Game 4

Yeah, I know, but seeing photos is really fast, eh?

I did something very different this time, just out of interest. I took my wide angle 15-30 lens instead of my telephoto 70-200 lens. This got me close behind the goal for some different photos.

The puck is entering the net and the referee off to the right is pointing, thus signalling a goal.

The shot ↓ and the celebration, the referee is again signalling goal in the second photo, but off to the left this time.

Moments later, the same player who scored the goal, above, appears to be having a fencing duel with an opponent while the puck rolls around below them. They probably both swiped at the puck and missed, and the raised sticks were from their follow-through rather than the clash it seems to be.

Finally, a photo of our goalie ready to make a save, but he wasn't overworked as our lads dominated the game. Still, the score was a respectable 3-1.

That is the quick take of game 4. Beware! There's another game coming up soon. Aren't you glad that I don't go to the away games?

It Was How Hot?

Saturday night, time change night, I decided to stay up longer than usual. I generally trundle off to bed around 10:30, but I already get up so early, that I determined to stay up longer and, thus, get up later. I have been arising at 5-5:30, and I didn’t want to get up a whole hour earlier on the standard time clock. It worked out well enough, for I was able to stay in bed until the new 5:30, praise be.

As usual, I did waken several times during the night to pay my respects to the porcelain bowl. If I recall correctly, one time was at 2:30. I realized that my watch would have computed for the time change by then, so I began to think that it was really1:30, old time. As I mulled it over in my twilight state, I realized that it really would have been 3:30 DST. That made me feel a bit better, for it meant that I had slept for the best part of four hours by then. I thought I would be able to get some more sleep to get me nearer my preferred six hours, and it worked,

It’s only an hour change, but my wee brain does have difficulty computing how that hour works. For example: Sue keeps adjusting the timer in the living room for the light to come on when it is dark. I suggested that she wait until after the time change. She said that it would come on whenever it got dark. I argued strenuously that it didn’t work that way. As I later cogitated upon this assertion, I realized that she was correct. Why does this confuse me so much?

On the same Saturday night, via Alexa, I had noticed that it was 20 degrees outside (or 68 in that other system). How weird for the temperature to be 20C at 10pm on November 05 — in Canada of all places! That is simply crazy.

Also, when I did get up for that 2:30 trip to the loo, I noticed that Sue had no covers on and was on her back. I deduced that the lady was having a hot night.

She confirmed my supposition when she got up the next morning, for she had endured a rough night. Aside from the heat, she had been awakened by a howling wind. She couldn’t stand the noise, so, despite the heat, she got up to shut the window. After awhile, she opened it, but then it poured, so she got up to shut it again. When I arose at the new 5:30, the window was cracked open, and I could see that it had rained. 

During the night, I had been oblivious to both the wind and rain. Every so often, it works in my favour to be so hearing impaired.

But Sue hears everything, especially when she is already struggling to sleep in the heat that she was feeling  By then it was only 16C/61F degrees out, which is not exactly torrid, but she was feeling the heat anyway. Sometimes I wonder if the lady might spontaneously combust.

Addendum: The next day Sue heard music. She investigated. It was the ice cream truck — on November 06.

It Does Not Begin with an S

I visited my urologist last week because I am an old man with stupid problems. However, this is not about that but about the difference in my medical practitioners' methodologies.

My former and now retired guy would have had a bulging folder on his desk containing documents of all of our past dealings. I am not sure that he ever looked at it, but there it would sit. During the consultation, he would jot quick notes on the cover of the file folder. Indeed, the cover of my folder became rather full of his jottings. At the end of our lovely time together, before he spoke a few parting words, he would have me remain sitting there while he relayed his findings into a recorder for the transcriber. I have never heard anyone speak so quickly, with all of his utterances running together in a stream of what seemed to be one very long word. He assured me that the transcriber could understand him.

The new doc had only a very neat one-page printout from the the interim urologist that I had seen in the meantime between the former doc and the new one. At least, I presume that's what it was, but there may have contained other information too. Whatever was on it, I could see that it included a graph. He wrote neat, little notes right on the page. I don't know where it went from there. Did he update my file on the computer as soon as I left, or did that page get passed along to a secretary? Either is possible.

