Changing Palette

Originally Posted Saturday, November 30, 2013

I'm starting my day with a different coffee.  Usually I have Starbucks Kenyan or, on some occasions, Sumatra.  But I was in the grocery store looking for unbleached coffee filters (I have been without filters for four days as I keep forgetting to get them, so I've been cutting up other things to strain the coffee grounds) and saw that they had Peete's coffee.  I know that many of you turn your nose up at Starbucks, and I won't argue with you.  They have become a corporate giant and the quality of their products, I think, has diminished.  People say that their beans are overcooked.  Maybe.  But it sure beats the hell out of most coffees.  I like things that have strong flavors, but perhaps I will change.  I am drinking European wines now looking for the subtle "terrier"they are supposed to possess.  Not really.  I was drinking them because I thought they were sulfate free.  Turns out I was wrong.  I am not fully certain why sulfates are bad for you, really.  But the Euro wines are not as full bodied as California wines.  Even whiskey is losing its kick.  I have overwhelmed my palate, I think, and must step backwards a ways and search for flavor in the mildest of things. 

Peete's is not subtle, by the way. 

I have decided that I had become too bold with my photography as well.  Not in subject matter, but in contrast and color.  I have been backing off those two things in my processing lately.  I want to run a longer, more subtle range of things.  The picture above is an old one processed in the old way.  But you will notice, perhaps, in some things that are in the offing.  I spent the past two days going back into old files I had never processed and pulling out long ignored images.  I have just made so many I got overwhelmed.  I would like to get my images to turn out almost pastel.  Just for awhile. Subtle colors.  Subtle tones.  My palette, as I say, has become too bold.

I will fall in love with a subtle woman.  She may be difficult to find.  Of course, she will not fall in love with me. 

The holiday season has begun full force.  I am worried.  I will have to live on pain pills for the next month if I am to go out and stand up.  My back has gotten worse instead of better.  I don't want to whine and complain, but I will report.  I must sit most of the time now.  Standing has become excruciating.  I have abandoned hope of ever running again.  I walk four miles in the mornings or evenings and every step is agonizing.  I sweat not from exertion but from pain.  I keep hoping that the walking and the stretching will help me, and it does for a bit, but soon I am back to the same misery.  I am sure I make horrible faces when I am out in public now moving like a ninety year old man.  But I am taking nothing for pain and that may have to end, at least for the season.  I want to go out and socialize with my friends. 

It is not a subtle pain.  It is sudden and bold.  And it is this, perhaps, that is changing my palette.