Spring, Easter and Selfie

This week I have been noticing that the morning sun was reaching the corner of my monitor. It has doing so for a few days, but yesterday I picked up the iphone and took a photo. In the photo, the light is just reaching the top right corner. Of course, this will change quickly now as at our latitude, we are getting about 3 minutes more sunlight per day.

You likely recall me saying that to me, this lighting of the monitor is the beginning of spring. Likewise, its leaving marks the end of autumn.

Just a little while later, when I hopped onto FB, a memory awaited me.

I had done the same thing on the same date, last year. The patch of light was a bit bigger last year, probably because the monitor was in a slightly different orientation because the sun would almost have be in the same spot, although it can vary by a day or so.

Of course, I hadn't remembered having taken that photo in 2020, for I forget about most things that I post almost immediately after posting. Someone may LIKE a FB post, and I will have to go back to recall what it was.

The weather has been grand for three days: sunny with the gale force winds abating to just plain winds. This was quite wonderful on Easter Sunday, for we were able to have a short visit with Sha and the kids on the back deck.

Sue had moved closer to JJ for the photo but moved back right after

We don't use our backyard much because we back onto a busy road. There is a fair bit of space between us and the road, but it is still noisy. More importantly however, the yard bakes in the afternoon summer sun. In point of fact, we were almost too hot on that April weekend.

Despite the heat, Lacey still wanted out.

We keep the poor thing inside, away from ticks and fleas and possible gaps in the fence. We wouldn't want to take the chance of a poor, declawed puss being out on her own.

Finally for now, I came across some information about using the portrait mode on an iphone. I had thought that this application would require an iphone12, but it works well on my 10.

This ↑ was a selfie in portrait mode, and that is what came directly from the phone without further editing. I did do one thing: cropped it to 8x10 format, which is a good ratio for portraits.

It is amazing what the phone can do. There's quite a lot of computing power in a phone, and Apple has done a good job in exploiting the capabilities.

If you need help with this, I am sure that you can find a quick tutorial if you are using a later edition of the iphone.

Blossoms and Other Things

Life is good, or mostly good, but I do have a mini gripe coming up . . . later though.

A big plus was the weather yesterday and even for the past few days. Yesterday was bright and not too windy, so we headed out for a morning stroll along the trail.

Wow! At a time when I have seen no obvious signs of spring springing, we did see that one tree had blossomed.

It was along the trail, and there were many branches, but most were not isolated from each other. High up, I could see some single branches. Fortunately, I had my long lens, so I pointed way up against the bright blue sky and squeezed the shutter. 

They were two different branches, and I am not sure which photo I like best, and it doesn't matter. The photos aren't stellar, but under the circumstances, I am pleased with the outcomes.

I also took another long telephoto, looking across the river. I like how it turned out. It is muted yet also vibrant along the bottom.

I also like this log and its reflection, along with many other reflections adding texture.

While we waited for traffic to decongest over the footbridge, I photographed one of the pigeons than hang out under the overpass. 

This leads to my gripe and it ain't about pigeons.

The people on the bridge, never moved on. There were three ladies with their three tots. The tots were having fun, and the ladies were enjoying their chat. They didn't move and weren't about to. I guess we could have donned our masks and braved going past, but they weren't masked, so protection would have been minimal. We would have had to pass by too close for comfort in these times.

So, we turned and walked the other way. I caught this photo of Sue through the branches of a bush. I seldom focus manually because auto focus almost always does it better than my old eyes. But to get the focus on Sue and not on the branches, I chose to focus manually this time, and it worked out.

It had been awhile, so we ambled back to the footbridge. Guess what? The group was still there, clogging up the works. This was at least 20 minutes later. We turned around again and headed home muttering something something about inconsiderate people.

Covidiots and Lockdowns

I know that I have already written a recent COVID post and that everyone is weary of the pandemic, but this particular link has me going and shows why we do need lockdowns. You don't even need to click it because the headline ↓ tells is all that we need to know.

Can you imagine being so intent on partying in spite of the temporary restraining rules that you are willing to risk a $1550 fine? Then you go back a second night to try again!

It's too bad that we need laws to save people from themselves, but, apparently, we do.

We use lockdowns to try to keep control of the total numbers which have recently been escalating, for we need to keep some space in hospitals and their emergency departments in particular. Aside from the crowding issue, in a publically funded system everyone's behaviour matters to everyone else. If a person incurs unnecessary health expenses, I am, therefore, helping to pay for it, at least to some small degree.

We really shouldn't have to be forced into lockdown to behave properly. For a whole year, we have known what precautions to take, so much so that I won't even bother to insult you by reiterating them here.

I know a fellow who has three fast food restaurants with a total of 400 employees. Following sensible practices, they have not experienced one single case. It can be done.

There are folk, often the medical community, who believe that the present lockdown needs to be stricter. On the other hand, we have those who are furious about having any restrictions whatsoever. Personally, I am also kind of miffed but not so much that we have lockdowns. No, what grinds my gears is that we need to have lockdowns: lockdowns that ought to be avoidable.

In this household, we will continue to follow the careful measures that no one has to tell us to follow.

Naked Dreams

Have you ever dreamed that you were naked in public. This ↓ tweet stirred memories.

In my whole lifetime, I can only recall two such dreams.

One was back in my childhood. I had caught the bus (city, not school) to take home after school. I don't know why because I always walked home. In the dream, I found myself sitting in my seat, naked, in a crowded bus. It was not a happy dream.

Decades later, I dreamed that I was walking naked in the main hall of the school where I taught. There were all sorts of students in the corridor, and I was naked and mortified.

