Sephy’s Platzish

Right. I’ve been procrastinating long enough I think

I’m not going to have my lunch until I get this done, so here goes the pictures from the last couple of weeks, up to and including the day that the pedometer went astray.

Also, I’m going to be doing some experimentation with Windows Live Writer to post this - so you’ll see some interesting features with the pictures, like borders and drop shadows, etc.

Sunday, 18th May

I am not at all sure what kind of tree this is - I think it could be a trillium, but in any case, I love the colours that it has with its flowers.

Distance - 3273 steps, 2.61km

Monday, 19th May

An interesting moment in the life of the car I drive - a series of 4 matching digits - only happens every 1111 miles, you know. ;)  Here, we have 103,333 miles up on the digital odometer.

Distance - 1736 steps, 1.38km

Tuesday, 20th May

No photo from today. Well, I could post the one picture that was white, but that’d just be wasting space.

Distance - 1506 steps, 1.20km

Wednesday, 21st May

Here are some more of those awesome trees, which I get to see on a regular basis. To be honest, I’d never even noticed them so much as I have this year - maybe that’s a side result of me being more independent.

Distance - 2311 steps, 1.84km

Thursday, 22nd May

With the holiday weekend that was coming up, unfortunately, the market caused the prices of fuel to go to an all-time high. The irony is that I saw a sign at a station later on that showed the highest example price at $3.50/gallon. Sadly, I don’t think that’s coming back anytime soon.

Distance - 2759 steps, 2.20km

Friday, 23rd May

Another in the continuing series of early-morning posts, this time taken at around 6.30am. As you can see, now that we’re approaching June, the sun is really shining earlier and earlier.

Distance - 3349 steps, 2.67km

Saturday, 24th May

First off, this interesting little animal. It might be a raccoon, possum, or something else. All I know is that it isn’t a horse, and isn’t a bird.

And, yet again, I have a picture of these trees. Can you tell I’m fascinated by them? It might just be that the colours don’t show up like this until the fall - and then they’re kinda muted…

Distance - 5556 steps, 4.44km

Sunday, 25th May

No photo, and not really any serious walking done, as it was a hectic day with having commitments all around the place to deal with.

Monday, 26th May

With it being Memorial (formerly Decoration) Day, a lot of people went to the cemetery to remember those who they may have lost while fighting for our country in whichever war or conflict they were sent to. Something that I had not seen before is the line of flags along the entryway into the cemetery.

Of course, after seeing that sight, we came to this one - of some kind of strange brew dog being offered for sale. Apparently a "Labradoodle" is a mix between a Labrador Retriever and a Poodle. Though I’m not sure, I’ll say that right now.

Distance - 4690 steps, 3.75km

Tuesday, 27th May

 

Among the things you should never drive along a highway - a bobcat. Fair enough that it’s probably the shortest route, but I hope that they did make their way to wherever they were going safely. Needless to say, I didn’t stick around to see if he did or not.

Distance - 5432 steps, 4.34km

Wednesday, 28th May

My friends the deer were back - and this time I got a good shot of them. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I can always edit the photo to make it more contrasted so that they actually show up.

Distance - 1421 steps, 1.13km

Thursday, 29th May

An interesting scene here, and I wasn’t using the macro. This is, as it might seem, the steering wheel and the centre console of the car. One thing that you can’t see is the CD player (which had no CDs in it at the time). Other than that, the walking was done with the lawnmower and moving wood back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth.

Distance - 8213 steps, 6.57km

Friday, 30th May

This has got to be one of the best scenes I get to see from time to time. Right across from the cows is a school. Unfortunately, because of that school (and the fact I was heading down to volunteer at 8AM instead of getting there at 7 — I was on my own), all the parents were coming to drop their kids off there.

Can I just say that they are some of the dumbest fucking drivers out there. They were letting people into the line, sitting for ages waiting to turn into the school, and just generally being complete fuckwits. Thankfully, I just went off onto the gravel shoulder carefully and drove around them and moved on with my life

Now, when I got home, I put the pedometer on the kitchen table, and then one thing led to another, and the last time it was seen was apparently somewhere in the kitchen…I haven’t been able to find it since, so I think I might need to shell out another $5 or so to buy another new one.

The good news, though, is that I do find more creative ways to lose things (what, with airport bathrooms, and kitchens, etc. )

Saturday, 31st May

Ah, again, we have another of my favourite trees - the brown one in the field of green. I know it’s probably half dead, but I still love the contrast it provides to the scene. By the way, the water that you can see down there has expanded and is now about 5 rows up into the adjacent field…

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In other news, I’ve been having a bit of a blue spell, not that big, but I do know it’s time for me to have a visit with my therapist - which I’ve scheduled for next Wednesday (which also happens to be the same day that I have an appointment with my doctor over there, so a bonus for saving time and gas ). Aside from me having a bit of a blue patch, things are going well - I’ve taken some time to enjoy a movie (which I’ll talk about sometime in the near future), also I’m liking my job still, and I was told last night that I am doing a good job - my only response was that I won’t change a thing.

