Mid-Town

It is six months since I've been in my new place. And I still really like it. My bedroom needs a "redo". I need to get rid of the credenza/filing cabinet. It's a beautiful piece of furniture. It feels like it has been with me forever. It has a pretty versatile look. I've realized my place doesn't really have room for the piece. There are a few pieces that I will be moving out. 

I've found a crew that will hang my pictures in the second week in July. I need to clear out the bedroom so that we can get things hung and everything starts to really feel like home. 

My new apartment (the one I'm in now) is in "Mid-Town". Here is my view when I'm walking the dog. I love the little bit of urbanness in my view. It's nice that it is so different from my previous places. 

Not much going on in my neck of the woods. Just thought I'd share what my Mid-Town looks like in my complex.

What I've Not Been Doing

I'm still sheltering in place, at least basically. I'm at home now. I ventured out for dog and cat food, but I still didn't replenish my own food supply. I have done the bare minimum of housekeeping the past couple of weeks. I don't know what happened.

When I lived in my place in Durham, I usually cleaned every Saturday morning. Really cleaned. I mopped, I dusted, I cleaned the bathroom (in all its glory). It was just something I did. I didn't feel I could relax until I did it.

A friend called last night and I paused Netflix to talk. While talking my eyes landed on the space behind the television and all I could think about was it needed to be dusted. But, it was lateish...so when we hung up I went back to Netflix without another thought about dust.

Remember how I innocently thought I would learn to cook during this forced "Stay At Home" movement. I started out sort of strong. Breakfast was a hit with eggs and bacon or eggs and sausage and twice I made myself a delightful french toast.

Perhaps I got too ambitious. You know it takes a lot of pots and pans to make just a simple something for me. Why is that? Then I'm annoyed because I'm not sure the food was actually worth the effort of cleaning.

Last Sunday I found another trail to explore. The trail is on an old country road near where I grew up. When I was growing up it was just an "old country road", now it's a fairly busy connector between Chapel Hill and Durham. I took my camera again. I hope to make taking the camera an automatic part of all of my tiny adventures. Anyway, I didn't want to go to the grocery store all sweaty from my little hike.

May is one of my favorite months. Of course, the wonderful Mother's Day is in May, but more importantly, it is my birthday month. You'll recall for the past two years I took a little vacation on my birthday. The first birthday vacation was Costa Rica! Which was pretty incredible. I'm so glad my daughter and I took that time for ourselves. Last year I spent the weekend and a Bed & Breakfast in Wilmington. I had it in my head that I may do that again. I was considering that before the Pandemic. The Governor has now implemented Stage I of loosening quarantine restrictions, which went into effect yesterday at 5:00.

I suppose I could call to see if the B&B is open. Although, I'm not sure it's what I really want to do. I've got my dog and cat to think about...when and where to board them, etc. It's a whole thing.

I'll keep you posted on what (if anything) I decide to do this year.

Meanwhile, Happy Mother's Day!!!!

The One With a Six Foot "Hello"

Saturday is my go to the grocery store day. Except, I didn't. My initial "shelter in place" plan was to learn to cook. Or at least start to cook. You can guess that I'm not cooking today. I did cook last weekend though. I had thin slices of roast beef in the freezer to cook up for some version of a Philly Cheesesteak Sub. I've been out of bread for maybe two weeks, so I had to improvise. Luckily I have texas toast in the freezer. It is three-cheese toast, a nice hearty bread.  I cooked up the meat and at first, it was tasteless. So I added a little beef bullion as it cooked. It helped. The sandwich was okay. Really not bad.

Today I drove to Durham to pick up my prescriptions. I know I need to move them to a pharmacy closer to me, but it's a pain. The last time I did that only some of the Rx came over and it was so painful to go pick up my prescriptions to find that only one was filled "here" and the others were at the "old" pharmacy. I just can't get excited about trying to make that switch. Most of my meds are on a 90-day cycle, so it's not bad. When I'm in Durham I'm already really close to my Dad's house, so I swing by there for a 6-foot distance "hello".

I brought my camera. There are a few old weathered barns and houses that I have wanted to get pictures of for years. Today I got a few of this beauty.

This may look like a barn, but it really is not. This was an auto mechanic's garage. Not a commercial garage but where the owner took his car for oil changes. The garage has an oil pit (on the left side). I know about the oil pit because I've driven by the garage for the last ten years. When I first got back to town, it was in better shape. Not good shape, mind you, but better shape. I could see the oil pits more clearly then. I took this shot with my new DSLR. The one that I finally got set up for my walk the other week.

The camera feels so good in my hand. I love to be able to put my eye up to the viewfinder. I love the experience of shooting with what I think of as a real camera.  Don't get me wrong, I really dig the cameras in our smartphones. I just find that my pics are more thought out when I use the SLR. More meditative.

I loved how it felt while I was out today. This garage is across the street from a restaurant and a post office. I was able to take the photos from across the road. The land with the garage used to be in a somewhat rural area. Suburbia just grew up around it.

It's important that I get out there with my camera again. It's the only way to disarm my feelings of being an imposter. I really am a photographer. I need to become comfortable carrying my camera into the world. My camera needs to come with me on my urban hikes, and not just on mountain retreats.

You may remember when I took my camera out on my walk a couple of weeks ago, I was disappointed I could not get better photos of the eagle. I do need a more powerful telephoto lens for that type of photography. Looking closely at the images you can see the eagle. You can sort of see that it is an eagle. I am sharing it with you here just so you can be in awe that I was this close to an eagle. The only way I could really see the eagle was by expanding the image on my PC screen. I know that cropping it down for you makes for a crap pic...but today, it's the thought that counts.