Let's Make Some Art, Dammit

https://www.youtube.com/watch/TYfaQe0ayNE

https://www.youtube.com/watch/lAqfd4tz8LU

September 29, 2026. Harvest. We're having some nice weather these days and the harvest is in full force in these parts. This is the scene from my bike ride today just south of town. Other than that I did newsletter work and tried to set up a ChatGPT daily briefing (it blew through my quota in five minutes, so I'm taking a different approach). #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/v4N8ESP

September 26, 2926. Football. Because we have season tickets, we were at this game where the Ottawa RedBlacks stretched their season of futility into an 0-14 record instead of across town watching the Ottawa Titans win the Frontier League championship. I mean, football is fun and all, but you can only hold your head in your hands so many times. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/LNS1ePK

September 25, 2026. Baseball. The Titans' Hunter Stokeky strokes an RBI single to right field. We were part of the record-setting crowd of 10,303 watching as the Titans took a 2 games to 1 lead in the Frontier League championship. It was a long fun crazy game. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/q2ucAo5

September 24, 2026. Award. Here I am in the auditorium at the NRC Sussex Drive building to receive my award along with colleagues on the Research Ethics Board. Disappointed that the chair Gordon DuVal wasn't there. I wonder whether the transition from an academic board or ethics to a much more corporate board (and all that entails) maybe played a role. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/g7EDeyt

September 23, 2026. St. Albert. The green and white flag represents francophone Ontario; a similar flag waves over Casselman, where I live. This is from my daily bike ride. I also wrote an article in Leftish on the government's new infrastructure bill. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/YICoKgF

September 22, 2026. Trinkets. The portrait of me was made by a street vendor in Taipei, for free, because he wanted the challenge. I got the Jeff Bannister bobblehead at a Rangers game in Arlington. And the stack is a bunch of Blue Jays batting helmet ice cream dishes from games over the years. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/FQ3p0lB

September 21, 2026. Crabapples. These are from the tree that is perpetually just clinging to life in our back yard. Today was a rest day, mostly focused on my newsletter. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/UwXV0mD

September 20, 2026. Fenceline. Today we went out to Marlborough trail at the southern point in what is called Rural West Ottawa. It was a beautiful day and trail conditions were great, though with a surprising number of mosquitos for mid-September. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/h39vknP

September 19, 2026. River and Butterfly. Another cycling photo, just by the bridge west of Casselman along the Nation River. Normally I do a longer ride Saturday, but not today, just the usual 25 km. Though I did see a route to Lac Philippe that looks tempting. Maybe this week. Anyhow, I started the process of getting off Google Workspace today by moving my email over to Proton. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/Mzj4mbx

September 18, 2026. Corner. I took a bit of a different route today for my bike ride, covering some roads I haven't been to recently. This area is east of Casselman - it's open, it's flat, and it's mostly soybeans. Otherwise, another typical day doing newsletter posts. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/sQu15ok

September 17, 2026. Cedar Cones. This is our cedar hedge, which is fine on one side of the yard, but which has ron amok on the other side. It's going to cost us money. Today was a rest day and I focused on getting that space station in No Man's Sky. Success - a core station in Budullangr galaxy. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/hi1pFRk

September 16, 2026. Boating. A beautiful early fall day as I did my ride for the day. Here I'm along the Nation River capturing the scene. Other than that, my day was a carbon copy of yesterday. Not that that's a bad thing #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/R2ztqGo

  September 15, 2026. Paroisse St-Albert. Back at last to regular bike rides, this time without the snack stop for chips and chocolate. So my stop in St. Albert today was to take a picture of the church. Spent my day on the usual newsletter posts, and I've started working on getting my space station in No Man's Sky. https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_downes/55538170076/in/dateposted-public/  

September 14, 2026. Bison. We met Bernie, Debbie and Richard for lunch in Montebello, then followed them to Parc Omega to look at the animals. We've been meaning to do this for a while and spent the full afternoon there. It was bright sunlight so a bit hard to take photos, but I brought the bug lens and had some fun. The full set can be seen at https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_downes/albums/72177720335616430/   #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/A43xfN2

September 13, 2026. Feeding. Got out for a walk in the Conroy Pits Trails today - haven't been there for a while. The area is all overgrown and a maze of trails, and it's also a very large off-leash dog park (they're all good dogs, so we were fine with it). I used to come here to toboggan when I was a kid, so the place holds some memories for me. It was mostly just fields back then, though. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/ub1XGv0

September 12, 2026. Wall and Ceiling. I didn't get out today so we get a last minute photo from my bedroom. I really like the wood, and as I've mentioned before, I see a whole lot of dogs in the knots and markings on it. It was a good day to tend to my website software and backups. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/7x4NnQS

September 11, 2026. #Caturday This is what I faced when I went to go to bed - a cat on my pillow. Good thing I'm not allergic! I felt well enough to get stuff done but decided it was too soon for a bike ride. But I wrote a quick survey app, got the roof fixed, and dealt with the cedar hedge. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/iz1oB63

September 10, 2026. Playoffs. The Ottawa Titans played before a nice crowd tonight in the first game of the wildcard playoff series. Great game, great atmosphere, and the Titans won 4-2 with two runs in the eighth. Still being really careful about what I eat. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/fGBqXrP

September 9, 2026. Rain and Recovery. This is the view through the car windshield at Costco. Weekly shopping. I felt pretty beat up today and very gingerly managed time food and water. Not a completely lost day - I thought the newsletter was pretty good - but not productive either. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/BG8a6Om

September 8, 2026. Sick. This is the view along the railway tracks where I took a short walk today, trying to get some air. It did not end well. I can't blame bad food this time; it has to be a reaction to my medication, and likely triggered by having chips and chocolate two days in a row. Anyhow, the whole day was a write-off. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/kd7DUMm

September 7, 2026. Creek. Another nice day for a bike ride, so after doing my newsletter I went out again. Same route as usual, same stop for a snack at St. Albert. This little creek winds its way through farmland down to the Nation River. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/G2gyhPO

September 6, 2026. Sunday Ride. It was a beautiful day for a bike ride and since walking was still difficult it made sense to cycle instead of hike. It was just the usual jaunt to St. Albert. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/T7tI3Ez

September 4, 2026. A Short Walk. Last day at Mont Tremblant. My legs were still pretty bad but I got out for a short walk before driving home. Watched the ball game in the evening. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/h9KAx8E

September 3, 2026. Mont Tremblant. Scene from the village. I had intended to do some cycling today but my legs were on fire from yesterday and even walking was a challenge. So I had a nice day just relaxing at the resort - something I pretty much never do. Having an afternoon ball game to watch made it even better. #SDDaily.. URL: https://ift.tt/w0bZ9uV

September 2, 2026. Sommet. We drove to Mont Tremblant today and then took on a challenging hike along the Sommets trail, where this was taken, down the "rustic and muddy" Parben trail, then along Johannsen to the bottom, about 12 km of difficult and rough trail. Totally worth it for the views, but very hard on my legs. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/G4x3FH0

September 1, 2026. Caps. This is inside my garage, where I hang my caps. Why so many? Well, I have sports teams I need to support. RedBlacks, Titans, blue Jays, Senators. Plus some that let me blend in in Europe and elsewhere. Rain today. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/Ez7oiKg

August 31, 2026. Office, Another View. Day of rest today. I added some functionality to my gRSShopper extension and tackled a server bug. #SDDaily. URL: https://ift.tt/ycEUN8l