A Good Little Outting

A week ago Thursday, we took our little daytrip to Athens. Yesterday, also Thursday, we thought to take another little trip. Afterall, it would, apparently, be the only non-blistering-hot day for the next two weeks.

But (and isn't there always a but in life), it was so cool and cloudy and so not-nice, that we were dissuaded. 

We did, however, take a very short drive to a cottagy area not far outside of town, Sue remembered seeing a very dilapidating cottage and thought that it would make a nice subject for a photoshoot.

I had a b&w result in mind when I took the photo.

After I also later fiddled with the original colour version, I decided, for awhile at least, that I liked it even more than the b&w.

Then, I decided that I really did like the b&w better, and then . . .

Well, you get the idea. I can't choose, or at least my choice keeps changing.

It wasn't a big outing, but it was a good outing.

Cloaked

I have no recollection of doing it, but I am old, and, perhaps, my memory isn't what it what was. Whatever the case, I have, somehow and apparently, donned my invisibility cloak. I have written about my invisibility problem more than once, but throughout my life, I have managed to get lost from plain view.

This time it has to do with catheters and the obtaining of such devices.

After I was shown how to apply an intermittent, self-care catheter, I was discharged from the roster immediately and forthwith. 

On the discharge occasion, I did tell the nurse that were were having trouble sourcing them. She assured us that she was about to see a long-standing, catheter-using client on that very day. She would note his supplier and get back to us.

Meanwhile, she had left us with the two-week supply of freebies, and then we were also able to purchase some at a local IDA pharmacy.

It was going well . . . until it wasn't.

Suddenly, I was finding it harder to insert the catheter. Then, once inserted, it was becoming more aggravating going in and out. It was also sometimes leaking around the outside rather than all fluid running through the tube. Fortunately, I was still able to direct the discharge into the commode, but the situation wasn't quite right.

Is this TMI for you poor souls? If you've made it this far, rest assured that the rest isn't quite so personal.

When I explained my difficulties to Sue, she discovered that we had run out of the original devices that we had been given and were now using the ones that we had purchased from the pharmacy. Clearly, they were not working as well as the others for me.

We began looking around for another supplier, but I soon became aware that I had, somehow, once again, cloaked myself in invisibility.

1. The nurse never called back with a supplier link. After the two week supply was gone, I was left on my own to. somehow, get on with the rest of my invisible life. 
   
   
2. I did call the nursing agency for assistance and left a message. I wasn't looking for much, maybe a phone call and a link. My invisibility cloak held firm; they did not call back. I guess a discharge is a discharge is a discharge and picking up a phoine would violate protocol in some way.
   
   
3. We found two suppliers online. They both indicated on their websites that they would send us a few free trial catheters. This seemed good to us because we did want to make sure that we would get ones that worked for me before we were to purchase them in bulk. Keep in mind that we did not beg for free trial catheters; the offer was displayed on their websites for all to see.
   
   
4. I filled out a questionnaire for one of the sites. When I was done, a notice came up that they would call me. That was three days ago. The only ringing has been in my tinnitus-plagued ears.
   
   
5. Sue telephoned the other supplier. She talked to a nice lady for a considerable time. They promised to  Fed Ex several types of catheters for me to try. It's three days later. Fed Ex must have lost the Ex part.
   
   
6. We drove into Smiths Falls to visit what we knew from previous experience was a good and helpful medical supplier. The mall had changed but their signs were up. We walked around the building looking for the door. We did not find the door. After some enquiries at an adjacent shop, we were told that they were out of business.
   
   
7. But they also told us that there was a new supplier in downtown Smiths Falls. We drove to the store but discovered that they did not have any catheters in stock.  Their Perth outlet did have some — expensive but available. Now get this. The road from there to Perth was closed. We drove home.

Shauna has been able to source some via her work at the seniors residence. She has ordered a box of 50. We are not sure when they will be delivered. Sha and the kids will be away on vacay next week, but we will drive to Perth to pick them up if they don't get shipped by the end of this week.

Meanwhile, I have many of the nasty catheters left, and Sha has also been able to lay her hands on a few others. They are a smaller diameter than what I am supposed to use, but they are an option.

I am not sure why I so easily and often become the invisible man. I am over 6' tall, or at least I was, although I have probably shrunk a little. I also am was not altogether displeasing in appearance. On the other hand, I have never been a boisterous type of dude, so maybe that is the explanation.

Unwise

It was a bit synchronistic to come across this poster on social media, for I had just been contemplating mugs and glasses.

When I was very young, my grandfather as a gardener and groundskeeper worked on an estate. He was into his 70s, but we would visit him there once a year on a Sunday afternoon.

I remember being offered a drink of water and was asked, "Do you want it in a mug or glass?"

