kochleffel

During an Alaska trip in 2021, I used every lens that I had brought: wide zoom, medium zoom, long zoom, and longer zoom. The only oft-recommended lens that I didn't take was a 50mm-equivalent "natural" lens. When I've taken one, I've rarely used it. My preferred camera is a Micro 4/3, so neither the camera body nor the lenses are especially large or heavy. What I didn't use at all in that trip was a small waterproof camera. I had brought it only for a raft expedition that was cancelled because there was, um, too much water.

That was also my experience on a boat with about 50 other passengers! It wasn't a problem on a small boat with only 2 other passengers, one of whom didn't have a camera. BTW, I ended up on the larger boat because there were small-craft warnings and a smaller boat couldn't operate.

During a cruise I just take medicines according to ship's time. What requires adjustment is flying eastbound before a cruise departing from Europe. On the day I arrive, I postpone morning doses until lunchtime so as not to be taking them too soon after the previous day's, then mid-morning the following day.

This thread is very helpful! I'll be at Cartagena on November 2, but won't be able to leave the ship until 4:00 (online course). Since the ship is there until 8:00, I'll plan just to walk off and explore. The Tom's Guides seem to have been discontinued.

Back from the Bar Mitzvah. The ceremony went very well, but the weather didn't cooperate and the barbecue they had planned after it in their backyard had to be moved to the synagogue. The young man's mother was a nervous wreck; she was confident that he would do well, but worried about what else might go wrong. The basement of their new home has flooded once, she has had covid for the second time, and an incompetent electrician left them with a bathroom fan that they can't turn on and a light that they can't turn off. On the way home I visited a retired pastor from here who has just moved to a town between here and there so that he and his wife can be near one of their daughters. He is recuperating from Achilles tendon surgery and still on crutches, but plans to preach -- back here, as a vacation replacement -- on Sunday. I'm OK about today's special days but too lazy to do anything about the latter two. No shrimp for me, and the cocktail sounds complicated. I drank plenty of vinho verde when I was in school, but now for the wine, maybe Lakewood Long Stem White. I haven't been to Grand Cayman despite enough Caribbean itineraries that I really ought to have been.

Thanks. I’ve already upgraded to the premium package. I’ll be in PHL airport during one class session, where the Wi-Fi will be OK but the mic will have to be muted, and aboard ship but probably docked for one, so I think that only one session will be while at sea.It will help if I can keep the camera off.

to attend our former rabbi’s son’s Bar Mitzvah. Others planned to charter a minibus but I didn’t want to get up that early. And, as it turns out, I don’t think I could stand five hours of conversation with some of them. I’m now settled in a hotel where all the furniture has a famous label. (Stickley)

I have the same concern, because I’ll be taking two online courses during a TATL - and it’s on the Oosterdam. One course is asynchronous, but the other is synchronous and class participation counts.

Every day should be Book Lover's Day and the Day of the World's Indigenous People. Once a year is enough for the polka. The chicken would be OK with me, although I couldn't make it at home (no combinations of meat and dairy ingredients). Laphroaig should be drunk straight or with a little spring water. Iberian wine grapes don't ripen well here (yet) so I'll suggest Eminence Road Farm Winery Acidalia Red Blend, despite the awful name. I haven't been to Cape Town. Dentist this afternoon, then lawn mowing if it doesn't rain. Then a 90-mile drive to attend our for

I hope you're charging your phone while you're at the firehouse.

I don't think mine qualify as international cats--they don't even have passports. I loved frozen custard and wish it were still readily available. I have one zuke in the fridge and that is enough. Chicken enchiladas would be OK but I don't plan to make any. A Mexican Julep sounds like a drink that has been messed with too much. I would probably like the wine if it were obtainable; instead I might have Fulkerson Zweigelt, which is made from a completely different grape. I haven't been to Kanazawa.

