Phone Surprises and Not Suprises

Sometimes I find surprises on my phone. While I am getting used to Danica putting silly photos on my screen, I was surprised to see that Jonathan has joined the party after our weekly family supper last night.

This next one isn't a surprise because I took it quite deliberately yesterday. I may have taken a similar shot previously, but here it is along with what I posted on FB.

Because it's a long and arduous trek only to be undertaken by the best and bravest.

We have had some fab sunsets lately, but with their earlier times, I have missed them as we seem to be finishing supper and the tv program that usually goes with it. Last evening, however, I had a little more time, and it looked like there was a gap on the horizon for another display. But when I looked again, the whole sky was cloud covered. Just in case it changed again, I headed to the park without much hope.

Well, the cloud didn't lift at all, so I didn't even bother taking out my camera. But I did ambulate about the park, enjoying the cool, calm and relative solitude. In time, I did take out the phone for a few shots.

This one I took as an experiment for a proper shot at another time. In addition to getting a more level photo (definitely!), I might put my tripod right in the water to eliminate some of the distracting foreground clutter. While it is a good principal to include a foreground element, this is just clutter. Or I might choose another composition entirely. (Note the cloud cover in passing.)

One more for this post. I sat on a bench for a bit, and one lonely leaf begged to have its photo taken, Autumn is coming on now, folks.

I made other discoveries on the phone, some that I knew about and others that I had just plain forgotten. Stay tuned. Unless I forget, of course, which is a rather distinct possibility.

Foggy Brain and Light Trails

These pictures were taken before my last few posts, even before the Back to School photos from a week ago.

Somehow, they slipped my mind, or what is left of it. I seem to suffer from Foggy Brain syndrome.

But I was reminded when I posted the Light Up The Night. "Oh wait a second, Brain, what about the other light trail photo? Are you there, Brain? Brain?"

There is a park n ride near an overpass on the highway, so I drove over just to see if there might be a sunset to catch. Well, yes and no. Yes, there was a sunset of sorts, but no, it wasn't a very exciting vantage point.

I mean, it was worth trying, but they aren't exactly portfolio shots.

Oh, wait a minute: AC does not have a portfolio.

Well, then I turned my attention to the highway. Although I guess I had missed the heavier traffic returning from cottage country after Labour Day weekend, I was able to get enough of it in the photo. They are the white lights. Beyond the white lights are the red lights cars exiting the highway on the off ramp. On the near side are the tail lights (fewer in number) of cars travelling westward, away from the city.

I deliberately placed the farm in the background as a point of interest although perhaps it distracts from the main point of the photo.

Hotties and Light Trails

It's early morning, well still early-ish enough. Even though the days are warming up nicely, the nights are getting a tad chilly, or at least sometimes they are. Like last night. And still this morning.

Jonathan is on his iphone under the covers.

I am in sweats with the hoodie pulled up.

Sue is in her flimsy nightie, looking happier than she has in months (slight exaggeration).

I am married to a hot woman. Enough said.

=================

Meanwhile, we took JJ to the Light Up The Night walk at the labyrinth last night. Many of the kids wore glo-sticks or had other lighted devices. So, I took some long exposures to try to capture the light trails of the kids walking.

It was difficult to see on the back of the camera whether I was actually picking up the trails much, but once I got the pictures onto the computer and ramped up the exposure, they turned out well enough.

When I couldn't really see the trails on the back of the camera, I had JJ play with my bright headlamp, and I had no trouble seeing that on the camera screen.

The dark, blank spots in the middle of the light trail in some of the photos, like this first photo for example, is Jonathan.

We set the headlamp for intermittent flashing for the next photo.

It looks like there is an ogre's head at the top the the red swirl in the next photo (with JJ's head below it), but it's the background light which you can see in the photo after that.

I'm glad they turned out as well as they did and at least better than what I saw on the LCD screen.

Breakfast, Thingies, and Thumpings in the Night

JJ is having a sleepover, but as Sue slept in late this morning (after a tough night for her -- more below), I took him out for breakfast at McDonalds. I don't think he had eaten a sausage mcmuffin (with egg) before, and he was quite impressed. And this, in turn, impresses me because he is not a foodie and kind of a picky eater.

This is the phone shot that I posted on FB when I checked in because I know that everybody wants to know what I am doing for breakfast. Or at least his grandmother and parents might want to know what Jonathan is doing for breakfast.

But what I really mean to post about is the generational difference between the kids and us oldies when it comes to ordering at McDonalds. Sue and I go to the counter where we give our order to a real person. Always.

But not the kids. When we took Danica there awhile ago, she made a beeline for the self-ordering machiney thingie. This morning JJ did exactly the same thing. Buppa (that's me, or that is I if you prefer) acquiesced, and together, we made our way through the dang offerings. Ordering in person, to a person, would have been easier IMHO.

Speaking of thingies, having used the word above,  last evening I asked Sue if she had put her thing on her thing. Or maybe I said thingie, but it doesn't matter.

For some strange reason, my question perplexed her. It took me awhile to translate what I meant. I was asking her if she had attached her pop-socket (which she had just bought) to her iphone. For the life of me, I can't begin to fathom why she couldn't deduce my meaning from your thingie on your thingie but the poor lady's mind ain't what it used to be.

I'm sure glad I don't have those mental problems.

So, I said I would get back to Sue's rough night.

She was awoken at about 12:30 by a prodigious thumping on the bed. She thought that it might be JJ roaming, but he was sound asleep in his own bed. She returned to bed, and there was another big thump -- right on the bed once again. Her heart began to thump, and her adrenaline began to pump.

