A Long Line for a Little Coffee

I had a physio session at the hospital on Friday morning, and since it was Friday and also a nice day, I decided to treat ourselves by bringing home a takeout breakfast from Tim Hortons.

Sue and I talked about it before I left, and we both wanted the same thing: a maple bacon egg sandwich plus two large coffees, two hash browns, and two apple fritters for dessert. With tax, it came to $20, which is a heckuva lot, but that is not what this is about.

What really surprised me was the order of the person in front of me. We had been about ten cars back in the line, but when we got to the window, all that she got was one coffee – a small coffee. Just a small coffee! Only a small coffee! One tiny little coffee! She lined up for one, little, itty bitty coffee!

Back to our breakfast: Sue usually just orders egg sans meat, but she tried the maple bacon last time and really liked it: me too, but that is nothing new.

We can order it in multiple ways: English muffin, croissant, and who knows what else. We got it on a biscuit, but I could only find photos of the croissant and English muffins that I have posted ↑ there  and ← there.

Golden Light on Town Hall

We finally got down to the bridge to see if would be lit in the colours of the Ukrainian flag. It wasn't, but I did catch the light of the setting sun hitting the top of town hall.

Golden Hour, just before or after the sun sets, can bring great light. although arriving just a little earlier probably would have been better in this case, for more of the building would have been lit. 

If we compare the two photos, we already see that the lighted portion has diminished a little in the second photo although I took it just a minute later.

It Begins . . . Slowly

The day after (link) spending some time of\n the trail, we headed to Riverside Park. I was sure that we would find colour, but this sapling is close to all there was in the whole park. However, you can see the change beginning in the trees in the background.

We were there at school lunch hour, the high school being on the edge of the park. This is not a great photo, but how lucky are the students who can do this at lunchtime?

These two guys were meditating by themselves, at opposite ends of the park. These are best photos of the day. The first is the best but the second has a poignancy to it – for me at least. I can almost relate to the second fellow, being all alone in a school of hundreds of students.

Finally, for today, there was a non-student fishing from the bank on this very fine day.

It was the kind of autumn day that we cherish even though the colour was not yet splendiferous .

Walking on an Overcast Day

It was hardly a beckoning day, but the rain did cease, so we headed to the trail for a little walkie.

Sue's prompt for the day was to make a double exposure. With a phone, the blending pretty well has to be done by post processing, and she has such an app.

Just before we got on the trail, we parked by a house which still had a very colourful flowerbed, so Sue stopped to take photos.. With double exposures in mind, I took one of her taking the photos and suggested that she blend mine with hers.

As you can see, it worked pretty well, but in the end, she posted the next one to her group: a blend of the flowers with a leaf found on the trail. I like it a lot, especially with the background textures from the boulder that she lay the leaf on.

This is one of the few photos that I took, looking along the trail. While there wasn't much autumn colour on the trees and bushes, there were quite a few fallen, yellow leaves.

We took a right turn off the trail down to the little bridge and old machine shop where we found an aster growing out of a crack between a retaining wall and the building.

When we walked past the construction of the old mill which is being repurposed into new condos, Sue spotted a rusty old mailbox on the fence. Dropping the mail into the construction zone would be problematic, but it is a pretty blah mailbox for a multi million dollar development.

While we had been on the trail near the bridge, we looked down to the hackberry park.

Later, we went into the park where Sue found water and leaves on part of the bare bedrock. They made for an interesting abstract photo, or at least partially abstract.

We should walk this way every now and then in the next few weeks as more and more autumn colour seeps in.

Autumnal Changes

Autumn is such a lovely season. For the most part, the days are more pleasant, and then the colour arrives. The one thing that sometimes unnerves me at first is the darkness. I look outside, and it is dark by 7:30. I confess that it depresses me just a little. A few weeks ago, I would gladly go for an evening stroll at that time, but I don't find the darkness beckoning. It doesn't help that the air may also be forebodingly chilly in the evening.

I do get over my despondency as the season marches on and the sun dips lower and lower and the darkness comes earlier and earlier, but it does hit me right in the sads at first.

On the plus side, however, Tuesday was a bit of a momentous occasion, for Sue cooked a roast for family dinner. While we do continue family dinner in the warmer months, it is mostly in the form of bbqs or stovetop cooking such as my recent macaroni meal. While my macaroni dish does require some warming in the oven before serving, and also to crisp the cheese and crumb topping, it is otherwise mostly a stovetop dish. It was I who made that and most of the summer dishes, but with the weather cooling down, Sue was happy enough to cook a roast this week.

