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".

Those Blasted Details

It drives me crazy. I drive me crazy. 

The lack of attention to details.

At the grocery store, I was about to grab vanilla ice cream off the freezer shelf for Thanksgiving pie this weekend when I spied a salty caramel and vanilla bean concoction off to the side. Because Sue likes those sorts of flavours more than she does plain vanilla, my hand altered its course and reached for the caramel.

When I got home, Sue informed me that it was yogurt and not ice cream.

Ordinarily, I think it would probably be a good dessert, but I am skeptical about having it on apple pie for Thanksgiving. And with the dog coming, along with five weeks worth of frozen food, we don’t have the room for extras in the freezer 

So back went I to the store, wondering why I don’t notice details. My head spends an inordinate of time in the clouds 

Meanwhile, we saw the heron on our trail walk. Or I should say that Sue spotted it, for I wouldn’t have noticed that little detail. 

Shorts Silliness

Look at the couple in the park, about to walk into the woods. She is wearing a jacket; they both are. But he is wearing shorts, of a light and flimsy material. It's 11C/52F and windy out. She is being sensible but he is being . . . Je ne sais pas quoi.

He had the phone glues to his ear but just seemed to be listening.
She was holding the dog leash.

Kids do the short thing for some reason although I don't know what that reason is. More men seem to be doing it this year. But this fellow was no spring chicken, and seemed like a late 60s senior. Old enough to have nourished his brain sufficiently by now. 

Sue had been looking for a photo depicting both orange and release. She figured out something and directed me, her human tripod, on just how I should shoot the shot.

Success! 

Unblocked

I should report that after 6 weeks, my ear unblocked about 10 days ago. The trick was to take a lot of decongestants for 3 days — keeping to recommended max dose, of course. The doctor also prescribed a higher dosage of antihistamine tablets. Along with the Omnars nasal spray, the protocol worked after six weeks of even more reduced hearing.  

It was my second bout of the year, so the doc advised that I should continue use the nasal spray from here on. That sound like a lot, but my here on is getting shorter, so . . . 

I took a pic of the process of extricating the decongestants from the packaging. I had opened one of the 2 at this point.

There was a thin backing (right) on the blister pack that had to be peeled off before pushing the capsule out. It required a little bit of picky dexterity to find the corner and to begin peeling. I said to myself that this could be difficult for older people.

Then I realized what I had said and smiled to myself.

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I got back into a photo folder of our 2009 trip to Vancouver to visit PJ. I decided to make a quick poster board without any reediting or without very much designing. I just plopped the photos onto a virtual canvas in Photoshop and sized them to suit. 

Fall and Hydrangeas

We did our Sunday walk to Dark & Deadly. When I say, usual, it is not habitual, but when we do go, it may very well be on a Sunday.

Opposite the cafe is little copse if that isn't too grand a word. At this time of year, it looks like a nice autumnal corner. It is just behind one of those bigger pharmacies that are more than just pharmacies, but you would never know it from this side.

Pleasant, isn't it?

Soon after, we drove over to Sha's to store some things in her freezer since the dog is coming with frozen meals for five weeks. Unfortunately, her freezer is kaput; somehow, Sue is figuring it out.

We also discussed Thanksgiving, which is next Monday. Danica will be home for it. I love turkey with all of the trimmings. Sue and Shauna like it, but the kids are meh. So, we're not going to do it: maybe for Christmas, maybe not. Sha will make lasagna. We'll have apple pie and ice cream and whatnot.

I'll drop another picture, this one from Saturday on the trail. I stopped by a hydrangea. It's an amalgam of two photos: one of the scene and another as a person walked through it. The person photo wasn't as well composed, so dropped him into the scene photo. No AI required for that except for a little blending help in the end. The person adds a point of interest in my opinion; some would say that he anchors the scene.

Oh here's a photo of the same fence and hedge from the other direction and from around the corner. It is from earlier last week when Sue was out for coffee with a friend, and I walked alone. There was not a lot of colour looking in that direction and at that time.

Sunday Miscellany

 It is 4C out at 7, and my window is open this morning, but I am toasty under the heated afghan. 

I always mistype morning (except now) but autocorrect never corrects it.

We’ve begun fall cleanup. The backyard is done. The front can stay for awhile. 

We’ll be getting a dog this week — doggy-sitting for five weeks. He’s old. What have we done?!

The dog will keep us from doing some of our normal colour-peeping drives, but we got to the sugarbush last week, and we can enjoy the colours here in town. 

Over the past months, I have written and trashed two posts about The Oak Ridge Boys — don't even ask, or I would have to create and trash another one. There were other posts in draft form — 18 posts in all. I trashed half of them, including the Oak Ridge Boys. There are a few that I might still post. 

I have some October-Halloween images in the queue. This is my most recent — a figure from Dark & Deadly reimagined. It is saying, “Come to bed, my darling.”

The original photo

Speaking of Dark & Deadly, it may be time for another visi. Maybe today and maybe for a breakfast sandwich too. They serve them piping hot, much better than the chains’ servings. 

Almost finally for today: a photo of a house as we peeked through the trees from the trail. There are pumpkins on the porch. 

Absolutely finally: from out walk yesterday.