First (moon) light in new lens

A friend of mine pointed out the unique characteristics of this lens, and first bought a similar one. It is actually old technology, as this lens was made in about 1980, but on the new digital cameras it is effectively an 800mm telescope. His photos were so intriguing that I had to buy one. This is the first light that I got to pass through the lens.

So the moon over St. Cloud, 1/600th of a second at f8.0, hand held, 1:11 AM, July 12.

Senior moments

I am sitting here in the dark though it is barely 8PM. We have thunder storms coming in, and warnings are posted for Sterns County. I am ok because Sterns County is about 500 yards away. I am sure that it won't rain or storm here.

I am afraid the light matches my mood. Let's say it wasn't the best of weekends but more than that, I not only feel old and it seems everyone else thinks I am old, too. Especially those AARP people. In the past few weeks, I have received no less than five emails and two pieces of regular mail from them. I can get long term care insurance, prescription services, rental at resorts specializing in "elder" retreats, and discounts almost everywhere with my AARP card. Wow, 10% off at Arbys--yippee!!!

A new "service" also made its way to my inbox. Apparently more and more people over 50 are single, and a new website, Older Personals, is up and running. It is designed to help those over 50 find love. Or someone to wipe the drool off their chin, or share Geritol, help break feet of clay, or set up shuffleboard games. Or maybe even find love. Dating at mid-life--apparently it's not for the faint of heart.

Of course, all of this is humorous to me and to others. I complainingly emailed one of the AARP ads to a younger friend and her response was, and I quote, was "hahahahahahahahaha." Actually, there were a few more haha's in her response. I do laugh, but I recognize that I have earned getting on these mailing lists, no matter my resistance or unwillingness to believe that I am getting older. I don't see myself as old, but I have to remember that most others do. Even the people who don't know me but only know my stats on a web page.

So my goal is at best to remain young at heart. I ignore the slight aches in the morning and/or after a walk, and resist knowing my doctor by her first name or memorizing her phone number. I am sure I can't ignore all this forever. But I can ignore the AARP ads and for at least a few years, ignore the Elder Personal site for love.

Photo Safari

I went for a drive specifically to look for photos, but it was pretty slim pickings. Since it is 90 degrees with 95% percent humidity, most sane folks were at the lake or in front of an air conditioner. But you don't find anything unless you look, so I took off.

I found two photo opportunities, but only exploited one of them. In Pierz, I saw two sisters selling lemonade, complete with a hand lettered sign, lemons, and matching sundresses. What a great picture, but I had to pass. Life is different than it was 25 years ago when I would have taken the photo in a heart beat and it would have been on page one. Strangers don't go up to three and four year olds and take their photos anymore. Still, I'll remember the scene and this slice of Americana even without a photo, and I am sure that many of you can picture this, too.

I have never been questioned or wondered about (that I know of) for taking the other photos shown above. It was a hazy bright day, and the curious cows left their shady spot under the tree to see who this crazy person was who was taking their photo.

I have been to Kenya and been on a real safari, but I guess this is the Minnesota equivalent. No elephants, but it was still a pretty good safari.

Four from the Fourth...

Not much to say, really. Ooooh. Ahhhhh. Boom.

P.S.

I love my grill...I am less than bright for not doing this earlier, say about 4-5 years ago...salad, steak, potato salad, and corn on the cob. How American am I?

Film from a walk

These are shots from film, and shots taken with yet another one of the old Retina's that I bought. These are from my walk on Friday.

Ironton-Crosby Parade

As mentioned, I was aiming for the Crosby-Ironton 4th of July parade. These two contiguous towns are on the edge of the Iron Range, and officially "up North." The parade route is about 1.75 miles, and the "paraders" start in Ironton and finish in Crosby, which officially is the big town, though only 2,250 souls call it home.

The parade featured lots of fire trucks and surprisingly no bands. It didn't seem like a real parade because of that, but it actually wasn't that bad of a parade. I parked in Crosby at the end of the route, and walked back to the start of the parade in Ironton and then walked back to my car, so at least it was good walk on a great fantastic wonderful holiday weekend weather.

Here are a few views of the parade and people. It is all predictable parade fair, though I was a bit surprised by the "for sale" sign on the fire truck. Is it that bad out there?

