Here kitty kitty kitty......

Ok, so I have been MIA for quite some time now. I had a lot of photos to upload...then my work load doubled....plus I was new car shopping as well as planning a vacation down south with a group of long time friends. I must confess that it's a bit overwhelming to have well over 3,000 digital photos to sift through now. I am offically shelving the photo a day for 365 days deal. Sorry folks, I bit off more than I could chew I'm afraid. I will now go back to the regularly scheduled program.

Christmas is upon us, in fact I only just finished decorating the tree this morning. I gave Cheetah, the cat a few days to get the  tree climbing phase out of his system. It seems to have worked....for now. The real test will be this evening when he wakes from his catnap and sees all the shiny ornaments hanging within reach of his inquistive paws.
The weather outside is frightful.....if you live pretty much an hours drive away in any direction from where I live in the banana belt of Southern Ontario. Here in balmy Stoney Creek we had wind and rain the other day when everyone else was getting a major winter storm. Parts north of Toronto got upwards of 100cm of blowing snow...that's over 40 inches for you folks in the U.S.
today we are getting rain, once again. I'm thinking maybe I brought the warm breezes back from Jamaica with me...ah but even I know it can't last forever. Eventually the white stuff will be upon us... even here.
That  said, maybe it's time to start thinking about heading to Mexico next........

DAY 32 Sat Oct 10 2009

Tall cool Kitty......

DAY 31 - Fri Oct 9 2009

Shadow Shot...

DAY 30 - Thurs Oct 8 2009

DAY 29 - Wed Oct 7 2009

Shadows....

DAY 28 - Tues Oct 6 2009

My Bamboo...

DAY 27 - Mon Oct 5 2009

Thousands of small beetles on the
garage behind the building where
I work. I have noticed for the last few year they invade the same area every fall.

DAY 26 - Sun Oct 4 2009

The  Canadian CIBC "Run for the Cure" for breast cancer research.
Our team participated in the local run in our area. Area runs were held all across Canada today.

p.s. Happy Birthday to my brother Bill!

DAY 25 - Sat Oct 3 2009

A few years ago decided to disguise the pipe and tap coming up out of the ground at the far end of the yard. I got the idea from something similar that I saw while living/working in Japan.

DAY 24 - Fri Oct 2 2009

Red light in the pouring rain.

DAY 23 - Thurs Oct 1 2009

I'm glad that I work right in the city. One of my favortie places to go is to the waterfront.

I have been experimenting a bit with HDR photography and this is the result on my photo of the day.
HDR - High Dynamic Range.

DAY 22 - Wed Sept 30 2009

On my way to look at a possible car to buy. There are not a lot of these particular models around so I had to travel about 45 minutes out of the city to a place called Cayuga. This is a farm I passed along the way.

DAY 21 - Tues Sept 29 2009

A small town just outside the city that is growing quite rapidly. My guess, it will eventually be part of Hamilton as they grow toward each other.

DAY 20 - Mon Sept 28 2009

I stopped in to visit my father in law after work today. He is entertained on a daily basis by the neighbors cat play chasing the squirrels that he feeds outside his door.

A snapshot a day....

I promise, I have been taking my camera with me everywhere I go since my decision to do 365 days of photos. I have been taking photographs every day but it takes me a few days before I find the time to post them up on my blog. Please be patient with me. Most shots are right out of the camera, but the odd one might need a bit of cropping, afterall some are taken from a moving vehicle or at least while I'm stopped at a light. It's not like I can just move over a few feet to get the shot I really want.

Life......

I guess I should be thankful I still have a job as the employment in my area is quite bleak at the moment. Our department at work saw a reduction from over 20 employees to just 6 of us trying to stay afloat. In the last 3 weeks or so we have gone from no work to more jobs than we have people! The biggest problem is that all of them are small contracts, and all have to be completed by mid November. So no more Fridays off. I found that by having this extra day off on a weekday was so helpful. Life has a way of speeding up more as each decade passes us by.

My car.....

I must start by saying that my licence plate has more rust on it than my car. I named my Mazda MX3 Pepe when I brought him home 14 years ago. I know, cars are supposed to have female names right? I figured that was something held over from the old days when women didn't drive cars, so I am trying to change that one car at a time. Pepe replaced my demon car, a 1985 charcoal grey turbo coupe Ford Thunderbird in 1995. I'm mentioning my old car as someday I should write about some of the unbelievable stories that happened while owning him. Up until now I have not wanted to as I'm afraid it could turn into a book, seriously.

