Keeping it Real

We weren't more then 10 minutes into a new-for-us tv series — one of the somewhat older US police shows that we had missed when it was current. I pressed pause, looked at Sue, and said, "You know what is wrong with this?"

Of course she knew. The young female cop in charge was about 30 and gorgeous. While it is pretty problematic that any cop would rise to the top at that age, it is even more unlikely that she would also be a knockout.

According to this article, Why Americans Love British TV, one thing that Americans love about British tv is that the characters looks like real people.

Vera is a senior police detective who looks like she has paid her dues. Her character is believable. 

And doesn't Inspector Ellis also look like she could actually be an experienced detective?

It's true about the men too. Neither Lewis nor Hathaway were exactly heartthrobs, and they probably look better in the poster than they did in the show.

The actors mostly look like us, like real people playing pretty realistic roles. I am not even going to talk about plots and scripts except to say that the Brits don't usually treat the viewers like children but like adults with brains.

British seasons are short, much too short. We are left wanting more. American seasons are long. I often find myself thinking enough is enough.

Of course I am painting with too broad a broad brush, and there is decent American programming, but I think you know what I mean and likely concur to at least some degree.

Weekend in the Park

When we walk the park on the weekend, we witness more activity than on weekdays. For one thing, there are always a number of people fishing. I take pictures of them, but I never like them, so I discard them in the bin of my forgetfulness.

On a nice day, there are water activities, often including dogs. While I binned one of a man walking his dog, both of them right in the river, I do have this ↓ one of a dog on a SUP, and this wasn't the only pooch getting such a ride on a warm, sunny day.

The lady stood up a moment later, and off they paddled.

Can you tell that the dog ↑ is wearing a lifejacket? When they embarked close to us just near the foreground, I saw that the dog's lifejacket had a handle on top, just like a suitcase. If the mutt were to fall overboard, it could fairly easily be hauled back on board by gripping the handle.

Many people consume, um, comestibles in the park, but a couple just off to the right of the above photo really had it figured out. And here they are.

They took their chairs, devices, dog and even wine right down the embankment and passed the time almost obscured from view. They were really living their best lives on that day.

The Frisbee Event

Yesterday, we came across a border collie chasing and catching a frisbee in the park. Using a phone in telephoto mode is definitely not the best instrument to catch a dog jumping and catching a frisbee, but I got one okay-ish result after many ill-timed efforts.

When I got home, I cropped and eliminated distractions. While the action and distance renders the subject is a  little bit fuzzy, I am happy enough with the outcome.

I did take a couple more photos, and I decided to incorporate two others with the catch, above, into one composite.

Both the event and the edit were fun.

A MIssed Selfie

It happens once or twice a week from both kids, but it is coming to an end for one grandkid.

Danica is booking the month off before heading back to uni in September, but she will be living there this year and not commuting. In the interim, there is a vacation to take with mom and JJ, and her apartment/room to get ready for the fall semester at Carlton U in Ottawa, so she won’t be working this month. 

The baby is leaving home and us.

sniff

I did get her to work, but she wasn't a happy camper because she had forgotten several things, including her lunch for a long shift.

I said that I would came back and take her to Tims for lunch. We used to take the kids there every now and then when they were little and we were the daycarers. So, it has been awhile, but it was nice to reprise one more time.

Sue and I picked her up at 3 and just drove the very short distance to Tims.

That evening Danica posted this.

Yes, a homeless (I don't think that is right word anymore) man asked us if we had money for a sandwich. I don’t carry much cash, but I was willing to buy him a sandwich. I said so and headed to the cashier with app in hand. He was specific and requested beef and cheese. I asked if he would also like a coffee.

"Yes please: large 2 creams and 2 sugars."

I placed the order and paid with my app. It came to $10 something. I went back to the table while he waited for the order to be processed.  

With the interruption, we didn't think to get around to the selfie.

Darn. 

One Chicory Bloom: Three Takes

I'd seen photos of chicory recently and also seen chicory in the distance as we have been  driving around, but when we passed the abandoned building by the little back bridge, there were blooms aplenty. I didn't spend much time with them, but I did snap a few of one flower that I could capture on its own.

