March 08

I've been suffering from computer problems over the past week. My laptop developed a bulge over the keyboard, and the cooling fan was running hotly and continuously. Then my display began acting up, making the computer unusable after it ran for a few minutes.

I'd been hoping to keep my old computer running until Windows 7 is released, but that hope went by the wayside. I had an older computer, but it's not very reliable either, and if I wanted to continue having daily access to a working computer, I had to replace it. And I hate spending money -- especially on a Windows Vista machine.

Nonetheless, I bought a replacement machine, one that should (hopefully) be a reliable machine until it's time for the next version of Windows to come out. Meanwhile, I'll be working over the next few days getting this new machine set up. That should make keeping up the Photo of the Day project pretty interesting.

67/365 -

March 07

Ever wonder what the inside of a Treasure Chest looks like?

There's a little junk store near my house called The Treasure Chest. It's a cluttered, crowded, claustrophobic mess inside, as you can see. The selection of items is eclectic -- it's the place to go for a fine earthenware elephant, a used dictaphone, heaters, suitcases, battered furniture ... if it's ever been bought or sold, it has probably passed through here.

I don't get to visit as often as I used to, but I stop by on occasional Saturdays when they're open. Rick, the owner, is a real character. He's the fellow who put aside the vintage Parker Duofold fountain pen for me last year. How he found a pen in the chaos of the store stymies me, but I'm glad he's on the lookout for things that interest me. It's been sort of a theme recently, but it rings true: It's good to have friends who look out for you.

66/365 -

March 06

There's something to be said for ending the day on a high note. I loathe the snow, so I find very little amusing about it. However, on my way to my car after getting off work last night (or, more correctly, early this morning), I saw this. Then I laughed, unlimbered my backpack, took out my camera, and took the picture.

This is the exit in front of the Colonnade Hotel from the E Line at Prudential. Somebody -- a prankster, or one of the many art students who roam the sidewalks at night -- had put a "carrots" sign, such as you might see in a freshly-tilled garden, in the snowbank. I've been studying the photo and can't really explain why I think it's funny. I just think it is.

I ended the day laughing at this wretched snow, which was a perfectly marvelous way to end a long day, and hopefully will be my bon voyage to the wretched stuff for the season.

65/365 -

March 05

Given my druthers, I'd either be independently wealthy or working as a successful photographer with a studio and a high-end clientele. Unfortunately, I've neither won the lottery nor discovered the secret to becoming a successful photographer, so I must work a real job to make ends meet.

It's payday today, although my paycheck won't be direct-deposited until midnight. But on Thursday, I get my "Earnings Statement," which is a paycheck except for the "not a check" notice stamped on it. Every 14 days, my pay goes in and I begin another two-week cycle of budgeting, making sure I can pay the bills and still have some money to put into savings (usually too little), plus pay for small luxuries like dining out from time to time.

It's nice to get that regular paycheck, even if I'm doing a mundane job instead of working in an artistic or creative field full-time. And it certainly beats not getting the check.

64/365 -

March 04

One of the more tedious aspects of my job as a concierge is the planning and posting of events on the building bulletin board in the mailroom. Posts can range from the mundane (the time change), to the banal (notices about parking spaces and window cleaning), to stuff we hope our residents are interested in (area events -- like the Restaurant Week listing above).

How appropriate that today, this boring little task made my "Photo of the Day" archive. It's been a very boring little day. When it's my turn to post on the bulletin board, I try to make the display at least a little interesting. It gives me a chance to work out my graphic design skills a bit, even if it's only adding a blank page of colored paper in the background as a unifying element for two separate notices.

63/365

March 03

I'm fortunate to have very thoughtful friends. Out of the blue, I got this card from my dear friend and confidante Ruth today.

Ruth and I have a very close and special relationship (as I described a little here), so getting this card was a pleasant little surprise. It's a sweet little card, with a short message inside. It's certainly nothing extraordinary, but seeing this in the mail was the high point of my day.

I'm going to visit Ruth and her family in May, when she graduates from college. She'll be sharing the stage with her father, who's getting his degree from the same institution, and her cousin Walt, who's graduating from Seminary. To be invited to the graduation is a privilege, and to be invited to the family party afterward is quite an honor.

Many gay people refer to one another as "family," and it's something of an axiom that gay people have the families they're born with, and the families they choose (meaning their closest friends). Ruth's family, while a little unusual, forms a kind of surrogate family for me, and I'm closer to Ruth than I am to many members of my biological family.

I consider myself fortunate to have such wonderful and thoughtful friends. However, "fortunate" doesn't begin to describe my feelings about being close to Ruth. It's more than good fortune ... I'm lucky to have her in my life.