So Pepe has been a faithful little car since day one, a couple of hiccups along the way but nothing serious other than regular maintenance type repairs.

A new exhaust at 3 years old that was more my fault. I got a contract to work in Japan for 6 months with only 3 days notice to get my affairs in order and leave. So I parked Pepe in the garage and left. Almost as soon as I started him up 6 months later the exhaust blew. I was told it was because of the moisture laying on the bottom (inside) that had 6 months to chew away at the metal. I should have known better, growing up with 2 car buff brothers. So off to the Dealer I went. I didn't know about these louder after market exhausts that were all the rage with the kids at the time. It must have started while I was out of the country. So the kid working on my car says to me" hey do you want us to put this blah...blah... exhaust on your car for the same price? It will look so sick" I should have had an alarm go off in my brain when someone refers to something good as "sick" So I drive off with my new exhaust system and I'm thinking that it sounds rather loud compared to what I remembered my car to sound. When I got home I called my man and mentioned that it seemed louder than what I thought to remember. He assured me that yes , after market exhausts are a tad bit louder. Well when he came by later and saw the two fat shiny pipes sticking out from under the bumper he started to chuckle. I asked him what was so funny about a muffler and he proceeded to explain to me that all the young kids were putting these "chimney pipes" on their cars and yes they are loud. Everyone still mentions that they can hear me coming from a distance because of the low rumble of thunder they hear in the distance as Pepe gets closer. All I can say is one muffler and pipes in 14 years is still pretty darned great!

The year before last the battery finally died. Yes folks the original battery died at over 12 years old. I can't count how many guys told me that batteries don't last 12 years. Well folks mine did, so there!

The last couple of months Pepe has finally started to get hardening of the arteries... in car speak....wiring problems. Ok now this is a biggy because the battery is fine and we changed the alternator just in case. We checked all the grounds and cleaned & tightened everything in sight. I can drive along for days and everything seems fine and then it starts. The radio will sputter & cut out, so I turn it off. Then all the needles on my gauges start jumping up and down and then the battery light comes on. At this point I know now to be pulled off the road and parked in a spot where I can easily get a boost. I have been driving around with a voltage tester so I can check to see what it has dropped to. (not that it matteres at this point)

So to make a really long story shorter, we can't seem to resolve the problem, so I have been car shopping online as well as test driving some newer cars. I just can't decide what to buy, although I am really leaning toward another Mazda. I have always loved he RX8 but.... everyone keeps chiming....it has a rotary engine.

And your point is.................

DAY 19 - Sun Sept 27 2009

Beauty in my own backyard.

DAY 18 - Sat Sept 26 2009

Today was a boring rainy day and I still have no wheels....

I cleaned Cheetah's ears and then he decided that he should keep the cotton swab and snatched it from me.

Me being the bigger cat... I got it back from him no problem, before he got a chance to tear it to shreds.

DAY 17 - Fri Sept 25 2009

A shot of the railway tracks right beside my office. I'm walking today since my car has decided it does not like to go to work on Fridays.

Day 16 - Thurs Sept 24 2009

a man in uniform......

The boys in blue doing a community service outing at the local school on my way home from work. I had to drive around the block to get this shot.

Day 15 - Wed Sept 23 2009

Incognito.......

DAY 14 - Tues Sept 22 2009

On a clear day.......

you can see Toronto as the crow flies, on the other side of Lake Ontario.

This is due to the cool rainy weather this summer combined with the steel mills production deductions to less than 50%.

DAY 13 - Mon Sept 21 2009

Same rose......

Different day....

Different location. I thought if I brought it in to work, I could enjoy it all week.

DAY 12 Sun. Sept 20 2009

Late afternoon sun.....

and the roses scent was just as beautiful....

Day 11 Sat. Sept 19 2009

There have been clouds of these tiny bugs everywhere the last few days. They are so small that they can enter right through the screen.

DAY 10 Fri. Sept 18 2009

As close as you can get to Arcelor Mittal (Steel Mill) without actually accessing their property. The public roadway goes directly under part of the building.

DAY 9 Thurs. Sept 17 2009

Picket Line.

One of the subcontracted companies that have been locked out of the steel mill. My brother inlaw & nephew spend a lot of time here these days and they tell me the pay sucks.

