Thursday, April 26, 2012

Friday Hometown Shootout -- Time

Hmmm.   This seems to be a really tough one.

Bagman, Butler and I have been sitting here all week.

Just sitting.


Killing time.

Trying to think of something, watching the clock, and coming up empty.

BUTLER:  "We could shoot the clock?"

BAGMAN: "We could shoot whoever came up with the topic?"

I start singing an old Eagles song.  "Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping...into the future."

BUTLER: "Shouldn't time be slipping into the past?"

BAGMAN: "It ain't slipping anywhere today.  It's just stopped.  Maybe we should just skip the shootout this week.  

BUTLER: "We could shoot a timelapse of the stairs...stop down the f-stop as low as possible, turn out the lights, make a 10 or 20 second exposure and walk up and down during that time to show...

BAGMAN:  "Show what?  Fuzzy lines?  We should have done that when the theme was motion."

BUTLER: "I'm sure there are some interesting clocks downtown somewhere."

BAGMAN: "Or wristwatches on the arms of pretty girls."

"It's too late now, anyhow.  We've been wasting time all week and now we've got yard work so we can't go shooting today anyhow."


We sit in silence some more.


Time passes.


Broken only by the occasional mouse click as I plod through archive pictures..


BUTLER: "This reminds me of Waiting for Godot."

BAGMAN: "Reminds me of jail."

BUTLER: "Stop pretending to be tough.  You were never in jail."

"Hey!" I say.  "We could show that picture of the jail cell in Alcatraz when we took the tour."

BUTLER: "We already did that one."

BAGMAN:  "Okay.  I give up.  Who says we have to post something every week anyhow. 

BUTLER: "I agree.  It's not like we have to keep up with the Queenmother who also hasn't missed a post since January 1st."

So I'm about to turn off the computer having gone through thousands of pictures.  By this time, I'm actually looking at an old file of raw shots from Italy that I never did anything with. 

"Well," I say. "It isn't much but I remember shooting this old clock in some Florence church."


BAGMAN: "No wonder I'm tired.  XVIIII is way past my bedtime."

BUTLER:  "Did you flip the picture or does that clock really run counter-clockwise."

"Nope.  Straight from the camera.   This is not a clock that I would want to use to teach the grandchildren how to tell time."

BUTLER: "Or maybe, for this clock, time really is slipping slipping slipping into the future."

At that point the bell over St. Michaels in Italy gongs.



BUTLER: "Times up."

BAGMAN: "What do you want to do now?"

"I don't know," I reply.  "We'll think of something if we sit here long enough."

Time passes.



20 comments:

  1. Very nice. Time has hung heavily on my mind these days as I do less and less and time seems to fly faster and faster racing toward my death. Oh well, I do love Italy.

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    1. EEEeeeeeeee! "racing towards your death...." stop the clock, jump off the wagon, run for the hills.. what other cliches can I use. I don't even want to think about the time I waste that I'll never get back...

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  2. Umm... is it my calendar that's wrong or is it really only Thursday today?

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  3. When I first clicked on your post, I thought the idea was to show the passing of time by the lack of hair. Then I saw the hourglass. Quite entertaining as usual. I hope I can get my idea to translate into what I have in mind. This was a hard one.
    QMM

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  4. Information from this secure page will be submitted to a page that is not secure on www.blogger.com.

    Submitting sensitive information is strongly discouraged.

    I need technical advice, most of the time, when I try to upload my photos, I get the above warning. Does that happen to you?

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  5. Pssst....Steve Miller Band. :)

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  6. A 24 hour clock! Now that is a find!

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  7. What a gorgeous clock (and bell tower). I wouldn't mind having a 24 hour clock around. Not at all.

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  8. great shots! --- and yes, it really happen in 2 hours :)

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  9. That clock must be going anti-clockwise! (or?)

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  10. Nice one Mark! I'm glad you found the Italian clock photo, what a cool thing. I've long since abandoned the idea of keeping up with QMM, though.

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  11. love the dialog - with 3 of you, you should be able to move forward into the future - time does do that you know, move into the future, not fall back into the past - except at daylight savings time....

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  12. The bell dongers are cute although they do look a tad cold.

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  13. That's a very 'confusing time' to me!! hahahahahha

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  14. I liked the story! I liked the photos too...it was, like, 19 o'clock?!?!

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  15. The hourglass gave me a smile although at first I didn't even notice it when I looked to see what you had done with your header this week. Now the thought of the sands running through is depressing me, so I'm about to get out of here and forget about that.

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  16. What an interesting clock (Florence). Enjoyed how you not only had pics but a nice conversation too on time.

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  17. Ah, "Waiting for Godot". Music to my ears. When people around here used to ask me what I was doing, I would jokingly say, "Waiting for Godot." Absolutely no one in Crisfield knew what I was talking about, so now I just say, "Nuttin."

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