Friday, 04 September, 2015 –

Friday, September 4th, 2015 -( 19˚C / 66˚F with “Scattered Clouds” @ 12:45 pm )- on Mike Piazza’s Birthday.

[ No, I’m not a baseball groupie, I’m a Virgo with silly memory retention on a lot of birthdays. -shrug- ]

This is the view from the deck at the Lighthouse on the Green as of September 4th, 2015.

We recently sent a link from here to a restaurant mentioned way back when we began this blog. Then, looking at what we had started and noticing that we hadn’t posted much lately, with the possibility that we hadn’t posted anything at all since a storm named ‘Arthur’ had ravaged the area, in what? July of 2014? – um, we’ve been thinkin’ – that maybe we should take this blog/service a little more seriously.

I found it remarkable that when I was sitting there, looking out at the river, my imagination zoomed in and ‘cropped-out’ a lot of details this photo included. I was paying attention to the river and a little bit of green on both banks, with the hills to the north in the background. That rates a, “Hmmmm -” -jim-

We made two trips downtown today. Early in the day we paid a visit to Service Canada which is east of the Green where tourists can be treated by ‘Redcoats’ marching around with period rifles and listen to the re-enactors firing off loud volleys with ‘blank shots’. Most of the times I’ve heard anyone fire an old cap and ball flintlock type rifle it’s sounded like a cap pistol. Lately I’ve been shocked by how loud they can be when several at once are fired off by re-enactors in a semi-enclosed area. The Lighthouse on the Green is also across the street, east of the green, directly behind the Service Canada building. There’s at least one other building in between.

In the early evening we went back to enjoy ice cream and take in the view. The Lighthouse on the Green will close for the season at 6 pm on next Monday, Labour Day. We think that’s a shame. But we’ve never asked anybody if the cooks, waiters and waitresses are comprised solely of students from area schools – and we never pried into whether or not they might make enough money to justify opening earlier in the season – They now open for business after school is out for the summer – or close a bit later in the autumn.

We thought this fountain had a very European feel to it. This is a closeup.

I should take more notes about where I shoot photographs – yes, I can go back and note where various photos that I’ve published here were taken, and then edit this later, for now this is “Somewhere on the North side of Queen Street in Fredericton.”

This is the same fountain as above, with most of it visible. If I wanted to be a bit more professional here I would go back and reshoot this photo earlier in the afternoon, or wait for a cloudy day when the contrast between sunlight and shadow wouldn’t be so obvious.

And here we have ‘my favourite spouse’ looking at the fountain with the play of sunlight and shadow in the background.

— I never thought of myself as any sort of Chamber of Commerce spokes person or as the eyes and ears of any Tourist Bureau. And frankly, the voice in my head as I sub-verbalize while composing the text here, being careful to keep this friendly and positive, scares me a little. I don’t like believing I can be ‘annoyingly optimistic’ or sound like I’ve just had my brain dipped in some kind of warm syrup, or taken a course in ‘mindless advocacy’.

— Fredericton attracts artists and thinkers. There are also politicians here, the provincial government and legislature hangs out in buildings on Queen Street. I haven’t posted any photos of Fredericton’s homeless citizens. I haven’t taken any photos of Fredericton’s homeless citizens. Last year there was a minor confrontation between young women high school students and the local school board. A local blogger accused one local policeman of going a bit farther than he should and taking himself a bit too seriously and possibly exceeding his authority and/or crossing a line between professionalism and ‘pushing people around without just cause’.

