ExpansioN

Yipes! Its Sunday already and have yet to look at my list of things to do. I believe it will become a list to do some other time. Nothing like a little last minute extreme cleaning and sorting to get the blood up.

Yes there are things that need to be done. The pond pump again needs to be cleaned..but thats a pain and since I am still getting over this bronchitis I cant really do it and stay on the healthy upswing. I try that and I am going back down. Hopefully this week I will have the lung capacity to lift the 80 lb dead lift out, then cut filter and clean the pump up. The edges of the pond need to be cut again, but I have to go buy an electric trimmer to do that with. Really on the weekend..or this weekend particularly I am just resting. Its the best I can do at the moment. Try it you'll hate it. No really!

So since its been sit and rest and get the breathing zones to clear I tried to get the Red Bubble linked to my photography web site ..and I got it done. I have to work on some abstract edits for the site though. This site displays your uploaded artwork onto pretty much any medium you can think of. Nice huh. I am going to play with the below items and see what I can come up with for loads to the main site.

Link: http://www.redbubble.com/people/ibimages





and maybe some of these













I have been playing around with those for a while.

More to do but I have to feel up to doing it. ...which I really don't. I should do some more cell phone wallpapers too.... again.. as soon as I am up to it. Crawling in a corner sounds so much nicer.

Not much else to say. Hoping for a nice surprise here soon. So much paperwork and information to pass around and documents to process plus other things to get ready. Timing is a big thing too.

It all really boils down to timing. I would like some more time off work to feel better but that's not going to happen. I am far behind now and if I take more time off it will just get worse. Things are not getting done or just being shoved forward. A big problem with this is that we are down a person. That person could be picking up this slack and I would not have to worry about it. Thats not going to happen for at least another 6 months so it will go on.

Never mind.

I think I will decide to do something sometime soon.

Just peddling that bike.

One week of bad weather living

Cannot believe having bronchitis and upper resp virus can kick you down hard. You just do not feel up to anything. You're on that edge or ability but it ends up getting you to the chair or to the kitchen for juice or water and leaving you stuffed up and wobbly. Almost clear of it. Today is the first day I have felt the strength to do something other than try and breath.



So.. work was an hour on Monday and all day Thursday... Which was a nightmare of coughing and hacking. This week will be dealing with all the stuff piling up in my in box. no looking forward to that even though I cleared it out Wednesday during a conference call for our staff meeting.

Olympics have been on. They have been shotgunny. Don't know what the schedule is for anything. Nice to watch Goff even though I don't play. Some of the foot races have been different. The swimming was been ugly with the problems with the water. Winter next I guess in two years. Football coming up but I don't watch it much anyways. So for television.. don't ask me.

Even music is past me right now. It's all too much.

Just keeping up with the daily facebook banner changes and logos.. a new idea every ( almost ) day is daunting. Glad when it's over. I an going to put a generic banner up for the month of october.



















Keep up please.

Along with that I have been working on a design Kurt came up with a while ago for a pin but I haven't gotten it that far yet. Just a t shirt design so far.








Thats it so far. Too tired and worn out to work on it farther.

I think I am going to rest more.

Have a good weekend. Tomorrow is monday again. Seriously.. Again?

Outtakes and distracted shooting

Its a down day. Picked up my granddaughters cough and cant get rid of it. Ugh! Feeling real bad.

Since I am fuzzy headed Ill just post out some of the outtake shots from the trip to California. Normally I will take a massive amount of pictures of everything I think is interesting. This time as I ran through the shots I noticed I was somewhat short of the norm. Had to think about it for a while. A third cup of coffee jogged my thoughts and I figured out why there were so few outer shots. I was enjoying the moments. I guess I should be lucky I got any shots.

When we lived in Moreno Valley and then Perris or in the Riverside area we went to the ocean a few times. It was more fun to go to the fun fair parks than the boring ole beach. We did but not to sit on it.
When we lived in England we would go to the beach a lot. Granted with four kids during summer break what is a mom to do with them. Sizwell and other areas. How I wished I had a DSLR then too.

This time I expect I was so enjoying the beach, the air and the views I left the camera down at my side. I am trying to think back on what I might have missed. Well signs. I love shooting signs. I know it was terribly hazy so the sky was beat. Much of the time I was driving so I didn't have a chance to shoot off shots for that either. Next time I think we will visit friends and have them take us to a few more places I wanted to go to but didn't have the time. Where? The Chinese theater and the stars... kitschy but I wanted to do that.. and the Piano staircase from Laurel and Hardy's shot film. A few other places. They will have to drive cause I only have a vague idea of the fastest ways to get there and then I can sit in the passenger seat up front and shoot things. Plans!

So some outtake shots....

Redondo Landing.

Lost Sub

Rusting away

Signs

Old buildings and strange buildings.

Tied up.

A gaggle of masts.

A gaggle of flying rats.

Funny trees.

Well a paddle wheeler. Novel.

Green everywhere.

Rent a Schooner.

Signs, Singns, everywhere a sign...

Its pretty.

A few shots from the B side.

I did get some video edited but this cough is making any concentration very hard. SOme excitement possible in the next week. Hopefully. Waiting and watching.

Hope you all have a good weekend and a good week looking forward.

Los Angeles and the use of the sea to wash your footprints away.

This weekend which started Thursday evening was a free for all run to Los Angeles. Why? Because as self proclaimed hermits and shut ins we do not agree to go anywhere until the last minute or don't even accept as we like the dark and our zombie chairs.

Fishing in the no fishing zone.. who knew there was a zone for that.

