May 2012

There were 2 posts published in May 2012.

inward looking out

The librarian at home

I finally got a series of headshots that are me with the newish haircut. One of the downsides of having shorter hair is that it looks different a lot. Long hair is sort of always long no matter how you wear it. Anyhow, a local photographer friend came over and we did about fifteen minutes of chatting and 45 minutes of photographing and now I have a decent series of professional-lady pictures which should serve me well. I’d love to get this photo to replace the one of me that’s in Wikipdia, but I’m sort of not supposed to do that myself. Any takers?

And an update on last weekend’s walk. We were up at seven am, on the road by eight and had walked almost nine miles by noon. The food shelf fundraiser had 60+ walkers and four dogs and raised over 21K. Pretty exciting stuff. Thanks to everyone who supported me. I was surprised how not-achey my legs were for the rest of the day; I was mostly just sleepy from not having gotten enough sleep from the night before. Wednesday was the first neighborhood fun run where I ran a mile. I’ve never been much of a runner, but I’ve usually been able to hold my own when running with the neighborhood children who seem to be the only other people who only run a mile (most adults go for two miles or 5K). Usually I run with Rachel and we go slowly. This time I ran fast since I’m not that good at pacing myself. The good news was I ran an 11-ish minute mile. The bad news was that is TOO FAST for me and I was achey in the thighs and calves for the next two days. Which is always a bummer when you live up 28 stairs.

So it’s off to the gym for me today to try to work some stamina and stretching into those muscles. I’ve got a new birdfeeder here so it’s a little difficult to tear myself away from the Woodpecker Window but it’s nice knowing that it’s as lovely outside as it is in, I’ve heard.

cameras obscurae

the sand you see is embedding itself in my lens

I took a week off and was down in Westport. The weather was okay. I went to the beach every day both to get exercise and also to take photos of the plovers that run by the shoreline, eating little things in the sand. I had a few friends on the internet who enjoyed them which was an extra nudge to get outside and get some photos, even in marginal weather. I like being outside with a camera. But, the beach isn’t nice to cameras. So the top photo is the last picture my old camera took before the lens would no longer open without a sickening grinding noise and then finally wouldn’t open at all. I am old enough to know better.

So because I am a terrible creature of habit and it had taken me so long to warm up to this damned camera after losing its predecessor in a lake, I wanted to replace it. You’d think a camera that was a few years old would be easy to replace. Turns out, for better or worse, this model has held its value decently well, but I was able to find a “like new” model through the Amazon Marketplace for about half off. And, because I have a small stack of Amazon gift cards [thanks dad’s frequent flyer miles] the price was free-to-me.

The camera arrived, and was like new enough, so I had it when I went to Topsham yesterday to walk the land with a couple who were maybe interested in buying it. It’s a confusing process, wandering around looking for metal stakes in the ground which, you hope, indicate the property boundaries. This is doubly true when it’s foggy like this. From the back of my property you couldn’t even see the house. This is not, technically, the first photo with the new camera. The first one is some confused squinty close up of me; you could easily add a thought bubble “Is this thing on? Oh I guess so!” I like this one better.

Topsham