AC's Buying Spree and Sue's Pantyhose Lessons

I was seized by a virus this week – the shopping virus! It came on suddenly and unexpectantly. 

I don't know what came over me, but I ordered these items, and behold! they were delivered unto me: a toque (hat), shoes and socks.

The socks are ski socks. I do not ski. The shoes are runner, but I runneth not. The hat is of the type that I do not habitually don upon my pate.

So, what gives?

First I clicked on a FB link for Smartwool. I wondered if they had long socks. Eventually, I drilled down to a pair of ski socks, and lo I didst purchase them

You see, due to some neuropathy (I don't know, but that is what I am calling it), I have cold spots on my shins. So it is that I like to keep them covered in winter, even in the house under long pants. I have some long socks, but the best ones are getting very old, and I have had a deuce of a time finding good new ones. 

So it was that I opted to spend a small fortune on these socks.

From a different site, Merrill, I purchase running shoes. I get email from Merrill and constantly check their shoes, looking for something colourful. As you know, I don't run. As you also know, even walking can be problematic. But running shoes are comfortable for my miserable feet, and over the past five years or so, I have grown to like a splashy look on my tootsies.

So there you have it: ski socks for a non-skier and runners for a non-runner. I didn't really need new shoes at the moment, but I will need a new pair for next year, and the sale price and the look were right for me, so I purchased them now.

The hat was a throw-in. To get free shipping on the shoes, I needed to spend a few extra bucks, so I ended up with the toque. Even though I don't wear them often because I favour my jaunty caps, they're good to wear when I am clearing snow or some such, I have had a heckuva problem finding toques that don't want to eject themselves from my head (see link at the bottom), and I think that this toque will do the trick.

Isn't it all just so awesome‽

Just another word about the socks before I leave you in peace. It's just that Sue has been giving me lessons in how to put them on. I gotta tell ya, that I have managed to don my socks up until now in my long life, so why do I need lessons?

Let me splain. They are a very tight fit, and ole AC has trouble getting them on straight. So Dear Sue has been giving me lessons from her pantyhose days.

What she tells me to do is to roll the tops right down to the foot part and to get my foot in and aligned before I begin to roll the socks up to past my calves.

I am still working on my technique, and I think I am getting it. Who knew that I would someday use a lady's pantyhose technique to get myself dressed?

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A post from last winter about my toque attempting to dislodge itself from my head.

My first two pairs of colourful shoes. There has been one more red pair since then.

Macros from the Trail

I took my macro lens along the Riverwalk Trail. I was hoping for a bit of autumn colour, but we didn't find much unless you count, these two poor leaves that were on the railing of one of the footbridges.

Shadows elsewhere on another railing.

There were bushes of blue berries, but I don't think they were blueberries if you know what I mean. They don't grow like that around here. Let me know if I am wrong.

Gardens abut the trail in a few spots. I liked these yellow seed pods overhanging the fence.

Light catching a few leaves out of the shadowy background. I think this final photo is my fave of the walk, but the competition wasn't that stiff yesterday. :-)

This is Sue's photo of me taking the first photo in the post of the two leaves on the railing.

Silhouette Mission Accomplished

Following the advice of friend Nick, Sue and I went down to the park at golden hour, hoping for silhouettes in the backlight.

However, for the most part, we just managed golden light, and there's nothing wrong with that.

At this resolution, I am not sure if you can see the cloud of insects behind the ladies.

How sweet!

This lady and her dog both clocked me taking their picture. Bad AC.

Eventually, I did catch a young fisherman in the right spot for silhouettes, which was mostly really me getting to the right spot. I just just had to line up with the sun better.

Mission accomplished.

Lighting Up My Night

Toilet Night Light - Motion Sensor Activated Bathroom LED Bowl
Toilet Light, Fun 32 Colors Changing Bathroom Nightlight,
Toilet Bowl Illuminate Night Light

A toilet light can be a great addition to many a home in which an elderly male resides. This assumes that said elderly male gets up frequently during the night, has a weak stream, and is hearing impaired. If all three of those conditions apply, it can be difficult to know whether one's stream has truly ended. I'm sure dear reader can appreciate what might happen next.

We do have a night light in the bathroom, but it illuminates only weakly. That led me to also use a little, one-battery flashlight for my nocturnal bathroom use. When that flashlight expired, Sue remembered a gift from my Christmas stocking – a night light that fastens to the toilet.

How silly! I had thought it a joke and had put it out of my mind, but needs must.

Sue attached it, and lo and behold, it works!

It turns on when it senses vibrations. I only have to get near the bathroom for my vibrations to have it turn on. It's light-sensitive too; if I turn the bathroom light on, the toilet light will shut off. I believe it only stays on for three minutes at any rate, so it knows to shut itself off as well.

Some of the colours can be a wee bit disconcerting at first. "Oh no! It's red. Ami I passing blood?" Of course, I am soon able to reassure myself.

Obviously, I am losing my sense of personal embarrassment to post of urination and streams and hearing loss and toilets. When I meet for coffee with Bob and Nick, we remark of how we talk about personal matters in a way that we had never conjured that we would. Good grief, I even showed them a catheter in public at our last kaffeeklatsch.

One other thing, which has little to do with the foregoing, but I stopped the boys in their tracks last meetup because I used the F-word. Apparently, I don't cuss much, so I took them by surprise, and they felt compelled to remark on my usage. I guess that is another inhibition that I have dropped in old age, or at least let slip, just a little.

