Time Zones

Holly Doyne Posted on by

It was this morning looking at the clock when I had one of those “blinding flashes of the obvious.” I meant to discuss a problem caused by Apple’s latest update to their operating system in yesterday’s post. But the mind was blank or tire. Actually, there are two problems with the latest iOS but the calendar one is the issue at hand.

It is easy on my phone when adding something to the calendar to set the time zone for the actual event so that I don’t have to calculate it. Not so on the Mac. I didn’t think about it when I added the RCPS-TM meeting to the calendar. It was at 1700 in Glasgow. Basic hint – that it NOT 1700 in SF. As a result, at 0900 I didn’t have a clue or a reminder and was standing in line in front of the post office to mail a package.nd 

In fact, I didn’t figure it out till around 1600 when a reminder popped up on my phone for the even which was obvious over by hours.

Which leads me to today – it is Erev Yom Kippur. I am not a member of any of the local synagogues, It just seemed too much effort when we moved back, and then there was various health issues, grad school and the pandemic. As a result, I have decided that I am just find attending services remotely at Central Synagogue which is located in NYC. They do a superb job of live stream. There are no glitches, there are no audio problems.  In fact, the only challenges is that they are in a  US Eastern Time Zone (see comments above). Over all, the advantages out weigh the time challenge. 

 

Tea Cups

Holly Doyne Posted on by

This might have been a productive day. Certainly better than yesterday. Certainly I was up early enough to see the sun rise, the birds making noise, and to be gifted a lovely cup of coffee by the husband who slept in more than an hour longer than me.

On the accomplished list: cleared out another couple of boxes from the garage and have a full box of books ready to go in the library box as it empties over the next week. Sorted a few things in the craft room. Most importantly, I packed and mailed a box of yarns off to a friend who can do with it what she wants. Mostly I think it will become bobble hats..

The Tea Cups? Actually, it is a single tea cup by the same designer as the coffee cup I stitched toward the end of the cruise. Since I didn’t have  the ten called for colors of floss, I settled for substituting 5 colors of Sulky…

I am at 78% complete and planning on having it finished in the next few days. Then I need to line up my remaining projects and work my way through them. The plan is to not have anything left over by the end of the year. That leaves me with two largish projects to complete and four SALs to finish. That should be do able with a bit of planning. Of course, that assumes that I don’t get distracted by “shiny.” But right now, I am not starting anything new till everything started this year is finished. 

Longer is faster

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The trip into the SFVA this morning wasn’t complicated. I stopped at Peet’s to grab coffee, sailed along the freeway, dealt with minor-moderate backup at the Bay Bridge and had clear sailing once I made the 101 North Exit.

I managed my appointments, got my flu shot, skipped the Farmer’s Market which was in the process of closing and headed home going north to go east to go south. According to Maps – that route which is miles longer was going to take about 44 minutes while heading straight back across the Bay Bridge would take well over an hour (we will not talk about the traffic on the freeway from the Bay Bridge to 101 South. At best it is stop and go. Otherwise a standstill is not uncommon).

Picked up soup ingredients, put gas in the car and managed to be home by 1500. I am tired. Really tired. I should organize the craft room, or the garage, or make a list of projects.  What I am thinking about is a nap…

Stitching with turbulence

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Please bear with me as I attempt to peck out these sentences as the plane bounces. What plane? Our flight on United from Logan Airport in Boston to SFO that I am spending awake while George snoozes next to me.

We got to the airport this morning without drama, made use of George’s access to the United Lounge for a late breakfast/early lunch. I also packed up a cup of treats (gummi bears and chocolate covered expresso beans) in case I got the munchies on the plane.

The turbulence lasted only about 20 minutes while the pilots attempted to find a smooth flying level Meanwhile I had pulled out “Tea” which is by the same designer as the Coffee pattern I stitched a few weeks ago. I have a window seat which provided me marginally more light than the aisle seats might have. The overhead light didn’t help much. I really miss my magnifier, although in this case, being able to better see the holes in this 18ct aide wouldn’t make them much easier to hit with the plane bouncing.

