It had to happen eventually. The heat. I just looked at the weekly forecast. It's going to top 100° every afternoon; over 105° on Friday this coming week. I could convert that to centigrade for you but it sounds hotter in Fahrenheit. Either way you look at it the heat has arrived and it's time to get acclimated all over again. I only hope the smoke from Canada doesn't come with it...
My doctor tells me that as you age your body is less tolerant of temperature extremes. I pay him to tell me these things so I guess I should believe him but I hate to think I have to make smart choices = that flies in the face of my Maturity Deficit Disorder. And what's the fun of hibernating in air conditioning all Summer? You'll just get...chubby.
So I put on my best pair of Keen sandals, some cool, cotton short pants and an REI long sleeve, SPF 50 shirt, wide-brim, non-Tilley hat, and fired up the all weather Subaru Forester (mercifully painted white). I hit downtown around 4:00 pm. It's about five degrees warmer there (urban heat island...) than it is up here in the hills West of downtown. We also have a lot more trees up here. Big trees. Good shade. But if your plan is long term acclimation you might as well go into the very belly of the steamy beast...
The one concession I made toward some measure of sanity was to jettison the heavy SL2 and its coterie of large, heavy, full frame lenses and select instead a Leica CL (APS-C style) and one of the much, much smaller Zeiss ZM lenses. I thought I'd try out the 28mm f2.8. No need for a faster aperture. Not while under the white hot glare of the Texas sun.
I kept the walk to under an hour and I'm glad I did. I was a bit wiped out by the time I made it back to the car. Nothing serious, just some nausea, a closing down of my peripheral vision, a nagging headache, a touch of delirium, the inability to sweat, and a feeling of accelerating dread. Oh...I really meant I was a bit sweaty and warm when I got back to the car.... Not all that other stuff.
In Texas, when we buy cars the more experienced among us order our vehicles with double air conditioning. Two compressors, two fan systems, double the chilling power, etc. Sure, it costs a bit more and it requires more fuel to run but the power of two air conditioning units in a car ensures that you can keep a six pack of beer cold if you put it next to the vents. And I mean icy cold. It's also good for rapid cooling of incautious humans.
Got back home, parked and reached into the passenger footwell to grab an ice cold beer. Tossed a can to my neighbor as well. He was just getting ready to go for a run. I thought he might need some extra hydration. He's young --- still thinks he's bullet proof.
I couldn't find a damn thing to photograph that you'd really like to see here on the blog. Most of the interesting people had long since retired to their cool, dark lairs earlier in the day. I did have one embarrassing moment when the pavement got so hot the bottom of my shoe started melting and I was afraid I'd get stuck to the pavement in the direct sun. ("Photographers get in but they can't get out....") but a passing motorist with Florida plates took the corner a bit too sharp and bumped me (not too gently) back onto the sidewalk... thank goodness for that famous Floridian "stand your ground" driving aggression.
Since I was hot and no one was posing out on the city streets I just snapped endless photos of boring architecture and told myself it was a worthwhile pursuit for two reasons. One: I was testing the limits of my now 67 year old self to endure gunky, snarly, ostensibly dangerous heat. And, Two: I was getting a good sense of how the 28mm Zeiss lens performs on a cropped frame sensor. I do like it.
And, in a nutshell, this is one of the reasons I like to swim in the early mornings for exercise. Unless the water gets too hot or I go too late in the day I don't have to worry about exercise induced heat stroke.
This post was not written by a ChatBot.
But just to give you greater confidence that this post was human sourced I thought I'd tell you something funny that happened at swim practice this morning. One of the people in my lane is a real, authentic Texas woman. Old school. It was a hard workout and we were in the middle of a hard set. The water was a bit warm. She decided to sit out a 50 (that's one "down and back"). I stopped and asked if she was okay. Of course she was. Her reply? "I'm just taking a hostess break. I'm going upstairs to check my make-up and to smoke a cigarette. I'll be right back with you." The other person in our lane was heading back in our direction. After he turned we fell in line right behind him and finished the set. Sometimes you just have to know when to take a break. And have a good line ready to drop some humor into the near thankless task of staying in shape past your twenties...
I see that Zeiss is leaving the business. Guess their lenses weren't good enough. (8-)
ReplyDeleteDick, That article was incorrect and Zeiss is not exiting the field. Their rebuttal was on DPR. They, like nearly everyone else in the industry are reducing their overall inventory of product in reaction to the 80% decrease, overall, in camera sales.
ReplyDeleteKirk - Years ago I used to look forward to the Sunday NY Times and the wonderful street photographs by Bill Cunningham. He was a known fixture around NYC on his bicycle with camera at the ready. I find the same enjoyment from your photographic trips around Austin. Keep on clicking.
ReplyDeleteThe Littlefield Real Estate building looks interesting; thanks for the mannequins! The curve of the glass in counterpoint to the steel columns (vent pipes?) special. Enjoyed today's post, thankyou.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it is the recent influence of AI; if I access VSL in Edge I land here with current page. If I use Chrome it serves various archival pages - 2015/2011/2016 - odd, but very welcome as I have enjoyed reading or re-reading the archived material. Weird but frustrating if I'm looking for the latest post.
ReplyDeleteI'll take the cold Canadian winters over 103 degrees, any time. It's a shame Leica abandoned APS-C. The CL is a nice little camera. I hope Sony doesn't do the same. The A6000 series is a nice camera line with a great selection of lenses now, many of which are affordable and great performers. The rangefinder styling and corner EVF are enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your sense of humor. Had to laugh.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed staying in shape as one ages is work.
Hard work which hopefully continues into (really)
old age. I hope to impress those 20 somethings when
at age 90 I'm still regularly going to the gym
throwing those weights around and spinning the
stationary bike to nowhere in particular.
Renewed love affair with the CL. Great little system. So affordable with the Sigma lenses in tow.
ReplyDeleteKirk, another fun read from you. It reminded me of our week in Austin the first week in June last year, when the temps first entered triple digits for Austin. (The oddly formed building atop your post appeared in the view out the window from our bed at the resort we stayed. While a most interesting design to photograph, I have to wonder what possessed its architect and how much extra the builder reaped from that design during construction.) Often, during our wanders around the Austin streets, I thought I might encounter you, another fellow with questionable sense with a camera avoiding air-conditioned spaces, but no. Perhaps the next time you find your way to NM.
ReplyDelete