Capitulation

When we returned from getting our flu shots at noon yesterday, I capitulated and turned the furnace on. The indoor temperature had gone down to 15.5C/60F, and even Sue, who is one hot chick, was cold. There have been night frosts, and the first snow fell on Sunday night. So, twelve hours short of winning the Great October Furnace Challenge, I threw in the towel and did not match 2019, when we made it for that one extra day.

Aside from me and Sue, even Sha and the kids had been chilly when they came over for family dinner on Monday evening, and they are not chilly types of folk. Then there is Lacey, le chat to be considered, for cannot put on a sweater or pull up a blanket. 

From the long range forecast, I knew as much as a week ago that the last three days of October would be difficult, with temperatures dropping below the freezing point overnight and ascending not very much above during the day. 

For the most part we did well until the last few days but with the indoor temperature staying around the mid-sixties, but when it dropped even lower it was getting tough. It is one thing to spend a few hours at 60F, but it is quite another to continue at that low temperature with no breaks.

On this rabbit rabbit first morning of November, old AC is feeling toasty and warm and not too defeated.

Happy Halloween

The neighbour across the street erected a rather impressive 20' (I think) skeleton. The skull and rib cage light up, and I decided that it was very photo-worthy.

The lights flicker, so I took a number of photos to make sure of capturing them in their 'on' state. Then I took a brighter exposure so we could see a bit of the skeleton in addition to the lights. I blended the two photos together in Photoshop, and I think we have an effective result.

As usual, we shall be grinches tonight as we turn out the lights on those darn trick-or-treaters. Our street gets flooded with hordes of kids on Halloween, who don't even live here. One year, after running out of treats although we had purchased hundreds, we gave up. It wasn't a great loss as Halloween had never been a huge deal for us.

It is the night, sometimes the first one of the season, that we make sure to put the car in the garage. It is not that we live in a community that is overrun by abominable delinquents, but it doesn't hurt to err on the side of caution on this night. This year, it is the third night of putting the car in the garage because we had our first snow on Sunday night.

Mill Walk

Come Saturday morning, it seemed bright-ish and warm-ish; Sue suggested that we drive up to the Mill of Kintail for a little walk. Maybe we would see some colour, as we had at our Riverside Park on the previous day.

By the time we arrived, however, it was no longer bright, and we observed that there wasn't much colour either. Only a few little trees and bushes held any colour at all, like this one at the beginning of the path that we took.

Or like this plucky little bush in the gloom with the Indian River behind.

In general, however, we were heading into November bleakness, my least favourite month of the year.

Sue's red scarf helped.

This was a vertical panorama shot that I made with the phone.
I tried this with my camera but Lightroom couldn't stitch them together later.
Yay iPhone software!

After we reached the mill, we turned back toward the car by taking the broader path, The sun peeked out, but by the time I raised my camera, it checked out again. Somehow, I still like the subdued photo. Soon, even the leafy carpet will be colourless, but on this day, it was still pleasing to behold.

Finally, the sun shone for us, but I still prefer the dull photo above to the next one.

On the way home, we decided to divert to Tim's for coffee and a bagel, which we took to the park and consumed in the car, as is our custom.

Before I hit publish, please permit me to exhibit my narcissism by posting two photos that Sue took of me on our walk: the first at the start of our walk, and the second when the sun made one of its brief appearances.

The Last Autumn Park Visit?

After yet another rainy few days, the skies cleared enough to induce Sue and me to take a stroll in Riverside park. There is a very good chance that it will be our final walk, at least with any autumn colour to see. We used our phones to record our outing. While we were both taking park photos, Sue did take this one of me.

Concentrating on what would probably be my final colour photos of the season, I didn't take any people photos. The fourth photo in this series is of the tree that I showed you a few weeks ago when it was a combination of green and orange. Now, only some orange remains.

Then I switched over to pano crop (16:9) mode, but in edit, I even created a even more extreme crop.

We weren't there long, but whatever sun there had been was pretty much gone by the time we left.