62/365 -

March 02

It's amazing, really, how Boyfriend's Saab looks fast even when buried in the snow. I awoke this morning to the sight of both our cars slumbering under this foot of frozen precipitation, and proceeded to spend two physically-active hours shoveling them out from beneath the sodden mess. I'm beginning to think I'm going to get my first repetitive stress injury of my life from shoveling snow. It's dig-carry-dump, dig-carry-dump, over and over again.

This winter hasn't thrown any particularly-bad blizzards at New England, but it's been relentless in sending us snowstorm after snowstorm after snowstorm. The biggest of the drifts and mounds of snow had just melted -- finally -- before this storm arrived. There are only 18 more days until spring arrives, and I can only hope that it brings warmer weather and more sunshine -- mainly because I'm going to lose it if I have to deal with shoveling very much more snow!

61/365 -

March 01

Dinner with friends -- my friends, at least -- may not be elegant, but it's usually entertaining.

My friend Anna is running National Novel Editing Month, and held an edit-in to kick off the month. The group was small but fun. In front is Marion, one of the municipal liaisons for Script Frenzy next month, and Anna. I'm in the back (going for Marion's neck) with Randy, a stalwart of National Novel Writing Month for the past few years. Our friend Belynda (the other ML for Script Frenzy) was feeling icky and wasn't able to join us. Still, we had fun.

We met up at Subway for the edit-in, and moved the party over to the Longhorn Steakhouse for "chicken parts," as we've dubbed the Crispy Chicken Trio appetizer they serve. (It's excellent, and definitely worth the trip!)

I'm not usually a social butterfly, but I have to admit that I have some great friends and the few times I hang out with them, I really enjoy it -- as you can see.

60/365 -

February 28

Pogo had a lazy day today, but he kept Boyfriend company at his desk most of the evening. That's where I got this shot. I nearly didn't have a photo of the day today. I didn't even make it out of the house, except to walk Pogo, until after 8 pm this evening.

Taking care of Pogo has gotten a lot easier now that both his humans are home. He especially enjoys it when Boyfriend cooks for him -- apparently he's not the only one who finds my cooking lacking. It's also nice not to have to rush home to walk him after work, and not having to change the housebreaking pads Pogo had to use because he had to be at home alone ten hours or more a day.

59/365 -

February 27

I'm starting to worry about my preoccupation with the weather.

On days like today, when the sun is shining and it's nice and unseasonably warm, it's enough to cheer you right up. I even pulled my camera out of its bag before leaving for work, just to snap a photo of the temperature reading (which is a far cry from January 16th, but still). But on my way in, I listened to the forecast on the radio and heard that more of that vile, disgusting snow is going to fall on Sunday ... and Monday, and possibly Tuesday.

You know what? That really sucks.

Spring can't come quickly enough for my taste. I've had quite enough of snow and sleet and cold temperatures for this season.

58/365 -

February 26

My watch has given me a rash. I wonder if this could be a case of jewelry-transmitted disease?

I've owned this watch for a while now -- almost two years -- without problems. Recently, though, my wrist started itching under the strap, where the buckle is. Of course, without thinking, I did what anybody would do when they start to itch: I scratched it.

In the greater scheme of things, this isn't a big problem. I'll probably end up buying a new wristband for my watch and be done with it. It is, however, a distraction -- I end up thinking about this every time I glance at my wrist to check the time.

57/365 -

February 25

Normally, I'm not a name dropper. But today I received a present -- the gorgeous print above -- from accomplished plein air painter and budding multimedia artist Anne Fitzpatrick

She lives in the luxury apartment building where I work as a concierge in the evenings, so I've known her for a few years now. In the course of several evenings last year, I offered her advice and instruction on using Photoshop to complete an art project she was working on: Iconic Handbags. I'm technically skilled at photo enhancement, and I'm a pretty good teacher, so I was able to help her take her artistic vision and turn it into physical reality.

This evening, she surprised me with this lovely framed print of my favorite part of the project, inscribed to me, and a nice personal note as well. It was such a thoughtful gesture. And, of course, it had to be my Photo of the Day.

Note: Artwork is copyright Anne Fitzpatrick and reproduced here with her kind permission.

56/365 -

February 24

One of the things a concierge is expected to do is keep up with the goings-on in the city. Most of the time, my colleague Robin puts together lists of activities for the residents that can go up on the bulletin board, but occasionally, I put something together.

Restaurant Week in Boston is coming up, so I did a little detective work and put together a list of restaurants participating in the event. It's a great opportunity for people to visit new restaurants and try a prix-fixe menu, or to visit their old favorites.

Considering the zeal in which I make lists to keep my own life in order, it should come as no surprise that compiling a list of 100-plus nearby restaurants was a fairly simple thing to do. Besides, my residents are an uncommonly well-fed bunch, and -- pun absolutely intended -- they eat this stuff up.

55/365 -

February 23

There's just no way to get a good photo of my desk at work.