— So, not everyone in Fredericton is 100% angelic. And I can still love the place while exercising my poetic license and laughing to myself about the grammar police who would find this paragraph quite annoying. The Anal-Retentive among the grammar police have taken lately to looking down their noses at anyone who begins a sentence with the word ‘so’. And they would probably rather shoot me on sight than let me get away with beginning a sentence with ‘And’.  – insert winking faced sticker here –

~~~~~ Jim

 

 

Movie Theatres In Fredericton (& X-Men – Days Of Future Past)

Wednesday, 09 July, 2014. 2:33 am (insanely early in the morning, or late at night?)

There is only one “Cineplex Cinemas” in Fredericton. It’s in the Regent Mall. I’m not sure whether there are 10 theatres inside the ‘Cineplex’, or maybe the #10 is their address inside the mall?

Anyway, I went there for I think the third time I went to a cinema in Fredericton last evening. I went to see “X-Men / Days of Future Past” and I’m glad that I got to see it before it goes away.

On Tuesdays you can see a movie for $5.00 cdn (five Canadian dollars plus tax comes out to more like $6.99 Cdn$) That’s pretty good. If you come in for a late show (this one started at 10:40 pm, the only time they’re showing this movie lately) There’s a sign at the ticket desk saying “Box Office is Closed. You can get your tickets at an atm or at the refreshment counter. 4 ATM terminals and they were all busy, so I went to the refreshment counter. Yes you can pay there (sigh of relief). The young woman who waited on me was trying to do too many things at once (not her fault) and didn’t press the right space on her screen at the right time or the right pressure, I stared at a blank screen on the card reader for almost a full minute before I asked for her help. She was friendly and courteous and explained what had happened and pushed the right button or space at the right pressure. I had to pull my debit card out and re-insert it, but we got through the process and everything was fine and I got to the theatre inside the complex in time to miss a few seconds of previews which didn’t bother me at all.

The movie, The X-Men / Days of Future Past, was better than I’d expected. I think I started reading X-Men Comic books when they were ten or fifteen cents each. And thought it would be really cool to have laser beam eyes. I’m not the most critical movie goer. And I’m more than a little bit critical about Formulaic Adrenaline Rush plots. But I like this genre. And they did a good job. And the message the movie left me with was hopeful (hopeful for the future of the human race).

I doubt that the statements I just made would spoil anything for anyone. I left the theatre thinking about my science fiction / fantasy novels (which I haven’t finished writing) – thinking I should finish them and publish them somewhere,  even if I just publish them for free on the web somewhere. I think I have a positive message here and I think I can deliver it in a positive manner without boring any adrenaline junkies to death.

Besides, two of my favourite Canadian Actresses (Ellen Page and Anna Paquin) were on the screen. (Anna wasn’t there for more than a cameo, but Ellen played a major part in this movie’s plot. Our ‘Tiny Canadian’ who, as Kitty Pryde, can walk through walls, has developed into quite a powerful character in the X-Men world, she can send people’s consciousness back through time, in this case to try to undo a web of events that is killing not just mutants, but anyone who might have a mutant baby in a very dark future. This movie’s plot moves too quickly to give the Actress a chance to show off her real talent, but, if the ‘real world’ doesn’t implode in the next few months, or years, the not all that bright people who make decisions in Hollywood  just might get something right and knock us out.) ((Don’t tell her I said that, she’s a Pisces and Pisces-es are stereotypically afraid that people who matter to them might expect too much from them. Of course, no generality is ever true in all cases…))

Yeah, so there is a theatre complex in Fredericton, and it shows movies for $5.00 + tax on Tuesdays, and I would recommend the movie I saw. (I don’t know if the 3-D theatres are that inepensive on Tuesdays, probably not….) (but they do have one or two 3-D capable theatres inside the complex).