I was quite taken with the contrast from the old to the new. I never saw the former guy with a computer, but that was the other thing on new guy's desk aside from the slim, one-page printout and, definitely, no bulging folder documenting all of my past visits and procedures.

Aside: his desk was high, and he must have had his chair elevated to full height to be level with it. As I sat opposite, the desk was about level with my chest. Too funny: I felt like a munchkin, barely able to get my elbows up onto the surface. I wish I could have walked out with a picture to show Sue.

One thing that I will tell you in passing is that I have learned to spell cystoscopy, and it does not begin with an S.

Game 3: Internecine Warfare

Game 3 was a meeting of the two town teams. Our guys were designated as the visitors, so they got to wear their dark, away uniforms. That was a nice change for for me since I don't travel to the away games. 

The game was fast and furious, seemingly more so than usual, because I expect that each town team desperately wanted to prove themselves better than the other. Hence the title: Internecine Warfare, using the first definition below, with thanks to Merriam-Webster. Watching British tv can enhance one's vocabulary, for I learned the word on A Touch of Frost, many years ago.

The speed made the photography challenging, but the other challenge was the haze in the air. Apparently, spectators didn't notice, but I could see it when I peered through the lens.

In one of my first photos of the game, the boys lined up nicely for the camera and mostly facing it.

If possible, I must include at least one JJ pic per post. Here he is leading the chase after the puck which has disappeared from the scene.

Two very focused faces ↓ watching the play, plus raised sticks.

Gotta move that puck up the ice, away from danger.

I think the goalie's stretch makes this my favourite image of the game.

While there is officially no bodychecking at this level, the games are fast and furious. There is jostling and pushing, and there are collisions, sometimes verging on intentional. Players seem to be instructed to stay down on the ice when they feel they may have been injured. The other players then retreat to near their respective benches, and the trainer comes out. Both teams tap their sticks when the injured player gets up and skates to the bench. I have never seen an injured player not get up and skate off under his own power.

That was the last play of the game. Although there was just over a minute remaining on the game clock, their allotted ice time of one hour had expired. The result couldn't have been better in my opinion. for the game ended with the two town teams sharing a 2-2 draw.

Morning Habits and Greetings

 After morning computer time, which among other things may include uploading a photo to Flickr and very often either writing or editing a blog post, I eventually get around to a little bit of braining. I start with Sudoku, first a hard level game and then a medium difficulty one. You would think that I would begin with the medium to warm my brain up, but I am not prone to doing things in the usual and sensible way. I do make the medium one harder by not permitting myself to use notations. I leave every cell blank until the final number goes in. 

It may take me up to 20 minutes, and sometimes, more, to complete a hard game and fewer than 10 minutes to finish a medium-level game. My average time is 18:12 for hard and 9:45 for medium. I don't play either Easy or Expert levels. Expert just takes way too much time.

Golly gee wiz, I got sidetracked again. I mainly want to tell you that after computer time and Sudoku, only then do I turn to Wordle. I leave it until the end because I know that I will want to communicate my results to the family, and I allow them to at least wake up, with Sue excepted sometimes.

Recently, my little posts have been turning into morning greetings, perhaps with a bit of news. This ↓ was from yesterday.

No one really responds. Well, I understand that Sha is very busy at work. The kids are at or on their way to school, and they really don't care about a farting, old grampa's doings anyway although Danica needed some clarification on the McDs yesterday. I was speaking of our friends, the McDonalds whom we meet at McDonalds', but Danica was wondering if I meant the cousins, whose name also begins with a McD.

Sue doesn't respond because she is lost in her own headspace, usually trying to figure out her daily photo prompt. Besides, we do talk on rare occasions, and the message is meant mostly for Sha.

On most days, Sha will eventually share her own Wordle score, sometimes with comment and sometimes not.

Tastes, Dilemmas, and Free Will

We had Sha and the kids over for Monday supper. I baked chicken in a sauce of hoisin, hickory bbq sauce, lemon juice, gingerroot, and a bit of chili powder. We served it with rice and corn. It's a pretty good dish.

