I Inarrup Myself

Sue is a cruel woman who has been forcing me to walk with her everyday. With my little difficulties, she doesn't make me go far, and she does walk at my pace, so she isn't all that heartless, I suppose. Of course, we have taken pictures on our walkies, and I'll get to them in a bit. First, however, there is an item to update and another to mention.

So, I am inarruping my string of photo retrospectives for a day. I am writing inarrup instead of interrupt because I am remembering a colleague who used to say it like that. It just crossed my mind again today.

I met with the physiotherapist again this week for my rotator cuff issue after a two-week holiday break. We concurred that I am not making much progress, so she has changed my home exercise regimen. We'll have to see if that will help. She will also send a note to that effect to my doctor apprising her of my sorry state and notifying her that we may need to consider alternative therapies. In the meantime, she'll keep seeing me for a few more sessions.

Some of you have been kind enough to ask, so I will update you again at some future point. 

To shift topics, yesterday I had to drive into Ottawa for 9 o'clock. That was a silly time to choose I guess, for I have been sleeping in a bit later these dark days. Also, driving at 8 or so at this time of year isn't always easy on the eyes, for the sun is low and was in my eyes at times. I was also driving on highways during rush hour, and although it certainly wasn't horrendous out my way.

I was taking our CRV in for a safety recall, but I wasn't expecting the bombshell that they dropped on me.

They told me that the car might be trash if a certain thing were to happen during the required procedure. If that were to occur, they would give me a 7-day rental to figure things out. Can you imagine having 7 days to make a huge and unexpected purchase?

It's a 2010 model but still with relatively low mileage of less than 100K miles — something like 135K kilometers. I have been hoping to at least drive it until I am 80 in 4 years time. Then we can reassess. 

Thankfully, worse did not come to worst. Phew!

Shall we do recent photos now? Our January 01 walk was at Riverside Park. I was once again attracted to those birch trees across the river: the same birches that appeared in b&w in yesterday's retrospective. A number of you expressed appreciation of that image, but this one is closer (longer zoom) and in colour. What caught my eye this time was the layer of geese just in front of the trees. I though the two elements made for a nice composition.

 

I also created a mono version, which I am setting aside for another time.

January 02 saw us walking through Roy Brown Park. We don't frequent this park, and they've added some trails since we were there last. What I appreciated  was that, at least in some places, they have cleared some of the scrubby underbrush. I took this photo in pano crop mode, largely to eliminate as much of the sky as possible, but even the bits that remain are distracting.

No scrubby underbrush

That ↑ photo may not indicate the bleakness of the walk but this ↓ photo of Sue crossing the footbridge captures it pretty darn well.

Bleak it is without any snow.

She got one of red me on a red bench. Red doesn't look bleak. Thank goodness.

January the third took us to Anthony Curro Park, the one just around the corner from us. When we rounded the corner, there must have been at least three-dozen Canada geese bobbing about on the pond. Of course, I took some photos of the chaos of the gaggle, but they were uninspiring to say the least. Then we found four sleeping honkers isolated on the edge of the crowd. They were on the ice right by open water. Stealthily, so as not to disturb them, I took my shots. And here is the best one, or at least one of the two that I most liked.

They are in a line all sleeping on the ice and are all reflected in the water.

Meanwhile, as shown below, Sue went to extreme measures to get a photo. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, eh.

There was a little abandoned boat down there.

Yesterday, January 4th, we got back to the same park as the sun was setting. The geese were gone, but there were ducks. I wanted a photo, but the shooting was poor in the low light. I finally got an unexpected opportunity along the trail that branches off from the park. There are a few houses that back onto the trail, and one of them had lights on the fence, and there was also a touch of light from the house iteself. 

I've been trying to come home with a photo from these excursions. I shouldn't always try to force the issue, but I guess this one will do.