A Memory and a Chore

Not having an original thought of my own these days, permit me to relate a memory that bubbled to the surface upon reading Cate's most recent post. She wrote about wondering why their young son was not calling them Mom and Dad in the normal and time-honoured fashion. Then she realized that he was attempting to use their first names.

I can only remember our kids doing that once; it was the youngest, Bug, who resorted to our first names in a moment of frustration. My memory informs me that Cuppa and I were doing something or other in the kitchen, and Bug was just outside in the hall, frustrated by the kiddie-gate between us. We weren't paying her much mind, but I recall being dimly aware of Bug calling for alternatively, first Mom and then Dad. After a bit, I was shocked and greatly amused to hear our first names being used. It worked too; she really got our attention.

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Meanwhile, it is time to go shopping — again. I need to pick up a rotisserie chicken for a lasagna that I want to make for company tomorrow. Well, I want to make it today and serve it tomorrow. Lasagna is almost always better the second day anyway. I was supposed to pick it up yesterday when we were shopping, but I am very absent-minded. Cuppa said, "I'll get the bread, and you go over and pick up the chicken." Unfortunately, I got waylaid in the cheese section and completely forgot about the chicken until we got home. With a memory like mine I'll never run out of things to do ... although I may forget what they are.

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What I did remember to do yesterday was to restore a photo for our neighbour. It's her birthday, so this will be a little gift for her. I was able to coax the computer along fairly well yesterday.

Stressing and Savouring

I appreciate your commiseration with my computer woes. Said woes continue. Backing up files, which I haven't done for a while, is even problematic because even that process tends to cause a crash. So, I drag a few at a time to Cuppa's computer, and will put them on an external hard drive from there. I am doing the extra step of loading them onto her computer first because not having to deal with an additional item is one less thing to tax my sadsack machine. It's all very odd because I can usually do things like type this without running into trouble.

We didn't get around to exploring new pathways as I had wished the other day. We returned rather late from ogling Butterfly's shower presents; it was downright nippy by that time, and the shadows were beginning to lengthen, so we stuck to tried and true paths. Nevertheless, Cuppa thought to bring her camera along, and I was able to snap the following picture. It's a little creek right next to the river in the park near our house, and I think it looks pretty fine in this photo. As you can see, I continue to experiment with methods of processing colour into black and white.

Perhaps because I remember the days when it was so cool to advance to colour photography, I am not quite as taken with b&w as many. I probably prefer colour to b&w about 99.9% of the time. But it's still fun to experiment, and I only crashed the computer once while doing that — or maybe it was twice. Sigh. Nevertheless, while the computer causes some angst and stress, I appreciate being able to spend time playing with pixels like this and generally savouring my days, for there looms a time when there will be no more days to savour.

Meanwhile, Butterfly has posted some photos and I know that Cuppa will also do so either today or tomorrow. I know because I uploaded a half dozen for her last night, and they merely await proper and lucid explication. Wow! Did I say that?! lol

Sunday Babbling

I guess, I'll just ramble a bit this morning. I don't really have anything particular on my mind but feel like typing some words anyway. Am I the only one who ever feels that way?

It looks like a nice Sunday out there. It's sunny, and temperatures will be in the mid-teens F this afternoon, so it's time to get out for a walk. Somehow, what we plan to do every day (i.e. go for a walk) doesn't get done on many days. In fact, I think we've been sedentary for three days now although I have worked out once in that time. We have recently heard that there are some walking trails out on the edge of town, so maybe we'll try to find them. The directions weren't terribly clear to me, but I can get to the general area anyway.

What I have been doing is getting very frustrated at/by the computer. It has the tendency to shut down with no advance warning when I am working on it,particularly when I am working with Photoshop. At first, I thought it was a heat issue. I work on a large screen laptop, and, sometimes, laptops do have heat issues. So I forked out money for a cooling pad — a device that has fans to help keep the machine cool. But it's just gotten worse, so it isn't a heat problem. Next, I suppose shall try adding more memory (as Photoshop is very memory-intensive program). Although I should do that (add memory) regardless, I suspect the problem is deeper than that. I do not look forward to taking it in somewhere or reformatting and starting over, but it may come to that.

Meanwhile, I will continue to be somewhat frustrated in my attempts to get things done. While I can usually type and surf the net without too much problem, the things that I shall call work for want of a better word are problematic: work such as restoring a photo for our nice neighbour. It's a school picture of her son but has faded and been splattered over the years. Since it is both her favourite and her son's, I would like to help her/them out.I think I can, but it's really difficult to make headway when the computer keeps crashing. Sometimes I laugh; sometimes I cry; sometimes I bang my head against the wall; one time I may pitch the things out of this second story window — without bothering to open it first!

The women had a baby shower for Butterfly yesterday. Two of her friends and their spouses drove all the way across province from our former hometown to hold it for her. That's sure committed friendship because it's a six hour drive — at speeding best; it was certainly more than six hours for Cuppa and me when we used to make that trip, but, of course, I was greatly impeded by the necessity of making many more pit stop than the young ones are required to. Since I wasn't there at the shower, not anywhere remotely proximate, I won't try to talk about it, but I presume that Cuppa will write about it at some point in time — and possibly post photos (do ya think?). Cuppa had to leave early, so we'll head over to Butterfly's later to properly and thoroughly examine the various gifts. For whatever reason, Cuppa must actually touch something in order to see it, and she didn't get a chance to do that yesterday.

