Recent books

 You will have seen some of these photos, ranging from 1942 to 2001. There is no way you haven't, But you probably haven't seen all of them. I hadn't. 

It's said that if you need to explain a photograph to get the story, it's a failure. This is not true. There's always more detail to a great story, and sometimes text is the only way to get those details. 

This is not a book to flip through. The photos are amazing and are worth taking the time to appreciate. Some are still a punch in the gut.

I particularly looked at the camera equipment used for the photo. Almost all of them were captured on film, using cameras that are beyond obsolete by today's standards. And yet, look at the photos! They are a testament to the skill of the photographers. There's even a short bio of the photographers.

As you can tell, this is a library book. Since it costs nothing to take a book out, I'm willing to give them a try. There are similar books, but I was most reminded of the TV shows, The Librarian, and The Librarians. This one started off well. Six people, each with their special magical talent, selected for inclusion into a secret society. 

And then something happened. I found myself struggling in the dialogue. Now, I'm normally a dialogue kind of guy. That's what I really like to write, and like to read. Except these characters went around and around, never really going anywhere or resolving anything, just floundering in their various neurosis. 

After the first few chapters I lost track of which person had which talent, and who was buddies with who, and what their secret mission was, and the complicated back story of how they got that way. So far, there's been one bit of them actually doing something, and most of that was blithering to each other. Worst of all, the dialogue is lead. Thunk thunk thunk. Plod. 

I got about half way through, and realized I'd totally lost track. I didn't like any of the characters, and didn't care what happened to them. So I stopped. Linda enjoyed it, and you might as well. We have the sequel coming and I'll probably give that a try. Maybe there will be a "what has gone before" summary of this book, and things will be better in the next one.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Flower

The last dahlia photo of the year.

Peony

You get a bunch of the pink peony, all taken July 5 of this year.

Tombstone

A wider shot from the same viewpoint as yesterday's blog.

River reflections

Lynx

Film, Kodak Gold 200

Linda's art

I'll bet you didn't know one of the casualties of recent times are those blocks of green floral foam. Linda went looking for some to use in her seasonal displays, but failed. (It's not often she fails.) There was none to be had. In previous years I'd picked some up during my various errands, being limited by how much the car could hold. Then Linda got more. And more. 

So there was a change of plan this year. She was hoping to get the displays done before we went into the deep freeze, and scuttled about getting the required supplies, and raided her own stock. BTW, the deep freeze is scheduled for tonight. There isn't much daylight this time of year, so she was up and about, trying to get it all done in between her other stuff. Retired people, you know. Always on the go, doing something. 

On the topic of on the go, before I forget, a few weeks ago she was nominated and elected to the Board of the Master Gardener's Association. And I was elected president of our local community association.

So here is the annual photo series of the seasonal displays.

This one isn't a created display. I liked how the light fell on the leaves of the white peony.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Flower

Peony

Tombstone

River reflections

Lynx

Film

A year goal

There's been 3 major bouts of swimming, and one minor one. The first was way back in the day, when I still had hair, roughly when I started working for the City. I remember being fairly fast in the water, though it was all strength and cardio, and little actual technique. 

Then I stopped. That was the first bout. I blame the shift work. I blame it for a lot of things, and with good reason. But I'm not going to let this digress into a shift work rant. The only thing I'll say is don't. And if you are, move heaven and earth to get off it.

Then in 2002 or 3 I realized I was getting really big, and feeling out of breath after even a short walk. I read something about un-fitness and diabetes that frightened me. Lots of my co-workers at the time were runners, which I thought was nuts at the time. I have since apologized to those people, since I had a major outbreak of adult onset running about then. I'm mostly over it now, I think, though there are periodic yearnings.

If I organized my life carefully, I had time to swim before work, so I started back working on fitness. I had remembered that a 20 minute K, (or 40 lengths of a 25 m pool) was easy peasy, not even getting into aerobic zone. It took a long time to get back there. A really long time, much longer than I thought it would be. I clearly remember pushing hard to finish the first time just under the 20 minutes, and nearly puking on the pool deck after. Then the very next swim was 19:30 and it seemed like I wasn't even trying.

From there swimming became part of the Ironman training. This is where the running came in. The focus of this swimming wasn't really to swim fast, or particularly far, only 4K max, but rather to swim the iron and half iron distances in a respectable time without trying, to save the energy for the bike and run.

As a digression, one of the training sessions was Katie giving me a swim, and apologizing because it was so boring. I had to swim for an hour without stopping. No sets, no ladders, nothing, just a swim. We met up for coffee after and she apologized again when asking how it went. I still remember the look of shock on her face when I told her the first time I looked at my watch was an hour and 12 minutes, and with only a few hundred K to go, I just rounded it up to 4 K and stopped.

