A Bit of Winter Driving

Yesterday, JJ asked for a drive into work for an 11 o'clock shift. I had some grocery shopping to do, and Sue had some other shopping to attend to, so we all headed out. There's nothing exciting about that, but I thought that I would share this photo of the drive from his house toward the store: just a typical winter day in Eastern Ontario. It was just a light snow, and we can deal with it. We have to deal with it.

To drive to our downtown, I would turn left at the lights, but we were going straight ahead to the next lights which are maybe a half mile ahead where we would turn left to JJ's work. If one didn't turn there, they would find themselves leaving our modest town, after which traffic would flow freely and not too heavily for quite a while before getting closer to Ottawa.

I dropped JJ at his grocery store, then drove Sue over to Winners before driving back to the grocery store. I had told Jonathan that it would be nice to have him help check me out and use his employee discount, but it was not to be. It was crowded in there and the boy was in great demand.

After sadly paying full price and then loading my car, JJ appeared in front of me, helping to load a lady's purchase. All is not lost when you can get a photo of your grandson.

I picked up Sue and we drove home and put the car in the garage for the day and for the night. It is snowing again this morning, and I think we'll have more snow than yesterday, but we will be out again regardless. Sue will be meeting a friend for coffee, and I have an errand or two to run.

Her First Parade

Good morning and good grief, for I have had this post sitting in my queue for a whole year. Last December I scanned some old negatives, including the ones below, of Shauna's first Santa Claus parade in 1973. I had other restorations to publish at the time, so when I couldn't get this posted before Christmas 2024, I put it aside for this year. With Christmas looming, I could easily have missed posting this year too.

These photos are of Shauna's first Christmas parade in Sarnia in 1973. A year or three later, we, somehow, managed to take her all of the way to the really big parade in Toronto.

We seemed to be early for this parade in Sarnia in the first photo, and we must have thought better of our location because we had changed position in the other pictures.

Sue's leather coat was tres magnfique! and Shauna was well bundled
against the cold, but if memory serves it was not a terribly cold day
 — milder Sarnia weather, not Ottawa winter weather.

Some folks think we take too many pictures, but looking back on them is a treat, and we enjoyed the slideshow on Shauna's birthday. I am not sure what the grandkids thought of it, but we who were present both then and now really appreciated the stroll along memory lane.

Happy Solstice

You've seen this photo here before but without the words. I think the low, weak sun with snow below is very suitable for a solstice card.

I haven't flooded you with photos from Sha's birthday, But I'll post a few now. I really like this candid of Dani, not so much of her although she is fine, but I find both the light and bokeh to be quite appealing.

Just a few other photos from the evening. You've already seen Shauna, but we'll include JJ and Sue too now.

53

We knew that Shauna would be perplexed when she opened her card. Wouldn't you be?

front
The figures at the side are from me cutting and pasting from the images below and others

inside
note: Sue and I did sign on the left

What happened is that Sue found a whole, forgotten booklet of verse and paintings made by her mother with graphical help by Sue's sister, Heather, who was a teen that the time. Yes, Grandma Pearl really created a whole book for Shauna's first birthday. Here are a few sample pages out of the (I think) 20 that she created. What an odd delight that I don't think I had seen for 52 years.

Cover Page

We had Chinese takeout for dinner. There were the usual five of us, but then Shauna's friend, Krista, who had been visiting family in Ottawa, surprised her. Danica's friend, Matt, also joined us at the last minute. 

A few pictures, but not many.

I was right about Shauna being very puzzled by the strange card that she opened.

Oddly enough, however, she remembered the book. Neither Sue not I had. Some of it was pretty funny in retrospect, 50 years after grandma put it together with love in her heart.

As is traditional, cake was served.

I nabbed a pretty awful group photo before the gathering broke up. I am holding my arm oddly because I had triggered the phone form my watch. I did have 3 seconds to lower my arm, but it didn't cross my mind.

Sue, Danica, Matt, Shauna, Krista, Jonathan, AC

Shauna Pics from Long Ago

Our baby completes her 53rd year tomorrow, but we'll be having a family dinner tonight because — kids and their work schedules and their whatnots. I will likely have some photos to post tomorrow, but for today, I will take you back — way back. I did scan many old slides this year, so I don't think I have posted any of these previously: perhaps one. They are more or less in chronological order.

