Post a good thing that happened in your life today

[Mr Standfast]

I'm sat in the Cafe at Bristol Central Library. If you add a pound to your bill the cafe will put a marble in a jar on the counter.

 

Anybody down on their luck can come in and take a marble out of the jar and get a free hot drink, no questions asked.

 

Just thought I'd share.

 

🦔

[sb photos]

4 hours ago, Mr Standfast said:

I'm sat in the Cafe at Bristol Central Library. If you add a pound to your bill the cafe will put a marble in a jar on the counter.

 

Anybody down on their luck can come in and take a marble out of the jar and get a free hot drink, no questions asked.

 

Just thought I'd share.

 

🦔

 

An excellent idea.

[Michael Ventura]

An old friend and photographer I assisted when I was just starting out, just sent me a page of transparencies he had taken of me while on on shoots back in the late 70s and early 80s.  Cameron Davidson did a lot of corporate and editorial photography....can't remember why we were on this frozen over creek.  Nice to look back on the 25 yr old me, would love to have the hair back! At 26 I went totally on my own scratching out a living in photography from then on.

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by Michael Ventura

[Cecile Marion]

What a nice photo for you to receive from your friend.
At 25 I thought I was mature, wise and knowledgeable. 😆

[Michael Ventura]

3 hours ago, Cecile Marion said:

What a nice photo for you to receive from your friend.
At 25 I thought I was mature, wise and knowledgeable. 😆

Yep, me too.  I texted the photo to both of my kids, they got a kick out of it, since they are right about the age as I was then.  They are 25 and 27.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Michael Ventura

[John Mitchell]

Very nice photo of you, Michael.

 

Hair today, gone tomorrow...

 

I'm sure you have more left than I do. 👴

[Cecile Marion]

1 hour ago, Michael Ventura said:

Yep, me too.  I texted the photo to both my kids, they got a kick out of it, since they are right about the age as I was then.  They are 25 and 27.

My four children are just a little bit older and they’re so smart. They know EVERYTHING. 😄 

My youngest will be getting married soon, so we’ll have a big family gathering, complete with children, grandchildren, in-laws and outlaws. It should be lots of fun, but also exhausting. 

[CAROL SAUNDERS]

6 hours ago, Michael Ventura said:

An old friend and photographer I assisted when I was just starting out, just sent me a page of transparencies he had taken of me while on on shoots back in the late 70s and early 80s.  Cameron Davidson did a lot of corporate and editorial photography....can't remember why we were on this frozen over creek.  Nice to look back on the 25 yr old me, would love to have the hair back! At 26 I went totally on my own scratching out a living in photography from then on.

 

Wow how lovely, needs to be printed out and framed one each for you and your children😄

 

Carol

[Michael Ventura]

It would be fun to see photos of all of us, older and wiser folks, back in your 20s!  Maybe a new thread?

[NYCat]

Spring! Two of the trees in our courtyard garden are starting to get leaves. Of course, there is snow coming tomorrow but I doubt that it will amount to much.

 

Paulette

[Betty LaRue]

My sister had hand surgery last week. She has a recheck appointment tomorrow to get the soft cast off, the hard one on. I will drive 60 miles to her house to pick her up, then take her another 100 miles to Oklahoma City where the specialist practices. A good 320 miles round trip.

The good thing is we haven’t seen each other in a few months, so we’ll have gal/sister catch-up time on the long drive. 
She’s the retired RN sister who came up to where I was in the rehab hospital for 3 weeks, when I was fading fast. She braced the medical staff to find out what the 4-day-old blood draw had to say. They never told me I was so severely anemic that explained why my body was so starved for oxygen that when I tried to walk more than 30-40 feet, I gasped for air, & my blood pressure fell to 70/40-ish.
I didn’t know when I went there after my back surgery that was the place you came to die. I mistakenly thought it was the place I would heal & get stronger.  Sis tore them away from their cell phones & computer games at the desk & found out blood results in spite of their not wanting to tell her! Then my kids bought me iron pills to take, that slowly restored my blood to normal so the red blood cells could carry oxygen again.