~~~Yay~~

~~~~~Jim

After Arthur: Eeeek!

Monday, 07 July, 2014.

Gibson Street: Long shot of trees and utility pole hanging on Electric Wires @ 7 am, 06 July 2014.

Gibson Street. Closer to the same trees and Pole hanging on Electric Wires.

Gibson Street, just south of the above two photos, another large tree looking dangerous as it hangs over Electric Wires.

Our Post-Tropical Storm left a mess here… I went out looking for an open Tim Hortons at 7 am. Nothing open on the north side. South side, the Timmy’s on Regent street had a very long line of cars, stretching almost all the way up the hill to the Irving station. The Timmy’s on Prospect Street (the one with the temporary trailer for a drive through-) had signs up everywhere “No Power!” and employees shouting, “We’re not open, we have no power” to three or four vehicles per minute who did not read the signs. I didn’t think of trying the Tim Hortons on Smythe Street, inside the fence at the Fair Grounds (I think that’s the Fair Grounds).

I turned around drove back to Regent Street and got in line for the Regent Street Timmy’s (a long time before I could see the happy end  of that line). Some traffic lights were working. Some were not. I did not block intersections, especially when I saw cars coming toward Regent Street.

After half an hour in line, with many people behind me, line stretching farther than when I joined it, stopped at a red light. Two cars swooped in ahead of me from the west. A grey Honda and a black Malibu. I took down their license numbers. If I had the telekinetic power to explode their heads on the spot there would have been dead drivers and a lot of blood everywhere. Thank goodness I don’t have that kind of power. It took over an hour from when I first got in line until I got to the Tim Hortons. Both of those cars that had jumped in line in front of me turned left against the “no left turn sign”. I saw people standing in line as I was getting my coffee and breakfast sandwiches there. When I turned right on the no left turn street, I noticed that the line of people on the sidewalk waiting to get inside and stand in line until they were waited on went down to the corner and back South on Regent Street. I couldn’t see how far it stretched, but I was glad I did not park and think I would have an easier time going inside.

When I got home and sipped my coffee and ate my breakfast with “the love of my life” I thought, hey, if I was just a little bit crazier I might have kept the piece of paper with their license plate numbers handy and some time in the future popped all four tires, or worse.

The more I thought about that, the more I remembered a friend telling us, “Don’t think about getting even with somebody who goes out of their way to do something nasty, that will only poison your outlook on life and keep you miserable, Pray to transmute that negative energy into something positive. Ask for help with this-” (Us mere humans can’t transmute that kind of frustration and anger by ourselves, we need Heavenly help.)

So I’m hoping that anybody who would cut in front of people who have been in a line for half an hour or longer will think twice and not do that in the future. If not, they just might meet up with some angry son of a gun who doesn’t believe in trying to be a good, decent human being, who just might have had  a really bad day or two, who might jump out of his or her car in a blind rage and cripple them for life.

A lot of the Prayers that went out from me on Sunday started out with “Help! I don’t need this anger-”

~~~~~I shouldn’t sign this, should I?

Wicked Weather – Hungry Deer

Sunday, March 30th, 2014.

Snow, Ice Pellets, Freezing Rain all day.

But…

Hungry Deer come this close to get something to eat. Photo by Cathi Harris.

The above photo was shot through a porch window and a screen at a little after 6:30 pm. The nearest deer, the one grabbing something to eat, was about 10 feet from the woman with the camera.

For most of my life, the best view of wild deer was something like the next photo here:

You have to look closely to see the deer through the trees. Photo by Cathi Harris.

The day we closed on our house on the north side we were greeted by a deer casually munching on a neighbour’s tree across the street, ‘in broad daylight’ at about 8:30 am.

We’ve heard reports that this year’s ‘extended winter’ has hurt the province’s deer herds.

Maybe that almost explains why we’ve seen so many deer so close to our window, looking for food, hungry enough to throw caution to the winds?

You can see how foggy the window was and how close the deer actually came to the porch. They got jumpy when we moved and the chair creaked. Photo by Cathi Harris.

The above is a shot of the deer searching for food last night, and includes our porch window and window sill, with a salt lamp a photo, a jar and a couple other things.

One thing we’ve noticed this winter, is that a very white deer comes around with this herd. There is also a partially white deer that one neighbour believes might be the child of the all white deer. We have had a heck of a time trying to get a decent photo of the white deer, who blends in too nicely with snowy backgrounds. And, the deer rarely come around in groups larger than four individuals at a time. We have had hints that more of them might be lurking back in the trees. Prey animals need to be cautious to survive, but look at this:

The white deer is closer and easier to photograph than ever before. Orange and white lights in the photo are indoor lights reflected in the porch window. Photo by Cathi Harris.

A larger portion of the herd came out in the freezing rain and ice pellets this evening than I’ve ever seen.

 

This photo shows quite a few deer clustered beneath a tree during a freezing rain event. Photo by Cathi Harris.

Like I said, more of the herd was visible tonight than ever before.

