Swimming

Today was our very first swimming lesson.

Now keep in mind that we've been exercising pretty regularly for  a while now.  When we go to the gym we do a combination of Pilates, stationary bikes, weight machines, Qi Gong, aqua aerobics, you get the idea.  And on days when we don't go to the gym, we walk at least half an hour.  We're being good, we're committed to making our bodies healthy, which is why we signed up for swimming lessons.

Well, there is another reason.

Let me back up a bit here.  When I was six or so, our family went for a picnic at Anderson Dam, near San Jose.  I was playing by the waters edge, goofing around jumping in the water, which was maybe eight inches deep.  I remember telling my Mom "Look Mom, I'm learning to swim!  On my next jump, I went in over my head.  I guess I was playing near a shelf of land.  I remember opening my eyes and seeing nothing but murky water (yes, that vision is still with me).

The next thing I knew, my sister jumped in and pulled me out.

Ever since, while not exactly afraid of water, I haven't had much desire to swim.  In fact, I don't even like getting my face full under the shower head when bathing.  I'll get in the water and do aerobics, on a hot day I'll splash around, heck when I was a teenager, we had a pool in our backyard.  But I've never learned how to really swim.

It seems like such great exercise, and somehow, while I know it's still work, it seems a bit more enjoyable.  So, as I've said, we signed up for lessons.  Eight thirty minute lessons for each of us.  Individual attention, because that's what we need, we're barely able to navigate in the water.

So I went out and bought a bathing suit (and that's a whole other story, involving a trip to the seventh level of Hell . . .), bought some goggles and today we braved the pool

But somehow, I just wasn't at all prepared.

I guess I'm more used to an exercise that works a certain set of muscles. 

Let me tell you, swimming works everything all at once.

I'm pooped!

I went first and spent most of my time attempting to learn about keeping my body straight, my legs up, my head down and trying to make my body move through the water.   Oh yeah, and breathing.  How am I supposed to remember all of this at one time and remember to breath without inhaling half the swimming pool??

But we made it through the lessons, spent another thirty minutes or so practicing and actually made an appointment for another lesson.

We're tired, but determined. 

Musings on Food

As you may have gleaned from previous posts, we're exercising more.

Our aims are many.  We'd both like to lose some weight, we'd like to get Terry's diabetes under control (he was recently diagnosed and is on pill meds.  Our hope is to keep him off insulin and maybe even get him off his diabetes meds all together).

For that fact, we both take various prescription meds that we'd like to get off of.  And of course, there's the benefit that if we eat better and exercise more, we'll certainly feel better.

So far, we're doing quite well.  I wont go into the details of our changes, suffice it to say we're seeing excellent results.  And I think I'm learning some things along the way . . .

After years of yo-yo dieting, something occurred to me the other day.

No matter what changes I've tried to make in my eating over the years, I've always looked at the plan and tried to get the very most out of the meals.  My viewpoint was always "how much can I eat and still stay on program?"

I've done this all my life.

This time though, things seem to be different.

I feel so much more in touch with my emotions and my body.  Instead of looking for how much I can eat, this time I find myself paying attention to my body.  Rather than eating to a sense of fullness, I'm eating only to where I'm no longer hungry.  Substituting a sense of fullness with a sense of satisfaction is a whole new place for me, but one that I'm enjoying.

I'm thinking this is how life must be for those that are naturally thin.

Silly ramblings, I know.  But I wanted to write this down while it's still fresh in my mind.

No News

is good news?  If that's the case, we're in great shape!

Lets see, we've been working in the house (yet another flea coming up) and had some nice visits with friends.  And we've been going to the gym, walking, doing Pilates, that kind of stuff.

Oh, and we've decided that it's time we learned how to swim.  Well, we know how to swim, like if we were drowning I think we could save ourselves.  But we've decided we want to learn how to really swim.  Like swim laps for exercise.

We had a talk about it and decided that we're going to take swimming lessons!  So today we talked with a swim instructor at the gym.  I do believe we're the oldest people our sweet young thing of a teacher has ever tutored, but here's hoping that with time (like an hour a week for eight weeks) we'll both be more confident in the water.

Boy, I just read this.

Are we boring or what?

