Andy and I are suffering through a hot spell.
Ninety-three degrees at 4:12 pm. That’s 34 degrees C.
I put some ice on the lapboard for Andy.
Too hot to get up and lick it! Poor kitty~!
I fill my biggest glass to the max with ice water and ice. I toss a few ice cubes in Andy’s water, too, so he gets some heat relief.
He gets his summer haircut on the 11th – almost here! He sleeps on the bathroom floor since it is cool even on the hottest days. At night, a cool breeze comes in the guest bedroom windows, so Andy and I sleep next to the windows.
June is supposed to be a rainy, cool month. Not this year: It’s June and too damn hot!
It was too hot here last week where I live in Oregon. Mom says it got up to “111 degrees F one afternoon.” I stretched out on my tuffit but it was hard to get comfortable even with the ceiling and standing whirlygigs going.
I died reading the temperatures! That’s more like Phoenix!
I heard about your heat! Maybe you can get a summer cut with Andy?
My summer cut is scheduled for the 22nd. The lady who cuts my hair took a short vacation and is slowly catching up.
you’ll both be two cool cats! That heat wave must be a first for this time of year? It’s still Spring!
It is the first one.
I learned to cut my hair years ago. I watched how they cut it and remembered all the techniques.
You’ll be a few pounds lighter…….just like Andy!
I tried it once when I was a university student…with clownish results!
ya but you were probably drinking when you tried that…..right?
I did the same thing while in res!
Actually, because of turning drinking age, I was short of cash and couldn’t afford a haircut till payday!
what was the drinking age? Ours was 18,but most had already started drinking before turning 18.
Two weeks before I turned 21, the Nebraska legislature passed a bill that turned the drinking age to 20. In 1972, it was lowered to 19, then in 1q980, raised again to 20, then back to 21 in 1985. (The Vietnam war and the notion you could die for your country at 18 but not drink beer was an influence…!)
So you could vote and die for your country but not have a beer. No wonder there was so much turmoil caused by Vietnam!
It was a factor, as was the lack of a justification (in the minds of young men and women) for going into the war in the first place. Spoiled brats what my generation was and is! – we always ask that tedious question, “Why!?” and seriously expect an honest answer back. We never got one.
Nothing wrong with asking why and in this case very justified!
Guys in their late teens, early 20s probably thought more about the beer than the voting issue, but activists emphasized this particular quirk of the law to get a response.
I remember those times. Must have been difficult down in the States.
It made a lot of boys grow up fast. Myself, I was a university student with a student deferment, but it was stressful knowing the draft board was watching us closely for signs of failure or other reasons to drop out. Anyway, I eventually checked with the enlistment sergeant to see what my options were other than become cannon fodder in Vietnam. It turned out that by enlisting, I got to chose my fate. (NOTE: The public library in my university town carried the Toronto Star, which I read regularly. The paper reported in 1969 Canadians were getting tired of American boys hiding from the draft up there and becoming a burden on the Canadian government because they had few if any skills and so on!) My choice was to sign up for three years and become either a draftsman, a still photographer, or a motion picture photographer, in that order. As it turned out, I qualified for the last one, which I learned after I trained for it was actually the best one (for me or anyone!) than the other two. I gave me an opportunity to travel within Europe shooting various military activities. Most of the time I didn’t even have to wear my uniform, just civilian clothes! I try not to diminish my service or seem falsely modest, but I was very good as a motion picture photographer and my time was like a three year vacation that allowed me to grow up. Many of my classmates either ended up in Vietnam (most survived… a few were wounded) and those who didn’t serve now regret it because, well, ‘draft dodger” even if they lucked out in the draft lottery.
I did glance at your bio Doug but did not read it thoroughly. I never knew you were a film photographer? Well that must of been a excellent learning assignment and you got paid!
I use to read the Star all the time. From my remembering Draft Dodgers were more than welcome up here as we thought that war was folly. Which in hindsight has proven it’s self to be just that. So many died,such a waste of a generation!
It was smart of you to take the bull by the horns and go find out your options!
