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Archive for July 1st, 2009

So, the vacation plans are starting to unravel. The original plan was to head to the beach for a week for a little 4th of July getaway. This would be a good chance to use the 150-500mm lens and of course get some bike riding in at the beach. More lighthouses were on the list as well as going camping for the first time since I was a teenager. (And my being a teenager was a long time ago and we’ll leave it at that).

But so far we have been plagued with issues. First off, Donna’s car has decided to act up and in the midst of her taking corrective measures some of the pieces have decided to go missing. Screws and springs have seen fit to disappear and then the car tried to blind her with a shower of gasoline. Of course, you can’t work on a car unless you ram a screwdriver into your finger, even though you got workshop gloves as a gift, but decided not to wear them.

Donna feels she has the problem under control and will soon have it corrected. However, the car is still not 100% and is missing a headlight. At least the steering wheel is where it should be.

Then this morning our dog Ping ends up hurting her hip while jumping at the door. In some strange event she came down and immediately began screaming in pain. She has no problem barking for dinner, but this was way beyond the noises she normally makes. We went down to the vet for x-rays. While she hasn’t broken anything, she has more than likely caused some damage to her knee and possibly her back and needs to be in her kennel for the next week or so and away from the other dogs. Once we got her back I tried to have her walk around the yard and her whole back portion seems lame and she acts like she can’t support her weight. Even in her kennel she drags her leg around and doesn’t seem to want to use it.

Things are not looking promising right now. I have no doubt we will still go, but we need to make sure that she takes all her pain medication and stays away from the other dogs. What would normally be an easy task of letting them out and letting them play around the house has turned into something a touch more complicated.

I’m still packing up my gear, and by gear I mean camera and two lenses. For the sake of weight and mobility I’ve decided to take my 18-200mm lens and the 150-500mm lens. The 150-500mm is a little unruly in size and weight for taking on a bike, but there are plenty of birds and other things to photograph so I want to take it with me. I have my normal camera bag and a separate bag with padding and zippers that attaches to the bike. The big lens fits perfectly, so at least I have an easy way to take the gear.

I’ve never actually gone bike riding with camera gear strapped to me so it makes me a little nervous. We should only be riding on paved roads and sidewalks so everything should be fine. This doesn’t take into the account the human factor of me falling off my bike, or with my luck, getting hit by a car. Hopefully we can avoid both.