What did you do today?

[Salt Peanuts]

Woke up entirely to early. Now I'm set to drive my Mum and Granny to the Berkshires. We're visiting a friend of the family who's in her 80s. Her husband was a large format landscape photographer in the mid part of the 20th century. Seeing his work (and cameras) should be interesting. The lady is quite a talker, and so is my Grandmother. I hope I survive it. 0_o

Just have the lady and your grandmother sit in a room together and while they're talking to each other, sneak out to look at the cameras/photos.

[Voltron]

Now I just got through lunch with my office since my boss is taking Friday off and wanted to get everyone together to send me off. Pretty surreal experience, punctuated with a few semi-awkward silences and glances between my boss and I. We were at one time pretty friendly, used to go fishing together on the weekends all the time, but that relationship has frayed over the last few years. So for that reason today very much feels like my last day in the office even though I'll be back tomorrow. Not sure what the hell that'll be like.

Sorry to pry, but how did the last day go? Are you already at the new job or taking a breather between? Inquiring minds want to know!

Well, after a clusterfuck of a day dealing with multiple annoying systems all choosing to go down simultaneously, I came home to pack up for a two-week roadie up to the Canadian Rockies. Looks like it should be a blast, so see you guys on the other side!

Have a great time Peter! Looking forward to some nice pics from that new lens (and the old ones too)!

[Dusty Chalk]

Woke up entirely to early. Now I'm set to drive my Mum and Granny to the Berkshires. We're visiting a friend of the family who's in her 80s. Her husband was a large format landscape photographer in the mid part of the 20th century. Seeing his work (and cameras) should be interesting. The lady is quite a talker, and so is my Grandmother. I hope I survive it. 0_o

Dude (as an expletive). Visiting my mother is like being one-on-one with someone like that, only (a) she goes off on these religious rants, which I'm not; ( she goes off on these I miss <random dead person> rants -- and I don't handle death well. And then she tells me she doesn't like my clothing.

So I talk about my cats. Cats are awesome.

x2 on the get them together, but even better might be get her talking about the husband and his photography and cameras and whatnot.

[n_maher]

Sorry to pry, but how did the last day go? Are you already at the new job or taking a breather between? Inquiring minds want to know!

It was a day filled with mixed emotions. I somehow managed to be there past 5 on my last day, despite wanting to get out around 3. And yup, I've got the week off to rest, retool and enjoy. Today was spent at the beach with Lily, off to dinner with Ian in a bit since he's the one responsible for this mess.

[Voltron]

Glad to hear you have the week off, and I hope you'll be thanking Ian -- rather than cursing him -- after you get started at the new place!

[Augsburger]

Good luck Nate, hope things work out.

Gcetting ready to go beah walking, the same as we did yesterday and the day before and as we will do tomorrow. Good to be with the family just chillin'

[Beefy]

I fucked up and killed all my control cells. Waste of a whole week

[luvdunhill]

Heading to Vegas for the week!

[manaox2]

just remember, don't tip the hookers. the gratuity has already been added to the bill, in Vegas.

Why would you want to tip a dead hooker?

[mypasswordis]

Marc probably isn't at adept with a shovel.

[swt61]

Maybe not, but I bet MaryAnne is.

[shellylh]

Heading to Vegas for the week!

Have fun, I think.

[Knuckledragger]

Dude (as an expletive). Visiting my mother is like being one-on-one with someone like that, only (a) she goes off on these religious rants, which I'm not; ( she goes off on these I miss <random dead person> rants -- and I don't handle death well. And then she tells me she doesn't like my clothing.

So I talk about my cats. Cats are awesome.

x2 on the get them together, but even better might be get her talking about the husband and his photography and cameras and whatnot.

I am lucky in that my mother is an awesome lady. I get along with her well, and road trips with her are not a problem. My grandmother, OTOH, is a force of destruction that can upset even the most stable situation. She's has 92 years to master the art, and she's a fricken blackbelt.

Today went very well, with the exception of me clocking my head hard on the trunk of the car as I was trying put granny's cane away. I hit it off with Irene, my grandmother's friend. I got to see many original prints done by her husband, as well as two books and and a bunch of postcards. She's in her 80s, so the internets are a vague idea to her. She did manage to get someone to put up a rudimentary website showing some of his work.

At the end of the day, I asked if I could see her husband's cameras. There were two Leicas, a Rolliflex, a 1950s Nikon rangefinder, and two more modern SLRs. I took pictures of all of them. I also saw the darkroom he built in the 1950s (which was a dream workspace). There will be an extended geek session about all of this in the photography thread ...later. Right now, Knuckles must faceplant.

