Home › #Photography › EXPECTATIONS, DOGS, AND TOO MUCH EMAIL

EXPECTATIONS, DOGS, AND TOO MUCH EMAIL

By on • ( 30 )

I fully expected to write this post this morning, but somehow, I forgot. Just … forgot. I got involved in trying to catch up with comments and email and somehow lost the thread of the morning. And now, it’s after dinner and I’m throwing this together because …

Gibbs and The Duke

I never caught up with my email. Not even close. There are at least 80 new emails in there and I’m not going to finish them today. It’s will be another mass delete because the eighty I don’t finish today will become 200 tomorrow and 500 by Monday. Moreover, I spent the afternoon researching the price of cameras. Canon DSLR cameras. My granddaughter still has the camera I gave her five years ago. She needs a new one, but she does not want a new one. She likes the old one. In fact, she LOVES this one. Unfortunately, the new lenses she wants are not going to work on the older camera body. So …

Gibbs

We’ll thrash it out tomorrow. I can’t afford it anyway, so if she’s really determined to keep it, well, okay. Keep it … but new lenses are going to be hard to come by as auto-focus and other camera functions keeps changing.

The Duke

Meanwhile, the dogs were doing something really cute. They did it yesterday, but by the time I got to my camera, they were suspicious that “you know who is going to take our picture,” so they headed for the out-of-doors. They have an apparent deathly fear of my taking their picture.

Gibbs and the great out-of-doors

They were doing the same adorable thing today, so I tiptoed to my camera. I had the right lens on it, so I grabbed it and just shot a bunch of pictures. Many are blurry, but I didn’t think this was the moment to try and take perfect shots. I actually got better pictures than I had any right to expect. Some are even sharp.

Instead of glorious autumn foliage, today you are getting cute pictures of my dogs.

At play, in the out-of-doors

And an apology for my failure to live up to expectations. I didn’t get to your posts and I didn’t even nearly finish my email. It turns out I can’t finish my email, get to everyone’s posts, write a piece or two, take pictures, process pictures, and also have a conversation with my granddaughter in a single day.

The truth is, I probably won’t succeed tomorrow, either. I love you all, but reality bites and it’s telling me I need to slow down.

This is me. Slowing down.

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Categories: #Photography, dogs, Pets, Scottish Terrier

Tags: , , , , , ,

30 replies

  1. swo8
    10/22/2017 • 11:22

    Sorry about all that email, Marilyn but those pictures are priceless. It looks like Gibbs and Duke are going at it head to head. Gibbs is feeling challenged and he’s feeling his age.
    Leslie

    Like

  2. DailyMusings
    10/22/2017 • 09:12

    always happy to see doggie pics Marilyn!! No apologies, we are all in the same boat with catch up and not being able to!

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      10/22/2017 • 20:11

      If I can’t get up to speed in one day, I have to delete it all because there will be an equal or greater amount in each day that follows. I hate doing it, but I have learned there’s no choice.

      Like

  3. Taswegian1957
    10/22/2017 • 06:22

    There are days when I don’t read the posts of everyone I follow let alone reading any new ones. How you keep up with most of your emails as well is a mystery to me.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      10/22/2017 • 20:14

      The answer is, I don’t. I have to do a lot of deleting. I can’t do it. I could run it all through the reader and lick “like” for everything, but that sort of defeats the point. It’s why I don’t like the reader. It makes it much too easy to click and fly past.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. lwbut
    10/22/2017 • 05:56

    I think all of us have been there at some point, Spike! 🙂

    Some say there are some bloggers who can do it all and still have a full life off the computer too, as well as having enough time to sleep and relax in the daytime as well!

    I don’t believe it! 😉

    I try to cut my time on here down and be more efficient.

    I said ‘Try!’ 😉

    love

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      10/22/2017 • 20:16

      I don’t believe it either, unless you are a speed reader … and at some point, what’s the point? Do you absorb anything that way? If I can’t read and think, I’m not reading. I can look at pictures quickly, but i can’t read that fast and still absorb anything.

      Liked by 1 person

      • lwbut
        10/22/2017 • 22:59

        I’ve never gone in for speed reading – but i probably (we all probably) should. The reports i’ve seeen say it actually increases retention and longevity of information read!? Many times i find myself reading a single passage of prose several times because my mind is wandering or distracted – with SR i think that gets cut down and your mind focuses more on what is being communicated by the author at a speed that does not bore the brain.

        I guess i should ask someone who does it or teaches it to get the scoop?

        I was actually meaning to say it’s ok if you don’t get to everyone all the time on WP – you do a fantastic job as it is and we all appreciate you for it.

        (and by ‘all’ i mean those of us that count! ) 😉

        love

        Like

        • Marilyn Armstrong
          10/22/2017 • 23:05

          I CAN speed read. So can Garry. It does NOT increase retention or longevity of information. It also does not give you a chance to absorb the emotional content of reading. It lets you get a lot of information quickly — which you will forget pretty fast.

