Christmas Around the House

Today, for your viewing pleasure, I have a few Christmas around-the-house photos by Sue. That is all.

And this . . . 

My Audacious Pants

When I left the house yesterday to visit the boys for a kaffeeklatsch., Sue followed me out the door and demanded that I stop for a picture.

As soon as I arrived, Nick made a similar demand.

It was the pants, you see. My pants, indoors or out, are always plain, except for maybe bedtime and Christmastime. And since it is Christmas time, I decided to let my hair down, so to speak, but not my pants I'll have you know. No, those pants stayed up — flamboyantly so. And so the local paparazzi insisted on recording the occasion, likely for future extortion.

You may also note that my hands are weird in the second photo. I had my thumbs up but just put thems down, for I realized that thumbs-up gesture has been forever spoiled by . . . well . . . you know who.

As is her wont, Sue fancied up several versions. I'll keep one for actual Christmas, perhaps, but I will post this one for now.

A Happy Seasonal Combination

On a search for Christmas stocking stuffers, we walked into The Granary last week where we were greeted enthusiastically and told that there was a  20% sale of chocolate products on that day.

In passing I note that The Granary is a locally-owned health food sort of store.

We purchased several items including a Camino hot chocolate mix. I am not sure what specific variety we purchased, but this image will serve the purpose.

We are also pleased to know that Camino is a Canadian company in our region and that it is also a fair trade company. Who could ask for more?

A day or two later, I found myself in the liquor store where I purchased Baileys Irish Cream whiskey. We tend to do this come the Christmas season.

We don't drink much hot chocolate, and we don't drink much alcohol, but my oh my! has this combination of Baileys plus Camino been a most wonderful dessert drink for the past four nights!

I just might purchase another bottle to get us through the entire Christmas-New Year season.

Not on a Shelf

Have you been seeing the latest meme, taking off from Elf on the Shelf? Most aren't Christmassy although the first two could fit very loosely.

Here are a few more.

Shrek on a Deck

Ewe on a Pew

Buck on a Truck

Ghost on the Toast

Seinfeld on a Minefield

Taylor on a Bailer

Willie on the Chilli

Shall I see myself out now?

O Christmas Tree

You may remember photos like this one from last December although I think that I posted them later in the month. The bridge was lit is the red and green Christmas colours.

Sue needed a Christmas lights photo for her group project, so we went again last night. They weren't on, perhaps because we were too early although it was dark at around 5pm. 

We did find that the tree at Market Square was lit. I believe that this is the first year for this tree being lit. I know it's not exactly the Rockefeller Center, but it is ours.

I took that ↑ on against a dark western background. Then I turned around ↓ and got the market market pavilion in the background as well as some town lights.

There is something to be said for seeing it in situ even if the background isn't grand.

Explaining My Moniker

I have had a reader request an explanation of Anvilcloud as used on this blog, AC being a short form that people use but that I didn't invent. I get this a lot. Just the other day, someone asked about it over coffee. Many people wonder about it; folk look up curiously when they ask for, and are given, my email, for example.

It has to do with my surname, Rayner, and with a fun class that decided to play with the name and call me Mr Storm Cloud. While it might make me seem a gloomy sort, I wasn’t, and it was done in fun. It was only one class that ever called me this — a grade 10 geography class. Good times.

I never forgot although probably those kids did, and so, years later, the internet became a thing, and one had to choose email addresses and blog names and so on and so forth. I chose anvilcloud, a variation of storm cloud. 

You see, storm makes me think of thunder, and a tall thunder cloud may typically have an anvil shape at the top, as the winds of the next layer in the atmosphere, the troposphere stop the cloud from rising farther, and sheer it off in effect.

Not only does the moniker suit my name, but causes me to recall that fun class, and it also connects with my subject, geography, for it is a wide-ranging subject, and we did venture into the topics of climate and weather from time to time.

Now you know the rest of the story if I may borrow shamelessly from Paul Harvey. 

FYI

Meeting Up WIith Lorna

Somehow or other at sometime or other, I got to know Lorna via the blogs. She posted as Lorna in Wonderland and then Still in Wonderland, but she wrote her last post almost five years ago. 

We lived far apart at first, but once we moved to the Ottawa Valley, we got acquainted with Lorna and Dave on a personal level.  After a two-year hiatus, we met up once again this week at the Coffin Creek Coffee Shop near us, and I will post two pictures of the grand event.

I am posting this because within the last year, someone or other, either here or on fb, asked about Lorna, and it might be that said person will chance upon this post. For most of you, however, it won't mean anything because of when Lorna stopped posting.

Humour on a Friday

I came across this on fb and simply had to repost this both there and now here.

It's good on its own but also reminded me of this joke, which I heard a very long time ago.

A customer walks into an international tea shop in Liverpool and sees the day’s special is an Australian blend featuring local hints of Merseyside flavouring. The owner behind the counter explains that it’s an ingenious confection marrying the best of the billabong and water straight out of the Mersey River right there in Liverpool. When it arrives, the customer notices there are bits of hair and bone and what looks like claw floating in the tea, and demands they be immediately removed.