Sue and Sha by the Christmas tree which the cats brought low,
many times, that year while Sue and Sha were in the hospital.

She liked her carriage, often sleeping outside in it, even in winter.

She enjoyed telling my mother and father about the fish that got away. It was THIS big.

Standing with dad's help.

Posing with Grandma, Mother and Aunt before they
went out for the evening.

A shower of leaves provided by Mom outside our first house.

By the Christmas tree in our second house.

A snuggle in my den. The pictures to the left and right on the bookshelf behind me there
 are also behind me in my present den more than 4 decades later.

The Juxtaposition of Good and Evil

I wasn’t going to post of this incident, for it might smack of me being highly self-congratulatory. In fact, I wasn’t planning to post at all today, thinking that you might need a break from me. And maybe you do. :)

But when I clicked onto Sandra’s blog and listened to a very distraught lady’s very emotional response to dear leader here, I changed my mind. 

In her short, emotional interview, in addition to being angry and distraught, she talked of the juxtaposition of good and evil in human behaviour.

It made me think of yesterday, when I believe that I did a good thing but did it in the midst of a kind of evil. Perhaps that is the wrong word because evil tends to denote purposeful malevolence, so let me just call it sadly unfortunate.

We don’t see too many down-and-outers (I assume homeless) in our town, so when I do, I am moved. Yesterday, we passed a man standing with a huge cart piled high with garbage bags containing, I presume, all of his worldly belongings. Because such sights are few and far between here, encountering people who need assistance, is somewhat emotional for me. And because I am not required to reach into my pocket often, I was able to offer him something.

He wasn’t begging and wasn’t even looking in my direction when I passed by, so that is what I did — passed by. I wanted to offer him something, but I didn’t want to make a show of it. Once past, I fumbled for my wallet and pulled out a twenty. Then, I turned back to him, tapped him on the shoulder and asked, “Would this help you?”

He said that indeed it would. I simply patted him on the shoulder and kept on walking. 

So, I guess that was a kind thing to do and was all that I could reasonably do. But I should not have had to do it. Society should be able to better help those who need help in this life, for my belief is that people cannot help what they are. If someone can’t fit into society in the normal way, that someone is still a someone and, as such, is deserving of a decent existence. 

I had a grand uncle whom I never met. He was a brother of my grandfather. He was a paraplegic, I think born that way. I have seen pictures, in which he appeared decently dressed and cared for. He was lucky in that way at least. Some people aren’t lucky, partly because the world has changed and the support of villages and of extended families has been lost for the most part. 

So that is what the lady in the interview was talking about, or at least how I related it to my own experience, the juxtaposition of good and evil that lies within humanity. I think it is a good thing to reach out a helping hand if and when we are able, but the reality that we allow great needs to endure is a rather evil thing.

(I hesitated to post these rudimentary thoughts as perhaps being too maudlin or self-aggrandizing, but, as is plain to see and for better or worse, I did come back and hit that Publish button.)

Never Again . . . probably.

Remind me never to do it again.

For a long time, I have played Sudoku twice in the morning, once for the daily challenge and once for an extreme level game, which they rate 2 notches higher than expert. Sometimes, I also play at night before trying to go to sleep. I do it to try to shut my mind down without listening to a podcast, for when I play a podcast, I will likely nod off, catch myself snoring*, and, therefore, will interfere with my attempts to fall asleep properly. (* I only snore when I am on my back in a listening sort of pose. I do not snore otherwise. Verified by Sue.)

What I do not do in the Sudoku game is play their contests and challenges. When I have entered the contests, I have found that some people play so often that they are hundreds of thousands of points in the lead. So, I just stick with my two games in the morning and maybe a few at night.

