The Eve is Upon Us

The Eve is upon us. The 23rd involved some last-minute preps, including cooking the Mexican Lasagna that we will share with our little family tonight. I had to drop some parcels off at the kids' for Christmas Day tomorrow and asked if they wanted my to bring them any goodies from Tims. 

Danica: Omg yas. Can I have an iced Capp please 

Jonathan: can i have a chocolate dip donut perchance and a lemonade

It proceeded to snow for most of the day. We had a photo in mind downtown in the evening, but we weren't keen to take the car out with the roads not yet being plowed. So, we just took a little evening walk up and down the street. In keeping with the spirit of the season, I photographed a few of the lighted houses.

One house has a moving display, so I took a short video clip. There was accompanying music that the phone did not pick up well.

Happy Christmas Eve to you.

A Bit of Winter Driving

Yesterday, JJ asked for a drive into work for an 11 o'clock shift. I had some grocery shopping to do, and Sue had some other shopping to attend to, so we all headed out. There's nothing exciting about that, but I thought that I would share this photo of the drive from his house toward the store: just a typical winter day in Eastern Ontario. It was just a light snow, and we can deal with it. We have to deal with it.

To drive to our downtown, I would turn left at the lights, but we were going straight ahead to the next lights which are maybe a half mile ahead where we would turn left to JJ's work. If one didn't turn there, they would find themselves leaving our modest town, after which traffic would flow freely and not too heavily for quite a while before getting closer to Ottawa.

I dropped JJ at his grocery store, then drove Sue over to Winners before driving back to the grocery store. I had told Jonathan that it would be nice to have him help check me out and use his employee discount, but it was not to be. It was crowded in there and the boy was in great demand.

After sadly paying full price and then loading my car, JJ appeared in front of me, helping to load a lady's purchase. All is not lost when you can get a photo of your grandson.

I picked up Sue and we drove home and put the car in the garage for the day and for the night. It is snowing again this morning, and I think we'll have more snow than yesterday, but we will be out again regardless. Sue will be meeting a friend for coffee, and I have an errand or two to run.

Her First Parade

Good morning and good grief, for I have had this post sitting in my queue for a whole year. Last December I scanned some old negatives, including the ones below, of Shauna's first Santa Claus parade in 1973. I had other restorations to publish at the time, so when I couldn't get this posted before Christmas 2024, I put it aside for this year. With Christmas looming, I could easily have missed posting this year too.

These photos are of Shauna's first Christmas parade in Sarnia in 1973. A year or three later, we, somehow, managed to take her all of the way to the really big parade in Toronto.

We seemed to be early for this parade in Sarnia in the first photo, and we must have thought better of our location because we had changed position in the other pictures.

Sue's leather coat was tres magnfique! and Shauna was well bundled
against the cold, but if memory serves it was not a terribly cold day
 — milder Sarnia weather, not Ottawa winter weather.

Some folks think we take too many pictures, but looking back on them is a treat, and we enjoyed the slideshow on Shauna's birthday. I am not sure what the grandkids thought of it, but we who were present both then and now really appreciated the stroll along memory lane.

Happy Solstice

You've seen this photo here before but without the words. I think the low, weak sun with snow below is very suitable for a solstice card.

I haven't flooded you with photos from Sha's birthday, But I'll post a few now. I really like this candid of Dani, not so much of her although she is fine, but I find both the light and bokeh to be quite appealing.

Just a few other photos from the evening. You've already seen Shauna, but we'll include JJ and Sue too now.

53

We knew that Shauna would be perplexed when she opened her card. Wouldn't you be?

front
The figures at the side are from me cutting and pasting from the images below and others

inside
note: Sue and I did sign on the left

What happened is that Sue found a whole, forgotten booklet of verse and paintings made by her mother with graphical help by Sue's sister, Heather, who was a teen that the time. Yes, Grandma Pearl really created a whole book for Shauna's first birthday. Here are a few sample pages out of the (I think) 20 that she created. What an odd delight that I don't think I had seen for 52 years.