She roasted ten potatoes for five people. They were all consumed. Yup, we love our roasted potatoes.

The carrots were cooked almost enough for me, but they could have been blacker. 😊

We serve ourselves at the counter and carry our plates to the table.

Another sign of autumn is Sue getting out the wool and beginning to crochet a new afghan. 

The word, afghan, when not capitalized is "a blanket or shawl of colored yarn
knitted or crocheted in strips or squares."

This is what it will look like – someday.

We had thought to take our first colour tour this week, but it has been cloudy and rainy, and the colour is not terribly advanced for the most part. Hang on, though.

Nick and the Ukrainian Festival

On Sunday, there was a Ukrainian festival in town. There were booths, food and performances. We were unable to stay for long, so we didn't get as much as we could have out of the the experience. 

Sue saw a nice, authentic looking blouse for $240. She resisted. I was hoping for some authentic Ukrainian food, but when I saw the lines, I resisted.

I had been keen to attend to support Nick in a very small way. He is my Ukrainian photo friend who was born in Canada, but I think some of his siblings were born in Ukraine. He speaks the language, has visited Ukraine several times, and identifies strongly with the country. In these sad times, he follows developments very closely and with passion.

One activity that we did catch was the unfurling of a gigantic Ukrainian flag.

I even thought to take a short video clip. I don't think to do this often, but every now and then, my brain kicks in.

Sue made one of her collages.

It wasn't a super hot day, but the sun was still strong despite it being the equinox, so we sat by the river in the shade for a little while. You can see the autumn colours beginning to appear on the other side. The colour will soon come on strongly, and almost just as soon afterward, it will be gone.

The bridge should have been lit with the colours of the Ukrainian flag, but Nick checked that night, and they were not on display for some reason. I have been meaning to check again to see if the display has been changed, but it is Wednesday already, and it has been raining and miserable for much of the week so far, and if there is a display, it won't be up much longer.

Nick Things

Perth is the nearest town to the southwest of us, the outskirts are a 20-25 minute drive, and that is where I was heading on Monday morning. My purpose was the pick up Nick after he dropped his car off at the autobody shop.

The reason why is strange.

Nick was about the back out of his garage. However, when he tossed the door-opener aside as he was about to backup, he accidentally activated it, and the door began its descent. It did not register on Nick that the door was closing, so he put the car in reverse and began to exit.

Of course, the sensor spotted the car and the door reversed course and began to rise.

Recall that Nick was totally unaware.  

Unfortunately, Nick's antenna and the door got in each other's way. The door won, the antenna lost, and the both the antenna and roof were damaged.

Poor Nick has been left with a $3000 repair job and will be car-less for, perhaps, two weeks.

I got to Perth, and when Nick was getting into the car, I thought he was flashing his keys at me. In retrospect, he was being funny and pretending to open my door with his garage door opener in order to get in my car. I didn't get this at the time and thought it was his key fob.

Here comes the funny part.

I got him home and was going to join him inside for a coffee. He began to pat himself down. I saw the light extinguish from his eyes, and he said that he had left the keys at the repair shop.

I said, "You couldn't have. I saw your key fob."

But you, boys and girls, know that it had been the door opener and not the key fob.

We had to drive back to Perth immediately and forthwith.

Nick was mortified and apologetic, but I appreciated the comedic aspect of the situation.

When I finally dropped him off he was clinging to his keys as if they were gold. He passed a CD over to me to enjoy when I got home: Barry Gibbs recording country music songs with various musicians, doing each musician's own song. He said that it was excellent.

But I will never know, or at least not in the near future.

Last night, I thought to play it by just popping it into my computer. I have a soundbar connected to the computer, so the sound quality would be decent.

Guess what! This computer does not have a CD player. My previous computer did, and the one before that, and likely a few before that one.

But they don't come standard anymore. I haven't needed on in the year since I have owned this machine, so this omission hadn't completely dawned upon my foggy brain.

There was a time when I had a stack of stereo components: turntable, receiver, tape player, cd player, and big speakers, but those days are long past. At present, I have none of the above: not even a cd player in my computer.

Times have changed.

So those are my three Nick-related occurrences in one short day. The first was freakish. The second was amusing, at least to me. The third brought home to me, the passing of an era – at least as it pertains to this domicile.

KD

Seen on Threads

is kraft mac and cheese called kraft dinner in canada? i’ve read two books in a row now that call it that and it makes me giggle

The answer, of course, is Yes. 

