What happened to me today!

[Levina de Ruijter]

so this was actually thursday but i dinked around and didnt get a picture of it until today.

years and years ago when i first entered the Air Force, and was pining for a photographer gig, i was talking with my girlfriend and mentioned i wished i could find an Olympus XA like the chief photographer of our home town newspaper carried in his coat pocket even when he had his full PJ kit with him.

she found this at some store (long LONG before ebay or fredmiranda or POT.N or any OTHER online merchant place) and gave it to me for either an occasion or just as a gift.

i had a box of old cameras in the basement (this is pushing 30 years post being gifted the camera) that i had emptied and gone through several times looking for this camera but i could never come up with it. at one point i was CERTAIN i had thrown in the garbage my Gossen Luna-Pro light meter because the PX-13 mercury batteries were no longer on the planet but i found IT, in that box the 4th or 5th time i looked through it. and it wasnt really a box, but more of a clear plastic tote about 8" deep! well i kept looking and looking and then i thought maybe it was THIS camera i had thrown away, thinking it took the same battery.

i was digging through a filing cabinet looking for a folder/file that should have some documents i need for retirement and low and behold! there the camera was!

it doesnt have batteries in it (which is probably good because they surely would have leaked and ruined the contacts) but it has a roll of film, on exp #4 so i must have taken a photo or 3, probably in 2005? maybe before that but im almost positive NO LATER than that. it uses batteries to power the meter, the shutter, and the shutter speed regulation (its an Aperture Preferred system) so im going to have to get some SR-44 batteries (or LR-44, 357, A76 all interchangeable for all intents and purposes)

just about the happiest ive been in the last 6 months...

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That's a great find!! And now of course you absolutely have to fill that roll of film and have it developed. Be surprised by the first 3 photos that I'm sure you have no idea what they are of?

Camera itself also looks to be in good condition!

 

[LtDave]

That's a great find!! And now of course you absolutely have to fill that roll of film and have it developed. Be surprised by the first 3 photos that I'm sure you have no idea what they are of?

Camera itself also looks to be in good condition!

it was a very clean piece back in 1986 and while it rode around with me in the car for a long time, the back cover has some scrapes but that adds 'character' like brassing does near strap lugs!!!!

i have no idea what those first images could be. i dont remember when i would have put film in it!!! the storage while not horrible, might end up being less than ideal for the film.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

What happened to me this past hour was that I had no internet and no WiFi, something that hardly ever happens. I tried switching to the Google servers, didn't work. So I reset the modem and that seemed to have done it. Connection is back up. Phew...

 

[LtDave]

i had gotten a bill for some lab work (i THINK. trying to read the billing code???) from back this summer when my wife was sick. it was 30 days late when they sent it but there wasnt any 'late fees' so i figured they couldnt have been in too big of hurry for it. it was $144.

i finally remember to take it to work with me today to call on it. i COULD HAVE tried to chase down the insurance but when my wife retired, i called our corporate benefit people and told them, i wanted her on MY insurance instead of her RETIREE insurance. he assured me it would be taken care of.

early this spring, surprisingly enough, we never got any bills for any bloodwork or other things that we werent already directly responsible for. when my wife passed away, i got a bill in the mail and when i called the insurance company they couldnt find her on my insurance. come to find out that I couldnt put her on my insurance SHE would have had to call and do that. they had issued her new insurance cards and everything (i GUESS) somehow was being billed to her coverage (? i have NO IDEA how that worked?) so, instead of trying to find her cards (no idea where any of her stuff went) or trying to explain that we THOUGH she was on my insurance, and they she was on HER insurance etc etc etc, i decided id just bite the bullet and pay it but there was one issue. the date of service was 8 Aug 25. my wife passed away 9 June 25.

i got right through to a young lady who's FIRST language is English (vs being out of country and English maybe being her third language) who i asked where the office was because i didnt recognize the provider's name. she said that she didnt know where that was but that the billing was dated 8 August. i then said, "im pretty sure, my wife didnt see anyone in August" the young gal, asked "could it have been a couple of days earlier?" my answer was that "it was highly unliketly since that's 2 months after her death." i got put on hold right away.

after about 10 minutes, she came back, got my number, and said instead of me holding, she would call me back when she did some more digging. i said okay and hung up.


