Warming up for next week's shooting adventure. What?!? You don't practice before a trip? Are you insane? Maybe don't answer that....

Thursday. 7 a.m. Already having fun. Leica+Dermatology.

This was the week to tweak. To get things done. And to practice so I could be up to speed with a camera that's new to me. I moved money from here to there to pay for the trip and to replenish balances lost to camera acquisition syndrome. I had a long call with a money manager. He encouraged me to spend more money on cameras. Yeah, I'll see if B. believes that really happened as well....  I had my teeth cleaned and checked by my wonderful, delightful dentist and she let me know I might want to move more money around because she found a partial crown that's twenty plus years old and failing. She'd like me to spend a couple thousand dollars to replace it. But she did compliment my improved flossing...

At least that's something.

Next stop was at the dermatologist's office. I love the guy. He's got a perfect bedside manner. Not that I was in bed. He loves the jigsaw puzzle that is the sun battered skin on my back. He figures he can cut and burn and cauterize stuff ad infinitum until he's got both kids through college. But he always makes time to see me and I always insist on the getting the first appointment of the day. That way one avoids the nearly unavoidable schedule slip that happens through the course of the day at most doctors' offices. Yesterday we just hit a couple of spots with the good, ole liquid nitrogen and laughed at the ridiculousness of spraying something that's minus 326 degrees (f) onto another human's fragile skin. Don't get any of that stuff in your eyes! And, of course, the wardrobe at the dermatologist's practice is so fetching. I'd rather just stand around in a pair of boxers. I mean, we practice everyday in swim suits. Can't be much different.

If you spent your youth pursuing various ultra violet follies, as I did, you might want to strike up a chummy and routine relationship with a good, board certified dermatologist. Best to keep an eye on all the various spots and splotches so he can catch them early and save your hide. And your life. The co-pay for anyone with decent insurance is minimal. $40. The downside for blowing it all off?  Read about melanoma. Creepier than a Stephen King novel.

After a good dose of frozen insanity we took my blood pressure and it was still pegged at 118/70. Nice. Although I have a mind to talk to my cardiologist about the systolic number. I think it's too low but my G.P. tells me I'm wrong. We should get the heart guy to give a final pronouncement. 

Yes, these are some of the things I think about when I'm not busy with work. 

To cap off the financial underwriting of medical practices this week B. announced, when I came in the door this afternoon, that the new Covid vaccines had arrived at our favorite pharmacy and there's one more open appointment in 50 minutes and I should haul ass over there and top off my day with a jab in the arm that also promises an evening headache and swim practice tomorrow with a sore arm. Delightful. Oops! Forgot the slight fever and body aches. Good stuff!!!

I was okay with it all until the trip home when someone without that Formula One skill base (and five to seven pounds of lost sweat) flipped his SUV in the express lane of the freeway, trying to leap the barriers for free, and made all three other lanes of traffic creep along for an eternity. A sun drenched eternity. Turtles and snails were passing us like we were standing still because....for the most part we were all standing still.

Now. About the cameras. I have been going out every day with the Leica M240 and one of three lenses (but only one per day).  At the beginning of the week it was the 50 APO. Yesterday it was the 28mm CZ-ZM. Today, this morning, it was the 35mm CZ-ZM. Yesterday and today were different though because I had acquired a +2.0 diopter to screw into the eyepiece of the camera to correct for my farsightedness. That was an engineering step that took me back to the paleolithic age of cameras. Back to a time when I had perfect eyesight and didn't need any freaking diopters. But....I have to confess that it sharpened up the finder quite nicely and made focusing the rangefinder a breeze. 

I'd been out for three days this week making sure that I'm up to speed with the operation of the camera, the disposition of the menus and the way the lenses look through the optical finder. Man, that 28mm is edge to edge in the finder. Something to get used to. And that's the whole point --- getting used to all that stuff before I get to my shooting destination. I don't want to be one of the those guys who stands in the middle of the street, oblivious to traffic, trying to figure out how to use the exposure compensation controls on his new camera. I just don't want to open myself up to that kind of judgmental ridicule. 

Every day I try to master something new on the camera. Or something that confused me at first blush. We love to think of ourselves as brilliant technicians. After all we've survived complicated careers and projects. But we're as fallible as anyone else and sometimes all of us need refresher courses to get back up to speed on the nuts and bolts stuff. Best to do it in a situation with zero costs --- other than time spent.

A semi-photo note: You might not know this but I'm finding that as one ages the padding on the bottoms of our feet gets thinner and, well, it pads less. I'm also finding that along with the general decay of aging comes a tendency for the natural arch of the foot to collapse like a rusty suspension bridge. And don't get me started on those achy metatarsals. Over the last two years my feet get sore in places after walks longer than four or five miles. Not a happy feeling when looking forward to a vacation that should feature ten or fifteen miles a day of spirited walking. Right? 

So, there are these guys who call themselves podiatrists and they are supposed to be experts on feet. And foot pain. And curing foot pain. And preventing foot pain. My regular doc referred me to one. I liked him because the guy, in addition to doctoring, is also a long distance runner. He examined my feet. I told him my tales of foot woe. He nodded with a knowing look. 

"A lower heel, more arch support and more metatarsal padding." He said. And nodded again. Knowingly. Then he recommended some over the counter orthotics to put into my shoes and told me to call back if that didn't work. 

Miracle of miracles. The "inserts" work perfectly. I am rejuvenated. But like the engineer I once studied to be, I had to put a set of these orthotics in every pair of shoes I considered talking on my trips with me and then take each pair of shoes+orthotics out for a test walk of not less than five miles per. I've now got three contenders for the trip. All delivered a pain free romp through parks, on trails and across the concrete of downtown. Not a whimper from my once aching feet. 

I now consider good orthotics as a photographic accessory and will list them as such on the next profit and loss statement for taxes. 

Final technical note. Wheeled carry on luggage. Amazon should have a driver here before ten p.m. with five different airline approved (size wise) wheeled, carry on suitcases. The ones with four wheels on the bottom and a handle that pops up on the top. I've decided against checking luggage. If I miss calculate I'll buy what I need on the spot. But, again, I don't want to be that guy at the luggage carousel with tears in his eyes and the sad slumped shoulders of a man who realizes that he's already been waiting two hours for his checked luggage to come spinning around on the big, wide, moving belt and that it might....never come.  I'll let you know the results of my search. Or I may think that's too boring and give up thinking about it. 

Depressed about Montreal. The weather is supposed to be beautiful. Highs around 70°, lows around 50°. Shorts and sandals weather for northern residents. I was hoping for snow, sleet, perilous wind gusts, glowering clouds and the like. Sigh. I guess I'll make do with whatever I get. 

And that's the wrap up for Friday. What a week. Above and below. The images are from the M240 and the Carl Zeiss (CZ) 35mm f2.0 (ZM = Zeiss for M mount). Nothing really Wow! But nothing bad either. 

Tips for a happy life: marry someone really great. do something you really, really love for work; to make money. save a ton of money. invest wisely and from a young age. get in really good shape. stay in really great shape. hire experts for all the things in life where you have blind spots. treat everyone well. eat and drink the things you like. always in moderation. make and keep friends. don't overbook yourself. try taking a nap. read a lot. but mostly fiction. watch 52 movies a year. but only good or fun ones. live within your means. marry someone who really, really makes life great. easy as pie.