March 15, 2008 – Cloudy, cool. Spring everywhere but not quite here.  I’ve never had a hobby or passion before, apart from family, friends and work, and driving people crazy, and I am learning every day why I love photography.
  For one thing, it’s an infinite passion, by which I mean no matter how hard you work at it, you never learn enough, or can quit learning more, or are not humbled by an effort to capture something you bungle. I spent a lot of time today obsessing on photographing raindrops, not only because they are pretty but because they are a photographic challenge, asking a lot of lens, shutter speed, ISO, depth of field, etc. You have to stand in exactly the right spot with the right lens on manual, focused in just the right way with the right backdrop or you blow it, even though it looks good on the camera screen.
   Rose has no patience for this, setting off after chipmunks, but Izzy and Lenore lie down and stare at me as if I was a juicy bone, fascinated by my muttering, cursing and fiddling with the camera.
  So, apart from the fact that I’ve lost my mind, which isn’t really news to anybody, I was happy with this drop, which, it seems to me, tells a story, like any good photograph. And then when I look at it, I see it tells another story, namely, reflecting a self-portrait of me, taking a picture of it. Life within life. I don’t take any pictures of myself, or put any up on the site, if I an help it, but this one is okay. The whole thing can blow your mind.

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P.S. Re: Hospice Journal. Helen is feeling poorly today, and wasn’t up for a visit with dogs. Think of her.