The last photo walk before 70. It's all a matter of perception.

 

It's Sunday. Our second practice of the day is at 9:00 a.m. on Sundays so I got to sleep in an extra hour. I ate a vegan, blueberry and zucchini muffin and drank vitamin B12 infused coffee before I headed over to the pool. We had a "cold front" blow through last night and it was cool in the morning, with some fog hanging around. I've been working on both phases of my freestyle kick and I could feel a bit of fatigue in my legs this morning. But all-in-all the workout was great and we nailed down a bit over 3,000 yards in an hour. 

I came back home, gobbled down a huge serving of non-fat skyr (sibling to Greek yogurt: tons of protein; no added sugars of any type) topped with half a cup of organic muesli (no added sugar of any type), topped with half a pint of fresh blackberries. All washed down with one more cup of the vitamin B12 enhanced coffee. Then I did what a lot of people who are turning 70 seem to do these days, I started grappling with the upcoming cancellation of my Medicare Advantage plan and exploring just the right Medi-Gap supplemental insurance policy to combine with traditional Medicare, parts A and B. And that's just f-ing boring.

I think I have it figured out. We'll see after I've talked to my trusted advisor. 

With a happy belly and some resolution of the only "big thing" I have to deal with this week I thought I should grab a camera and do one last walk while still sub-70 years old. I mean, it is kind of a tradition for me...on birthdays and such.

I grabbed the M240, put an EV-2 EVF in the hot shoe, put the trusted Carl Zeiss 50mm on the lens mount, and headed out to see what might be interesting to me today. Turns out not much was. I blame it on my lackadaisical attitude. I secretly, or not so secretly, hate events like birthdays for myself. I'm always happy to drop by with flowers or a bottle of Champagne, or a brace of ribeye steaks to help a friend mourn the passing of years but for me? Not so much.

The weather was fine. Nice and sunny. Temperatures in the 70s. People out enjoying the day. But enjoying it in non-interesting ways; at least when it came to interesting visuals. I walked around for a couple of hours and really tried to find fun stuff to snap but I think my ennui about the upcoming aging milestone put creative blinders on me today. It happens. 

But that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with photography. It just means a crowded mind can be an inefficient mind. Too distracted to concentrate on photo-epiphanies. I predict that after tomorrow I'll be back single-mindedly looking for fun and inspiration and finding it everywhere. At least I hope so...

Random interior shot at the Austin Event Center.

Today's events were a LP record convention and a Coffee festival.

I was going to check out the coffee festival but heading into a fluorescent lit room 

in the middle of a beautiful afternoon seemed just...wrong. And so did the $30

entrance fee. I would have paid it but you could only sign up online and 

I generally don't bring my cellphone along with me on walks so I was 

stuck. Out of luck. Maybe all for the best.  I no longer have a turntable to play records

on so I "dodged that bullet" as well. Lovely dynamic range in those older 

digital M cameras....

Hat. Long sleeve shirt. Sunscreened to the max. 

Paranoia runs rampant after the latest phone call from 

the dermatologist. But nothing too unusual.

Scooters, powered rickshaws, etc. are making everyone who is using them in Austin

get fatter and fatter. Lazier and lazier. Semaglutide to the rescue?

Or maybe just....I don't know....walk?

yes, yes, the Punctum exists here for me.

It's the circular pattern of the sprinkler's outflow in the top right corner juxtaposed with the circular pattern of the semi-coiled hose in the opposite corner of the frame (diagonally). It of course reminds me of my mother since all philosophy fabricated by Roland Barthes is "Mother Centric" doses of Punk-tum.

Maybe the real punctum here is the light colored dog and the dark dog which represents the evil versus good aspect of mothers. Or Barthes's mother, at least. Anchored together on leashes extending from the dogs' implied human mother. Puntum-licious. All nonsense, of course.

One thing. I never get tired of this bridge. 

Yes. I am posting tomorrow. Drop by and say "hi !" 

With or without the exclamation mark...

Ellipses are always in fashion. Believe me.