So when we were asked a few week ago to come out for a wedding we were interested but we would have to leave the house so that meant the impossible. We really wanted to go because of the people involved and we really really like them.... but on the other hand it would be either procuring plane tickets and lines and TSA and waiting and rentals and hotels and baggage... it was far too much... so we sat on it.


Liberace practice piano. No ghosts seen.

Pretty much the week before it looked possible if we just drove. Yeah... drove 12.45 hours to the coast. Normal people look at that number and just fling their hands up in the air. Most people would cut that in half and stop on the way. Well we didn't... throw hands nor stop for anything but gas and the possibility of a clean bathroom.


8 men to run her...arrrr... or one fast guy with many hands.

Things we didn't do... We didn't stay at any of the hotels that were on the list. We found one through the nets that was about 100 dollars cheaper per night.. Good find that. No stopping unless it was for gas and you had better have to pee then. We were going to be showing up and just doing the wedding and coming back. We didn't want to intrude too much into the family there so we winged it. Wung it.


Palos Verde... never made it even though it was 5 minutes away.. hahahah... what a laugh.

This was our first vacation in ever and ever. Oh. Driving 12 hours I have done before. I used to drive to training all the time and that was 12 plus hours. Going for 3 to 4 hours and stopping for gas works. Having good music to listen to really helps.


Sun eating clouds.

Off we went at 0300 in the morning. The decision was made to try and hit the Mojave Desert at the lowest temp which was at 11ish. So if you figure two hours to Gallup..0500, two to Flagstaff 0700 and two and a bit to Kingman 0900 you make the desert around 11..and it was and we did. Cruised across it and the AC never left the number 2 setting. Smooooooth..except for all the road construction.


Footstep removing Pacific ocean

Getting to the top of I- 15 into the LA valley was nice but there were some loonies on the road. Either going so fast as to leave you spinning on sitting in the fast land at 20 mph under the limit. The highways that span the area are a web of cyclic dirisional off and on ramps, cross lanes and last minute decisions made mostly in panic. Since we were going from the North East to the South West of the zone it was a fun little step down to the PCH. We made it, traffic as bad as it usually is in LA we shaved a lot of time and did in fact get in over an hour earlier than the GPS said we would.


Long Beach lighthouse and environs.

Unfun part was checking into the hotel and a very loud and very crude woman was voicing her disapproval with her room and the managers refusal to put her in another room ( such room was non existent ). Instead she decided to rant and rave and cause everyone behind her to have to wait though her profanity laced tirade. Well and good. Our room was passable. Not the Ritz but we were not paying 500 dollars a night. This hotel was right on the PCH within 5 minutes of the beach..during summer peak... what more can you ask.... okay.. and extra pillow would have been nice.... found those on the last night..hahaha.. So well and good and the hotel was within 5 minutes of the reception too.

To continue. Met some wonderful people. We were included in everything and part of the family. We enjoyed it immensely.

On the moments between the pre wedding party at the beach and the wedding and the reception... we went to Redondo beach and had an iffy dinner overlooking the Redondo side of the area.. great. Got to go to the Queen Mary in Long Beach and walk the entire ship except for the bits that are off limits or part of the hotel bits. We braved the ghost tour so that we could see the swimming pool... that was a bit tough as our guide was very talkative and it was mostly goofy things that were as spooky as my left shoe. He was a "character". But I got some great shots of places. A little side jaunt down to the waters edge after the evening party to put the feet in and wash our footsteps away, take some shots of the sun going down then hike back up with sand in strange places. We were able to spend the next morning sitting across from the Queen Mary next to the Long Beach light house and enjoy the quiet. There were a lot of Pokiman chasers out but they were like quiet zombies that don't bite... just standing in little groups shuffling about in the breeze. I think that they don't bite. Not sure and didn't chance it. We left just as the crowds started streaming in.


Docile zombies. Shuffling around and mumbling. No biting zone.

The wedding was in the Torrence beach park and the reception was at the brides grandfathers house.. which was very nice..cool and shady. Every person I met I wanted to sit down with for about four hours each and pump them for their stories. Every one of the people there were interesting and some were downright people I wouldn't mind hanging around with more.

We didn't firm up our departure time for the drive back the next day until we were about to crash for the night. The plan... ( this trip was so laid back we didn't plan much of anything..coffee in the morning I thing was the best planned item on our list ) was to leave near 3ish and see how that worked.


Parking lot and attendant.

We did leave at 330 and we hit coffee in Barstow. Open at 4am was fine with me... Unfortunately right after we turned onto the I40 heading East the first call came in from work. Oh well. We hit almost every time marker nicely with a few dilly dallys here and there. I plan on avoiding Flagstaff next time since its so spread off the highway and a pain to get back on quickly. We hit a massive rain and lightning storm coming across the Arizona border. Had to slow way down due to the standing water on the road.

Arriving at the house about an hour earlier than expected. Dumping and falling into the chairs, battening the hatches, hiding the keys and wallets so no one could lure us out again. Heh.. Didn't work. In our ever exhausted state we snuck over to spend time with our granddaughter..but now we are paying for it. Both of us are ready to fall asleep. Which will happen soon.

I didn't talk about the food at the crab shack.. yuck, the traffic on PCH..not bad, the crazy people, all over but not dangerous, The friends met who have stories I don't need to relate here, and many other things.

It was fun. Glad we are home. Loved the break from reality. ready to do it again. Want to stay ON the Queen Mary next time..and visit some more friends in town and see some other weird and out of the way places.

Caio!

Tim. Good descriptions of the boat. didn't remember the low ceilings part.

Oh.. I will post the shots I took while there. Many on the QM with the 10.5 lens since it was a confined area. They are fun. Some other good shots of everywhere too.

On my web site.

http://invisibleblack.zenfolio.com/