Also, and I have to mention this because I’m proud of it - another compliment I got was that I am sounding a lot more confident in my voice. When I think about it, that is true because I don’t have that hesitation I used to have when talking to someone. That not only goes when I’m talking on the phone, but also whenever I’m talking to anyone in public. I have a certain comfort now when I’m talking to someone that I don’t generally have to worry about what I’m saying (just so long as I don’t go off of my rocker )

Wow, number 40 already…amazing!

Anyway, a better week for the walking, but admittedly, I should have been out more on Wednesday and Thursday when the temperatures were upwards of 20°C+ outside, but my old friend vampire was around again.

Also, a bit of an experiment - I’m going to use smaller images, just because the first one was (at my default) over 300k, so I resized it by half once more. I might switch to full size images in the future, but for now, I’ll stick to thumbnails..

Sunday, 20th April

First up, some of the trees that are starting to grow their leaves (and drop stuff on the road - the stuff on this tree was white and lengthy; you’ll see some more later). I gotta say that it does give you some hope that the winter is finally over.

I have to say that this is an amazing shot - I don’t know exactly what kind of bird this is, but it was one of those shots that, using the sports mode, actually came out properly and not all blurry.

Distance - 7270 steps, 5.81km

Monday, 21st April

This picture should serve as a lesson to me: don’t try to do anything south of the freeway before work. You won’t get anywhere. All of those cars are lined up to go onto the freeway, but of course, you have to sit with them on the road…for some reason all of the traffic doesn’t start to back up until you get past the turn off for my work…I almost freaked out, but made it in time. I decided to do what needed to get done (buy gas…) after work.

Distance - 1502 steps, 1.20km

Tuesday, 22nd April

This is looking out to one direction at a stoplight I sit at every single day. Sometimes I get lucky and land at the front of the queue, generating this kind of shot. And, honest! Those signs are blank.

Distance - 1667 steps, 1.33km

Wednesday, 23rd April

Yet another lesson learnt about vehicles - don’t leave them under a maple tree! See that clear spot? That’s where one of the cars sat for a couple of days and all the buds fell off of the tree, along with a ton of bird crap, landed on the car. Luckily all of that washes off in rain.

Distance - 2477 steps, 1.98km

Thursday, 24th April

No picture, mostly because it was raining during a good bit of the day, the beginning of some nice spring storms which make you wonder what nature has against us at times…

Distance - 1505 steps, 1.20km

Friday, 25th April

Ahh, early morning. A time when if I’m heading in to volunteer, I get to sit on the passenger side and take shots of the fog that accumulated from the temperatures not going too low overnight…

Distance - 4142 steps, 3.31km

Saturday, 26th April

This is another of those purely “cool” shots - of the sunset over a Saturday evening. At the left is the horse paddock. I think it’s safe to say that they won’t be there anytime soon, as the amount of water has just increased and increased. The other picture is from the train at the right…

This grain car is one that was quite interesting. Actually, it looks like a grain car, but it’s something to do with chemicals. The message on the side says that “Sumex Chemicals Exports”. I’m not totally surprised though that this kind of car would go through, considering I’ve seen some interesting foreign cars go through lately.

Distance - 2123 steps, 1.69km

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In other news… An interesting thing happened this week - I ran out of pages in my to do booklet. Never fear, though, because I knew it was coming and got myself two notebooks as they were available at Wal-Mart for $1.50 each (a savings of 34¢ over the original price). It’s interesting to look back at what was on my to-do lists some 200 days or so ago, when I was kinda closing out one phase of my life and moving into the one that I’m in now - the first day was October 1st, before I’d even gone driving again for the first time, and before I had a job again.

Looking forward, this week the weather doesn’t look the greatest, but I’m going to give it a go to walk during the week, and more than just at work. Also, I am kinda hoping that I can take a Friday off from volunteering, but if they’ve got something, I’m willing to go in for the day - it keeps me out of trouble and builds my connections in another location.

The week started out with not so great a bang with now walk on Sunday, but things did pick up with pictures being taken, albeit of some of the less interesting things in the world Let’s start with Monday, shall we?

