June 2006


Feedback

Just want to say 'Hi?'
Suggestions?
Comments?



Our Photos Online

My avocation during our
travels is photography,
but Sandra is also taking
photos. Click the links
below to see our galleries

Sandra's Photos
Gordon's Photos




Didya Know?

150 million hot dogs are
expected to be eaten by
Americans on July 4th.

Philadelphia holds its 4th
of July celebrations at
Independence Hall with
historic scenes reenacted
and the Declaration of
Independence read.


A Spot 'O Humor

A day without sunshine
is like...night.

Atheism is a non-prophet
organization



Parting Thot

Every sweet has its sour;
every evil its good.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson



 

Our Only Niece Graduates High School

- Yesterday we made the drive into Ottawa to the Civic Centre in Lansdowne Park to join Sandra's younger sister Margie and her husband John in observing the graduation from Merivale High School of their daughter Danica, our only niece and sister of Nicholas our only nephew, who recently graduated from college.
    And not only did Danica graduate, but she did so with such a long list of awards and honors that almost everyone in the hall dozed off while they were being read.
    That, of course, is a slight exaggeration, but even she, who knew nothing in advance about these awards (so she claims) was surprised by them all.
    It's kids like Danica, Nicholas, and my own kids, Michelle and Ian, who give me hope for the future of the human race.
    Anyway, after the three hour graduation ceremony (lots of graduates) we dashed back through rush hour traffic to the RV to let the dog out and then headed back into the city to partake in the celebratory dinner at Margie and John's house.
    Joining us in all this was Sandra's older sister Betty, who is also Danica's godmother.
    Photo above is Danica who just received her diploma and is posing for photos and growing roots to the stage while her list of awards are being read. And as has been the case in the events we've been to lately (Nick's graduation, Danica's band concert, and her graduation) the lighting was absolutely abysmal. Once again, it was too dark from where we sat during the ceremony for Sandra's camera to take anything usable and it pushed my higher-end camera to its limits which at that point produces less than ideal photos, although usable enough for small prints. And not only was the lighting dim, but even worse in this case since there wasn't even any direct lighting on the stage so everyone's faces were in shadow and it takes quite a bit of processing to bring them out. Obviously, people who staged these events are clueless about lighting. Hmmppphhh!!!!
    For Sandra's view of Danica's graduation and more photos, click here.

Another Busy Week

- As scheduled, my long-time friend and former business associate Mel and his wife Janice arrived last Sunday evening and have kept us hopping ever since.
    It's been a lot of fun having visitors from Ohio and having the opportunity to show Ottawa to people who've never been here before.
    In doing so, Sandra and I have seen some places we haven't seen ourselves in quite a while and a couple places one or the other of us had never seen.
    For instance, Mel and Janice like museums, so we went with them to see the Canada Science & Technology Museum, which Sandra had been to years ago but I'd never been inside and am glad I now have. Pictured here are Janice and Mel standing by one of the huge old steam locomotives in the museum.
    And because admission is free on Thursday evenings (but not parking), we also went with them to the Museum of Civilization, which Sandra had never been inside and I had been only one time years ago right after it had moved into its new facilities in what was then Hull, Quebec and has since been amalgamated with Gatineau. And when I was there, many of the exhibits were not open since they were still being set up, so this time I got to see what I had missed. It is a very interesting place and has one of the most unique architectures in the world.
    While there we also saw an Imax movie (not free) about ancient Greece. Again, it's been a long time since I've seen an Imax movie and I doubt I'd have ever seen this one either if it hadn't been for Janice and Mel wanting to see it. It turned out to be quite interesting and focused a lot on Santorini Island, Greece and the volcanic disaster that struck there 3,500 years ago. Sandra and I really should get out more. Pictured on the right, she is taking a photo of the museum after seeing the movie.
    Interspersed among these trips, I got a badly needed RAM upgrade in my laptop, we showed our guests the culinary delights of Summerhay's Grill and Feleena's Mexican Restaurant, the doctor looked at my lip surgery and proclaimed it healed, and our guests accompanied us to the barbecue dinner put on by Canada Retirement, our financial services company.
    Later today, I'm going with Janice and Mel to a horse show which is taking place at the Nepean Equestrian Park just down the road from the campground here and this is another thing I've always thought about doing but never actually did it until they got me motivated. The fact they found out it was free was also a motivating factor.
    Tomorrow, Janice and Mel are leaving us and heading for Lake George, New York.
    For Sandra's account of the week, click here.

Website Restoration Completed

- I've just finished restoring the Personal component of the website here in its new home. The Personal section is actually now a separate site within the site. Broken links have been fixed and data restored that I'd had to delete in the previous location to make room for this ever-growing news section here.
    Please let me know by using the email link in the sidebar if you find something in the site that still doesn't work.
    While I was at it, I regenerated the restored photo galleries with a cool new look and will be moving most of the personal photos that are currently in my pBase galleries to the Photos page here, where they are more appropriate.
    I'll also soon be adding a gallery of photos from our recent visit with the family in Ohio and a gallery of the photos my daughter Michelle has been sending of Luke, the newest member of the family, shown here in one of the photos Michelle sent showing Luke being held by his elder sister Grace while his other sister Faith looks to be mimicking her brother's crying.

