When I retired in October 2024, I had not foreseen the events that would hit us. So, a bit of exposition first.
Exposition
It started with our washing machine coughing up its lunch and dying. Geting a new one was no trivial matter.
Then, our house sprung a leak, causing rain water to enter the place without our permission. It hid under the solid oak floor in my study (hereafter affectionately called the Jazz Cave), which then protested by warping itself beyond salvage.
So we had to get the leak addressed and the floor replaced.
Luckily we got help for that from a neighbour.
Then there were two funerals to attend, both of people very close to us (my wife’s brother, with whom we had intensive contact, and the other one a very good friend of my wife) who both died suddenly and unexpectedly. The most paralyzing bit wasn’t the funerals, but the shock we went through.
Twice in three weeks.
And to add insult to injury, another of my wife’s brothers was hospitalised with acute leukemia. He’s now off intensive care, but to say he’s doing well is gravely exaggerated.
Less catastrophic, but still non-minor, was the news of my ongoing illness (retroperitoneal fibrosis) not responding to the treatment with mycophenolic acid. As long as I was on a 20mg Prednisone dose, the fibrosis kept its head down, but you don’t want to have to depend on Prednisone. So, the Prednisone which I had just gradually reduced to zero was kicked up to 20mg again, and supplemented with two drip sessions with Rituximab in December.
It’s unclear where the side effects came from, but this did result in a couple weeks of sleeping intermittently and insufficiently, and gaining some weight.
In April, we’ll see how the retroperitoneal fibrosis responds to Rituximab, and take it from there.
So, when will this retirement thing actually start?
So, by the time January arrived, I was hoping to get some time to actually enjoy my retirement. Up to now, it’s working as well as expected.
Late last year, as we were reviewing our financial situation, my wife suddenly asked me if there was something I really really REALLY wanted to buy. So I mumbled something like “well, there is this camera which is the Ultimate Camera for the lenses I have. DPReview called it “The God Camera” when they laid hands on it. But that’s going to be a four figure amount — secondhand. If you can find one, because those who have it don’t sell it.”
So, to my amazement, she said “ok, go find one”.
And as if the entire universe aligned in my favour, a German camera dealer had one, in pristine condition. Had, because I immediately snapped it up.
And here it is.
And it’s much better than I expected.
And then, it turned out that my “bird lens” (a big fat Sigma telezoom, nicknamed the Bigma) didn’t autofocus anymore. No biggie — autofocus on this lens was so slow you could brew and drink a cup of coffee while waiting for this lens to focus, so I always focused it manually. It may have been broken for years without me noticing.
Worse was, while it wanted to focus on an object at, say, a hundred meters distance, it didn’t want to focus on infinity. Which may not seem very important, unless you try to photograph the moon, which is definitely at infinity.
But after Corona Beeldtechniek laid hands on it, this was taken care of. They also offered to fix the AF, but I decided that I wouldn’t use it anyway.
This is a 6mp crop from a 43mp photo. 500mm, f11. Sharp enough for me considering its price (still a 4 figure amount)
What hurt more was that my trusty Carl Zeiss 24-70/f2.8 T* SSM II (that’s a fantastic bit of kit, the best standard zoom you can get for any Sony camera, and actually my most-used lens) gave up the ghost. While Corona Beeldtechniek could possibly fix that, they don’t have the six-figure equipment to recalibrate this lens, so they had to send it off to Germany anyway. Oh well. We’ll see how that works out.
OK, enough about nerd stuff.
One other highlight of the month — wait, no, a bit of exposition first.
When my oldest grandson was between ages 2 and 5, I picked him up every Saturday morning, and during the 45 minute drive, I always had him listen to the same CD — The Sixteen Men Of Tain from Allan Holdsworth — hoping it would rub off.
It did. On one occasion, at age 4, he actually told me to “put the music on”.
He’s the only family member I know I can send the link of a Snarky Puppy featuring Jacob Collier video to. Het gets it. He actually listens to music. In our family, he and I are the only ones who actually listen to music.
I had promised to take him to an Allan Holdsworth concert as soon as he was old enough to be taken out for the evening… but that never happened, as Allan never came to Europe after 2012, and passed away in 2017.
He’s nineteen now, and he’ll be twenty in May.
In May, Simon Phillips will visit Europe and play in a venue in Zoetermeer, which is half an hour from here.
I’ll be going to a jazz/fusion concert with my Generation Z grandson. How rad is that?
