On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

I have really got to do a walking tour of the city. Or pull together enough of my Flickr collection to turn into a story for here.

The bird-feeder hanging in the back yard is getting business. Squirrels are running this way and that, up and down tree branches and across the yards, front and back. At least one cat per month on average is getting the attention that requires "Missing" posters being taped onto community mailboxes. I've got a follow-up dental appointment tomorrow, and probably one more day of data entry work to finish after that's done. Also, I need to talk with my CPAP machine supplier about paperwork I believe I should have signed by now. The job search continues. This afternoon, ByMUG has a Zoom meeting for me to be part of.

Meantime, I have compression socks to take out of the wash to air-dry.

It was a good walk keeping up with the parade. It felt at times, though, as if I was getting too far ahead of the column, even with the change of route. Hoping to upload images to my Flickr account later tonight after supper. There were a lot of images, as per usual.

Originally written for the Pen and Paper Workshop...

Cold Air, Firmly in Place – Dwight Williams - 14 November 2017

The cold air stays in place now. November is half done, and the cold air preceding the stronger snowfalls to come is firmly in place. There’s no evading it any longer.

The snowfall mentioned a moment ago is still maybe a few weeks away from properly installing itself across the streets and fields. That can’t be helped. Even allowing for climate derangement and the delays and tempering that it now brings to the equation, that snow will come.

Those of us who travel in this newly returned chill must make their preparations accordingly. There is no way around that need.

When I went downtown to observe the Remembrance Day ceremonies this past weekend, I bundled up. Three above-the-waist layers under the jacket. Gloves. Two under-the-pants layers. Yes, there were also over-socks on top of the compression socks I wear for circulation reasons.

You can argue that I was foolish in taking off the gloves to work cell-phone or camera as I believed the moment required. I usually take pictures of the ceremonies when I attend in person. Sometimes, I’ve posted copies of the images to my Flickr account for the public to look at if it suits them. It usually costs my hands a bit of comfort to do that.

As I write this, I’ve yet to upload those images. I chalk that up to concerns over hard drive space on my computer. You can expect that I’ll figure out a solution in due time. Dumping a few duplicate files here and there isn’t an impossibility.

This year, I took a different vantage. Most years, my chosen spot is along Elgin Street, usually either south or west of the War Memorial. Not this time. The northeastern corner of the square, along Rideau Street. In front of the Chateau Laurier, looking southward. That meant coping with the glare of the sun to some extent.

This isn’t impossible at this time of year for either me or the camera. But it is problematic. You’re warned often enough, by professional and amateur photographers alike, not to aim right at the sun when you shoot outdoors. The sensor can be damaged, burned out. A good thing, then, that I didn’t make that mistake.

Anyway, back to the hands. It did cost me some comfort to get those images. I waited, foolishly, until I’d moved on from the ceremony itself to the Peacekeepers’ Monument to put the gloves back on. There was a bit more wandering after that: from Reconciliation Square – a personal name for the Monument site – to Patty Boland Pub to the ByWard Market Building to Globe Mags and Cigars to lunch in the Rideau Centre. At which point, I decided I was aching too much to not go straight home.

I didn’t get images of the collected wreaths at the Tomb. Sorry.

It's the day after Remembrance, and the day is grey and wet. I was expecting the day itself to be that way, and there was that brief bout of rain running from 930 to 1030 AM, but it didn't stick around.

We didn't get the helicopter squadron flying over the square this time. That was part of the changes that I found welcome. The most obvious part, in fact.

The last part of the ending, the part called the "Vice-Regal Party Departure" - which unofficially includes the Prime Ministerial party, truth be known - was far more relaxed. Sure, they made for the north-side "back door" of the War Memorial, but there were those crowds, so the new guy did his meet-and-greet thing. Which lasted close to a quarter-hour so far as I know. If you watched the ceremonies on TV or the Net, you might have a better idea of the exact time elapsed before they finally got into their cars.

No, I didn't go to look at all the wreaths this time out. After three hours' standing, I needed to just sit for a few minutes and then made my way up to the Peacekeepers' Monument. And then slowly back down to the Rideau Centre for lunch...and then off to Beechwood Cemetery. My family's got a plot in the Cremation Gardens, so I've got a nice and convenient excuse for visiting on a semi-regular basis.

But no. I wanted to do a walking tour of the place, west to east, and had been wanting it for a couple of years. Much of this was due to pure historical and design curiosity. The first excuse was to see the grave of Peter Henderson Bryce, whose death may have gone relatively unremarked when it happened. But there's the story of how he argued with Duncan Campbell Scott over the fate of kids forced into the Indian Residential Schools who'd come down with tuberculosis.

The story is better told by Charlie Angus, MP and musician. Or maybe Cindy Blackstock. Simply put, Dr. Bryce was a whistleblower and a hero. Neither he nor those he defended got the respect that was their right at the time.

From there, I wandered at whim through the rest of the cemetery, taking pictures as it suited me. I may post some of them on Flickr some day...

Street names photographed for the files:

• Telesat


• James Naismith (what there is of it)


• Presland


• Renouf


• Whitton


• Lola


• Hart


• Prince Albert


• Queen Mary


• King George


• Glynn


• Columbus


• Donald


• Père Charlebois


• Eve


• Beaudry


• Quill


• Vera


• Ontario


• Stevens


• Washington


• Carlotta


• McArthur


• Selkirk

Hoping to upload the pix within a week or so.

It is my longterm goal to travel the entirety of Ottawa's riverfront that can be reached on foot. Thus far, I've gotten the following segments:

- from Voyageur Drive to the Rockcliffe Yacht Club + Flying Club/Cdn. Aviation and Space Museum.

- the base of the cliffs on which Parliament Hill sits.

- from Tunney's Pasture + Remic Rapids to the Kitchissippi Lookout and Westboro Beach.

Needing to work up a proper map of this progress...

...before I rejoin the ranks of the un(der)employed again.

Yes, again.

It's become somewhat damaging to what peace of mind there is in this skull of mine, never mind the financials over the years. But it seems that a great many of us across the planet are still Expected to bear such burdens as part of the Price of Employability.

Pfah.

Anyway, the weekend was good in several senses: educational, entertaining, with a fair bit of travelling involved. Three Jane's Walk-affiliated tours of as many neighbourhoods: ByWard Market, Old Ottawa South and New Edinburgh. Roughly 350 photos of varying levels of quality taken in the course of those, from which I hope to cull a sufficient number to be of help on Flickr and possibly to a couple of publications as well. We'll see how that goes over the course of the next week.

The resumption of allergic reactions made enjoying the walking tours a bit more difficult than would have been preferred. But it should be over and done in a couple of additional weeks, if everything sticks to established patterns.

Speaking of travel plans: over on meetup.com, I've got movie dates set for the Ottawa SF Society re: Iron Man 3 (this upcoming Friday) and Star Trek 12 (two Fridays thereafter). Hoping to lock in a 2D-format showing as close to 7 PM as humanly possible, and keeping an eye on both the Silver City Gloucester and World Exchange Empire theatre complexes to that end. The meetup.com dates are officially set for Silver City, but that's subject to amendment.

More as it comes to mind...

One more cause for continuing annoyance and fear on my part as both bus passenger and pedestrian:

http://spacingottawa.ca/2012/01/19/in-transportation-planning-drivers-never-lose/

(The author of the article is sympathetic to my POV. But in order to explain the shared complaint, Alex DeVries had to excerpt visuals from a particular news service. Hence the avatar in use for this entry.)