Coffee Walk 6

Yes, it is Coffee Walk 6, but I did spare you walk 5 after posting #4 on July 06. You're welcome.

Do you ever have days when your underwear doesn't sit right? When we stopped to order our coffees, I nipped into the washroom to try to adjust. It helped, but it didn't fix the problem entirely.

It was a cloudless and very sunny day, but we did find a bench with partial shade, farther from the playground equipment than where we usually consume our coffees.

A selfie. You knew that I would have to do it.

On the table right in front of me was an interesting squiggle around a knot. It looked like someone had been sketching, but it was all natural.

We had passed a new, blank sign at the beginning of our walk, but on our return, there was a fellow applying masking tape. It turns out that he is an artist who showed us a sketch of town things what he will paint in due course. I put his card in the corner of the photo,

I thought that it would take him a long time to complete the project, but he had it all mapped out, and he was taking a picture with the mayor for fb later that afternoon.

I will have to have a closer look on Coffee Walk 7, whenever that might occur. Speaking of coffee, I'll soon be off to meet with the photo boys at Tims. I didn't drink coffee until I was in my very early 50s. This is why I started — to be sociable. Now, as you well know, I have my generous share of the brew.

I crossed out soon, above, because it's only gone 4, and I won't see them until 9. I had a great sleep for almost 4 hours, but then it was clear that I was done, so I got up, had some cereal, and sat down here. I am not enthralled about the short night, but here we are. Maybe, I will get back to sleep for while.

Keeping it Real

We weren't more then 10 minutes into a new-for-us tv series — one of the somewhat older US police shows that we had missed when it was current. I pressed pause, looked at Sue, and said, "You know what is wrong with this?"

Of course she knew. The young female cop in charge was about 30 and gorgeous. While it is pretty problematic that any cop would rise to the top at that age, it is even more unlikely that she would also be a knockout.

According to this article, Why Americans Love British TV, one thing that Americans love about British tv is that the characters looks like real people.

Vera is a senior police detective who looks like she has paid her dues. Her character is believable. 

And doesn't Inspector Ellis also look like she could actually be an experienced detective?

It's true about the men too. Neither Lewis nor Hathaway were exactly heartthrobs, and they probably look better in the poster than they did in the show.

The actors mostly look like us, like real people playing pretty realistic roles. I am not even going to talk about plots and scripts except to say that the Brits don't usually treat the viewers like children but like adults with brains.

British seasons are short, much too short. We are left wanting more. American seasons are long. I often find myself thinking enough is enough.

Of course I am painting with too broad a broad brush, and there is decent American programming, but I think you know what I mean and likely concur to at least some degree.

Weekend in the Park

When we walk the park on the weekend, we witness more activity than on weekdays. For one thing, there are always a number of people fishing. I take pictures of them, but I never like them, so I discard them in the bin of my forgetfulness.

On a nice day, there are water activities, often including dogs. While I binned one of a man walking his dog, both of them right in the river, I do have this ↓ one of a dog on a SUP, and this wasn't the only pooch getting such a ride on a warm, sunny day.

The lady stood up a moment later, and off they paddled.

Can you tell that the dog ↑ is wearing a lifejacket? When they embarked close to us just near the foreground, I saw that the dog's lifejacket had a handle on top, just like a suitcase. If the mutt were to fall overboard, it could fairly easily be hauled back on board by gripping the handle.

Many people consume, um, comestibles in the park, but a couple just off to the right of the above photo really had it figured out. And here they are.

They took their chairs, devices, dog and even wine right down the embankment and passed the time almost obscured from view. They were really living their best lives on that day.

The Frisbee Event

Yesterday, we came across a border collie chasing and catching a frisbee in the park. Using a phone in telephoto mode is definitely not the best instrument to catch a dog jumping and catching a frisbee, but I got one okay-ish result after many ill-timed efforts.

When I got home, I cropped and eliminated distractions. While the action and distance renders the subject is a  little bit fuzzy, I am happy enough with the outcome.

I did take a couple more photos, and I decided to incorporate two others with the catch, above, into one composite.

Both the event and the edit were fun.

