Chapter 66 - And, in the end...

And, in the end 
The love you take 
Is equal to the love you make.

Ouch!!


This is, beside being a beautiful lyric, a thought provoking statement. And, as I ponder it, a very truthful statement. Think about it a bit. You can make love by building relationships with people (and here, the love I am talking about is the strong affection for another created from kinship or personal ties) and then maintaining them.

And, I'm thinking, this love that, through your life you make, is manifested in may small and varied ways. It's a manner of treating, respecting, enjoying, trusting and abiding another.

And, in the end
The love you take 
Is equal to the love you make.

If you haven't done too good a job of making love then, in the end, there's very little of it for you to take with you when you walk on.

Food for thought, eh!?! Of course it would be more helpful, perhaps, if you gave this thinking about life and love at the beginning of your adventure rather than at the end. For some matters there really is such a thing as running out of time.

Hahaha, enough. I'd been bored and playing around on YouTube when I heard this song, it's a favorite (Boy, you're gonna carry that weight, carry that weight a long time), and one I've often listened to. I had been playing some Travelin' Wilbury's and saw McCartney's song on the Youtube playlist on the side and so I played it again, Sam. The last lyric, as always, really strikes a chord in me. And, viola, there it is, the title and theme to this Chapter.

Hooah!!

Okay, for me, lately, it's not been so much doing things as it has been passing time. And, yeah, that means another puzzle. Lots of puzzles.

Familiar theme, right!?! But also an enjoyable picture to look at. Wouldn't want it on the wall, necessarily, but it was fun to put together.

And I enjoyed finding the pictures within the picture like I do with my photography.

A little "Merica" action here. This plus the pennant flying over the pub proclaiming, "Liberty".  I wonder what the motivation was for the artist. Not that I have a problem with it. I think we should be promoting more American Exceptionalism, patriotism, Constitution and Bill of Rights. A lot more. Maybe have some of that WWII movie propaganda type movies, cuz, we're swinging well to the other side of that era right now.

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me!!

Ah the easy life of the open sea. Hahaha, only easy if you're a paying passenger aboard the ship. Life was tough aboard a sailing ship...tough and full of hard work. Not much time left for surfing the Web. But it sure looks like a lot of fun from a distance.

Hey, here's the "Liberty" pennant. I wonder what the other pennants signify. I can understand the 3rd one down, the one that says "USA". Hahaha, even I get that one. Was the artist sending out a message you would have to work at to understand? 

Certainly seems patriotic, though.

A quick side note. I googled Nautical Pennants and found a bunch of these for the alphabet but none of them resembled the flags used by the artist. And notice the pennants, at least at sea, are used for numbers and particular situations.

Staying with the sea theme...hahaha, I can find a recurring theme almost anywhere. In that regard, I am a bit like Pollyanna with her "Glad Game".  Ah, great movie with solid values.

But now I headed off to the Bahamas, Mon. Taking the cruise ship down. Risking some kind of intestinal affliction for some fun, food and frivolity.

Ah, bright colors, blue waters and money.

I enjoyed putting the old part of town together more than I did with the newer parts. Brightly colored condos pushing up to make more money. I wonder why, what law, reason or logic compelled the architects to stop at four floors per building. Obviously you can make a lot more money with that 5th and 6th floor added on. Something made them stop or else there'd be 10 or 20-story buildings all over.

But I like the old town. 

Watch OUT!!

Hahaha, "KAPOW"!! You've been served. Time for a hard turn which I call a little ol' segue (Which means to "proceed to what follows without pause").

And what follows now without any noticeable pause whatsoever is my move, rather smoothly, into The Connie Hansen Gardens. They've been busy, busy, busy these past few months. In effect, they've been reshaping the Garden. A lot of weeding, reseeding, landscaping and thought. There are new walks and they've opened up a new pathway from the parking lot that runs along the koi ponds.

I'm hoping they planned the garden to display more colors. 

The little weeds. The wee, tiny weeds. But no way for you to gauge their actual size. Once again I thought of the old aphorism about the 'size of a dime' and, once again, I did not have a dime with me for comparison.

Someday, dammit!! Someday!!

I am getting to the point where I just might open up my user's manual and actually try and figure out how to 'zap' up these blah-looking B&W pictures. Put some 'zing' in the whites and some 'Ahhhh' in the blacks. Someday!! 

Which now means you won't be surprised by the overall dullness of this picture. The composition is...OK. But the tones, the impact of the picture is muted, flat. A 'skip-over' kind of picture.

I do miss the SX170 that thieving low-life bastard stole from me. I know, I replaced it but I don't have the same affinity, the same sense of trust in this new SX170 that I enjoyed in the one that scum bucket stole from me. It's affected my shooting. I don't reach for the SX170 for the macros like I used to. I mean, for 8+ years that was my go-to camera. I got sooooo many (what I consider for me) great shots with that camera. And then that whoreson stole it from me; along with the fun, enjoyment, trust, confidence, familiarity and comfort I had with that camera. I am so tired of these opportunistic, selfish, good-for-nothing POSs. I've long argued with myself about the death penalty...but there are times when I feel the world would be better should we start putting down these brigands who steal for their own convenience and end up stealing much more than just 'things'. 

I've heard the bromides about being able to replace an object, yada, yada, yada. Yeah, it is, but it isn't so easy to replace the emotions, the outrage, the helplessness, the affections, the whole thing that these shitheads steal.

