5/24/26

It's Sunday of Memorial Day weekend here on Halfmoon Lake. I got out for the first time on one of the two kayaks I bought yesterday. Fun. Cher and I went for a walk with Bing. The gray day was perfect for B+W.

 5/23/26

    It's a gray, cold start to Memorial Day weekend. I had a headache all last night and most of today. We did watch the hummingbirds today out the window. I may have inserted myself into getting a dock for the neighborhood lake access point. I've got some waders coming to get that dock work started.

    

Hey! That's not a hummingbird!

 5/22/26

It was not a great day. It started out with me thinking that the A/C man was coming today when in fact they are scheduled a week from today. So that was a wasted morning until I called them and they told me 'you're on the schedule next week'. ugh. Then I decided that it was time to finally make a decision on some kayaks. I saw a couple on sale at Tractor Supply. I packed up Cher and we drove over only to find out they are in stock at a different store. ugh-2. I ordered them online for pickup only to realize that putting them in the Maverick could be an ordeal for me, Cancelled order. Ugh-3. So now I finally just ordered them for delivery ($69) and they came same day. Finally one success. Cook dinner. Get Cher ready for bed. Day over.

 5/21/26

    It's Thursday before Memorial Day. I think the goal of blog/diary is to give myself something to do that is different from the day to day of caregiving. I gave Cher some new hiking shoes yesterday. I set them out for her but she forgot to put them on. A couple of minutes into our walk I looked down at her feet and she still has her old shoes on. It's not that big a deal but those shoes are worn out. She had a stress fracture in her foot last year and I don't want that to happen again.

    Cher is having a hard time taking pills. I'm looking at liquid calcium for her. Along with that she would need a 'K2' supplement for calcium absorption or change her diet a bit.

    I took out my Olympus e-pm2 with the 9mm and 15mm body cap lenses today. It's pocketable and lots of fun.

    It's evening now and Cheri and I head out for a quick walk over to the lake. Good night for now.

A Fresh Start

 5/20/26. I'm going to use this as a bit of a diary and a fresh start on the blog. It's been more than five years being  a caregiver for my wife who has Alzheimer's. It's not a great day today. I'm just having one of those down days. The excitement today was a trip to the Kroger, returning Amazon stuff to UPS and cutting the lawn. My wife is at that point in her 'long goodby' journey that she follows me around pretty much everywhere. Tiring.

A rainy day with my Fuji X T1

Well, many cloudy days continue but after a break in the rain I headed out. This shot was f5.6 1/125 55mm focal length (about 80mm with crop sensor factor). I still have been up in the air about a telephoto or prime as my first lens. The last thing that I wanted when coming back to interchangeable lens cameras was always chasing the next great lens. I am intrigued by the Fuji 27mm 2.8 pancake lens. With that lens on my X-T1 it's almost pocketable.

Getting used to my Fuji X T1 with the 18-55mm OIS lens

After spending quite a bit of time with my Fuji X100T I missed having a bit of telephoto in different situations. I've had a bit of a love affair with the X100 family (I owned the original and the T) but since I can't afford two cameras it was time to sell the "T" and look for something that would give me a bit of telephoto if need arises. I looked at bridge cameras, looking to steer clear of interchangeable lenses but I would not be able to live with the small sensors. The Fuji X system seemed to fit the bill. Now, I don't have an issue with earlier generation camera bodies so I looked at the X T1 which is about 4 years from its first release. I found a lightly used, 2000 shutter actuations, with box and documentation for a great price (eBay).  I could only afford one lens now so I chose the 18-55 2.8-4. I'll be spending some time getting used to some different controls from the X100T and I'll post some pics as me and x t1 get used to each other.

1/42 F3.2 ISO3200

Standard "film" setting