July 01

If I had to come up with a title for this photo, I think it would have to be "Dueling Parking Tickets."

Seeing parking tickets in Boston's Back Bay is as common as seeing grass in a park. Parking Enforcement Officers (to call them "meter maids" seems both dimunitive of their jobs and pejorative) are tasked with enforcing the byzantine series of laws governing parking in the city. Traffic Rules and Regulations, the official City of Boston document governing parking, is 49 pages long. It's full of interesting information, such as Article IV, Section 17, Item 1a: "If the parking regulations at a particular location change due to time, then a second parking ticket may be issued after the expiration of ten (10) minutes from the time the first parking ticket was issued."

Seeing two tickets on one car, undoubtedly two perfectly legal tickets according to Traffic Rules and Regulations, is a bit more unusual. It's also noteworthy enough for a Photo of the Day on a rainy, slow Wednesday.

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June 30

Everybody in Boston has been complaining about the weather this month. It's been cool, damp, and a little dreary, with 25 days of overcast skies this month. At first, people compared it to living in Seattle; now the globetrotters among us have begun comparing it to London. That's really unfair; London's forecast calls for sunshine and highs in the low 80s tomorrow, which is considerably better than Boston.

Surprisingly -- especially to me -- I haven't found the weather too unpleasant this month. Sure, I enjoy the sunshine as much as anybody, but the cooler weather is nice, and the payoff for all the rain is in the verdant green grass and flora we're having.

Besides, almost anything is better than this winter, and frankly, I'm already planning to bitch about the heat and humidity come summer. So, if I'm to be true to myself, I can't in good conscience bitch about this month's weather.

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June 29

It's the start of a long week, one that will lead up to Independence Day on Saturday. We're doing a deep, deep housecleaning this weekend, something I'm looking very forward to. Planning something on this scale requires -- as almost any project I'm involved with -- lists.

The good news is that the lists are coming along fine. We're labeling stuff to donate and the rest will be thrown out. My intention is to fill our bagster to the brim, leaving our house emptier and hopefully, more habitable.

I'm looking very forward to this project. It's going to feel awfully good to get things in order!

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June 28

This is a bagster.

Boyfriend and I, when we moved in together, brought two households worth of stuff into one household. Then we added stuff. Clutter, as it is wont to do, has accumulated and multiplied and otherwise overwhelmed us in our own home.

Next weekend, while we're both off, Boyfriend and I are cleaning house. I think I said it best earlier when I told a friend that we're "getting rid of shit." That which we can't give away or donate will be tossed into the bagster in the driveway, to be taken away by a big truck the following Monday.

Independence Day is taking on a whole new meaning in our house next weekend.

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June 27

Today's photo walk took us outside the city limits -- to fabulous Newport, Rhode Island.

In the finest tradition of my photo walks, I had no clue where we were going to end up, other than somewhere outside of Boston, until late in the process (last night). My original plans were to go to Fall River and Battleship Cove, but those plans were tabled when the idea to visit Newport popped into my head.

So today, in a whirlwind of planning, Anna, Keith, and I got in the car, stopped at a market en route, and put together an impromptu picnic. Anna brought some really lovely bamboo plates, a frisbee, etc., while I grabbed a blanket, a couple of throw pillows, and other assorted accessories. Keith mentioned knowing a pretty place to picnic right on the beach, so we went with his suggestion (gut instinct), and ended up spending most of our time at the rocky beach at Brenton Point.

We left Brenton Point Beach with two bags of rocks, one depleted camera battery, some remnants of picnic food, etc., and pooped. God what a great day!

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June 26

My friend Anna wondered if this guy realized how stupid he really looks. I assume she means Beanie Boy, but Yellow Sunglasses looks kind of dopey, too.

Now that most of the colleges in Boston are out for the summer, I see fewer students. As you might guess, some students stand out more than others. If I had to guess, I'd say Beanie Boy and Yellow Sunglasses are musicians en route to Berklee College of Music. However, Longy and the Boston Conservatory are also nearby; both are possible refuges for our fugitives from taste above.

If they're not musicians, I'm nearly certain that they're art students. I mean, look at them.

While their purpose in life isn't just to provide visual entertainment, they're awfully good at it. And it makes my commutes more interesting, that's for sure.

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June 25

For the past couple of weeks it's been cool and rainy in Boston. The appearance this afternoon of blue skies, even with muggy, humid weather, was a joy for the senses.

I've been doing good and not complaining about the weather. Honestly, I didn't mind the rain and the highs being in the 60s. I may possibly be alone in that, however, as everybody's favorite topic, the weather, has been laced with complaints about the gray days recently. One of my residents compared it to springtime in London. Offhand, it's not a bad comparison, and really, I liked living in London, too.

