I originally had an image of my face from five years ago with a bandage on my cheek, here.
But I hated seeing such a glum image so I replaced it with a favorite of mine.
Lou. It makes for a much more upbeat blog post. At least for me...
Nearly five years ago. My first run-in with Mohs Surgery. Didn't imagine that five years later I'd be back for more. But as my surgeon said, "A bit of downtime to watch old movies and catch up on reading is a lot better than being dead." I had to agree.
Last time we did this it was a December. Nice and chilly. This time? First of July when it's hot and, this year, more humid here than the tropics. First few days after surgery one fears getting the big, pressure bandage wet because....if you have to change it yourself you might find gross stuff under the padding. Which mostly means no showers for the first three days ... or so. I finally hit the shower this morning and also successfully, though not beautifully, changed the dressing and applied all the stuff I was supposed to in order to keep the incision from festering. No one suggested applying snails as part of the healing so it's less icky than it could be. But just washing one's hair can be such a treat. And not just for the patient.
Everything is going well on the healing front and I look forward to getting the stitches out at the end of next week. So I can go sunbathing in the islands... just kidding. I'm turning into a vampire and hiding from the sun whenever possible... Another new hat is on the way. Can't wait to review it.
On a fun note this old blog just crested the thirty four million page view mark. That's a lot of eyes on the blog. I am amazed. Not that I could pound out 6099 posts but that people would actually come back again and again to read them. And without ever diving into the ancient history of mid-20th century tennis. Pretty remarkable huh?
I don't think there is any such thing as Steel-Toed Birkenstock sandals. I've never seen them in the wild nor on Birkenstock's online shopping hub. But it came to me over dinner and I thought the bizarre juxtaposition of aesthetics and purpose was hilarious. I can imagine a time when Birkenstocks get so popular that even construction workers want to wear them all the time, and to comply with OSHA regulations (if we continue to have any safety regulations at all) Birkenstock rolls out a model with the required steel toes. Not sure what they would name them but my suggestions, given that they like to use city names for various models, would be something resoundingly blue collar. Like, The Akrons. Or, The Pittsburghs. I am assuming they would also have non-slip safety treads. It could happen. Fuji came out with an odd half frame camera after all...
I was doing some research and....
I came across a camera that I'm really, currently, quite interested in. It's the Lumix S1R ii. Apparently it's a wonderful camera with great handling, a mid - 40 something resolution sensor, fast AF (not really needed), a built in cooling fan, backward compatibility with the half dozen batteries I have for the S5 and more buttons and dials than any but B-52 pilots require. The camera has a sibling, the S1-ii that's twenty four megapixels of resolution from a partially stacked, BSI sensor that's supposed to be near magical. Both are under $3500 which, considering that they are in the L mount family mostly makes them half price substitutes for the SL series from Leica. Pretty interesting. Is anyone else buying one or both?
OMG. The weather!!!!!
Parts of the neighboring Hill Country (just to the West of Austin proper and in our aquifer recharge zone) got over one foot (ONE FOOT) of rain in a few hours last night. The small city of Kerrville is flooded and evacuations are taking place. Another foot of rain is expected in places around our area during the day today. The temperatures haven't been out of the eighties for the last few days and this is a time of year when the weather is constantly flirting with triple digits. It's raining here now. It rained all of last night. It poured down rain when I was out grocery shopping yesterday (I made a four cheese, thin crust pizza covered with wild caught smoked salmon for our dinner last night. Fresh chives added as well. Time on my hands....) and some of the downtown Austin streets were already flooding as I headed home. We'll take it. We need the rain to disrupt the drought. And our main lake is about 28 feet down right now. Can't wait to get back to Enchanted Rock Wilderness Area to see how a wet June and early July have transformed what is usually a semi-arid environment into tropical rain forest... Or maybe that a bit too much hyperbole....
