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Category: cameraphone, Critters + Creatures
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Seven‘s dignity is buried under the Christmas cheer.
Technorati tags: Christmas, dog, pet, cameraphone, Nokia 6682, Flickr
Archive for ◊ November, 2006 ◊
30
Nov
2006
End of the Season
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Category: Blah Blah Blah, film photography, The Great Outdoors
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A photo from our excursion to Lackawanna State Park on Monday.
I made a pit stop at Wal-Mart’s Vision Centre after visiting the state park to see if I could get a deal on toric lenses, but the cost of the fitting ($70-80, U.S. dollars) plus a long turnaround time equals a fair amount of hassle. The lenses themselves are cheaper, but factoring in the fitting cost and delay make a cross-border purchase more prohibitive. There are more brands available for toric lenses in the U.S. and I enquired about each to get a ballpark range for prices to compare with what I’d be paying in Toronto. Maybe what I can do is get the fitting, trial lenses, and first box in Toronto and if I decide to stick with those lenses long-term, stock up future boxes down south.
Today I ran some errands around town and one of the best things to come of that was not having to pay for a notary public to sign a document for me at AAA (American Automobile Association). I wasn’t sure if they’d honour my CAA membership (the Canadian counterpart of this organisation), but they did, saving me a whack of money. In Toronto last February I had to get a notary public to sign a document and I hadn’t yet bought my CAA membership, which meant I forked over $60 because I couldn’t find anything cheaper. Today I paid $8 to send the document by registered mail, but it was still much cheaper than paying for a notary PLUS the registered mail fee.
This afternoon I stopped by Lake Scranton to take some pictures. It’s in the neighbourhood of where I used to live, and the lake itself is owned by the Pennsylvania Water Company. The wildlife there is protected, guaranteeing a peaceful atmosphere and an abundance of species to photograph. Today I took a few snaps, remembering the times David and I used to walk around the lake, hand in hand.
I even drove by the house where we used to live for the first time in six months. I’ve driven by it on the freeway countless times and hesitate every time I pass by our exit, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to actually exit. After driving to Lake Scranton I took the back roads to the house, and that made it seem easier somehow. I noticed the new owners cut down the big tree beside the garage, probably because it was too old to weather the strongest storms that passed through the area and its felling was to preempt a potentially hazardous demise. But it still made me a bit sad to see the old tree hacked up and lying in pieces on the lawn.
After the errands were finished, I phoned a friend I hadn’t seen in a couple of months to make dinner arrangements and tonight we introduced Helma to Thai food for the first time ever. I did the ordering, so what arrived was a combination of some of my favourite Thai menu items: Tom Kha Gai soup, papaya salad, and the Chef’s Special — a seafood dish with scallops, shrimp, mussels, and squid. I asked for a milder version, but I think the spices took Helma by surprise. I hope I didn’t turn her off Thai food for life!
Technorati tags: Scranton, Pennsylvania, film photography, Pentax K-1000, digital photography, Canon A80, Lake Scranton, Lackawanna State Park, automobile association, notary public
29
Nov
2006
Lackawanna State Park in September
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Category: The Great Outdoors
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Well, so much for uploading recent Lackawanna State Park pictures. I got caught up looking at photos from September, in all their autumnal goodness. Like this busy bee, for example. I couldn’t decide which picture I liked better, so I made a diptych.
Thank heavens for the swivel screen on the Canon A80. I’d be face-down in the dirt to get this shot, otherwise.
Technorati tags: digital photography, Canon A80, diptych, Lackawanna State Park, bee, mushroom, outdoors, Pennsylvania
28
Nov
2006
The Alpine
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Category: cameraphone, USA
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Yesterday Helma and I went to Lackawanna State Park, to the fishing hole where she and Hermann spent many an hour “aggravating the fish” (as she puts it).
“You know what fishing is all about? The jerk on one end waits for a jerk on the other end.”
The Lackawanna State Park photos will take a while to process and upload on dialup, so I’ll skip directly to cameraphone shots from today at The Alpine.
The Alpine Inc. in Honesdale is a Wurst & Meat House and Restaurant in the Alpine Plaza, a complex that also houses their own meat processing facilities and the German American Club. I’d never been there before and I don’t think David had, either, even though we’d flown over it countless times; it isn’t far from Cherry Ridge Airport, where we hangared the Tri-Pacer. We drove through the village of Hawley and it sparked a memory or two of a time when David and I were famished after flying and were on a mission in Hawley to find a place to eat.