I've been called several times for jury duty, but served only once. The first time, I suspected that I'd be excused because of my job, but the case didn't go to trial. The next time, the jury was filled before the voir dire got to me. The third, I again thought that I'd be excused from serving because of my work (not the same kind of job, btw), but they filled the jury right before getting to me. That case was a lesson in how to avoid jury service, with prospective jurors giving all kinds of bizarre excuses. My favorite was the one who told the prosecutor that every member of her family, including herself, had been killed or maimed by doctors. This was an employment case, not a malpractice case, but one of the parties was a doctor. The most recent was where I live now, and again the jury filled before it was my turn. If I had been interviewed, I would have had to tell the judge that I had followed a similar case very closely in the 1990s and would probably have been excused. The only time I've served was in Massachusetts, where there is, in effect, no voir dire. Unless you're in jail or in the hospital, or you know one of the parties in the case, you're likely to serve. The judge in that case had served on a jury the month before, in a different courthouse where the court personnel wouldn't recognize him.

If there are people opposed to friendship or forgiveness, I'm not sure that I want to meet them. In garden forums, it's possible to find directions for building a lighthouse as a garden ornament. It's not something I would ever have thought of. The veg moussaka would be OK with me and eggplant is in season or will be soon. While I might like the drink, it seems like a waste of good whisky. No Zinfandel in the Finger Lakes, so how about Red Newt 2019 Syrah Glacier Ridge. I haven't been to Heraklion.

I had a raft tour booked in 2021 (not a cruise although I arrived at Juneau on the Alaska state ferry), but it was cancelled because there was too much water (fast water, not safe for beginners). Rinaldo (Handel) this afternoon. It has rarely been staged since the 18th century, because the title role was written for a castrato. It is only since the 20th century that there have been countertenors who could sing in the soprano range at full volume, but even so, Rinaldo is hard to cast because it requires three countertenors.

A newspaper is having hysterics about "devil birds" in New York. https://hudsonvalleypost.com/we-must-act-now-devil-bird-found-in-new-york-state/ The same paper made an uproar about a timber rattler recently but they are native here.

Tonight was Candide. A revival of the 2015 Glimmerglass production, which I saw, but different in feeling. Brian Vu in the title role sang well as a tenor, but in his last role at Glimmerglass he sang as a baritone, as Riff in West Side Story. A retired teacher said during the intermission that watching it was like teaching a class in which every student had ADHD, and later I heard people trying to make sense of the plot, a fruitless exercise since the plot doesn’t follow normal rules. Nevertheless it’s the most popular show this year. Rob Ainsley, the general manager, thinks that Rinaldo (tomorrow) is better, but he is biased toward Baroque opera. Dinner was just a sandwich from the counter on the grounds, with a semi-dry Riesling from Dr. Frank’s on Keuka Lake.

I had a booking on Celebrity in 2021 that would have called at Hakodate had it taken place. Here's the notorious sign on NY 80.

I rarely drink beer, but I'm having a local Red Shed ale on the terrace of the Hawkeye (almost everything here is named for something in James Fenimore Cooper) Bar & Grill at the Otesaga Resort Hotel. The hotel was built 100+ years ago for rich New Yorkers who came here both because of the lovely setting and because it's considerably cooler here. It's still starchy and expensive.

I thought that every day was chocolate chip cookie day. For several years I worked across the road from the Coast Guard Academy, and once I officiated at the wedding of a Coast Guard officer. That was a little complicated: the wedding was being held in the officers’ club of the New London Naval Submarine Base, and Connecticut requires that the license be issued by the clerk of the town in which the ceremony will take place. Now, the base is not in New London at all; it’s in the Town of Groton (“Rotten Groton” to Navy people) EXCEPT for the OC, which is in the Town of Ledyard. Lunch today at Mel’s on 22 in the center of Cooperstown: spinach and strawberry salad with grilled chicken. Dinner at the Rose and Kettle in Cherry Valley, a small town about 15 miles away that claims to be the site of the first English-speaking church west of the Hudson. Sesame-crusted salmon, crisp fried polenta, and grilled vegetables. No pictures. Romeo and Juliet tonight. Duke Kim didn’t look the part of Romeo -– I think he’s Korean-American – but did some of the finest singing I’ve ever heard.