After this last week of being sliced and diced by a dermatological surgeon I am on a renewed quest for the perfect light blocking hat, and believe me, it's not spelled T.I.L.L.E.Y.
I have a Stetson straw hat coming from one source; delayed, of course, by the storms,
but not really needed until the sun breaks through with a vengeance around mid-week.
Hat Parade. Not my color...
By the end of this coming week I should have the okay to get back into the exercise routines. My new strategy for retirement this Summer is to devote all free time to getting into magnificent physical shape. Back in the pool. Back to the trails. Back to the weights. Everyone needs some goals, right? Oh, and photograph fun stuff every day!!!
There always seems to be something to worry about...
with the hiring of swim coach, Bob Bowman, Austin has solidified its reputation as the international hub for all things swimming, and swimming competitions. World record holders are flocking here to train with Bowman. Summer McIntosh, the young Canadian super star is now training here. As is French gold medal winning phenom, Leon Marchand .... and so many more. I'm waiting for the University of Texas to decide that having a perennially losing football team is just throwing good money after bad and hope they cancel the last century sport franchise and go all in with swimming. And only swimming.
World domination through swimming. It could be a thing....
that's all I've got for right now. The stuff below is just fun
photographs I found in a file to share. Hope your 4th is great.
Don't light off sparklers while you are pumping gas into your cars....
Rain in downtown Austin.
Fashion boots.
Work boots. The predecessors of the Steel-Toed Birkenstocks.
those who live in glass houses.....
Included for R.R.
Supplies for future showers.
Old photo of Boy. A medium format digital frame from 2008.
Leaf Aptus i7.
Overjoyed to have regained the Homeostasis of Joy here at VSL
19 comments:
I’ve been looking at the Lumix S1R II. It’s attractive in a lot of ways. But I have a Leica SL2. So, other than phase-detection autofocus in the Panasonic, is there anything here that I need that’s not in the SL2? The same goes for the S1 II. I still have an S5 II with phase-detection autofocus and the same amount of resolution. Mind you, I like the IDEA of the two new Panasonics. But I’m still mulling over whether the bar is being moved enough to warrant a purchase of either. I’d like to hear your thoughts, though. Another option: Wait until the prices drop into the sub-$3,000 for the Leica SL3 and SL3-S in about five years.
Hi Steven, I'm guessing we're both pretty well set for camera bodies. In a couple of years the prices on the SL3S will look pretty good! Till then? I think I can wait...
Yeah, we are set for camera bodies. Full disclosure: I just “pre-ordered” the 100th anniversary edition of the Leica D-Lux 8. I probably shouldn’t have but… there you have it.
The idea that UT might give up football made me laugh. Football is hardly even a sport in Texas; it's more like a religious calling. Pro football, college football, high school football, middle school football, peewee football. You've got kids doing two-a-days in second grade...There's no way you're not going to look goofy in a bucket hat, but they work. I have about three, and only one is a Tilley, but it's probably the best one. I have one in jungle camo that makes me look like I just stumbled out of Vietnam wondering where the war went. You find the most interesting looking women to take pictures of. I know, it's just an aesthetic impulse.
Hrumph. Football is just for people who can't swim. Watched mostly by people who barely move...
I now have a collection of nearly ten different bucket hats and bucket hat variants. Still looking for a straw hat that works.
While you're on-the-bench, how about a series of self-portraits in the style of Magritte's bowler hats?
Hi Kirk. Not my choice to contact you this way, but your carefully preserved e-mail address - you contributed to a DearSusan post some years ago - has gone the same way as so many unexplained absences these days.
I’ll explain.
On Tuesday, I attended a meeting in Birmingham of our small group, running this project; https://www.4709.org.uk/
When complete in 3-5 years time, our locomotive will weigh some 130 tonnes and while inspecting the many, many components we have gathered together to build this monster, was forcibly reminded how heavy, sharp and potentially dangerous they all are.
