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First to all of you picky prom-dress pedants, red was close enough for me, but yeah you're right, fuchsia was correct, or the "tertiary red purple" sector on the colour wheel to be ... ahem ... precise. 🥸😎😊

I am but a lowly, male person after all, so please forgive me my colour theory trespasses. 😉

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I also thought I would post to all in response to a comment by Prof Pipe Tobacco because it does require a little bit of explication.

He wondered if the prom was for grade 13 grads or for anyone. It is for grads, but read on.

We used to have a grade 13 in Ontario but in no other province. In theory, grade 13 was considered to be roughly equivalent to first year university.

It was most certainly a tough year when I graduated in 1966 for every grade 13 subject required an exam set by the department of education in Toronto — one exam for all students across the province, no matter your teacher or location. This single, end-of-year exam was worth 66% of our final grade if I recall correctly. A year or two previously, the exam had been all of the final grade — 100% of it. Yikes! By the way: not only would your teacher not set the exam, but the person who graded it would be someone doing a 9 to 5, summer job, sitting at a desk in Toronto: presumably a teacher, but not your teacher.

By the time that Shauna was in grade 13, the departmental exams were kaput, and each teacher set their own. I think that was 1991 for her but had already been the case for many years. Our younger daughter, Allyson, six years later, did not officially go through grade 13, but in a sense she really did. They just called those same courses OAC credits: Ontario Academic Credits.

I taught a World Issues course in geography in about my final 10 years of teaching until I retired in 2001. However, by the time I retired, OAC/grade 13 was being phased out. If I had taught for a few more years, the World Issues course would have then been taught in grade 12 or, perhaps, not at all. I will have to ask the kids if it still exists, but I somehow doubt it.

It is worth noting that after this extra year was eliminated in Ontario high schools, Ontario universities also added an extra year to get a general Bachelors degree. Since then it required four years as opposed to three to qualify for a BA or BSc. Up until then, grade 13 had been considered to be the equivalent of a university year.

I took an honours BA, and that had always been a four year degree path, or at least the equivalent 40 credits. I actually completed my course credits in three years: not because I was clever but because my university followed a trimester system back then. I kept going through the summers and finished my BA requirements in three years concluding in 1969. I then took an extra year in a College of Education attached to a different university. I think education streams are now done concurrently with other course work and not as an additional year.

That's another thing to ask Danica after asking about World Issues. Oh, and I do want to know if any Ontario universities use the trimester system? I am not talking about taking summer credits but doing an official third and full-fledged semester in summer.

Danica's Prom Dress

Post-wedding on Saturday, Sha and Dani swept Sue off to Ottawa, for Danica had an appointment to shop for a prom dress. It's true that it is only November, and that the prom will likely take place in late May or early June, but these things take time. To wit: the dresses have to be made and that will take months. Then there will be alterations. 

As the afternoon progressed, Sue kept sending me pictures of what Danica was trying on. There was a green dress that I quite liked and a peach one that was also very nice.

But how could AC argue with his favourite colour, red?

Sue was experimenting, and the kaleidoscope effect in the lower left,
was generated from a photo of the dress.

Dani got a sign to pose with, and her school was noted on the paperwork so that this dress will not be duplicated by anyone at her school.

The dress in the photos was not her size, and I was told that it was very open at the back. The final version should fit much better than this one.

Of course, Sue could not resist making composites, and these are two of them.

Remembrance Day

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Canada stops to remember past wars. those who served, and those who did not come home.

Our town will have it's usual observations at the Cenotaph with the marching of the soldiers, the laying of the wreaths, and the deafening firing of the canon.

For a number of years the cadets would hold a vigil at the cenotaph, and I have shown photos in the past. Recently, I make a composite using a photo of one cadet holding vigil in the dark and cold with soldiers in the background as if he were meditating upon them.

I made another composite, blending two images together that I took on that night two years ago, by placing the cadet between the moon and flag of the underlying photo.

Out of the Closet

Out of the closet: not me — the clothes. 

The vest, tie and shirt have been biding their time in the cupboard for 16 years, since way back in 2008. I don't think they were the pants that I wore that day, but they've also been in the closet and perhaps for much longer. As for the shoes: they're new, but until I dug them out yesterday, they were also in the closet waiting for spring as they are to be next years new runners after the long and messy winter has been put to bed.

Meanwhile, Sue doesn't have to go digging to find clothes for yesterday's wedding as most of her outfit is pretty contemporary.

We had been to a wedding just across the street at town hall and took the photos before we headed home. It was a gay wedding, so those two men were certainly also out of the closet.

To bookend the clothes and the closet motif, I last wore these duds at my own daughter's gay, out-of-the-closet wedding in 2008.

I was wearing green converse sneakers, just like my daughter on that day, and Sue was wearing green accessories. My bowtie and runners were confiscated by Allyson a few years later, after she had worn out her own pair. Fortunately, there was a matching, conventional tie remaining after her depredation of my wardrobe.