Also in La Bohème tonight. The new general manager, Rob Ainsley, said in his welcome talk, “If you give enough money perhaps there can be a happy ending. The trouble was that people didn’t support their starving artists.”

At motel, north of Cooperstown. My room is a very ordinary one except for having a small private patio facing Otsego Lake (across a state highway). I brought in takeout so that I can rest until it’s time to leave for the opera house, which is a few miles farther north.

Absotutely no comment on any of the special days. I don't love wedge salads, so I would think of something else to make with chickpeas, and I don't see why gin should come from Japan. We grow lots of Cabernet Sauvignon in this region so for today I'll suggest Long Point Cabernet Sauvignon 2017. I haven't been to Manila. I received my acceptance letter for the graduate program today.

I don't think that anything is happening here for National Night Out, but I wouldn't be the first to know. Years ago I taught a Torah class for an adult group that happened to include a lot of engineers. They were baffled by all the family dysfunction in Genesis and unimpressed by the high drama in the first half of Exodus, but when we got to the instructions for building the tabernacle in the desert, they perked up. It is the only class ever to ask me questions like "What is the tensile strength of dolphin skin?" and if they had had a CAD program that measured in cubits, they would probably have built the thing in the parking lot. I don't think I"ll be having an ice-cream sandwich today. I like potato salad but what are we serving with it? I haven't enjoyed most Malbecs from Argentina, and so I might consider the non-vintage Soul Red from the Hector Wine Co. I haven't been to Skjolden. With so many unfavorable medical reports today, here's a Jewish prayer for healing. It begins in Hebrew but is mostly in English.

Rabbit, rabbit. None of the special days does much for me. I would be fine with eggplant parmesan, and you can deliver it at 6:00 p.m. Pass on the drink, OK on the wine. Taylor's makes a so-called Madeira in the Finger Lakes but of course it is totally inauthentic. I haven't been to Walvis Bay. My typical breakfast at this time of year is overnight oats, but this morning it was cold in the house and I warmed the oats in the microwave.

There is a comic strip called Mutts from which I've occasionally posted strips. I don't think it is right for avocado and watermelon to share a day. Speaking of watermelon, a friend of mine is participating in RAGBRAI, the [Des Moines] Register Annual Grand [bicycle] Ride Across Iowa. He seems to post mostly about food, almost to the point that I wonder whether they have food in Illinois, where he lives, and the other day he was rhapsodizing about watermelon. I think that the key to a juicy hamburger is not to compress the meat. It is very hard for cooks not to, though. I might like the drink but will probably never know. Another Rioja! Instead I might consider Dr. Frank's Saperavi 2020: "Vibrant violet in color with bright, brambly berry scents and a dusting of dried herbs. Supple and serious, the spicy fruitiness is rounded by layered complexity of earth and oak, but fresh and juicy simultaneously. An ancient grape variety native to Georgia that was first brought to the Finger Lakes by our founder in the early 1960s." I haven't been to Recife, but I'll mention that the first Jews to settle in what is now the United States came from there, leaving when control of the area passed from the Netherlands to Portugal. Others went to Curacao and Suriname. This was in 1654, when New York was still New Amsterdam, a Dutch colony. I'm going to Cooperstown at the end of the week for the Glimmerglass [opera] Festival and just checked the weather forecast. Usually it is hot, although slightly cooler than here, and the opera house has no air conditioning (or heat). Just once in my experience has it been unpleasantly cold, but that may be the case again this time. I'll need to take both a rain jacket and a cotton sweater, I think. I've also been checking on restaurants. In Cooperstown, they have almost a split personality, because the Baseball Hall of Fame attracts even more visitors than does Glimmerglass. Apparently someone has just opened a Himalayan restaurant; the owner is Nepalese but most of the menu seems to be Indian. I haven't been to Plymouth, England, but I have been to Plymouth, Massachusetts. In fact I lived in Plymouth County for a while, albeit the inland part.