So you joined but never filmed action down in Vietnam? Where did you film and what? You mentioned in Europe.
What kind of equipment did you use and what kind of film?
I originally tried to enroll into Ryerson back in 76 for filmography but one of my grades wasn’t up to snuff. Just as well,I probably wouldn’t of ended up here in Tofino!
I was a motion picture photographer. I filmed NATO joint exercises, home towners (little films showing soldier =s doing their military jobs – these were sent to television stations close to where they lived and probaly never shown. LOL!), Volkfests, military competitions (Prix Le Clerc, kind of a NATO Olympics), and other things requested by military brass. We used a fine German 16mm motion camera, the Arriflex slr mopic camera. I got to take two tours of the Arriflex factory in Muenchen while there, and, as you can imagine, the manufacture of this camera was a by hand operation.
Here’s a link that shoes the Arriflex camera we used in my company and goes into a bit of detail about my time stationed in then-West Germany. https://phainopepla95.com/2014/07/09/post-459-69th-signal-company-photo/
I bet you have a few wild stories Doug!
That’s a beautiful camera! Touring that factory must of been fascinating!
The factory visits were great for sharing our experiences using the cameras with the people who made them. I don’t have too many wild stories since I took my work seriously and felt I, as a US soldier (or just plain US citizen) needed to present a responsible and respectful front while among the Germans. It was only a quarter century +/- since the end of the war, and many of the people I had contact with had either fought us or were old enough as children to have very vivid memories of their country collapsing around them. Those old enough to remember occupation times, too, had some sour attitudes towards people serving in any of the militaries involved. The economic miracle of Germany was in progress in the early 1970s and Germany wouldn’t be recovered from the war until the early 1980s in the west. Being respectful, behaving like a guest not an occupier, I feel I was a good “ambassador” for my country. I also enjoyed my stay there more, I think, because I got positive feedback from the Germans I had contact with every day. My lousy German helped enrich my time there, too. (The Germans probably thought, “He may be a monkey, but isn’t he a clever one?” LOL!)
I also got to visit the Leitz factory in Wetzlar, and that also was very interesting. Again, the cameras were pretty much hand made, with several men sitting at workbenches, with each one doing some small part of the manufacture and assembly before passing it on. I saw how the cameras had to be so expensive!
I forgot that the Germans would still be feeling the impact of Hitler’s reign. You were the perfect person to represent your country Doug!
Visiting the Leitz factory would of been a treat! They make the best glass!!
They let use use their cameras to walk around Wetzlar and take photos, then they developed them for us. The also taught us how to use their macro tools and other enhancements. The visit was designed for people picking up their new cameras so you can believe the Leitz people put on a very customer-friendly show! (At the time, the still photographers in my company were still using the old work horse Speed Graffix camera. I unde3rstand they transitioned to 35mm SLR cameras shortly after, possibly Hasselblads, too, but I can’t say for sure camera brands or anything else. It seems the company had a Hasselblad when I was their, something that would have been signed out for a specific job, unlike cameras and gear we had signed out to us as long as we were there.
I hope the US military does a better job of orienting people to new countries than they did when I was in the army. My brother got a book when the US Navy sent him (a Seabee) to Thailand to help build an airfield (used by Air America – the CIA! – during the Vietnam war). It told him the customs of the country, history, had some helpful Thai phrases, and other details that helped them be more welcome in the country. I could a book published by Stars and Stripes in the PX book and magazine section – “These Strange German Ways”, which still is available – that helped me with the nuances of German culture. It’s easy for Americans to just assume they are like Americans so behave like an asshole, I guess, and I witnessed some of that GI behavior. Sad. Those soldiers probably went home thinking Germany was a terrible place with unfriendly people.
You really do have a long lasting love affair with photography Doug. You must miss shooting. I’m surprised you do not have a more modern video camera but I guess your phone fits the ticket.
Being a foreigner must be unsettling. You adapted because your a survivor.