Oh well, still, 

Goodbye Ray

I am so sad.

Just last week 

I wrote about how pleased I was 

to discover the Ray Bradbury Theater.

Encompassing both old memories and new joys, 

it was like getting to meet an old friend all over again.

And now my old friend has passed away.

I know that instead of being sad, 

I should feel happy 

to have experienced the gift of his wit, 

his imagination

and his genius. 

And in time I'm sure that is just how I'll feel,

But tonight I am just sad.

Ray Bradbury

August 22, 1920-June 5, 2012

Scary

Last evening, I felt a pretty sharp pain in my abdomen.   Having had kidney stones before, I suspected they might again be the culprit.

 Since it wasn't "hospital" bad yet, I decided to tough it out and see what happened. I have a stash of pain meds from previous bouts, so I broke one in half and hoped for a halfway decent nights sleep.

 And that's exactly what I got, a halfway decent nights sleep, fitful at best.

About 5am, I decided to stop trying to sleep, and the rest of today has been one of those days where unreality reigns, napping, dozing, half aware.

Finally about 2:00 it suddenly alleviated, and I figure the worst had passed. Still a bit sore but infinitely more comfortable, I've spent the rest of the day indulging in a marathon of Lost and taking a few pictures.

I suddenly realized that it had been raining, 

in June!

But I'm kind of a sucker 

for those little drops of water.

I like them a lot better in pictures 

than on my head . . .

And I finally got a clear shot of a hummingbird.

Not a great shot, no action and very little color, 

but at least it's in focus!

Now I think I'll have a cup of tea 

and go back to bed.

Ray Bradbury, One Picture and the Golden Gate Bridge

Ray Bradbury, the very name conjures up memories from my youth.

It was Bradbury that first introduced me to the concept of Science Fiction.  I must have been 10 or 11 years old.  It was Fahrenheit 451 that first caught my young attention (I was an avid reader even at that age).  The idea of a political state that would try to control ideas fascinated me.  From there on, I read all the Bradbury I could get my hands on.  The memories are with me still, to say he influenced my thinking is an understatement.

So imagine how excited I was to find a huge DVD set called the Ray Bradbury Theater at my local library.  Produced in Canada, it ran from 1985 to 1992.  I had never heard of it, but what a treasure it is.

if you've read much Bradbury, you know what you're in for, and that in itself is a treat.  But what got me was the production values of this series. Fine actors including Peter O'Toole, Richard Benjamin, Eugene Levy, William Shatner, Elliott Gould, Shelley Duvall, Donald Pleasance, Patrick Macnee, Harold Gould, Drew Barrymore and a list that could go on for much longer.

But what really struck me was the time they took to tell their stories.  In many of the episodes fully half of the time is taken to set up the story.  You get a feeling for the characters, the mood is set and with this, your involvement is complete. 

Of course some are better than others, but this was such a treat I just had to write about it.  If you're a Sci Fi fan, loved the old Twilight Zone or just enjoy good old fashioned storytelling, I can recommend this series. 

And the picture I mentioned in the blog title?

I continue to play with my iPhone.  I recently downloaded a small ebook dealing with photography on the iPhone.  I try to forgo flash in all of my photography and never use it with the iphone as the light is so harsh and bright.  But the idea of using the flash/light of Terrys phone for some indirect lighting had never occurred to me, so that tip alone made the book worth the price (only $4.00).  It got me to thinking and I decided to try a bit of still life and see what I could come up with.

Now, this isn't great photography, 

but something about this photo 

really speaks to me.

It may be all the items in the picture.  The bobblehead pencil has been mine since I was a kid.  It sits in an old 1960s lipstick holder which I just adore (does anyone remember these?).  The little girl in the picture is my Mother and the photo is in a very old Native American frame I picked up years ago.  These things sit on my nightstand so I see them almost every day, but they're all dear to me.

Then there's the light.  Photography is all about light, but I'm just beginning to play with the concept of selective light.  It's a whole new concept for me, exciting stuff.   And then there's the Bokeh.  I've written about Bokeh numerous times, but I've yet to master the technique and I continue to be intrigued,

So with all that said, I decided to include it here in the blog, don't ask me why.

And finally, I want to tell you about an outstanding ebook I found today. 

