Renting a monster

I have a 2-minute turn-around time at home right now.

Got Nate. Dropped Skip off at his tutoring gig. Got detained by a bus parking in the FAST LANE! (what's up with that?) and am home with Nate so he can get a snack (ice cream - of course, it's a gorgeous day out there), go potty, and I can pick up this:

Um, yeah... I went out this morning and rented it. Tamron 200-500mm zoom lens. What was I thinking?

Tomorrow, Kelly is doing a Special Olympics Sports Day in another city, and I'm driving her up to that. I'll stick around all day, and thought I might enjoy getting a few far-away shots of the athletes. Then after school, there's another Middle School track meet at the local high school, and getting in a bit closer on that might be good, too.

But right now? Now I've gotta get a little bit of practice in. The thing's a monster. And I look like a complete n00b carrying it around on my new (completely inadequate) monopod. So I need to get comfortable with the heft, and with the awkwardness of it, so I won't stick out like a sore thumb over the next couple of days.

So Nate's eating his ice cream, and then I'm gonna swing by school to get Kelly, and the three of us will head down to the pond and look for tadpoles or frog eggs in the pond. And I will try to capture some birds on the pond with that sweet 200-500mm zoom.

Without looking like an idiot.