We actually arrived at SFO on time, coming in directly over the Bay, taxied in and then waited till our gate was cleared. By the time we walked (of course it was the furthest gate possible) to baggage claim our luggage was on the carousel. From bagged claim in Terminal 3, we headed over to the International Terminal and arrived at the BART station just in time to board the Richmond train (direct) and got off in Downtown Berkeley, cab up the hill and we are home.

We are pretty much unpacked and a first sort of the mail has been completed.  I’ll add photos when I have the time/energy.

 

The noisiest restaurant ever

Holly Doyne Posted on by

We had offered to take our hosts out for dinner. The first place that we had considered had a rather eclectic menu. When confirming our reservation, the lovely woman on the phone mentioned that it was “open mic” night starting at 1900. Would it be loud? Well it might be, but most of it could be in Russian…

Instead of going for Mideastern/Eastern Europe fusion, .we elected to go for Italian instead. The restaurant was only a couple of miles away and street parking at this point in the evening was free. The food was excellent. The staff was great.  However….the noise level was unbearable. Seriously, I turned on my decibel monitoring app. It was constantly registering between 85-91db. The problem was a combination of reflective walls and ceilings combined with a packed crowd all trying to be heard across the table. 

We were all glad to be finished and out into the peace and quiet of traffic….

Newton

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Which, in this case refers to the town in Massachusetts, not the Sir Issac or various fictional characters of the same name. According to my usual sources – the name came from being “the newe town” which concatenated to Newton. Anyway, after getting off the ship yesterday, we took a Lyft to friends of George (law school classmate) and are staying a couple of days.   

Just the basics on Newton – it is about 20km west of Boston and is one of the consolidated towns which sort of expanded into each other over time. It is old, with European settlers arriving prior to 1650. If you want to read the WIKI article.  But in any case, walking around this area and into Newton Center today, it was obvious that there was & is wealth in the area. Large stately homes more than 100 years old set back on huge lawns. They have green grass and signs advertising various lawn services everywhere. 

(we don’t have a lawn, I live in a water restricted area. Lawn service? )

Anyway –  many of the houses are wood with brick taking a close second. I rarely saw stone and stucco was even less common. The houses are old enough that most have a tiny garage that has obviously been converted from a carriage house. They probably were horrendously expensive at the time and are likely even more so to maintain. Older houses need maintenance, repairs, replacements, and, if you are lucky, are not significant.enough to land on an historic register. 

This is being a quiet day for me. Audiobooks, the occasional computer game and some more stitching. The Birbs are done –

The pattern is a bonus from MFE included in the packet for the 2025 SAL (about which I am undecided. It is not a mystery SAL, so if I do it, it would be as my only large piece for the year. At 27xxx it obviously isn’t small, but definitely smaller than most of the full coverage pieces on my wish list. 

And again

Holly Doyne Posted on by

At least today I think everyone was expecting that we would not be making Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, NS, Canada …. With seas of not quite two meters I can understand why. It doesn’t sound like much until you are attempting to get from a tender bobbing up and down to a platform sticking out the side of a ship which is bobbing to a different wave.

So instead you get a previous day’s sunrise picture –

Today’s rainbow –

which I took through the glass because I didn’t feel like getting soaked and a picture of my current cross stitch project

I looked up some of the background of this particular saying which I have been using for years. Others have never heard of it. According to a Canadian friend – substitute clown/s for monkeys. This particular version was charted by Urban Threads. 18 ct Aida (brought a bunch with) and complete color substitute with Sulky because that is what I have on hand.

Skipped Port

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Well, today was another tender port that didn’t happen. The sea looked deceptively calm, unless you went down to one of the lower decks to realize that, just because you didn’t see white caps didn’t mean that the was exactly calm. The positive side of traveling on a smaller ship is the ability to visit smaller ports and less traveled locations. The downside is that most of these locations are accessed by tender rather than having the ship dock. As a result, with a very conservative captain, any sea more than about a meter of swell becomes a potential cancellation.

This would have been Cap-aux-Meules, Iles de la Madeleine. Ah, well. We sat in the bay for several hours looking at the shore which was so near, yet so far.

