random thoughts – Day 2,084 (Sunday) – cards and treasures

It was another gray day with a side of snow flurries followed by rain. In other words, the perfect weather for staying home and testing a new ring light/cell phone floor stand setup. The dining room is now a makeshift photo studio with a touch of Christmas decorating chaos with storage totes, delivery boxes, and stuff strewn about.

There were challenges, including the floor base not sitting level (possibly a flooring issue) making it impossible to get the cell phone level. A day planner stuffed under one side solved the leveling problem. After a series of photos was shot and analyzed, it was concluded that having the cell in its own holder independent of the lighting might be a better idea. MacGyver-esque solutions were attempted using materials in the house. One possibility included setting the phone in the center of a roll of duct tape. It fit, but kept tipping and causing parallax error.

Skip-Bo.

The latter half of the afternoon was spent at Mom’s with two of the nieces and the nephew playing Skip-Bo. During a lull in the action, an internet search for a cell phone tripod provided a result for one at Ocean State Lob Lot, around the corner and down the street. As soon as the card games ended and we all scattered, I went to the store.

During the search for the tripod, other treasures were found. A pair of dark red boots I’ve looked at the last three times I was in the store and successfully talked myself out of buying because I have an abundance of footwear were 30% off today and were bought. Ornaments were 30% off and I got a box of black and silver balls and a string of lights for the black tinsel tree. It turned out a bulb is missing on the old string, along with the little bag containing spare bulbs and fuses, which are probably in the big tub of lights that were donated before moving. And the string of new lights is much too long for the tree. Errrr.

Treasures.

After wandering the store gathering the extra items and not finding the tripod, I finally asked a store team member for help. The item was in the makeup aisle. Huh? Even better, it was in a plain brown box with “Torjim” printed on the side. I would never have found it without help.

The new tripod is pretty cool. It works for cameras and cell phones and has a bubble level, a feature not included in the much more expensive camera tripod bought years ago. Tomorrow there will be more photos.