A MIssed Selfie

It happens once or twice a week from both kids, but it is coming to an end for one grandkid.

Danica is booking the month off before heading back to uni in September, but she will be living there this year and not commuting. In the interim, there is a vacation to take with mom and JJ, and her apartment/room to get ready for the fall semester at Carlton U in Ottawa, so she won’t be working this month. 

The baby is leaving home and us.

sniff

I did get her to work, but she wasn't a happy camper because she had forgotten several things, including her lunch for a long shift.

I said that I would came back and take her to Tims for lunch. We used to take the kids there every now and then when they were little and we were the daycarers. So, it has been awhile, but it was nice to reprise one more time.

Sue and I picked her up at 3 and just drove the very short distance to Tims.

That evening Danica posted this.

Yes, a homeless (I don't think that is right word anymore) man asked us if we had money for a sandwich. I don’t carry much cash, but I was willing to buy him a sandwich. I said so and headed to the cashier with app in hand. He was specific and requested beef and cheese. I asked if he would also like a coffee.

"Yes please: large 2 creams and 2 sugars."

I placed the order and paid with my app. It came to $10 something. I went back to the table while he waited for the order to be processed.  

With the interruption, we didn't think to get around to the selfie.

Darn. 

One Chicory Bloom: Three Takes

I'd seen photos of chicory recently and also seen chicory in the distance as we have been  driving around, but when we passed the abandoned building by the little back bridge, there were blooms aplenty. I didn't spend much time with them, but I did snap a few of one flower that I could capture on its own.

I used portrait mode to give me the blurry background. We call that bokeh. Bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur in out-of-focus areas of an image. It is created using a wide aperture lens, commonly producing soft, pleasing circles of light. (Mr Google)

An even slightly blurrier background might be preferrable, but that was as far as portrait mode would take me. I switched to normal mode which would really show the background detail, but then  I managed to soften it well in edit, proving that you can sometimes fake with software what otherwise might require a high quality lens on an expensive camera. While it might not be good enough for a pro photographer, it is good enough for me in this phone stage of my photography.

I did take another photo in portrait mode when the wind kicked up a bit. With some selective editing of the background detail, I like the result well enough to post here if not on an actual photo site, such as Flickr.

As she often does, Sue had caught me in the act of shooting these photos.

The Credit Card Mixup Again

Almost two weeks ago, I posted of The $343.17 Mishap. I will try to do a very condensed recap and then post the follow up.

I made the error of paying my Visa bill to the wrong account: an account that was effectively dead, and yet, somehow, wasn’t. With no actual credit card, we had no way to access the surplus. It required two long telephone calls and one long todo at the bank, to have TD send us an actual credit card which we would use until we had effectively recovered all of the money.  

That was than, and it all seemed settled when we received a mailing form TD that obviously contained a card.

When we opened it, there was a problem. It was a debit card, not a credit card.

What?! We don’t have a bank account with them. What is there to debit? Then, I thought that it might be a pre-loaded card with our funds. That was not the case. It was a card to nothing since we have no accounts.

Furthermore, the accompanying letter said to use our existing PIN.

For one thing, we had no account to PIN to, and for another, whatever PIN that we had more than two decades past was totally erased from our memories.

Back to the bank went Susie and Johnny, hoping to find the same teller who had worked through our silly situation once already..

Nope: not working that day. Let me tell you that it was extremely confusing for two confused seniors to explain a confusing situation to an also confused new teller.

After a lot of going over and over it, she finally understood and suggested that the easiest solution was for us to close the account and be issued a cheque.

To accomplish this, she had to call the institution which passed her around from pillar to post and all of the way back again with many a “Not my department,” response.

Eventually, and I do mean eventually, we were told that it would all be done. Our account was now closed, and a cheque  would come to us in three weeks.

UPDATE

I wrote that two days ago.

Would you believe the credit card came in the mail yesterday. 

If we had waited, we could have begun spending the balance. It was that debit card that threw us. Why would they send us a debit card when we had no bank account and no password? It remains a puzzle.

So . . . there’s nothing to do but wait for the cheque. If it doesn’t come in due course, we have the physical credit card just in case it is still active and the funds are still in there. 

The situation remains bizarre.