But I lost my mind and started the Winter Magic challenge. It was just a challenge and not a contest, so I decided to play it. The task was to decorate an alpine sort of scene. Each level always consisted of completing two games. First, a few decorations were added to the tree and then more and more. Houses appeared that weren't there before — the decorated ones near the centre — but they had to be decorated too. The stand to the right popped into existence, and then I had to decorate it: the same with the snowman and Santa's sleigh too. The final touch was the aurora borealis, which came  naturally decorated.

Days and days after beginning (I think 10 days), and being required to play multiple games per day, the picture was finally done. It came with words and scores and dates and things on the screen, which I eliminated in Photoshop. I might even add a Merry Christmas and use it as a Christmas card, so you just might see it again.

BUT! I hereby declare that I will never do that again, unless, perhaps, in a very weak and forgetful moment, I become seduced by the promise of another pretty picture next Christmas.

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Speaking of games, I liked the congratulatory message after a good result on OneWordSearch (link to game here, for the browser version). OneWordSearch is also offered as part of the Waffle game page (link here) that everyone should play.

I thought the message most appropriate for a Canadian who had recently posted a photo of a puck going into the net. I scored a 4 out of a possible 5, which is the best that I can do, for I will never find 10 words in a changing puzzle within a minute. I minute and 11 seconds was my best, but as you see above, I almost used up 2 minutes on that one. I would have then been down to 3 stars. If you play and can get 5 stars, please do not let me know.

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When I check on my loved ones on Find Friends, and they are home, I note that they are 7 minutes away. Twenty years ago, we lived 7 hours away. We undertook a very expensive move to a higher cost of living region in addition to paying the moving company a small fortune. We paid the price to live 7 minutes from Shauna instead of 7 hours. Despite the financial drain, it was already a good move, and then the grandchildren came along to make it even better.

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I did my grocery shopping early today (actually yesterday when I post this) and brought back Tims coffee. We brew Tims at home too, but the coffee that we bring home is so much better than the ones we brew ourselves. Maybe we should K-cups to eliminate the guesswork. We use a single-serve brewer now in which everyday becomes a guessing game about how much coffee and water to use. 

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Unforeseen — Poor Guy. 

Ladies Win at Winners

To the great delight of the ladies, Winners has come to town. Since it opened in late September, there have always been cars in the parking lot, and when one goes inside, one sees almost only ladies. The occasional blokes that I do see look as stunned as I feel. 

Added Note: Apparently, Winners is a Canadian discount chain, but I would have to say that it is an upscale discount chain.

The ladies, however, are as pleased as punch, including the beloved one.

There is a fairly substantial men section where the occasional woman might purchase a piece of clothing for her significant other. I said, “Might,” for I haven’t encountered too many shoppers of any sort of gender in there. 

It’s a surprisingly large store. Sometimes, a smaller town like ours will get an outlet that is smaller than a city store of the same ilk. Our WM, for example, is not tiny, but neither is it as large as the one at Centrum. It’s the same with our Marks franchise.

Back outside, there is a puzzling thing in the parking lot.

It’s the Accessible parking spaces so far from the door. While there are 4 accessible spaces near the door, people do find the location of this secondary site a little puzzling.

However you get there and wherever you park, it seems to qualify as a wonderful place for women. While the occasional man, comme moi, will enter, I don’t think that I ever seen one who is unchaperoned. 

Unexpected Help

We walked over the Shopper's Drug Mart, a store well known to Canadians. For those who are unfortunate enough to not be Canadian, it's a pharmacy with a lot more than pharmaceuticals. For example, I get my Coke (as in soft drink) there and all sorts of items, including even the occasional banana.

I had an experience which was like a reversion to childhood, for after our cold trudge, I chanced to look down at my feet as we entered the store: "Oh no! My lace is undone." It wasn't just any sort of lace but a very long boot lace that must wrap around post-like things after it has passed through the typical eyelets.

I looked around for somewhere to sit to attend to my boot lace and was about to try to perch on the narrow ledge by the windows. But shockingly, a voice behind me was offering to help. The voice belonged to a middle-aged woman, a younger middle-aged woman. Not being a proud fellow, for I have little to be proud of, I gladly accepted. She did the job nimbly and efficiently, and I was soon thanking her for her kindness, and off she went  

It's nice to meet kind people, and I am only too willing to accept assistance in my dotage.

