How am I enjoying my first day of (re)retirement, you are asking? So far so good. We were out for dinner at Clay Oven, one of our favourite restaurants to celebrate. We watched a few more episodes of Westworld. Today Linda is off to the garden show, while I am home, puttering. I haven't had time to do that much for a while.
What is on my to do list in retirement, you ask? I scarcely know where to begin. There are immediate things to do, like finish writing this. There are some things like washing the breakfast dishes and cleaning the kitty box. But there's a follow up thing from New Zealand I really need to chase, and my desk is a mess, and there are star shots to edit, and photo rambles to plan and schedule, and books to read, and various appointments to keep. I'm a little surprised I was able to make time for work over the last month and a bit, and if they don't call to schedule me in quick, I can see my schedule filling up quickly.
What do you think about Westworld, you ask? I'm not 100% sure yet. We are in the middle of Season 2 (no spoilers coming, and if you know, don't say anything in comments.) and it's both interesting and a bit frustrating. In one sense I want to go back and watch Season 1 again to get some of the characters into my head a bit more firmly, and I almost want to take chronology notes. I think it's part of the point of the story, in that the timeline is really confusing. Several characters have asked, what is real, what is true, and I've been thinking about that in our modern world. You have idiots like Trump claiming that anything they don't like is fake news from fake media. So if you assume that everything he says is a lie, you are well on the way to a better understanding of what's going on there. Most politicians are a bit more subtle than that. Then we come to media reporting day to day news. A few times I've been a witness to a story that made it into the papers or on the news, and I was always struck by the differences in what I saw, and what was said.
What about your photo rambles, you ask? So far I've got two out of town trips booked, one to Cypress Hills in a couple weeks, and one to Yukon in September, plus maybe to Nova Scotia this fall as the colours turn. I'm contemplating a big trip for next June to Tuk and Inuvik. On a per day basis that one is more expensive than New Zealand. A buddy has asked me to wingman a specific shoot, and we are now trying to schedule it. My work life interfered, and now it's looking like his work life might interfere. Such is life. I've got 3 race gigs lined up for my favourite triathlon store, Tri It Multisport. I've had some macro ideas percolating for a while, and I want to get out and roam around Southern Alberta looking for landscapes.
This guy is very happy about my retirement.
Driftwood of the Day
This is where the obsession with driftwood really started. Before, I'd take photos of driftwood. Blah blah blah. But that day Linda and I were out for a bike ride along the Marine Parade, and I got interested in looking for composition in the driftwood. (Hit the link if you want to see other photos from that day, including Linda on her apartment bike.)
Once I started really looking, I started seeing far more than before. Then I found this bit, with the stone lodged in the crack, and I was hooked. Something about the texture of the wood combined with the hardness of the stone really did it for me. All the subtle colour and grain changes really caught my attention.
The scale of these two photos is about 6 inches wide by 4 inches tall. At that scale there's a lot to choose from on even one promising chunk of wood. It can take a while, and I'd lose track of time, thinking about trying to capture it in an artistic and interesting way. Some worked better than I hoped. Some I was a bit disappointed in when I saw it on the big screen at home. There was one where I was fortunate enough to be able to go back the next day and have another go. I was afraid someone would mess with it, but I got lucky. As a reminder, all the driftwood shots are as found.
Not only is the last photo a particularly appealing one, there is an added pleasure knowing that it was as-found. Cheers, Sean
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