I did not know that everyone didn't call it this. It has even been shortened to KD.

Some comments to the original post on Threads

Yup.
Kraft Dinner.
Or just KD
And honestly, we giggle when someone calls it "kraft mac and cheese", because we know they arent Canadian.

Yes, and I didn't know it was called mac and cheese elsewhere, so whenever people said that phrase (without kraft) I just assumed they meant the kind of proper, home baked comfort food

Yes; has always been called Kraft dinner on the box; now it’s just referred to as KD. Powder chemicals isn’t cheese; not sure why the USA allows people to think it is….

Bare Naked Ladies “If I had a Million Dollars.”

Yes that’s what it is called here - it’s a favourite meal for poor college students

Threads can be a fun place to visit. While any form of social media can get a little bit toxic, for the most part it is lighter and gentler than Twitter, which I refuse to call by that other, silly name.

So waddaya tink a dem noodles? Eh?

Just so you know, Danica says that my macaroni dish is the only one that she will eat apart from Kraft Dinner because I make it with real cheese. It was a light recipe to begin with, calling for a cup of light cheddar and another of lean Farmers cheese. I can't find the latter anymore, so I just use two cups of regular cheddar, or sometimes a mix with mozzarella. It also calls for a cup of cottage cheese which I stick with. So although I have adapted it a bit, it's still a somewhat light recipe and is one of my standby recipes.

Lost in the Weeds

Joe Pye's blossoms were truly spent, so Sue thought to cut down the plant in preparation for winter. I was ready to proceed but then thought it very early, and most of the leaves were looking good. If the leaves are still nourishing the plant, I would be hesitant to cut the whole thing down.

We compromised, and I decided to just deadhead ole Joe's faded blooms but leave the rest intact for now. As Sue looked down, I was close to being lost in the weeds, which pretty well describes my usual state of being in a more metaphorical sense.  Many people do say Joe Pye Weed although I never think of our wonderful specimen in those terms.

Joe is beside me to my left, closest to you, although it looks like I might
be pruning the lilac bush directly in front of me in the photo.
I had likely just been turning to discard Joe's flowers.

Last evening I went for a stroll after supper. I was dismayed to find that it was already dark by 8:00pm (or should I say by 20 o'clock for the rest of the world?). It had been warm during the day, so I was only wearing shorts and tees, but it was chilly out by evening. The ominous feeling of autumn was in the air. It was not the delightful feeling of a fine fall day, but the impression that coldness and winter were looming.

I did not find the darkness breeziness and chilliness to be at all uplifting, but it was good to stroll, for physiotherapy has helped to reduce the pain in my leg. It's not yet eradicated, but I didn't feel like I was dragging my leg painfully along behind me as has so often been the case in the past year.

Even on my little walks, my head is lost in the metaphorical weeds. I think that if I were to walk all day long, I would see little of my surroundings, for I would be lost in the inner swirling of my introvertish mind. When I walk with Sue, she occasionally brings me out of my reverie by commenting on this and that. She notices much, but I notice little.

LOTR

Of course, my LOTR title refers to Lord of the Rings. Along with The Hobbit, they performed an important function for me about more than 4 decades ago. Good grief! when I counted the years, I was almost shocked, but here we are, forty-plus years later, in my later seventies and not my earlyish thirties.

I was still a youngish teacher, but in my eleventh year I was transferred from my city high school to a country one. If that wasn't enough of a change, I was also tasked with doing some teaching out of my area. I was not in a happy place. Without droning on and on, let me tell you that my department head was arrested for attempted murder in the next year, and he had to serve time, so yes, it was a difficult transition in several ways.

Being shunted from a pleasant situation to what was then an unpleasant one for me, without a by-your-leave, was a tough experience, and I became depressed. I don't mean in a clinical sense, but my spirits were at a low ebb.

Before, I go on with the narrative, I am chiming in to tell you that it became a very good experience in the end. All told, I spent 12 years in that school in two stints of six years. I am thankful for the experience, but I had to get past that first year.

Somehow, I picked up The Hobbit, and being transported to a whole different world was wonderful for my mental health. I kept on reading the ensuing trilogy and loved it. The escape to Middle Earth was much of what I needed to cope with my work situation.

Twenty years later, LOTR was made into three movies. I was skeptical about them, wondering how it would be possible to adapt the series to the screen. Creating that world seemed like an impossible task, and we also know how films can take liberties with their source books.

