I prepared breakfast for Val this morning, + then, as per usual, the plod to work. Spent the morning finishing off a few trees close to the K’s house, with Eddie (the old guy who’s lived in the other half of our cabin for the last 40 years) + James. James seemed to be in a lazy mood today – he spent most of his time standing underneath our ladder, chatting + spitting. We’d brought the camera out today, so I took a picture of him, plus one of Val bending over a bin. Her jeans have ripped right across the arse, so that they are now somewhat obscene – tho’ James thought they were sexy.
Then, at about 2, I received the luxury of some time off, to perform some errands, I hasten to add. First drove to Mission Park + exchanged 12 empty bottles of beer for 12 full ones – with a slight cash adjustment. Then a quick trip to the Post Office, to send off a card to Myrna, one to Pip, + to return a letter which had arrived for Rob. Next stop was the bank, but the branch at Mission said there would be a delay if I deposited our money there, so I drove on to town.
When I returned, Mrs K told me it was alright, the camera had been found. I was fairly confused. It turned out that in the course of moving up to some new trees, taking a free ride on the tractor, the camera had dropped out of Val’s bag. Ho hum. However, eagle-eyed Vincent had found it. After work, we drove straight into town – there was a book, record, + tape sale on in a shopping mall there. We found it, after one false start, walking into a posh hotel foyer (complete with steaming pool) but there were few records + no tapes. However, bought a couple of books, + drove back to Safeway to drop off a film + buy some groceries. Discovered for the second time running, we’d pulled out a 36 exposure film after 24 – pretty damn stupid.
Home, + an omelette (delicious) shared with James – it was his last night, he was moving on. Also had some beers, some stewed apple, + a joint (the grass courtesy of Rob, bless his little cotton socks.)
Not really obscene, in retrospect, but mildly disturbing that James found the view sexy, all the more so since he was commenting on the real event, not the photograph, (which would not return from developing for some weeks.) The comment about the 36 exposure film will soon mean very little, I fear; the idea of having to load film into a camera in advance, and then remove it carefully afterwards, and not be able to tell the quality of the photos, or indeed (in this case) how many there were, does seem positively archaic now, but that was what you had to do.
Leave a Reply