Monday, 14th April

This has become a bit of a pain in my pocketbook as of late - while it may not be the most visible detail, the brakes on the car need replacing. In particular, the right front’s brakes are grinding, and whenever you step on the brakes, you have to be very careful, and even then you still get the grind. For that reason, I’ve started to use the other car (not to mention that that car gets slightly better gas mileage anyway…).

Distance - 3110 steps, 2.48km

Tuesday, 15th April

This is one of the trees that I go past on a regular basis on my walks - right now, since we’re just getting into spring, it doesn’t have any leaves on it just yet. Eventually, there will be leaves, flowers, and even fruit growing off of the tree.

Distance - 2663 steps, 2.13km

Wednesday, 16th April

This is another shot similar to the one that was posted last week, but on a different angle, and with a different focus. As I was walking along, I noticed this particular tree in the paddock area (still quite full with water as you can see here), and decided that it would make good fodder for a photo. I love the contrasting color of that tree.

Distance - 3946 steps, 3.15km

Thursday, 17th April

And, normal service has been restored. The face in the tree, often a portent of the way things are going (for what reason, I’m not sure, but it sounds cool, alright ), has been restored from its nadir a couple of weeks ago, with the disappearance of all of the snow that was surrounding it. Now, it can sit there and wait for the next snow to dislodge more of the pieces, I guess.

Distances - Before going to work (after walking) - 5612 steps, 4.48km; After work - 6569 steps, 5.25km

Friday, 18th April

I didn’t take any pictures - not that the inside of a mailroom would be that interesting (or that they’d appreciate me taking pictures of the inside of the building - something that I wouldn’t do anyway), but I did get a chance to do a bit of walking, including doing a little bit of a walk around the parking lot when I had my lunch outside on a nice grassy bank, though there were quite a few pine needles in in the way…

Distance - 3486 steps, 2.78km

Saturday, 19th April

I gotta fess up - it was a nice day, but I spent a lot of it sleeping…I’m still a bit of a vampire. The walking was held, for the most part, in the store where I went to buy groceries and other stuff that we needed for the house. The picture is of an area along the road I drive along to get to just about anywhere. Behind the trees is about a 10-meter (30-foot+) drop down into that grassy area. I’m not sure if a car’s gone off there, but it wouldn’t surprise me if someone had a problem at the road that ends just up the hill and ran through the trees!

Distance - 3368 steps, 2.69km

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In other news…outside of my issues with being the vampire once again, it’s remaining to be a good time for me. I’m still liking my job (and I definitely think that I’ve been accepted into the fray, since the folks I sit next to and I hold some banter while we’re working). As far as my confidence goes, I was involved in an interesting activity where a group of folks (from all age ranges, though I was the only person from my age range) discussing where the organization was headed. One of the strangest things is that I went into it thinking that I’d be bored out of my mind, but in the end, I think I was one of the most talkative people in the whole of the group.

And, one funny story before I hit publish on the post - on Saturday, as I was driving back from the store, I was approaching the turn off for the side road I need to take from the main highway. For some reason, the state didn’t put in a turn lane for the direction I was going in, so I had to signal and slow down while still in the main lanes of the road. As I was slowing down and getting ready to turn, I could see the driver in the car behind me get visibly aggravated at me for slowing down for the turn. So, I continue my action as I don’t want to fly around a 90° corner. As I go into the corner, the bright sparks in the car behind me finally realize that there is a second lane to use there, and they take advantage of it. Then, as they were passing me, the passenger made a punching like gesture (not the finger, but just kind of a shaken fist). How did I respond? I just waved and said hi, then turned off of the road.

And now, let’s get our week back to the normal routine with the walks post on Sunday, shall we?

Speaking of Sundays, last Sunday was the only day I didn’t record any walking, so I’ll just jump to Monday, with the majority of work walks.

Monday, 31st March

This was the view for most of my drive on Monday; it was even worse on the way home, when the visibility, I swear, could have been no better than about 100 meters the whole way, and to make things even better, I was the leader for quite a bit of the trip, and unable to use high-beams…an interesting experience, I say so myself.

Distance - 1339 steps, 1.07km

Tuesday, 1st April

Quite mundane, I know, but it was a part of my day, and the rest of the photos I took were mostly of scenes around the polls and of other gas stations (which would kinda give away too much about where I live).

Distance - 3170 steps, 2.53km

Wednesday, 2nd April

Well, something not “on the road” for the first time in a while; I took the first step towards a proper walk again by getting to the end of the first section of pavement. These ducks were in the area of where the horses are in the summer.

