Of course, just the act of buying a ticket presented its problems too: I discovered a one-way ticket is much more expensive than a round-trip… so I opted for the return. Actually this helps me a lot as I have many things I’d hate to mail to myself as they are just too heavy: hundreds of CDs containing my virtual negatives, Spanish books and of course, my cameras. Amazingly the round-trip fare is $200 less than what I paid for my last January trip to Spain, and helps to save money for the many projects I have to complete and with the dollar dropping yet again as usual against the euro, my lousy dollars won’t buy me the many things needed once I am home again. I was hoping the new administration would bolster the dollar against the euro but that hope was short-lived.
I’ve been away so long I lost my Spanish residency and will need to re-apply, plus I will have to search for a reliable reasonably-priced internet provider. I also have a few ideas to build a fan supply and exhaust system to remove the high summer heat from my apartment, so I’ll certainly be busy. I have a small extra bedroom that I need to clear out to make it a real guest room, and then to repaint the walls. I’ll be buying the latest and greatest Canon EOS camera also, so many things are up in the air….. sigh
I need to sell my car before that departure, or to have a power of attorney for someone to sell in my name after that date. Anyone wanto to buy my nice red car and give it a loving home?
I am still embarking on weekend trips to see as much as possible, while combining a model or other paid shoot during the trip. Last weekend I drove to southern California (foreign territory to me) and enjoyed seeing some of the sights.
As usual, the “paid shoots” did not materialize, so I just relaxed and enjoyed the visiting friends instead. I was close to 
the amazingly gorgeous colors of the Red Rocks Canyon State Park and saw the most colorful and beautiful rock formations. I also visited Edwards AFB to and enjoyed the static aircraft displays there and around the area, plus I even saw the space shuttle before it left early Sunday morning to the East Coast.In my cleaning out of my stuff the other day I discovered one of my old trouser belts last wore while in Spain over three years ago…. even without the buckle attached, the two ends didn’t even meet with a difference of about five inches!! Wow!!! What a shock as I have never in my previous life been so “wide”. Cannot wait to return “home” to so I can start adjusting to my real life, and lose all these “souvenirs” from the USA…. Waliking everyday which doesn’t happen at all here will quickly – hopefully – trim those pounds off me.
Sept 27th: I know realize that as my travel plans change, my scheduled packing of boxes to be sent to Spain must change also. First, I have too many CDs full of images… estimated to be over 220 and growing. I have now decided to move all of the images off these CDs and most recently DVDs, to my three external hard drives (eHDs). I have one of 300 available gigs with an remaining 15gigs containing all of my “recent” files and images starting in late 2006 as I prepared to depart Spain, and to now three years later. I have another 400+ available gigs in a myBook hard drive which is filling up quickly, partitioned into four separate sectors to store various images under different themes beginning in 2000 when I first went digital to early 2006. Today (29 September) I’ve just purchased a 500gig Passport Elite and will start filling that with images starting with 2010 imagery.
On the other hand, I have made a few trips recently and am always most content to get away from the intense ongoing computer work that seems to be never-ending. But the stark reality is that every time I create newer images it just adds to the never-ending workload. How’s sitting in front of the monitor copying pictures off CDs with the computer being ON all day and night for a few 37hours sound to you?
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