I think after the hell of last winter, I'm hesitant to complain too much about milder weather. I'm going to make every effort to enjoy the warmer weather and not complain about the heat and humidity. Well, not too much, at least. I'm sure Massachusetts will seem more hospitable after I spend a week in Daytona Beach in August.

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June 24

Well, today was the teen photo workshop at the West Roxbury Branch Library. The setup was great -- I had the big room, a projector and screen to hook into my notebook computer, several sets of handouts, lots of seating and room to move around. I certainly had no complaints.

The only thing missing were the teenagers. It was disappointing.

On the other hand, it was probably good to stop and take all the time to put together this kind of workshop. It'll stand me in good stead when I give it again later in the year -- for adults this time. The arrangements are already in the works.

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June 23

I've said it before and I'll say it again: You know your residents love you when they feed you.

One of my residents makes frequent trips to the UK and Europe in the course of running her consulting business. She is also a very kind and thoughtful person.

We were discussing our varied experiences in London one day and she mentioned she was going, and asked if I would like something. I honestly couldn't think of anything I wanted, but then remembered that Boyfriend loves fruit pastilles. She came back with several tubes -- a delightful surprise for Boyfriend!

Ever since then I get a couple of packs of candy with every trip. This trip, she threw in a pack of Smarties (candy-coated chocolate) and a couple of Kinder Eggs (not pictured; they were eaten before I took this shot).

I love candy, and it's so nice to get something special and unique!

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June 22

It's been my week for technology accomplishments.

My old laptop died back in March, and has since been replaced. Fortunately, because of my somewhat-anal backup regimen, I didn't lose anything when the computer croaked (although it helped that it gave some warning before it went). Now, my 500Gb external hard drive -- my main backup -- is nearly full. I don't have $100 bucks to buy another replacement drive, so I've been sweating my backups.

I took the chance that my old laptop's failure hadn't damaged its hard disk drive and ponied up $13 for an external hard drive enclosure from Micro Center. After removing the hard drive from the laptop, I carefully put it away, picked up my enclosure, and headed to work, where I started the installation. Five short minutes later (there was a lot of small screws to screw and unscrew, or it wouldn't have taken that long), my hard drive was securely installed and working.

The hard drive is only 160Gb, but it's more portable than the other one. The space available will hold me until I'm able to buy another 500Gb drive (or perhaps go larger).

Meanwhile, I'm going to feel smug for days, having figured out this solution -- and implemented it -- all on my own.

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June 21

I love it when things work out.

My friend Keith, the jeweler, hosed his Windows XP installation last week. I went over to help him, thinking it would be something simple and I could boot into Safe Mode, fix it, and look brilliant. No such luck. It just would not boot.

With time running short, I had to leave, but promised I would come by this weekend to help him back up his files. He was getting the restore disks from the friend who gave him the computer, but my concern was that he would lose his files (including his website) in the restore process. My plan was to take a Ubuntu Live CD disk over -- the operating system runs right off the CD instead of the hard drive -- and back up his files to an external hard drive for safekeeping. Keith, understandably, wanted to be able to check his e-mail. I held out a small hope that he'd be able to do that, but my understanding of Verizon DSL was that it might be problematic.

The Live CD worked, and remarkably, Keith was able to go online. This was a great solution to his problem -- he could check his e-mail, etc., until he was able to restore his Windows installation. At this point, I was completely prepared to declare victory and move on.

I decided Keith should have a demonstration how to use the Live CD, though. Keith is very intelligent, but he learns better by doing than by watching. So I sat him down and had him start the computer. Then I stopped him -- Windows had starting running CHKDSK. It hadn't done that before. As we watched, me in open-mouthed amazement, the login screen came up and the computer worked as before.

I couldn't take credit. I still don't know what was different about this particular boot cycle. Nonetheless, it worked.

So I'm considering this as my miracle CD, and I'll be making additional copies for future use.

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June 20

It's a miracle I manage to get anything done sometimes.

My teen photography workshop is next Wednesday (June 24), and I was beginning to feel the panic because I haven't completed either the handouts to go with the class or the presentation I have to give. My friend Anna agreed to meet with me for a late lunch today, followed by helping me put together my talk and critiquing it. God bless Anna for sitting there and listening to me talk for two hours, mostly uninterrupted.

After finishing the presentation, we meandered about a bit on a photo walk. This shot was the shot that wasn't yesterday -- I lined up my image and my camera battery died. Tonight's capture worked perfectly, though, producing the above image of the John W. Weeks footbridge over the Charles River near Harvard.

I love it when things work out.

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June 19

It's been a rainy spring in Boston. With summer officially arriving in a couple of days, I feel justified in continuing to call the season spring -- with plenty of rain and cool temperatures.

Many of my residents are complaining about the weather, but I'm doing my level best to skip it. I'll probably bitch, piss, and moan about the heat once it arrives, but until then I'm trying to simply enjoy the cool wet weather.

