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[austin_dern]

This weekend I had a rare visitor, rare in that I don't see him much anymore and rare in that I don't see anyone much anymore since seeing people requires I in some way deviate from my routine schedule and my digital position away from everyone hiding from underneath the bed and casting out the daily Livejournal rambling. In this case my guest was rcoony, who used to visit me once a month back when I was going to graduate school just outside Albany, New York, so he could have some fun and excitement. It's hard to imagine a sharper rebuke to his hometown of Binghamton, yet it's one that the Capital District can't really take much pride in. Typically we would pass the weekend eating a while, then driving at random until we got lost or reached the Flag Acres Zoo, and then we'd come back to watch whatever silliness I had on videotape, often Mystery Science Theater 3000, and then he'd stay over because it was so late.

In this case, though, he came over to clean my camera lenses. Not just that, of course, but that was a part of it, since I haven't really cleaned my camera lenses since I left Singapore and lost the nice supply of eyeglass cleaning wipes. I'm sure some optics aficionado is horrified by using eyeglass cleaning pads on camera lenses, but the uses seemed compatible enough, and they worked well, and I've just been mildly annoyed that I can't seem to find a comparable product in the United States. rcoony has proper lens cleaner, and an abundance of other camera gear. He's serious about cameras in a way I could never manage, and he happily wields things like a camera with so many attachments on its front that it's longer than my first car. And while he didn't use it, he did point out his new camera flash, which he thinks is brighter than his old one. Those who've met him may be preemptively covering their eyes now, as his old flash gave roughly the expected level of light Eta Carinae is expected to shine on its planets.

After adventures too numerous and varied to describe offhand we figured he should stay the night, leaving the question of where. My parents' study would be a logical spot, but the sofa in there is barricaded by the many boxes of things I sent home from Singapore -- I had a lot of books -- as well as boxes I've evicted from my storage locker that contain nothing I ever owned. We finally cleared off the sofa. Unfolding the bed within was an iffy prospect even when the room didn't have my life in it. But there's a little channel and he went in to sleep and seems to have survived. My parents can't figure out how, and at least one of the cats took to staring at him to process this impossible sight.

Trivia: Coffee had a reputation for curing drunkenness as early as 1671. Source: Tastes of Paradise, Wolfgang Schivelbusch.

Currently Reading: The Insanity Defense, Woody Allen.

Comments

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

I would hopefully expect that you will be able to see many more and more often, now that you are stateside again :>

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

We'll see. It's nice having company or being company, but then it's also nice to spend the weekend hiding under the bed, too.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

...thank goodness your stripey tail always sticks out!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

It's got its advantages, anyway.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

You can't seem to find eyeglass cleaning wipes? There's only about ten different brands, all of them OTC, most..

and..

but...

Yes, my Mom works for an optometrist's practice, but what does that have to do with anything? As I was saying..

--Chiaroscuro

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, I figured if they were easy to find in Singapore convenience stores they'd be easy to find in New Jersey convenience stores, and somehow that theory just hasn't panned out. I admit it may be that there's so many packages of every imaginable thing that there's no way for me to see what I want, given that the average convenience store candy aisle in the United States is larger than the average supermarket in Singapore, and so details may be lost.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

True, they're not so much a mini-mart thing here, as they are a superstore thing. I advice checking Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc; or your local optical shop should have some for sale (officially or unofficially.).

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I did give it a try in the Capital K Mart where I couldn't find a shoehorn, actually.

It's a bit surprising given the tight focus of convenience stores in Singapore that I'd find these there but not in similar spots in the United States.