And I should finish with one more photo, all photos taken by Cathi Harris.

The odd lights in the photo are reflections in the porch window. Photo by Cathi Harris.

We’ve come to appreciate this herd of deer and often jump for our cameras when they’re near. After a tough day of digging our snow blower out of an inch of ice in the shed, and fighting snow and ice to clear the driveway more than once, This view of the deer was a welcome highlight.

—Even if we’re supposed to get more freezing rain, ice pellets and snow tomorrow.

~~~~~ Jim

National Novel Writing Month

November 2nd, 2013:

November is NaNoWriMo month.

Graphic Link to NaNoWriMo Start Page.

I might not get a lot of blogging done if I’ll be chugging out at least 1600 words a day for all of November writing a nano-novel.

But then again it’s taken me 2 & 1/2 hours per night to write almost 2,500 words per night.

& because this is happening while Mercury is Retrograde, I didn’t start a brand spankin new novel, I picked one up I’d started a couple years ago and continued on with it. So far so good, the test will come on November 10th when mercury stops and then begins to move forward again, lets see if this novel can hold my interest when that happens.

 

~~~~~Jim

Related articles

• Mercury Madness: Why Mercury In Retrograde Is Making You Feel A Little Off (elitedaily.com)
• Mercury in Retrograde (femoir.wordpress.com)
• How To Survive Mercury Retrograde! (noliesradio.org)
• Top 10 Things Not to Do During Mercury Retrograde. (elephantjournal.com)
• NaNoWriMo – it’s that time of year again (idrisgrey.wordpress.com)
• You can do it! Success stories of people that have turned their #NaNoWriMo books into bestsellers. http://t.co/2Bg1AAOp7A (tor.com)
• Mercury Retrograde (Yes, I’m one of THOSE people) (emilynolin.com)

First Nations Presence in Fredericton to Protect Everybody’s Water and Land

Wednesday, 30 October, 2013.

New Brunswick‘s First Nations People want you to know they’re not here to protest or cause any trouble. They’re here because they’re committed to protecting Mother Earth and everybody’s drinking water. Fracking hurts everybody.

We saw them carry their sacred fire across the walking bridge, we saw them set up their traditional long house near the New Brunswick Provincial Legislature building. But we haven’t seen much of them in the nightly news since.

The people who believe they’ve been told they represent us and have the power to make decisions for us want the First Nations to go away and let them rape the province for fun and profit.

Nobody in power wants to remember that the current Conservative Provincial Government was elected because the previous government did not comply with New Brunswick’s citizens’ wishes.

Mother Earth is not happy.

Believe me, you do not want to be an enemy of Mother Earth.

& According to Pastor Lindsey Williams in his book “The Energy Non-Crisis“, Oil companies are pumping enough natural gas back into the ground in Alaska to ‘Light up the whole East Coast of the USA Free for the next 3 years‘. Why? Because they want to keep the price of oil and gas way above what it should be. Go watch the Movies “Gasland” and “Gasland II”. Don’t wait until your kitchen sink bursts into flame to realize we’re being sold a line of…. [doo doo] by greedy men who would be really happy if they could kill most of us off so they’d be better able to enslave the survivors. (Oops, sorry, I went political on you.)

Related articles

• N.B. premier refuses to meet shale gas protesters in Fredericton (globalnews.ca)
• CBC: Mi’kmaq urged to reclaim all Crown land (sacredfirenb.com)
• N.B. Maliseet sign opposition to shale gas (cbc.ca)
• “FRACK OFF!” Elsipogtog First Nation announces major land reclamation in ongoing anti-fracking struggle (tworowtimes.com)
• More shale gas protests expected after violence in New Brunswick (calgaryherald.com)

Almost Halloween @ the Northside Market

26 October, 2013.

On our second trip to the Northside Market, we had a wonderful brunch from “Brewed Awakening / Conscious Coffee”.

Then we discovered that there had  been a contest for costumed vendors.

This costume won first prize for a vendor.

There were a lot of happy looking children there, many in costumes.