Distance - 2656 steps, 2.12km

Thursday, 3rd April

Erm, this is what happens when you have a camera that likes to focus on something else - you get the tree in focus, but the train’s not. While going over the pix, however, I thought to myself that I could do something with it - the solution was a crop to take out other bits of the photo

Distance - 3195 steps, 2.55km

Friday, 4th April

A while back, I showed the toll that the early winter snows had taken on the tree in the face. Well, now that the winter is just about completely over, there ain’t much left to it. Actually, it’s half gone. Part of me wonders if that’s got more to do with winter or with the growth of the tree.

Distances - after volunteering - 4953 steps, 3.96km; end of day, 9334 steps, 7.46km

Saturday, 5th April

Up front, I gotta admit that this picture is, I think, quite cool (though I have an even better one from today ). This is the full view of the normal horse paddock. The water’s there from all the snow runoff (and possibly other sources) from the winter. Despite the count of the pedometer (it was inverted in my pants for part of the walk), I made what would be considered a “regular” walk into the park, which is once again open for public use. There were quite a few folks out there enjoying the temperatures that were in the 60s (Fahrenheit, 15°C or so). It was also a good test of my new water hydration pack.

Distance - 3733 steps, 2.98km

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In other news, this week might see me taking a break from my weekly visits to the therapist, that way in case things crop up in the future, we have the flexibility to have an appointment when it’s necessary, instead of going over there and just kind of recapping on how far I’ve come up to this point.

One other note about this - do you know how hard it can be to type when you have a band-aid covered in gauze on your left index finger? I do - it’s not impossible, but a bit more challenging. That’s what I got for trying to cut a piece of bread and slightly missing and (ironically) nicking my left index finger for the second time over the last couple of years…

The first week in a new job, and the ice is still making things annoying, but the good news is that there is less and less of it around, and I foresee longer walks starting again very soon.

Sunday, 2nd March

There wasn’t a recorded walk held, but I did have a chance to take some pictures at sunrise. Luckily, the sun was actually able to come out at sunrise (7.10AM at the time of this picture). The only problem, of course, is that with clear skies and snow on the ground come slightly cooler temps in the morning. Ah well

Monday, 3rd March

Just to make some reference to the size of the hole cleared here, the scraper at left is only 7 inches wide. The hole isn’t much bigger, but of course, the more spaces you have to allow air in, the more chance the ice has to melt away.

Distance - 1245 steps, 0.99km

Tuesday, 4th March

This was the first of the days that I counted steps while working, so no picture. Also, again, the ice was causing headaches with walking outside…

Distance - 1109 steps, 0.88km

Wednesday, 5th March

Again, I counted steps at work, and no picture (unless you wanted to see what a new gas station looks like…or a store almost completed, with a comparison shot of what it looked like at Christmas).

Distance - 1022 steps, 0.81km

Thursday, 6th March

The news of the day was dominated by a retirement speech, and I did take pictures of all the TV stations covering it, but didn’t take any photos of my walk, which involved some ice clearing (though that was quite futile again).

Distance - 1190 steps, 0.95km

Friday, 7th March

This be the fruits of my labors - however, I didn’t quite clear the ice away, which made things slightly harder when I went out to do some more clearing over the weekend. The good news, though, is that the ice is clearing away finally, and I foresee the end of the ice quite soon.

Distance - 1540 steps, 1.23km

Saturday, 8th March

The walking was done around a newly opened store, where I picked up something that I’m going to be having some fun with on my walks when the paths clear in the park - a Frisbee. They were being given away by a radio station doing a promotion. However, since it was a newly-opened store, it was packed with people to the gills…I bet they’re not that packed now

Distance - 6060 steps, 4.84km

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In other news, it was the first week of my new job, which meant that I’ve had to shuffle my schedule quite a bit - and I’m still getting the feel of my new routines. You’d think that I’d be eating pretty lousily because of this new schedule, but I only had true fast food one day - Monday, when I stopped at McDonald’s - I also stopped to pick up a mini sub (just cold cuts) on Thursday, and a bagel sandwich on Tuesday.

I have another check-in with my doctor at the clinic this week, mostly to just check up on how I’m doing with my meds, and to check how I’m going with everything else. Then, I have a meeting with my therapist for the rest of that hour (because it was convenient to fit into her schedule). We’ll sort out a new schedule for appointments then.

As far as my job is going, I touched on this yesterday, it’s going quite well; sure, there are a lot of refusals and hang-ups, but for the most part everyone’s quite polite about everything - even the refusals, when they just say no thanks and I say thank you for your time. The good news is that I get paid weekly now. Yay!

I also wanted to mention that I’m setting a goal for myself this week - to take a decent length walk - to the entrance of the park - in order to get myself ready for the spring and summer. The priority for the work around the yard this week though is to get the ice cleared from the driveway, a project which will be assisted by temperatures going well above freezing.