I did something dumb yesterday; I took a double dose of a weight loss medication I’m on. Completely by accident of course. I took the first dose around lunch and then absentmindedly took another around 2:00 pm. I went to log the second dose on my phone, and, “Oh.”
Whoops.
The primary side-effect of this med is mild nausea. That’s with one dose. With two doses it is not mild at all. I spent a good portion of last night in the friendly company of the upstairs porcelain appliance in our home, so the last thing I felt like was going out for pictures. Guess what the weather did?
We finally get the kind of beautiful thick snow I’ve been craving all winter and it arrives in the middle of me tossing my cookies like it’s an Olympic sport and I’ve qualified for the main event. Feckin’ hell.
I glowered miserably out my front window for the first blast of snow that hit between 9:30 and 10:30 pm. Then again for the second blast around 11:00 pm. I couldn’t take it any longer and I rolled out the door at 12:15 am this morning with just my phone that was down to 30% battery because another wave was coming in and I had to get a piece of it somehow.
I felt completely wretched so I only got out of my car twice for the entire outing. The first time was to get the image of The Vault because I know my luck. I’d have a camera poked out a window while in the middle of an intersection (the only good place for this shot) and that’s when the po po would roll on me for distracted driving with a mobile device. Murphy’s Law is a universal constant so I parked and stood in the middle of the intersection for the shot instead. Jaywalking tickets are cheaper and don’t hose your car insurance premiums.
I was cruising around looking for another shot when the nausea hit again and I had to pull over and deal with it, but only after carefully checking to see if there were any witnesses. As someone who quit drinking three decades back, I’m still sensitive to anyone seeing me acting like I’m drunk in public. I also did manage to find a discrete spot to unload my stomach contents that wouldn’t inconvenience anyone the following morning. People who straight-up yak in the middle of a sidewalk are the worst.
Having sorted the nausea, I turned around and realized there was a good potential image in front of me. I took a series of shots of the flower shop and spa for a pano and also a standalone image.
Another wave of sickness hit, but I was able to handle it that time. I just had to sit for about five minutes and listen to the radio with my head back. I carried on once I was back in control of my digestive system.
The Station is a local restaurant and watering hole that is difficult to photograph. Really difficult. I was finally able to get a shot of it that I loved last night. Of course, it’s another stitched panoramic.
Capturing the Husky Station was tres amusant because there were two guys at the pumps filling and they were giving me Lewks as I waved a phone out my car’s window to snag yet another pano. Here’s an interesting thing about the HuskyHouse Restaurant… We have maybe seen their blinds open twice in the over three years we have lived in Strathmore. They almost always keep the blinds closed, which has the effect of making their establishment look especially uninviting. Their sign by the road proudly proclaims they have the best butter chicken in town and I do love butter chicken, but the constantly closed blinds are a real turn-off.
What are they hiding???
The last shot of the evening was taken in the parking lot of Strathmore’s Municipal Building. I got more Lewks from the driver of the Strathmore Taxi cab parked across the lot. I think they wait there for someone to crawl out of the King Eddy bar across the street to offer them a ride home.
I was too sick and tired after this to keep going, so I headed home. It would have been nice to work a few more locations, but you can only do what you can do. I crawled in the door, tossed my jacket on the back of the sofa, had my phone dump the outing’s images to my cloud backup, and settled into my chair with the cat.
Mission accomplished.
Note: All images in this diary entry were produced using a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra mobile phone camera.
