The Vigil

I have already posted one photo of The Vigil by the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets of Carelton Place at the Cenotaph through the night leading to Remembrance Day. I included it in another post of Remembrance because I wanted it to appear on Remembrance Day.

I now have a few others from that extremely cold and windy evening.

The cadets kept vigil in half hour shifts all through the bitter night, bless them. I stayed for maybe 20 minutes and became very chilled.

In some of the photos, you will see candles. There were 94 of them to remember and honour the 94 heroes who fell during conflicts. You can also see the cenotaph in three of the photos, with some detail in the first.

What a tribute!

Thanks You for Our Freedom

Update: Before I get into my intended post below, here is a photo of the Sea Cadets standing vigil at the Cenotaph last night. It was to be an all-nighter with half hour shifts. It was both cold and windy; the flags give testament to the wind. There were 94 lights in the strips that you can partly see in this photo, one for each Carleton Place soldier that has been lost in service.

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War is an awful thing. But sometimes it is necessary to take up arms against someone else who has perpetrated this awful thing. Brave men and women die in such terrible conflicts and deserve our memory and respect.

This year our town, Carleton Place, has hung banners along our main street, Bridge Street, honouring some of the fallen. What a wonderful idea!

This is what they look like, hanging on lampposts.

I photographed each banner save one, which I regret missing, and incorporated some of them into a collage. They couldn't all fit, so I chose the WWII ones to go into the project, but I still had to leave a few WWII banners out of the collage. I chose to tatter the image up a bit with wear marks in post production because it seemed fitting to me to emphasize the passing of time.

For the main photo, I chose what seemed to be the youngest man. 

Here are the ones that didn't fit in my collage but who most certainly deserve recognition.

More BW Photos

My three latest BW photos from the 7 day FB meme, but this time I will describe and comment: here not there.

I don't wear ballcaps, but I wear caps: at least in spring and autumn. I don't have a decent lightweight cap for summer, so I tend to wear my Tilley (lightweight fedora style. Hmmm ... I should photograph the Tilleys sometime because I have a winter one too.). The cap on the bottom left is actually a winter cap because it has earflaps that come down. However, this ruins the look.

I thought the poor lines of the winter cap (poor with the flaps pulled down, at least) was a problem with this particular cap, but I tried on a few other high end caps at an upscale clothing store this week and found the same problem — maybe even worse.

I wear hearing aids and have for almost 20 years. They get better and better but costlier and costlier. I figure I average the cost at $1000 per year and that's with some state assistance thrown in. If you get more than 3 years out of hearing aids, you are doing well, and then you fork out another $3000.

This pair has bluetooth capability, which works pretty well. Almost all of my tv watching is done through bluetooth. The quality of the reception is very good compared to external speakers. These aids have a music mode that I can switch to, and they work well with the telephone. Earlier hearing aids didn't work at all well with phones because they would squeak and squawk whenever I got the phone close to the devices. This pair recognizes the nearness of the phone and goes into a phone mode automatically. I haven't yet tried the phone through bluetooth, but I can hear acceptably otherwise.

I may seem like an Apple guy, yet I resent the company on some level. Perhaps it is because their products are overpriced and have reached almost cult status with the masses. My computer isn't Apple, and I plan to keep it that way.

I was the first in the family to get an iPod back over a decade ago but I guess the last to get an iPad and for sure the last to get an iPhone. I chose an iPhone over Android because I was somewhat familiar with iOS from having a pod and a pad and because Shauna has an iPhone and can help us with our questions ... and has done so.

My Life in Black and White

Well I think I have caught up on your posts, although before I post this, I will most likely be behind once again. For some reason, reading blogs just slips my mind for a few days.

Of course, that partly depends on how much I post, and with late fall here and winter coming on, I will likely not frequently have as much to post about as I have had for some of the past few months.

This year, I have been posting more than in the past few, perhaps because I am less busy with the kids. I don't know.

I have been challenged on FB to post black-white photo that have to do with my life. I am to make no comment, which is hard for me as I tend to think of a photo as opening the door for at least some commentary.

It's to be a 7 day challenge, but I am only three days in. So I will post those three photos below and say nothing although I find it hard to keep shtum as some might say.

I will say that I also put the first photo on Flickr, and people must really relate to morning coffee because Flickr put it on their Explore page, and I then approached 25 000 views before it faded from view. It's not that great a photo, but Explore is as much about whether a photo is interesting in some way, and apparently this was for some people.

An Impromptu Sleepover

We hadn't planned it, but Sha and the kids came over for an impromptu lunch after JJ's hockey game. Impromptu is fun. Its unexpectedness makes it feel like a bonus. And it's also nice that impromptu doesn't, by definition, require any planning.

