Distractions

I'm done with film.  I really am this time.  It costs too much and there is no upside that I can find.  I took a roll of color film into the photo store yesterday because my buddy who runs the film lab said he was going to give 24 hour service on film.  This was welcomed news since they were so overwhelmed turnaround had lengthened to a week.  A new film lab opened up in town to give them competition and another one from Miami is opening soon.  I think I mentioned that I took a roll of slide film to the new lab and they f'ed up the developing so that I got nothing.  

When I took the film into the lab yesterday, the boy at the counter said I could pick it up next week.  

"What happened to the 24 hour turnaround?" I asked my buddy who was helping another customer.  

"Oh. . . we can do that for an additional five dollar charge."

"What?  Hey. . . you didn't say anything about up-charging the other day."

He just looked at me and grinned.  

"O.K.  Give me the 24 hour processing."

"It's one hour," said the boy helping me.  "We give the first five who order 24 hour pickup an hour turnaround every day."

So. . . o.k.  I was in.  

"Develop and scan," I said.  

"Will you bring a thumb drive or do you want us to email it for three dollars?"

"I'll bring a thumb drive."

Three dollars to email?  That was ridiculous.  Why?  

I knew they were staying open late for Christmas shopping, so I didn't go back until after I visited my mother.  Oh. . . shit!  I'd forgotten the thumb drive.  WTF?  I would have to pay the extra three dollars to have the scans emailed.  

When I opened the scans. . . how much had I just spent for this?  One photo, maybe, I might use, and it wasn't really good.  

I love using my Leica film cameras more than any other.  They are beautiful and I love the way they feel, but the truth is, they are very limiting.  When I carry mine, people will point to the camera and ask me what it is or tell me that the camera is gorgeous.  O.K.  Maybe nobody has ever used the word "gorgeous' before, but I had already used "beautiful" in the sentence before, so. . . .  But. . . it is just too much money and work for what I get.  

Having said that, I will probably still shoot black and white film with them because I can develop it myself for cheap and I have good scanners.  But digital cameras with autofocus are just better all around.  Don't let those YouTube influencers fool you.  

The perfect weather is gone, at least for awhile. It is warm and wet and nine degrees above the norm.  Just muggy with grey skies.  It is the New World Order.  Get used to it.  

Doesn't it seem like Trump has already been president again for about a year?  I swear, it doesn't matter what he does, it is in the news.  

BREAKING NEWS:  TRUMP TAKES A DUMP.

"Experts warn . . . ."

I'm tired of the word "experts."  It is overused in journalism to give their report the feeling of factuality.  But that is all it is, a feeling.  

Ramble. 

I am meeting C.C. for lunch today.  He had to squeeze me in.  He is working.  He is directing a play for a local college and is ghost writing something of which I have little info.  But he is writing and getting paid.  He makes me feel like a simp.  Well. . . no.  I am a simp.  It isn't a feeling.  

"Experts say. . . ."

The holidays continue.  I will eat.  I will drink.  I will take some (digital) pictures.  Life is good sometimes.  I think.  If we are lucky.  And there is music.  There is popular stuff, of course, but there is really and truly good music that makes life better.  And that stuff is pure magic. Writing and music and visual arts are good additions and distractions. . . 'til the whip comes down.