Extra! Extra!

Here I am with an extra hour, and I have no idea what to do with it. The smart thing would be to go to sleep early (meaning at the same time as yesterday, but an hour earlier by today's clock reading) and then have the extra hour available in the afternoon. Yes, that would make the afternoon more leisurely. After all, since it was daylight saving time, then it now must be daylight squandering time. So, I will squander this extra hour in daylight, tomorrow.

I was not pleased with the re-do of my picture CD at Long's. (Recap: the CD came back last week, and the scans were in grey scale, instead of color.) I returned it, and they redid it, and gave me a full refund for it. All well and good. But when I looked at the scans on the re-done CD, they were covered with dust specks and lint. They had not cleaned the negatives before scanning them. I think I'll have to take it back for a re-re-do. But I'm wondering if maybe I ought to clean the negatives myself, before taking them in. Can I trust the lab that screwed up twice to do it right the third time? I don't know. But I am more eager than ever to convert to digital photography as soon as possible. If that gets screwed up, at least it will be my own screw-up, or Sluggo's, not that of some nameless lab drone I've never seen, and at whom I can't even yell. And, I'll never have to worry about linty negatives again.

It is clear and cool again tonight. For some reason, I'm not finding it invigorating. In fact, I'm somewhat languid. I fear that a fit of ennui may be overtaking me. I need a project of some sort. Or maybe I need to sleep, and have dreams in which I can misplace my lassitude and wander away from it, into some more stimulating part of my imagination.

Stuffed Birds

Now that the berries on the dogwoods are ripe, flocks of small gray birds are raiding the trees all afternoon. At any moment, there may be a dozen or more birds in each tree, and the leaves are fluttering as though from a wind. The birds fly to the tree, pluck a berry, then fly back across the street to the pine tree in the yard next door to my house. I suppose they like to eat in a quiet spot, and the dogwoods are never quiet. There must have been close to five dozen birds feasting at one time this afternoon. Although the branches are heavy with bright red berries, I don't think they'll last very long at this rate.

I hope to get some pictures of the trees tomorrow, before they are no longer red. The light was not right today, as the sky was mostly overcast. The clouds broke up a bit for sunset , though, and the sky was a delightful combination of lavender, blue and hot pink. October has some of the best sunsets, here. Unfortunately, the best place for taking pictures of them is no longer available, as a house is being built there. Everywhere else, the pine trees block the horizon, and considerably more. I'd like to be able to get over to the canyon on the other side of town, but it's a very long walk, and the return would be in the dark. Busy two-lane roads without sidewalks or streetlights are no place to walk after dark. Trip over a raccoon, or get hit by a pickup-driving cowboy; one or the other is inevitable.