Working for a university has one distinct perk – They shut the place down for two weeks every year for the holidays. They literally lock the doors and turn off the heat. So, I get to enjoy a two week break. A side note, the college I attended as an undergrad ended Fall term before Thanksgiving so I had seven weeks off.
In years gone by, back to life in the Real World not college, I would plan activities for my Christmas break. One year, I tried to make bacon over the break. I bought the ingredients online and drove to a butcher for a large slab of pork belly. I didn’t have a smoker so I had to create one. The end product was not good, but the experience was fun.
I was in a cheese phase another year. I had enough success there to put “cheese making classes” on my list of things to do in retirement. I was in a doughnut phase another year. I used to have a small garden on an 18″ (45.7cm) wide ledge outside my balcony at my old place, so there were several years I started my sprouting trays over the break. The list of phases and activities goes on and on. Truthfully, I would try nearly anything to keep myself busy. Not so much this year.
The only task I’ve assigned myself this break, aside from not missing my flight out to California (I’m cool with not being able to make it back though), is to decide once and for all if I have any use for my GoPro.
I’ve been wanting to get back into photography – I used to take a lot of pictures back in the day, but the cost of developing everything limited how much I could play around. Thankfully the digital age has made that easier for consumers. And iPhones do take great pictures, especially the 13! But iPhones are not too great with wide landscapes, which I like to capture when I am backpacking. Nor can you zoom in too much without the pic becoming grainy. I bought a GoPro Hero 4 Black around this time 7 years ago. It’s a great camera, with a nice lens. But I’ve never warmed up to it. I’m trying, over the break, to give the GoPro one last shot before I accept that I need to throw down some funds for new digital equipment.
All that being pretext, here are some pics I snapped this morning while out for a walk in Piedmont Park:
Both of the pics above are using the basic settings. In other words, I have not made any changes to the settings on the camera. For the GoPro, the reason is because it is just too dang hard to adjust the settings while outside in the dark. But you can see the GoPro does indeed take nice pics – I’m using an iPhone 8 right now.
Here are a few more pics of Piedmont Park in the early morning light:
Anyhoo, aside from sleeping a lot, because Fall terms wears me out, this is pretty much what I’ve been up to so far during this break. I did some retail therapy this morning in preparation for my trip. And I will post more once I head out.
Until this, I hope all are enjoying whatever it is you observe this time of year. And as always, reach out if you have any questions or comments.
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Will's GenX Adventure 