Ratpuke7 – Page 6 – Tao and Zen

Tuesday, July 18th 2023 …art…

There is never enough time in the day. It’s always something. The baby shower went well, unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures. That the hell kind of photographer am I going to make? I was so inundated with work from a getting everything together perspective, clean the house, cook the food, organize things, etc. I didn’t have time to think about photography and that was a bummer in retrospect. What’s a dad to do?

I got a Nikon D850 on eBay and am selling my D810. The main differences are the 2 is the extra 10Mp of resolution, the extra 2 fps, the upgraded chipset, the built-in wireless, better video and faster memory card support.

As I learn, I will post. I purchased the memory cards I will be using and instead of relying on the ability to upload and clear photos, I decided to take the plunge and bought 1 TB memory cards – both CFExpress and microXDSC. It may seem like overkill, but I figured I’d rather grow with it instead of outgrowing it almost immediately.

-Rat

Monday, July 10th 2023… I got nothin’…

I took last week off from work and have been getting ready for Lauren and Michael’s baby shower. During the week, I did a bunch of doctors’ appointments, ran errands, I took my hybrid into Richards to get the wheel fixed and put back on. Ill say one thing – the week flew by.

I am trying to do a couple of extra things from an art perspective. I am going to try and do some more of photography and do a color class in addition to my painting classes.

-Rat

Tuesday, June 6th 2023… a quick update…

I was futzin’ around today with the site (got some new caching) and figured that I had better do a quick update before June is over. Over Memorial Day weekend, we went up to Michigan to my bro-in-laws house on a lake. The short update is we brought the 4-wheeler scooter on the lift on the back of the minivan and strapped the hybrid to it. On the way home, traffic was horrendous and we took a GPS shortcut home. We got off at Cline Ave & The Indiana Toll Road (I90). There was a string of pot-holes that bounced the car so much, it shook the back tire right off the bike and dragged it underneath. The only thing that was holding it on was the chain! Ugh. It’s hard to find good roads these days. Back to Richards.

-Rat

Acrylic wash on 300lb Arches

Thursday, May 11th 2023… Back in the saddle again…

Back from vacation and back to work – ugh. It was nice getting away, but it was also nice coming home – to mount laundry! Na, it was good to get back to familiar surroundings (my own bed and shower). We flew into Tampa to visit my daughter and son-in-law who were married last April in Vegas and had since moved to Tampa during last September’s hurricane. My son also came in from Baltimore for a couple of days while we were there. It was great to see them since we missed seeing them last Christmas holiday, due to the snowstorm! Although we didn’t stay with them, we stayed fairly close in downtown Tampa. I found out that I will be a grandfather – god willing. We visited the river walk, the armature works, aquarium, and lettuce lake, and I also got to ride an electric scooter! It was nice going out to dinner and catching up, watch a sunset, and just hang out.

We then travelled to Key West. The vibe reminded me a lot of New Orleans – a slushie bar on every corner (or so it seemed). I got to see the Hemmingway house, the lighthouse, the Southernmost point in the continental US, where US 1 starts (mile marker 0), a butterfly conservatory, roosters, some kitschy houses, Key-lime pie, and walked ragged. It’s tough keeping up with a determined woman on a scooter 🙂

After Key West, we traveled up the Key’s to Islamorada to check out “Robbies”. An interesting little place that had awesome milkshakes and where you got to feed the Tarpon and “fence” with a pelican. From there it was off to Miami!

Miami was interesting and really made me appreciate Spanish. Everyone spoke the language and for the first time in my life, I appreciated it and wished that I had learned it. We rubbed elbows with the famous at Fontainebleu on Miami Beach. Wow, is all I can say – a fish out of water 🙂 We went and saw Wynwood Walls (a very cool graffiti museum) and visited the art deco district of South Beach.

-Rat

Thursday, April 13th 2023… All good things must come to an end…

Just sayin’… CityBBQ has left Orland Park. I’m bummed. I feel like I tried, but it just wasn’t good enough. CityBBQ came to Orland somewhere around April 2018 and was frequented by me as often as I could. As an older guy though, I figured I have to start putting my health and waistline above my love for BBQ. So, as I would drive by to and from art class, I would gaze lovingly on the building and think of plates of BBQ past. My personal favorite was the ribs. The quality never disappointed. I’ve been to a lot of BBQ places where quality was suspect, and the amount of fat was disappointing. A place or 2 in Lemont comes to mind. That aside, I felt that a BBQ place on that side of town was a bad location. If you would have put it over by the Patio on the Tiney side of East Orland or where Fry the Coop is, it would have rocked! I think the Orland/Tinley population just didn’t want to drive to the other side of Orland for BBQ.

-Rat

Tuesday, April 11th 2023… I finally got out!…

I finally got out on a bike last Friday, it was about 70F outside and it was lovely!

I picked my bike up from Richards and they did a really nice job on it! New wheels – yay! Saturday, we went to the outlet mall and walked most of the day and I was beat Saturday night. Sunday, (Easter) was a day of recuperation. I still have to put a new battery in my cadence meter and take my little speedometer magnet from my old wheel. But other than that, I am ready for this season.

-Rat