First World Retirement Problems

Silly title, huh? It just struck me that retirement itself is a first world phenomenon. It's a gift. However, life without the daily 9 to 5 grind does present some challenges.  I'm not complaining and I'm not referring to those things that present as problems for all of us whether we're working or not. This is not about how to get the house "Thanksgiving clean" or how best to organize the food pantry so your crackers don't fall out while your looking for the tuna fish. There's just something different about not working in the conventional way that's hard to explain, but may be worth exploring.

Society defines us and judges us by our work. One of the first questions we ask when we meet someone new is "What do you do?" Or course, by that we simply mean "Where do you work?". But, hey, if you think about that question more broadly, it's really a tough one to answer. I mean, what do any of us do? What are the actions that make up our lives? Should you have to answer that? Could you? How would you?

In the first months of my retirement I've been trying to do just that. I find myself outlining my accomplishments in the silliest of ways. I list my completed tasks at the end of the day and make sure Mo knows I rearranged the bathroom closet and washed the bedroom curtains.  Ta da! I dusted. I bought a new vacuum cleaner. I descaled the Keurig. (Actually, I haven't done that yet, but you get my point).

Have I told you I'm organizing my photos? I'm building a website on Weebly. I made my first YouTube video. I bought a domain name. Okay, okay. Enough already. I need to stop. My first first world retirement problem is  understanding that I don't have to explain myself. It's 9:00 a.m. Friday morning. I just wrote a blog post. What else am I going to do today? Mums the word. 

Retirement Is A Good Thing

In 17 days I will retire. I'm excited. I'm pumped. I've been giddily sharing the news but I'm surprised by the number of negative reactions I've been getting. People seem surprised, puzzled and concerned. I'm hearing: "Really?"; "Are you sure?"; "Do you have a plan?'; and "What are you going to do?".  Well, all you skeptics out there, let me tell you what I have in mind.

•  I will blog more. Sadly, my last post was back in June after a short visit to New Orleans. It was entitled "Three Cab Rides Part 1: The Man from Dubai." Parts 2 and 3 are yet to be written. Sigh.  Part 2 would tell the tale of Cowboy Joe. While we were riding with him, he almost pulled a gun on a guy in a black Mercedes with tinted windows for trying to turn the wrong way on a one way street. Good stuff. Part 3 was to feature Ninth Ward Harold. On the way to the airport he told us about the government blowing up the levees during both hurricanes Betsy and Katrina. Conspiracy theory or fact? He was very convincing. 

• I will walk my dogs more. The three terrible terriers really need the exercise and so do I. We have started a pre-retirement routine where I walk each one separately along a prearranged route. Each pup gets some one on one time and I meet my Fitbit step goal. So far, so good.

•  I will make more photographs or as one of my YouTube mentors would suggest "get out there and take some damned photos."  My CAS, Camera Acquisition Syndrome, needs an outlet. For years the sad refrain has been so many cameras, so little time. 

• I will have a cleaner and better organized house. My mother always told me I should have taken Home Economics. As I assume the role of Home Administrator, I face a steep learning curve.

•  I will mow lawns and shovel snow, two most satisfying activities that yield measurable results and provide time for reflection. 

• I will think of more things to do and I will blog more. Perhaps we should title this post  "Retirement is a Good Thing Part 1. 

Three Cab Rides Part 1 - The Man from Dubai

Visiting New Orleans is an experience not to be missed. There is so much to see, to do, to taste, and to photograph that you find yourself constantly in motion. I nearly wore out the FitBit by logging unprecedented numbers of daily steps. Of course, in 90 degree heat and on legs still sore from a Segway tour, walking quickly got old. The solution? Call a cab. There are over 1500 licensed taxi drivers in the Big Easy and three of them I will not soon forget. 

Let's start with the Man from Dubai.

I had a three hour morning photo tour booked and was scheduled to meet my guide at Jackson Square. I decided to take a taxi because I knew that once I arrived at my destination I'd be walking for hours. Best to start out on fresh legs, right? So a cabbie pulled up and after we exchanged the usual pleasantries I told him I wanted to go to 750 Chartres Street. I was very proud that I knew enough to pronounce that "Charters" rather than "Shartrayze" and fully expected to get a knowing smile. Imagine my surprise when the driver asked if I could give him a better address than that. I said "It's 750 Chartres Street, the Jackson Square gate directly across from St. Louis Cathedral." That elicited a blank look. He held up his smart phone and told me there were several different 750 Chartres Streets and asked if I wanted to go north or south. That's when I knew I was in trouble. Not only did he not know the street but he also seemed to have never heard of two of the biggest tourists draws in the entire city.  I told him I had no idea what direction it was and that's why I had called a cab in the first place.