I then looked down and realised my choice of footwear for this day in the world of heavy engineering, was wildly inappropriate; leaving home, I’d slipped into my Birkies and headed for the car, nary a thought for my terribly human and easily harmed feet.
With a quiet giggle to myself I wondered whether Birkenstock made a steel toecap version.
Great minds…
BTW, 30+ million page views says your blog remains viable and I for one read it most days. Don’t stop.
Paul Perton, Bedford, UK.
Please continue with the random photo dumps - they’re one of the best parts of the blog! And what do you have against Tilley?
Just that Tilleys are the Billinghams of the hat world...
It is good that the recovery/healing process is going well for you. I hope that continues for the duration. I know you haven’t been a fan of Tilley products. Are you still a fan of the Fjällräven hats that I recall you once praised?
Kirk
Your idea of having steel toe Birkenstocks has a basis in history. Early in my career I was an engineer at a Navy base that had machine shops and other shops that required steel toe shoes for entry. Our management decided the shops needed to provide steel overshoes so visitors and office workers could transit through the shops. As you might expect, these were not popular and nobody used them. Finally, management, and the Safety Office, saw the light and decided we could paint lines on the floors to divide transit lanes from work areas.
The Lumix S1RII has been on and off my radar. It came off because I thought I wanted fast subject tracking. But it may be back on, because the newer Lumix auto-focus systems are better in low light/contrast situations than the SL2 .
PaulB
Hope you're not having to tread water where you are! The floods look scary 😵💫
Hi Eric, We're in the hills to the West of downtown but we're at 495 feet of elevation compared to the lakes at sea level. It's crazy here. I've never seen it rain so much and so continuously in late June and the Beginning of July. July in particular is usually one of our driest months. The rain the Hill Country further West: Llano, Blanco, Fredericksburg and Kerrville are getting the brunt of the storms so far. Nearly two feet of hard rain near Kerrville just in the last 48 hours. But we've had rain on and off all week long leading up to it so the ground was pretty much saturated already. Some of the rivers are 20-28 feet above their banks. So far there have been 23 confirmed deaths and several times that number missing. In one case the only highway adjacent to some areas was totally washed away. We've had about five inches of rain in the last 24 hours but so far we've had no intrusion or damage. I think most people are just stunned by this non-stop drenching. Austin is flood prone when the weather happens. Mostly in the downtown area and around Shoal Creek which is like the main drain through the north/south corridor. The floods are scary. Ben and I chased the floods a few years back when devastating floods hit Blanco, Texas. We were working for Pedernales Electric Co-op back then. We documented them restoring power right after the worst of the floods. We needed a four wheel drive with high ground clearance and a front tow cable. We borrowed one from the Co-op. Nature's fury can be frightening. We almost got trapped at one point between two low water crossings that were quickly filling up. Barely made it out... Fun time...not.
Gotta love steel overshoes. Not so great for dancing....
My Fjåallråven hat is one of my favorite. Light as a feather with good coverage. Just not the right look for South Austin's shopping area.... Trail running? Beach? Perfect. I must have been traumatized by a Tilley hat as an infant........
Kirk - FYI, the July-August Consumer Reports has a report on skin cancer including some recommended sunscreens. Stay safe/covered. Bob Autrey
Not unless you are into tap dancing or possibly clogging. 😉😎
Oh the Nikon F. It was my first SLR, used of course and a graduation gift from a friend. Every time I see a picture of one
I kick myself for having traded it for a Nikkormat EL; worse I feel compelled to buy one even if it is only going to sit on my notalgia shelf where now sits the Weston Master V I used with my Nikon F, my K+E log-log-duplex-decitrig slide rule, my drafting kit, my HP41 calculator, and a memory box my sister made for me for my 50th birthday. The Nikkormat eventually morphed into an FE2 and 26 years later a D7000 (pretty much the digital equivalent of the FE2). That one is only 14 years old now and still capable of some great shots (IMHO). What’s the web address of KEH? Just kidding.
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