Let's Make Some Art, Dammit

September 30, 2020. We are at Mont Tremblant to take in the fall colours and the mountain wildlife. This was one of a small herd of three deer having dinner on one of the slopes near the village. https://flic.kr/p/2jMLSyA

September 28, 2020. Andrea made this cake in preparation for our short vacation. It's a yeasted cake with pudding in the middle and absolutely delicious. Today I gave a seminar in the morning and did some writing in the afternoon, getting as prepared as possible for a few days off. https://flic.kr/p/2jMMpBP

September 27, 2020. It was a bit windy for cycling today, and anyhow I had my fill yesterday, so I tayed in, watched the ball game, and prepared some posts for next week's OLDaily. Work tomorrow then a few days in the Laurentians. https://flic.kr/p/2jLYUjC

September 25, 2020. This time every year we get an influx of ladybugs (or something similar) into the house. The kittens love watching them - here's Charlemagne (with his many extra toes) hunting them on the ceiling. A couple of longer meetings today having to do with data literacy and AI ethics. https://flic.kr/p/2jLUrup

September 26, 2020. I spent the day riding from Winchester to Spencerville and back, 113 km total ride through some beautiful eastern Ontario farm and forest country. This is near Cass Bridge on the Nation River late in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day for cycling, a bit of a wind, but warm and sunny. https://flic.kr/p/2jLwSoG

September 24, 2020. Today wasn't especially productive as I messed around with configuring my browser extensions and wrote some posts and did some background reading. Lunchtime we went in to the Costco; this is a photo of Ottawa's greenbelt on Anderson Road where we were waiting for a construction delay. https://flic.kr/p/2jKUgbE

September 22, 2020. I have no idea what makes it organic, but it's lo-cal, and I have two a day. I should probably cut back to one. Today was a meeting day, and in between meetings I caught of on email and my newsletter. https://flic.kr/p/2jKtEL8

September 21, 2020. This is a piece of frozen yellowfin tuna. I have one piece each day - or sometimes haddock or cod, but usually tuna. In the past I've also eaten frozen salmon and scallops, but there were issues of these thawing and being refrozen at Costco. Today was a solid work day, doing funding proposal evaluations in the morning and on a data literacy project in the afternoon. https://flic.kr/p/2jKanwQ

September 20, 2020. This is a roma tomato. I try to have two of these each day (sometimes I run out, and sometimes Costco is out of stock). Today was a quiet day - I wrote a section on a paper, watched the ball game, that's about it. https://flic.kr/p/2jJUTPL

September 18, 2020. I've been enjoying a number of British comedy shows on YouTube recently, including '8 out of 10 cats does Countdown' and 'Taskmaster' (they're delayed by about three years, so the current events shows are useless). Today, as I stated in a Twitter post, I spent the day working on a promotion case, as I said, my least favourite activity. https://flic.kr/p/2jJuJhb

September 17, 2020. I spent a good ten hours writing my post 'Boxing gRSShopper' but it was crucial to have a record of the steps involved. I took a break in the middle, though, to go to the store; this is me sitting in the car waiting for Andrea in the Metro parking lot. https://flic.kr/p/2jJuDHr

September 16, 2020. Any time I go to the basement or to the garage Emma scoots over to say goodbye to me through the stair railing. Her choice of railing isn't always smart; there's a 12 foot drop under this bit of railing (the cats have torn down the cardboard barrier, as you can see on the floor). GitHub recorded 66 contributions from me today, though most were minor bug fixes, as I finalized the code for my first interation of gRSShopper in a Docker container. https://flic.kr/p/2jJuv6g

September 19, 2020. It was pretty cool today when I set out from the Laggan School parking lot for a ride to Voyageur Provincial Park and back, but it was never really unpleasant and I managed an enjoyable 101 km on a beautiful brisk fall day. https://flic.kr/p/2jJdwWd

September 15, 2020. I was taking more photos for the insurance company and noticed our geraniums struggling in pond water after the recent rains. I know the geraniums don't like it, but I couldn't resist a photo of the water, which has formed into an ecosystem of its own. More gRSShopper coding today - bit of a problem, it was all set up for SSL, but the Docker container isn't SSL. Also, I wrote a short blog post. https://flic.kr/p/2jGYYCq

September 14, 2020. Yesterday (Sunday) was a work day, making videos, and so was today, gRSShopper coding. I'm also taking pictures all through the house for our insurance company, which can't send assessors around any more because Covid. This is one of our interior angles, the stairs and walkway up to my office and some other rooms. The artwork is called 'Eagle Moon' and I've had it since 1989. https://flic.kr/p/2jGZH3g