This is the stuff close families do for each other.

[Betty LaRue]

7 minutes ago, NYCat said:

Spring! Two of the trees in our courtyard garden are starting to get leaves. Of course, there is snow coming tomorrow but I doubt that it will amount to much.

 

Paulette

I have seen swollen buds here. Today will be close to 70, just a couple of degrees under.

[NYCat]

3 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I have seen swollen buds here. Today will be close to 70, just a couple of degrees under.

 

Wonderful. Your weather always comes to me.

 

Paulette

[gvallee]

2 hours ago, NYCat said:

Spring! Two of the trees in our courtyard garden are starting to get leaves. Of course, there is snow coming tomorrow but I doubt that it will amount to much.

 

Paulette

 

Still the monsoon here but hot. There has been heavy rain this week, like 200mm in one day. We're camped about 5m from the beach. Yesterday there was a strong offshore wind which pushed the rain through vents at the back of our motorhome. So wet mattress, wet pillows, water infiltrated underneath the mattress and soaked what I had skillfully stowed flat there: anorak (ha ha never used in 4 years), spare sheets. What a mess! What a stink! 

 

Wait! It's the good news thread! Good news is that incredibly, the sun came out for a couple of hours and I was able to dry everything. We've also booked our vehicle in a garage to have the vent removed. It was legally requested in its previous life as a bus but not as a motorhome. So all will be good and sorted. 

[StokeCreative]

On 25/02/2023 at 23:45, Michael Ventura said:

It would be fun to see photos of all of us, older and wiser folks, back in your 20s!  Maybe a new thread?

start us off Michael

 

[gvallee]

I feel bad for posting so much in the Bad News thread while having a wonderful life, so here we are, something happy.

 

We're not exactly on the road again but a break in the monsoon weather gave us the opportunity to go camping again. We are by a lovely lake created by a dam. The dam is currently overflowing, a rare and wonderful sight of the spillway running. 

 

We have a campfire going. Ha! Our campfires... Another disaster today. Being in a nature reserve, we are not allowed to collect any fire wood. So we dutifully bought some at a servo (petrol station). What c**p wood they sell! It reminds me of a meme: imagination versus reality. Image of a barbecue party, cooking sausages on the barbie surrounded by beautiful women in skimpy outfits. Reality: smoke blowing into our face 😆 

 

Anyway. The campfire smells nice, we're watching a wonderful sunset over the lake with a glass of cool white wine in hand. There's people canoeing on the lake facing sunset. One guy is even in the water with a can of beer in hand. Life is peaceful. 

 

I don't want to be boasting, it's only to make Edo feel better after his comment in the Bad News thread to which I have been guilty of reporting dreaful news.

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by gvallee

[Betty LaRue]

Ended up driving 350 miles round trip to get my sister to her post op doctor’s appointment. Lots of good conversation. I had forgotten how dreadful the traffic is in Oklahoma City, where I lived for 30 years. I’ll never cuss Wichita traffic again.

After the appointment, we went to a favorite Mexican food restaurant unavailable where each of us live. We found the menu changed & confusing from the last time we ate there. Fewer “dinner plates” listed & more individual items. Probably a way to hide price increases.

All in all, a good day, but I was exhausted by the time I got home. I’m appreciating my easy chair this morning.

[Cal]

I shot my first roll of film in 10 years and got the scans back from the lab today. It was pretty much a success, which makes up for the fact that I probably chose the most expensive time to get back into shooting film. The camera was a cheap buy off ebay and works with most of my modern lenses.

 

I leaned towards overexposure a bit too much in some shots, so I've got loads of shadow detail but the brights look very dense. It'll be interesting when I scan the negs on my own setup to see how much usable latitude Gold 200 has. 

