A Retiree’s Day

I was up by 6 and soon sipping my first cuppa and catching up with things on my iPad. One of the tasks to check off was to play my morning game of Wordle and to report the results to the family. I soon had the last four letters, but there were many possibilities for the first letter. I found it on the sixth and final try  

After I switched to the computer for some reason or Oother, Sue entered my den carrying her iPad. This happens, sometimes also with her computer or even her phone. The problem on this day had to do with disappearing texts in Messenger. A little sleuthing led us to the solution.

Soon it was time to drive across down to pick up Danica and get her to work at Canadian Tire by 8. Getting the kids to work is one small good deed that I can do. 

That done, I sat in the car for a few minutes until it was 8 o’clock when the grocery store on the other side of the parking lot opened for the day. That load of groceries ended up costing me only $2:20 after I redeemed $120 of accumulated points. That was helpful because groceries are expensive these days. Well, everything is expensive these days  

Picked up Timmies coffees on the way home because I realized that we wouldn’t be walking due to problematic weather conditions, and bringing coffee home would be a little treat. The usual large, double cream orders were our second caffeine hits of the day. The coffee was perfect this time around, fresh and  hot with just the right amount of cream. It does vary somewhat from one time to another  

Shortly thereafter, I was on my way to Nick’s to help with his computer when I stopped for gas.  A few cents short of $75, was the total. Yikesorama Mama! Fortunately, we don’t do that much driving, and sometimes one fill-up will last for a month. If not, two will get us through  

Got to Nick’s by about 10:30 to continue to help him get his photos from the old computer system to the new one. He had allowed the old system to get rather disorganized and chaotic, so I am attempting to help him get started in a more organized fashion on the new computer. It’s a process. It’s taken a few sessions already to begin finding the old files and getting them onto a portable hard drive to port them over to the new machine, and it will take a few more visits before he is sailing ahead on the new system  As with Sue’s tablet, and driving the kids to work, I like being able to help if I can. I find it satisfying to feel somewhat useful. 

After lunch with Sue, it was time to pick Danica up from work and get her back home.

Danica is off to Ottawa today with a friend to check out a place to stay for her second year of university starting in September. Our baby girl will be moving out. Wasn’t I just rocking her?

Whenever I drop Danica off at work or back at home, she says, “Love ya.”  And I you, my dear child, although I don’t seem to get around to saying it then. It always seems to catch me by surprise.  

I had picked up a case of zero sugar ice tea for Danica in the morning shopping. We kept half the cans here to have when she drops in. When she stepped out of the car, I told her get the other half from the back seat — a little treat for the girl  

There was one more stop to be made at a different grocery store from the morning one. I was looking for Caffeine Free Diet Coke, which I sometimes drink in the evening. But every now and then, Caff, which is what I call it, isn’t available. This situation began during the pandemic and recurs every now and then, sometimes for weeks. I did purchase Coke Zero, but it doesn’t suit me as well. 

That was a busier day than normal for this retiree. Perhaps this morning will involve our more normal walk and photo routine although at 6:40am, the skies do not look terribly welcoming. 

Granny does AI Photo Editing

Sue's photo prompt week involves gray with various ancillary prompts added. Yesterday, we saw a gray squirrel in a yard that backs onto the trail. It seems that most gray squirrels have transmogrified into black variants, but this one was the proper gray.

Sue decided that it required a splash of colour and asked about adding flowers using AI. I don't do much AI, but Shauna was over and told Sue to invoke ChatGPT. Cute result eh?

In keeping with the gray theme, she was then able to turn the basket's colour from brown to gray.

After she shared her result, with us, I realized that I could invoke more AI editing right from FB just by tapping her photo. I asked AI to add a hat. One could specify a different sort of hat or make it gray, but all that I wanted to do at that point was to see how AI would work within the FB app, and I discovered that it worked very well.

I have been very ambivalent about AI. I like to know what it real and what isn't, and I don't approve of the environmental cost, but we are in a different world now. Personally, I have done very little with AI, but I have a Flickr contact who creates marvellous images. He describes a scene and then edits it in Photoshop. It wouldn't feel right to post his images directly, but here is a link to one image. Once there, if you hit the back arrow → you will see a few more examples. He does mix his own real photos into his stream as well.

Of course, our own DVArtist on Blogger also constructs incredible images.

