Blog Note: Unscheduled Vacation

Yr. Hmbl. Ed. is taking a few days off. Back soon. Thanks for your patience.

The word reminds me of one of my favorite stories. My high school students used to have to roll their own film onto the developing reels, of course in total darkness, in a separate little film-loading room off the main school darkroom. And obviously I couldn't go in there to help when someone got into trouble. So, to be supportive, I wrote an encouraging word on the wall of the film-loading room using luminescent darkroom tape.

One day I could hear a girl in there just getting more and more stressed out, swearing and moaning. Things were obviously not going well. I stood on the other side of the door, trying to soothe her and calm her down and talk her through the task.

Finally the deed was done. Or some approximation thereof. She burst out of the film-loading room, complaining angrily. "What is that word on the wall?!? Why did you put that there? PAT-EYE-ENTS. I could not figure out what that meant. What in the [expletive deleted] does PAT-EYE-ENTS mean?!?"

The word on wall, of course, was "Patience."

She did feel appropriately chagrined at herself when I broke the news to her.  :-)

Regular readers know of my fondness for random real estate
interiors found on the web...love that wall hanging....

I'll be back in a day or three. I'm not sick, not sick and tired, not tired and lonely, not unsettled or upset, not dyspeptic or discouraged or disenchanted. Just need a little down time.

Kind regards,

Mike

Comments

[Eolake Stobblehouse]

use http://blogtrottr.com
to get notice of new blog posts.

Eolake Stobblehouse

[psu]

The first time I tried to put film on a plastic developing reel it took me upwards of 40min... I recall this because the B side of a Doors LP was playing on repeat on the record player in the outer art room of my high school (the pitch dark closet was nested inside this room) and I recall hearing Light My Fire at least three times while I was in the dark.

Later I learned the trick where you can pre-load the leader on to the reels in the light and then just ratchet the film out of the film can ... which was easier. Later still I got good enough with SS reels that it didn't matter. Then finally came digital, and I gave it up for good.

[Phil]

Take your time, Mike. Not that I won't miss your posts. I check everyday (even though I know you theoretically only post every other day) but I strongly feel that January, as the days slowly get longer here in the north, is a time to re-think and restart things at your own pace. So take your time and I'll try to be patient ;-)

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Hardly ever got to load developing reels in an actual dark room; used a changing bag. Started almost immediately on stainless-steel reels, which I vastly prefer (among many other things -- they don't have to be absolutely dry to load, so if you do multiple batches, that helps a lot). Of course I botched up a few rolls in the very early days, even with sacrificing a roll to practice on in the light and then in the darkness, but that was quickly over with.

[Richard Tugwell]

I have a feeling that this Mon-Wed-Fri thing doesn't quite fit the rhythm of your inspiration. Why not just post when something strikes you, or when you have put the finishing touches to something finely crafted over time?

I'm sure the frequency of posts would adjust itself to suit most of your audience, yours truly included.

[Dan Khong]

Mike

We will be right here waiting when you come back. Take your time and enjoy the art of doing nothing. Just guessin'.

Dan K.

[Richard Parkin]

I’ll give https://blogtrottr.com/ a try as recommended by Eolake Stobblehouse though I have so far found IFTTT and the RSS feed works for new posts. We really need a way of highlighting new comments since Mike doesn’t want to make it easy for readers — a possible New Year Resolution there ;).