A dark bank of cloud off to the Southeast looked a little ominous.
But as it drifted rapidly east, it caught rays of the rising Sun.
It pushed its way into the clear morning sky.
As I washed dishes, I kept my camera near by…
…waiting to see what would develop…
…before long “Oh! Hey?”
“You ruined our nice day!”
Patch-face moved in to the bird feeder
Till he turned round I didn’t know it was him.
So this is where the sparrows had de-camped to.
Breakfast in the driveway, on what I don’t know.
Then….the cloud dissipated and I agreed to a ride…
A quick trip would be in order….
As we drove along, I noticed that the big bank of cloud had not in fact disappeared, but changed its appearance.
We abruptly pulled in to a parking lot and Grant announced that he was “an hour early” and we would need to kill time.
“You hijacked me!” I protested.
I had forgotten that today’s outing included a stop at the eye care clinic.
For once it was me sitting in the car, waiting for Grant while he got his new eyeglasses. A short wait.
Taking pictures of some pretty trees and grasses took but a minute.
Then I thought, why not see how I get on beginning a post using my iPhone….
Challenge is always good and my phone anticipates my thoughts which would save my dyslexic fingers that type all the right letters in wrong combinations.
Killing time is something I have often had to do for one reason or another. But generally I manage quite well to fill spare time.
At Khartoum airport it was reduced to counting the number of flies on a wall which was a bit desperate, but what do you do at four o’clock in the morning when you are jet-lagged and sleep deprived??
Anyway, I don’t like the expression “killing time”.
No-one should ever do that as time wasted is time gone.
Usually I am equipped with a good book, although in public waiting rooms I get distracted by noise, in which case I resort to people watching.
Who are these people and where are they from?
What language are they speaking?
Where are they going and why?
None of my business, needless to say, but I am intrigued by people who are different.
This of course, is mostly how I would pass time in an airport.
These days, if you wait for someone at a medical appointment, you wait in the parking lot.
Even if I had remembered Grant’s appointment, it is unlikely I would have brought my book for such a short wait.
It turns out that I can indeed write on WordPress using my phone but before I had finished my fascinating observations about killing time, the man was back.
We then set off in search of dye.
And there was going to be a diversion.
So much for brief outings.
Four of our dear little darlings have deficient thyroids and their medication is delivered by mail. But…
There was Thanksgiving, where-after normal expectations should be suspended until after the New Year.
Having ordered in plenty of time, we were on the point of running out. Time to check and oh dear, no the shipment had not yet been mailed.
In a way, it was what we wanted to hear because we could actually drive up to Hudson Falls and collect it.
So we did.
Programming this new destination into my phone, I discovered that it wished to speak to me in French.
Grant didn’t seem keen on waiting for me to translate, so I had to retrieve his phone from the back seat.
The car being in motion and me seat-belted and otherwise impeded, it was quite a challenge, but we were soon receiving GPS guidance in English and proceeded….
…up the Hudson which looked very grey and cold.
The inevitable roadworks.
Glad to see that the osprey nest is still in place.
This morning’s cloud was still messing about.
It had called in reinforcements, I think.
But never mind. We got to Hudson Falls….
Thank you, Carolyn, for the wonderful sky.
Joanna
You always seem to have a lot of appointments. I think I have had just 4-5 in the past year. None of them were worth photographing the journey.
Best wishes, Pete.
That road work sign looks quite light. Do they blow over?
I have never seen one airborne. I think they put weights on them, but wouldn’t testify to that!
I love people watching! I sometimes make my own dialogues of what people are saying (normally in a humorous manner) … I think someone that is watching ME, must wonder why I’m sitting with a constant smile on my face 😀. What a lovely (unexpected) long drive … this is my kind of ‘killing time’!