Thanksgiving Remakes

Sue and both experimented with putting our little Thanksgiving group through AI. You might recall that the original was a street scene. I think Sue just asked for an park in autumn on Chat GPT.

Later, I was more specific with my instructions to Gemini with the photo into which I had composited myself.

Put the people and dog on a woodsy trail in autumn with orange and red leaves in both the trees and on the ground.

In addition to the scene, I was able to specify the dimensions of the photo. I chose 16x9.

We Had Our Little Thanksgiving

Sue was greeted with this message on Monday morning, which added a little extra pleasure to Thanksgiving.

It is genuine too, from the outfit that plows our driveway and has done so for a number of years. 

Later in the day, they dropped the prize off and posted this.

We'll have to see how we will use it. I would certainly like to share some with our university student, Danica, to help stock her fridge, but she will be away again until later in the month, and the gift is tied to our local store.

Meanwhile, there is not too much to report about our little Thanksgiving get-together. We ate, went for a walk, and Jake was fussed over.

Before posting, I decided to add me with a straight manual photoshop manipulation.

I might try to AI us into a nicer scene, but I am going to let it go for the time being and post as it is right now. 

Monday Musings

I have a note on Google Calendar that this is the day that we turned the furnace on in 2020. The 12th is the earliest day since I began to record this event. The latest date is November 01. I don’t know when we will capitulate this year, but it won’t be today.

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On some days before we turn on the furnace, I live on the edge, but it will go up to 17/63 today, and it will be warmer in the house. I have a heated throw for my chair at night, but I haven't had to turn it on for a few nights. We have a little heater for the bathroom to pre-heat for a shower, but I didn't need to use that this morning either.

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Thanksgiving weekend is when many trailer eateries close for the season. It is only five-month season for many, and goes by quickly.

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Danica had reason to message us fairly early on Sunday morning. She is not a notorious sleeper-inner, but I was surprised nonetheless. She explained that she was going to work at her former job here in town, and she explained that she had also done so on Saturday.

I expressed some surprise that she would be working two full shifts on Thanksgiving weekend, but she said that she wouldn't be getting many hours this week at the university bookstore.

I am impressed by her sense of responsibility.

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In an effort to escape the holiday rush, I was off to the grocery store for Thanksgiving provender shortly after 8, yesterday, almost as soon as it opened.

When I was done with the grocery shopping, I thought that it would be nice of me to bring coffee home for milady. Figuring that the drivethrough would be jammed, I decided to pre-order via the handy dandy app.

Wouldn't you know? I had to login again because my phone had done an update, and I would then have to verify that I was me. Once I entered my email, they sent a message with a code. Unfortunately, my email app simply spun and spun. They resent the code, but the spinning continued.

In the event, I drove through, but the line wasn't too lengthy, unlike the previous day when I couldn't even get into the parking lot on a beautiful and busy Saturday when it seemed like everyone was seizing what would possibly be one of the last few nice days, especially on a holiday weekend.

Weather is changing rapidly, and getting out and about soon won't be as appealing.

My main point is that I hate that business of trying to login like that when I am on the fly.

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Dog continues to be dog, which means addled. He continues to want my chair and/or my lap early each morning and late each evening.

He needs to go out at 6am to do what doggies must do, after which he gets his morning dish. That's fine; he doesn't require extra prodding to go out then.

However, for his final outing at 9pm, we must carry him out because he just doesn't wanna. And we have to go out with him, especially at night, not just to carry him out, but to either carry him back in or shine the flashlight on the step so he can find the step in his near blindness.

Anyolehow, here is is with me one morning: the two originals plus a composite to get us both looking at the camera in one image. In case you are wondering, I can do this kind of compositing manually and have been doing so for a long time. All I did was swap my head.

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Tomorrow, I shall probably recount a bit about our family Thanksgiving get-together that will take place this afternoon. I know that you won't exactly be spellbound, but it is part of my life that I record here.

Saturday Pie and Autumn Colour

Saturday was our pie pickup for TG, the proceeds going to youth clubs this year. As is often the case for the TG pies, it was a splendid day.

The route doesn't change, so the photos are not very different year to year. I took these on the way home.

In the afternoon, we took Jake for a walk in the park. Colours across the river were looking pretty good with some reflections.

Sue took one of me walking the crazy dog. However, if we want to go for an exercise outing, we must do it sans dog because walking Jake is a long and interrupted event with copious pauses to sniff along with a prodigious amount of leg-lifting. It is certainly more fun for Jake than for us. 

Sinister Fence

You have seen this fence before but possibly not this exact version from my second visit to it.

Since it is that season, I decided to send it to Gemini with these instructions:

keep the fence and gate and make a sinister halloween scene with ghosts and witches on broomsticks and a cauldron and bats and a black cat on a stormy night with lightning.

The result

The free version of Gemini yields only a small resolution image, but that's ok because it is just for fun and interest. 

BTW I used Gemini instead of my usual Adobe because I have already used up my paltry, monthly credit there. It's not that I wouldn't purchase more, but I would have to buy more than I need, and the credits would expire at month's end.

Bits O Colour and Bits O Dog

I took Jonathan to and from work yesterday. After I dropped him at home in the evening, I went by Riverside Park and stopped for a photo that shows a bit of autumn colour as the sun sets behind the far bank. Some photos push the capability of the phone, but I figured it was worth a shot.

Earlier in the day, I took another photo of the stairs leading to the doors of the Grand Hotel. It was the leaves on the steps that drew me. It was hard to get low and resulted in a crooked photo that I was able to straighten somewhat in post.

Jake is a mooch.

This morning, I shall be making the short drive to the Ashton church to pick up apple pies for TG dinner on Monday. 

Meanwhile, it is 7am, and I have dog. It seems to be that this is how my days begins and ends for now. 

We Have Dog

We have dog. I am not a dog person, but we have dog regardless. I am not anti-dog, but I don't grok them as much as I do cats. So far, he is more of a Sue dog than an AC dog. His primary person seems to have been a woman, so that makes sense.

He is 15 and a bit addled. Wants to get onto the bed with Sue but can't seem to manage and can't get down without possibly hurting himself. We have a chair there to help him, but he's not a cat, so he can't quite figure it out.

He also can't quite figure out the deck stairs to get down into the yard at night to do this thing. I think he can't really see them in the dark. He is 15, and his eyes are dimming.

I told you that we'd have him for 5 weeks. I was wrong. It will be 7 weeks!!!

That's all that I shall say for now, but I do have pictures.

Ladies and gentlemen. Behold Jake, the 15 year-old Yorkshire Terrier rental.

Note: I wrote the above yesterday. He had a good and quiet night last night. The first night was horrendous, but now we may survive the 7 weeks. He has decided that he likes my chair: pretty sure it is not me that he likes. He was on me last night and is back on me this morning. In the second photo, I am getting this post ready on my tablet  

Addendum

Sue was confused about my use of the word, Grok. My usage has nothing to do with Musk and AI. 

Grok (/ˈɡrɒk/) is a neologism coined by the American writer Robert A. Heinlein in his 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. The Oxford English Dictionary summarizes the meaning of grok as "to understand intuitively or by empathy, to establish rapport with", and "to empathize or communicate sympathetically (with); also, to experience enjoyment".