But the kids didn't think so.

They have unique taste buds, they do.

They scraped the sauce off the chicken and didn't care for the rice.

Then, JJ didn't want the lemony coffee cake for dessert. At least Danica did. JJ seldom eats desserts unless it's brownies. He doesn't care for chocolate bars or the like, but he does like his Skittles. Danica loves ice cream, but JJ cares not for it.

The Christmas and Thanksgiving feasts are almost pointless. The kids don't prefer either stuffing or gravy, but I have loved the turkey feast for as long as I can remember, and even farther back apparently—  to the point where I am told that I called the stuffing, turkey. 

Danica will have a salad without any dressing whatsoever. I pretty well need it to be smothered in order to make it semi palatable.

The kids don't like pop, but I always loved it, even though it was seldom available at our house.

They like raw carrots, as does Sue, but I only eat carrots that are roasted to the point where they no longer taste like carrots.

It's pretty much like all of life. Nobody can help what they look like, whom they were born to, what their intelligence happens to be, or what talents and abilities they have . . . or lack. Me? I like to sing, but I am not very good at it. Especially now in older age. What a pity, especially for Sue's ears as this atheist belts with fervour the gospel songs from his youth.

Although I had no clue that I would get around to free will in this post, but you also can't help what ancillary thoughts creep into your brain. But I tell you that people don't have the free will that they think they have. There's a whole lot of programming that we didn't choose. In point of fact, there's not much that wasn't pre-programmed, even what we prefer in a mate.

But back to the dilemma of what do we cook for family dinner? Second child is coming for a visit in a few weeks and likes my meat loaf. First child doesn't. I don't know about the kids because I don't cook meat loaf for family dinners because of Shauna, but I am guessing the kids won't like it either.

Shauna also doesn't like ham while Sue doesn't care for pork chops. It's hard to pig out at our house. (See what I did there?)

Meanwhile, Sue can only get me to eat cauliflower when she coats it with mayo so that cheese will stick to it while she bakes and then broils it.

Now I reminded that I bought some hot dogs. JJ will eat those. Sue won't. I must bbq them whilst the weather remains favourable. (Note: we had snow on this date last year.)

Did I tell you that I like fat? I am happy with a piece of roast beef with some fat attached. Just about everyone I know gags at the thought and trims their meat assiduously. Relatedly, I love turkey skin when it comes out of the oven. There's so much flavour there. Once again, I am pretty well on my own although memory informs me that Sue's sister likes it too. She's the only other person of my acquaintance, I think.

And life goes on. No wonder I am eternally perplexed and confused.

A Dramatic Conversion

I hadn't ever considered converting an autumn photo into b&w. Autumn is all about colour, after all. But I am willing to consider new ideas and learn. When I came across a YT vid of someone doing just that, I decided to give it a whirl.

This was the original. You have seen it before but in cropped form that time.

The object, as I learned it from the tutorial, was to turn it into a dramatic and contrasty b&w, and I think I achieved that.

I don't think I would apply this technique to just any autumn image, but if you think about it, there was a lot more than just fall colour in this one. In this case, I think the conversion worked, and I also think it is a much better edit and image than the original.

You might also notice that I removed a certain object as part of the edit. You can't always control what is in outdoor photos, but you can remove them in post. Most photographers give themselves permission to do this to some extent. Adding objects , however, tends to be frowned upon although I have once or twice added birds into the sky, just as a trial and for fun. I don't think I would ever print such an image, but you never know for sure.

Speaking of printing, I am not doing any of that these days. I hope to do so again someday, but my printer remains, at least partly, on the fritz. I definitely need a new one, but pickings have been slim to none in the supply chain for the past few years. I also think I need a new computer before that.

Since the café closed, I have only sold one or two at my other venue at Sue's hairdresser. Considering my inability to print and, therefore, update my display, I have asked the proprietor if he would consider raffling them or some such for a good cause. So, my six remaining prints are going to a silent auction for a very good cause.

I may print again someday, and almost definitely will for my own pleasure, but for now, I am happy to have done that and been noticed, received compliments, and made a few sales.