DAY 8 - Wed. Sept 16 2009

Looking down from the top of the escarpment at a row of houses.

DAY 7 - Tues.Sept 15 2009

Power Lines.

I used to live in a house years ago that backed right on to these metal giants. On a quiet night you could hear the hum of electricity travelling along the wires....

DAY 6 - Mon.Sept 14 2009

Overlooking the lower city of Hamilton from the top of the escarpment at sunset, 7:30 pm.

DAY 5 - Sun.Sept 13 2009

Two swans in Cootes Paradise, part of Hamilton bay.

DAY 4 - Sat.Sept 12 2009

Cheetah trying to get my attention while I work on my computer. He tried unsuccessfully to open the cupboard door.

I took a short break as it was time to manicure his carpet shredders.

DAY 3 - Fri.Sept 11 2009

The creek near our house.

I really enjoy having Fridays off work and finding the time to go for walks. The silence was broken by the birds and the squirrels chattering at me invading their space.

DAY 2 - Thurs.Sept 10 2009

Tim Hortons

Iced Capp and a Strawberry Bloom...

sugar rush............

This is where I meet up with my long time buddy, Ron every once in a while to chat about whats new.

DAY 1 - Wed.Sept 09 2009

Metal statue at Hamilton Bayfront Park

Abigail

When I was a kid, I remember shopping for a gift for my dad for Fathers Day. I didn’t have much money saved up at the time and all I could find within my measly budget was this small fuzzy stuffed baby chick with little black beady eyes and orange plastic feet. I wasn’t sure my father would like it because it wasn’t very big and it wasn’t something practical like a tie as if fathers need more ties for Fathers Day. Funerals, weddings and the occasional dance on a Friday night with my mom and some friends were the only times I ever remember him asking my mom to help him put on a tie. How practical are ties anyways, when most guys need someone else to help them tie the darned things.
I remember the exact moment that he unwrapped the chick and looked at it with a big smile on his face and declared that he had to think of the perfect name for his new little baby chick. We all tossed around some names to help inspire him. He held her up and announced that he was going to call her “Abigail”. So Abigail took up residence on the top of his dresser beside the spot where he placed his watch, where she could keep an eye on him while he slept.
Last year we buried my dad and before the funeral the family had a talk and we all decided to place something with dad to remember us by. So I said goodbye to my dad and to Abigail that day……
She is still keeping a watchful eye on him while he sleeps……

Bits......and bites

Now that summer will be soon winding down here in southern Ontario....WAIT! Summer never came so how can it go? The summer that never was...this is the weatherman's never ending comments these days and I agree I can count the hot days on my fingers and toes that we had this year. I have 1 trip already booked to travel to the Caribbean this fall and a second one in the works. So THERE summer! Stick that where the sun don't shine! Bitter? You bet. I hate winter, always have and the hate seems to grow a bit more every year.


Ok enough venting, ranting, whatever you want to call it.


I was reading a blog I came across the other day that had a really cool concept. So I'm thinking I'm going to try the same thing. The idea is to post 1 photo everyday for 1 year of whatever I happen to take a picture of, but it has to be that day. I can't cheat. I may wait a couple of days before I upload my photos but they must be taken on the actual day. This will be a really good way to force me to take my camera out more and shoot. Sometimes I get a bit nervous about dragging it around as it is a bit obvious and doesn't just slip into my pocket or purse. I have to say upfront that during the winter months I try to only go out if I have to, otherwise it's called hibernation in my book. Those photo days my end up being a shot of my cat or me looking outside at an ugly weather situation.


I have decided that a good day to start this 1 year project will be Wednesday of this week, September 9th as it is my birthday. Good a day as any to start something new, I think. This will be the 9th day of the 9th month of the year 2009. I will be buying a lottery ticket that day, as I have always felt that 9 was my lucky number.


Wish me luck!

p.s.

I promise to only post photos taken by me. My cat has taken over my laptop at times but I draw the line with my camera....paws off!

Rain...Floods...mice...what next?