[Craig Sawyers]

Dude (as an expletive). Visiting my mother is like being one-on-one with someone like that, only (a) she goes off on these religious rants, which I'm not; ( she goes off on these I miss <random dead person> rants -- and I don't handle death well. And then she tells me she doesn't like my clothing.

QUOTE]

Both my parents are dead (15 and 2 years ago), and I got on with them pretty well. But when things were tough, or I think about my wife's dad (who hated me with a venomous passion) I was reminded of the Philip Larkin poem (oh and we did have kids - so his last line is not quite on the button):

This Be The Verse

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn

By fools in old-style hats and coats,

Who half the time were soppy-stern

And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.

It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

And don't have any kids yourself.

[Dusty Chalk]

I did not have kids.

Philip Larkin is awesome.

Thanks for sharing that, I will memorize it and share it with my sisters.

[Craig Sawyers]

I did not have kids.

Philip Larkin is awesome.

Thanks for sharing that, I will memorize it and share it with my sisters.

The other really good, and humerous one (not about parents) is Betjeman's poem "Slough". I don't know why he singled that town out for such a literary clubbing around the ears, but he clearly disliked the place in a major way.

We live around 30 miles from Slough (pronounced Sl-ow, the ow being the sound you make when punched), and it is a bit of an armpit, but Betjman wrote the poem in 1937! It is just as relevant today.

Slough

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!

It isn't fit for humans now,

There isn't grass to graze a cow.

Swarm over, Death!

Come, bombs and blow to smithereens

Those air-conditioned, bright canteens,

Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans,

Tinned minds, tinned breath.

Mess up the mess they call a town-

A house for ninety-seven down

And once a week a half a crown

For twenty years.

And get that man with double chin

Who'll always cheat and always win,

Who washes his repulsive skin

In women's tears:

And smash his desk of polished oak

And smash his hands so used to stroke

And stop his boring dirty joke

And make him yell.

But spare the bald young clerks who add

The profits of the stinking cad;

It's not their fault that they are mad,

They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know

The birdsong from the radio,

It's not their fault they often go

To Maidenhead

And talk of sport and makes of cars

In various bogus-Tudor bars

And daren't look up and see the stars

But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care

Their wives frizz out peroxide hair

And dry it in synthetic air

And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough

To get it ready for the plough.

The cabbages are coming now;

The earth exhales.

[Salt Peanuts]

Started the day at work off with few annoying correspondences waiting for me.

I can tell it's going to be a great day/rest of the week.

[Salt Peanuts]

At the end of the day, I asked if I could see her husband's cameras. There were two Leicas, a Rolliflex, a 1950s Nikon rangefinder, and two more modern SLRs. I took pictures of all of them. I also saw the darkroom he built in the 1950s (which was a dream workspace). There will be an extended geek session about all of this in the photography thread ...later. Right now, Knuckles must faceplant.

Missed this earlier - looking forward to your post on it.

[aardvark baguette]

Finally back to work after the god awful power outage from Sunday. No A/C inside the office which is a nice surprise:rolleyes:

[n_maher]

Had a meeting with our financial planner which has the usual effect of making me feel dirt poor and that I'm likely to retire to a cardboard box at 90. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[laxx]

Went out for dinner with my family last night for my birthday, then rushed home to play Starcraft 2, lol.

[jvlgato]

Finally back to work after the god awful power outage from Sunday. No A/C inside the office which is a nice surprise:rolleyes:

Ouch! I feel your pain. I just got A/C and electricity back yesterday at 5pm after that truck took out our power line on Friday. I got through it ok, but it was NOT pleasant.

[Dusty Chalk]

Finally back to work after the god awful power outage from Sunday. No A/C inside the office which is a nice surprise:rolleyes:

Sympathies.

[Salt Peanuts]

Got home and had to do some troubleshooting with the FiOS install that was done today at home. The big issue was that the tech setup a secure wireless network (FiOS modem doubles as a wireless router), connected my wife's laptop but neglected to tell my wife the password for the network (or how to access the modem/router). It wasn't too hard to fix, but still annoying. I also now have an Airport Extreme that isn't doing anything since I can't use it with FiOS (well, not without calling Verizon and have them change the setting on my ONT).

[n_maher]

I might be interested in the Extreme, Haj. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you decide to move it.

Me: after morning depression already mentioned I took a quick spin down to meet up with Haj to drop off a DAC, drove home and then took Lily to York's Wild Animal Kingdom. It was a great time, first time I can remember seeing a lion or tiger, both very impressive animals. All sorts of other neat stuff too. Of course the highlight for Lily was feeding the goats and ducks and then riding the merry go round with me. We also got to watch as the local FD had to break out the ladder truck to rescue patrons who were stuck on the ferris wheel. Yikes, I would not wanted to have been those folks since even at 5pm it was still a steamy 90 and most if not all of them were exposed to the sun.