Finally, I am reminded of an autumn photo (the grass is green, and there are a few leaves on the trees) with me and my dad. He was born on this day in 1912 and lived until 1999. It was possibly taken on his birthday in 1947, and I would have been almost two months old. It was a b&w photo which photoshop colorized for me.

Caturday 55: Lacey Begins Her Winter Adaptations

We can debate when winter begins. In astronomical terms, the dratted cold season begins when the sun reaches Capricorn near December 21st. However, for us here in the Great White North, in real meteorological terms, we consider it to start around December 01.

But Lacey is already embracing the changing weather, or at least adapting to it. In summer there is no good reason for her to seek the sun on our bed, but suddenly, we find her there on a regular basis.

And then, there is Sue's lap. It had been months since Lacey last visited during lunchtime tv session. We wondered if she had forgotten or had decided that she no longer adored Sue.

Suddenly, she has returned to the lap of luxury, as it were.

We think that Sue's white sweater may be a trigger, and she's just started using it again.

But who is to know the mind of an inscrutable cat in any season?

Two Nights, Three Mugs, and Thankfulness

As has been the case recently, I obtained most of my sleep here, in/on my chair on the two nights in the title.

I began both nights in bed, but I switched to the chair after more than an hour on the first night and much sooner on the second night. At least I got some sleep in bed on night one before my arm/shoulder pain induced me to seek a better spot. On night two, the pulsing pain prevented sleep almost from the outset. I don't know why it was worse then.

On the first night, I slept for seven hours or more and didn't waken until just after seven o'clock. On night two, I made coffee at 3:30 after about only four hours of sleep. I can't explain the difference. although the indoor temperature was warmer on the second night. But really, 19.5C/67F is not exactly torrid and sweat-inducing.

My routine tends to alter when I awaken so early. On the first, late-rising morning, I only had one cuppa coffee, but on the second I consumed three cups (not full mugs) — all by 6:30, as it turned out.

On morning one, I had a light breakfast around 9 o'clock, but on the second morning, I had indulged myself by making a breakfast sandwich by about 6AM.

Breakfast by the computer at 6:06

But I was thankful, especially after night two: thankful for my chair and whatever magic it possesses, for as soon as I switched to the chair from the bed, my pulsing shoulder pain went away to wherever it goes. So, as few as the sleep hours there were, at least they were not painful ones.

I don't know where we're headed with the shoulder issue. I continue to await contact from the hospital for an x-ray and ultrasound. It's a busy, little town hospital, and my issue isn't exactly an emergency. So, we wait.

Miscellaneous Photos on a Rainy Day

I was driving to the library in the light rain when I pulled over. There is a row of trees between the road and a ditch that caught my eye, as it has done before. I had always driven past, but on this Wednesday, I stopped. I wouldn't have bothered with my Canon, at least not in that weather, but my little phone was handy, so I decided to give it a try. It would only take a minute or two. I clicked, and that was that, for this wasn't the day for photos.

But it's not too bad, eh, with leaves both on the trees and on the ground.

At the library, I thought it would be cute to photograph an orange car under the orange trees. But something about the photo bugs me. (Bug, as in VW Beetle, get it? 😜)

And then I took another photo of the trees beyond the orange car. The cars behind were gathered for the church's Wednesday, free lunch. One church provides a free breakfast every week while this one (that you can't really see in the picture) does a lunch.

By this time, I had caught the spirit and was ready to show you more photos on the way home. I drove to the little, back bridge and found an interesting yellow tree. I had photographed this tree last winter, and it was a pretty good photo — better than these, but I am just showing you around at this point. Of course, that is our unMighty 😎😁 Mississippi river in the second photo.

I made one more photostop at a vacant lot behind a gas station.

Finally (phew!), I turned the camera (phone) to the left from the above photo to capture the little road that leads down to the river, just around that bend in the distance. I didn't follow it on this day, although I have done so before.

So, there you have it: seven photos from AC just driving around town on a rainy, autumn day. As you have seen, some nice colour remains, but most of it will not last very much longer. Too bad, so sad.