Scattered Thoughts . . .

It was another rainy, windy, cold day today so I was stuck indoors. I was feeling a bit worn out anyway so I probably would not have tried to tackle anything significant today anyway. Instead, I did some work on the dollhouse project. I'm in the finishing stages of this little project so any little bit I accomplish really makes a big difference in the appearance of the dollhouse. The "Georgetown" style is really becoming visible at this stage of the project and that is a relief and makes me happy. Sometimes projects can unknowingly morph into a different style. This project, however, really is identical to what I have always envisioned in my head... a Georgetown-style townhouse.  Today's task was to glue on all the little pieces of wood for the detailed cornice across the top of the townhouse. This was a bit tedious but well worth the trouble. I actually did contemplate just leaving this trim plain without all the little pieces but I knew I would be disappointed i...

I can't begin to tell you how much I despise that question no matter how innocently and friendly it may be asked... "Are you a cop?" Especially when it comes as a complete surprise from left field. It is a question which gets me so angry that I cringe, get frustrated, get angry and have to use all my willpower to restrain from unleashing a torrent of expletives, drill sergeant style, on the clearly unobservant and ignorant inquisitor.  Whenever I travel to other states in the United States, everyone...  and I mean  everyone... seems to pick up on the fact that I am either active duty military or a veteran... everyone. I get comments and questions about my military status and experience everywhere we go outside of Vermont. I even get handshakes and thanks for my service from complete strangers. Nobody outside of Vermont ever walks up to me and asks, out of the blue, such an absurd question like, "Are you a cop?" Within the borders of Vermont, however, I ...

I had written previously about an old film-era lens I picked up at an exceptional price but feel it is worth revisiting again today in this blog post.  The lens is an old Konica Hexanon AR 40mm, f1.8... I added a short vented lens hood to this lens which helps reduce flare when the sun is not backlighting my subject (when the sun is in the frame, no lens hood will help). I also needed to add a lens adapter so I could mount this Konica AR mount lens to my Sony full frame camera. This is a small but very solid lens... built exceptionally well... and I'm liking the image quality! This old lens shows some character flaws in certain shooting conditions which you don't often find in today's digital lenses. I went back through the few photos I shot this morning while testing this lens and I found a couple of photos which I'm really liking... showing these flaws... the film-like flare of decades ago can't go unnoticed yet, even with this film-like flare, the images stil...

Konica Hexanon 40mm, f1.8 lens As I wrote in a blog entry a few days ago, I found a beautiful old lens for sale after searching for almost a year. I quickly ordered this old but 'like-new' lens as well as a lens hood and a lens mount adapter to allow this lens to work with my particular camera. In total, this beautiful old lens was dirt cheap. I attempted to head outdoors yesterday morning to get some shots but between some very lousy health and very windy conditions, I captured nothing but blurred photos because of shakey hands and everything blowing violently in the wind. This morning, however, was a completely different story... There was no wind this morning... it was cold and crisp   (still below freezing when I headed outdoors)  with no wind whatsoever... my health had stabilized within the past 24 hours so my hands had steadied up to a normal level (which comes in handy when shooting a manual focus lens)... This was the time to put this new lens to the test. ...

Even considering I had some poor health this morning (Sunday morning), I managed to get quite a bit accomplished on the dollhouse this weekend.  Let's start with the poor health... I spent far too much time in the bathroom late last night, sick as a dog... I was dying to sleep and was having difficulty keeping my eyes open but I was still sick and stuck in the bathroom... I thought I would be napping in the bathroom for a bit there. This morning, although a bit worn out and weak, I thought I was doing considerably better but I had more serious problems come on very suddenly while Sheila and I were at the grocery store.  I was worn out from the previous night's poor health spent in the bathroom but I thought that would be the extent of my problems. While we were passing the frozen food aisle, I started seeing 'sparklies' in my eyes... I was feeling weaker and more worn out... and my breathing was beginning to become shallow... I knew the process of anaphylaxis ha...