We used to have two scheduled workouts every fourth of July. One at seven a.m., for the frisky folks and early risers, and one at eight o'clock for the late sleepers. Covid screwed with the schedule for a couple of years and last year the pool manager dropped the ball and didn't put the traditional holiday swims on the schedule. We protested. Loud and long. And, surprise! This year we circled back on track and continued what had been a 26+ year tradition.
Our pool is in a separate little city from Austin called Rollingwood. Like its neighbor, Westlake Hills, it is completely surrounded by the city of Austin on all sides. But on the 4th of July Rollingwood holds its own little parade and it comes right past the pool.
When Ben was young he swam on the club swim team and in the Summer the club hosted a floa for the swim team in the Rollingwood parade. The swimmers would decorate a large trailer, crowd aboard and be driven through the parade route while tossing candy to the kids who lined the road to watch the festivities. He rode the float every year for ten years. It was kind of a tradition. Since he's grown up and I don't get to make sure he's on the float I can go to the later (8 a.m.) workout and occasionally I watch the parade on the other side of the hedge, from my vantage point at the end of the pool.
Today's workout was fun. The coach planned it all out with a purpose. She alternated sets of seven 25 yard drills with sets of four 100 yard swims. We dutifully swam the sets as written and at the very end a swimmer who is smarter than the rest of us noticed the pattern: 7/4 The pattern repeated all through the written workout.
I swam well today. I'm always leery that I'll be sore and exhausted after a day on which I do strength training but yesterday I did an hour of resistance work, a three thousand yard, self-directed swim, and a about four miles of fast walking. All that activity had no negative effects on my swimming today. If anything I felt stronger and faster than I have in a while. I'll chalk it up to clean living. Or a really good night's sleep.
The day ahead looks promising. I've already cleaned up the studio and office and I'm charging a battery for one of my cameras. I have the idea to limit myself to shooting just with a full frame camera and my 50mm APO lens for a while. Just to give myself some boundaries and structure. I have a walk in mind and then, at five in the afternoon I'm due at a friend's house for a dinner party. All cold foods. No grilling. Chilled shrimp, ceviche, salads and the like. The premise? It's too hot to cook.
Why the early start? My friends live on the other side of the park and the traffic gets crazier as the day gets later. Around six everyone is heading in from all over town to get positioned for the fireworks show and the concerts along the lake shore. If we're on the road by six we might never get there. Five works.
I'd love to regale you with stories about some fascinating new photo gear but nothing seems to even be on my radar these days. I guess I'm taking a break from reckless acquisitions for a while. Don't know why.... maybe the lens drawer is too full to hold much more.
Most of my shopping of late has been on Expedia. Just sampling the potential for early Fall travel. Apparently every able-bodied American with a credit card is currently traveling this Summer. The media is calling it "revenge travel." Travel to make up for the past lock-downs and missed opportunities.
I keep seeing images of packed tourist destinations. Keep hearing stories about travel delays and airline cancellations. There are daily media articles about all the high prices this Summer.
Late September, all of October and November seem much more promising. But, as one wise person at swim practice last week mentioned, any travel comes with one big downside. And that's missing a week or more of swim practice. Sure, there are pools everywhere but swimming is more than just an exercise or obligation. It's also a rich social gathering. Long time relationships. Daily camaraderie. There's more to it than just getting one's heart rate up and getting your hair wet.
Summer doldrums are upon us in one regard; the heat and humidity are still here but the days have been mostly cloudy. At least with crisp blue skies the photo opportunities are ... better.
Happy Birthday USA. Let's keep working on this bold experiment. Just remember to be patient and kind.
11 comments:
completely surrounded...on all sides
tsk...
8-)
Edited. Chastened by an internationally famous writer. Oh the humiliation...
That's what I get for putting up a first draft. I should have spent more time outlining the piece. I should have created a list of bulletpoints. Then created a framework for it. And then written the draft. And then revised it before editing it several times. And then rewritten it. And then revised it again. And then stretched it out a bit. Because I love the process soooo much.
But yeah. He nailed it.
I crossed through the "difficult" passage and then I got bored, switched gears, and bought a couple T-shirts online at the REI 4th of July Sale.
"I always wanted to be a writer. It's just that I don't have anything in particular that I want to write about."
"I always thought it would be cool to be a photographer but I never could land on anything I was interested in photographing. I bought all the cameras anyway. And a photographer's vest."
So a month or so ago, I finished a new novel which will be out this fall. I'm fanatically meticulous about finishing these things, although mistakes are sometimes made. This one I finished, then worked through it line by line, then printed two copies, one for myself, and one for my wife. We worked through it again, separately, made the necessary corrections and clarifications, and I sent it off to New York. There, professional copy editors pored over it with a special copy-editing program, and sent me the results. There were a number of additional corrections and requests for clarification, and also upper cases for words that should have been upper cased, and lower cases for things that should have been lower cased. I went over it again, line by line. When I finished that, I sent it back to New York, where the book was set in type, and I was sent the page proofs for a final read. On page 336, I encountered this (an actual snip from the page proofs:
"He paid with a credit card at the pump, pumped ten gallons, got back in his car and pulled away from the pump just as Megan Ryan in her Corolla cut across the parking lot, moving fast, toward the BP convenience store.
Hess hit her. Nothing more than a fender bender, his left front fender with the left rear fender on her Jeep, but Ryan tumbled out of her vehicle as though she’d been hit by a meteor and began screaming at him. “I love my Jeep! I do! I’ve had my Jeep for six years, and now you’ve wrecked it . . .”
Uh, Corolla?
(Also, one of my bete noirs is "surrounded on three sides" which I've used myself. In fact, I used it either in the last novel or the one before that, and I was so pissed at myself that I left it, but added, "and on the fourth side by..." whatever it was.
Surprisingly, I don’t think JC has thought this through! “Surrounded on 3 sides” tells one the site is triangular, similarly with your “four sides”. Thinking further there must be “surrounded on one side” for a circular site … ain’t English wonderful?
Here's one that might horrify both JC the writer and Kirk the photographer.
In a former position a group of peers would regularly edit and critique our upcoming scientific (evolutionary biology) publications. Our papers had lots of figures and tables to display results. One colleague would routinely feature "dark black" as a color in her figures and writing (e.g., "As shown by the dark black circles in Figure 1, blah blah blah..."
Each time, I would ask how "dark black" was different from "black" and would get a blank stare in return.
Turning back to some recent posts here, the real question aspiring B&W photographers need to be asking is not whether they should own a dedicated B&W-only camera vs doing software conversions, but rather whether their camera of choice can produce true "dark black."
I love civiche!
Thanks for reminding me to get some.
c.d.embrey
There is a difference between lighting and illumination.
Scrumptious ceviche last evening. A crispy tostado shell, an inch of fresh guacamole on top. and then bountiful ceviche on top of the guac, finished with Mexican white cheese. So delicious! Perfect with a glass of Champagne...
Just ate a half a pound of civiche for lunch...nothing else needed.
c.d.embrey
There is a difference between lighting and illumination.
As General Pinochet once said, "Let them eat ceviche".
Interesting photos today.
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