"Sir,” snaps the owner. “I’ll have you know that the Koala Tea of Mersey is not strained." link 

It's a great play on words from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice: "The quality of mercy is not strained."

Beware the Moose

If you have been seeing images like this on social media ...

... here's why.

Of course this was a deliberate and classless snipe and putdown. Justin Trudeau is the prime minister of our sovereign nation and not governor of the state of Canada. The US has tried to subsume us before. We play hockey and endure winter, so we are tougher than you think and not it the mood to be overrun. 😊

I have been seeing various posts similar to this ↓ since the election. They make a sort of sense if you think about it: Canada plus the more progressive states of the US might be ideal. It's a fun thought, but of course, we are what we are and forever more shall be. 😎

Certain of my blogger buds might note that Minnesota was  privileged to make the cut. 👍

 

Out of Our Trees

As is often the case, I was photographically governed by Sue's photo needs. On this day, she required a photo of a tree. It wasn't a great day either for photos or photographers, but off we went regardless. We have several fine trees in Riverside park, so we navigated the snow on the ground and the significantly chilling winds. Of course, I have photographed these trees before, so to be different I took my wide angle lens and stooped close to the ground and shot upwards for a slightly different look.

I am on my way to the tree near the boat launch ↓ at the far end of the park, and I got what I got.

We moved on. In the middle of the park are several tress, willows I guess, that dip into or close to the water in season. This is one of the three.

But this ↓ is the grand old lady. She's a worn down old girl who has suffered damage in recent years. I hope she makes it through the winter. In the second photo, I was approaching the same tree from the other side. I did try pictures from that side, but the lighting was hard, and I wasn't pleased with the result, not that any of these images are stupendous.

Fortunately, we did this shoot on Sunday. Even though it was windy and chilly then, it was absolutely blizzarding the next day.

That Old Strand of Lights

We had two strands of lights in the 50s and into the 60s. One strand was like this ↓ one. When the whole strand went dark, I remember having to screw a new bulb into one socket. If that didn't light up the whole strand, I would put the old bulb back in, unscrew the next light and once again insert the fresh bulb. Wash, rinse and repeat.

Those lights would have been on the tree in three of the following four photos, and it was probably just outside the photo in the picture with my grandmother. These are not new scans with my new toy but are images that I scanned from prints some time ago.

I think I look like I am 7 or 8 on the first photo so Christmas 1954 or 55, I think.

That is Aunt Lily on the right, but she wasn't really my aunt.

The next photos look like the could be Christmas 1958 or 59; both I and my dad had changed quite a bit in a few years. All three of the next photos are the same Christmas, judging from my hair and shirt.

That is my paternal grandmother who I think was 80 at the time. 

Here I am with my budgie, Perky. again.

She was Two . . . We Think

Before I drop a few more recent scans from old negatives, I would like to say a little more about the Kodak scanner. The first thing is that it isn't a true scanner but really takes a picture of your slide or negative, or at least that is the way that I understand it. If you have a high quality negative and wish to create a high quality image, perhaps to print large, this is probably not your best choice. If, however, you really just want to have digital copes of old negative or slides, it's a very good solution. You can digitize a lot of images quite easily and quickly, and the quality is good enough.

Now, for a few more photo. Shauna is a little older in these than the previous post. I think they were taken in 1975 when she was two years old, but I suppose it could have been late in 1974 or even early 1976. You can see a lot of degradation (ie shadowy blotches) from the negative and processing. I tried to clean up the scans as best I could, but my results were so-so. Still, it is nice to have them.

I did a little extra work on this next one. As you can see from the photos  above, the background wallpaper was pretty awful, so I made an AI replacement.

Avoiding Predicaments

Jabblog's recent post, Stuck!, gave me an idea for a post of my own. She had reached down to get something off a low shelf and needed help to get back up.

I have whinged here more than once about my sleep problems, but I really had a difficult time for three consecutive nights early last week. Sue was away for two of them. After many restless hours on the first night that she was away, I decided to have a bath. Afterward, I slept for a couple of hours, starting at around 5 o'clock.

I often find a bath comforting in some way, but I had limited myself to showers for about a year after I wrecked my rotator cuff, for it had been tremendously difficult to extricate myself from the tub. While my rotator cuff problems persist, they are not as acute as they were back then, so this initial bath went well enough, and it temporarily altered something within me so that I was able to get a wee bit of sleep afterward.

However, when the same sleepless scene replayed itself and had led to another bath on the next desperate night, I slipped back a little when endeavouring to pull myself out of the tub. I didn't fall, and I wasn't in trouble; I simply slipped back from a crouch onto my bottom.

It made me think. 

What if it had been a more serious incident, and what if I couldn't get myself out of the situation?

How long would I be there, naked and away from my phone? It would have been a most unpleasant predicament.

It happened to my mother once upon a time when I was away. She hadn't been in the tub, thank goodness, and she was able to drag herself to the phone and call her friends who were able to help her up. 