I was completely impressed. To me, the films were about as faithful to the books as they could be, and they created Middle Earth and its characters better than my own imagination, or at least in a different and wonderful way. How they were able to create those characters and that world with the technology of that era  was both awesome and inspirational.

Twenty years later, Amazon has developed The Rings of Power, and I am somewhat on the fence. For sure they have created costumes and an environment that is really impressive, especially for a tv series. However, while the series definitely has been fashioned in the spirit of LOTR, it is a made-up story in a sense. The setting is eons before LOTR, and constructed from  bits of Tolkien's mentions in other tomes that he has written. They have added much to the bits and pieces while, in my view, maintaining the Tolkien authenticity, at least somewhat overseen by Tolkien's decedents. (At least this is the case as I understand it, but I am open to being corrected.)

I don't really mind that they have extrapolated and added material, for the series is very harmonious with the LOTR films in my unworthy opinion. I can tell you that the narrative does move slowly, and I wonder if those without a LOTR background would want to follow it. I even wonder about my own involvement sometimes, but I also know that I will see it through.

However, seeing it through, will take three more years, for they are only on season two of a projected five series.

I am interested to know if you are watching or will watch, and if you are a Middle Earther or not. If not but you are watching nevertheless, how does the series play for you, bearing in mind that season two isn't over yet?

Job Finally Done

It has been almost 6 months since we began fretting about this.

You've seen the photo of the starling once before: sitting on the handrail of our deck, preparing to fly up into its nest in our eaves because the vent cover had fallen apart and off.

It has taken these 6 months, or close to it, to finally resolve the situation.

First, we found a roofer who would come out from the city, but he would need 3 houses at $200 apiece to make the job viable for him. We did find 2 neighbours who agreed to hire him, but by the time he was ready to do the job, they backed out, and then so did he. I guess our neighbours like having birds in their eaves. What if squirrels get in?

There was another guy who said that maybe he could do it, but he never materialized at our abode to say yay or nay.

Eventually, Sue found 2 college kids who were painting in the area to come by late on a Friday afternoon before they quit for the summer to go back to school. They would and did for $100.

They did what they could, but they were college painters who came without tools. They could only get 2 of the screws in and used tape to shore up the other side. (I will show the various vent pictures later and also talk about these two guys more.) We were very appreciative of them coming by on short notice, so even though the job wasn't perfect, we tipped them an extra $50, for a total of $150.

Sue was tenacious and kept looking around. With a recommendation from Sha who has some connections, Cody came by this morning and soon fixed it. He got the two extra screws in and then, caulked around the edge, so it should be secure for a very long time. His fee was $150, so the job cost $300 in total, and we also had to purchase the vent cover. I think it was ~$30.

As you can see, ole AC was there to steady the ladder if needed,
but as usual in this life, he was surplus to requirements.

Left: the bird access.
Bottom: the boys' job.
Top: job done!

Extra Tidbit 1

Cody had a mild accent that I surmised was either an Ottawa Valley accent or alternatively, a Maritime accent. Yes, we do have mild local or even regional accents in Canada. I had to ask, and he does come from a very large clan in the rural centre of the county. He said he has also been Down East where his accent fit in to the point that easterners were asking him if he were local.

Extra Tidbit 2

Back to the painter guys. As you can see from the second photo in the post, one guy did the work while the other guy held the ladder. Look what the holder guy was doing the whole time. Yes, the whole time!

Blue Light Special

After recently posting a photo of townhall and the bridge lights, Sue and I were back there last evening because the bridge was lit in blue to honour Big Sisters and Brothers. As I sit here typing this, I look out my den window and think that I should have gone this morning to catch the light of morning breaking behind townhall, but there are other things on the agenda today. I like the photo as is, however. By the way, there will be  a different display soon, so I'll probably post another photo within in the next week or so.

I hadn't been paying attention, but there was a full moon, and Sue got a few phone pics. I was unprepared to get out my gear, but it was a good rising. I haven't photographed a full moon since sometime last year.

Sue got this on our way home.

Sue had a photo prompt yesterday that resulted in us collaborating on this 5 second exposure of her letting icing sugar fall on a brownie. It's not  great photo, but it is mission accomplished. It did require a few takes and adjusting the lighting to capture this as well as we did.

That is a doily on top of the brownie to try to create a design,
but it took many attempts, and the sugar was piling up. 

Of course, she made a composite of the process.

Sue's Bridge Photos: two of me and one of the ripples after a boat went by. I had just my gear away and scrambled to get it out, but, alas, I was late. I was yelling for the boat to come back, but, of course, it didn't hear me.

