The Ice Storm of 2013

Somebody should be selling "I survived the Ice Storm of 2013" shirts -- just about everyone I know would buy one, because just about everyone I know has suffered from the storm and has lived to tell the tale. Some have suffered a little, some a lot. The captain and I were without power for about 55 hours or so, from 2 a.m. early Sunday morning until about 9 a.m. Tuesday morning (Christmas Eve). Not fun at any time to be without power in sub-zero temperatures, but particularly hard when one is sick, as I have been (and still am). I didn't get many "icy" photographs; I was too ill to venture outside so had to settle for a few quickie shots out my living room window.

The captain's older sister didn't get her power back until 9 p.m. Christmas Day, and his brother lives in an area of east Toronto known as The Guild, or Guildwood, which has been one of the last areas to have power restored. As of now, we are not sure if they have their power back or not. Yesterday, they did not.

It has been most frustrating listening to our idiot mayor show up at press conferences and photo ops, all the while lying to everyone. He and his cronies have been talking for days now about how the power restoration was down to "one offs", while everyone here in Scarborough knew the entire Guild area was without power. That is NOT a "one off", Mr. Mayor!

I also question their claim that the city and hydro were immediately on top of this. You see, our neighbour's boyfriend works for Toronto Hydro and he wasn't called in until Monday morning, a good 30 hours or more after the power went out! Personally, I think there have been cost-cutting measures and a reluctance to rack up employee overtime that took precedence over getting the power up and running. The priority has never been service to the tax payers, all the talk from this administration has only been about saving a buck or two.

But enough on that. This is the season to be jolly, after all. The captain and I both send along our merriest of Christmas greetings to one and all, and a particularly big shout-out to all our friends and family who weathered the storm that will live long in all our memory. 2013 is certainly going out with a bang!

Thirty!

For those of you who aren't friends with me on Facebook, here's one of the photos I posted Sunday night of the birthday boy -- Rob at 30! And yes, in case you can tell, he's just like his dad in that he really doesn't like having his picture taken!

July 20th

The following video clip is a bit long, about ten minutes, and has a rather abrupt cut-off at the end, but please give it a watch.

 

Such memories.

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED

So, what were you doing on July 20, 1969? I was in Ottawa, glued to the television set, not wanting to miss a second of the moon landing. Barely 11 years old, this event was mind-boggling to me.

My father and I had just moved to Ottawa from B.C., arriving on a hot, sticky Dominion Day. We watched this momentous event at Julie and Al's apartment, my father's friends. Al was living in New York City at the time, working for Marvel Comics. (How I wished I'd kept the comics -- and the envelopes they came in -- he regularly mailed me direct from Marvel!) We sat in their living room, eating GoGo Pizza (bacon and mushroom), watching history unfold before us.

 

July 20th isn't only important to me for the events of 1969. Fast-forward 14 years, to 1983, and more history was about to be made, only this time it was personal.

 

The captain had night court on that fateful Wednesday, and I went downtown with him to do some shopping while he was in court. Into Eaton's I went, finally buying some baby items like sleepers and blankets. You see, I was nine months pregnant and it was two days before my due date. The due date had been changed three times, with the latest date being July 22nd, but I was sure I would be later than that. I'd put off buying anything for the baby until that night, just superstitious I guess. Or psychic.

 

After court was finished, we ate dinner downtown and returned home, sitting out on our porch on that humid summer evening. Not long after we went to bed, I felt a whoosh of water between my legs and nudged the captain. "I need a towel," I said. "I need one now!"

 

He brought me a small hand towel, which made me burst into laughter. "I need a way bigger towel than that!" I told him.

 

"Did the bed spring a leak?" (We had a water bed at the time.)

 

"No, I have. My water's broke."

 

And so off to the hospital we went, around midnight on July 20th, and at 4:37 p.m. on July 21st, our little baby boy was born. And that little baby boy will be 30 years old tomorrow! Where the time goes, I do not know.

 

Here's a photo of our happy little family when Robbie (as he used to be known, before he got older and we switched to Rob) was about three months old. Please ignore my over-sized glasses. It was the 80s, after all.

 

 

 

Country roads

Every year, I try to do something different on my birthday. The captain and I have shuffled off to Buffalo, we've headed out north-east of the city for a country drive, I've been to Prince Edward Island, our family even had a middle-of-the-night fire alarm adventure in Savannah. That was certainly memorable!

On Saturday, the captain and I once again took a day-long birthday road trip, this time heading north-west out of the city. It was the perfect opportunity to test my new 18-200 lens, a wonderful gift from the captain (along with a beautiful 101 Dalmatians snow globe!!). This lens has an "active" button right on its side, which apparently was designed specifically for the drive-by shooting style that I favour.