Did I share a cabin picture?  No?

 

 

Gaspé

Holly Doyne Posted on by

The seas were reasonably calm, but we actually docked today!

Being a couple of klicks out of town, transportation was via School Bus. Yes, those orange “Blue Birds” that many of us US types (and it looks like Canadians as well) rode as children.

It is a small town, established early to take advantage of having a lovely sheltered bay, good fishing grounds and a potential first stop from the Atlantic for tired sailors.

There is the mandatory historical house

from the doctor/town official/explorer circa early through middle 1800s.  Some lovely painted walls here and there

A shopping center containing a Dollarama where one could find a few craft supplies –

a Rossy’s and a number of other shops on the lower level which opened into a rather good sized parking lot complete with a drive thru McDonalds (no picture needed).

From downtown (a few blocks in each direction) we walked along the shore’s board walk toward the museum which opened at 1100. There were birds like this crane which I didn’t spot till after it took off as well as the expected gulls.

Meeting one local and getting to pet a small, grubby and very happy poodle, we were treated to an explanation of one of the boardwalk signs which included pictures from various eras. She pointed out her mother, aunt and other family members.

The museum itself was Maritime oriented (duh) and George spent sometime looking at the exhibits which I grabbed a bench and just read. From there it was bus back to the ship, lunch, relax, stitch and perhaps a bit too much coffee….

 

Sailing back toward the sea

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Today was a planned sea day. For me, that means hanging out in the Deck 8 lounge, stitching, audio books, and drinking probably  more coffee than is good for me.  We have two smaller tender ports up next, then on to Halifax. There are probably at least half-a-dozen ships on about the same course – up the St Lawrence and back during the fall “leaf peeper season.” Unfortunately for all of us, there hasn’t been much leaf turning to this point…

Probably the highpoint of today for me was finishing

This lovely small piece by Heart Strings Samplery. It is on 18 ct Tomato Cream from Forbidden Fiber Co. It is stitch with various Sulky threads since that is what I had with me.  I think it is finish #51 for the year.

Quebec City – 3/3

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Unlike a lot of the ship’s crew, we didn’t get off the ship last evening. I am not much for wandering around away from home in the evening and even less likely to do so while in a city that is not my own. Sound better than saying I don’t go out at night in strange cities, doesn’t it? Anyway – today presented a completely different challenge. There were three other ships in port which meant the number of tourists on the streets was significantly higher.

In fact, I am not sure that anyone who was local and not involved in the hospitality or tourist trade (to include a lot of so oriented shops) was out and about today. Neither the Seabourn Quest (458) or the Seven Seas Grandeur (748) are particularly huge ships nor actually is HAL’s Volendam (1432 – and by far the oldest of the four in port) but their presence certainly made our measly 312 passenger ship look tiny.

Anyway – we walked out and away, through the art district and I made the mistake of turning left at a corner …

Oh, well …. and turned to the opposite direction and found  yet another cannon emplacement. That I could ignore, but  there was this artist installation … (on the website you should be able to click on the photo and enlarge it enough to read it.0

I am sorry – I don’t find this art –

It is books, in many languages and most were obviously readable prior to her fastening then to an understructure. Especially in a city which has both antiquarian and used book stores.

I am not sure that it is balanced by this particularly lovely building –

with a bit of close up –

and so we decided to explore a bit more up the hill and along what appeared occasionally to be streets of shops for those who just might live there. But there were constant reminders of the long standing military strategic importance of the top of a hill overlooking a river (sound familiar to anyone living in Europe?)

and so –

and gates (obviously more recently repaired)

and, of course, more canon emplacements.

At that point, I felt it was more than reasonable time to hike back down toward the ship, avoid all the extra tourists and contemplate a nap, stitching, or another audio book.
 

 

Quebec City 2 – returning

Holly Doyne Posted on by

After leaving Montreal last night, it was a fairly short journey back to Quebec City. We are here today and tomorrow. Today’s plan was simple, out, wander, visit a couple of museums, maybe climb the “hill” again, avoid the pink balloon babies, and see what there was to see.

