The Weekend...

So I volunteered for our town wide clean up yesterday. This was the best one so far because other town groups were involved, not just Main Street. I did the alleys between the buildings. I wasn't in the mood for chit chat and wanted to work solo. Breathed in tons of dust and allergies were a b*tch the rest of the day. But I felt so good, especially because I was able to squeeze into this tiny spot and clean that out too. Then our leader told me to go to this empty property on Main Street and pick out the garbage there. It is an immensely sloped property and I worked the bottom while someone worked the top. I found so real goodies: lots of glass (vintage and new), a large bone, a vintage pull tab can of soda, a handy scale for weighing fish (our river is stocked with trout), a drug baggie, a pill blister square, and... an open switchblade. I am assuming the last one was tossed down from Main Street after an "event." Some have questioned why I do this kind of volunteering while I do not take part in cancer walks and such. The fact of the matter is, when someone goes around asking for money for this walk or that run, it seems a bit like "look at what I am doing!" And the majority of those cancer organizations do not allocate the money raised in a way that I feel is fair and as beneficial as is could be. So I do this... I donate money privately with no fanfare to those organizations with the best allocation of money and that's that...

Then I went to the parents' house to help dad trim two juniper trees. He dropped a huge branch on me, I learned I can't operate a reciprocating saw, I have scratches all over me including my face, and I am massively allergic to juniper and got so many hives, but is was so much fun. I will finish the job later in the week after work one day.

So, my body is extremely sore today and my sister need me to do some outside work at her house. But some good news. A local gallery I have been trying to make contact with for two years regarding a teacher/student show is finally looking to be a possibility. He is holding his first teacher student show and still has space for teaching artists, and may have space for some student work. Already know who to include....

And my order from Freestyle came in. So I am going to test out the EcoPro film developer this week. I also ordered an E-6 developing kit. I read that some had success processing Kodachrome with that. Since we have a few rolls at PV and my sister gave me a few rolls, I will try processing my rolls and see what happens.

And finally, our tech guy let us know last week that students can remotely access Photoshop and the version is either CS5 or CS4. So I think that now means that I can teach RAW to the Photo III students. I have made excuses for not teaching it because I feel real bad when kids b*tch about the school tech guy when things are not his fault at all. But now that this is in place, I think I can finally do it. Woo hoo!!!! Better late than never....