There were plenty of kids in costume. To ensure Children’s safety and anonymity, this is the only photo we’ll publish. 

—It’s sad that we feel that we can’t show lots of photos of happy kids who deserve positive attention, but we’re only publishing this one photo because the child can not be identified (or stalked, thank goodness).

—There was also a “House of Horrors” put together by one of the Vendors (Mike Henderson of E.T. Mechanical, whose Fredericton store is at 85 Sunset Drive (506) 444-4663. They specialize in Geothermal, Solar and Heat Pump systems.)

Mike from E.T. Mechanical seen here announcing the winners to the ‘Best Costume’ contest.

I’ll Add as many photos of the ‘House of Horrors’ below as I can fit here.

This Mummy welcomes you to his House of Horrors.

A grave marked RIP, Pumpkins and Skulls, and Seasonal decorations around a sign that says, “Beware!”

A Skeleton in Black Robes and Chains…

“Hello Dearie, I’ve been dying to meet you-“

This Skeleton must have been waiting a long time for its next victim…

“Trick or Treat-“

Halloween Tricks and Treats…

Skeletal Bride and Groom await their Honeymoon in a dark corner.

Even the E.T. Mechanical Mascot had a costume…

—Sigh, we saw so many happy children enjoying themselves that we wished there were happy dress up holidays more often. We’re glad we live in a place where kids are protected and safe, and wish the world was more like this wonderful city.

Early Morning Fog

Thursday, 24 October, 2013.

You can see a layer of fog clinging to the St John River here, looking South / West from the junction of Gibson Street and Union Street. (taken with a Samsung Galaxy III ‘Smart Phone’)

This is a line of cars backed up in the right hand lane, southbound, on the Westmorland Bridge.

This photograph was taken at ten minutes to 8 on the south side of the river, heading into the sunrise.

The above two photographs aren’t quite identical, you might have to look closely to notice the fog on the river above.

My life partner (can’t get used to calling her my ‘wife’) is still discovering new things to love about Fredericton, almost every day. Scenery that natives would take for granted appears magically spectacular to both of us. I’ve lived near beaches before and driving near beaches and some rivers, like this one, you can see that it’s never quite the same scene twice.

Related articles

• Beyond the Fog (embracingspirit.wordpress.com)

Finally got a decent photo of the footbridge

Monday, 21 October, 2013.

The lighting was just right to get a decent photograph of the footbridge (which used to be a railroad bridge) in Fredericton.

I took the above with my usual Olympus digital camera. (Which I bought for half price at a Shoppers Drug Mart as a Boxing Day Special.) This was at about 8:30 this morning (I get to appreciate our changing scenery in different lighting as I’ve been driving my favourite person back and forth to work while our second vehicle is awaiting parts at one of our two local Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealers.)

This is a bit to the right of the bridge, looking at the Down Town section of Fredericton, where the light was almost as friendly as it was to the bridge.

One thing I’ve noticed in the last couple days, is some white ‘stripes’ on the river, parallel to the south shore. I have no idea what might cause that, but it is intriguing. (And no, you can’t see those here.)

Kilarney Lake

Sunday, 20 October, 2013.

Kilarney Lake Park has some pet friendly walking trails.

We went looking for Kilarney Lake. It’s just up St Mary’s Street from the Smart Centre. This was on a beautiful Sunday in October, at a little after 4 pm. There were several families there, enjoying the park. On a map that was posted there we saw Walking Trails that might run from this park to Canada Street. (It’s hard to say because the map does not show whether the trails continue through a small bit of private land that separates sections of public parklands.) There were several happy dogs walking their humans on the trails here.

Kilarney Lake Park, looking toward the beach area and most of the lake.

Being October, no people were swimming here, (there were ducks and geese enjoying the water) but the water was clear and it looks like a wonderful place to bring kids and splash up a storm in the summer.

Kilarney Lake (taken with a Samsung Galaxy III ‘Smart Phone’)

From where we were standing we couldn’t get the whole lake in one photograph, but this is a pretty good portion of it. And you can see how clear the water is. My favourite spouse tested the water (with her hand) and said it was a bit on the chilly side.