Our Wedding Anniversary was last Wednesday, June 5th. We get so wrapped up in daily routines and work that we often don't find time for ourselves. Right now Mrs Skoot is recouperating at home due to recent surgery and at this late stage in my life, I decided to just take a vacation day away from work and spend a relaxing day together.
There was no pressure to do anything and we were dilly dallying around so I made a simple breakfast at home
I love bacon & eggs. Mrs Skoot preferred to have cream of wheat and yogurt instead with a slice of toast and jam. It was now close to noon so we decided that we had better get rolling. I didn't know where to go but Mrs Skoot wanted to get her new car washed and I'm happy to oblige . . .
So here I am sitting in the sun, Washing our Car. It's hard work but some one has to do it.
When we bought our Subaru we were offered a multitude of "extras" and one package was discounted to the point where it would have been foolish to pass it up. I can't remember what it was called but it includes up to 3 oil/lube/filter changes per year for as long as you own this car. It also included leather protection to keep it clean and also the leather would be repaired if it got damaged, or replaced if it could not be repaired. It also came with lifetime car washes. You could come everyday to have your car washed if you wanted, and Mrs Skoot has been here on several Saturdays just to have a clean car
Here we see the lot person performing the car wash, which incidently includes an interior vacuuming. Today's our special day and it felt nice to be driving a clean car
Eventually our car is returned to us and we continue on our way. We decide to head to Langley and go to our car club meeting. We are a few hours early so we drive around on some new roads and do some window shopping to pass the time
We forgot that we didn't have lunch so we head to a restaurant for an early dinner/snack. Good thing too since my stomach was starting to hurt from lack of food
Mrs Skoot has the delicious fish tacos (on the right), and I order the bacon/cheese hamburger, except that they got my order wrong and delivered the cajun chicken sandwich with fries. I really wanted the beef instead of the chicken but I was hungry and didn't say anything to our server.
When I was growing up I was always told to eat everything that was in front of me, and so I did. These are our last two french fries. I know we shouldn't have eaten them all up, but they were sitting in front of us and I have no will power
I'm not Scottish but I am frugal and don't normally order dessert but today was special and Mrs Skoot insisted
so we ended up with this banana cake creation with carmelized sugar topped with ice cream.
Before long we headed to our car club meeting, which is held at the GM dealership and when the meeting was over some of us wanted to go for a beverage at the A&W in Cloverdale.
Mrs Skoot had the root beer milkshake, while I had the root beer float
MMMMmm, I know, the glass looks large but I polished it off in no time and was wishing for more
Today (Friday), on my way home I decided to stop at the local camera store. When I go on bike trips I usually carry 4 cameras and a couple of extra lenses for my Canon or Sony NEX. Camera equipment takes up a lot of room and this year I am space challenged. I consider my Canon my good camera and I usually have my Tamron 17-55 DI-II 2.8 mounted, but I also take my 55-250mm telephoto. My telephoto doesn't get much use as I keep it in my sidecase and it is not convenient to get it out and put it back so as a result it doesn't get much use. While this lens is sharp, it has little contrast and I usually have to run it through software otherwise the photos look drab and dull.
I have an excellent Sigma 10-20mm ultra wide angle lens which I don't use much but the colours and contrast are outstanding. I wanted to use this lens more but then I have to leave my telephoto at home as I don't want to bring both as they take too much room. During the past few days I noticed that Sigma was having a lens sale
This lens was discounted $150. so naturally I took it home. This is a Super Zoom, All-In-One lens. It is not a pro lens by any means but it should be good enough for my purpose. It has the USM: UltraSonic Motor so it focuses fairly fast. I have read several reviews and it is not so good "wide open" but during the day if you stop it down it should be sharp. It is better than the Tamron 18-270 DI-II which has problems with autofocusing and slow focus speed.
If I need to shoot in lower light I am still bringing my Sony NEX-5N and I have the 16mm 2.8 . I recently also purchased the wide angle adapter for this lens and it appears to be sharp enough for me
I plan to do more testing this weekend but so far I think I am going to like this lens. It is very small for its long zoom range and it also has the Macro function
What a lovely day to sit & bask in the sunshine & watch others clean your car. :) lunch looked yummy. I love A&W root beer floats. We used to go to ones that had car service, man how things have changed. Looks like it was a lovely day you both had.
ReplyDeleteDar:
DeleteI prefer floats over milkshakes and we have them at home all the time. It was nice to have a relaxing day with no set schedule.
It must be tough to watch others work, that's why it takes special qualities to become a manager ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely time spent together. I am sure Mrs Scoot has enjoyed it to the fullest, and I wish her continuous speedy recovery.
Sonja:
Deletethings seem to be progressing nicely. She stopped using her walker last week and now uses just one cane. I try to make sure she doesn't have to walk far, and carry everything for her.
Looks like a good way to spend the day! More pictures of the '59 to '62? Corvette please.
ReplyDeleteOh, and is that a "Wonder Bar" radio?
DeleteErik:
Deletetoday was our Corvette Club's show and shine. I forgot to look at the radio but it may be a "wunderbar"
I've always been wary of all-in-one lenses, but I know you bought this for the convenience of the trip. I hope it works out well!