          Liked by 1 person

          • lwbut
            10/23/2017 • 00:38

            There goes THAT theory! 😉

            love

            Like

            • Marilyn Armstrong
              10/23/2017 • 00:48

              It was never meant for reading novels. It was designed to give you a way to handle volumes of information quickly. For things like exams in college, reading law books looking for a particular piece of information. Collecting a LOT of information on something you needed to cover for a news item or a document you are writing. If you read novels this way, you’ll know what happened, but you won’t have a clue WHY. I’ve had to learn to slow down.

              Liked by 1 person

              • lwbut
                10/23/2017 • 00:59

                I guess part of the joy of reading novels/short fiction stories is taking the time out to indulge fully in the imaginary experience and getting away fro our regular life for a while. 🙂
                I wonder though if with speed reading it might be possible to increase one’s ability to get more than just the volume of facts faster? Maybe it is possible with practice to get enjoyment while speed reading – maybe?

                love.

                Like

                • Marilyn Armstrong
                  10/23/2017 • 01:27

                  Not that either Garry or I have found. HE had to slow down, too. We both needed the speed for work, but now that we aren’t working, we don’t need it. Even when i was working, I had to read chapters two or three times sometimes to really get a sense of the story. NOW, slowed down, I enjoy reading much more than I used to.

                  Like

  5. Willow
    10/22/2017 • 02:47

    Eh, you get more done than I do. 🙂 I mostly get by with breathing these days. Ha! Take your time. We’ll be here.

    Like

  6. angloswiss
    10/22/2017 • 01:26

    My emails are mainly notifications from WordPress which I can delete in a couple of minutes. I always check through the reader for new posts to comment and answer comments on my blogs. It is my first routine work of the day. Luckily I can deal with that comfortably from my iPad in bed. I have Nikon cameras DSLR and they still have the same attachment system. I am looking for a wide angle lens, but there are too many to choose from.

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      10/22/2017 • 02:15

      I have too many follows … but I really LIKE them and I want to read them. However, even scanning quickly, unless it’s all photography, I can’t read that fast, on or off the reader. It’s my own fault, so i’ll have to figure out how to deal with it. It keeps coming back. Too much stuff to do in a day if I’m going to do anything off the computer.

      Like

  7. Fandango
    10/22/2017 • 01:16

    Since I retired last year, I get maybe a dozen emails a day on my personal email, so it doesn’t take me long to read and, where appropriate, respond to them. I have a different email account for WordPress and rarely bother looking at it because it mostly tells me so-and-so has a new post or someone liked one of my posts or commented on one of my posts. I don’t need emails to tell me that, since I read others’ new posts in my reader and can see likes and comments in my notifications. But I can’t figure out how to get WordPress to stop sending me all those damn emails!

    And, as you pointed out, life does sometimes take precedent over writing and reading blog posts.

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      10/22/2017 • 02:10

      EVEN using the reader, it’s impossible to scan 70 sites in a day. i could just go down the list and give everyone a “like,” but I actually LIKE reading posts. I simply don’t have enough hours in the day … and there is NO way to make the emails stop.

      I also get a lot of news-related emails. Some days, i don’t have time to read any of them. Today was that kind of day. Maybe life is better if I don’t read the news,

      Liked by 2 people

      • Fandango
        10/22/2017 • 02:19

        I spend a lot of time reading my news feed on my iPhone…probably too much time. As to reading other’s posts, I try to keep up using my reader. I comment on maybe half of those that I read, but I never “like” a post that I haven’t read. Conversely, there are some posts that I read and don’t click “like” because, well, I didn’t particularly like them. I can be picky.

        Like

        • Marilyn Armstrong
          10/22/2017 • 02:44

          I use “like” as a calling card. “HI, I was here!” but if I don’t like it, I won’t use it and if it’s a long post I won’t like it unless I read it. But it’s difficult. I like the reading I just run out of hours.

          Liked by 2 people

  8. fromsandyknob
    10/21/2017 • 22:55

    Slowing down is frustrating. to put it mildly… when damaged joints get even crankier than before…. enough said.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. cagedunn
    10/21/2017 • 22:29

    C’est la vie! It’s not like we don’t all do that, either occasionally, regularly, or all the time …

    Like

  10. Rebel Girl
    10/21/2017 • 22:23

    Good for you! No worries here. This is your blog house and you can be free to run it anyway you see fit. It can get overwhelming. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      10/21/2017 • 22:30

      Today, it got there. By the time I realized I’d blown the morning, supper was over and the baseball game was on. But I’ve got company tomorrow, so I probably should skip making promises I might not keep. It’s good I schedule pieces in advance. If I had to do this every day, I wouldn’t.

      Liked by 1 person