As you are probably aware, yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge.  The California Historical Society has released an outstanding ebook titled "A Wild Flight of the Imagination: the Story of the Golden Gate Bridge", and boy howdy, is it a wonder.  The best part of the whole deal?  It's free! 

You can read more about it here or go to iTunes and do a search for GG Bridge. 

And that's it for tonight.

MORE Artwork

Another day in the house and I finally started tackling the matting room.

Originally, it was our bedroom, the larger of the two in the house.  Then, when we became totally immersed in Disney, suddenly we had so much artwork that we didn't know what to do with it all.  The idea of paying someone to mat and frame it was way too expensive, besides, we weren't sure we wanted it all framed.  But we definitely wanted it matted, if for no other reason than to preserve it.

What to do???

We decided the easiest thing to do was to teach ourselves how to mat and frame.  Then we opened up a small business, matting and framing all our friends and Disney cohorts artwork.   We quickly discovered that framing is quite a space intensive endeavor.  Matboard is 32x40 inches, and needs to be stored properly so it doesn't bend and spoil.  Then you need a really big table to work on.  It didn't take long for us to see that this wasn't something we could do on the kitchen table.

So we gave up our bedroom, moved our stuff into the smaller room and the matting room was born.

Since matting is such a wasteful enterprise (you cut this huge hole in the middle of a piece of matboard, leaving a slightly smaller piece as waste), we found we were able to mat most of our own pieces out of the waste.  It was a great little enterprise for a couple of years, till we finally got most of our pieces done.  Then we backed off.

But we never moved back in to the matting room.  It quickly became a catch all for all kinds of things.  Over the years, more artwork piled up on the huge table, then on the  shelves, then under the matting table.

When we came back, it was apparent that this room was going to be the kicker.  Tons of things piled very high, now with a pretty thick five year old coat of dust on top of everything.

So I've been working around this room.  After all, it's not like we didn't have a ton of other stuff to sort through!  But today I decided to try to give it a go.

Geez, what was I ever thinking??  There are hundreds of pieces, some original, some reproduction, some just cut out of magazines, you name it, we have it.

There was a time when Disneyland had an art gallery above Pirates of the Caribbean.  They used to have events where they would create photo reproductions of original Disney artwork, then have the artist come in for one day and have a signing.  These were limited editions, usually numbering 100-300, selling for anywhere from $30 to $100.  And you know what?  I think we must have every one they ever did!

Now we have five huge tubs of artwork to take down to LA on our next trip.  I was thinking this trip would be artwork and books, but now I'm not so sure.  Maybe only the artwork will fit.

But at least we're moving stuff, 

slowly heading for life on the road once more.

I Guess I was Unclear . . .

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Several people wrote me with information about their Revolution pumps, and I'd like to thank all of you for the information. That said, it was the old Camping World pump that was pulsing, not the new Revolution. That's why we had it replaced.

Guess I should proofread a bit more carefully.

Not a lot to write today, but we did get rid of five boxes of comics and fourteen more boxes of books.

And I found another box of artwork.

It looks like another trip down south is in order.

Night All.

Paper

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I swear, we have more paper than anyone else. TONS of Disney paper, which will go to auction, but , mixed in I found all kinds of other things also.

Here's a sampling of what I found today.

I thought this was kind of funny


Here's Demi before


And After


We continue to make progress

the Hunger Games

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Warning, spoilers ahead . . .

If you've been reading the blog for a while, you might remember me writing about the trilogy the Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. I really loved these books, the writing, the characterization, the way they commented on modern society without pandering.

A great read and one I can again recommend to everyone.

So of course I was really excited to see the film.

We waited till an 11am showing on a Wednesday morning, figuring it would be a good time to miss all the gazillions of teenage kids who couldn't wait for the film. And it was a perfect time, the theater was less than one third full, great for us.

I loved the opening look of the film, the desolation of District 12 was dismal, as it should be. That said, the film makers chose that annoying shaky hand held camera work. Nothing really shows up clearly, and this technique just distracts rather than emphasizing the faces and plight of the inhabitants.

But that passes pretty quickly, and we are introduced to Katniss. Jennifer Lawrence is dead-on, her look is perfect and she brings the intensity and gravitas that is necessary to portray a young woman in dire circumstances.

