The Life and Times of...Me

There are no pictures of the Pantheon in this post. Thanks for reading.

While a previous attempt to visit the Eiffel tower had been sabotaged by a malfunctioning elevator that in turn caused long lines to snake around the tower's legs and subsequently significantly gum up the works, we made it today.  Congratulations if you made it through that sentence. A little earlier on the agenda was the Louvre, another Parisian icon. The Louvre amazed me, but not for the right reasons.  Literally thousands of timeless, classic works, tirelessly recovered and painstakingly restored, hung in relative loneliness as ninety percent of museum attendees flocked to gawk at the Mona Lisa.  While itself both timeless and classic, I couldn't help but be amazed at the effect popularity can have on a person's vision and perception of the world in front of them.  Either seeing da Vinci's most famous work is just another must-see attraction to cross off the list, or the crowd jostling and elbowing for good viewing position was actually enthralled by...

We've been in the city for 6 days now; it's not like we just got here.  Yet, our agenda has been fairly well dominated by typical tourist activities, and it's been difficult to see outside of the tourist microcosm of tour buses, guides with microphones and speakers, and museum display cases.  Today, though we caved in a small way to visit Saint Chappelle and Notre Dame, I felt like the windows were opened and a bit of the real Paris shone through.   I got my first taste, and I liked it. Thanks for reading.

This is going to be a long one. Wednesday morning, we woke up and went to the hotel breakfast, as usual.  We came back, and I brushed my teeth, as usual.  I got ready to go out, and got my camera stuff together.  As usual, I got my camera ready and put together to make sure it worked. The camera did not turn on.  Not as usual. I proceeded to extensively research my problem and pursue every troubleshooting venue, but to no avail.  Turns out, the camera would still take pictures, but would refuse to display anything on the screen.  Say good-bye to reviewing images and taking video. But hey, I don't take video too often, and I don't use the screen to actually take pictures anyway.  I could just review pictures once I got home, and not worry about it while I was out.  I got more and more confident; I didn't need that stinking screen anyway!  Having to take pictures with a less than fully functional camera would just make me a better photo...

This is going to be a short one. See? Thanks for reading.