Cool and Windy Photo Walk

It went down to 6.5C/44F on Saturday night, so it wasn't exactly hot when we went out for Sunday morning photos. And it was windy too.

Sue had her photo thing to do, so I put my telephoto lens on and decided to take little photos, for it wasn’t the day for grand scenes. I decided that I would concentrate on bits of architecture, at least initially. I also thought that I would likely then convert into b&w because it was a pretty drab day. That is what I did except for the people photos that came later.

This was the first capture: just textures, but of what?

Here is the context, or some of it: a boarded up window on an old building. You have seen the whole building before in other posts, but I didn't take those kinds of photos this time out.

That window was on the side of the building, but here is a back door, almost lost in the foliage. Once again, I was drawn by the textures.

An old mill is almost adjacent, and it is slowly being converted into condos: very slowly, I might add. There was a tractor nearby, but I chose to just include the arm as an interesting and odd element.

Later, I did vary my subjects by photographing water over the rocks in a very mini waterfall as I looked down from the trail bridge.

At one point I took a very long distance photo of Sue. The faint colours on the lower part of the photo  are from shooting through the foliage that was much closer to the camera. It was deliberate.

Does Sue look like she was shivering in the cold?

I took one more photo of Sue taking a photo of a patch of leaves that was already turning colour.

I should have broken this into two posts, but it's too late to turn back now, so I present photos by Sue of me.

I look like I am on a grumpy grampy prowl in this next and final photo. It's the way that I sometimes look, but it is not how I mostly am. It reminds me of photos or videos of cats walking toward the camera; they look pretty darn serious with a "Don't mess with me vibe."

And that was our Sunday shoot, or mine at least. For the most part, Sue was targetting different subjects. 

Picture Preferences

We have different sensibilities about posting photos of people. Some bloggers won't even post family photos. Some folk wondered about me posting sneaky candid photos in a recent post. Chacun à son goût, as they say.

It's legal. In every reasonable jurisdiction as far as I know, you are entitled to photograph and post whatever and whomever you see in public. However, you are not permitted to sell someone's likeness. In that case, you need a model release.

Is it ethical, though?  In my case, I chose not to post images like the one below on Facebook. However, not many people read my blog and almost no one local, so I figure it is close to being private. Besides, in this case at least, the person is almost unidentifiable as she faces away form the camera in what is not too far off being a silhouette.

I made the same choice with Flickr. I feel that my photos are also almost private there. In this case, however, it did gain notice by a certain algorithm and garnered more than 4.5k views. The fisherman and son only got a far more typical 160 or so views. I can almost guarantee that nobody local saw either photo.

Health Report

I've posted about health issues at various times, so I thought I would give some updates. Perhaps I shouldn't do this seemingly whinging sort of post, but it is a part of my life. Besides, I am not whinging but merely reporting, mostly on issues that have been previously raised here.

Sleep

I usually wear my watch at night, and it usually concurs with my impressions. What it does retain is a record. Just over a week ago, I was doing well for me. Except for one atrocious night, I was often hovering around 6+ hours. The best possible night of 7.5 hours occurred on Sept. 03. Mind you, the app considered 2 of those hours to be poor quality.  

After that wonderful night, I did what I do and went into a low-sleep mode. I don't know why it happens, but over the past 4 nights, I have 2 nights of just 3:15 although I suspect I may have gotten an hour more than what the app perceived. Whatever the case, they were hardly great nights. Two nights ago, I did get 6 hours but was under 5 again last night.

I don't know why this happens, and yes, I do get tired. While I sometimes have an afternoon nap, I have clocked myself over the years, and I only get about 10 minutes before awakening.. So I can't see that these naps are the cause of those bad nights. Besides, I often don't manage to nap at all, even though I usually do try.

Foot

The right foot is chronic with missing cartilage. I require foot fusion surgery, but with COVID thrown into the works, I waited for so long that I felt that the rest of my body was too compromised to be able to live without being able to use that foot for whatever length of time.

If they had only called 6 months earlier or if I had not been booked for urological surgery when they first called, I would have had the surgery, and I would be recovered by now. And if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Such is life.

Shoulder

Late last year and early this year, I was frequently mentioning my rotator cuff shoulder issue. I did have therapy, but it only helped a little. Then I had the shot, and it helped a little more. It is still there but in a manner that is easier to deal with. After only being able to be comfortable sleeping in my chair for many months, I can now sleep in bed for at least part of the night if I choose. 

Groin

I don't even think that I have mentioned my groin problem. It occurred about this time last fall. After being very sedentary following two surgeries, I attempted to do some weeding out back. I was sitting on a stool but had my right leg in an awkward position. That affected my groin. I am now in physio for that, but it isn't helping so far. When I walk I feel as though I have to drag my right leg along, and it is uncomfortable to say the least, especially when I am also dragging my foot. I guess it is good that the leg and foot damage are on the same side.

Catheter

I am self-catheterizing once a day. It's not all that onerous, and one gets used to it. The idea is to keep things open for longer without external intervention. I have an appointment for a dilation near the end of October. It is not a fun procedure, so if I can at least defer that, I will be pleased. At some far off point in time, the specialist will call, and we will then see if something else can be done. 

It sounds like a lot, eh, like I am completely falling apart? Mostly, they are minor things, but in total they have a fair impact. I am not living a miserable life. If I live with sensible restraint, I do not experience a lot of discomfort as I limp through my days.

Comments off. It's just a report, not a plea for sympathy. 😊