Helma and Hermann had been frequenting The Alpine since the time they opened in 1977, and we made a trip out there today for old times’ sake. The restaurant and gift shop are decorated in Bavarian style, and the place is crammed with products from Germany — not just food, but music, games, magazines, books, knickknacks and trinkets aplenty.
I dragged Helma into the restaurant even when she wasn’t hungry, and she had lentil soup while I had the goulash soup and the sausage sampler, followed by a bar of marzipan I purchased in the deli.
I’m a fan of marzipan, especially since 2002 when Iris arranged for a marzipan cake for my birthday after an exam. I’ll never forget that — I handed in my papers and ran out of SFU Harbour Centre, my brain befuddled from three hours of intense writing. I was greeted by three Germans sitting in my car singing the birthday song with a bunch of flowers and a marzipan cake (flown in from Lubeck that day with Kai) topped with a lit candle. That was great!
Helma offered to make me some sandwiches from the wurst she bought today at The Alpine and that set off a stream of puns:
“The best of the wurst!”
“For better or for wurst!”
“It couldn’t get any wurst!”
David was the Punster Extraordinaire, he would’ve gone to town with the wurst theme! Helma ate David’s favourite — liverwurst — while I preferred Hermann’s Mettwurst. For dessert we ate a couple of Hermann’s favourite marzipan rolls.
50,000 calories later, we raised our glasses of Hermann’s Jim Beam bourbon and coke and toasted our husbands with an old German expression:
“Auf das unsere Kinder lange Haelse kriegen!” (That our children get long legs!)
Technorati tags: Honesdale, Pennsylvania, The Alpine, German, marzipan, cameraphone, Nokia 6682
28
Nov
2006
On This Day in 1964
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Category: Ancient History, film photography, Friends, Videoclips
| One Comment
Helma Gurzinski wed Hermann Hoepken
at Peace Lutheran Church on North Main Street,
Scranton, Pennsylvania.
A bond was formed for life.
Today would’ve been Helma & Hermann’s 42nd wedding anniversary.
Dedicated in loving memory to Hermann Hoepken
June 3, 1922 – December 4, 2005
Music: “It’s Wonderful” by Ella Fitzgerald
These photos were scanned from Helma’s Kodachrome slides.
Technorati tags: videoclips, film photography, slides, slideshow, wedding, anniversary
27
Nov
2006
Scranton: Churches and Christmasholics
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Category: cameraphone, Out + About, USA
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Helma’s doing better, no nausea and minimal pain.
“Food starts tasting good again,” she says. “And coffee is alright and I’m back to my old miserable self… until the next attack!”
Next step is getting the stone removed, because it doesn’t seem to be passing on its own.
ANYWAY.
Elm Park Methodist Church, where I attended a performance by the Choral Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania. My friend Gwen’s talented girls sang in the children’s groups, and I shot some video and a few pictures during the concert.
The building itself is impressive, and historic. From the church’s website:
As one of the oldest Methodist churches in this area, the Elm Park United Methodist Church traces its history to 1839, when a Methodist Class was organized in Slocum Hollow, now Scranton. The membership grew quickly. In 1841 the Village Chapel was built facing Lackawanna Avenue on what is now Adams Avenue.
The church was incorporated on September 8, 1859. After outgrowing several buildings, the congregation broke ground for the new church home on September 8, 1891. The site was a triangular piece of land known as Elm Park. After two major fires and reconstruction, a dedication service was held on December 17, 1893. In 1927, the parsonage was moved from the Linden Street side of the Sanctuary Building to Jefferson Avenue. The Church House (Elm Park House) was built on the Linden Street property which is bordered by Madison Avenue; completing the triangle where the entire complex is now located.
After the concert, I asked Helma if her insides could handle her favourite food — pizza — and she grabbed her coat.
I take that as a yes, then! Nausea at bay!
On the way home, I stopped to take a couple of cameraphone pics of further evidence that Pennsylvanians take Christmas lawn decorating very seriously. Maybe the idea is to create a massive beacon by which Santa Claus can be guided to PA from the North Pole. Or space.
There’s a gigantic inflatable snowglobe AND a musical Christmas carousel in front of this house, but you might just miss it in the Christmas posse roundup of Homer Simpson, reindeer and sleigh, Tigger, Mickey Mouse, et al.
Technorati tags: Scranton, church, Christmas, decorating, cameraphone, Nokia 6682
26
Nov
2006
Over the Bridge and Along the Thruway, to the ER We Go
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Category: cameraphone, Friends, Travel
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Well, it’s been an interesting day, and night. Pics for now, stories will come later, after a good night’s sleep.