Allyson's was a grand Gay-Jewish wedding that day, held on the grounds of Sue's sister's country property, the same cottage where Sue and I took many vacations. What a blast everyone had that day!

Of course I didn't take the photos because I had other duties, but my camera took some, and I collected all sorts of pictures from all sorts of cameras and put a photo album together for the girls.

So I share with you a few photos from that album that was both challenging and rewarding to put together.  Note: there is a lot of white around some of the images because they are copies of the album page and not just the photos themselves.

Caturday 70: Lacey Reverts to Winter Habits

Last evening, as is our wont, we were watching TV at suppertime. When I glanced over to Sue, I was taken aback to see Lacey on her lap. This happened twice, once before and once after her supper. Please note: it was jolly AC who fed her supper but Cuppa who got the snuggles.

Lacey had distained laps all summer, but come the change in seasons, she now returns for little visits. She has even condescended to grace moi on a few occasions. While it is cupboard love in hopes of landing a treat or two (which works by the way), it is nice to receive a short, as in very short visit.

Her most recent visit to my lap was on that dreadful morning when good Christians decided that sending a criminal and sexual predator to the oval office was just the ticket.

Lacey's other winter habit is to seek out the afternoon sunshine on our bed with its west- facing window.

"The term "cupboard love" is a British idiom, used most commonly in the United Kingdom. It describes the selfish, greedy or insincere affection displayed towards another person in order to get what they want."  I have usually self-translated cupboard love to mean, please go to the cupboard to fetch me a morsel. 

 

Fallen Leaves and Memory

My horrible post-election Wednesday was, appropriately enough, also our garbage day. After the morning news shock, I was further shocked to find two fresh dandelions on the lawn. This is something that simply doesn't happen in November, but I guess that it does happen when temperatures climb to 21C/70F. I am not complaining, mind you. Well, not about the weather anyway.

Later we took our little walkie along the trail by the arena. We don't get there often, but on that day we wanted to do better than our mundane walk around the subdivision. Most trees were bare, but when we saw this section with leaves both on the tree and on the ground, I had to get the phone out.

Then, a lady and her dog jogged by.

Farther along, I took this photo. One advantage of having the leaves fallen is that we could frequently see the river from the trail. Since spring, it has pretty well been hidden from view on this part of the trail.

Soon, a strange lady in a group of three was hailing me. Says I to myself: How do I know this lady? It's not that lady from music, and neither is it the one from the photo group. As I stood there in some stupefaction, she explained to Sue who she was — my physiotherapist from the hospital.

As we walked on, I told Sue that I would have introduced her, but I couldn't remember her name — I mean the other lady, not Sue. Of course, it was then that I remembered: Tanya.

No doubt Tanya now thinks that I am pitiable old man, and I probably am. Maybe I can redeem myself when I see her this afternoon, assuming I can remember when and where I am to go.

Once More into the Frying Pan

It is a week of appointments for me.

On Monday, I had my yearly dental checkup and cleaning with good results. The best result was the charge — $35.

Canada has a new dental plan for seniors of modest means. If we meet the income criterion and do not otherwise have private coverage, we are eligible for federal assistance. My portion of the $300 bill was the aforementioned $35.

Oh . . . and no cavities.

On Friday, I will have an appointment with audiologist. I expect that they will then send in one of my hearing aids for cleaning and a new battery. Having only one hearing aid will not be the best, but I should manage with Sue's indulgence.

While I am sans hearing aid, I will try to stay home for the most part except for my physio appointment that afternoon. I will inform the therapist of my audio difficulty, and she will raise her voice at first. But then I will have to remind her because I have found that people automatically and quickly drop to their normal volume. But we'll manage.

The biggest appointment came on Tuesday when I finally got to see the specialist urologist in one of the big Ottawa hospitals. 

I was very apprehensive, and my anxiety didn't decrease when he exclaimed a big and surprised "Oh!" when the probe camera revealed what was going on inside of me.

However, he does propose a possible solution, which he claims is not the standard TURP procedure. Apparently, TURP is a hot procedure using a resectoscope. 

He will employ a cold knife technique and also  apply the cancer/chemo drug, Mitomycin, and he is hopeful that it will work well for at least some time. Please note that I don't have cancer.

Mitomycin is an antibiotic used as a chemotherapy drug. It stops or slows the growth of cancer cells and other rapidly growing cells by damaging their DNA.

As I was trying to take it all in, I think he said that 2% - 4% of patients develop scarring after the typical TURP protocol, and I am one of the lucky ones. Yay me!

He thought that the surgery would take place in a month or two, but we know that hospital waits can be prolonged.

Whatever you call this procedure it will be my fourth surgery to endeavour to rectify my problem. I am pretty confident that this guy is topnotch, but we know that my poor body isn't, so we shall see.

If that doesn't work, there is the possibly of open reconstructive surgery, but I hope that I never have to cross that particular bridge.