And that, in turn, led to an impromptu sleepover by Danica. She orchestrated it, and we acquiesced figuring that we might as well enjoy such times before she gets too old and mature for grandma and grandpa.

(BTW I have yet to type impromptu correctly in this post. It's more the typing than the spelling. But of course, I just typed it correctly, just to make a liar out of myself.)

So here are the pics. They are not obligatory for readers to spend time over. You can move along if you wish. (Speaking of which, I have overlooked reading your posts for a few days, so I will try to remedy that soon.)

I don't play many games on the computer or whatnots. But I had gone ahead and downloaded a game app called Wordscapes onto my tablet. When I had been playing the game on the previous evening or two, I had wondered whether she would like it and whether we could play together. Turns out that she did and that we could.

It's a combination word scramble plus a crossword which gives you some clues as to what sort of words you might be looking for in the scramble.

I had been playing on my tablet, but you know how your other devices want to automatically update the same app? Well, when she picked up my phone, she saw it and downloaded it.

Then the little imp managed to drag us out to DQ for a late dessert.

Where she took this selfie. She takes lots of selfies.

After more time with Wordscapes, it was off to bed and storytime.

Next morning there was more Wordscapes — to the point where we were using both devices.

When it was time for me to do something else, I spotted her playing both devices simultaneously.

It was a good time.

Halloween Becomes An Excuse For Lunch Out

We've never been into Halloween as much as many others. Sure, when the kids were little, Sue made nice costumes for them, but that was more or less the extent of it.

I'd go around with the kids when they were young. I never dressed up, but I remember, as an afterthought one year, donning an ape mask and a fake rifle as I headed out the door to accompany my youngest. I sure saw some concerned looks as folks answered their doors for Allyson, Not that I went to the doors, but just hanging back on the sidewalk was enough to cause some consternation on a few countenances.

Those were different times, and I wouldn't think of doing it now.

In fact, living in a townhouse on a longish townhouse block filled, we don't do it at all anymore. Like a pair of grumpy grommets, we shut the door and turn off the lights.

You see, other neighbourhoods dump their kids here to  maximize the haul. At least it seems like that's the case because hundreds of kids come by, many more than than seemingly live in this neighbourhood.

We tried for a few years, but it just didn't seem like fun to us to have hordes of strangers knocking on our door. No sense of neighbourhood there.

But this year, we used Halloween as an excuse to go out for lunch before shutting ourselves in. We went to the new pub, Smith & Barrel, that opened in the refurbished Grand Hotel, which I have mentioned here previously.

As can be the case with restaurants in a smaller town, the room was fairly small. Small restaurants can bother me a bit, as I feel like I am eating in someone else's private dining room rather than a public place. But the few tables were arranged so that I felt as though I had enough personal space at our little table for two.

It was pub fare, but it was pretty high class pub fare — in my opinion which counts for very little in this world. At least it was for Sue who had Buttermilk Chicken, which she absolutely loved. I think she said something like, "Best ever." I had the burger but it was a dang good burger.

Onto the pics, just a few. One does try to be discrete and not intrude photographically on others.

Waiting for our food. You can see a bit of the room behind me.

My burger was yummy.

More of the place, including the ceiling: faux tin, I expect. Or maybe not faux.

We Dun Did It

Yup! We dun did it!

Dun what, AC?

Made it through October without putting the furnace on.

However, at ~2:30 am Nov 01, it went on. That's a partial lie because I set it to come on then. The house temperature was 15.5°C and the furnace is only set to come on at 15°C, so it wouldn't have come on right then.

Don't be aghast because that low temperature in set for night when we are snug under blankies.

During the day in winter, we keep the thermostat ~20°C. I know that isn't zackerly balmy (although it might seem barmy) to some of you, but it works for us.

The irony here is that I woke up ~2:30 after only 3 hours of sleep. And when I say 3 hours, I may be stretching it somewhat.

Why did I wake up so early?

Here's the irony: because I was hot.

The heat was probably due to sumpin I et. That happens to me on occasion. My body heat was certainly not due to the ambient temperature of the house because the house has not been zackerly balmy during the past two days.

So, if you were hot, AC, why didja turn the furnace on? Splain that, eh?

Well Lucy, I did it for my significant other, who barely made it through the last 2 days. Odd that as she tends to run hotter than I. But I think it was just because I dress warmer in the house. Whatevah! I was well bundled, I tell ya.

Anyway, we made it. We dun did it.

Cue the music, for We Are The Champions indeed. My life is just about complete.  😀 😋

And we need never do this foolish thing again!