Another museum bird picture.
My mother was also deep into birdwatching. She enjoyed it but she was not rabid about it as some are, still it gave her great pleasure.

mom the photographer

My mother was an avid photographer.

She was not really a good photographer, but she took a lot of pictures. Her camera was woefully under the limited technology of the day, much less today. She would have done well with a current $100 digital camera.

But that is not what she had. She used slide film, which is trickier to get right. The exposure window is not very wide. You need to get the right amount of light for the precise right length of time, and her system did not do well with that one.

So yesterday, we drove the 38 miles south to daughter 2's house to edit slides.

We started out with a good sized box and I edited them down to about 1/4 of a shoebox. Those I will scan and share with the family.

Priority was on pictures of people. I didn't use a magnifier, so it was not always easy to see who the people were, but if there were people, I kept them all. I can look closer later. Then I arranged them according to who I thought was in the photographs. There were a lot of my step-dad’s family, who I do not know too well. I’ll scan those and send them to my half brother, after all these are his family.

So I have my winter days taken up with slide scanning. A long winter will work out alright!

There are a lot of slides to scan.

garden

I just became the "King of the Garden" or it might be the vassal of the garden!

Even when I lived here I have not gardened here. It is a lot different than Idaho. First of all there is a longer growing season, a lot longer, and climate change is extending it even more.

Right now we still have a longer growing season left this year than a lot of places get for the whole year. So I ordered some seed yesterday.

One rule of gardening is to plant what people eat. Don't plant zucchini if no one will eat the stuff. With that in mind I ordered some cabbage seed. The kids will only eat it in salsa. But the kids are heading for boarding school in about a month (this place is going to be quiet then). so maybe the rest of us can eat more cabbage this year.

This year the garden is off to a very slow start, at least, by the standards I am used to, but a 180 day season is a lot more growing time than the 120 day season I am used to.

Everything changes. Even as plants that do well in one area may well not do so well in another, I am guessing the same is true for gardeners.

With 90 days left before first frost, maybe I should be planting seeds.

The bike I am riding is something like this. There are changes here and there and my ride has disc brakes!
Fun ride.
Right now I ride a mille and my legs talk to me. But I keep riding.
Maybe I'll toughen up a bit.

bicycle

A friend lent me one of his bicycles.

He used to make them and I guess he has a barrel of them.

This one has a wide seat with a back it, like a chair. You lean back a bit and that back is pretty nice. But it is that wide seat that makes the big difference. God did not intend for old guys to ride bicycles or he would have put our prostate in a different location, but with the new bike I can ride.

The problem is that the new bicycle has a lot different geometry than "regular" bikes, so riding it is not automatic.

So I ride and I ride. Not long rides, my legs are not good for that yet and I am still not really sure I won't dump the whole thing.

I did that once. IT wasn't nice!

organizing

I have never set up and organized a kitchen, much less a whole house.

Mom did it, or Miriam did it. I just did as I was told.

Now it is my turn. This RV has a “basement” but it is limited. (The basement is the space that might be for luggage were it a touring bus).

But that space includes a 50 gallon propane tank, a fresh water and waste water tank of about the same size, fuel tanks, a generator for onsite electricity etc. So the space is still very finite.

The inside is arrange and outfitted about as good as it can, but all storage is finite. What kitchen gadgets do I keep? What do I use for storing food, since I really do not want to grocery shop to often. Could I keep some bulk storage?

How about storing flour? I use three different kinds, mill two of them myself. How about my flour mill? The Kitchen Aid stand mixer?

And we have not talked about clothing. Miriam has about 35 pair of panties, I have a couple dozen polo shirts. THe list goes on.

I am making progress. Daughter assures me that I am doing fin. As she gives me that spiel, I am pulled back from despair!

I remember doing a very complex, quite large cabinet job. I was sure I would never finish, but it was the customer who assured me: “Dave, it will get done.” and she was right!

As a very junior grade gear head, the number 280 reminds me of a Nissan I admired, years ago.

good, very good

Where would you live if you were a widower tomorrow?

Daughter was asking, as we walked.

I won’t go back to Idaho, I said. There is not enough reasons to return. I’d stay based between two daughters. Might go south for the winter, but maybe not too. Family is increasingly important to me.

It was a question that deserved an answer, but it was also unnerving, still.

How do we plan our lives? We may plan some details long term, but a lot of life is catch and release.

And, of course with AD, there is no schedule, so while this is a respectful question, the answer is supremely slippery.

But we came “home” to the Bus, turned the AC on (94 today) and finished the day.

It was good, very good.