I always felt comfortable wherever I was, mainly because everything was so new and interesting or old and I finally got to see it in real life – like the fated Notre Dame in Paris before the fire by several decades. Actually, small digital cameras work fine for my style of cinematography, and I got to practice my skills, posted on YouTube in phainopepla 95. Many of the better or more interesting videos I’ve reposted here over the years. I haven’t made edited videos since Microsoft edited the one I used to fine tune videos out in one of their updates. I do try to edit in camera – that is shoot with the idea of having the finished product at the end.
Your entire time over in Europe sounded like a excellent adventure Doug!
That’s convenient that you can edit in the camera! I shoot with a GoPro and cannot do that.
I’ m not familiar with GoPro camera other than by name. The way they are used, though it is understandable you couldn’t edit in camera.
The voting age is – same then – the same as the drinking age, too.
Looks like it’s going to be a hot summer. I wish we could scale back the humidity
Ugh! Yeah!
Hope it cools off soon.
Me, too! I’m no fan of hot weather.
Take great care 🙂 amitiés
Thanks!
dood…itz crazed damn hot heer two…goes frum 70 ta 4 inchez oh snow ta frost ta 90…..what de be jezuz….hope yur hairz cut helps buddy 🙂 ♥♥
The haircuts should help a lot!
While reading your post I thought you should put ice cubes in Andy’s water…..you had that covered. Then I thought I should remind you of Andy’s haircut and grooming session. You had that covered too. Are we on the same wave length or what? This will pass and you’ll be cool again. It’s cool here and raining. We made it up to 28C (82f) for 2 days….wow. Just enoug time to find one’s shorts, wash them and wear them for a day and then tuck them away. Mzake up your mind weather.
Jean
Here in Nebraska, it’s always shorts weather. LOL! Winter clothes on top, shorts below. We’re crazy in some regards but it kind of reflects the high variability of temperatures here some days.
I think we’ve got your rainy and cool(er) June than usual here, Doug and Andy. Mix-up in the weather office!
No kidding! this is the miserable weather we usually get in July-August.
We’ve had some days in the 90s, too, unusual for June here, which is also supposed to be cool and rainy in the PNW. We did go back into a cool spell, 40s at night and 60s during the day, but nowhere near enough rain. Hope you and Andy are able to stay cool!
It gets much cooler at night – 40-60s – and I leave the front door open so a cool breeze comes through the screen. Guess where Andy can be found! I’m glad he finally gets a haircut on the 11th.
It’s 76 degrees at 7 a.m. today. I’m in the northeast. This is nuts.
Exhausting, isn’t it?
Yes and annoying. We didn’t have much of the 70 to 80s that I love.
I also discovered that I hadn’t turned the heat down after the last really cool spell, so poor Andy and I were enduring a heater trying to keep the room in the high 90s/36s to 37s! Things are a lot more comfortable today now that the heater’s turned off, though the temperature inside and out is still in the summer zone.
34 degrees even beat Louis Catorze and he didn’t know what to do with himself. At 31 degrees he used to go into the greenhouse … 🙄
I prefer cool weather over this. At least one can add a blanket to the bed or whatever to get warmer, but there is a limit to how one can deal with heat. I become a recluse in summer. I don’t enjoy being outside when it is hot.
I completely agree. There are always things you can do to get warmer, but if you’re too hot it’s very difficult.
Zoos in England make ice lollipops for many of their animals. Basically, they just put any suitable food into the dish, bucket, whatever, then fill up the container with water and freeze the whole thing solid. In this way the animal receives a huge ice cube with a leg of mutton in it or something thereabouts.
And maybe try flavouring the water with something he enjoys before you freeze it Essence of herring, or catnip cordial.
Worth a try! I could make catnip tea and freeze it in ice cube trays.
Good luck!
Hang in there. I’ve heard about the heat wave across much of the US.
Yes, though my Seattle sister says they’re in a cool spell. In a few days, we surely will have the same front pass through. I used to look forward to the rains and cool of June.
can you send some heat to us please? it is not a june like always… the mama needs tanned stilts…urgently ;O)))))
Gladly! Exzpress mail!