 

Am I ready to shoot the E100 in my fridge yet? Er, no. I'll be saving that one for a bit longer!

[Betty LaRue]

I just took my son to the airport. He’s spending a few days with his daughter in North Carolina, and I’ll dog sit Sophie until Sunday afternoon. Sophie is 12 years old but acts like she’s 4 or 5, healthy, has her hearing & eyesight like a young’un. She’s very sweet & obedient, so we’ll enjoy each other. I keep her often as Jeff jets here & there.

 

[Bryan]

On 01/03/2023 at 14:56, Betty LaRue said:

Ended up driving 350 miles round trip to get my sister to her post op doctor’s appointment. Lots of good conversation. I had forgotten how dreadful the traffic is in Oklahoma City, where I lived for 30 years. I’ll never cuss Wichita traffic again.

 

Got to admire your stamina Betty. I don't like driving at all and my dislike of it increases as I get older. We are going to our son's house on Monday, 89 miles each way and that's far too far for me !  Hopefully we might catch an interesting discussion on the radio, but I regard driving generally as a waste of my life.

[gvallee]

27 minutes ago, Bryan said:

Got to admire your stamina Betty. I don't like driving at all and my dislike of it increases as I get older. We are going to our son's house on Monday, 89 miles each way and that's far too far for me !  Hopefully we might catch an interesting discussion on the radio, but I regard driving generally as a waste of my life.

 

Each time you bring up the subject, I get more and more bemused. You mentioned that you used to tow a caravan, which I never had the guts to do, all the more difficult that you towed it in Europe on the wrong side of the road. Plus the manoeuvring on the ferry I guess. It takes guts. 

[Betty LaRue]

3 hours ago, Bryan said:

Got to admire your stamina Betty. I don't like driving at all and my dislike of it increases as I get older. We are going to our son's house on Monday, 89 miles each way and that's far too far for me !  Hopefully we might catch an interesting discussion on the radio, but I regard driving generally as a waste of my life.

I don’t particularly enjoy driving so far, but my sister had no way to get to her post op appointment 110 miles from her house other than drive herself. It had been less than a week since she was under general anesthesia, and she had a drain in her right hand & a soft cast. Her hand was useless. No way would I allow her to drive herself. I live about 70 miles the other way from her.
Just a few years ago, I braved I-40 east to go to Tennessee when my son’s wife was dying (at home where she wanted to be) from breast cancer, to help him & her. That drive was 1000 miles each way. I drove it in one day each way. That really took 12 hours of endurance each direction. That highway (interstate) is heavily used by semi-trucks and is the worst highway to drive. The trucks box you in or you have to kick it up briefly to 85 miles an hour to keep from getting boxed in. If it’s raining & they box you in, the stuff thrown on the windshield (windscreen) blinds you. Horrible. It happened to me. Driving blind.

You would do it, too, Bryan, for family.

Edited March 5, 2023 by Betty LaRue

[gvallee]

19 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I don’t particularly enjoy driving so far, but my sister had no way to get to her post op appointment 110 miles from her house other than drive herself. It had been less than a week since she was under general anesthesia, and she had a drain in her right hand & a soft cast. Her hand was useless. No way would I allow her to drive herself. I live about 70 miles the other way from her.
Just a few years ago, I braved I-40 east to go to Tennessee when my son’s wife was dying (at home where she wanted to be) from breast cancer, to help him & her. That drive was 1000 miles each way. I drove it in one day each way. That really took 12 hours of endurance each direction. That highway (interstate) is heavily used by semi-trucks and is the worst highway to drive. The trucks box you in or you have to kick it up briefly to 85 miles an hour to keep from getting boxed in. If it’s raining & they box you in, the stuff thrown on the windshield (windscreen) blinds you. Horrible. It happened to me. Driving blind.

You would do it, too, Bryan, for family.

 

I appreciate that everyone is different, no problems. I've said it before, I've always loved driving. Since the beginning of this trip, we've driven 84,000km (52,200miles) and I'm the main driver.