After a day of yard sales, farm markets, small towns and rural roads, I was exhausted and satisfied. A great day that culminated with Mexican food at Newmarket's Made in Mexico. I don't recommend either their margaritas (made from a mix and too sweet) or visiting on a Saturday night (loud and crowded), but both the captain and I enjoyed our food and I left so stuffed I couldn't even order dessert. No dessert on my birthday--that must be a first! I have had better Mexican food -- it was Tex-Mex rather than authentic Mexican -- but our enchiladas were fresh and tasty and the side dishes were excellent. I wish I had thought to take photos!

Speaking of photographs, these images are all from Saturday's road trip; click on them to embiggen. I shoot both JPG and RAW; these were all edited using RAW in CS6. The bottom two photos were both shot from the car; this new lens handled well and is definitely a keeper!

Reflections of PEI

Last June, I made an unexpected visit to the beautiful province of Prince Edward Island. It was a last-minute getaway on my birthday weekend, a real treat for me as I'd never been to any of our maritime provinces before. My dear friend Lori made all the arrangements and it was a wonderful birthday experience, although it was odd to celebrate my birthday without the captain being present.

I took many, many photographs but really haven't paid them much attention. It was shortly after this trip that I upgraded my camera and purchased new lenses -- a much-appreciated birthday gift from the captain -- and so all my concentration immediately shifted to the photos I was capturing with my new Nikon.

Recently, I've been looking through those images and thought I'd share a few here on the blog. After spending some time with these photos, I'm eager to return to PEI.

As always, you can click on the photos if you want to see them a wee bit bigger.

RENT

What a wonderful Mother's Day surprise.....Rob and Jo are taking me to see Rent later this month!

 

 

 

I'm so excited! What a GREAT gift!

Weekend colour

Sunday's visit to the fair resulted in many photographs. Are you surprised? Of course not.

While brilliantly sunny, it wasn't what the locals would call a good day to be out and about -- the temperatures were downright chilly. Heck, I even bundled up. The captain and I were there promptly at noon when it opened and while others were of course there too, I think the weather kept many away. I didn't want to partake in the rides, just photograph them, so we were done after about 90 minutes -- it is a small fair -- and then headed into St. Cloud for a catfish lunch. Well, I had catfish; the captain had shrimp. All in all, a very good day.

Yup, I took a lot of photos. I intended to post only straight-up images here, but I just couldn't do it. I had to mess about in photoshop with one of them. Just couldn't resist.

 

(If you click on the photos, you'll see them a bit bigger.)

I'm ba-ack!

My goodness, look at all the dust in here! This can’t be good for my allergies.

Yes, it’s been a long time since I’ve paid attention to this obviously neglected blog. The dust has piled up, cobwebs hang from the rafters and the place has all the signs of abandonment.

Except it was never really abandoned. I just discovered -- much to my initial surprise -- that despite all the good intentions in the world, it was all too easy to let a short break from blogging turn into an extended getaway. Last summer, I was shocked when I realized it had been over a year since I had blogged and even more surprised when I recently grasped the fact that it was now approaching two years! Oh my. As it turns out, once I stepped away from the blogging world, I realized it didn’t have the stranglehold on me that I thought it did. I could get through a day, a week, a month and, yes, even a year and longer, without blogging.

 

But I did miss one huge aspect of blogging -- the contact. The people. You guys. And recent developments have made me both painfully aware how fragile this world is and also pleasantly aware how quickly we can all make contact when we need to -- and having a neglected blog has now been troubling me greatly. It was no longer time for thinking, it was time for action. And so here I am. And here you are. Thanks for sticking around!

Why did I take the original break? Valid question. The reason is very personal. It is quite an amazing and fantastic journey -- life-altering is not an understatement -- I have been on since May 2011. But while it is highly personal it is also not secretive -- I want to share the details and will do so after I get my thoughts down in a format shorter than a novel!

I don’t know where this blog is headed in 2013, or beyond. I expect I will make changes to its appearance; it's definitely time to hang some new curtains and get rid of the shag rugs! I am no longer obsessed with Instagram and while I have returned to using Flickr, I relish the idea of using my blog to once again share my images with those who care to have a look. To that end, you’ll see a little piece of artwork above -- a photograph taken just yesterday at the Osceola County Fair and messed with in photoshop today. Who knew that freak shows still existed? I liked the displays outside its entrance and thought the photo appropriate. Like the sign says, I too am actual and factual and very much alive.

Now excuse me while I go find some dusting rags and take some Benedryl.

Love Live Laugh

Back in February, the captain and I had an eventful afternoon in Orlando when we drove from our winter getaway into the city to visit the Central Florida Fair. We discovered upon our arrival at the front gates that the fair was closed, but since we try to treat our outings as adventures, we didn't let it spoil the day. Instead, I wandered around outside the fence, taking photographs of what I could -- thankful, for example, that the ferris wheel was located near the entrance.