He apologized profusely and told me he had been a New Orleans taxi driver for only a week and that his GPS kept giving him the wrong directions and getting him in trouble with his customers. He then asked the hotel bellman for directions and we were on our way.

 During our ten block journey my determined taxi driver asked four more people for directions and apologized to me a dozen or more times. He also told me about his home, Dubai, and why he came to the United States. I learned that Dubai is the richest of countries but only for the few. You can't get justice there and no matter how hard you work you will never be anyone. I listened as he told me he came to America because here there is justice and here you can be somebody. Here things are fair. 

He was about to ask for additional directions but I could see the cathedral about a block away. We were heading away from it and about to turn the wrong way onto a one way street when I told him he could let me out, that I was close enough. 

He apologized again and I smiled while I gave him a tip. As I walked away I hoped America would be good to him. America. Yes, America where you can get justice, and be somebody, and even get someone else to take your written taxi driver's permit exam for you. I'm sure he will be just fine. 

You Never a Know a When You May Need It

Well, gifting and shopping is over for a little while anyway and I've been putting the Christmas presents away. (At least the ones we're keeping and not regifting or schlepping off to Goodwill). Did we get too much? Did we give too much? Is there too much excess? I'm not sure, but I do know there are two gifts from last Christmas (yep 2013) that I haven't used yet. I'm talking about a lovely pair of Ugg slippers and a cool little Holga camera. I fear I may be saving them for good.

Having been raised by folks my cousin Mary Beth affectionately calls "depression era babies", I understand well the concept of not wasting. You never know when you may need something. Right? You never want to be a spendthrift and you should always be saving for that ever looming rainy day. Bud Ricker's refrigerator has a cracked shelf and occasionally sounds like it's warming up to be launched into space. Still he says it works fine so it would be silly to replace it. My family always kept a few old clothes in the back of the closet for painting or other dirty chores. I confess to having my own little "for painting" pile on a shelf. After my mother died this summer, we found brand new sweaters in her dresser presumably saved for good. Whatever that good was, it didn't come in time. 

Family legend tells of my grandmother buying my Grampa a pair of new slippers. As the story goes she insisted he throw his old ones out because they were so worn. He resisted until one day she put them in the rubbish herself. He snuck out to the trash barrel, brought them in, and hid them in the cellar. So we're back to slippers. I have one still perfectly good pair of slippers. I also have an even older not so good pair that should be in the rubbish or, at the very least, hidden in the basement. Hence, the new Ugg slippers still in the box.

Now what about that Holga? It's a beautiful, plastic lomography camera that takes 120 film and is notorious for light leaks. It's a cult classic, a thing of beauty. I really love it. I have Ilford film for it in the freezer. I have masking tape ready in my camera bag. Yes, I have too many cameras but that's a subject for another day. I will use it, Mo. I promise. I feel that rainy day coming on soon. 

Have any of you kept things for good? Are there things you're saving for a rainy day? I'd love to hear your thoughts and your stories in the comments. 

Good-bye to the 2014 Photo Challenge

Well, it is the final day of the great 365 Day Photo Challenge and so time for the obligatory refective post. I'm glad I did it yet I'm very glad it's over. It was a worthy endeavor and I learned an awful lot, but I won't be doing another one in 2015.

Here are a few quick observations.

There's no place like home. 

Most of the shots I took were from right here at the 127. I love what I see every day looking out our back door. The view is to the southeast and the morning sky is often quite spectacular. The trees are tall and full and there are no houses or power lines to muddy up the landscape. I also found many favorite places to shoot in and around Windham and Lewiston. There was great satisfaction in seeing the familiar in new and different ways.

A dog is a woman's best friend and model.

My trio of terrible terriers made frequent appearances. Of course, my pups are all extremely good looking, but more importantly they were always here and willing to help when the weather was lousy and I hadn't gotten a daily shot. 

Your sister is your first and best friend.