ReplyDeleteMartha:
DeleteI used that lens all day today and I think it's great ! I really like it. I was able to shoot many shots really fast, ones where a P&S would "miss" the moment.
Bob
ReplyDeleteI note that Mrs Skoot eats healthy food!
Why do you take only 4 cameras with you on bike trips?
Congratulations to you both - I forgot to say this before because I was pre-occupied on my last post with a failed ignition switch my GS. This is the only cvoonent not to be covered by the expensive BMW extended warranty!
All the bes TTF from sunny Cheshire
Nikos:
DeleteHealthy food doesn't taste as good as junque food.
My reason for being is to photograph. It would kill me to see a scene and not be able to snap a picture so I like to carry a reasonably good camera. I worry that if this camera were to fail then I would not get good quality photos capable of being enlarged so I also carry a "backup" good camera. In my case I used a Canon T2i and my backup is the Sony NEX-5N. I also need a P&S camera to take one handed photos while riding and then there's the bike videos where I have my GoPro Hero3. Sometimes I even carry a dedicated videoCam. I also have a Lumix full HD camcorder. which I used today
Are you sure you don't just have a defective ignition Key instead ?
Bob,
DeleteAt the bottom of the ignition key lock assemble there is a plastic box which contians 2 micro switches - these are actuated by a spindle driven cam when the key is turned. In my case the ignition did not alweays "boot up" and the situation was becoming progressively worse. If the key was defective (eg ring antenna transponder) then an "EWS" warning would probably have shown.
PS
ReplyDeleteExcuse the typos above, my Android thingy requires petite fingers
Nikos:
DeletePetite your fingers are NOT ! Of course I am just guessing as I have never seen them
You're making me hungry with all those food shots!
ReplyDeleteDom
Dom:
DeleteIt was tasty but not somewhere I would normally go. I prefer more economical alternatives
I sure like Mrs. Skoot's Subaru. Not just the white, but the model. Sometimes I wish we'd waited until that model came out. Ours is paid for so we could trade it but it is only two years old and so that doesn't seem right or fiscally responsible.
ReplyDeleteTrobairitz:
DeleteWe just love our Subaru Crosstrek XV. We get such good gas mileage. It is unbelievable ! as compared to our previous WRX, which was a gas guzzler
We originally purchased the Impreza sports wagon but then we found out about this new model and waited 6 months for it to arrive
Our Forester was the first year of the new engine and gets about 20 mpg in the city and 24 on the highway if we are lucky. Not impressed with the gas mileage but love the car.
DeleteLooks like a wonderful way to spend the day - and you get a new toy at the end, how great is that? I'm struggling with the whole camera thing right now too. We're taking a bike trip to the Grand Canyon and environs in September and I want to have a good camera with me but my D70 with auxiliary lenses is just too much to pack, so I'm looking for options as well. I have a couple of small Nikon and Canon point-and-shoot cameras but need something better that's still pretty compact. And did I mention I have a very tight budget? There's lots of nice gear out there though so I expect I'll find something by then.
ReplyDeleteCanajun:
DeleteI used to have a D70 which I took to the Grand Canyon years ago. Then I upgraded it to a D80 and used that until I bought a Canon T2i a couple of years ago. I have lenses for both systems so it doesn't matter which body I buy next but I like the smaller size of the Canon for bike travel where you are space limited
Maybe we can talk cameras in August ?
You're right about no will power. I thought that you would have agonized over the reviews of the Sigma all-in-one lens trying to figure out the "best" option. Is your Canon a full frame or crop frame. I think I asked before but my memory isn't what it used to be.
ReplyDeleteRichard:
DeleteIn actual practice many times things aren't as bad as what you read. Also when tech people pixel peep, others may find it to be perfectly acceptable as long as you realize their limitations and work around it.
In the film days I used to check negatives with magnifiers too but I find I don't make many enlargements anymore. I have a wide carriage 13x19 printer which hasn't been used in a long time. so perhaps I have come to realize that things may just be "good enough".
I'm not interested in full frame as then I would have to replace all my lenses and you will find that they are very expensive.
It's odd Bob, I have been thinking about cameras to take on a certain road trip. My good camera is an Olympus DSLR for which I have a ridiculous long lens that frankly I rarely like. Mostly it is the autofocus that sucks on that lens. It tends to hunt and hunt and hunt. On our trip to Italy, its autofocus motor gave up the ghost. I have to take it to a decent professional photo place to see if it can be repaired. If not, that may be the cue to switch to a Canon or Nikon. I'll also be taking a point and shoot Olympus, and the GoPro, and then there's also the iPhone which is always surprisingly good.
ReplyDeleteVery glad to see that the two of you had a relaxing day to celebrate yourselves. Very well deserved.
David:
DeleteMy good camera has to have at least, an APS-C sensor, which rules out all the 4/3rds models. Both my Sony and Canon are APS-C. I shoot more ultra wide angle than telephoto so this trip I may bring my Sigma 10-20 which I really like but seldom use because I have to bring my 55-250 but don't use it because it is a pain to dig it out and switch lenses. Now I have the all-in-one which I am liking very much
I am learning to slow down and relax, something you should learn to do too
I loved this post, Bob....:-) Happy Anniversary if I didn't say it already. I love A&W root beer too....:-)
ReplyDeletenice pics ofAnniversary Greetings
ReplyDelete