It was That Time of Year again, the stores filled with stuff we don't need at prices that would fall 50% a few days later. In my travels I made mental note of who had the best price on Christmas candles. Why pay full price to stock up on "hurricane" candles in a few months when red and green candles throw as much light as white ones? This year the hurricanes, Katrina and Wilma, were late in coming and I had an ample supply on hand when the orange and black candles got marked down after Hallowe'en.

The parking lots were full, the roads clogged with tourists and shoppers. I only had to make a quick trip to the supemarket to pick up some things like milk and bread and bananas. I thought about taking Monkey along, but we'd be about forever picking out exactly the right bananas. That and the fact that we often get into long and strange conversations with check-out clerks, the other people in line, even little kids, especially little kids! But I really expected the store to be crowded, and here it was mid afternoon and nearly empty!

It made me regret making the decision to load Tri-X in the Bessa instead of the MACO 400 that I'd gotten from Mikal Grass. I'd been wanting to try it under flourescent lights. It's a strange film, with sensitivity well up towards the infrared range. Since flourescent has a lot of its emissions in the blue/green end of the spectrum I figured I'd best bracket my exposures, not something you want to do while being jostled by crowds. Oh well, another time! I picked up what I needed and drove home.