Breaking crates

 Jhazley had a few crates for props in the studio. We needed to clear them out but Ian and I struck upon the idea of breaking them down and turning them into a patch of flooring. Did half and got tired. 

Geremy's camera

 Borrowed medium format camera from Geremy a couple days ago. It has film in it so I wanted to get it back to him ASAP. 

Walk and talk

William and I went for a walk and did some restoration on this snowman which I begun to fall apart. When we got home, the antique telephone was waiting for us. Margaret bought it at the Cathedral Festival fundraiser action a few days ago. 

 

Accident

 The only picture I took today was of this accident on the way to the donations drop off. Everyone was standing around on their phones so it looks like no one was injured. 

Grim humour

 Couple weeks ago, Geremy was on William's radio show and this "Loose Parts" comic was discussed. I have to admit that I missed the Gillette reference and therefore missed all the humour. Geremy was spot on. 

Donations

 Donating lots of stuff from Dad's nursing home room to newcomer Ukrainians this week. This feels more directly related to people and therefore more meaningful that the general donation bin activities. 

Supper with family

 Sharon has been in all week, spending time with mom and working with Lori helping get dad's stuff in order. We all went out to eat this evening. I collected all of the photos I have of dad together and brought them on my tablet. Still more to unearth of course. 

One take film arrived

 William and I got our film to shoot a new round of One Take Super 8 Events. Winter shooting is always more restrictive and I don't have an idea yet. I got black and white and William got colour. 

Angry Beet

 I created about 500 sheets of artwork for The Angry Beet, the narrator of an animated film that I've never made. I'm going to see how difficult it will be to convert scanned documents into animated sequences. The last time I tried, about a decade ago, it was not something I can manage, but my computer and software are much faster now. 

Funeral plans

Funeral plans for dad: I found out this weekend that dad didn't want a funeral. That said, there are still a lot of details that need to be figured out. Sharon came to town yesterday, so she is added to the planning team. Today I found out (not like I didn't know, but it is still a surprise) that dad was a major planner. He had a book in the back of his filing cabinet with records of insurance plans, wills, and other necessities of the inevitable in a cool book which would have been something given to him by the insurance company when he took out a policy in 1954. 

Idle hands

 I cleared my schedule for family stuff today but then ended up feeling like I had nothing to do. Very under slept. I took a bag of my dad's sweaters to a collection depot for Ukrainian newcomers. Ran some other errands that could have been left undone. I painted the inside of a camera (the only event I took a picture of today). 

Claude Roy Saul

 

My father pass away at about 4:45 this morning (Saturday January 20). We'd been with him until about 1:30, Lori, mom, and I, and went home when it seemed like he was okay. He was sleeping calmly, waking occasionally as we talked or jostled him around, and seemed okay. Mom got the call and called me so I was there to sit with him since about 5:30 as all the business around such things occurs. He'd had dementia for quite some time and has been in the nursing home for two years less a couple weeks. Mom has been here almost every day. I visit often, even though I can't even remember that last time he spoke my name. I guess I've been a familiar face. We'd sit together. I'd tell him about whatever is going on in my life or the world. Conversations had become increasingly one-sided as it's been ages since he could talk about his years working in the Auditor General's Office, or playing hockey in college for the Brandon Wheat Kings, or playing cards or having a nice drink of rum. He did seem to enjoy watching people around him and he would point to things or situations that amused him. He enjoyed eating, which one could hardly believe since he'd lost so much weight. He'd always eat his meals and find room for chocolates or cookies or other sweet stuff. Small pleasures. He's 90 and it was his time. Goodbye dad. 

Dad's health failing

 Dad was sick today but when mom called me about it this evening, it sounded like he'd bounced back. However, she called again later in the evening to say that she and my sister Lori were with him and his blood oxygen level was very low (74%). We stayed with him until late. They gave him oxygen and his levels raised to 86. 

University water problems

With the extreme cold recently, water inevitably has problems. A few days ago there was  a huge main burse in the Riddell Centre and they flooded every room in the lower level (including the lecture room 050 and the tech-heavy CTech labs. I was talking to Mike after the meeting about how lucky we were that the department is all above ground. Then this morning we found out that pipes up here burse and water ended up soaking the screen screens in the studio. 
 

William's Quick and Dirty

 William needs to do a quick and dirty presentation (20 images, each for 20 seconds) tomorrow. Still pretty unorganized/unfocussed. Topic seems to have settled around his robot costume. 

Cat

Our cat. Sylvie. She loves being brushed now and will come to you when you hold the brush at her eye level. 
 

Pie

Margaret baked pied today - apple rhubarb. Really good. I had a lot of reading to catch up on. 

Painting on cold day

 Quiet house. William has masses of homework. Margaret out collaging. I did a painting. 

Collage collective

 Margaret spent much of the weekend creating some new collage work with her collective. With the extreme cold, William and I mainly stayed home. 

Art in luxury

 William has secured the recliner for his drawing studio. He has desired it for some time. This week they were going to throw it away so he got it. School was never like this in my day. 

Another day of teaching

 Had coffee with Kevin last night and realized that he'd never seen my office and had no idea what I am going through in my contemplation of emptying it. I took a photo for him. Met the rest of my Film 202 students today. 

Classes start

 Classes actually started yesterday, but neither William nor I have classes on Monday. Today I had my first section of Film 202 but messed up and didn't have a class list. Got them to introduce themselves. Feels like a good group. Painted this evening - an art deco camera from the 1930s from Amy. 

When Margaret is away...

 Margaret went to work. I don't know if she is still covid positive or not, but work only allows them five days so off she went. William asked if we could make pancakes for supper, so we did. I cooked saskatoon berries into them. Chocolate chips too. Added butter and syrup and whipped cream. Not really a low calories meal. 

Soup

 Catching up on my blogs a week late. This is the only photo I took on Sunday the 7th. It appears to be a half eaten bowl of soup. I probably had a reason to take it. I think it might have been to remind me what to blog about. However, I have no idea what that story might have been. 

Cabbage roll party

 

Margaret and William are still Covid-positive so I went to Heather Cline's cabbage roll (and perogie) party on my own. My perogies, with thin slices of smoked sausage from the Ukrainian Co-op on top, completely disappeared in no time. Possibly because they were the only perogies to be brought. 

Therefore I am delighted to retain the "best perogie" trophy for another year. 

Strange event, one of my big boots went missing. Many people looked for about an hour. Heather finally found it. It had somehow hooked onto a coat and was hanging above the other boots. 

Radio show desperation

 With William sick for the past week, there was no pool of radio shows recorded as I'd hoped there would be. Therefore, this weekend's guests are Margaret and myself. I am introduced as "Friend of Geremy Lague's show". 

Digging next door

 

Woke at 7 am to the city crew grinding up the wood from the tree they cut down last week in front of next door neighbour Dave's house. By 8:00 that was done but at 9:30 they started digging out the sewer and it's taking the whole day. 

Painting

 Doing some painting. Doing some class preparation. Had coffee with Kevin. Watched some tv. Still sort of on vacation. Margaret sick so I'm also doing more cooking. 

New Year's Eve

 New Year's eve was very fun. We spent it at a house party with Amy. At about 11pm, Erika and Jhazley and their husbands arrived and stayed late (many of the early crowd had already departed). 

Tv watched in 2023

 Over the past year, I have watched numerous tv shows. Here is a list of tv that I have watched at least one whole season of (the season number(s) are to the right of the title). It seems like a lot (2 seasons on average per week) but it's mostly just an hour or so before bed most nights. Many shows only have a 6-10 episodes in a season.