At the age of 5, I didn't know what a mug was. Instead of asking, I chose glass.

I have probably have done something similar a few more times over the years: not asked a question when I should have.

It's the way my brain works . . . or doesn't, as the case may be.

Apparently, I can be very unwise.

The Sun and Moon Conundrum

Danica's photo of the rising moon and setting sun caused some perplexity. Before I get to that, however, I did decide to adjust her photo. It's not that one should normally be so bold as to edit others' photos, but she is my granddaughter, and I did want to see what Adobe's AI would do with it.

This is the original photo as she sent it via Messenger. The horizon isn't quite straight and the boat detracts from the photo.

In my the edited version, below, I have slightly adjusted the horizon line. That is a common edit, but I have also asked AI to remove the boat, and it did it very well. I think it is a much better image.

Now, onto the puzzle of the rising moon and setting sun appearing together. If the sun sets in the west and the moon rises in the east, how could they appear in the same photo. People wanted to know, and some deduced that both orbs must have been setting. But they weren't. I have correlated the time of the photo (~8:30) with the lunar and solar times last weekend, and they match. 

There are two more pieces of evidence. We also have Danica's photo of the risen moon 45 minutes later. The sun had set, and the moon had risen higher.

The next and final bit of evidence comes from Danica's friend's dad who was supervising the weekend at the cottage. Danica reported that he was very excited, saying that this alignment only occurred once a year.

Case closed: it had been a rising moon and setting sun that Danica saw and photographed.

Now, how do we explain this? Well, I can't really, for the mathematics of this astronomical phenomenon are beyond this poor man's capability, or at least beyond what he is willing to research.

That said, I do have some thoughts.

We all know that both the sun and moon rise in the east and set in the west, so it does seem a bit mind-blowing to see the the rising moon and setting sun at the horizon in the same photo. However, the reality is that they rise toward the east and toward the west. Neither is directly east or west, and neither always rises in the very same sky position.

For example, the sun rises in a very different place and at a very different time in July than it does in January. Meanwhile, the moon also constantly changes both its time and position as it orbits an earth that is spinning below. The full moon, in this case, rises and falls in a different place and at a different time in July than it did in June and than it will do in August.

In summary: the photo and the surrounding facts indicate that the juxtaposition did occur, but that is about all that this poor blogger can offer towards an explanation. I leave it up to those of keener intellect to dig for a deeper elucidation if they so choose.

What a wonderful sighting for Danica! It is one that she will quite probably never witness again, for she would have to be in the right place at the very right time in those few fleeting moments.

More from Athens

I would like to return us to Athens, for I have a few more photos to share. You have already seen murals and the fine old post office, but here is the other fine, old building.

I didn't get very close to it, but I could see that it now contains the police station and public washrooms, and I might assume some municipal functions.

Main Street looked typical a villages of this size with angled parking and older buildings with not-so-pretty storefronts at street level.

I decided to add those ↑ two photos since I have them, but I am really dropping this post in order to show the next two photos that appeal to me in some way.

This ↑ is a close-up of the poor, abused door that we see from across the road in the earlier photo. I like it as a photo subject but am glad that it is not my front door. I think it should find a resting place at Rideau Antiques with the hundred or so doors that are already languishing there.

I have already shown the ↓ mural in the previous post last week, but the adjacent property appealed to me. Right on Main Street, it was likely the home of a prominent citizen when it was advantageous to reside close to the town centre. I would think that it would still be considered to be a prime property.

Where shall Johnny and Susie go next? I can tell you that it will not be very far away.

On the Lake

Danica (granddaughter) is at a lakeside cottage this weekend. Look at this picture of the moon rising and the sun setting at the same level in the sky. I don't think I've seen anything  like it.

This blue hour one is pretty good too.

Rideau Antiques Revisited

It has been 7 years since we visited Rideau Antiques, and while I had no great desire to return, we were already out and about, and Sue thought that she could work it into her daily photo theme. She was to take a photo involving her on a thrift shop, or something like that. While Rideau Antiques isn't your typical thrift shop, I think it qualifies. So let us get that photo out of the way and then move on to post more photos of the establishment, for it is a very unique place. (Rideau is pronounced something like REEdough.)

This is the shot.

But this one shows the whole entranceway more fully.

Are you beginning to get the idea? This was one route from the parking area to the front door.

This is the other way round to the door (in the distance).

I took one shot inside from near the door before beating a hasty retreat, for it was hot in there and I had squeezed my way through it those seven years ago.

It's all like that, inside and out. Here is a photo from the front steps. Last time we visited, there was stuff in the barn across the road. We didn't check it out this time.

Sue composed a few composites, one outside and one inside.

But even these photos somehow fail to give the full scope, for it is a little mind-boggling to actually behold.

