Let's Make Some Art, Dammit

September 30, 2018. Very much a rest day. I went for a walk around this industrial suburb to take some photos, had lunch at a Japanese restaurant, took a nap, watched the last Jays game of the year, and puttered online for a bit. https://flic.kr/p/2bw1SJJ

September 29, 2018. This is the train pulling into the station at Casselman. I was able to walk here from home, and to take the train (plus a bus) to Meadowvale in Mississagua. It's nice to finlly b able to take advantage of this feature of Casselman; having the train was one of the reasons we moved here (but the train schedules and pricing haven't been cooperative). https://flic.kr/p/2bAbYAP

September 28, 2018. This bee has a face full of flower as it scrounges for a late September meal. There are still lots of flowers in the back yard, but they're getting scrawny. https://flic.kr/p/2bs9Gtb

September 27, 2018. Finished up the events stuff today - two days of solid work. These are the Home Run Glasses we got at the Blue James game in Montreal to start the season. You were supposed to download an app that would cause them to flash whenever a home run was hit, but we never did that. Neat idea, but my distrust of apps overrules my support for the Jays. https://flic.kr/p/2bwrA8M

September 26, 2018. Toronto finishes its last home game of the season with a win over Houston. John Gibbons waves good-bye. Working on gRSShopper Events code today. https://flic.kr/p/MLza2p

September 25, 2018. The 2018 season is coming to an end at last. It hasn't been a good baseball season, as Alex will attest. https://flic.kr/p/2aqTtvy

September 24, 2018. This beauty was feasting on a New England aster, not a goldenrod, but they love both plants equally. And we have an excellent supply of both in our back yard. Today was an unusual stay-at-home day because of the tornado damage in the city, but I got a lot done (including creating a nifty help system for gRSShopper and starting work on the MOOC course structure, and 90% of a related article). https://flic.kr/p/2bjW6f1

September 24, 2018. The sedum are now a bright pink, which means that summer is over and fall has arrived. *sigh* This was another cool day, and again I decided to skip the bike ride. I feel like I've been exhausting myself and need to rest. https://flic.kr/p/2bpnULZ

September 22, 2018. The geraniums have has a tough summer. An earlier storm scattered them across the yard (and we still haven't found one of the flower pots, just the plant). And they got knocked around again yesterday. As for me, I had a very quiet day indoors watching baseball and taking naps.I've learned over the years to allow myself the occasional day where I do utterly nothing. These days are not wasted. They're lived. https://flic.kr/p/29WNNqr

September 21, 2018. Got my report done in the morning, and some housekeeping in the afternoon, then scooted out of the office ahead of the oncoming storm. A tornado would touch down in the region, and the wind and lightning left a mess everywhere, but I was in and out of Costco and down the highway before it hit. We would get a weakened version later on in Casselman, and it lingered through the evening. https://flic.kr/p/2bkfPQe

September 20, 2018. This was a nice event at the office - the awards ceremony in the morning, food trucks at noon and a bunch of games based on the SI system of measurement that raised money for the United Way and gave us a chance to play. https://flic.kr/p/PcpJWb

September 19, 2018. I finally finished editing and revising a long-overdue paper today, so yay. That and some reading and an online meeting and that was my day. This is a young mountain ash in our back yard. https://flic.kr/p/2baJ1xU

September 18, 2018. Greg Marlin spends a moment or two pondering before presenting a Node-React-Neo4J application at the Graph Meetup on the sixth floor of the Shopify offices in downtown Ottawa. Of course the demo did not go as planned, but that was great, because we got to see his thought process and live coding. Can't wait to download and play with the code when it's available on Git. https://flic.kr/p/2baHmXJ

September 17, 2018. I was pretty sleepy today and didn't get a whole lot done (sort of makes up for working all day yesterday, I guess). I puttered in APIs and stuff, ran into roadblocks, but at least did a good newsletter. This is the scene in our back yard this evening as the leaves are beginning to turn. https://flic.kr/p/P3BWrA

September 16, 2018. I had a day of rest after yesterday's long ride, watching the ball game and puttering about. I put up the grsshopper.downes.ca website, so today's photo of a grasshopper in our back yard is especially appropriate. https://flic.kr/p/28opzbw

September 15, 2016. I cycled more than 100km today - a 'century' - south through Avonmore to the Long Sault Parkway on the St. Lawrence River and back up through Finch. 106 km total. It was very hot, peaking at around 29C. https://flic.kr/p/28mjgmf

September 14, 2018. This is what the back yard looked like at 7 this morning, the Sun rising behind a morning mist. https://flic.kr/p/29GgaQD