I've shared some of those photos here on my blog, and here's another. You might think that this image took a lot of time to prepare, but it didn't. It took only a few clicks. Oops......not clicks. Taps. Yup, this is another iPhone creation.

WordFoto is the newest addition to my iPhone; the latest find in my never-ending quest to discover cool and fun iPhone apps. All I had to do to create this was open up the app and bring in the photo, then choose the words I wanted to use (more than 20 phrases are included in the app), then choose from among eight different styles (you can create custom styles as well). Done. There is an option to do a little fine-tuning, if I'd wanted.

It's that easy. Even better, WordFoto allows you to use whatever words you want, so I gave "eat write create" a try and came up with what you see below. Some images work better than others, depending on the styles you prefer, so a little experimentation should be expected. But it's fun and it creates something pretty nifty in just seconds. Give it a try!

The ducks are back

We've lived in our current home for many, many years. I can't remember when the ducks first started to visit, but it was a long time ago. Every spring, they grace us with their presence. Sometimes, we see them only once during the season, other years -- like this year -- they visit a little more frequently.

They're out there right now. It's the third time we've seen them in the past few weeks. There's always the male and the female; we've never seen them solo, and we've also never spied any babies. Can they possibly be the same pair? I have no idea how long ducks live, if they mate for life, or really anything much about them. I do know they're beautiful. They love our pool, and why wouldn't they? It has yet to be cleaned and chlorinated for the year, so it's perfect for them. They're also not fearful of us. The captain was out mowing the back yard this afternoon and they basically ignored him.

They may be out there right now, but I can't show you. My camera batteries are all dead, so the artwork features a photo I took two years ago. It contains a lot of textures and brush work, use of layer masks, and more. My muse was making a lot of noise today so I finally gave in to her and had a go at some duck art.

On a journey

I've been neglecting this poor little blog of mine. Sometimes, life just gets in the way.

I'm on a journey right now and, unfortunately, it's not one where all of you can come along for the ride. Not this time. Some amazing things have been happening of late. Good things. Good, but very personal. Someday, I know, I'll share them here. But now is not the time.

More artwork is on the way. My muse, who's been pretty quiet lately, is starting to rumble and get pretty noisy. I'm going to try to listen to her.

Black-and-white?

I am a huge fan of colour, but lately I find myself attracted to black-and-white photography -- not just when viewing the work of others, but in my own creations as well. When I'm working on an image in Photoshop's Camera Raw interface, I often select the Convert to Grayscale option to see if the conversion appeals to me. More and more frequently, it does. I'm now taking a critical eye to my photos, trying to determine if the colour enhances the image or distracts from it.

Take the photograph above. Roll your cursor over it (in other words, slide your mouse pointer onto the image) to form your own opinion -- when you do the rollover, you'll see the colour version, which is the image I chose to post in my Flickr photostream. But I was so undecided about that decision that I almost put both versions up. I really like this image in black-and-white, but yet I think the colour version highlights the grunge. In the end, I decided to go with the colour because of the photograph's delicious decay.

As a side note, this amazing architectural element was found right here in Toronto. Walking south on Yonge Street early one summer evening a few years ago, south of Bloor Street, camera in hand, I happened to glance up and was so surprised to see this beauty. Who knows how long she's been there? I stopped to take photographs (of course!) and the captain and our son and his girlfriend kept walking, only to realize I was no longer with them -- not the first time this has happened -- so they backtracked to where I was standing. We'd all walked up and down Yonge Street many times, yet had never noticed.

Makes you wonder what else we miss. We see but we don't always observe.

It's an addiction

When I was in grade five, my father bought me Scrabble Junior for Christmas. I quickly moved up to the grown-up game -- the one with the wonderful wooden tiles -- and have had a passion for this board game ever since. I have so many different versions, even the fancy one with the rotating board. But perhaps the best yet is the newest one in my collection -- the Scrabble app for my iPhone. It's also available for the iPad, should you have one of those.

If I could describe this app with one word, I don't know if I would choose "addictive" or "excellent". How about addictively excellent? Leslie and I had been playing Words with Friends (another great app and one we're still playing) and now we typically have a Scrabble game constantly on-the-go as well.

You do have to like words to like Scrabble; if spelling and wordplay are not your thing, then you likely wouldn't enjoy Scrabble at all. I'm a word junkie, so Scrabble is most definitely my thing.

Easter memories

they were an easter gift, two cute little ducks

i named them donald and daisy

but they grew fast

and they were messy...

they drove my grandmother crazy

i came home from school one afternoon

and donald and daisy were gone

they were too big to keep, my grandmother said

they've gone to live on a farm

i was only seven, an innocent child

happy my ducks had their freedom

until i overheard the adults that night...

the farmer was going to eat them

i rushed out of bed and confronted the room

outraged at their deception

but they weren't really sorry

and sent me to sleep...

the ducks never again to be mentioned

(true story -- this, and devouring a huge chocolate bunny at one go,
are my two earliest easter memories)

HAPPY EASTER!

