In the olden times, I did a lot more experimenting with cameras, lenses, etc. This is one of the new scans of old, untouched negatives. I can't tell you for sure what makes this pointillistic almost autochrome-ish look. It could have been a lens I ordered, maybe pinhole, maybe some other odd thing I have forgotten. The negatives are incredibly underexposed and it is only through the magic of the scanner that I got an image at all, so the grain may just be from that. Whatever it is, I like it. And of course, it is a good day for a beach picture.
Happy 4th.
What could be more patriotic than hot dogs, hamburgers, coleslaw, and watermelon?
"Potato salad."
Oh, yea. And maybe this.
"USA! USA!"
I mean, for accuracy's sake. . . name that viewer!
I had lunch with C.C. yesterday. Fun.
And delicious.
We got there early, C.C, first, and secured seats at the corner of the bar. I need the corner of the bar, really, so I don't have to turn my head so much, bad neck and all, so this was the first victory of the day. The second was the present C.C. brought back for me from his monthlong trip to Scotland. He knew I didn't like peaty scotches, so he got me one with a more citrusy flavor.
I was going to write out the name, but I can't do it without looking at it. Oh, those crazy Scots.
Our bartender was new to the restaurant, and of course we chatted her up. She was swell. She said it was an employers market right now. She'd applied for about a hundred jobs before she got this one. This was her second job and she drove for about an hour from a distant town to get to work. The job market thing surprised me. I thought employers couldn't find people to work. She said she had a child, a three year old son, and she didn't want to work but her husband had lost his job. He'd just found a new one, though, and she planned eventually to be a stay at home mom.
"I won't ask you who you voted for," I laughed.
"I'll be honest," she said. "I didn't vote, and my husband can't."
"What? And you still live in this state!"
She laughed. "He's German."
I laughed too. I had been bad and asked C.C. what he thought her ethnicity was. His answer was that he had written a play about two assholes sitting at a bar wondering about people's ethnicities. He said I was the inspiration for it. Holy shit!
I guess I could have kept that to myself.
After a long lunch, I said goodbye to C.C. who is leaving on Monday for another monthlong domestic trip.
Mid-afternoon. I drove to the grocers to get food for the 4th. Just mom and me. I had ordered a new George Foreman grill for my mother, and it arrived early yesterday the morning, so we were all set.
As reported, I'd taken a P.M. the night before, and yesterday morning, I couldn't move. I barely got showered and dressed in time to make the noon lunch with C.C. When I got home, I thought about getting some exercise, maybe just a long walk. But it was hot. It was more than hot, it was humid and the air pressure was surely higher than a Pascal barometer could possibly measure. And of course. . . I'd had wine with my lunch at noon, so. . . a nap seemed more than reasonable.
When I got up, and here's a big surprise. . . I drove over to my mother's. The air being so miserable, we sat inside in the cool interior conditioned to our liking. My mother was watching "Gunsmoke." She grinned.
"Do you want to watch something?"
Really?
"No. I just came over to watch you watch television."
She turned it off. The air inside the house was silent. I asked her something. She couldn't hear me. I asked her again, more loudly. Still. . . . Once more, I shouted the question.
"It must be you. . . your voice. I can hear other people fine."
And so we sat mostly in silence, me thinking that maybe I should make hand puppets. . . something.
When I left, she said, "I'm sorry I can't hear."
I reminded her again that they made hearing aids.
I was thinking of getting up early and driving to the coast to take some 4th of July photos today, then leaving at noon to get home to cook for mom.
I did get up early, but I am not going. C.C. said yesterday that I needed to get away for awhile. I confessed that it had been so long, I wasn't sure I knew how to anymore. I can't seem to even get away for half the day.
Some things have got to change.
But not today. Change is something that can always be done tomorrow. Today is a day of reverence. I'm going to ask every person I see today who is under twenty-five what we celebrate on the 4th of July. I'm guessing most of them won't know.
Since it is Independence Day, I think we need something a little patriotic, just something to make us proud to be Americans.
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