Cover Page

We had Chinese takeout for dinner. There were the usual five of us, but then Shauna's friend, Krista, who had been visiting family in Ottawa, surprised her. Danica's friend, Matt, also joined us at the last minute. 

A few pictures, but not many.

I was right about Shauna being very puzzled by the strange card that she opened.

Oddly enough, however, she remembered the book. Neither Sue not I had. Some of it was pretty funny in retrospect, 50 years after grandma put it together with love in her heart.

As is traditional, cake was served.

I nabbed a pretty awful group photo before the gathering broke up. I am holding my arm oddly because I had triggered the phone form my watch. I did have 3 seconds to lower my arm, but it didn't cross my mind.

Sue, Danica, Matt, Shauna, Krista, Jonathan, AC

Shauna Pics from Long Ago

Our baby completes her 53rd year tomorrow, but we'll be having a family dinner tonight because — kids and their work schedules and their whatnots. I will likely have some photos to post tomorrow, but for today, I will take you back — way back. I did scan many old slides this year, so I don't think I have posted any of these previously: perhaps one. They are more or less in chronological order.

Sue and Sha by the Christmas tree which the cats brought low,
many times, that year while Sue and Sha were in the hospital.

She liked her carriage, often sleeping outside in it, even in winter.

She enjoyed telling my mother and father about the fish that got away. It was THIS big.

Standing with dad's help.

Posing with Grandma, Mother and Aunt before they
went out for the evening.

A shower of leaves provided by Mom outside our first house.

By the Christmas tree in our second house.

A snuggle in my den. The pictures to the left and right on the bookshelf behind me there
 are also behind me in my present den more than 4 decades later.

The Juxtaposition of Good and Evil

I wasn’t going to post of this incident, for it might smack of me being highly self-congratulatory. In fact, I wasn’t planning to post at all today, thinking that you might need a break from me. And maybe you do. :)

But when I clicked onto Sandra’s blog and listened to a very distraught lady’s very emotional response to dear leader here, I changed my mind. 

In her short, emotional interview, in addition to being angry and distraught, she talked of the juxtaposition of good and evil in human behaviour.

It made me think of yesterday, when I believe that I did a good thing but did it in the midst of a kind of evil. Perhaps that is the wrong word because evil tends to denote purposeful malevolence, so let me just call it sadly unfortunate.

We don’t see too many down-and-outers (I assume homeless) in our town, so when I do, I am moved. Yesterday, we passed a man standing with a huge cart piled high with garbage bags containing, I presume, all of his worldly belongings. Because such sights are few and far between here, encountering people who need assistance, is somewhat emotional for me. And because I am not required to reach into my pocket often, I was able to offer him something.

He wasn’t begging and wasn’t even looking in my direction when I passed by, so that is what I did — passed by. I wanted to offer him something, but I didn’t want to make a show of it. Once past, I fumbled for my wallet and pulled out a twenty. Then, I turned back to him, tapped him on the shoulder and asked, “Would this help you?”

He said that indeed it would. I simply patted him on the shoulder and kept on walking. 

So, I guess that was a kind thing to do and was all that I could reasonably do. But I should not have had to do it. Society should be able to better help those who need help in this life, for my belief is that people cannot help what they are. If someone can’t fit into society in the normal way, that someone is still a someone and, as such, is deserving of a decent existence. 

I had a grand uncle whom I never met. He was a brother of my grandfather. He was a paraplegic, I think born that way. I have seen pictures, in which he appeared decently dressed and cared for. He was lucky in that way at least. Some people aren’t lucky, partly because the world has changed and the support of villages and of extended families has been lost for the most part. 

So that is what the lady in the interview was talking about, or at least how I related it to my own experience, the juxtaposition of good and evil that lies within humanity. I think it is a good thing to reach out a helping hand if and when we are able, but the reality that we allow great needs to endure is a rather evil thing.

(I hesitated to post these rudimentary thoughts as perhaps being too maudlin or self-aggrandizing, but, as is plain to see and for better or worse, I did come back and hit that Publish button.)