Over the Rainbow Bridge, Niagara Falls…
Along the New York Thruway, watching a train go overhead…
After arriving in Scranton, I phoned Helma. The rascal had a kidney stone attack this afternoon and didn’t tell me — instead, she waited for me to arrive, making my favourite German potato salad doubled over in pain. Finally, she decided she couldn’t wait any longer and tried to drive herself to the ER. I took her instead, and we spent the next four hours at Moses Taylor Hospital.
This picture is Helma post-drugs. They’re starting to kick in and bring back a hint of a smile.
Technorati tags: driving, cameraphone, Nokia 6682, hospital
25
Nov
2006
Was I Dropped On My Head As a Child?
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Category: Gail at Large, Rants
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I booked an appointment with an optometrist last Wednesday for my annual full-on eye exam, complete with retina photos, glaucoma testing, and dilated pupils. From checking in to checking out, the whole procedure took over an hour, to the tune of about $100.
I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 9 (?), and contact lenses since I was 15.
I had a feeling the optometrist was going to say it, anyway, but the report is my astigmatism is worsening in the left eye by a power of THREE. I’ve been avoiding it for years (due to cost), but the only way I’m going to get 20/20 vision is with toric lenses, which are appreciably more than regular contact lenses. I don’t want to change my glasses because I don’t wear them nearly as often, but I need to wear them more because I’m wearing my contacts far too much, I was told.
Toric lenses have to be fitted, too, which equals more time and money. Sigh.
My vision has worsened in my right eye, but the astigmatism is about the same. The vision in the left eye has actually improved slightly, but the astigmatism is much worse. I have no idea why.
If you’re familiar with the measurements, my prescription is now:
L: -6.25
R: -8.00
What’s with the asymmetry? It’s like my ears — the left one healed the first time I had it pierced, in Australia in ’91. The right ear? It’s NEVER healed. I pierced it again in Edinburgh a few years later but it still did not heal. If I take the right earring out, the hole will close up within a couple of days. I had it pierced for the last time about nine years ago and have been wearing earrings 24/7 since. Why only the right ear? I have no clue.
Anyway, while goofing off in front of the camera to make the photos to accompany this post, I was inspired to effect distortion a la birdw0rks.
Technorati tags: self-portrait, digital photography, optometrist, eye exam, birdw0rks
24
Nov
2006
No Photo Collection Would Be Complete Without a Bony Fingered Bog Tree
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Category: Canada, film photography, The Great Outdoors
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Pentax K-1000
September 2, 2006
Tofino, Vancouver Island
Another photo from that ancient swamp that faintly resembles an African savanna, in parts. I’ll write more about it when I’ve got more tree photos uploaded so you can see what I’m talking about. The trees are amazing twisted shapes, intertwined and rope-like. It’s hard to believe the ocean is close by, except for the unmistakable sound of surf pounding against the shore.
Technorati tags: Tofino, Vancouver Island, tree, film photography, Pentax K-1000
23
Nov
2006
Toronto’s City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square
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Category: Ancient History, cameraphone, Raconteurism, Toronto, Working Life
| One Comment
On my way home from work, I saw that they iced over the fountains at City Hall. It wasn’t even that cold out, but I suppose it’s cold enough to sustain the rink. I reached into my bag for the Canon digicam, but when I turned it on I noticed I did it again — I left the memory card in the card reader. Which is at home. Argh!
I do this once in a while, but just for these occasions I also carry around two EXTRA cards in my bag, but I did I remember that then? Noo-o-o-o-o… I do this to myself all the time: I’m nearly always more prepared than I think I am — I carry around postage stamps, extra pens, stash cash in odd places in case I run out, but then I forget that I’ve done it.
Speaking of being prepared, my workplace had its annual fire drill this afternoon, which was an annoyance to some but a source of amusement for the rest of us. Imagine an entire Toronto office building emptying out onto the sidewalks of a major thoroughfare in the middle of the afternoon. With our government-issue key cards hanging around our necks, we looked like refugees from a convention, easy targets for heckling by the smart-alecks returning to work from their lunch:
“Fire drill?”
“No,” someone shot back, “we’re having a meeting.”
Overheard in my group: “The fire alarm went off just as I pressed ‘START’ on the microwave. I thought I did something wrong!”*
“At least it’s a sunny day.”
“Where’s [fellow employee]?” — said someone taking roll call. Another pointed to him sauntering down the street, one of the many who probably never read the email memo and was totally oblivious to the fact that no one would know if they burnt to a crisp or snuck out to buy a doughnut at Tim Horton’s.
The fun part was, of course, trying to get BACK to work. Why on earth are we stampeding back to work?
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