Raising a Little Cane

You know you're getting old when a new cane arrives from Amazon, and you're all excited. Tail waggin, the whole bit.

Alright alright, I exaggerate a teensy weensy bit. I wasn't that excited, and I'm not that old. What I am is injured and what I need is an operation to address this injury. With hospitals overcrowded and overworked in this odious third phase, I figure that I'll still be in the waiting line come this time next year. Sigh.

The old cane had a small handle that was further shortened by a notch on the end. Since I am using the cane more and more, I decided that it would behoove me to look online for something more suitable. And, Oh Happy Day! this is more suitable.

I don't absolutely require a cane. I'm not even sure how much it helps, but if it relieves even a little bit of pressure, I'm down with it. It also serves as a sort of signal to others, that the old coot is shuffling along for a reason, so don't get antsy about having to hold up for a bit.

So, I'll smile and limp along, cane in hand.

As for the vaccination, I've got no side effects at all to report. I suppose that the injection spot is a wee bit sore to the touch, but I have enough bodily concerns already that I really don't notice one more little one.

It bears repeating that I will have to wait for 4 months for the second dose. Since this country doesn't have a bottomless supply as yet, the thinking is that it is better to get one injection into many people than two injections into some people. At least this is my understanding.

Also, for those worried about having only 6 months of immunity after the second shot, I think you can stop worrying. My money is on that being the verified time at this point when all is new. I do expect that the length will increase as they continue to study the effectiveness. This is all just a hunch and only a hunch on my part.

Finally, this is our bench selfie from the same day and location as the above photos: I with my COVID beard and she with her COVID hair. Actually, the beard is fairly new in its present form and is not from the commencement of the pandemic. Imagine how thick it would be had I begun growing it last March rather than just earlier this year. I don't know where I am going with this. I am just letting nature takes its course for now. It can be trimmed in almost a moment if I decide to terminate the experiment.

The person behind always looks like they are half-sized in photos like this.

Synchronous Days

Eighteen years ago from yesterday, my mother departed these shores.

Eighteen years later, her son received his COVID vaccine in a bid to help extend his life on these shores.

The synchronicity of these events will likely mean that I will remember both dates forever, or at least for as long as I retain my mental faculties.

Likewise, Sue will receive her jab next week on another auspicious day — the fourteenth anniversary of Danica's first breath.

How about that for double synchronicity?

My time slot was set for 6:21pm with the instruction that I was to arrive 10-15 minutes early but only 10-15 minutes early.

The clinic was very efficiently run. After first check-in outside (photo below), I was required to clear two additional desks where similar questions were asked to verify me and my appointment.

I was soon seated to await the jab. It didn't take long. A nurse wheeled her cart over to me, asked me some some similar questions and explained a little more about the procedure.

She had settled on my right side but moved over when, in response to her question, I requested that the jab go into the left arm. It turned out that I was actually jabbed a minute or two before the scheduled time. Such efficiency. 

She looked at the clock, calculated fifteen minutes, wrote my departure time on a piece of paper, and left it with me. I was instructed to leave the paper on the chair when I left so they would know to wipe it down.

There was one more stop on the way out where I was given a my little certificate, really more of a data sheet, indicating my Pfizer dose with the lot number etc. We also confirmed my next appointment in four months time.

Within a half hour of entry, I was on my way back to Sue who was waiting in the car.

To say the least, it was a very efficiently organized clinic. Also to say the least, I am dread chuffed to have this done.

In addition to receiving my shot on the anniversary of my mother's death, I was jabbed on the very day that Canada's caseload rate exceeded that of the USA for the first time. To me this is both synchronous and serendipitous. 

Sadly, it was also the day that Ontario's schools were shut down until further notice. Poor Danica will have to pass her second consecutive birthday without friends to help her celebrate.

Went

The weather has finally returned to more typical April fare, but we've had two rather lengthy warm spells, much more May-like than April-like. It was greatly appreciated while it lasted.

Under Sue's direction, we got ourselves out to do a bit of garden work on both days this past weekend — not for long on either morning. Basically, we raked up lingering leaves and debris. As light as the work was, I am afraid that I must report that I found it to be quite a slog. Where oh where did my energy go?

I am thinking of how about 25 years ago, it was like I woke up one morning and decided that I needed to plant a perennial garden. It was rather odd because I had never been interested in gardening and knew nothing about flowers. I did purchase a helpful book or three and took an unhelpful course at the community college. To be fair, said course may have been helpful if I had not already read up on the subject.

Back then, I removed sod and double dug, at least for the first part of the garden. By double digging I mean that after digging up the topsoil, I then removed a layer of the hard clay in the subsoil. I amended both layers with bags of good soil: triple mix, if memory serves.

The point that I am getting to in my roundabout way is that twenty-five years ago, I did all of this without much a problem.

This year, I found myself dragging around with effort. Just doing light raking for maybe an hour was a real drag. I felt very sluggish on both mornings.