They move pretty quickly to the Reaping, where the Tributes for the annual Hunger Games are chosen. Rather than detailing the entire story, I'll just jump to my conclusions.

One of the things that made the books so captivating was that you were inside the head of Katniss. She's a young woman who has grown up poor, under an oppressive government, literally fighting for every scrap so she and her widowed Mother and sister can eat. The Games are a constant possibility for every child between the ages of 12 and 18, overshadowing every day of their lives.

When she volunteers as tribute (to spare her 12 year old sister) it's done out of love and desperation. After volunteering, she sees that life is not the same for everyone as it is in District 12. As a Tribute, she is shown life on the other side of the world and that will cloud the rest of her experiences.

The film does a good job of showing her preparation for the Game, and up to this point, I felt engaged in the film.

My problem came with the Game itself. For starters, they spent very little time with the other Tributes, meaning that you had zero emotional investment in if or when they die. And while the scenery is quite lovely, both Terry and I felt they failed to engage us with the paranoia of being in a situation where at any time, someone is ready to take you life. The action comes in spurts with long scenes of Katniss lurking in the beautiful forests (shot in North Carolina).

In the book, knowing what is happening in Katniss' head keeps you engaged. While I'm not sure how you would convey this via film, for me, it was the fatal weakness of the film. I just didn't feel it like I did in the books.

All of this is not to say I didn't enjoy the film, I was just disappointed. Perhaps my expectations were too high?

I'm beginning to think that perhaps the film genre is no longer the correct format for such stories. Game of Thrones comes to mind. A sprawling saga stretching across generations (and many books), it has been the beautifully brought to life with just the first book being represented by a full ten episodes. They are beautifully done, and after the first episodes, everyone is hungry for more.

I just wish they would have given the Hunger Games the same treatment. I think it deserved it.

That said, when Catching Fire comes out, we'll probably see it, hoping for a better representation of a story I really enjoyed.

Just a Thought or Two

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We rarely drink bottled water. Today, while out doing errands, I bought a bottle of water.

Wow, when did these get so incredibly thin?

I drank my water, then sat in the car as we were driving, studying the bottle.

Side Note: My mind tends to wander. I always mean to write things down to remind me of what I want to post, but rarely do. If I do manage to write it down, by the time I sit in front of the computer to blog, it seems pretty trivial, so I don't post.

But today I will . . .

Do you have touchstone books, movies, plays, TV shows? Ones that keep popping into your head, dealing with themes that keep showing up in your life?

I have several, but this one comes into my mind a lot.

It's an old episode of the Twilight Zone. Titled Execution, it stars Albert Salmi. The time is the late 1800s, in a small Western town. Salmi plays Joe Caswell, a condemned man standing on a scaffold with a rope around his neck. The floor drops, the rope snaps . . .

All of a sudden, he finds himself in the 1960s in New York City.

That's the basic idea, and it made a huge impression on my 12 year old brain. Of course there's more to the story, but the premise is, you take a plain rural man and throw him into the center of a metropolitan city some 100 years in the future.

I think about this all the time. My Grandmother died at 106 when I was ten years old. I remember sitting on her porch and listening to her talking about her Father and the Civil War. As a child, all I could think of was "why does she go on about this all the time?"

Now I recognize what a treasure she was and wish I had been able to appreciate the wisdom she was trying to impart. Looking back now, she was kind of like Joe Caswell, finding herself in a world she could hardly have imagined.

Back to the water bottle.

I look at it and I'm slightly annoyed. I think of all the time it will remain on this earth, the resources that were used to create it just so I could have the convenience of a sip of water when I was too lax to remember to bring my refillable bottle.

Then I stop and really look at it.

Crystal clear, squishy yet firm, it's really a wonder of modern design. Darn near perfect. Form follows function. Yet we take them for granted, tossing them into the trash heap by the thousands, with never a second thought.

But look at it through the eyes of someone from 1912. What would they make of this wonder of modern science? Light as a feather, waterproof, practically indestructible.

100 years ago, wouldn't it be on display as a magical item? Perhaps thought to be something transported to Earth by aliens from another world? Who could guess what this would be conceived as?