The end of an era

We always said we would drive it until it died. Well, we did. Because it did.

The captain was downtown on Tuesday afternoon and, about two blocks from his destination, our Big Blue Beast (also known as our Astro van) ground to a halt. Literally. First there was a grinding noise, I was told, and then the car just lost all power. It was towed to our mechanic and then we awaited the news.

It wasn't good. Our Big Blue Beast's heart had finally ceased to beat. Or, in less romantic terms, the engine died.

We've experienced a lot with our BBBeast. It was absolute perfection for a road trip, with lots of room inside. It's taken us all over Ontario, down to Buffalo more times than I could ever possibly count, down to Indiana to visit family many times, and safely transported us to Florida and back five times. It's helped our son move out, then back in, then back out again. Terra loved riding in it; Tippi would always eagerly jump in too. It's enabled me to go to everything from yard sales to Ikea without worrying about how I would schlep something home. It sat high and proud on the road and, for a drive-by shooter like myself, enabled wonderful views of all the passing scenery.

This was an aging beauty; it had begun to rust, quite badly in spots, and the upholstery was really showing its age. We bought it, used, back in June, 2000. It's a '93 and I really was hoping it would make 20 years on the road, but that was not to be. Its final mileage: 322,147.3 kilometres. That's something!

Parts of our BBBeast will live on, as an organ donor if you will. Our mechanic also drives an Astro and so has bought ours, to salvage what parts he can, for use with his own vehicle. The captain pried the logo (what you see, above) out of the dash before turning the keys over to the mechanic, to bring home to me. He knew I wanted it.

So now we are back to being a one-car family. Sure, this will save us money on gas and insurance, but I really wish my BBBeast was still in the driveway. Rest In Peace; you were a great vehicle.

Alley-oop!

The Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands at Viera, known locally as just the Viera Wetlands, proved to be the highlight of our day on Thursday. We saw plenty of birds, yes, but the abundance of alligators provided a huge WOW factor. Not only did we see several, but some of them were sunning themselves at the edge of the roadway, seemingly not caring one bit that we humans were walking close by. Have a look at the three of us and our new friend:

Yes, we really were close......and no, we did not approach the wee beastie!

Happy Heart Day!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAYto all my friends,
all my family,
and of course,
to my love, the captain (I spied this cute little keychain in a bookstore yesterday and just had to pull out my iPhone to grab some photos. The post-processing was done in photoshop.)

It's good to relax

My goodness -- it's been a week since I've posted! My girlfriend Lori is visiting the captain and I and, well, we've been enjoying ourselves. Less time on the computer and more time out and about with friends, having fun.

Tonight we tried a local Mexican restaurant, located on U.S.1 in Cocoa, Florida. Chaparrel features delicious homecooked meals ... and who can resist 2-for-1 margaritas? Not Lori, not me. Well, the captain can. He was driving.

If you're ever in the area, make sure you have a meal at Chaparrel. And maybe a margarita or two as well!

(The "relax" clipping mask is from Elemenopea's "Words To Live By: Set 2". I added both a drop shadow and a bevel-and-emboss to the mask.)

Can you dig it?

What is it with me and orange vehicles? They're all around me. First the amazing wienermobile, next an old Ford pickup that I unfortunately did not photograph, and now ... a super-cool 1971 VW camper van! I. Want. It. NOW.

But alas, it's stick-shift and that is a skill I definitely do not possess. It's for sale but there was no price listed, so I suspect it's one of those if-you-have-to-ask-you-can't-afford-it situations. At least I implored the captain to drive around the block to go back after we drove by it and I have my photographs to keep me happy.

You know, though, the captain drives stick..............

Anyway.

Happy and groovy -- that's the theme for February's calendar page. An orange VW van with a pink home behind it. This pleases me no end.

As always, just click on the image above to head for its home on Flickr, where you can download it. It's a high-res full-page image, perfect for printing.

Keep on truckin'.

Dreaming

Yesterday, as the captain and I stood on the balcony of our winter retreat, we watched the Disney Dream sail by us. The Dream is Disney's newest cruise ship and she's a beauty.

I captured this photograph from our balcony, then gave it a subtle texture treatment using two textures (Pool Party and Sandstorm) from Elemenopea's Texture and Background Collection: Set 4. I used the Soft Light layer blending mode with both textures, and played with the opacity of each layer until I was happy with the look.

Yesterday afternoon we drove up to the port to get an up-close peek at the Dream. Come this fall, we'll be getting an even closer look as we have a cruise booked on her and we're very excited about that. But, for now, we'll be delighted to watch her sail in and out of Port Canaveral all month long.