MAYBE 10 minutes after that, she called and said "its all taken care of. you can disregard that bill" okay, cool! thank you.

in the grand scheme of things, $144 isnt peanuts but it wouldnt put me in the poor house either. nice that things worked out that way. this intro to Widower-hood is a crappy trip to make....

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

this intro to Widower-hood is a crappy trip to make....

It is. But at least this bill issue was resolved and it's fixed, so that's one thing less to worry about.

 

[LtDave]

It is. But at least this bill issue was resolved and it's fixed, so that's one thing less to worry about.

yes it is...

 

[LtDave]

so i dont know why i do it but AGAIN i did something that seems so incredibly foreign to me.

i had to get some groceries tonight because i didnt go to church yesterday therefore i didnt drive past the grocery store on the way home and i needed a few things for the week.

i grabbed an 8-pack of burger patties. I dont know why i did that. i know how to grill and i have a nice gas grill but i just dont like cooking. im mostly content with dumping a can of soup in a bowl, hitting the micro for 3 minutes and eating that. (DANG! now i realize i forgot crackers, for my soup too!) aaaargh....

i put 4 in a freezer bag and into the freezer, grilled up the other 4. no buns so no bread so no carbs and i was able to eat the 4 patties... DANG IT! i was going to cut up a cucumber for dinner tonight too....


my brain is getting addled i think. i almost put this in the Whats Cooking thread without any pictures of the burgers....

 

[Terry McDaniel]

Nothing has happened yet. (Other than baking the cake and taking my wife to the community center). I'm waiting on a load of gravel to spread on my driveway, but he hasn't showed up yet.

 

[Terry McDaniel]

Tomato soup with Cheese it is to die for.

 

[Terry McDaniel]

The gravel arrived, so I spent about six hours on a tractor spreading it out.
Tomorrow I get to lay sod around my storm cellar.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

Tomato soup with Cheese it is to die for.

Funny, I like tomato soup and I love cheese but have never even thought about putting them together. Which is kinda strange because I do make pasta sauce with tomatoes and on the plate add grated cheese to it.

 

[Terry McDaniel]

This is what I meant.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

This is what I meant.
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Ooh! I thought the word "in" had dropped out of your sentence, but "Cheez'It" is a box of these! Never heard of it but anything with cheese is good!

 

[Terry McDaniel]

Drive down to the Sod farm where my wife retired from and bought a pallet of sod. Got it all laid around the cellar this PM. 60 rolls, each roll 2 feet by 5 feet. I’m kinda tired, may be a mite sore in the morning.

 

[LtDave]

Drive down to the Sod farm where my wife retired from and bought a pallet of sod. Got it all laid around the cellar this PM. 60 rolls, each roll 2 feet by 5 feet. I’m kinda tired, may be a mite sore in the morning.View attachment 58854View attachment 58855

i was laid off from work in 2004. we had just moved to a new house (it was under construction when my wife found it) and my buddy was building a couple of houses in the subdivision. he said his brother (also my buddy) had some kids (he was a teacher and students make for cheap labor) coming over about 230-300 in the afternoon to lay sod in the front yard. would i be interested in supervising them. i said sure.

i saw the sod truck drive by my house about 11am so i walked over and sure enough. there were 20 pallets of sod in the driveway and street. it was either july or august so because the sod was already starting to get dry, i started laying it. when my buddy got there at 3pm as the kids started showing up, i had all but a little bit left to do around the walkway, the edge of the driveway and some along one side of the house, that i was laying, because he had extra sod. i was quite a bit younger then...