Seeing Green

It was Sunday morning, and I was ambling through the book of face, after having checked out blogs and other news. I did cometh across numerous t-shirt posts, at least a half-dozen. There was nary a red shirt to be seen. What is wrong with people‽

That was after my Sleepwatch app told me that I enjoyed 8.5 hours of sleep on the previous night. Well, I hadn’t. When I checked the timeline, it had me sleeping from abut 8:30pm onward when I had simply been sitting in my chair and doing tablety things, like I am doing right now, until after 11pm. The adjusted sleep time should be closer to 6 hours.

Two days prior to that, it did the opposite: cheated me out of 3 hours. I had gone potty in the middle of the night, as one does, and gone back to sleep for 3 hours afterwards, but it didn’t recognize those hours. Until it did. It was much later in the day, nearly evening, when it finally granted me those 3 hours.

I am reminded of the time when I got up early and was up for at least 2 hours, but I think it was actually 3, before going to the dentist. It was a long appointment, and the app decided to award me 2 extra hours of sleep when I can assure you, I was quite awake in the blasted chair.

The app usually works well and most often aligns with what I experience, but it does have its occasional hiccups.

Speaking of sleep, I fell asleep 3x when playing Sudoku before bed. By that I mean that I caught my head bobbing 3x. I often play a game or 3 of Sudoku last thing at night to tire out my brain; occasionally, nodding ensues. Sometimes, I just stop the game and roll over, but I kept playing after nodding on that night, and weirdly enough, I didn’t make any mistakes. 

After I wrote that ↑ yesterday morning, we found some more greening, on both sides of the river from the main bridge.

Beethoven, Blueberry and Leafing

As we strolled along Main Street, the opening of Beethoven's Fifth kept playing in my head. Something is always playing in my head, but on this particular morning, it was our friend, Beethoven. 

In an attempt to culturalize a rowdy class of boys, our grade 9 music teacher would play this symphony for us along with several other classical pieces for. Two others that I recall are The Bolero and the Coriolanus Overture. To be truthful, I no longer remember how Coriolanus went, but I am playing it now to see if anything clicks in me olde 'ead.

The Fifth was perfect on this day because the words that kept playing along with it were, Blueberry Scone, words that fit perfectly well with the opening bars. I kid you not; those blessed words kept repeating over and over. Clearly, the universe was trying to tell me something.

The scones were purchased, and then we drove through Tim's for coffee before parking in our usual spot near the docks by the edge of Riverside Park.

Sitting there, I appreciated the beginning of The Greening of the Leaves. Not all of the park's trees were leafing out, but enough were that, of course, I was going to take commemorative photos once we had consumed our caffeine and tasty snack.

The view from the car revealed feathery greenery in the near treetops.

Farther along, that poor, old, bent tree was leafing out having survived another winter.   

While those photos would look a little better if they were brighter, that is what the day was like, and it was good enough for me.

Bloodroot and Hyacinth

You may recall that, when we visited bloodroot wildflowers previously, they were closed. We returned, hoping for a different outcome. Happily, they were open on that overcast day, bringing light to our souls. I did my stooping thing, so whomsoever recently chided for mistreating my back, has another opportunity. The thing is that I don’t necessarily wish to get down and dirty my trousers  

I think my attempt was successful, and, fortunately, I feel no more back pain than usual in the aftermath.

We also passed by the English lady's garden to check in on the more domesticated spring flowers. (Two crops of the same photo with much editing as the spirit led me.)

Danica and Boulton

Late Wednesday evening, Danica asked if I could get her to work for 8 o'clock on Thursday morning. In case it might slip my mind in the morning I asked Alexa to set a reminder at 7. I would be possible that I would be up but that I might forget about Danica when I began to do my usual morning things. Then, I thought, "What if I am not already awake? I might not hear Alexa because I wouldn't have my ears (hearing aids) in."

Sure enough, I was still asleep at 7, and so I didn't hear Alexa. However, Sue of the cat-like ears did hear from the other room and came in to wake me. However, I had also thought to have Siri waken me at 7:10, and sure enough, my watch vibrated.

It's good to have a failsafe, and I had two — Sue and Siri. 

And it was great to see my beautiful granddaughter s0 early in the morning. It does my grandfather's heart good.

Of course, I have photos to post too.

Sue took me back to the bridge quite early on the previous morning to look for her elusive spring photo. Alas, she didn't get what she wanted, but I got two photos that satisfied me. The sun was rising over the corner of the former Boulton Brown Mill, now Boulton Apartments (I think).

Scenes from the Park

Today, I am dropping Monday's scenes from the park. They were all taken from near the bench where we were sitting. You will recognize some of the sights, like that tree near the dock and the burnished bushes. Other than that, I don't think my usually spellbinding narrative is necessary. I know that you love me to go on and on, but I am afraid that I feel compelled to disappoint you today. :)