A Day Late

I wasn't going to do the eclipse at all, and then when I did watch it, I wasn't going to post about it. But after reading all of your posts yesterday, I decided to join the fray. It's just that I am a day late, and now no one cares. In effect, this is my life story.

I had shot the 2021 eclipse, and well, if you've seen one I figure you've seen them all. Unless, it is total, but it wasn't here.

June 10 2021

Besides, I was disorganized this time around and didn't have glasses, and since cameras can also be damaged, I wasn't all that keen on exposing mine again.

But that morning, a neighbour brought two glasses over, so we did peek out the back a few times, and it was nice to see. Sue used the two glasses for her potd. The theme was sidelight.

I still didn't take any pictures of the event on this occasion, but we did try to take a selfie. It was hilarious. I was holding the phone and also trying to look up ↑ when Sue jabbed the the shutter.

Who are these foolish people?

After awhile, I convinced her to use her watch to take the photo once I was aligned.

Not looking silly this time.

Now, that's better.

Hydro and Toques, Eh?

I know that I have addressed Canadian English a bit in the past, but when I clocked into YouTube, this video came up as a suggestion. It compares our English to American English and finds very little difference. However, there are slight variations.

In less than 8 minutes, this teacher describes a few of the differences. He will describe how we say our O's a bit differently before mentioning our predilection for saying Eh, and the two ways in which we use it. He will then mention how we spell a few words differently and that we have some unique words, like tuque/toque.

Indeed, I can't easily discern much difference between my accent and how many Americans speak. Of course, there are some distinct regional variations down there that do stand out whereas we tend to speak a with a pretty uniform accent up here.

One thing though, we do not say oot or aboot for out or about. Eh?

A Sue Shoot

My latest outing with Sue was not primarily for her potd but for a little fun with her sister. They would send each other a dancing sort of photo from across the miles. On a most lovely spring day, we headed to the pond.

We photographed her with the colourful umbrella . . . 

. . .  and without.

We took a more static photo ↓ by the bridge that was just off to the right of this ↑ setting.

Then a closeup.

I did try a few double exposures but with limited success. I guess this ↓ was the best one resulting from two quick clicks as Sue pirouetted. I think that a slower shutter speed would have worked better, but it's okay.

That ↑ was in-camera, but later I decided to try for a multiple exposure effect by merging three images in Photoshop. I used the soft light blending mode to add the two side images to the first one, and that resulted in a fairly nice blending. Then, I applied a wee touch of the motion blur filer.

I rather like the result.

Afterward, it being such a fine day, we went walkies. A mile is about as far as I will go because it takes me and my cane more than a half hour to hobble that far, but it was good to be out. I wore my in-between winter-spring jacket, the red-black one, and I was actually a little too warm on this lovely day.

Thinking Back

When I read Vicky's blog, which among other things, mentioned that very few undergrads now choose English as the major, I saw that I had stumbled across a blog topic pour moi.

No, I didn't choose English as my major, but I come very close to wishing that I had.

I did choose geography because I liked it and did well with it.

While I took a few English courses, I didn't opt for many. That was partly because I didn't have timetable room and partly because I didn't do quite as well in English. I didn't do badly, but I could likely pull off an A in geography but only a B in English.

When I got to College of Ed, I circled English as my teachable minor, but because of my lack of courses, when the English instructor interviewed me, she steered me toward the elementary option.

I never taught elementary school, but I did teach some high school English. Eventually.

It turned out that I loved teaching English and always seemed to be competent at it. In point of fact, I probably received more positive feedback from students and even parents in those years than I did for geography. Teaching English just seemed to suit me even though I was not certified in the subject.

I only taught English for six years before I found myself, through my own and possibly misguided choices, teaching geography exclusively again. 

While I wouldn't actually say that I regret how my career went, I think that I would have liked it even more if I had both taken and taught more English courses.

But that is in retrospect. I didn't really know it back when I made the decisions that I did.

Miffed

Yesterday, I remembered a comment from Ed from a month or so ago. I didn't actually remember the exact comment, but I remembered the general idea. It had to do with checking a box to enable Blogger comments on the iPhone or iPad. Why it took a month for it to recirculate in my brain, I cannot say. What I can say is that my brain, or lack of same, operates in mysterious ways.

I did not go back to the comment (perhaps I should), but I did do a search. I found that if you turn on a certain switch that I should be able to comment.

So, I did and it worked.

This morning I got all comfy womfy in my chair, to read your blogs. Would you believe that I can't comment today?

So, I won't even bother to tell you exactly what I did because it ultimately didn't work for me.

I use Chrome as my browser, so I tried the Apple browser (forget its name right now), but it didn't work either.

To say the least, I am miffed.

Why are some things so hard?

Blowin a Hoolie

The winds came, then the rain, and finally the snow, but the winds never ceased.

It was picture time, but we had to be quick because the winds were significant with gusts up to 50k/30mi.

This poor man had to turn around at the park entrance because between the wind and the active dog, he could barley keep his balance. I'm glad that he left because I am not sure if we would have been able to help him up.

We didn't venture even that far in the gale. We stayed nearer the entrance. Sue took her potd photo, and I squeezed off a few quick snaps.

I scooted back to the car but decided to hop back out to take a very short video clip to try to capture the sound of the wind.

Sue photographed me taking the video.

This storm was on April 04. We had out last storm of last year one day later on April 05. There could have been some additional light snowfalls last April, but I can't recall. This ↓ was a photo from the day after that storm, April 06 23, last year. It's a photo that I like.

I wonder if we're done yet with winter, snow and hoolies.

Windy Photoshoot

Sue had a prompt having to do with a movie scene. A local church had a kind of round tower. I guess the round part is actually a turret on top of a square tower.  She thought she might be able to work it into something to do with the theme. Spoiler Alert: she couldn't and went in another direction for her potd.

However, I used the opportunity to take some shots that I hadn't before. So here we go, all in monochrome.

We parked on a back street. We could see the tower from there, so the shooting began.

We crossed the street. I could see the tower over the garage. I have always liked this garage and have taken one or two photos in the past.

Continuing along the left side of the garage, I liked the porch at the back of the house to the right, above.

We crossed over to the property to get a closer look. The house was occupied by a lawyer, one with whom we had done business in the past. We thought he had moved across the street, and indeed the move is in the works.

It seemed like there were still files of some sort in the window.

I moseyed along, but Sue was taking more pictures when the lawyer came out wanting to know what we were up too. Sue engaged him nicely, but I didn't feel like coddling an old, rich man guarding his property. I understood, but I wasn't in the mood to make nice. Sue is always nice.

I walked along the side of the church.

When I got to the front, I took a few more photos.

I think this qualifies as a tower and turret, but I am willing to be corrected.

By the way this had been St Andrews Presbyterian Church for a hundred years or so. It is now an All Nations Church, whatever that might entail.

The church fronts on the main street. We had originally thought to continue walking up the street, but the wind was so ferocious that we turned tail after making a few purchases in the shop next to the church.

This took place on Tuesday. The wind was even worse yesterday, so after grocery shopping, I stomped my feet and refused to go walkies. By afternoon, rain was pelting against my den window. By evening, snow was covering the window. Early this morning, at 6am, we have a light covering of snow with, perhaps, more on the way..

I swear this happens every April, and sometimes even late in the month. This pleases no one.