This is where I took my photo that I posted up top.

I am dying inside over missing this shot.

Of Sleep and Commenters

Since I often whinge about my lack of sleep, I am pleased to post that every now and then, I have a very good night. Last night was as good as it gets. Sleep App concurred with my general impression by giving me 7h 45m. I'm not sure if I have done better than that all year. Even more impressive was that all but one hour, so 6:45, were deemed to be good sleep, which is not always the case, even when the total is only 5 hours.

I am not alone in this sleep situation although it is not a problem for everyone.

Should Fish More: I have the same sleep issues, normal for me is around 5-6 hours, often less, rarely up to 7. I listen to the radio. I'm a bit older than you, 78, and admire you getting up and doing things. I try to stay in bed until 5:30, then up and my one cup of coffee and the news. I read your posts most days, they are part of my routine. Thanks AC.  

I don't think Fish still blogs, but I appreciate that he still comments on occasion. It's so nice to know that he reads frequently.

Speaking of non-bloggers who drop by, I have a few, but DrumMajor is the most frequent visitor, or at least the most frequent commenter of the non-bloggers. I don't know why these good folk drop by, but it is nice that they do. I would like to know more about such people, but one respects privacy. Having said that, my email address is there for all to see . . . and use.

DrumMajor: Though those early morning shots are beautiful, in the spirit of Halloween, place a few little bats flying out. To be biologically correct, they'd need to be returning to the tower after being out all night. Linda in Kansas

Kate also recently stopped by, and there are others although I can't recall names at the moment.

Back to the sleep issue, others get by on lesser amounts and still seem to thrive.

Cloudia:  . . . I get up between 4:00 and 5:00 also and go to bed between 10:00 and 11:00. I have never needed more than 6 hours sleep on a normal night. Perhaps you are just one of those people who doesn't really need the full seven or eight. Something to ponder. Have a lovely day

One issue of mine is unpredictability. My good sleep last night was very nice, but I had less than 5 hours on the previous night. It is also the case that I, historically, needed 8 hours or close to it. Mind you, my history has been alterred for about two decades. Oddly enough, and I have written this before, Sue and I used to sleep close to the same number of hours. In later life she has required much more, and whatever I require, I get much less. I am often up an hour or two after she goes to bed and an hour or two before she gets up.

Surprise Morning Shoot

Silly AC awoke at 4  this morning, and try as he might, further sleep elided him.

After coffee and Sudoku, I dragged myself out with the camera. I think this is my first and only early morning photoshoot in two years: something I once did more often.

I wasn't sure where I was heading but ended up staring at townhall. I have done this a lot over the years, but a click is a click, and every click is at least a little different than the click before. Besides, I have never taken this exact photo through the trees.

As you can see, both above and below, it was pretty dark, but there was some colour in the sky – no clouds but some colour.

As the night lightened just a bit, what colour there was soon disappeared, and I went home. As ordinary and common as these photos may be, it did feel good to get out early and do something that I haven't done for a long time.

But I have little desire to keep awakening at 4 o'silly.

Saturday Morning Photo Play

You'll remember these two recent photos. Before uploading them to Flickr, I decided to add the text, Textures, just to add a little something. I kept the text light to not be too obtrusive, but I never know how it will show up on the lower resolutions that I use on Blogger.

You also saw this photo recently.

I liked it, and you said you liked it, but I thought it could be better by removing objects that seemed to detract from the main subject. I think it improves the photo, but what do you think?

Then it was time to head to the Yard Waste site to dump off leaf litter, grass clippings, and  garden  debris from cutting back those sad, fading plants.

I was just about to get in the car when I discovered a spider web attached to it on one side and to nearby plants on the other side. When we tried to photograph it, the spider vamoosed to under the car, and that was that. Together, Ms Arachnid the First and I went to dump the clippings. I don't know if she survived the trip. 

Upon my return, I was watering the plants out front when I espied another web in the garden. I did manage to photograph this spider although I was unable to get most of the web. My kinky back and I weren't doing well in the crouching position, so I accepted the images that resulted, sans web. I could have gotten a stool and my tripod, but, alas, I am but a lazy sort of bloke. You can see some water droplets here and there on the web.

I cropped and magnified the second photo to try to capture the spines on Ms Arachnid the Second. This version should be pretty zoomable if you wish to click.

So, how is your Saturday going? Doubtless, you are all out doing meaningful and splendid things .