Anyway, this was my long rant to lead into the fact that I am trying to learn to trust, to use the macro on the G3 X like I used to use the one with the SX170. It's not the same and it has affected how I take pictures. And I really resent having lost that to some piece-of-shit, low-life, good-for-nothing waste of skin and air. And sometimes I get so angry about it that I could easily move to have that nothingness, that plague, that drain on resources, that selfish, self-centered little bastard put to death. All they do is take, take, take and rarely, if ever, give anything back. Lying, duplicitous, users of people as well as drugs, they have no good reason to be alive. Yeah, I get mad and more than a bit vengeful.

But here we go. Used the Macro on the G3 X and got this. Working on it. Repairing the break, so-to-speak.

And so it goes. I am ever so slowly building up a trust with a new camera and trying to have fun in the meantime. Although, this newer more expensive camera doesn't seem as dependable (?) as the one that was taken from me by that miserable thief. It was like that camera, the SX170 that was stolen, worked with me, it was easy, familiar, friendly and good. And now it's gone. Argggh!!! 

Whew!! Okay, done. 

The flowers are starting to really flourish at the Gardens. The light has been nice. The days are getting better. Finally.

And, yeah, I'm gonna hit me some flowers. Hard.

Hahaha, I might even use a tripod or, at the very least, a monopod. You know I have three different monopods. About two months ago I would have said I had one, if I knew where it was. And now I find I have three monopods. What the heck!?! How did that happen!?!

And I discovered I have three tripods. To be sure, two of them are El Cheapos, but they are tripods and actually work, mostly.

After those amazing disclosures, I have to qualify by telling you all these shots here are hand-held. I acknowledge I lose a very slight edge (even in good light) doing just hand-held shots and that using a tripod, however onerous and difficult to me, would add to the clarity, the sharpness that I keep reaching for. Gotta go for the gold and use these other tools...someday.

The Dorchester House Saturday Night Finest Kind Poker Club met last Saturday. The talk turned to our dinner out at The Beach Club and we decided to try it again but someplace different.

The Dory Cove was suggested but we've never been there. Out of the blue, on Sunday, I got a text from Carol inviting me to go to The Dory Cove for lunch. A reconnaissance as it were.

She figured we'd better scout out the restaurant before committing the DHSNFKPC to go there. And, that's exactly what we did.

The interior was dull, bland, plain and crowded. The decor was blah and the tables and chairs were average. And, boy-howdy, they were packed in tight.

But this restaurant had THE best cup of clam chowder that I've had here in Oregon. Hands down. At the very least it was as good as the clam chowder Tony made from the PixieKitchen recipe...which, until now, had been the best I'd had.

This was ga-uuud clam chowder.

I decided that I would treat myself and I had the Turf and Surf with a baked potato. Just the thing for the guy with prior open-heart surgery on his resume, right!?!

And Carol went with the Fish 'N Chips.

Bottom line the food was OK. It was pricey and, other than the clam chowder, just average. I don't think we'll ever go back as it is too much buck for just so-so food.

Hold on!!

And we jump from The Dory Cove to the LCCC (in this instance it is the Cultural Center) for the show, 'ALL ABOUT BIRDS'.

Which was an interesting show. But, (there's always that 'but' isn't there?) Anyway, it wasn't anything I'd write home about. There were a couple interesting pieces. Once again, the glass figures were OK but I wouldn't spend more than $5 or $10 for them as a paperweight or an accent to a display on a bookcase. There were a few interesting oils and watercolor's. Mostly though, it was just OK. 

I can't get excited about glass anythings, really. Even birds.

There were plenty of them on display. Large and small they covered them all. And all I could think of was to use them as paperweights.

Or, maybe, a doorstop.

Just not interested.

One of the artists featured has a thing for crows/ravens. I freely admit that while I recognize the natural intelligence of crows, they are the ugliest damn things possible in the bird world. Only surpassed, maybe, by the lowly vultures. I mean, even the goofy looking pelican looks good while flying...crows just look...dirty and evil.

The only thing he did that I was mildly interested in was this detail from a crow's wing. It's not as bad as the other works he had on display. I think it's the patterns, shapes and repetition. That plus the simplicity of the painting. They combine to intrigue me.

There were a number of different mediums displayed. Especially glass. A lot of glass.

Duller than dishwater.

I did like this plover and oyster catcher. The colors and the shapes caught me. Plus, I like the roughness, the crudity in the way the birds were rendered. What the artist saw in his mind rather than an almost photographic portrait of the birds. Intelligent use of colors in the background, too.

Aside from the one above, the owls caught my interest. These had merit. I like the way the artist zeroed in on the jay. Same things as the picture of the oyster catcher were at work here. Good use of colors and rough renderings.

But smartly done. 

And this one made me look. The background color was bold and set off his subjects well. I don't know that I would want it on my wall. The red could be too loud to settle down in my living room. Maybe the same birds but a more subdued, earth-tone background.

I wonder at the artist's motivation for going so hard with the jarring and unsettling red? It works but it is not something I'd be comfortable seeing on my walls. It doesn't help the birds. I wonder at the reason behind it.

And, in the end, the life you take
is equal to the life you make.

Sorry, Sir Paul, but these little changes help make this mantra more significant to me. Hahaha, it works on several levels.

And so it goes. Learning and seeing and living and trying not to hurt or piss anyone off. Trying to get some good stuff to take with me.

Hooah!!

a