Welcome to the New gordonwolford.com Site

- A couple weeks ago I mentioned I'd be moving this website to a different hosting ISP (canaca.ca), because they offer much more space at an affordable price, and yesterday I did just that. And while I was at it, I once again registered an internet domain of my own. This time it's...

The website here on the new domain at the moment contains only this page, the Intro, and the Links page from the old site, so many of the links within the site no longer work, but I'll eventually get things smoothed out.
    From its inception years ago, this was intended as primarily a personal site with work being presented in a secondary manner, but in its final form the new website will focus primarily on my photography with personal matters being secondary, so a lot of design changes will have to be done. This will take place as a gradual transition rather than a complete and immediate redesign.
    
As the first step in this transition I've replaced the boring placeholder page supplied by the hosting site with a quickie temporary homepage of my own design showing the photographic direction I intend to take my domain.
    With all that in mind, the old site hosted by NewsGuy.com, will remain as it was but will no longer be updated. So, if you're reading this you've found my latest news...

Please be sure to update your bookmarks to these new links.

An Eventful Week

- Our first week in the new location was fairly eventful.
    Thursday we attended nephew Nicholas's graduation from Algonquin College, where he had taken the paramedic program. The ceremony was held in the former Corel Centre, now called Scotiabank Place, and is the arena where the NHL Ottawa Senators play.
    Unfortunately, it wasn't lit inside as brightly as a hockey game. In fact, it was about as dark during the ceremony as a cavern and not only made taking photos very difficult, it made ascending and descending the stairs a hazardous endeavor. Whoever made the decision to light the event in this way should have their head examined or be fired or both. As you can see though, I did manage to get some photos despite the unfavorable conditions, which were too severe however for Sandra's camera to work. Shown above is Nick just ready to receive his diploma.
    During the graduation we sat with Nick's parents Margie and John, Nick's fiancé Becky, and her parents. Afterward we all met for dinner out at a convenient Swiss Chalet restaurant (home of the best chicken you'll ever have melt in your mouth) to celebrate Nick's achievement. This was the first time Sandra and I met Becky's parents.
    Immediately after dinner we, along with Margie and John, attended their daughter Danica's last band concert at her high school, where she played a couple brass instruments (a trumpet and a small tuba, called a baritone, I think). She's quite good and her band recently played in New York City. Unfortunately, the school wasn't lit much more brightly than Nick's graduation, but again, I managed to get a few photos, thanks mostly to the awesome capabilities of my digital camera. In the photo above right, Danica is center right, playing her trumpet.
    Then Friday was my surgery appointment at the Ottawa General Hospital to have the little growth removed from the inside of my lower lip. They referred to it as a lesion, but to me it looked like a planter's wart although it resulted from an inflamed gland. The day was cloudy and rainy, but I didn't mind since I was just glad to finally be getting rid of the lesion.
    Things went according to schedule and the whole operation was less bothersome than getting a tooth filled, but that night my lip started to swell and turn red. The doctor had told me if this happened that I needed to have it looked at, so back to the hospital's emergency room we went first thing Saturday morning. The doctor there looked at it and gave me a prescription for antibiotics, which seem to have things under control again.
    Since then, I've done little but rest, nurse my lip, and process photos I took while we were in Sedona, Arizona back in February. I've put these in their own gallery on pBase which can be viewed by clicking here.
    For Sandra's account of the week, check out her blog by clicking here.

We Move, From Ottawa to Ottawa

- Yesterday, as scheduled, we moved out of the Rideau Heights Campsite in the south end of Ottawa and relocated to the Ottawa Municipal Campground in the west end.
    The move was only around 15 miles and took less than a half hour, so I won't do a new map showing our route. I think this was our shortest move of the Odyssey.
    It's nice to get out of the city proper and away from the nearly endless bumper-to-bumper traffic on the road by Rideau Heights, although we can hear quite a bit of traffic noise here from the nearby freeway. As can be seen in the photo above, the new campsite is quite large and scenic.
    In a week and a half, my long-time friend Mel and his wife Janice will be bringing their new RV up here and joining us for a week and occupying the site next to us (the one just out of sight on the right side of the photo above). It's been quite a while since we had visitors up here. Should be a fun week.
    My White Sands gallery ended up being the Most Popular gallery on pBase.com for 8 days, but has since dropped down to 4th place, which is still on the first page of the popular galleries although it won't stay there long before it fades into oblivion. It had a very good run though and at it's peak my galleries there received 42,190 hits one day. Pretty amazing.
    Otherwise, it was a fairly quiet week, with lots of rain and clouds and only making trips down to Morrisburg on the St. Lawrence River to line up our next campsite near the Upper Canada Village where i'll be shooting photos and we did a return visit to Mer Bleue to walk the length of its 1.2 km boardwalk.
    For a much more detailed account of the past week, visit Sandra's blog by clicking here.


__________________________

For Older News

To read details of our previous stops and camps, visit the News Archives.


Updated Monday, July 3, 2006

Copyright © 2006 by Gordon L Wolford .
All rights reserved.