Business
Last night was our company Christmas party. As usual, I was given a respectable gift card, along with a Christmas card saying what I’d be receiving as a Christmas bonus. I’ll take it, gladly.
I’m getting sort of a raise come January. I say “sort of” because my take-home will increase. It’s increasing because I can no longer justify getting health insurance through my employer. For $7000-per-person deductible it’s just shy of $1000 per month, for the two of us. That’d be a HELL NO for us. We’re old enough for Medicare and all the part B and C and yada yada. It’s not ideal, but it’s drastically better than the alternative.
G wasn’t feeling well yesterday – in fact, he hasn’t for about a week. It’s related to an old injury. Doctors blow it off, so we deal with it as well as we can. Translation: I gripe at him to take it easy and he ignores me.
So I went to the party alone. I was obligated to put in an appearance for business reasons, but I missed my spousal unit. (G is Dutch, hence the entry title.)
Snapped
I’m still digging through photos from months ago, occasionally finding cool ones I overlooked the first time around, including this one.
I’m still doing black-and-white (or sepia-and-white) variations at times, but lately I’ve leaned into richer hues, aiming for a different angle of the nostalgic bent. The photo above is snapshot of the Dwarf Car Museum near here.
The sun was my pal yesterday morning, when I grabbed the photo below with my phone.
We talked about getting rid of our vintage radio collection, because of limited space. To cement our decision, we bought another one — the small ivory transistor radio at the top of the musical pyramid — a couple of weeks ago. As you do. (Incidentally, while I’m not positive about the transistor version, the other radios all work.)
Nostalgia level achieved. Captured with my cheapie cell phone, no less! I’m actually beginning to like my photos these days. The subject and lighting work together for precisely the effect I wanted.
I’m obviously not to the level I’d like to be, and most likely will never be wholly satisfied. It’s the nature of any sort of artistry. But I can see genuine progress in the end result, which is enough to make me happy for now.
The glass marbles up at the top of the page? Also vintage pieces, and also a cell phone snapshot. My cell phone has become my best friend for macro/closeup photos, much better than anything I can do with my Nikon. I might beat it with the Nikon and a specialty lens, but 1) I don’t have the specialty lens and 2) even WITH a specialty lens, the depth of field with a DSLR is different than a cell phone.
Over the last month or so, I’ve begun switching between phone and Nikon when taking pictures. The Nikon photo quality is usually superior, and it offers much more flexibility in the outcome. But the phone has its place too.
Yeah, the glass of Kool Aid is just silly. But the vivid coloring of the drink let me play with what my phone camera could do, so nyah.
I promised myself to keep my entries down to five-minute reads or less these days, and I’m sticking to it.
If I don’t post again before, here’s wishing all my online friends a wonderful holiday and a prosperous new year.
I’m glad you attended your company party…Yah for the gift card and bonus! I hope G. feels better in the next few days. Loved the photos. Have a very happy holiday and rest when you can.
Thank you, Terri! I’m having a lot of fun with the pictures these days, and while the situation with the health insurance is frustrating, I feel even more for my colleagues with families. Their entire paychecks will go to pay for insurance. We would literally be better off going through the ACA website, but we’re ineligible because insurance is available through our employer.