December 21, 2012. As an apocalypse it was a bust. Can’t say it was especially great, just also can’t claim any particular catastrophes locally.
There were no alien invasions, the atomic bombs have so far remained safely in their respective silos, the earth didn’t crack with a magnitude 20 earthquake, Yellowstone didn’t blow its stack, and we’re still here, darn it. As to the Rapture, jury’s out. I can’t help wondering how many judgmental, cruel, heartless people claiming religion would qualify. Something tells me Jesus would take a mighty dim view of the Westboro Baptist folks’ actions over the past few years.
My past couple of weeks have been typically challenging. Tempers have flared because of stress. No, not mine so much, though I’ve definitely had my moments here and there. Suffice to say no matter how necessary or how well-intended, it’s never an easy proposition to have two families living under the same roof. Daughter and spouse sniping at each other, daughter sniping at me, spouse bitching to me about anything and everything until I pretty much tell him to get over himself. I worked all holidays and will be working New Year’s. I got off fifteen minutes before the end of my regular shift on Christmas and 45 minutes early Christmas Eve. Worked a full 8 hours Thanksgiving. Christmas day I was gulping down Ibuprofin in multiples of 4 at a time, just to retain the ability to speak and sit up. I’m ready for a holiday, thanks. Preferably soon. The surgery would be even better, but it’s got to wait a while yet. Can’t afford it either money-wise or in time off work.
Last weekend we got outta Dodge for the weekend. The weather was absolutely spectacular; blue skies with a few wispy clouds, temps in the upper 60’s to low 70’s. We didn’t have money to spend so instead elected to get out on a photo binge, exploring portions of the area we hadn’t previously visited and getting different perspectives on more than a few we had. All the pictures are in edit mode on G’s computer. We took a LOT. Nearly 200 before it was all said and done, in fact.
G has a couple of older Olympus SLR cameras with all the bells and whistles. He ended up using the little point-and-shoot Nikon I insisted we get a few years back – for which we’d plunked down a whopping $10 at a thrift store. No bells, no whistles, but the thing takes gorgeous pictures, far better than the fancy-schmancy Olympus entries. It’s more than the difference in megapixels, it’s about color and clarity. The Olympus cameras wash things out. The Nikon snaps come out glorious in color and depth.
There was a dual reason for our outing. G belongs to photo sites that offer better images for sale. There were some really nice ones in these shots and several will be added to his collection. My knee precluded any long marches across the desert, so G did the majority of shooting this run. I took a few shots here and there where the colors and composition kept heckling me until I capitulated. The only ones I took were snapped from less than half a dozen paces from the car. Hopefully I’ll upload some of our work here in the near future, though I’ve become abysmal about updating.
My older daughter wants me to collaborate on a writing project with her. G wants me to collaborate on a writing project with him. Two other friends in Canada want me to collaborate on separate writing projects with them. I would love to. Need to figure out little details like how to pay the bills while I write. I talked with the daughter unit about checking into Kickstarter for funding. I’m going to build her a site over the next few days, have the domain (and obviously the hosting, since PoundHeadHere.com is back.) I can build a website in a matter of minutes. Writing is a wee bit more time intensive.
Yes, Universe, I get it. I know I should be writing. Would you throw me a bone here and send me at least a million or two in lottery winnings, huh? The browbeating is all well and good, but the responsibilities browbeat better than you do. They win, or at least take hella lot of precedence in my world.