Some of my readers might remember blog posts about my inner shark. Here's a post with several links. The best one is here, but the others might amuse you. I've been hoping he'll come back to visit soon. There's lots of prey in this pool, but I have to admit they wouldn't be much of a challenge.

That second bout of swimming started at Inglewood pool, since that was on the way to work. I remember the really really shallow end. There were some swims at the pool in Forest Lawn, but they were a bunch of yahoos with no respect for the lane markings. Lots of swims happened in Renfrew. There were lots of serious swimmers there in the morning, and we all knew who was fast and slow, and we sorted ourselves into the appropriate lanes. Then I was working downtown, and started swimming at Lindsay Park/Talisman/Repsol/MNP. I loved it there, and would love to still be swimming there, if only it wasn't so far away. I'm swimming now at Canyon Meadows. It means about an hour less in the car for each swim, so I call that a win. 

Even after the one and done Ironman, I still swam regularly. One of the major rewards of staying in the pool was teaching Michelle how to swim. That bout ended Dec 2018 with a trip to New Zealand. Essentially 2 months without swimming, and the first swim back it was like my arms had forgotten how. It was pitiful. I was actually worried about the lifeguards harpooning me and hauling me out on deck to render down the blubber for lamp oil.

I was just getting back into the groove when we went to New Zealand again. That was the minor bout. This time, I was determined to find some pools and take the time to get in a few swims, and I did. Dunedin pool is lovely. One of the swims was in Auckland with my buddy Katie, just before her return home. That was fun. It was sort odd seeing a friend home on the other side of the world.

Except it was all for naught. COVID was in full swing when we got home with the pools closed. I didn't swim again till August 2021. I walked lots but I missed the pool. As expected everything had forgotten how to swim, but I kept at it. My consolation was that everybody else at the pool was in the same position, so I didn't feel so bad.

At the beginning of 2022 I set myself the goal of swimming 365 Km, an average of 1 Km a day, but knowing that there were lots of days the pool would be closed, or the times wouldn't be convenient for me, or I'd have other things on the go. The stretch target was 400 Km. Typical swims were 1.5K or so, and I was tired after. Distances gradually got longer, and a bit faster. It's funny, during training I tracked bike and run distances, but I don't think I tracked swim. 

And today, Nov 26, I clocked 365 K!! Yay me! Michelle videoed my marking up the Board at the pool. Now working on the stretch goal of 400 K, and as long as I stay healthy it should be attainable. Next year I'll be working on getting faster. The movie is actually pretty terrifying in some ways. Here's a still from it.

Of the Day

Driftwood

Flower

Peony

Tombstone

River Reflections

Lynx

I have often seen house cats in this exact pose, almost but not quite taking a step, waiting to see if the human has noticed them sneaking up on the prey.

Film

Sean and I took a walk through Carburn park, me with Kodak Gold 200 in the GW690, looking for reflection photos. This starts a short series of photos. For whatever reason I didn't want to put them all together in a blog. Except first there is a Linda serendipity from July 2017. I couldn't remember being on a boat then, and didn't recognize the background. I had to go into the other photos from that day to realize it was Heritage Park.

Murals

In the go big or go home department, I've always liked the big wall murals. There have been more and more of them showing up in Calgary. They are an interesting photographic challenge. The biggest problem is the clutter between you and the mural; cars, people, railings, and those planter boxes in parking lots built to keep people from parking like idiots. I've nothing against those things in general, but it's annoying in the particular between me and a subject. Then there's the problem of getting the right distance from it for the lens you have available. Light and shadow can play a role for good or bad. Much of the time you're looking up, which can distort the image. Sometimes the only place to stand for the photo is in a parking spot, or to risk your life standing on the street. Which explains why I like to go with a buddy for these sort of expeditions. It's good to have someone else to keep an eye out.

In the event, Kelly and I met up at the under construction Stampede LRT station, and we wandered around the east end of the Beltline for a while. I was in a film mood, and only brought the Canon 7. This has a 50mm lens, which puts a cramp on the distance issue. We had a wonderful time strolling along. I'm really pleased with how the images turned out.

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7. As a bonus you get this piece of art work. I was working hard trying to get the whole ball in the image, in focus, and hoping to get a nice gradation of tones from the bright side of the sphere to the shadowed side.

I don't know who the artists are for these, and would love to credit them. In most cases, all you're seeing is a portion of the whole work. (Remember what I said about a 50mm lens?) Michelle was kind enough to send along a link to the BUMP festival website, where you can find out the artist info. 

Of the Day

Driftwood

Flower

Peony

River Reflections

Tombstone

Fox was a bit twitchy about us.

Lynx

Film

This is the last of the Tombstone 6x9 photos. However, I just got back 3 rolls of 35 mm film, and some of those will start showing up here. There's lots more digital Tombstone photos to come.