I used portrait mode to give me the blurry background. We call that bokeh. Bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur in out-of-focus areas of an image. It is created using a wide aperture lens, commonly producing soft, pleasing circles of light. (Mr Google)

An even slightly blurrier background might be preferrable, but that was as far as portrait mode would take me. I switched to normal mode which would really show the background detail, but then  I managed to soften it well in edit, proving that you can sometimes fake with software what otherwise might require a high quality lens on an expensive camera. While it might not be good enough for a pro photographer, it is good enough for me in this phone stage of my photography.

I did take another photo in portrait mode when the wind kicked up a bit. With some selective editing of the background detail, I like the result well enough to post here if not on an actual photo site, such as Flickr.

As she often does, Sue had caught me in the act of shooting these photos.

The Credit Card Mixup Again

Almost two weeks ago, I posted of The $343.17 Mishap. I will try to do a very condensed recap and then post the follow up.

I made the error of paying my Visa bill to the wrong account: an account that was effectively dead, and yet, somehow, wasn’t. With no actual credit card, we had no way to access the surplus. It required two long telephone calls and one long todo at the bank, to have TD send us an actual credit card which we would use until we had effectively recovered all of the money.  

That was than, and it all seemed settled when we received a mailing form TD that obviously contained a card.

When we opened it, there was a problem. It was a debit card, not a credit card.

What?! We don’t have a bank account with them. What is there to debit? Then, I thought that it might be a pre-loaded card with our funds. That was not the case. It was a card to nothing since we have no accounts.

Furthermore, the accompanying letter said to use our existing PIN.

For one thing, we had no account to PIN to, and for another, whatever PIN that we had more than two decades past was totally erased from our memories.

Back to the bank went Susie and Johnny, hoping to find the same teller who had worked through our silly situation once already..

Nope: not working that day. Let me tell you that it was extremely confusing for two confused seniors to explain a confusing situation to an also confused new teller.

After a lot of going over and over it, she finally understood and suggested that the easiest solution was for us to close the account and be issued a cheque.

To accomplish this, she had to call the institution which passed her around from pillar to post and all of the way back again with many a “Not my department,” response.

Eventually, and I do mean eventually, we were told that it would all be done. Our account was now closed, and a cheque  would come to us in three weeks.

UPDATE

I wrote that two days ago.

Would you believe the credit card came in the mail yesterday. 

If we had waited, we could have begun spending the balance. It was that debit card that threw us. Why would they send us a debit card when we had no bank account and no password? It remains a puzzle.

So . . . there’s nothing to do but wait for the cheque. If it doesn’t come in due course, we have the physical credit card just in case it is still active and the funds are still in there. 

The situation remains bizarre.

Orphan Photos 6: Riverwood

After posting yesterday of our recent day trip to see Brain and the lavender, I remembered that I had put aside some old photos of Riverwood some time ago and just left them there awaiting a propitious moment. Riverwood, by the way, is what we called Brian's place back in the day because it has 130 mostly forested acres with a river running along the eastern property line.

I will just post them in the order that they appear in the folder.

Sue took this of me in 2016, roaming around with my Canon. Unless stated, all of these photos are from 2016.

Way back in 2011, I crawled up the ladder to the top level on the old barn (not the red barn that you saw yesterday). I am pretty sure that I re-edited it at some point a few years later and stashed it in the folder until now.

A panorama stitch of probably three images from as long ago as 2005 but re-edited more recently with more modern software. That long ago, we would sometimes sleep in that yellow tent down by the river (far left).

The house (I often call it a cottage) as we began to drive down the driveway. It has been re-sided blue now, but I didn't think to take a recent picture.

Inside, the living room was cozy at night. It also looks different 10 years later.

One evening, Brian and I shot the stars. I think I posted a number of such photos at the time but not this one, and I thought it was worthy of posting too.

A favourite picture of mine of Sue and Heather with Heather tossing spent milkweed remains at Sue.

This building was once a planer mill back in the days when they logged this area. When Brian refurbished it, he named after us with the planer becoming playner to suit our names. It was protectively screened from the insects, but those screens have fallen into disrepair now that the clan no longer gathers there. It makes me a bit sad.

This is the fence line in autumn. The road runs parallel to the fence off to the right. All of the trees in the distance are part of the property.

I posted many Riverwood photos over the years and probably most of these at some time, but having just revisited the place, I thought to share them again now before deleting them from that particular folder.