New Glasses and Lazy-Asses

I've been putting up with inferior glasses for far too long.  I bought my last pair of glasses in July of 2007.  I have never been happy with them since the day I bought them, but that was mostly quality of frames and such.  It wasn't until a year or two later that the coating started peeling off the lenses.  In the last year or so I've been looking through a bluish fog.  They have been horrible.  Note to anyone out there:  Don't go near Vista Optical.  I got these new glasses at Costco, and they work great.  I remember what I hate about getting new glasses every time I get new glasses:  The get-used-to-them period.

We have all been really getting into the swing of taking a picture every day for our individual 365 picture projects.  Sometimes it's a total pain to come up with something usable, but like Suzie says, it helps you be a better photographer.  It forces you to think outside your comfort zone and come up with something even when you thought there was little or nothing to come up with.  She's right.  It also opens your eyes.  We all spend our days with wandering eyes--Wondering about every little thing we see and whether it is a candidate for some camera action.  A good example is last night when we both took our cameras into one of our local Goodwill stores.  How could you not come up with something good in there?

Last weekend was a good one for photos.  We spent the day Saturday up north in Skagit county, wandering the rural back roads.  We knew that the tulips that the area is famous for would all be gone, and we also knew sporadic rain was predicted, but both of them probably worked in our favor.  I know the weather did, because the stormy sky was awesome in almost every picture we took that day.  As far as the tulips go, sure it would have been nice to see the fields of color, but we also were not cursed with the hordes of people that descend on the area during tulip time.  They come by busloads.  We got off the freeway well before we needed to and meandered the smaller roads and highways, doing our favorite "Hmm.. I wonder what's down this road?" thing.  There was also a lot of, "Stop!  Back up!" from Suzie when something special greeted her camera eye.

I have been working my butt off at work lately.  I find myself very serious at work these days, and that's not the way I used to be.  I was always a fun-loving person--A person that worked hard when the work had to be done, but was never without some sort of quip to toss out there at just the right moment to invoke a smile from somebody.  I noticed recently that it's a characteristic that I've put behind me.  Now I find myself scowling at people at work that spend almost their whole day walking around shooting the bull.  Every time I hear laughing (which is often) I note that it is always the same people.  I can't help but seethe when I have to work so hard just to keep my head above water, when others have all day to meander around and interrupt everyone else with comments.  I won't mention any names on here because last time I did that it was a near disaster.  The foreman (who is barely computer literate) decided to Google his full name, which is unusual, and one of the first hits that came up was my blog.  Imagine my surprise (or fright--It wasn't a post I wanted him to read by any means) when I heard about it!  Anyway, back to the antics of the people.  It also upsets me that TJ has to share an office with the foreman--He seems to be a catalyst for the inane banter that constantly permeates the shop.  At least half the time it is taking place in that office while he is trying to concentrate on his work.  How can people be that stupid or oblivious?  Do they not see that he is trying to work?  TJ is in the same boat as I am, but he is working even harder than I am.  We both try to tune out the constant idiocy around us, but yet it's there all the time--Eating at us and trying to dislodge our thought processes.  I don't know about TJ, but I have a lot of trouble concentrating on something.  I have to pay attention to what I'm doing.

While the shop is descending more into a bunch of lackadaisical drifters the owners are less visible than ever--Apparently still planning their secret project.  I'll tell you--It's not the same shop I was hired in to almost 8 years ago.  Phil ruled the roost with discipline back then.