Random Thoughts on a hot, sticky Friday.

B. has been out of town helping to care for a 90+ year old who had an unfortunate fall. As my fellow morning swimmers constantly say, "Kirk has been without Adult Supervision for nearly four weeks! Dangerous!!!" But other than having to watch the occasional Rom-Com movie on Netflix by myself nothing much has gone wrong. But last night I got word that B. was heading home today. 

What does that mean to a freelance photographer who has been married for 40 years? Well...

I immediately went to the refrigerator to throw out four week old, past the sell by date foods that were turning brown and making funny smells. Honestly, I had every intention of eating all the stuff stocked away in the fridge but it always just seemed to make more sense to go out to my favorite restaurants instead. And my solicitous friends kept inviting me to dinners... 

After tossing out all the bad stuff the refrigerator was looking pretty bare. Really bare. I made a list of all of B.'s favorite staples and decided to make a full force foray to the local grocery store. But first I took everything out of the fridge and thoroughly washed all the bins and shelves. Might as well start really fresh. I did not toss out the 20 rolls of 120 Kodachrome film I've been saving in the freezer since the 1990s. Nostalgia, I guess. 

 I had an inkling B. would be back this weekend so I started yesterday mopping floors, cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming carpets and cleaning the windows. I bought three bouquets of flowers to spruce up the house today. 

But what else have I gotten done? Since she's been gone I've done three big photo projects, spent days doing post production and have even had time to both write daily blogs and also, nearly contemporaneously, I've "moderated" the comments (but y'all make it too easy on me by not leaving many). I've paid bills, gotten bids from the tree services, driven back and forth to San Antonio to take B. fresh clothes and take her out for dinners. And visits to the McNay Museum of Art.

But mostly? I've done what I always do. Go to swim practice. Walk with a camera. Try my best not to look at news about politics. Shop for fun cameras and lenses. 

I hadn't really grocery shopped in a while. B. usually takes care of that when she's here. I kind of dreaded going into our big, neighborhood grocery store because I've heard a constant chorus of how bad inflation is now and has been recently. How astronomically prices on groceries have risen. To hear it on the news you'd think it was an economic bloodbath. Post WWI German Marks bad. Most of my routine shopping consists of ducking into Trader Joe's to find my favorite chocolate mint ice cream or running through Whole Foods to buy a specific brand of muesli or fresh caught wild salmon filets. Not much more than that. 

I was prepared to be shocked by the prices on everyday groceries. But, just as in my recent experience of buying a new car, stories that the economic sky was falling; had fallen! seemed grossly out of proportion to reality. Yes, stuff is more expensive. But not by that much. Seemed like a normal range of price increases. I was actually pleased to come home with two bags of groceries and a cash register receipt for less than $50. 

Now that the house looks good and smells fresh I'm back out in the office working on the last parts of post processing for the seminary job I did early last week. I'm retouching 19 portraits that were shot in the studio against a white background. I'm masking the people, separating them from the backgrounds and then compositing them into out of focus backgrounds of the seminary campus that I shot nearly two weeks ago. When I bid the job I factored in the effects of inflation, based on a metrics from the Fed. No one on the client end batted an eye. Seemed normal to them. Same with the law firm I photographed for later that same week. 

Yesterday I had coffee with one of my best friends. A person who has an even more dangerous camera buying inclination than me. He's also a fan of cool automobiles, fancy automatic watches and hi-fi gear. Multiple addictions. He handed me a little leather case. Inside was a Carl Zeiss 35mm bright line finder. A perfect gem. He was downsizing a bit, he told me. It was a gift. I was/am thrilled. When I got back to the office I grabbed an M240, put the Carl Zeiss 35mm f2.0 in it and slid the new finder into the hot shoe. An elegant new way to comp a shot.

In the evening we assembled at another photographer's house for what has become a monthly (at least) happy hour event. In addition to a nice bottle of red wine I brought along a new Daido Moriyama book as a gift. Apropos of nothing. 

What a motley crew! One famous photographer, one "me" photographer, one emergency room doctor, one retired magazine art director, and one Apple, Inc. executive. We sat around a kitchen island and mostly talked politics and then travel. And about Sarah Bird's new book on African-American Rodeo in Texas nearly 50 years ago. It's really a remarkable book as she photographed the rodeos extensively in the mid-1970s; for two years, at least, and then the photos languished until she became a famous novelist and a publisher asked if they could publish the work as a photo book. I guess it can work that way too. 

We knocked off a bowl of guacamole the size of bucket. We ate perfect tortilla chips. I mean--- just perfect! We talked about the future and the past. It's the continuity of friendships like these that make them so valuable. So comfortable. And then, this morning? Back to swim practice with my other 30 friends. 

Should I buy a second Leica M-E (M240 variant)? The guys in Miami have one that just came back from a full tune-up at Leica. It comes with a year's warranty. It would pair up so nicely with the one I bought from them last year. Ah...the sweet addiction. 

Off to arrange flowers. Today almost feels like a date. Pins and needles. Anticipation. So nice. 

What did I give up this year? Stress.