Sorry about the mess last week, but it looks like it is the new norm for Comcast. This weekend my Internet access has been down more than it has been up. I see a lot of reports from watch agencies, but nothing from Comcast themselves, but there have been massive outages reported across the country for Comcast customers.

So to avoid a fiasco like last weekend, I think I am going to have to postpone the already postponed VacaChat broadcast. Hopefully Comcast can get it together sometime soon. I have a lot of projects coming up, and this is not helping.

Monday was a historical day for Mary and me--we went to the California State Fair! Despite both of us having lived our entire lives in California, it was a first time for both of us. It was a fun day, albeit a tad exhausting. By the time I had looked at several displays and collections, I had a terrible case of “museum feet,” so we left a bit before sundown. The fair continues through the 24th, and we got season passes, so we will be going back. It looks like tomorrow may be another Fair day. We’re going by the weather—tomorrow is supposed to be the coolest day all week. (Typically it can get into the low 100s around the time of the fair, so it becomes a real test of your survival skills. But tomorrow the predicted high is around 85.) We had a great time, and I got to try deep-fried artichoke hearts for the first time…they were delicious!!

I am still struggling to put my car back together. This dates from back in April, when I got back from a photo safari and my friend Mitch rolled the window back up and it got stuck in the down position and made a horrific grinding noise. (I have power windows in my 2005 PT Cruiser) Turns out the regulator broke, so I ordered the new part. What they sent me was a similar part to the original, but not the very same. So I have been struggling to see about replacements, refunds, and they kept telling me I just needed to move the old mounting bracket from the old part to the new one, but then the holes are not of the same pattern—so I have been grinding, drilling, and making several trips to the hardware store in an effort to get that stupid part shoe-horned into the door. And yesterday I got it finally in there—not working 100% (the window wobbles a little bit on the way up), but good enough. And so I went to put the door panel back on, and it turns out the linkage from the inside door handle to the actual latch broke off. So now I’m trying to get that back together, and I am feeling pretty snake-bitten on this whole thing. I have become convinced that the moment I successfully get the door back together, I’m going to take a celebratory drive and the engine will just drop out and fall on the ground. Sometimes I just fail at the engineering.

On the photography front, I am looking to mix up a new batch of chemicals today (the current batch was mixed almost a year ago). I’m still pushing forward with my plans to develop my first roll of color film by the end of 2016. Also, I am still working on trying to get this Hasselblad working again. I just replaced the light traps in the film magazines, so I think those are good to go. (The Hasselblad is a modular camera system. The core is a cube, and you can put different lenses on it, and also different film backs. This allows you to keep one magazine loaded with color film, and one with B&W…and you can switch back and forth. To allow this, you have what is known as a “dark slide”-- a thin metal plate that inserts into the film back. That protects the film from light exposure when you take the film magazine off. There are seals that press against that plate to keep light from sneaking past, and the old ones were worn-out on the two backs I have. So the backs should be good to go now.)

I picked up a new client this week—it is a Chinese Christian Ministry. I drove to Rohnert Park on Thursday and put a few hours of work in with them. It was a great experience, and I hope to work with them again soon! They are creating three 45-minute video documentaries about the history of Christianity in China. Very interesting stuff about all the missionary work.

Well, the day continues to heat up, so I had better get out there and try to get the door of the car put back together. I will talk with y’all soon!