I thought I'd give it a shot today -- again -- by taking several photos and stitching them together. It's an interesting concept and I've really gotten some pretty photos using a free program called Autostitch to create the final image. I used the program on January 14th to get a photo of snow graffiti on my car, and took some fascinating photos while on vacation in Virginia.

Of course, a beautiful panoramic shot of a mountainside with wispy clouds in an azure sky is a far cry from photographing a desk from five feet away in incandescent lights. And even though it took several tries to get it where it is, and it's demonstrably not perfect, at least I'm putting effort into making it interesting.

54/365 -

February 22

This entry is made possible by my boyfriend in almost every way.

When he was away on his trip, his laptop and the Benetton bag it was in was stolen. Unfortunately, the only place that was supposed to have the bag in stock was the outlet at the Outlet Mall in Wrentham, so off we went. We dropped in to the Calvin Klein outlet while we were there, and Boyfriend bought this rather dapper hat for me. (Oh, and it looks good on me, too.)

Originally, I'd planned on making this picture of the day a self-portrait of me, looking very dapper in this hat. The lighting was set up, the backdrop in place, and the camera battery in my SLR quite dead. I'd been lazy and waited until late to do the photo, which led to an "oh crap" moment. Boyfriend came to the rescue again, lending me his camera so I could snap a photo of the hat, at least, hanging from the corner of my computer monitor ... appropriately enough, the monitor I got from him for Christmas.

53/365 -

February 21

There's more snow coming tomorrow.

We have quite the assortment of snow-clearing tools on our front porch. Different shovels work better for different kinds of snow clearing; there's one for lifting lots of light snow, metal-tipped models for cutting through crusts of ice, large metal spades, a plastic one for wetter snow, and one small solid steel square blade that's excellent for whacking and cracking sheets of ice. Oh, and the broom -- this is for when there's not enough snow to shovel.

Hopefully, tomorrow's snow will be the last of the winter, and soon, the landladies will make the shovels go away for the season. And I can't wait.

52/365 -

February 20

I collect, use, and enjoy fountain pens, and generally have at least one (and occasionally more) on my person at any particular time. It is a little unusual for me to have ten with me, as photographed above, but it's not unheard of.

The one on the far left is my Parker Duofold from 1921, which I recently has restored and have been enjoying for the past week. It's the oldest pen in my modest collection. Next to it is an Esterbrook (the Bic of its day) and a Moore, an uncommon fountain pen manufactured here in Boston. Next to it is another Parker Duofold, though this one is a much more common British model from the 1950s. Two Shaeffers are next in line, the green one with a classic Snorkel filler and the gold-plated one from the 1970s. A modern Cross ATX and a pretty Namiki Pilot "Vanishing Point" pen are next, with my two Pelikans ending the lineup.

There are all kinds of fascinating facts about these pens, and I'm going to be nice and not bore you with them. Each has its charms, and I've used and enjoyed all of them.

51/2009 -

February 19

The idea to photograph a negative strip, render the digital photograph as a negative (thus making the negative strip in the picture a positive), and then post the results, is more difficult to accomplish than it looks. Above is my best effort at a visual double-negative.

The idea for this little bit of experimentation came to me like an avalanche. Literally. A bunch of photo envelopes from 2002 cascaded off my bookshelf onto the floor today, and as I was picking them up I noticed the inimitable Wilma von Shwink smugly smiling at me.

Fortunately, the avalanche was not large enough to bury me or the dog -- and the cat was out of the room at the time. So I can say this truthfully: No animals were harmed in the making of this entry.

50/365 -

February 18

It’s snowing again. When I look out, the blowing snow resembles nothing so much as a swarm of malevolent Tinkerbells. Originally, the forecast called for mixed rain and snow and little to no accumulation. When I checked it online a few minutes ago, they were calling for about an inch of snow.

Well, an inch is about an inch too much for me.

For what it’s worth, it’s also fiendishly difficult to get a good photo of snow falling at night. This is the best of a pretty mediocre series of shots; I popped the flash at the beginning of the two-second exposure to try to catch the blowing snow in suspension.

The snow should end tomorrow – if the forecast holds. It won’t be a moment too soon, either.

49/365 -

February 17

I don't send a lot of snail mail these days. All of my bills are paid online, and aside from the occasional personal letter (which I write too seldom), I only send cards for special occasions.

Coincidentally, a special occasion is coming up on Saturday -- Ruth Halpin's birthday.

To call Ruth a friend doesn't even begin to describe the complex and convoluted relationship we share. To call her my ex sounds too pejorative. She occupies a special little niche of her own in my life, having known me for more than half of that life. She's closer to me than many members of my biological family, and to me, she's one of the few constants in my life. So her birthday is certainly a special occasion, and definitely merits a snail mail salute.

48/365 -