vituperation

It looks like her name is going to be Stinkerbelle.

We’re not 100% decided, but it’s close.

After years of whining about how I could never get a good closeup or action picture with a point-and-click camera, I ordered a new camera last weekend. A real camera: a digital single lens reflex (SLR) 10.2 megapixel Sony α A100H, with an 18-200mm telephoto lens and a gargantuan flash.

Sony says I can “[e]njoy the all-new Sony α (alpha) DSLR-A100 camera with an amazing zoom lens to get you started. Included in this kit is the versatile SAL-18200 18-200mm standard zoom lens. This easily handles the standard range of shots you’ll take most often—but there’s nothing standard about the alpha’s advanced optical design. With superior all-in-one lens performance for everyday shooting, its 35mm-equivalent range of 27mm wide-angle to 300mm telephoto excels at capturing faraway subjects, sports events, dramatic landscapes and intimate close-up views.

“The a (alpha) DSLR-A100 digital camera features Super SteadyShot® in-camera image stabilization, Dynamic Range Optimizer to automatically increase detail in bright and dark picture areas, new anti-dust technology to keep the CCD imager clean for better pictures, and Eye-Start® autofocus system for faster camera response.”

I don’t know about all that fancy talk, but I do know one thing: it takes some right fine pictures.

Probably it’ll take even better ones once I bother to learn how to use it. The last two afternoons I took pictures instead of working on the shed, so I’ll need to do some double-time this weekend to catch up.

Here are a few examples:

Not a great picture (no flash, overcast), but good-lookin’ chicken

Butterfly on black-eye pea leaf

Our peas are COVERED with about 50 (literally) different kinds of waspy-looking bugs

Some of our second planting corn gets a little pollination help

Miss Mama gives me the sexy eyes from her nap spot on the hood of the truck

A hummingbird, not humming.

Meeting of the minds on a new peaflower bud

A butterfly rests on a corn leaf

Another waspy sort of bug on the peas

A garden spider who stands guard over our front door

I could grow to like this camera.

I’ve mentioned my achy wrist before, and wrote about getting an MRI, but I don’t think I ever followed up.

There’s apparently nothing wrong with me.

The orthopedic surgeon saw a little inflammation in the tendons, and there was a tiny little ganglion cyst in there, but that was it. He said he thought it was most likely the tendon inflammation causing the pain and that if I take it easy (heh) it should get better. He didn’t think the cyst was big enough to be causing any problems.

I have an anti-inflammatory called Mobic (I think) that seems to help a little when I remember to take it. Problem is, working on the shed is really causing it to flare up, especially with hanging girts, which is what I’m doing now.

Getting old sucks, and having an achy wrist sucks, but I’m glad it’s nothing that requires surgical intervention.

Speaking of getting old, here’s some proof that you are, if you remember this:

When I was five, my parents took me to G. C. Murphy in Decatur and bought me the 45 (!) for the song above, my current favorite at the time. We stopped at my aunt and uncle’s house on the way home to visit, and I took my new record inside to show it off.

And sat on it and broke it.

Boy, did I cry. It still makes me sad to think about it. I loved that damn song. Still do, I reckon.

Now Karen’s dead, G. C. Murphy is gone, and my aunt is succumbing to Alzheimer’s. Time marches on.

But that song is still goddamn fine, though.