One must be careful at a certain age. I don't think I have yet reached that age, but I am getting close enough that I mean to be more careful. If Sue is away in future, I'll stay out of the bath or at least have my phone close by. But she is seldom away and not for long, and it will also probably be a long time before I feel the need for a restorative bath anyway.

Caturday 72: Sabine Skirts Around Christmas

I see a cat. I see a tree skirt. I do not see a tree.

For whatever reason, Sabine is attracted to this tree skirt, and this is where the family found her and the skirt one recent morning — in the middle of the floor, quite removed from the tree.

My mother made the skirt, I guess at least thirty years ago and probably forty because she's been gone more than twenty years.

I am not sure she would be pleased.

But I am.

And so is Sabine, I think.

Old Men, New Technology

This is a true tale of two old dudes trying to cope with modern technology.

I was in my chair yesterday afternoon, listening to a podcast and almost dozing off. I had been up since 4 after sleeping for less than 5 hours, so it was understandable that I might fade off. Suddenly and alarmingly, this very early and ungodly rising seems to be a trend: a trend that does not actually cause me joy.

But I digress.

The phone rang and overrode the podcast. I saw that it was Dave calling. We had recently arranged to have coffee with Dave and Lorna next week. Oh dear! something has come up and he must be calling to cancel.

Me: "Hello ... hello ... hello."

Background noise.

Me: Hello, hello DAVE."

Dave: "Who is this?"

John: "It's me, John."

Dave: "John. You called, or did I butt-dial you?"

Me: "You called me."

We sorted it out. He had somehow butt-dialled me.

I should interject here to tell you that it wasn't even a proper phone call, for we were looking at each other on our screens. He had actually butt-facetimed me. That's a first in my lil ole life.

Beyond that there was nothing much else to say after we confirmed next week's meetup.

So, we said our goodbyes.

But then neither of us could get out of the call. I kept trying to close the screen and end the call, and he was doing likewise.

To no avail.

It was funny. I was laughing.

Finally, in utter frustration, Dave said, "I am just going to shut down the phone now."

Hopefully this actual and factual, true-story provides with a big Friday smile.

Scanning Old Negatives

Last Christmas. I was given a Kodak slide and negative scanner. We can see how the scanner works in the following image. The negative are inserted at the bottom, and the image is shown on the screen. 

Believe it or not, I hadn't used it until yesterday, almost a year later. Back then, after letting it sit for awhile, I eventually got it out of the box. I set it up, picked out some negatives to scan and found that I did not have a suitable memory card. Back in the box it went and sat for another while until I got around to purchasing a proper SD card. Then the card sat sealed in its package until yesterday.

In 1973-74, I had shot a few rolls of b&w film. Back then, I had access to the enlarger at the school where I taught. I also purchased my own equipment to develop my film and an enlarger to print photos. However, my place was not amenable to make a proper darkroom, so I did not continue with that part of my photography hobby. I think I would haven persisted had my conditions been different because it was a satisfying thing to see the photo emerge in the developing tray.

Although I didn't shoot b&w film for long, I did keep the negatives as well as I could for these 50+ years (which I show in the photo, below). Yesterday, I extracted them sleeve by sleeve and examined them through the scanner screen. 

Using the Kodak scanner was very easy and efficient. I could feed my negatives through the scanner and see them quite well on the little screen. If I wanted to digitize an image, all I had to do was press a button, and within seconds it would be saved to the memory card that I had inserted in the back of the machine.

The scanner does not have to be attached to the computer during the process. It is a standalone machine that can obtain its power vis a USB cable. All one needs is a USB plug in the wall to enable the scanner. I transferred the photos to the computer afterward.

It was a trip down memory lane as most of the photos were around Shauna's first birthday and Christmas, which occur only five days apart. Technically, it was her second Christmas as she came home on Christmas Day, 1972. I have slides from then, and some have already been digitized by my old flatbed scanner, but I will get back to scanning slides at a later date. My self-appointed task yesterday was just to digitize the b&w negatives.

Although I scanned and edited quite a few photos, I've picked out only four to share with you today. The first was on her birthday, December 20, 1973. There was a major snowstorm that day; disappointingly, the big party that Sue had planned did not happen, but the next door neighbour was able to come with her girl who was Shauna's age, give or take. We have a few photos including this one. I also have a photo of Sue with Shauna I will reveal farther below.

It was Christmas season, and I took a shot of Shauna looking out through the Christmas lights that were strung around the window. I liked the photo then for it speaks to me of the awe and magic of the season. I made a print at the time, but this is from the new scan.

For many years, we would pack up and drive the 200 miles to Toronto to celebrate Christmas with our families. I imagine that I took this photo on Christmas Eve 1973 at my parents' place. It may not be as poignant as the previous photo, but I also really like the tyke staring up at the stockings.

Here are Sue and Shauna posing by the stockings, on the same evening. I see, however, that one of the photos, I think the one above, is reversed left to right.

How great it was and is to look back and to be able to retrieve these photos. I hope the new digital versions stay around for as long as the negatives have.