It had been threatening to rain all day, but we'd gotten through with only a couple of small showers and a persistent mist. Then all hell broke loose around 4:50 pm -- fortunately, after I'd gone and moved my car. The heavens opened up, dropping all this rain in about 20 minutes.

It was impressive to watch, though I'm glad I missed having to be in the rain itself.

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June 18

I've seen Jesus fish. I've seen Darwin fish. I've seen dead Darwin fish. I've even seen Sushi fish, Gefilte fish, and the rarer (if more correct) ΙΧΘΥΣ (Ichthys) fish. But until today, I'd never seen a PADDLE fish, and it really amused me.

Of course, I haven't a clue what it means. I know what a paddlefish is, but the PADDLE fish on a car seems to be designed to befuddle. It succeeds in that respect -- at least to me.

But it's still amusing, if only for causing the confusion, because it's exactly the kind of thing I would do.

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June 17

I received a new vintage camera today!

The camera is a Yashica 635, a twin-lens reflex camera probably produced some time in the 1960s. I'm incredibly pleased to find it in such wonderful shape and completely functional; once I get my photo workshop out of the way later this month, I'll probably put a roll of film through it to see how the images come out.

The camera is unique in that it's designed to take both 120 film (medium format) and, with an adapter, 35mm film. It's an interesting, if somewhat useless, feature, but the camera did come with the adapter, so I could do it if I wanted to.

What it's missing is a light meter, so I'm going to have to really work on the estimating exposure and Sunny 16 rules to get my shots. Fortunately, modern films are pretty forgiving in that respect. I have two other manual cameras with meters, but without batteries (the mercury cells aren't made anymore, for environmental reasons), so I'm getting better at guesstimating exposures.

I'm pretty excited by my new toy, and only hope I can give it the care and attention it deserves.

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June 16

I really don't spend all my time goofing off at work. Honest. However, on those occasions that I have a few minutes, I'm not averse to spending some time on some utterly useless activity only for my entertainment. So in a moment of down time at work, I took a post-it note and made a paper aeroplane (seen above).

It's pretty, and more importantly, it flies. The balance is pretty good for something I guesstimated, eyeballed, and experimented with. The wing was originally a little big for the rest of the frame, so I added the makeshift elevator at the back. A paperclip at the front to bring the center of gravity forward, and voilá! Aeronautical magic.

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June 15

On the spur of the moment, my friend Marion and I made impromptu arrangements to have dinner over my break this evening.

Dining choices near my workplace are a little limited. You can get excellent but pricey food at Sasso, excellent but expensive steak at Daily Grill, an overabundance of food at Cheesecake Factory, or hit the food court at the Pru. We opted for the food court -- both for price and for selection. It was the right decision: Marion got sushi at the Japanese place, Orange Chicken from the Chinese place, and two sodas (the Chinese place sells Dr Pepper). I got Veggie Samosas and Aloo Naan from the Indian Place, and we met in the middle to dine, chat, laugh, and enjoy one another's company.

If this keeps happening, I'm going to end up having a social life despite my best efforts to be a curmudgeon.

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June 14

I thought it was funny how Pogo acts when I found him wrapped up in the bedsheets early this morning. We give him clothes to wear to bed and he starts acting more human. Or, more specifically, more like me. I'm a blanket hog myself.

Pogo has been having accidents at night, so we've had to start putting him in a diaper at night. We call the diaper his "pajamas," though, so we won't embarrass him when we put it on him. It's working; he's wearing it without complaint. So now I'm not having to wash sheets every other day.

Diaper = win-win.

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June 13

The crazed senior citizen pictured here in the wicked cool typing gloves is Boyfriend's mother -- my mother-out-law, as I'm fond of saying. Today is her birthday, so we hied it to Connecticut to celebrate with the family. She's looking pretty good for a woman turning 64.

I often like to tell the story about her trying to kill me the first time she met me -- not true, precisely, but it makes for an amusing anecdote nonetheless. His parents have always been kind and gracious to me, welcoming me into the family with open arms. It's scary -- especially to Boyfriend -- how well his mother and I get along. For me, it's a heartening experience, one that makes me glad right down to my very soul.

Plus, she'll pose for me even when I ask her to do something like make a scary face. You have to love a woman like that.

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June 12

There was a rainbow over Boston today, and one of my residents called me so I could snap a photo of it. Rainbows, being ephemeral things, often don't last long, and this one faded before I could get a good picture of it.

Since I was 19 floors over Boston, though, I took advantage of the opportunity to get a panoramic shot of the South End. After the clouds parted, it was a lovely day -- perfect for outdoor photography.

They say life is what you make of it, and I'm beginning to see their point. You can't ignore beauty while chasing rainbows.

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