September 13, 2018. This is the fridge door, and yes, it's from today, not 2016. The paper butterflies are getting very old and fragile - I bought them at a table in a mall in St. Albert on the way home from the north country some time in 1991. https://flic.kr/p/29Z6YHU

September 12, 2018. The idea of a treat ball is that it should be difficult for the cat to get at the treat. It then plays and bats the ball around the room. Our cats, however, have become experts at extracting treats from the treat balls, to the extent that they're just temporary storage locations for kibbles that will eventually be left on the floor, to be eaten at their leisure. We would discontinue the treat ball and just go with the bowl - but the cats won't let us. https://flic.kr/p/NWTqL7

September 11, 2018. One of the nice things about work recently is that I've had the time and space to do some serious learning. Today was a case in point as I tackled WebMentions and wrote some standard-compliant functions. The real outcome here isn't the programming, though, it's the learning I did to complete the programming. These are hosta flowers in the evening light on the front lawn. https://flic.kr/p/2aZv5Z4

September 10, 2018. It was cold and rainy today, not a pleasant day at all. Good day to be working, which I did, learning how to produce Accelerated Mobile Pages. This photo is from our front yard and features a spider in her home (if you look closely you can see her tucked away in the tunnel). https://flic.kr/p/29zanLr

September 9, 2018. 25x50 Day 25. I reached my target of 2000km for the year today, cycling 53 to Dunvegan and back. There I discovered the annual Harvest Festival in full swing. Cool and cloudy and windy, it felt like fall. https://flic.kr/p/29x8neF

September 8, 2018. The weather today was crisp and brilliantly clear, which made for a slightly cool but excellent day of cycling. I had hurt my back in Montreal and wasn't sure I'd be OK, but I was good for a 60km ride, leaving me only 30km from my goal. But more, I felt really good, and with the air so clear everything looked extra brilliant. https://flic.kr/p/29vjJXR

September 7, 2018. I was pretty tired after my very long day yesterday. Even so, I got a few things done. But mostly it was me dragging myself through the day. This is lexi in the evening having a drink. If that tap looks new, it should - it was chosen and installed by Andrea a few weeks ago. https://flic.kr/p/NL18zL

September 6, 2018. I caught the 6:30 train out of Ottawa this morning (which meant I left home at 5:30) to Montreal to catch an event. In the afternoon I had some time so I hit the Picasso exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. I'm uploading this on the train back this evening. Long day. https://flic.kr/p/2aQfyJX

September 5, 2018. 25x50 Day 23. Today started out with a dental appointment. That went pretty well, so I decided to take the rest of the day as a personal day and cycle to Marvelville on what was probably the last really nice day of the year. https://flic.kr/p/29GTwuG

September 4. This is a parking spot for plug-in vehicles, and a no parking sign. They shut off the power last week. NRC had three plug-in spots at my building when I bought my plug-in car in July, but now we're down to zero. It's ridiculous. There's no coherent story. I've heard three separate versions. It shouldn't be such a big deal; I've been asking about it since February and we've only moved backwards. Anyhow. Put this photo in the fail blog. https://flic.kr/p/2aLvSLT

September 3, 2018. Alternative title: 'grazing the cedum fields'. No ride today with tightness in my calf, but I'm only three rides away from my target. So I spent the day working on the gRSShopper reader application. Just like this bee, working on the newly flowering cedum. https://flic.kr/p/27YK6KJ

September 2, 2018. I spent another day cycling out in the country and this time ended up at the North Stormont Fair in Newington. As I cycle through the farms and talk with the people at the fair, I can't help but think that this part of Ontario - the dairy industry and the people it supports - is what some trade negotiators want to destroy. These people and their livelihood - this is what's at stake. I hope our negotiators don't forget that. https://flic.kr/p/LWAMGp

September 1, 2018. Mostly a rest day today. I did a 50 km ride to Avonmore and back. This is a railway crossing near Avonmore. https://flic.kr/p/LUDHvz

August 31, 2018. It was pretty quiet in the office today, not surprisingly the day before the long weekend, and so I was able to work without too many distractions - though I did have a few informal meetings with the other die-hards in the office. In the evening I got my rebuilt bicycle wheel back. I took this with my phone on the way home - it's the Nation River in the sunset just west of town. https://flic.kr/p/27U9UJh

August 30, 2018. I was up early to finish my presentation for today (because of yesterday's distractions) and spent almost five hours with clients outlining distributed ledger technologies. It was a good day but a lot of work. https://flic.kr/p/LU43Pp