A Few Halloween Decorations

My nightly walkies with Dog are continuing, usually sometime around 9:30. A few more Halloween decorations are appearing in the hood. When I wish to take a photo, I lay the leash down and step on it. I throw my gloves beside the leash, and pull out my phone. I take a quick photo.

Our neighbour has added a few decorations to the very full display from last year. This is the neighbour with the motorcycle ghouls. It's a helluva ornament, so to speak. Straight photos today, no fancy AI-ing.

From up the street, you have seen the tall red dude at the top of the street before, but the rest of the display was lit better one night, so I took two more photos.

One night, I took a very short clip of the highly stylized house that I previously showed in a photo.

I have already done some more spooky AI, but I have to keep some things in the queue until we get a little closer to Halloween.

Shoes and Jake

My running shoes, or most of them, are about to go into a dark recess until, probably, May. So, I thought we should have a little primer on AC's runners to commemorate their imminent winter fading.

Stay until the very end to see why I typed, Poor Jake.

kidding — emulating typical clickbait 😁

More than 40 years ago, I had a pair of red running shoes, but then my footware became quite ordinary. For many years, they were always white — those were my tennis years. After that, in my more senior years, my casual shoes became a basic brown — functional, but blah. 

Then about, let's say, 7 years ago, I saw pair 1 ↓ advertised on sale by Merrill. They are quite dingy now, but they were spiffy then. I liked wearing them, and I got a few notices and comments.

Traditionally, because I have a stupid gait, I tend to wear my shoes down in short order, so it has been good practice for me to replace them regularly. While I still have the original orange pair, they have been at the back door all season, and I have probably only slipped them on about four times. That has been their only function for years. I really should part with them.

Pair 2 was also on sale by Merrill. In fact, all of these shoes have been purchased online and were all on sale, so I haven't spent a fortune. Like the previous orange shoes, some people noticed and commented favourably.

You can hardly see the number 3 on the red pair. Also Merrill's, they have not been my fav pair because, although they are red, they are a dull red. However, they are the one pair that will remain at hand during the winter, for they are more or less waterproof and useful for the wetter days on either side of winter, or even in winter on a day when I don't require boots.

Like the previous 3 shoes, 4 are also Merrill shoes that have received public notice and comments. They are much like shoe 2 except maybe even a bit spiffier. But when it was time for new shoes this year, Merrill seemed to have jettisoned their bold shoes, and I didn't know what I was going to do. 

Failing with my standby Merrill's, I came across 5 for sale on a Skecher ad. I figured that, with the yellow and green trim, they would give me some pizazz. Sadly, no one oohs and aahhs over them. I shall return to these shoes again in a bit, but let us move on for now.

6. After I received pair 5 this year, I saw these on another online special. At their price point, I realized that they wouldn't be great shoes for walking, which my poor feet require, but they could serve me well for a few hours to go out for coffee. In fact, one server raved to Sue about these very shoes, assuming that Sue must be dressing me doing. However, she is not at fault, for all of this is strictly on me. 

7 My favourite old shoes were probably the orange number 1s. When I saw these lululemon beauties on sale, I purchased them for next year. I have worn them only twice this year, very briefly each time.

So that it the story of AC and his remarkable running shoes.

Well, almost. But I must return to pair 5, the Skechers, before we are done here.

Although I haven't loved their looks, I have loved the feel of these Skechers and also how they slip on. I have perused the whole Skecher site and eventually found a spiffy-looking orange pair. They were not on sale, and while I already have the 7 orange pair lined up for next year, I will be very tempted to purchase these orange Skechers if I ever see them discounted.

Meanwhile, winter is coming and I have come to learn that Skechers makes winter boots. My present boots are a pain in the unowhere to lace up, so I may be forced to break down and purchase Skecher boots, but I doubt that they will be on sale as winter draws nigh.

Now  . . . TaDa! back to Jake. Poor Jake.

I have told you that Dog has very poor vision, I think much poorer than his owners thought because he probably was getting around very well in his familiar home territory. But, while he is generally doing well enough here, the poor fellow lost the awareness of the steps when my shoes were on them. Unfortunately, he stepped off the deck just to the left of the steps, hit air, and had quite a tumble. He was shook up for a few minutes and came close to vomiting. I was quite concerned, but fortunately, there seem to be no lingering effects.

Speaking of Jake, Sue tried to make him a warm cover for our colder walks. It was once a Christmas tea cozy, but she hasn't yet figured out a way to fasten it. We all had a laugh, but Shauna is appealing online to see if any of her friends might have a suitable coat for poor, old Jake.

Ghoul Riders

The neighbours across the street have quite a Halloween collection in their yard, some of which I dropped on you last year.

When I went out with Dog to get a pic of the two motorcycles one evening, I was disappointed to find that there was no light on them.

The next day, on yet another dog walky, I thought of trying to shoot them in the daylight and just lowering the exposure in post to make it look like night.

The Original

After Adjusting

I think it worked pretty well.

AI Version

I extracted the subject from the original and asked for the elements that you see in the photo.

To be clear, I did the two edits in reverse order: AI first and my normal edit second. The AI version is impressive and fun, but I like my own plain version quite a lot. It has a different mood.