The wonders we all take for granted.

And those are the kind of things I think about all the time.

Twelve Years

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Not a lot to post tonight . . .

I did want to mention something. Andrea made a comment about the font of the blog suddenly becoming unreadable. Sometimes, when I look at the blog, it comes in the squarish blocky font I picked as a default. But sometimes, it shows a small flowery cursive font that I would never pick. Usually, I just hit reload and it goes away. I've thought this was only something that occasionally happened on my computer, but now I'm wondering, is this happening to others also? Please let me know.

And Andrea, are you as excited about your iPad as I am? I can hardly wait!

And the twelve years of the title? Exactly twelve years ago today, on a perfect spring day, in Glendale California, in front of a small gathering of our closest friends, Terry and I finally made it legal.


Then, next Thursday, we'll celebrate again. This time on the date we chose forty two years ago (so we would always remember the Ides of March!).

This week, as part of a celebration, we'll take a day trip to Monterey and visit the Aquarium. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures to share.

For You Birders

A few months back, I remember reading on someones blog (sorry I don't remember where) about a film that was being made that was all about the folks out there who love watching birds.

Today at Redbox, we saw "the Big Year". Starring Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and Jack Black, we found it really entertaining. While these folks were a bit more dedicated than us (actually, a LOT more dedicated) we found a lot to relate to.

If you're at all into watching our feathered friends, check it out.

I think you'll like it.

Today I Left the House . . .

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for only the second time in the last seventeen days!

Sunday, a friend took me to the market, which pretty much triggered a relapse. Not as severe as the original, but it was a setback.

And Terry, my sweet man is now sick. Ingesting zinc and Delsym, Cholula Red has turned into the house of pain.

That said, I think I'm getting better. Better enough to take a trip to the grocery store all by myself.

And when I walked outside,
the air smelled so sweet.
The brush of warm spring air
was like some long lost memory . . .

It was so wonderful to be out of the rig,
the grocery store struck me as a photo opportunity.

How hard up is that?

The colors bright and fresh,
I felt like I was once again back in the world.

When I came out, the sky looked like this.

There is a world out there after all.

On the drive home,
I always pass by this horse pasture.

With my new found eyes,
I decided to stop and appreciate the horses.

They came to visit me.

Unfortunately,
I didn't have anything to feed them.

They hung around anyway.

We had a nice little tete-a-tete.

It was like a little piece of heaven.

I guess you really can't appreciate these things
until you've not had them for a while.

My trip to the store wore me out,
but every day I'm a bit better . . .

This one has been a real butt kicker,
hope none of you have to endure it.

Now if I can just get my sweet man feeling better,
then we can both appreciate the world once again.

Note: All these pictures were taken with my iPhone 4s

Photoshop

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I love Photoshop and all those wonderful programs that allow me to play with my pictures. That said, since I very first discovered how easy it is to manipulate pictures, my distrust of print media has continued to grow.

I've watched as images in the media become more and more unreal, particularly those of women. I'm aware that photos have always been manipulated, but really, things have gotten completely out of hand.

I've watched as women's skin got smoother, their eyelashes longer and thicker, their teeth whiter, their legs longer, their waists tinier, their breasts bigger . . .

It's all unreal, and a part of my brain knows that, but still, it seems to beat into our collective consciousness that this is possible. And it isn't, that's just the truth.

Now, it seems that the Advertising Standards Authority in Great Britain has thrown down the gauntlet against the advertising industry. They've started policing ads, barring those that use "overly perfected and unrealistic images". While I'm not necessarily in favor of government policing the press, I have to say I'm in favor of this.

This is the latest photo that has been banned.

L'Oreal would like us to believe
that if we use their anti wrinkle cream
(Revitalift Repair 10),
we can all look like this . . .

I don't believe that even Rachel Weisz, lovely as she is, looks like this!

Here's a quote from the letter that the ASA sent to L'Oreal regarding the ad.

"We told L’Oréal Paris to ensure that they did not use post-production techniques in a way that misrepresented what was achievable using the advertised product. Although we considered that the image in the ad did not misrepresent the luminosity or wrinkling of Rachel Weisz’s face, we considered that the image had been altered in a way that substantially changed her complexion to make it appear smoother and more even. We therefore concluded that the image in the ad … misleadingly exaggerated the performance of the product in relation to the claims ‘SKIN LOOKS SMOOTHER’ and ‘COMPLEXION LOOKS MORE EVEN’.”