Rockin' in St. Joe

Well, rockin' might be a bit of a stretch. It all is kind of an oxymoron, really. St Joe is a small town about 1o miles from my house, and it is anything but rocking, despite the name of its festival. It is the home of St Ben's the college and of course, St Joe's the church, and to say that it has a strong Catholic presence is somewhat of an understatement. So to have the festival called St. Joe Rocks is almost funny. I mean come on...the main show tonight features Bobby Vee, a local legend of sorts. Perhaps his best known hit is "Devil or Angel." From 1960. Yep, they were going to rock in St Joe tonight. The crowd was mostly over 50, so they were all old.

But the real reason that people came to the festival was because of beer, and lots of it. I guess it was a typical German Catholic festival. I avoided the beer, though I did eat a famous Joe Burger, the gastronomical highlight of the festival. Actually, the fries were above average, and it was nice to see yet another small town in Minnesota.

Another walk

I just got back from an almost six mile walk--it took me a blazing 2 1/2 hours so I wasn't cruising, but exercise is exercise. Essentially I walked from my house in St Cloud to Sauk Rapids and then crossed the river and walked back through St Cloud. Of course I took a camera or two and while it wasn't a great day for photos, I did find a splash or two of color and perhaps, a splash of black and white.

more stats...

Really, just drop me an email if you are reading this blog at henry919@mac.com...now I know that there are just a few people who do read this, I would love to hear who and where you are. Thanks!!!

United States 8,011 Canada 247 Italy 45 Netherlands 17 Spain 8 Ukraine 6 Russia 4 United Kingdom 2 Sweden 2 Australia 1

So who are you?

I need some help...I finally figured out that there are statistics about who has actually looked at my blot. I am sure that I many of the page views are from me, but some one is looking at this. Can you tell me who are ? I would love to know who actually is looking at this blog--it might help me shape my blogs, but at the least it would be fun to know. Look at the stats--if you are looking at this, just drop me a very quick short email to say hello--I would be very interested in meeting you.

Pageviews today 7 Pageviews yesterday 12 Pageviews last month 619 Pageviews all time history 8,353 Don't track your own pageviews

It really is summer...

I spent a fair amount of time outside on my deck, something that I haven't done that much even though it is an incredible perk of living where I do. Of course it is a lot nicer out there when it isn't ankle deep in water...

So today I cleaned and did laundry, but then I sat outside with a book for an hour or so. Then, I did something that I have talked about doing but which I made myself do today. I bought a grill, so for the first time since 2004 I have a grill. It makes sense, of course, to have a grill. If nothing else, it will make me use my deck. Oddly enough, every store is closing out their grills. According to them, summer is waning, though I simply refuse to concede that. Now if I had a truck, and about four friends, I could have bought a very very nice grill, one large enough to grill for the neighborhood. Since I have neither, I had to look for a smaller, disassembled grill, and I eventually found one.

By this time, it was about 5PM, and I had to put the !_@$(&)*@#$ grill together before I could enjoy that first burger off the grill. It was slightly easier said than done. The grill came with directions, of course, but it might have helped a bit if they weren't in Spanish. Honestly. I finally found English directions on the web. I thought I might do it intuitively, since what male really ever looks at the directions anyways? I had to, though as it was far from intuitive. Two hours later, and one skinned knuckle later, it was done.

And what a meal. A salad (really, I ate a salad), grilled sweet onions, baked beans, a couple of exceptional burgers, and of course wine from a box. Does it get better than this? This fancy repast was for one, but it was still a pretty good meal. Of course, every thing is better off a grill. Now I want to grill all the food that I eat at home. So can I grill yogurt? Cereal? Eggs? Frozen pizza? Hot pockets? Danish from across the street? Ham sandwiches? Well, I might be able to do that. But the meal tonight was great, and it topped off my pretty good day, and now I can take my slightly sunburned body off to bed.

Tomorrow I head to St Joe, Mn, for St. Joe Rocks. I doubt that it is all that rockin' but it will be nice to be outside. On Monday, I head to Crosby for a 4th of July parade. It's kind of a fun parade as it starts in one town and ends in another. That sounds more dramatic than it is, but it has to be worth a blog post.

One photo is of my meal, the other is of my bowls. It just seems that there has to be a definitive bowl picture out there somewhere.