down the lanes pushing on the panic button in hopes of setting off the alarm. I did it one time and seriously shocked a guy getting into his car which he had mistakenly parked next to mine. This time I'm rolling with a Chevy Equinox. It's not a car, and it's not a truck. The website calls it a "sport utility car" which I guess makes it a "SUC?" Anyway, it's a car in search of an identity. You sit in bucket seats that evoke minivan, except that the back seat is standard and there are no sliding doors. It doesn't ride badly, it's just that it gives you a sense that it's confused. To its advantage, this particular one is ...

Well I was home for a week and I suppose I should thank my lucky stars because someone out there always has it worse than I do. But it still seems like too short a time to get back into the rhythm and flow of regular life. I pulled through my jet lag and I did manage a couple of bike rides – shocked at how sore my “supporting tissues” were after only an hour or two in the saddle. I guess though that it’s to be expected given that the last time I swung my leg over a bike was some time back in the middle of March. Looking at my spreadsheet, April 2008 was the second worst month for mileage during my 10 years of record keeping the worst being October of 2000 when it rained every single weekend for a month, allowing only 47 miles. April of this year was good for 59, and my 640 miles on the year (normally I have that many by the end of February) tells me that I have genuinely sacrificed something I used to enjoy for the sake of my current gig. Here I am though, back on the road, this time o...

I've been messing around with cameras for almost all of my life. Started with Brownies, went on to Pockets (including many I built for myself while doing summer work repairing them at Kodak) and then on to 35mm film. My first SLR was a Canon Ftb, bought during one of the summers I was home from school. In those days, you bought locally and spent too much or you hunted in the back of Popular Photography for the mail order place with the best deal on a package - body and a couple of lenses. You made some phone calls, borrowed your parent's credit card and made the order. I remember waiting days for it to arrive and was a bit disappointed when the body and one lens showed up. "Back ordered" was the story. So I waited some more and one day the remaining lens showed up. I remember being amazed at how light the box was and discovered that it was light for a good reason - someone had stolen the lens in shipment. Of course UPS tried to dodge responsibility - I had opened the ...