Maybe I will be able to do something similar with some of the other figures in that yard.

More Bits of Colour

Autumn continues, and I saw photo-worthy bits here and there Saturday, yesterday. I took the first three photos at Riverside Park. Yes, that would be Sue and Jake in the third photo.

This is the trail (the OVRT if you ae familiar with the area) that extends a long way north out of town. It is used by snowmobiles in winter and buggies in other seasons. In fact, two buggies zoomed by me on their way north right after I squeezed this photo.

This ↓ is near the Yard Waste Depot where I dropped off two bags of leaves and clippings on Saturday morning. (Leaf pickup won't occur until November, and we don't want bags hanging around for two more weeks.) The path on the left extends into the St James Woods. I should like to go for a walk there sometime soon.

Scary Staircases

After taking this photo of  a downtown staircase way back in April. I used AI to add the cat, raven and ghost, one by one, designating the locations and telling AI what I wanted in each separate case.. Then, I kept it in my blogger folder for a time closer to Halloween, which is now-ish  

Just recently, I decided to try again with these instructions and not specifying the location of each: put a raven, a black cat and a ghost on this staircase.

Somewhat surprisingly, Gemini chose the same order although it varied the locations. I think it did a much better job with the ghost.

I think that AI, at least as it pertains to photos, has improved quite a lot six months, not so much in results but what we can execute with one command.

And now, when I write that ↑ about the one command, I decide to do something that I have never done before and try to have AI create a whole similar image from scratch.

My instructions: 

Make an image with a dark, narrow, outdoor staircase in black and white with about 16 steps and with brick walls on either side and a covered landing at the top. Put a black cat, a raven and a ghost on the stairs.

That last photo (above) was in ChatGPT because I had used up my Gemini photo for the day, or I think I had. It's a female ghost up there, and the cat and raven are very dark, even after trying to lighten them a bit. So, it is not as good IMO, but the staircase looks pretty authentic and fairly similar to the original.

And so, I keep experimenting with the photo editing and dabbling in AI, just a bit. 

Dog Walking and Sleeping

As instructed, we feed Dog at 7pm  and have been thrusting him out into the backyard at 9 to take care of necessities, and it has worked fairly well although we have had a few incident of barking in the night. However, for the last few nights, I have added a walk after Sue goes to bed. She goes to bed at 9, and I will take him out for maybe twenty minutes sometime within the next hour or two.

Somewhat surprisingly, upon our return, he turns up our driveway without prodding, no matter from which direction we are approaching.

On one dark pilgrimage, I appreciated that the house up the street is really well done up well for Halloween.

Then I came to the house way up on the corner that has a lot of yard decorations, but most are hard to see at night, which does miss the point somewhat. The second guy is huge and has his big, fiery head way up in the trees.

As for Dog, he spends too much time in my chair, with or without me. It's not my fav thing either way. He is with me again right now at 7:40am. Sigh. 

I do like this next photo, however. The light caught him nicely on the couch one afternoon.

We still have almost six weeks to go.

On the Trail Bridge

Yesterday morning, I sat in my chair as usual, and among other things, checked your blog posts as usual. Unusually, I saw that I had completely omitted checking the blogs on the previous day. How does that happen? I worked my way through most of them without skipping too many although it was a relief to come across the occasional recipe post, which I don't read, because the list was long. Some of you have many more readers than I do, and I don't know how you manage to keep up with a big blogroll. But good on ya, I guess.

I actually have a few more photos from our Wednesday walk, all taken on the trail bridge.

I thought that placing Sue against the yellow background tree might make a good photo, but I did have to remove the fence to achieve something close to what I wanted.

You can see the fence in a similar photo that she then took of me. I kept the one with the bench for possible use on Flickr, but I was mostly interested in the closer portraits on that day. (The order, below, is reversed from what I want.)

Here are two photos of what we saw on the bridge, first looking west and then east toward the little back bridge.

I came across this image in one of the blogs that I follow. It's a spitting image of Jake and very timely, except in his case it is not 10 minutes but 7 weeks until his owners return.

We May Need to Succumb

Today in 2022, we turned on the furnace, and if you look at the temperatures inside the red (below), you may understand why we might be succumbing soon this year. (Note: the first day in the image was yesterday. Also note: temps are Fahrenheit to make it easy for our American friends as most Canadians, at least those of a certain vintage, can work both systems.)

It's not zactly balmy, eh? Especially this coming Saturday. Sheesh!

Sue completed and submitted the fourth of her seasonal photos of 2026. They are all taken looking downriver along the Mississippi from the downtown bridge with a larger copy of the recent autumn photo included. She is already thinking about next year's location, which may be from the far bridge that you see in the distance below.

Meanwhile, we did take Jakedog for a little walk on the bridge trail. The day was overcast, but the colour was still worth a look, and Jakey loved that trail.

Speaking of Jake, he woofed me awake at 6 for potty and breakfast. We have to go outside with him in the cold to light the steps because he can’t see in the dark. Same at 9pm for his final bathroom break of the day. He’s been on my lap since then, and it is almost 7am. Six weeks to go. 