Believe it or not, it is organized. The proprietor knows where everything is. For example, there is a whole section of old doors, and there are many more than what I am showing here in these two photos.

I like the above door photos, and I also like the next (and also final) two as well. One could go on taking pictures here, but these will have to do for now, for we were on a trip and this was just one stop. Perhaps I should go back and photograph to my heart's content.

Neither Port, Nor Parthenon

We had planned this little getaway regardless, but we were fortunate that the high heat and humidity broke for the day. Our plan was to drive to Portland and then to Athens and perhaps on to Toledo. We did not get to Toledo, and we didn't see the port of Portland or the Parthenon on the Acropolis. In point of fact, we didn't see any of the acropolis. How disappointing!

Haha. You may recall that we drove the hour to Portland for breakfast at the Recess Cafe for Sue's birthday back in March. When I was looking for new (to us) places to visit, I decided on the village of Athens, a little more than an hour south of us. In our almost two decades here we hadn't explored that area. We began at the Recess Cafe in Portland., which, like the two American Portlands, is on the water: however, with no interesting harbour to explore.

As is custom, phone pics were taken across the table. I don't know which one I prefer, so you get two for the price of one.

An hour later we were on the road to Athens. There had been no particular reason to go, other than the name and that we hadn't been there yet.

There were murals on the Main street. Please excuse the finger in the first. I do that far too often on the phone. The murals depicted village life in the early 1900s.

As Sue contemplated her day's photo prompt, she decided that we should next go to Rideau Ferry, so I told Google to take us there and forego the plan to see Toledo. I'll bypass describing our  Rideau Ferry stop for this post and post more tomorrow, but once we were done with that place, I checked with GMaps and found that we were only 15 minutes from Perth where Shauna works and where Danica was also helping out on the Reception Desk for a half day.

What I will say is that, although I had brought all of my photo equipment for the day, I didn't get it out of the trunk once. For the kind of pictures available that day, the phone sufficed. This does not make me exceedingly happy, but it is how life is going right now.

Oh, and what I will also say is that the drive from Athens to Rideau Ferry was quite lovely for the rural roads that we were driving along were lined for mile after mile with Queen Anne's lace. Many stretches  also included blue chicory. What a treat!

Oh . . . and as a bit of an afterthought, here is Sue's breakfast photo of the perpetrator of this blog.

Miscellaneous Photos

Today, I will just drop a few pics in passing.

I have a folder for Blogger photos, but this one got stuck in there since the spring. I like it, so I'll post it and then delete it from the folder, as I will also do with the rest.

Another semi-forgotten pic from Easter weekend when I went to Ashton to pick up the church pies. It's just a bit different.

Just two evening ago, Sue needed a night photo. We went downtown where I snapped a number of photos. When I looked at them on the monitor, I trashed them all except this one of Sue shooting the man, Roy Brown, who shot down the Red Baron.

Yesterday, We took our morning stroll in the park and sat on this bench for a few minutes before heading back to the car.

While we were sitting there, a gull chanced by.

It is cooler today (TG!), and we are planning on a little local getaway for a few hours. Maybe I will have more photos to post tomorrow.

Reprocessing Past Photos

As I have previously posted, my photography has been close to non-existent lately. Although I can more or less keep up this blog, I hadn't been posting much to Flickr. Then, I found a folder with photos that I had once posted but then reprocessed at another point in the past. I had stuck them in a folder and had promptly forgotten about them. Upon rediscovery, I decided to post them to Flickr. Then I thought that I could use them here too. I will post them in the sequence that I posted (or will post) to Flickr, so they are not in chronological order.

The first is of Danica, from April 2013. What an expression! That pouty look garnered the photo some notice on Flickr with more than 4.5K views.

Next in my Flickr posting came Sue and JJ sharing quite a funny moment in May 2014

I went to town on the processing of this next photo of JJ in the park. I think that I would call this fine art, but maybe that is too bold of me: September 2015.

At a family gathering in August 2015, I caught my BiL and his DiL shucking corn.

Also at the cottage in June 2013, I had a howling good time with Zeus. My BiL had three dogs over the time that we hung our together. Zeus was my fave. Sometimes when we were all at cottage on Sunday, the four adults would huddle up and begin to sing the doxology (for fun), and Zeus would join in a very wonderful pack howl. We began to call is the dogsology.

This was a very early (October 2004) digital photo with Sue's Canon Elph camera (I think). Once I was exposed to digital photography, I found that I preferred to use the little compact camera over my grand Canon SLR film camera. Soon after, however, I bought my first Canon DSLR Rebel. (Some photographers have stuck to film photography, but I find it hard to understand why.)