Eventually, she discovered that it was me. My legs were periodically banging about in no uncertain terms. Apparently, the top of me was deep in restful slumber while my legs were banging about in no uncertain terms.

It had taken her about a half hour to figure out what was going on, and I probably kept at it for about an hour -- not constantly, you understand, just periodically. Then it took her another two hours to calm back down enough to get back to sleep.

Which is why she slept in this morning and why Jonathan and I went out to breakfast by ourselves after we had already been up for about two hours waiting for the lady to stir ... which she didn't.

Old Photos

Posting has been a bit light here lately, although not completely forgotten. I've been doing some photo for the community recently, photographing some and restoring others, and then there was my somewhat busy birthday last week plus Danica inviting herself over for yet another sleepover. Likely, more about the birthday and perhaps even about the community project later.

But Sue has also had her mind on a family related project lately, so in addition to doing some prose editing for her, I've also done some scanning. And, of course, I can't scan an old photo without at least a little bit of restoration as well. I mean, most old photos have not been carefully preserved and have spots or scratches at the very least.

This one ↓ needed hardly any work, however: a hand tinted photo of her dad before he went off to war. He enlisted in 1942, so I assume that the photo dates from then. I don't know how they colourized these photos in those days. I have done it once using Photoshop -- just because -- and I have no burning desire to do it again.

That photo ↑ had been kept in a frame, and although there had been some warping, it was in good condition otherwise.

The rest, however, had been stuffed into albums or envelopes and weren't in the best of condition. And they were snapshots to begin with, so they needed some TLC from me. But what a treasure to have.

I suspect that both of the next photos ↓ were taken in 1942 or 43. The first looks to be taken while her father was on furlough from Army training, the camp not being too far away from Toronto. Once he was shipped overseas, in 1943 I believe, he was there for the duration, until late 1945. The second photo was taken near the time of their engagement.

The family in the mid fifties, probably 1957: sisters Deborah and Heather in the foreground; mother and Sue in the middle; with Dad and brother, Larry, in the back.

Another picture of Larry which looks to be taken in the same place on the same day. He was going through his rebel Elvis stage.

Back to School

Well,, the kids started school again yesterday. Going into grade 4, JJ is once again attending the same school as Danica, but Danica will move on again next year. Their first school went from JK to Gr3, and this one goes from 4 to 6. But I think the next school goes from 7 through 12, so they will be together for quite a few years again when the tome comes.

For the first day, we went to their house from some pictures and hair styling.

Danica watched the process with her iPhone. And probably took a few selfies. Probably more than a few, actually.

Meanwhile, I took JJ out back for a few photos, and then Danica joined him.

Then, a few on the front stoop before heading over to the step-house.

At the step-house, we took some photos with their two step-sisters.

Finally, off we went to the bus stop. This is the 8th year for Danica of taking a getting-on-the-bus photo and the 6th for Jonathan. I suspect that this will be the last bus photo for Danica as she will be travelling earlier on the high school bus next year, and family hovering might not be seen to be cool.

The bus photos are always a quick hit-and-miss affair, especially since this is a busy stop. Then I missed the disembarking afternoon photos because it was a different stop and we wren't exactly in the right place.

No Words, Wrong Words, Frustrations, and Belly Laughs

As we progress through this experience of being seniors, we are experiencing both frustrations and laughs.

You see, it's frustrating to spew out the wrong word and even more frustrating to not find the word at all. The former tends to happen to Sue and the latter to me. For example, I was trying to tell friends about meeting someone they knew at Balderson, but danged if I could come up with the name at the time: "The town over there (pointing vaguely westward). Near um um Perth. Where they make cheese. Or used to make cheese. And they have stores there."

Sue, however, doesn't fumble much for words but just tends to throw in the wrong ones willy nilly, which she doesn't usually realize until she gets some strange looks coming back at her.

She was recently telling some friends or I should say trying to tell some friends about the haunted tours that they do at the cemetery come Halloween. Except, instead of cemetery, it came out seminary. Well, the mental pictures I got of touring a haunted seminary led me to much mirth. So much so, that weeks later, I can still recall that moment at a time when I am at a point in my life when recalling just about anything becomes a victory of sorts.

Then, when Danica was looking at my birthday card from Allyson and Alycia from out west, Sue told her that it was from Auntie Heather and Auntie Alycia. Danica had a time puzzling that out because Auntie Heather is Sue's sister and lives in Toronto while Auntie Alycia is our daughter-in-law who lives in Vancouver. How in the world they would somehow combine to send one birthday card was indeed a profound puzzlement for the child.

Now, this next example isn't quite the same thing, but it does involve lack of clarity in what one says or at least in how one says it. And it did result in the belly laugh of the title for this piece.

Picture the three us — Sue, me and Danica — sitting in the coffee shop after enjoying a light breakfast. We are talking about exercise classes. Yoga is mentioned because Dani is signed up for Yoga this fall. From there the conversation shifts to Zumba for some reason. But the belly laugh comes when Sue decides to tell us how beneficial belly dancing is, not that she knows this from personal experience.

In the course of her thesis, she says something like: "And all you wear is a coloured sash around your waist."

Now, I knew what she meant, but I looked up to see a rather strange look on Danica's face as she tried to process the information: "All you wear?"

Which is what led to the belly laugh as I made the most of Sue's faux pas. I am not exaggerating, when I say belly laugh as I got to the point where my stomach was almost hurting. Somehow, being in the coffee shop seemed to make it all the funnier, and another round or even two ensued.

Laughs like that are quite wonderful. Too bad they come along so seldom. And too bad they come as a result of atrophying brains.