When walking by the lovely small restaurant that George stopped at the last time we were here was obviously closed, I realized that we had headed out well before any reasonable opening time…

OTOH, I took a chance and made a quick hike up the hill, ?mountain?, to check on the Starbucks. Yes, they were open, yes, they were packed with customers, no they didn’t have any of the thermoses which left me headed right back down. And spotted yet another one of the

But still, it was a lovely day.

We made a stop at the Museum of Civilization – featuring exhibits wide ranging from original peoples through exploration of the area by the Europeans to a discussion of more modern times.

because, of course, the known universe had to be mapped by the Europeans with a bit of imagination.

Early snowmobile developed prior to WWII were important in areas with cold and snow.

and judges, even female judges just have to wear lace ties/jabots.

Our next stop was to be the Maritime Museum …. closed. Since it was a weekend, the Fleet training school also seemed deserted.

At the end of the day ,

came on board for a concert. They were excellent. One of the new passengers wasn’t – as she apparently thought that teenage (trust me, she had left that decades prior) behavior of standing in front of the band, moving around and sticking her arms up in the air was appropriate behavior.

 

Montreal

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Quebec City 1

Holly Doyne Posted on by

So labeled because we will be spending an overnight in Quebec City on our way back out the St Lawrence on our way to Boston.  Looking back, the first time I was in Quebec City was in Sept 2012 on a New England/Canada cruise on the Enchantment of the Seas. I didn’t have internet on the ship (plus this was prior to changing to a stateside server) so rarely posted and the photos are done in any case.   The same is true of the ISTM meeting held here in Spring of 2015.

So here we are today early morning with the sun rising

while the moon is still riding high in the sky

We docked in Old Town and the city seems amazingly familiar. Except for the pink balloon babies,  As you have probably figured out by now, I am not much of one for organized tours,  I can read a map, appreciate walking at my own pace and do enough reading ahead of time to have a general idea of what I might want to do,  So the plan today was to walk around, hike up to the top of the hill (mountain?) and visit the Citadel which I hadn’t done on either of my two previous visits.

Obviously, there were stairs involved, A lot of stairs. Also cobblestoned streets. If one needed it, there was a funicular which lead up to what was the castle, important residence and is now a hotel in the Fairmont chain –

From there we walked along the outside of the Citadel (board walk + stairs, lots to stairs) which encircles the old walls. The Citadel itself is home to both the Royal 22nd Regiment of the Canadian Armed Forces and their museum.

We waited till the museum opened at 1000. As it turns out, seeing the museum is easy, but if you want to tour the grounds, since it is an active military installation – you need to be in a tour group. Our particular leader was actually a graduate student from the French Pyrenees here studying.  The Regiment deployed in WWI, WWII, Korea, Afghanistan (last

Oct 2010-July 2011).

From there, a lot more walking was involved.  Just for interest – yet another variation on Pedestrian Walk Lights.

We will be back here on the 21st…

Pink Ballon Babies

Holly Doyne Posted on by

I mean seriously. Large, pink, creepy pink balloons which were glaringly obvious just on walking into Old Town Quebec City.

there were more, oh so many more. 

Enough Said.

Counting down

Holly Doyne Posted on by

to the end of this leg. With any luck, this is the last sea day of this part of of the cruise. To tell you the truth, I spent a goodly portion of the day just napping.

Tomorrow we are in Quebec City.

Havre Saint-Pierre

Holly Doyne Posted on by

which is obviously in Quebec.

Arriving reasonably early in the morning, George and I headed for the tender about 1000 figuring to let the crowds get ahead of us as well as those going on some kind of tour. Looking at the map,  Wikipedia for the area and the sort of information from last night’s port talk, it seemed a place easy to walk around and explore on our own.

We spotted what was either a harbor porpoise or minke whale on the way in. I didn’t see fin or tail, just a large black back as it was diving down and away from our tender. No photo was taken, sorry.

Taking a bit of a hike around town, I noticed a couple of things –

First, the blue moose. No clue why, but not small.