Brian aka Treebeard, emerging from the forest

The final photo is also of Brian from August 2016. Brian has a pretty interesting face for photography, and it is ok to process men in a grainy, textured way. Women, however, tend not to appreciate similar treatment.

That is what was in the folder. It makes me think that I should find some more oldies to reprocess.

The Braid

"[In] a French braid you use hair strands over the middle section of the braid while Dutch braid uses hair strands under the middle section of the braid." In the States, depending on what part of the country you are from, French braids and Dutch braids are differentiated by "overhand" or "underhand" braids.(Google)

Danica's Dutch Braid

You wanted to know how the gals made out with the Dutch braid. It looks good to me although Sue struggled to complete it to her personal satisfaction. Let's face it, the lady has high standards and can be a bit of a perfectionist. After starting and stopping a few times, I'd say that success was achieved, despite the lack of perfection (according to Sue).

They begin.

There was some ravelling and unravelling as Sue struggled with this new procedure.

Danica checks out the finished product.

I think Sue did a marvellous to teach herself how to accomplish this. I wonder if they will try again.

There was a Question

There was a question in the Comments of the previous post. 

If you live in a townhouse, how come the HOA doesn't mow? Here that's one of the benefits.

We don't live in that kind of situation. We live in a townhouse, but it is not a condo with any sort of overall governance. All properties are separate, and we, essentially, have nothing to do with one another. New subdivisions have sprung up locally, and as far as I know, all of them are like our, older type of situation.

In any case, this ↑ is what our common easement behind our backyards looks like. It exists to give every owner access from the back of the lot. It looks rough because it is largely unused.  The lots are on the left; the fence on the right separates our properties from town land, mainly the road, on the other side.

In the 19 years that we've lived here, it has  been up to me to clear the way. Owners are, theoretically, responsible for the section behind their fence, but most do not bother. In fact, I am not sure that most understand that this is their obligation. The neighbour to our north, which is where I am standing to snap this photo doesn't even have a gate at the back because they have side access. They let bushes grow behind their property, so that I couldn't get by to mow, so I asked JJ and his dad to come over and clear them with their electric saw, and the result is the piles of brush that you see here and there down the path. They will been gathered and taken to the waste yard in due course.

Before the boys cleared the way

 I have recently whipper-snipped the easement because the grass had grown too high for the mower and also because it might have been difficult to push the mower past the piles of brush. It has been my job for the past 19 years to clear the way. I have been able to stretch the lawnmower cord from our yard to tend most of the path that you see in the photo. I was able to do 3.5 properties. The last 0.5 at the far end is now tended to by the newer owner, thank goodness. I say 0.5 because I never could extend the cord past their gate to do their full property.

Someone wondered the market value of modest properties like ours. I searched real estate online and was stunned to see the price of equivalent houses. I have no idea how younger families can afford to purchase any sort of home, never mind those larger detached homes.

There are perhaps eight newer subdivisions since we moved here, and the preponderance of homes seem to be townhouses like ours. When we moved here in '05, our street contained the majority of townhouses in the whole town, but they have proliferated since then.

We moved from Southwestern Ontario here to Eastern Ontario back in '05. Our townie here cost about 50% more than our previous house which was larger and sat on a larger lot. As pricey as it was then, its market value has appreciated almost 2.5 fold. It's crazy.

Although it was a very expensive move to a higher cost area, it was worth it be be close to Shauna and the grandkids. 

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Yesterday, we watched the men's tennis finals at Wimbledon. My goodness, I think that Mr Alcaraz may be the most talented and exciting  player that I have seen in the 50 years that I have been following the sport. I've seen them from Connors, Borg and McEnroe all the way through to the incredible trio of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic, but I don't think I've seen any player make so many shots that, metaphorically, lift me from my seat. Sue and I often look at each other in amazement during his matches.

Alcaraz is a Spaniard. Yesterday, Spain also won the European tournament over England, so I think it is fair to say that Spain had a good day. I don't usually follow soccer, but I did watch much of that game. Due to my ancestry, I was cheering for England, but Spain was pretty dominant.

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It is now 6:30 in the morning. I forced myself to stay in bed until past 5 even though I was awake. I keep hoping that I will get back to sleep. Occasionally, it happens.

This morning, Danica will come over for Sue to Dutch-braid her hair. Sue has often done a French braid for the girl but has taught herself the new braid just to please her grandkid. She watches YT videos and teaches herself. In fact, she took a photo of her practise attempt on wool. So, although I am ready to post at 6:30, I'll wait for m'lady to arise, so that I can get the photo.

I may not see Danica, for I have grocery shopping to do, for the pantry is looking a little bleak.

And . . . here's the photo: one of Sue's composites. Maybe I will post at some later time how it goes with Danica and her actual hair.