And here's the response from L'Oreal

“We do not believe the ad exaggerates the effect that can be achieved using this product.”

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

See, this is what happens to me when I'm stuck inside, sick. I must have too much time on my hands. I'll get off my soapbox now.

Silly . . .

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I looked down at my breakfast
and for some reason,
I thought that the toast looked really lovely.

So I took a picture.

I took this with my iPhone.
In downloading it to the computer
I found one more from the other day.

For some reason, I liked this shot.

I'm very easily amused.

I must be really bored. . .

A Happy New Year to You All

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A wonderful start to the New Year, here are a few shots of the beach. There's not much to say, so just enjoy (and if you're so inclined, click each image for a larger version).

Be seeing you in 2012!

Windy . . .

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I'm sure happy we're living in the motorhome.

We seem to be in the midst of a pretty violent windstorm. The power went out last night and as of 9pm, is still not happening. I can hear the wind whistling, the trees groaning and the debris scuttering along the ground.

But here in the rig, we're snug and warm.

How well I remember when we were living in the big house, what a pain it was when the power went out. We still had heat, but no lights, no computer, no internet. Scrambling for batteries, tripping over my messes.

Now, here in the rig, it's really not that much of a bother.

That said, I find the wind and its' accompanying noise bothersome. Makes me wish I wasn't under all these trees!

I always think back to when we were first in New Mexico and I got a taste of what a real windstorm was like . . .

You can read about it here.

Wow, reading that, I seemed to be so much more in touch with everything when we were on the road. Now I seem more numb to my surroundings. Just reading that post makes me itch to leave this place.

Snap out of it!

There is one good thing I'm noticing during this storm. Since we've switched our lights over to LEDs, we use hardly any power at all. We've used all the lights we wanted, both last night and throughout the day into this evening and still, the batteries read 94% . Not bad at all. While it was expensive, it sure seems worth it at times like this.

We still have the stock fluorescents that Lazy Daze installed at the build, but one of these days I'll get around to changing those too. For now though, all our tiny fixtures have been switched to LEDs. I love that they burn so cool, the halogens were so hot, I was always worried about heat build up.

I'm reading this and I guess it's kind of indicative of my state of mind.

Wandering, scattered, wistful and ready to leave.

Still, I look across the rig and see my sweet mans face and know that everything is all right.

I'm going to hit "publish" before I ramble even more.

Adam Sandler and 667!

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Not much to write about today so this will be a short post.

I will say I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. We stayed indoors, cooked goodies and watched movies.

But before I go any further, I have a confession to make.

I can't count.

Remember how I said that yesterday was my 500th post?

Duh, well, no it wasn't. Somewhere, I got that idea, but in reality it was my 667th post! I kind of know where the error was, but it's so confusing I can't explain it, just take my word for it.

Sorry!

Now, about Adam Sandler.

I've tried to watch several of his films, but I find him silly and often really gross. Then someone told me I should watch the Wedding Singer.

Starring Adam Sandler and the adorable Drew Barrymore, what a delight this film is! After watching it and checking reviews, others suggested another pairing of Sandler and Barrymore called 50 First Dates.

Another lighthearted and endearing movie!

If you like romantic comedies with bucket loads of charm, check out both these films.

And that's it for today.

Blah Blah Blah Blah

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I keep making these meaningless posts, I'm not sure why. It seems like we aren't really doing anything worth writing about. I guess I'm trying to keep some kind of record so when we go back out I can see how little there was to do here. . .

One good thing, we did talk with an old friend who is a realtor. She's agreed to come look at the house and give us some idea of where we might go with it. Maybe that will light a fire under us?

Who knows.

Anyhow, today I was parked in a lot , and found a shortcut through a florists shop. I was going to take a few shots, but the light was really bad. Then, as I reached the back door, I saw this guy.

I thought he was quite photogenic!

Then, a while later, Terry shot this
(using his iPhone!)

Who says that there's no Fall colors
in California?

That's it for today.