Beaucoup pour rien is the French expression for using a lot of words to say nothing, which has been a problem around here lately. The bottom line is that we’re caught up in the Dead Season and there’s not a lot going on when a person has a day job that must needs take up most of their day. Running a household seems to eat up a fair chunk of what is left.
I’m out and about with a camera most days, but much of what I capture is, well, merde. This is going by my standards, Ray’s standards, and the standards of anyone else with a modicum of taste.
I had intended to shift to a weekly format for this photo diary on February first of this year (when the blog turns one), but the truth is that I pretty much have unintentionally done this already. The original plan was to create a photo post a day for an entire year, and I guess I have done that, but that is only because some days had multiple posts while others had none. The post count since Feb 1, 2024, the date I started this site, is 379, and with a leap year 366 would have been satisfactory. That’s going to have to be good enough because a person can only do what they can do.
There are also other considerations. I have been feeling my physical health dialing back as my level of activity has declined from my near daily paddling in the summer to mostly walking in the cold weather. I have recently adopted one home as a Snow Angel this winter and discovered that shoveling snow for an older couple has improved my mood and also helped my injured right shoulder that does better when I am active. I am getting more involved in this program around town because of this, which is how I wound up at Peavy Mart buying an ice chipper to deal with crusted sidewalks that have been ignored for too long. It’s a worthy endeavour that will eat up even more of my limited free time, but lousy photo blog fodder. That does not bode well for this site at the moment.
Finally, I have loved Ray and still continue to love and grieve him, but I do need to move on for my own good and to pay more attention to the living around me who also matter very much for the health of those relationships. I have reached the point where I can feel this neglect, and am seeing it as a sign that I am recovering and ready to shift my focus some. Even if it is grudgingly. There is no easy or fast way to move forward from losing your best friend.
I’m officially making the switch from a quotidienne (daily) posting format to a hebdomadaire (weekly) format from now on. I’d prefer to have one worthwhile weekly post with some good photography rather than wasting what scant time and energy I have on filler content. I will certainly post more if there is more to post about as I have in the past, but it’s time to put quality over quanity. I hope Ray is okay with this as this site was my gift to him and remains so. I know he had little patience for fluff. I also know he would like me to stop fucking moping around already (he was always direct).
Il est temps de dire non à beaucoup pour rien and to say yes more often to those who matter in my life today.
Image from my Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.