Secondly –

all the fire hydrants had a sign right next to them with a number. I haven’t seen this before, but it would make reporting something pretty specific.  The same numbering occurred along the promenade –

where all the lights are numbered as well.

There is a local cultural centre which is sort of a museum giving a history of the Acadians who relocated to the area in 1857. I had to drag out my extremely rusty French to read my way through the exhibits. One of the others from the ship (a fluent French speaker) said later he was having a bit of a challenge with the local dialect so I didn’t feel quite as bad.

Meanwhile – there was this four harness loom –

which was almost two meters wide and yes, that is two sets of treadles.

What was probably the original town switch board –

and several items in an area that was clearly labeled for women’s work –

There was section that discussed the original fishing industry and then the onset of mining  (iron ore and titanium) which has continued to today. I didn’t see much on schooling but there was extensive sections on various aspects of the parish.

We headed back to the ship in time for lunch. Late afternoon, we were treated to a short concert by the Keven Landry Duo. They are findable both on YouTube and Apple Music.

Meanwhile, I am skipping dinner (no, I am not interested in a Galley Market. If I wanted to stand in line for a buffet I wouldn’t be looking for a nice sit down dinner with my husband). George elected to stay and joined some friends. I am about to join a stitching zoom then will probably hit up room service once they have recovered from the “fun” of dinner…

Skipped

Holly Doyne Posted on by

This morning, as we are hanging out in the deck 8 lounge, the Captain once again comes on the tannoy and informs us that we will not be making our next port due to potential high winds and round seas.

We look around. Sailing protected in what looks like a small bay, we don’t get it. All looks peaceful and calm. I would have appreciated stopping at Woody Point. There is an old fort, there are a couple of artisan shops which just might be open. There is also (according to the town’s website) a pub or two.  But, considering some of the rough seas we have encountered, I am not second guessing the Captain’s decisions. I have done the not fun/dangerous transfer from tender to ship in the Pacific and I have no particular interest in doing that again.

I am just taking this as a relaxing day in which I can listen to audio books, stitch, and catch a nap. That and I should probably consider turning in some more laundry.

Just walking around

Holly Doyne Posted on by

The ride on the tender into St Anthony wasn’t all that far, nor was it rough. On a Sunday, this is a quiet place with most, I would guess home, or minding their own business. Not all that many people here in any case.

According to the history, it is not one of the early settlements, instead dating in the 1800s..

The war memorial is near what appears to be the oldest church. It lists those killed in WWI, WII, and the Korean War,

We walked to stretch our legs and mostly saw others from the ship.

The municipal building includes the Public Library and the Fire Department is next door.

From the normal looking phone number on the building I strongly suspect a department with a paid chief and otherwise staffed with volunteers…

We skipped the small shopping center which included a Subway. Who knew?

There is a a small museum which has a craft store downstairs. Selling souvenirs, locally made quilts, placemats, etc, one end is also stocked with the supplies that those who live locally would need to sew, quilt, or knit.

Some of the early pieces were on exhibit upstairs, including the start of a rug hooking piece.

.

We finished our walk, headed back to the ship and I spent the afternoon on line with the Stitch Summit.

How many hours?

Holly Doyne Posted on by

I spent a fair amount of the day on Zoom connected to Acorns&Threads Pacific Stitchers Summit. The 30 minutes offset on top of the rest of the rest of the time zone change was a total and complete mental disrupter. As I have mentioned, I understand 30 minute offsets – Labrador isn’t the only location in the world (Adelaide & Katmandu come to mind) but my mind is still having a tough time wrapping around it.

My package from the retreat is sitting in my craft studio at the other end of the country. Means I don’t get to play in the raffle or bingo or…. not that I really care. The projects from the designers this time are actually lovely if you happen to like samplers.

I don’t. I just don’t get the point of stitching yet another piece featuring a generic house, some trees, a person or four, a few farm animals and some saying or another. The originals are strange enough to me, but reproducing something stitched by a 7-14 year old girl a decades to hundreds of years ago? Why?

Off soap box.

Otherwise catching up on my sleep.