The odd part is that in both dreams, as I recall them, no one seemed to notice. I don't know what this means or if I should be insulted that no one noticed my glorious body.

Have you experienced naked dreams? Do you want to share, maybe in your own blog if it is too long to post in a comment here?

A Problem With Vision

As I have said previously and probably more than once, I tend to be an overall impression sort of guy, and frequently tend to not notice details. This is a general condition of mine, but at times I really become aware of this predilection when it comes to photography, and I often need a nudge to spot the difficulty.

Some days ago on Blogger, I posted this photo of Sue on the footbridge.

It is by no means an outstanding photo, but it has fences, so I decided to also post it on Flickr's HFF — Happy Photo Friday.

At the same time, I decided to convert to b&w because, as you know, I like doing that, particularly on portraits, so that's what I did. This ↓ is the result, which I thought was ok.

I uploaded both versions to Flickr.

One of my more photographically astute Flickr contacts saw that the focus came away Sue a little bit in the converted photo and that the leading line of the railing didn't work as well.

By gosh and by golly, he was right, at least to some degree. I do find my eyes pulled more to the  the background trees, I suppose because they are more contrasty.

I don't know why I can't see these things on my own. I suppose that I get too focused on one thing, which would be the general tonality in this case, that I overlook other things.

I also suppose that, in addition to my propensity to miss details, it is also partly a lack of experience with this type of photo.

The question is whether I will learn from this and be able to apply it to other photos on my own. 

Snow and COVID Updates

We lucked out this week. Twice, we were warned of possible snowstorms. Twice, we cleared the garage so that we could put the car back in (we have been leaving it out for awhile now), and twice, the snow didn't happen. Twice, we were pleased.

In the photo, if you squint, you can see just a faint hint of white in the crevices in the shingles (inside the red box), but nowhere else. We are not disappointed, and I don't see any snow at all predicted in the next 14 days.

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Onto the COVID sections, which I am afraid are not as joyous (for Canadians) although there is some good news.

With rising total numbers and also many variant cases, the province of Ontario is going back into a 28-day lockdown. Said lockdown is not as severely restrictive as the name implies, and I can't even be bothered to figure out the exact implications because the lockdown won't change my current life one iota.

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A few months back, when we compared how Canadian provinces were faring compared to American states with regard to COVID cases, nearly all provinces were happily (from my point of view) below nearly all American states.

The picture is no longer as favourable. Both Saskatchewan and British Columbia currently place right after the 25th ranked state, which is Virginia.

Ontario slots in next after #27, Idaho and Alberta after 28th, Ohio.

That leaves almost half of the American states in better shape than four Canadian provinces. Add Quebec which comes shortly after, and we have almost 78% of Canada's total population worse off than almost half of the American states.

On the other hand, both Canada's Eastern provinces and northerly territories still come in at the very bottom under #51 Arkansas.

Click here to see the whole chart.

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Vaccinations continue to be problematic at present. Canada's supply (federally sourced) is still too limited but so is the delivery which is a provincial matter. On Wednesday, our province vaccinated 84,060 people. This is not good enough in a province of 14.5 million.

In total there have been only 2.8m injections or less than 20% of the province's population and mostly just single doses. (Canada Vaccination Tracker Link)

Although the supply in Canada is inadequate, the province must also do a better job at delivering the vaccines to people. Last I checked, Ontario still had >600 000 vaccines on hand but not yet delivered.

The good news, is that there are scads coming. The less than good news is that the biggest bulk will not arrive until June or afterward.

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There is, however, good news on the world front. 

Differently than previously thought, vaccines may actually be delivering close to 100% immunity. This article quotes CDC sources.

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Latest data reveals that, at least for Pfizer, immunity might be good for 6 months after the second dose. (We did not always know this, and we hope it will even get better.) It also protects against the South African variant. USA Today

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Vaccines, or at least some of them, are proving to be safe for children over the age of 12. The Guardian

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Finally, for your amusement or amazement or both, here is a Tucker Carlson gem. After explaining to FOX News viewers, that Canada is the country to the north, he reveals that Canada has an internment policy [sic] for returning air travellers who have a negative COVID test. In actual fact, the internment which so vexes the man is for three days in a hotel. I have set the starting point of the clip to his Canada diatribe if you feel the need to watch his idiocy. The internment portions lasts for about 2 minutes.

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Late Addition

When I wrote above that I didn't really know what the present lockdown (or grey zone) entailed, well somebody made this image with our premier front and centre and certain cabinet members behind.

Have a good day and weekend.

Little Things

I felt a tap on my toe. I raised my head, expecting me to see Sue and wondering what the problem might be. Unless there is a problem, Sue wouldn't bother me during my very brief afternoon siesta. 

Typically, I recline in my chair for possibly a half hour, probably only nodding off for about 10 minutes and often less if at all. I am pretty sure that I had been off in the land of nod for only a few minutes when I felt the tap.

Oh my goodness! It wasn't Sue but a masked Danica standing at the foot of my recliner. I soon learned that she had biked over after school just to pay the ancient ones a little visit.

She removed her mask once we were sitting appropriately distanced in the living room. There we chatted amiably for about a half hour.

What a treat!

I  often think that it is the little things that enhance a life: probably more than the, supposed, big things. I think I wrote of this recently in another post.

That was on Monday afternoon. Then, yesterday morning, our doctor to took the time to call us to make sure that we knew we were eligible to apply for the vaccine.

As you already know, we were aware, but we appreciated that little gesture of care and concern.

Little things.