So, that's what I have to say when I don't have anything to say.

Arizona Bling

Well, what blogger doesn't like to make the most out of a bit of a predicament. Of course, that's partly what I did yesterday with the ... er ... em post. However, most of Valentine's Day was actually fine. We had wanted to splurge on a breakfast sandwich at Tims after the procedure; in fact, being mindful of our waistlines lately, we had planned on it as sort of a break-diet breakfast for about a month. But, we got out of the hospital a little too late. However, on the drive home I remembered the Thruway restaurant and was pretty sure we could get breakfast there even though it was close to lunch time. It turns out that we could, and it also turns out that it was very good and satisfying.

Once we got home, I gave Cuppa the card that I had prepared for her featuring the photo below. It was just over a year ago that I took the photo at Monument Valley, Arizona. She has climbed a bit of a ridge to look out over the vast view of monuments (buttes and mesas). Monument Valley was the highlight of our wonderful trip to Arizona. I superimposed the portrait of Cuppa with those earrings which she also purchased somewhere in Arizona. Not one to normally notice such things, I really like
those earring — find them very hot, eh? You should see the heavy metal necklace she's wearing today though. I also notice that!

An ... er ... em ... Day

Some days are pissy; some days are much more literally pissy than others. For me, despite it's tender connotations for many, such was my Valentine's Day. But that was yesterday, and yesterday's gone.

You see, although it's been deucedly cold this winter, at least for the last month, it hasn't been so terribly snowy here. That's good in a way because, yesterday, I was scheduled to get up at the crack of dawn and drive out of town to meet with my friendly urologist. Ah then, does my use of that word begin to grab ahold of you now? You see why I had to use, eh? Good, I'll therefore stop using that word which may be unpleasant to some. From now on, we'll call it an ... er ... em ... day.

But that's also bad because the weatherman decided that yesterday was precisely the appropriate time for a glorious snowfall. Indeed, the weather on the trip was rather ... er ... em ..., for I was forced have to drive in the season's worst snowfall yet. However, although the highway wasn't bare pavement, it wasn't really all that treacherous either although the ... er ... em ... drivers in front of me who were travelling at an astounding ... er ... em ... 50k/30mi per hour must have thought otherwise. Talk about ... er ... em ... drivers! Just ask my roadrunning SIL, I'm not exactly a speed demon, but really now. So, after following these ... er ... em ... drivers for about ten minutes, I decided to pass. No problem: they were simply over-reacting, and I was able to proceed fairly safely and cautiously to meet with my ... er ... em ... doctor on time.

So look, I was only expecting the appointment to take a few minutes for all one is asked is to empty one's interior liquid contents into a computerized container which measures ... er ... em ... flow rate. Easy right? Well, wasn't I surprised when they asked told me to remove my clothes? Then I sat and waited ... waited ... for quite a while before a kindly nurse must have noticed my crossed legs and my tortured expression. Finally was permitted to ... er ... em ... , and, thankfully, nice nurse was so kind as to leave the room for these ... er ... em ... parts of the procedure. But then: "Now, please go back to the waiting room, Mr Cloud, and we'll do it again in a while."

Sigh. After waiting for about another half hour, we repeated the ... er ... em ... procedure, whereupon she said, and I'm not making this up, "The doctor will have to see you next, but he's in surgery and might be another hour. But you can put your clothes back on." Double sigh.

... meanwhile the snow is gently falling and the roads are gently clogging up even more ...

All in all, a ten minute ... er ... em ... job extended into two hours (I know that it should only take ten minutes because I've experienced it before), not counting the extended time that it takes to drive about in inclement weather conditions.

And well, some of you may remember me getting very sick back in October after having a more invasive ... er ... em ... exam performed on my body. Did I say that I was very sick afterwards? Oh yes, I see that I did, here and here. Truth be told, it took about two months before I felt completely well again after that infection. For many nights during that somewhat trying interval, I went through several changes of attire because I'd sweat through as the saying goes.

Well, in a few weeks, the ... er ... em ... doctor wants me to do it all over again, just to clarify things, doncha know?

So you see, Valentine's really was a ... er ... em ... day, very definitely an ... er ... em ... in these here parts.

Leaking Through the Slats

So, just for a change, I thought I'd post some photos today. I mean to say that variety is the spice, eh what? Well, at least the photos are more or less different from post to post.



As I peered out from the bedroom window yesterday, I was quite taken with the streaks of light eking their ways through the fence slats. At first I thought that it would be a good candidate for b&w treatment (above), but I seem to have been wrong as the coloured version (below) looks much better to me. Some people can look at a photo and immediately ascertain how best to present it, but that ability seems to elude me. Anyway, I do like the coloured version.



In case you wondered, yes, those are Christmas lights still hanging from the fence. We're thinking of them as seasonal lights, doncha know. I've posted the original photo below, so you can see where I started. I cropped it because I wanted to emphasize the streaks of light and did the rest because I wanted to make it look better — to me, at least.

Snowy Tree

Last week we sat in the park and drank our Tim's coffee (half hot chocolate, Ben). I had been anxious to take pictures of the gently falling snow, but, alack and alas, it stopped falling just as we were arriving. Both Cuppa and I took snapped a few anyway. When I uploaded them, I realized that we had essentially taken the same three shots. This is one of mine, processed in two ways.