I know, I know, I have been MIA for a while now. Its summer and I like to spend as much time outdoors. The season seems so short and before you know it, the pool is closed and the backyard furniture has been stored away once again. Wait! It’s almost August and I’m walking around with a sweatshirt on in the evenings. Where is summer? I’ll take a little global warming right about now, and heck I was only joking when we put down all that new sod in May about it raining so I didn’t have to worry about it dying. No worries about that this year. It seems like it has been raining every day for weeks now with more rain forecast for most of the next week. Hamilton Flooding
Yesterday we had rain like we rarely see unless I compare it to some of the storms I used to witness in Mexico, with flooded streets and storm sewers unable to keep up with the deluge. At one point, just when I thought it couldn’t possibly rain any harder, it did. I spent me time roaming around the house looking for any points of entry. Nothing serious but I did find some water trickling in under the French doors leading to the backyard, nothing a towel couldn’t handle though. There was also a small puddle in the basement under the kitchen that was more like dampness than anything. Later I found out some of our neighbors basements didn’t fare so well and were up to their knees with water.
The one spot I was worried about was the family room ceiling. We had a bad leak early in the spring practically from one end of the room to the other. Luckily it stayed close to the windows and didn’t make it as far as the pool table. I don’t think submersible billiards would be much fun. Well yesterday….nary a drop! We don’t plan on doing the repairs until the new roof gets done, hopefully early this fall. Now a new drip has been discovered in the living room. I noticed there was a puddle in the corner of the fireplace and the rain was actually dripping off the fireplace insert on to the concrete. There was one stone halfway up the wall that was soaked which seemed out of place. So between downpours the man came home and had to climb up and calk around the chimney. He noticed that part of the cap had broken off and there was a gap where the rain was most likely pouring in. The raccoons need to go on a diet around here. They like to romp around on our roof in the middle of the night and they are by no means light footed. They can’t get in the chimney but that doesn’t stop them from trying on a regular basis. They have even ripped the siding off part of the house trying to get in. Must be my home made cooking they are after….or not.
So with all the rain, I guess some of Gods creatures need to head for higher ground as in….my laundry room in the basement. In the last couple of days there have been a total of 5 mice in the laundry tub. It looks like the young ones fall in and mamma comes to the rescue. Mamma can easily jump out but the babies can only make it halfway up the side before sliding back down. In comes the cat. The man tells Cheetah to earn his keep. I think the cat would have done fine if the man had just left him to do his feline thing. But no….he tries to hit the mouse with a towel…..misses and gets the cat in the head!....
Score: Mouse 1, Cat 0, Man -0. Next the cat turns to the baby in the sink. I couldn’t believe what the he did next. He very gently kept touching the mouse with his paw (no claws out) to make it jump. He then stepped on its tail and then gently picked it up in his mouth. At this point I had visions of the cat letting the mouse go somewhere upstairs where he would have room to chase it around. I grabbed Cheetah just as he was going to jump out of the tub and tapped him on the head and he let his new toy drop back where he found it. It was enough to know that there was already one mouse running loose in the house. The man placed the mouse in a jar and let it go outside after taking it for a short drive out of the neighborhood. The other three took a car ride the following day as well.
I really have to laugh since we have only ever had a problem with mice coming in the house once before and that was in the fall which is understandable. Typically November is the time of year when they normally would come in for the winter, not in July! My guess is that it’s too wet for them and they are getting flooded out of their nests.

……As long as Cheetah doesn’t decide to surprise me one morning with a rodent wake up treat………….

Evel Katnievel

I have been a bit stressed lately and I think it might be rubbing off on Cheetah. He seems to jump out of his skin at the slightest thing these days. I mean, if I just move my foot he is practically upside down hanging from the ceiling. His tail will be fuzzed up and the fur will be standing up all the way down his back. He then has to sniff what ever it was that just scared him skinny, then he relaxes and all is fine in his world again.

So I pretty much finished painting the main part of the house and was placing plants and things back to their rightful location the other day. Years ago when I first started up my own business I bought this long legged silly looking teddy bear as my mascot when I landed my first big client. So I’m holding this bear around the waist, carrying him down the hall to place him on a chair in the living room. Cheetah is at the end of the hallway by the front door watching me approach. All of a sudden he catches a glimpse of the bear…I swear his eyes almost popped out of his head…he turned and as if he was shot out of a cannon, blasted right through the front door screen. He did a somersault and landed out on the lawn then made a hard right, running as if his fur was on fire. The first thought in my mind was of how timid he has been when ever I have taken him outside. I ran out the front door laughing so hard I had tears running down my face to see where he went. There he was sitting at the end of the garden looking back at me as if he had just been chased by the hounds from hell. I opened the door and he followed me back in to the house, running down the hallway and straight under the bed to his safe place where he remained for the rest of the day.

