it was raining this morning. the forecast said it'd stop by early afternoon. that meant i could still go for a scheduled tuesday run if i wanted to. i opened some windows and left the air purifier running in my bedroom to get rid of the off odor.
for lunch i made a smoked ham & avocado spread egg bagel sandwich. i defrosted the frozen ham overnight. it gave me an excuse to use the softbox lights. normally i take my high quality food photos using an external flash bounced off the ceiling. when it works it's great, but recently i've found it kind of underwhelming in performance. with the softboxes, i see what i'm photographing, don't have to wait for a flash to be triggered. set correctly, it looks like daylight shining on the foods. i'd be curious to try some comparison photos using a bounce flash versus softboxes.
i was starting to think i wasn't going to go out running, even after it stopped raining. already i was beginning to rationalize not going. but then something compelled me anyway (health, routine, weight loss, who knows), and i started getting ready by 3pm and left around 3:20pm.
it was very nice running weather, the rain had mostly dried except for some puddles, the sky was still overcast and temperature was a pleasant 60's. so usually i run in the mornings, before i've had anything to eat yet. i was afraid since i had lunch, all that food would weigh me down. it turned out to be the exact opposite. i found myself with more stamina and energy, and started running immediately, instead of just walking down to the river. or maybe it was just the weather, not hot like it normally is. whatever the reason, i felt pretty good today, finished the run in under an hour.
i did some laundry. had to run two loads, i go through a lot more clothes during the summer months because i'm sweating a lot more. i also washed the sheets, both mine and from the guest bedroom. that gave me an excuse to pull up the twin mattress and box spring, to be discarded tomorrow night for thursday pickup. i inherited this bed from john miller, he got it from his friend from college, and used it when he lived in boston. not sure how old it is, at least 2 decades, most likely more. the mattress is a sears-o-pedic model. it's overdue for a replacement, there are rips and stains on the mattress, and it's starting to sag in the middle. the box spring has seen better days as well, with spring coils poking dangerously out from the surface. while i was doing that, i noticed scratches on the wall from where lauryn bashed her chair. i've had roommates for more than 20 years, and this has never happened before. it wouldn't be hard to repaint that side of the wall, but it also has bad patch scars from old repairs, so i'm wondering if it wouldn't be better just to replace the drywall completely.
i spent a good part of the day sorting through my photos. the next step is processing them in photoshop, before they can be retroactively inserted in old blog posts.
for dinner i made another ham & avocado & egg bagel sandwich. i wasn't planning on taking anymore photos, but did so anyway, using the softboxes with just my phone camera. i washed it down with some chocolate milk and i had some red grapes as well. later in the evening i took out the trash and moved a barrel from renee's alley that was getting dripped on from my leaky gutter.