 

Last week, we took the bus to a garage and the bemused female owner asked me 'are you the one driving this?' I couldn't see anything special about it, we have many female solo travellers in the same type of bus. I just don't particularly like driving in town with it, only because it has no torque when starting again at a green light. And the visibility on the left hand side isn't great, even with a truck mirror. So being slow to start, there's always someone trying to undertake us. I don't necessarily see them.

 

As for Bryan, I was just pointing out that he had the courage to tow a caravan, which I have always chickened out of. And abroad to boot, with switched driving lanes. And in France, where I will not dwell upon the legendary drivers' impatience.

 

As an aside, you should see what crossing one of those monster road trains on the road in Oz feels like. Once, without it touching us at all, a vent on the roof exploded, just with the air pressure.

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by gvallee

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, gvallee said:

 

I appreciate that everyone is different, no problems. I've said it before, I've always loved driving. Since the beginning of this trip, we've driven 84,000km (52,200miles) and I'm the main driver.

 

Last week, we took the bus to a garage and the bemused female owner asked me 'are you the one driving this?' I couldn't see anything special about it, we have many female solo travellers in the same type of bus. I just don't particularly like driving in town with it, only because it has no torque when starting again at a green light. And the visibility on the left hand side isn't great, even with a truck mirror. So being slow to start, there's always someone trying to undertake us. I don't necessarily see them.

 

As for Bryan, I was just pointing out that he had the courage to tow a caravan, which I have always chickened out of. And abroad to boot, with switched driving lanes. And in France, where I will not dwell upon the legendary drivers' impatience.

 

As an aside, you should see what crossing one of those monster road trains on the road in Oz feels like. Once, without it touching us at all, a vent on the roof exploded, just with the air pressure.

 

We drove a RV many miles…east coast, west coast. I’m sure not as large as yours, but big enough. We accidentally got on narrow streets in San Francisco and I expected our side mirrors would hit a parked car on one side or a moving car on the other. It was white knuckle time for hubs. Then a guy got out of his paralleled park car right in front of us & I thought we’d take out his head. I let out a guttural gasp that shot straight thru hubs & made what little hair he had left stand on end. He hated my gasps but I couldn’t help it. Involuntary. 😁 My whole family hates my gasps! Spider on me, forgetting something very important then remembering it, and so on. But in a vehicle, the worst. Those gasps are worthy of murder from the driver.

I only drove it on the open highways. It takes guts & nerves of steel to do what you do.

[Bryan]

2 hours ago, gvallee said:

 

I appreciate that everyone is different, no problems. I've said it before, I've always loved driving. Since the beginning of this trip, we've driven 84,000km (52,200miles) and I'm the main driver.

 

As for Bryan, I was just pointing out that he had the courage to tow a caravan, which I have always chickened out of. And abroad to boot, with switched driving lanes. And in France, where I will not dwell upon the legendary drivers' impatience.

 

 

 

I generally enjoyed driving in France Gen, away from the cities the roads are, or were, relatively quiet. I can only recall one incidence of road rage, when a truck driver clearly thought we were going too slowly and he hooted as he overtook and pulled in in front of us far too quickly, but generally I found the French drivers understanding towards a foreigner. We sold our caravan last year for a couple of reasons, one being the 300 mile trek to the south coast to catch a ferry on the UK's crowded motorways, and the second that we were both finding it more difficult to sleep in it. Weirdly I never found myself driving on the wrong side of the road in continental Europe, but once set off on the right side a week after returning to England - fortunately no harm done. We had ten great years towing around Europe, I remain grateful that I was able to take early retirement and do it out of season. My wife never towed the van, I tried to persuade her to take a towing course, but she wasn't interested. I should perhaps add that we were both of the view that the long haul to the south coast was just too much of a drag. My wife flies down there or takes the train to visit her brother once a year.

Edited March 5, 2023 by Bryan