Later that evening he finally came down the hall in stealth mode, sniffing every square inch of the main floor looking for the creature that had moved into his domain.

.....unsuccessfully , I might add......

Ruh...Roh....

… now see what you did!

Not that he is a fat cat, but he is determined. I was on the phone with my sister when this all unfolded right before my eyes. Cheetah jumped on to the end table and decided he was going to park his little butt between the lamp and my Aloe Vera plant. There was about 6 inches of space so as he sat the plant started to slide, giving him a bit more room for him to squeeze into. One last shove and over the plant went. I have to confess that if I didn’t neglect my plants so bad he may have had a harder time of shoving it over. When the plant toppled I realized that the soil was as dry as a dust storm in the Sahara. Cheetah took one look at me, jumped down and went into stealth mode, slinking out of the room. I had to get off the phone to go get the camera, as I knew curiosity killed the cat and he would be back shortly to survey the damage.

Cats are so predictable. I didn’t yell at him, as it didn’t appear that he did it on purpose, but cats can be sneaky. Cheetah’s character is a bit different than any cat I have ever lived with in the past as he has quite the opposite in your face kind of personality once he gets to know you. So a few minutes pass and he slowly enters the room switching to stealth mode low to the floor. He cautiously returns to the scene of the crime, sniffing and surveying from every angle. Finally when he figured it was a lost cause he jumped onto his scratching post perch and viewed the whole scene from a higher vantage point.

I cleaned up the remains of the Aloe Vera that needed to be re-potted for a while so now I have one less thing on my to do list tomorrow……

Cheetah, please remind me to water the plants .......

Ice Cold Mighty Niagara Falls

I think everyone is busy these days which means not much time for blogging. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. I spent last weekend in Niagara Falls attending a weekend dinner theatre put on by the casino called Nathan & Nina's Wedding. It turned out to be a very entertaining two day event, mixed in with some gambling and much needed relaxation. Since I wasn't allowed to take my camera into the casino I didn't take a lot of photos of anything but the falls this trip. As soon as the weather is a bit more tolerable I will plan another outing just for photography.

Feel the power of the water flowing over the edge!

The Canadian Falls.

The American Falls at night. Every few minutes the colour of the lights changed .

The Canadian Falls in the early morning.







The American Falls at night, very pretty.



Ice on the American side.




More ice on the American side.....

A Cheetah in the house...

Well it’s been two weeks since we adopted Cheetah, so I just thought I would let you know how he is doing. It only took him a couple of days before he was quite content to settle on my lap any chance he got. Right now he is trying to take over my chair at the computer. Next he will be posting on my blog! Most waking hours are spent exploring every nook and cranny that needed to be sniffed out. He always has to have the last say and can be very demanding and vocal at times. He definitely has some quirky habits for a cat. First thing in the morning he waits quietly for me to wake up. Content to be curled up at my feet, he doesn’t make a sound until I greet him first. Then he makes a mad dash to the bathroom where he leaps onto the counter, slides across to the sink and takes out my vitamin bottles along the way. Then he very loudly tells me to turn on the tap for him. If I don’t, he literally gets in my face and screams his demands. I go down to the kitchen to retrieve my coffee and if I didn’t turn on the tap in the bathroom he has raced me to the kitchen only to be waiting in the kitchen sink vocalizing his demands. Now I have never tolerated cats on the counter in a kitchen but he obviously was not taught any different in his previous home. I can tell he is not after food and only jumps up to ask for a drink or to look out the window at the neighbours dog with great curiosity.

He has this thing for doors. Like most cats, if the door is closed he wants to open it. Most of our closet doors are either bi-folding or have magnetic closures on the top. So with a bit of claw magic the doors eventually come open. Except for the bedroom closet. Try as he might he hasn’t mastered that one, yet. I just wish it didn’t make so much noise banging back and forth as it stops at the carpet edge only to bang closed again. The cat will be almost standing on his head trying every angle to get his paw under to pull. Which brings me to another door in the house. This one actually has to open out away from you. He somehow knows that if he plants his forehead against the door and pushes that it will open. How the heck does a cat know the difference? It’s not like he shoves his little head against the bedroom closet when he can’t get that one to open.

So when he masters this door he likes to roll around on top of the pool table in the sun.

….he’s got game….