September 13, 2020. Exactly six months ago we started social distancing for the pandemic. Through late January and early February I had been stocking our makeshift pantry with essentials, just in case. It wasn't a huge stockpile, but the idea was to have a month's worth of emergency food - a big bag of rice, some cases of canned fish and veggies, cat food, etc. We've maintained it at that level since then, and as you can see, it's a nice modest emergency supply, with special attention to things Costco sometimes runs out of (sadly, our Jelly Belly horde has been depleted). https://flic.kr/p/2jGZD7R

September 11, 2020. This is a ratty old rose at the Shoppers in Ottawa, where we went in the afternoon for groceries and such (the Costco is right across the street from it now). https://flic.kr/p/2jGZoBt

September 12, 2020. I drove down to Cornwall and then rode my bicycle up to Lancaster and back along the St. Lawrence, for a 68 km ride on a cool but beautiful early fall afternoon. For listening entertainment I had 'Treasure Island', which I had never actually read. Quite a good listen, and wraps up the loose ends from 'Black Sails' nicely. https://flic.kr/p/2jFU752

September 10, 2020. The Day of Five Meetings started at 8:00 in the fog and carried on all day. But it was a productive day and I survived, and even had time to complete my newsletter. https://flic.kr/p/2jFmBWi

September 9, 2020. This is a scene from a lunch-hour bike ride I was able to take to St-Albert and back (29 km because of a detour). Today I worked on gRSShopper some, the newsletter (as always) and preparing for tomorrow's meetings. https://flic.kr/p/2jFmzfG

September 8, 2020. Julia doesn't like being photographed, but she posed for this one. More rain today, but it wouldn't have mattered, as today was a Day of Three Meetings (hah! wait 'til Thursday!) and some project work in between. https://flic.kr/p/2jEUsA6

September 7, 2020. Andrea sometimes is allowed to sit on the front edge of the chair as Charlemagne likes to make himself at home in it. Today was a holiday but because of the rain it was a work day; I spent half of it finishing my Perl on Docker setup, and the other half working on a paper. https://flic.kr/p/2jEUqen

September 6, 2020. I drove to the ferry at Wendover and took my bicycle across to Parc national de Plaisance in Quebec for a 55 km ride through the marshes and forests alongside the Ottawa river. It was a little cool but bright and beautiful all day. https://flic.kr/p/2jE6xS3

September 5, 2020. Health, bike and weather finally cooperated today, allowing me to get out for a 65 km ride in a slightly cool but beautiful fall day. This forest in Warina caught my eye, the forest floor being covered as it is with white flowers. https://flic.kr/p/2jDD45G

September 4, 2020. More foliage from our back yard. Today was more productive; I did work on a VR project, rebuilt the base Perl Docker image, and of course did a number of newsletter posts (more than usual). I had plans to go out for a late afternoon ride but the rain derailed that idea. https://flic.kr/p/2jDCxab

September 3, 2020. These asters are thriving in our back yard. I've been tired all week - I'm hoping getting out on the bike again will put that right. Today was another work day but not especially productive as my main focus was reducing backlog. https://flic.kr/p/2jD4aka

September 2, 2020. After taking the sunset photo I turned around and saw a horizon to horizon rainbow, faint in the red light of the sunset, but unmistakable, and when I moved a few steps to the left, it framed our house perfectly. Since the pandemic in thousands of windows around here we've seen pictures of rainbows and the slogan Ça va bien aller - it's going to be OK. https://flic.kr/p/2jCYaJE

September 2, 2020 part 1. Today I spent the morning working on a long piece of correspondence, the noon hour going into Costco, and the rest of the day doing background reading and the newsletter, finishing late enough to go out and capture this picture of the sunset that followed today's rains. https://flic.kr/p/2jCUAss

September 1, 2020. The blue jay has been back the last few days. I slept very poorly, then was up before six, and actually got in a full day of work by three - evaluating funding proposals - but instead of being able to take advantage of the afternoon had to take a nap instead. I've been tired these last few days. Working too hard. :) https://flic.kr/p/2jCUwdk

August 31, 2020. Monday. First full week back in the office (well, home office). Began by doing time sheets and catching up on email. Evening, with the light streaming in through the front window, I captured Charlemagne and Emma on the pillow in the box grooming each other. https://flic.kr/p/2jCKTxc

August 29, 2020. This photo is actually from a few days later, but I'm missing a photo for today, and this one is two nice not to share as a daily photo. https://flic.kr/p/2jCQ9ec

August 28, 2020. I'm in today; there's rain outside and I've just been writing newsletter posts in advance. Here I am trying to convince a cat to pose for me. No, it was not working out. https://flic.kr/p/2jCKP9Y

August 20, 2020. I thought I would go out for a bike ride today, now that I have it back, but I didn't feel up to it, especially with a minor biking injury, so I stayed in, watched the ball game, and did some writing. This is a rose in the front yard. https://flic.kr/p/2jCPg3U