Chickens Don't Stay Up Late

I'm not sure I'm going to survive three late Elk nights in a row.  I go to bed with the chickens when it gets dark.  Hopefully I don't break into a rooster solo in the middle of one of our meetings.  In fact, there are not one, but THREE meetings in one night with various participants.  It makes for some exciting conversations on occasion.  

Tonight (third night) I get to participate in the Flag ceremony, honoring our great red white and blue.  I'm picking up a bottle of 5-hr Energy on the way, just to be sure I stay awake.  Hopefully I'll have pictures.  I AM happy to report that we now have a REAL piano player who will serenade us during the ceremony, and boy can she belt out some beautiful music.

I finally received all of the pieces for my newest foray back into photography.  Yes I have speed lights galore, but they use dozens of rechargeable batteries that barely last through one sitting.  This one, of the cheaper variety has one huge battery and came with a charger.  It says it will last 250 shots.  I seriously doubt I would ever take 250 pictures at one time.

Here's the fabulous news .... no wires, no lights so heavy you can hardly lift them, no fear of burning yourself on those big metal cans and no car batteries to keep them going.  This fits in a holder on a stand.  That's it!!  

The X1 thing on the left attaches to your camera.  It has dozens of settings, as does the flash.  The cool thing is if you change the setting on the camera, it automatically changes the flash that is usually 20 feet or more away.  If you have five flashes, you can change all five without taking a step.

Oh how I love it when things become smaller and easier to use.  That light above is stuck in the holder behind the black and white soft box .... or you can hold it yourself, or set it on the floor ... the options are numerous.

My plan is to use it for night photography, something like this.  That is if I can stay awake long enough at night to take the images and my camera survives the flood.  Last night (in my dream) I was living in the 1800's with my 2001 camera, which somehow got flooded in the kitchen sink while trying to fix the drain.  I grabbed it from the sink and drained it as best I could.  Finally I spotted a small little rubber stopper that let all the water OUT.  I woke up before I found out if the camera worked.  Note to self ... don't go near any water.

Lucky for me, Dan mentioned he saw my Orange Cafe Maxwell House coffee in Walmart.  He knows I'm always on the hunt.  I made a beeline for the computer and ordered 24 cans.  YAY!!!   It's so rare, they don't even have a picture on the website, so this will have to suffice.

Dinner for the last couple of days has been simple.  One of my freezer meals and cornbread muffins.  I think next time I'll make them up into even smaller bags.  Chili six meals in a row gets old pretty quickly.

Cooper seems to be doing just fine. This is his don't-touch-me-I'm-sleeping mode.  If I move or try to pet him, he growls just like Jessie used to.  He picked that up from her when he was a baby.  Weird animals seem to follow me around.

In the meantime, I'm working on another quilt to pass the time and Cooper requested a road trip.  Hopefully there won't be any water nearby.