Although Pam gets honorable mention for the third place finisher, the one who stuck with this right beside me the entire year was my sister, Deb. Even though we lost our mother in August and missed a few days, we kept taking pictures and finished up strong. I loved seeing her photos, especially those of that mysterious catalpa tree. We both had a lot fun commenting back and forth on the Pinterest board. And, hey, I just love my sister.

 Photo by Deb Cleveland

Most of my photos are crappy. But some of them are pretty good. 

I have a lot to learn about photography. Lighting is an ongoing mystery and flash photography is downright baffling. As soon as I get the exposure correct, the damned light changes. Timing takes great practice. That "decisive moment" eludes me more often than not. Planning shots is a lot of work and sometimes feels too contrived to me.  Once in awhile a quick snapshot can do the job. Most of the time what you see is not at all what you get. Still I have a few photographs that I am proud of and may even print and frame.

Post processing is a blessing and a curse.

I learned to use Lightroom this year. It's amazing software. I'm blown away by how much you can do to a raw image to bring out details you never even saw. I love being able to correct the dreaded white balance and add clarity and sharpness where needed. Being able to fix mistakes and improve your images is appealing but also addictive. I made a lot of those rookie over processing errors as I went along. I also wasted a lot of time that I could have used out shooting. This year I want to get it right in camera. I also want to shoot some film. 

It's not the gear that makes the difference. 

I used several different cameras for this challenge - two different DSLRs, several point and shoots, my iPhone, and my pride and joy Fuji X-T1.  Yes, some cameras are better than others but what matters most is what you see and where you stand. 

Thanks to all of you who participated. May you keep making photographs. 

Happy New Year, Folks.

Photo by Pam Hodenberg

365 Day Photo Challenge Board

Don't Over Customize

 So, yeah, I got a new iPad. We're quite rough on electronics here at the 127 and my old one had a cracked screen. (No, I did not drop it purposely when I heard he Air 2 was being released). For me getting a new device is not only exciting but a perfect opportunity to reorganize and to revisit app selections, blog subscriptions, and news feeds. I'm starting  fresh and only installing the things I really use. But while I'm purging and editing,  I'm also being reminded of what I perceive as a dangerous trend, over customizing. 

I can tell Facebook what I want to see and don't want to see. I can pick my news sources and blogs in Feedly. I can follow only the boards that interest me in Pinterest, make Twitter lists, and select specific Communities in Google+. That's great, right? Sure. In many respects these kinds of choices save us time and make our lives easier. I'm not inclined to read things that don't interest me so why should I bother to weed through them? Well, maybe, just maybe, I'm missing something important.

Remember magazines, anyone? Life, Look, Time, Newsweek? Did you ever read a daily newspaper? These were publications that gave us a little bit of everything. We were exposed to unfamiliar stories and issues and to opinions that differed from our own. Of course, we didn't read every article and editorial anymore than we open every single link today. But they were there for us if we wanted them often complete with pictures. Yes, pictures that we might not otherwise have seen. We were able to broaden our world view and prepare ourselves to be better Jeopardy players just by thumbing through the pages. 

The Internet gives us access to just about everything. It's amazing to me what I can see and discover here on the web. How expansive and mind-bogglingly broad it all is! I think we should embrace it and open ourselves up a little more. When we over customize we close ourselves in. We become too fixed and polarized. Have you been watching any of those horribly misleading and divisive political ads? Are you exclusively Fox News or MS NBC? Is it "my way or the highway" ? Perhaps your perspective has shrunk. Maybe you're over customizing. 

Where's the 2, Apple?

My big, belated birthday present arrived last night. (Yes, people still do get presents after 60) It was a couple of weeks late because my gifted gifter thought an iPad Air 2 would be better than the soon to be obsolete, plain old iPad Air. I, of course, agreed. Who doesn't want the latest and the greatest gizmo available?  

So, last evening was the long-anticipated unboxing. Who could have imagined the chaos and confusion that ensued? You see, there is no 2 anywhere on the box or on the actual device.

Given our shared and somewhat jaded perspective of a world where people don't care, don't check, or simply don't know, we assumed a mistake had been made. We were not happy. We were ready to head back to to the store to tell that careless clerk a thing or two before we figured it out by googling the parts number on the box and came to our senses. 

How do you identify which iPad is which? By measuring the width? By weighing it? Nope. You have to check the model numbers. Why Apple? Why? How hard would it be to just stick a damned 2 on there? Just wonderin'.