My get-and-go has done got up and went. If I knew whence it went, I might go and retrieve it. Then again, perhaps not, because it it were anywhere beyond arm's reach, I probably wouldn't be able to summon up the energy to snatch my energy back.

Creepy Effect

I have another ghostly series for your viewing pleasure.

After using the bush for the first series back here, I used the shadows of the branches on the fence for a second series.

I followed the same approach, taking two photos, one of just the shadows and one including me. 

First the shadows.

Now, lil ole me.

The blend. This time I layered me behind the plain fence to try put me in the fence, so to speak. I wanted to have branches and fence at least partially over me.

Judging by the angle of my face, those are two different pic of me. I inadvertently trashed one. I also eschewed the demonic eye effect this time settling for just plain creepy.

Another Little Trail Walk

We have one more day to enjoy this fabulous weather before it reverts to more typical April fare, which will, apparently, involve rain. 

To make the most of the weather, we ventured on another little tromp along the trail. Once more we got held up by a gathering on the boardwalk, so we will avoid boardwalks until pandemic conditions subside. 

The province went into a deeper lockdown this week after a mild imposition the previous week, but cases are still soaring, mostly from the British variant if I understand correctly. The government is making emergency plans to deal with congestion in the hospitals. Hopefully, as inoculations ramp up, we will begin to see a lessening in the near future. I will be relieved to get my jab on Monday.

Back to our little walk.

We pulled off the trail and into the bush to distance ourselves from one little group. Happily, a duck came along to keep us company.

Later, we took a few selfies on our bench.

I took a few video clips along the way and thought a few of you might like to see and hear some of what we saw and heard. I have smooshed them into one 22 second clip. The first section captures the honking of a goose; the second shows nothing but brush but in an area where birdsong was prevalent. Finally, there is the view and sound of the water from the bench where we sometimes sit (as above).

Photographic Experimentation

For a few weeks I had been noticing how the neighbours light affected our bare lilac bush in the dark, just lighting it a little bit.

It gave me an idea for a photo experiment, but I had to wait for a night that wasn't too cold or windy. It was particularly important that it not be windy as I would likely be doing long exposures in the dark, and I didn't need branches moving, although now that I think on it, that might have added another dimension.

The howling winds were finally quiet one night on Easter weekend. Although it was still quite chilly, I wanted to do my experiment before the lilac bush leafed out, so out I went. Thinking about it now, the lower part of the bush that I used in the photo will likely not leaf out anyway.

While that photo ↑ is alright, it is not the vision but just the beginning of it.

My next step was to insert myself into the same scene without moving the camera which was on a tripod. I set the timer on a 10 second delay to give myself time to insert myself into the frame.

I was going a creepy look, and while I think I succeeded, that was still not the final image that I had in mind. As it turns out, I like it ↑ better than the final image ↓ which is coming up next, but let's keep the story going anyway, shall we?

The concept was to layer the above two photos into a new composite so that I could fade the one with me in an attempt to make it look a little ghostlike. I hadn't intended to add the red eyes, but I did so at the last minute. I guess it makes it look more demonic than ghostlike.

Of course, they are dark and creepy, especially the composite, but that was the intent, and as usual, they look somewhat better on the larger and uncompressed version on my computer. As you know, if you click on the image, you will see it somewhat larger although still not in full resolution. I do not upload high res images to my blogs.

It was a fun experiment, both in camera and in the digital darkroom (aka Photoshop). It was still quite nippy that night, so I didn't want to linger outside for too very long, but before returning to the house, I did do another little series. I will likely post that set soon, maybe tomorrow.

The First Meetup

In the midst of another glorious and early warm spell that will continue through to Sunday, we seized the opportunity to convene our first park meetup of the year.

Of course I took a few photos and will insist on showing them in a bit, but I'd like to begin earlier in the day.

At this time last year, it seems to be that the pond was often full of waterfowl, but everytime we go by this year, it is almost completely empty. I decided to go out earlier than usual on my own while Sue was still doing things around the house. Except for a solitary goose, it was still empty. I did take a picture of His Solitarianiss (I made up the word) because I was there and so was s/he.

Cropped a lot even at full zoom

Later in the morning, Her Specialness and moi went for a little walk on the trail. It is terribly messy and brambly beside the trail and hardly a comely and photogenic woodland. There are shapes and reflections in the spring ponds that look interesting, but there is so much distracting mess that pictures don't turn out well. I took the time to eliminate some distractions in post in this one because I like it otherwise.

Onto the afternoon meetup which I mentioned at the outset.

On a glorious day, this is the scene that greeted us as we exited the car: looking upriver along our lovely Mississippi, which for new readers is NOT THAT Mississippi.

We set up our chairs and waited for our friends to arrive.

Once they arrived, we sat and chatted for almost two hours.

We have today through Sunday to continue to enjoy this unseasonal interlude before we revert to more typical April weather with cooler temperatures and plenty of rain in the forecast next week.