Visiting the kids' house for some reason or other one day when all the humans were away, I managed a few photos of Sabine. I converted this batch, all from the same position on the arm of the couch, to b&w (ie: mono-tized, please forgive me).
Happy Caturday, even though cats don't often appear to be anything but grumpy. I understand; people often assume the same about me. 😎😇
I am going to add this at the top, just telling you that
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My birthday (there it is again, sorry) coincided with Jonathan's first day back to school This was also his last first day back to school in his life, at least regular school. Who knows what the future holds?
It would have been prudent to get a photo of the boy setting off on his Last First Day, but alas! no one in the family did. His girlfriend's mother did get ↓ this. I have already cropped it and eliminated the digital date display, but what can you do with a blurry photo?
I knew that I could replace the background, and in recognition of a return to school, I would ask AI for shelves loaded with books.
But could AI make JJ less blurry? I know that it is beyond normal photo editing, but I thought that I would try by asking AI to bring the subject into focus (I forget the exact words).
The Result was surprisingly good. While the hair is a little fuller and the eyebrows darker, the face is definitely recognizable as Jonathan.
I also made a mono conversion because I like to do that.
I confused some of you yesterday. I knew that I would. I celebrated my 79th birthday, which means that I began my 80th year, but I am not 80 quite yet. Of course, I have the pics to drop, but I shall try to make the dropping minimal by much combining, as in this first diptych. which I will elucidate below..
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We had done so much celebrating already that there seemed little else that we could do. But we like our turkey bacon club sandwiches and we like walking at Riverside Park. While sandwiches in the car are more of a cold weather treat, we were able to mitigate against rain which has fallen most abundantly recently. After the repast, the weather was good enough for a stroll during which Sue took this photo of me taking a photo. |
Of course, there was pizza pie and birthday pie (in lieu of cake), and gifts. On the left I hold my apple pie, and on the right I am sitting on my new office chair and holding a bag of spring bulbs that JJ has promised to plant for us this autumn.
Danica dropped by long enough to say hello, and JJ appeared late after his shift at the grocery store. The photo of Jonathan was both over-exposed and blurry, so I am substituting an older photo, but I will get back to him in another post. The snap of Sue was similarly poor, but at least I have her up above from our morning lunch outing.
I had a good visit with Sabine and got a picture with Sha.
They weren't there, but in the morning I did receive a greeting from PJ, our other child who lives in Vancouver. They are presently in Italy with her choir and where they have swum in the Mediterranean Sea. We share the same birthday, 31 years apart.
Walking with Sue these days requires an adjustment that may necessitate milady walking on the curbside. On one recent stroll in order to avoid having her walk on the outside, we deliberately chose a counter clockwise route, so that she could speak to my good ear.
If you don't already know that I have quite a hearing loss, I am, hereby, informing you that I am only about 50%. With hearing aids, I get by although discriminating some words can occasionally be problematic. I always choose to turn on the captions when I am watching tv. I started with the British programs and now employ captioning ubiquitously.
Unfortunately, I have run into an additional problem. To wit: my left ear feels plugged, and the volume that I am getting is greatly diminished with or without the hearing aid. I had the hearing aid checked and was told that it is in good working order. Then, I went to the doctor to check for fluid. I had fluid on my right ear earlier this year, and it took me three weeks of treatment for the ear to drain.
But no! they say that it isn't fluid buildup this time around. The doc feels that it has to do with allergies. I am to use a nasal spray daily and take an antihistamine tablet, but that hasn't worked yet. She feels that I may have to continue to follow the protocol until the first frost.
Oh good grief! The first frost is still three weeks off, and that is if the average holds.
The extra kicker is that is has usually been my left ear that is my better ear, but now I would say that it is working at, perhaps, 25% efficiency or less as I rely on my weaker right ear.
As you might imagine, there has been a lot of repeating of whatever is being said. It is aggravating for all parties but perhaps more so for the speaker. What I discovered a long time ago is that people are used to speaking at a certain level. Even when someone knows that I have a hearing problem, and I have just asked for something to be repeated, their very next communication will frequently revert to their lifelong normal. It's just natural.
I try not to have Sue repeat everything. Sometimes, I make a judgement about whether or not something sounds important for me to hear, and I may choose to just let the sentence slide away into the ether.
As soon as I leave you, I will apply the nasal spray and take my antihistamine and hope, likely against hope. My wish is that I don't have to wait for three weeks or more until the first frost for relief. And what if it that doesn't solve the issue? What then?
Danica went back to the city yesterday but not before meeting with us. Since she won't be attending my boisterous and rollicking birthday party, she joined us at Blue Spoon for scones. I think it was very nice of her to think to make special time for her grandfather in her busy life.
Sue took a photo of us. Her half was so cute and mine was so uncute that I cropped it.
We meandered over to Dark & Deadly on Sunday morning for a pre-birthday (mine) coffee and breakfast sandwich. Anything for an excuse, eh? Actually, we've been almost overusing that excuse lately.
