Starting very early this morning I had a headache- a bad headache the kind that doesn’t seem to respond to anything. However it was just the beginning- it was ramping up. I wouldn’t know it was the bad kind of headache until tomorrow, although I had some strong clues. I started with small doses of Excedrin. I ended up taking two pills, and six Ibuprofen. I also ran two miles. This managed the pain.

Judy called and we talked in detail about my theory of music, how your childhood determines your taste, along with other ideas I have regarding genres, quality, and growth. I used two movies I’ve seen recently “Amadeus” and “Almost Famous” to illustrate some points. I got the feeling my theories were tiring her out. Once I get on a roll it is hard to shut me up. Read More »

Yesterday, Paul, Suzanne, Sean, and Clare stopped by. Tim was at Camp Cormorant. Sean brought over his model H2 Hummer. It was falling apart even as he showed me. Sean was wearing DC shoes, a skateboarder athletic shoe. They look like overgrown baby shoes. We went outside to throw the football. I showed Sean, and then Paul and Suzanne my 2007 photo book. I didn’t get much comment on it. They seemed to like it but it didn’t have the impact the first couple photo books had.

I called Paul. Suzanne and Sean answered the phone in harmony, “Say that again”.
“Hello/hello”.

I came over to their house to baby-sit. 52nd Avenue was closed so I drove all over the place trying to find a short cut. I ended up back on 40th Avenue taking the back route. Clare was happy to see me. She wouldn’t let me out of her sight. The landscapers arrived with a truckload of wood mulch for the gardens around the house. Clare cried as I moved my van out of the way. I made it up to her by letting her climb the stairs, up and down a dozen times. I also tried out my 50mm lens, she’s a good model if a little too fast for me. Sean played a basketball movie- it was pretty good.

Mom left for the Peace Gardens on the Fargo Garden Society Bus Trip. ($1500 to rent a bus for one day.) Mom took the Fuji F10 to photograph the flowers, the bus windows, and blurry/ backlit photos of Society members.
Dad was having his own picnic lunch in the backyard today, for his prayer group. Chuck Reitmeier was giving me grief, but it wasn’t very effective and he was just kidding around. Dad wanted some photos so I waited until after they were done eating. I shoot two poses with three shots each- very quickly. I felt like a pro with the big camera and 3-frames per second. Read More »

The neighbors on our street are residing, repaving, removing (trees), and re-rummage selling. Mom has a luncheon planned in the backyard for Garden Society. I find out who has our freight. Lakeville- I call- the truck is in but they’re still unloading it. “If it isn’t any trouble can you deliver it Monday? I would like to take the afternoon off.” She went to check, but it was no trouble. Read More »

Dad and I left for American Federal. Troy was waiting in the lobby. We used the conference room and reviewed our portfolios. The company portfolio was fine. Troy asked how our business was going. “Slow.” Dad took the blame for this. I gave a slight good nature dig at the ‘sales department.’ Read More »

Sean called. He wanted to borrow the “Guitar in the attic.”

“Did Suzanne say you could borrow it?” I asked.

“Yes”

“Okay then.”

“Can you bring it over right now?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m going to work on a job.”

“Can I go with you?”

“Okay, if Suzanne says you can.” Read More »

Dad had Chemo today. It went okay- by this afternoon dad was working on the fence. I pick up my cousin, Nathan Orr.  They take the old PVC fence (southside) down. I guess we didn’t put it together straight enough the first time. Dad picked up telespar at Dakota Fence. This is easier to use than drilling holes and pouring concrete. Read More »

Victor brought over a Subway sandwich. I copy the photos from his camera. (I help him post them to his Flickr account.) I told him, “I intend to come over and record the VH1 Honors concert for The Who tonight.” Read More »

I stopped by at Suzanne’s to feed the cats. I was also going to kick back and watch a little television. I noticed some water on the floor in front of the refrigerator. Read More »

I asked Dorothy Nelson about their trip to California via Amtrack. I think she had more to say, but Bob was pushing me out the door. I took 19th Avenue North all the way to West Fargo. At Suzanne’s house, I got the mail, fed the cats, and tacked up Japanese Flags in Tim’s room. We watched “Charlie Wilson’s War” (B) on the big screen television, and then we went to Godfather’s for pizza. I talked about Adobe Camera Raw. I also asked about tripods. I watched “Brinkmann’s Bag” again last night and made notes about what equipment he had. When we got home Bob gave me copies of all his B-17G aircraft photos. I noticed he had many of the same problems I have with my DSLR (Contrast and color fringe.) In addition he had dust spots and weird gamma. Monday, I photoshop Bob’s B-17G photos and posted them to my Zenfolio.com site. I converted a lot of them to B&W using the specialized controls in Photoshop CS3.

I found some ‘Needle Drops‘ of the first five ZZ Top albums. I only needed four. The sound is better, but not perfect. Besides the vinyl noise, the original mixes are heavily compressed. So much so I’m not sure the 6-pack mixes aren’t better. I would like to hear a mix somewhere in between.

Judy Maas called Sunday morning. We talked about Musician Magazine, “You can throw the magazines when you’re done.” This is good news because they are already cut apart and in the garbage. I posted the best interviews on the Musician web site. (Link above)