Looking south on the I-5 to Seattle over the weekend. Had a great time out there. Drove down to Portland on Tuesday for a couple pretty big meetings, I think they went reasonably well. I’d only gone through Portland at 75 MPH, so seeing the downtown was great. Then it was back in the car up to Seattle where I had an incredible Ethiopian meal in SoSea. But, man, eating Ethiopian before a red-eye isn’t the best call. While I sorta slept on the flight home, that food was kinda rough. Yummy, though.

It’s 70 here today, who knew that was possible?

Back in Seattle after nine years away and I get weather like this. Pretty lucky. Had a great shoot Thurs and Fri then a long ride on Sat (w/coffee stop of course) with Zac D and Max K. Went out yesterday but managed to destroy my rear der in a weird one, so that wasn’t so great (more coffee, though). Still, now I remember why I like this place. Perhaps a bunch of it has to do with having a bunch of friends out here, more than I realize. Seattle’s hard to ebat when it’s sunny out, but so is Hanover. Just very different. Down to Portland tomorrow for some meetings and then the red-eye back home tomorrow night. It’s amazing that at some point in travel planning I think an overnight is a valid idea. Now I know it’s a bad idea.

While I rode all weekend, I could have just as easily been doing this. That is to say, it’s still winter, which actually made the riding a lot better. But damn….

Will L and I headed out early Sat AM, 7:30, and it was 11 degrees. 11. The ride was still fun and we didn’t freeze, but still, 11 in March is cold.

After over a month of no real travel it’s about to get going again. Out to Seattle on Wed, which I’m looking forward to as I have a bunch of friends and extended family out there I’ve not seen in a long time. Maybe it’ll even be warm…

So, today (or yesterday or tomorrow, I can never get it straight) Andy Newell became the first American Nordic skier to podium at a World Cup. At the final FIS WC, raced in China, hence the date mix-up, Newell got 3rd in the Men’s 1k sprint. It’ll get zero coverage, but a 21-year-old from SoVT who likes skateboarding, shooting guns, and driving big cars made some history. Not bad, eh?

We ran out of coffee as the Peet’s order has yet to arrive and resorted to drinking tea. Not pretty.

Just scanned this after going through some disorganized boxes of negs. Took this a couple summers ago in SF, using the Lomo and Portra 160NC.

Absolutely bucketed down all day today, keeping me off the roads. I had in mind a longish ride and a trip out to the hinterland for some landscape experimentation, but no soap. Had some nice riding this weekend, though.

Kinda went nuts on E-Bay yesterday and bought 60 rolls of 160VC 220. It was only 1.65/roll so that’s pretty good. I love that film and can’t wait to shoot it. Damn you E-Bay.

Planning a wicked bike trip in a couple months, really interesting off-road adventure. More later.

The phone rang this morning and it was Mike O asking if I had the cover shot on the latest Inside Tri. I guess I do. Sent this in to them as part of a stock library and voila.

Drove all the way up to Craftsbury on Wed to do a “winter” photo shoot only to find acres of bare fields. It sucked. Winter schminter. So turned around and drove right back home, not worth the waste of time to get shitty images that in no way would have looked wintery. Plane ride out west would be in the offing soon.

The good news is that it’s supposed to be almost 60 and sunny tomorrow. That is good news.

I think these boys may be hung up for the year. When the batch of snow that’s on the ground now finally melts I think it’s spring, which means mud, which means no MTBing for a few weeks and no need for the studs. Check here during the week for one of my columns relating to the tires.

It’s been sort of slow getting the portfolio together, making plans for spring travel, and everything else. Oh, but there has been some excitement: yesterday I caught a mouse that had snuck into our kitchen and ended its days with a stern swat of the broom. So that’s exciting. I’ve been messing around in the basement, setting up a studio (the tire image was shot down there) and experimenting with different configurations. But I’m itching to get out into the field and start shooting again. but be careful what you wish for….