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I now leave you with two photos from recent walkies. In the first, Sue was looking for a symmetry photo for her group. She ended up posting a different one, but I think this one was better. The location was the empty market that will fill up again on Saturdays come May.

On our last trail walk, I stopped to photograph a park bench. Sue took one of me taking the photo. I composited Sue's photo into mine.

Finally . . . .

Opps! I see that already posted the bench photo. 

James Naismith

I am going to double post today since I just became aware that it is James Naismith's birthday.

On FB, they posted the following along with the above (emphasis mine).

Basketball, invented by the Ottawa Valley's own James Naismith, was played for the first time on December 15, 1891 — 134 years ago today.

Orphaned early in life, James went to live with his aunt and uncle and attended grade school at Bennies Corners near Almonte, graduating from Almonte High School in 1883.

James loved sports growing up, including catch, hide-and-seek, and a game called "duck on a rock", a medieval game in which a person guards a large drake stone from opposing players, who try to knock it down by throwing smaller stones at it.

To play duck on a rock most effectively, Naismith soon found that a soft lobbing shot was far more effective than a straight hard throw, a thought that later proved essential for the invention of basketball.

In a 1939 radio interview, Naismith described that first game and the initial rules that were used: "I showed them two peach baskets I'd nailed up at each end of the gym, and I told them the idea was to throw the ball into the opposing team's peach basket. "I blew a whistle, and the first game of basketball began. ... The boys began tackling, kicking, and punching in the clinches. They ended up in a free-for-all in the middle of the gym floor." (The injury toll: several black eyes, one separated shoulder, and one player knocked unconscious.) “It certainly was murder." 

As a result, Naismith changed some of the rules as part of his quest to develop a clean sport. "The most important one was that there should be no running with the ball. That stopped tackling and slugging. We tried out the game with those [new] rules (fouls), and we didn't have one casualty."

Back in September '08, on a Doors Open Day. we visited this heritage house where he lived. The then owner was quite informative.

Of course, everyone has a photo of Naismith on the bench in Almonte. I probably have several, but I found this one. from February 2017. There were scarves in the bag for those who might have need in winter.

There is also a little museum display at the Mill of Kintail, but I understand that it is due to me moved: to where, I know not. We were there with the kids in July 2012.

It seems odd but kind of wonderful that a worldwide sport was invented by a man who once lived just up the road.

Smores and Mores

Happy Sunday morning when my second cup of coffee will be a flavour that they call Smores. This blend is a new weekend treat that sure smells good brewing. While it might smell better than it tastes, it does taste quite good too. I use less expensive, plain coffee throughout the week and also for my first cup on the weekends. My second cup on the weekend is a bit of a treat.

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When I posted the photo of our neighbour shovelling snow of his car (there is another version, below) a few readers opined that he could use his garage to keep the snow off. Except nobody does on this block of townies because people need the space to store things. When I say nobody, of course I mean most people. We make space for our car, mostly because the previous owner made two big overhead shelves where we can keep our lawnmower and other items, including summer ornaments and such. 

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Speaking of garages, our adjacent neighbour (who is one the few other folk on the block to park in her garage in winter) impresses me greatly, when, upon peering from my den window, I chance to see actually her backing the car into the garage. Our garages are narrow, and I am even careful about driving in and reversing out, but she backs in for some reason. In general, people backing into parking spaces annoy me, but some people are totally committed to it.

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This week, we noticed the weak and cold winter sun lowering in the west before sunset. I saw it from the den window, but I went upstairs for a better and less obstructed view.  Once again, I cajoled Photoshop into removing wires for me.

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I made a sticker. 

Yesterday, I showed you the photo of me in my red coat taking a photo of a bench. Since then, I decided to inset it into the photo that I was taking at the time. I did convert my image to b&w, so the tonality is different in the two photos.

Speaking of benches, this is one up the street. You may recall that I posted it a few weeks ago with a maple leaf on its lightly frosted surface. There have been a few dumpings of snow since then. I replaced the grimy driveway snow in the background with more pristine snow. Now, it doesn't look like a driveway at all.

I leave you with this.