Yay or Nay

When I posted this photo last week . . . 

. . . someone suggested that it might look good in black and white.

I did try it, but I thought it looked better when I kept the orange leaves on the stone stairs.

I did keep the awning in its original colour at first,  but I thought it looked better in mono with the text coloured orange to match the leaves.

Yay or Nay?

Addendum

As an afterthought, I asked Gemini to replace the windows with ones without reflections. I think it's an improvement, but you can be the judge of that too, if you like. 

It is little jobs like this that would be a stretch to do manually and it is an example of AI being very useful in quickly doing the grunt work in photo editing, assuming that the grunt work would even be possible.

Thanksgiving Remakes

Sue and both experimented with putting our little Thanksgiving group through AI. You might recall that the original was a street scene. I think Sue just asked for an park in autumn on Chat GPT.

Later, I was more specific with my instructions to Gemini with the photo into which I had composited myself.

Put the people and dog on a woodsy trail in autumn with orange and red leaves in both the trees and on the ground.

In addition to the scene, I was able to specify the dimensions of the photo. I chose 16x9.

We Had Our Little Thanksgiving

Sue was greeted with this message on Monday morning, which added a little extra pleasure to Thanksgiving.

It is genuine too, from the outfit that plows our driveway and has done so for a number of years. 

Later in the day, they dropped the prize off and posted this.

We'll have to see how we will use it. I would certainly like to share some with our university student, Danica, to help stock her fridge, but she will be away again until later in the month, and the gift is tied to our local store.

Meanwhile, there is not too much to report about our little Thanksgiving get-together. We ate, went for a walk, and Jake was fussed over.

Before posting, I decided to add me with a straight manual photoshop manipulation.

I might try to AI us into a nicer scene, but I am going to let it go for the time being and post as it is right now. 

Monday Musings

I have a note on Google Calendar that this is the day that we turned the furnace on in 2020. The 12th is the earliest day since I began to record this event. The latest date is November 01. I don’t know when we will capitulate this year, but it won’t be today.

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On some days before we turn on the furnace, I live on the edge, but it will go up to 17/63 today, and it will be warmer in the house. I have a heated throw for my chair at night, but I haven't had to turn it on for a few nights. We have a little heater for the bathroom to pre-heat for a shower, but I didn't need to use that this morning either.

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Thanksgiving weekend is when many trailer eateries close for the season. It is only five-month season for many, and goes by quickly.

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Danica had reason to message us fairly early on Sunday morning. She is not a notorious sleeper-inner, but I was surprised nonetheless. She explained that she was going to work at her former job here in town, and she explained that she had also done so on Saturday.

I expressed some surprise that she would be working two full shifts on Thanksgiving weekend, but she said that she wouldn't be getting many hours this week at the university bookstore.

I am impressed by her sense of responsibility.

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In an effort to escape the holiday rush, I was off to the grocery store for Thanksgiving provender shortly after 8, yesterday, almost as soon as it opened.

When I was done with the grocery shopping, I thought that it would be nice of me to bring coffee home for milady. Figuring that the drivethrough would be jammed, I decided to pre-order via the handy dandy app.

Wouldn't you know? I had to login again because my phone had done an update, and I would then have to verify that I was me. Once I entered my email, they sent a message with a code. Unfortunately, my email app simply spun and spun. They resent the code, but the spinning continued.

In the event, I drove through, but the line wasn't too lengthy, unlike the previous day when I couldn't even get into the parking lot on a beautiful and busy Saturday when it seemed like everyone was seizing what would possibly be one of the last few nice days, especially on a holiday weekend.

Weather is changing rapidly, and getting out and about soon won't be as appealing.

My main point is that I hate that business of trying to login like that when I am on the fly.

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Dog continues to be dog, which means addled. He continues to want my chair and/or my lap early each morning and late each evening.

He needs to go out at 6am to do what doggies must do, after which he gets his morning dish. That's fine; he doesn't require extra prodding to go out then.

However, for his final outing at 9pm, we must carry him out because he just doesn't wanna. And we have to go out with him, especially at night, not just to carry him out, but to either carry him back in or shine the flashlight on the step so he can find the step in his near blindness.

Anyolehow, here is is with me one morning: the two originals plus a composite to get us both looking at the camera in one image. In case you are wondering, I can do this kind of compositing manually and have been doing so for a long time. All I did was swap my head.

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Tomorrow, I shall probably recount a bit about our family Thanksgiving get-together that will take place this afternoon. I know that you won't exactly be spellbound, but it is part of my life that I record here.

Saturday Pie and Autumn Colour

Saturday was our pie pickup for TG, the proceeds going to youth clubs this year. As is often the case for the TG pies, it was a splendid day.

The route doesn't change, so the photos are not very different year to year. I took these on the way home.

In the afternoon, we took Jake for a walk in the park. Colours across the river were looking pretty good with some reflections.

Sue took one of me walking the crazy dog. However, if we want to go for an exercise outing, we must do it sans dog because walking Jake is a long and interrupted event with copious pauses to sniff along with a prodigious amount of leg-lifting. It is certainly more fun for Jake than for us.