Landed in Kenabeek

I arrived at my grandparents house the other day.  Today, I had my first driving lesson.  I've probably mentioned it, but I only have my G1 license (Canada has a graduation license system, going G1, G2, then G) because I don't know anyone with a car who can consistently give me lessons.  Now I do.  Today's lesson went well, and I'm hoping to get practice more days then not.

I'm taking photos, too.  There's some really beautiful landscape out here, and the house itself is quite snazzy.  This is the first time I've been up here in the Spring.  I think I've been up here every season except Spring, until this time, although that's what I said about my Guelph seasonal photos project.  But this time, I'm thinking that I've been up here because of summer vacation, Christmas vacation, and Thanksgiving.  The old school system didn't allow for a Spring visit.

Up here, Spring's as nice as it's going to get, but it still isn't my favourite season.  I can't help but feel the wilderness will look more robust once the wilderness grows out a bit more.

Spring Pics

Yeah, so since I'm leaving today, I finally got around to uploading those Spring photos.  I put five, because that's what I put for Winter, considering that to be my minimum requirement.  Here's the post:  http://gryphonsgallery.blogspot.ca/2012/05/guelph-spring-2012.html

Dislocating Body Parts

So, did you guys know that I can dislocate my jaw?  I can pull my jaw back, until I feel this sort of "Click" sensation, and then it won't close properly with a regular vertical command.  I have to slide it horizontally, and bring it over a "hill" in my jaw before it will close normally.  I used to think this wasn't unusual, but in Katimavik, everyone was amazed by my ability to open my jaw very widely.  It appeared that I was the strongest in this category.  Since then, I have grown to understand that this is a fairly unusual ability, of which I should be appreciative.

I can also dislocate my left thumb, but not my right.  If I concentrate on that too much, I feel uneasy.  As a right-handed person, I'm used to my right hand being more proficient than my left.  But after this display, my right hand comes out wanting.

Mom's Cooking

You guys can check out some photos of my mother's food, which I've been photographing for some reason.  They're on my Flickr.  Here you go: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78975407@N05/sets/72157629644915886/

I'll be visiting with my grandparents soon enough, and moving into a fairly large visit, hopefully.  I once thought that my grandmother was 50% of my viewers, but recent statistics provided by Google say that I have 31 other viewers, so I'll try to keep up my activity on this blog for that mystery group!

Plumbing Issue

I reviewed my gallery, and it appears that I missed Summer as well as Spring in my seasonal collection.  Fsshh... I thought I'd just cap off an old project, but this is turning into a chore.

We had a big-ish plumbing issue.  The whole street needed to have it's water cut.  We spoke to our landlord, who needed to call a plumber and also get permission from The City of Guelph to shut the water down.  It was all wrapped up inside a day, though.  A pipe broke, or something.  It was a leak that was running like a faucet.

Facebook has a function now, where it puts a map on your front page showing everywhere that you've logged on.  It's got Summerside, Thunder Bay, and Chisasibi on there, so that means they've been recording my movements since Katimavik at least.  This is a function that is automatically added to your profile.  I don't have a problem with it, but I know that there are people who might.

Also, they didn't force Timeline again, so I just look like a huge tool that complied early.

Raccoon and Souvenirs

Saw this little critter the other day and snapped a pic.  No matter how troublesome I hear raccoons are to homeowners, I can't help but have a positive reaction when I see one face-to-face, as I haven't had many opportunities, and even if they are pests, they are quite handsome pests.

He was sitting on my neighbour's roof.  Initially he was much closer, but after I went back inside and came back with my camera, he'd retreated a little bit.  I had to zoom in almost to max capacity to get a decent shot, which usually causes a decrease in photo quality, but I was surprised that it came out as well as it did.

I was in the mood to take photos, so here's some pics of my Africa swag.  Not the best quality here, either, because of lighting.

I took some photos of the Springtime, to go along with my set of Guelph seasons.  I did Summer, Autumn and Winter in one year, but then I did Katimavik, didn't bother during the time before leaving for CWY.  I finally completed the set, but as my camera is always going to make trouble, even uploading photos is tedious.  I did the raccoon and souvenir photos, then got bored.  So I'll probably upload those tomorrow.

It's going to be different scenery, though.  All the other seasonal images were done in the area around where I used to live... You know, where the prostitute was murdered.

I took a bunch of pictures of plantlife and the speed river.  I'm not sure that will suffice, but I don't find this neighbourhood, or this season, to be as photographically inspiring.

Murder in Town

So, there has been a murder in Guelph.  It's not so intimidating, considering it happened five years ago, and details are only showing up recently.  But it holds a little bit more significance to me.  I never knew the victim, so perhaps it's not warranted, but I was very near to her when she died, apparently.

When me, my Mom and my brother had to evacuate the apartment we'd lived in  for 18 years, entering a neighbourhood of which I'd heard had a certain stigma, it was within a week that we were confronted by a policewoman, who wanted to know what information we had about the death of a young woman whose corpse had been found directly outside our building.

Guelph is considered the safest city in Canada, and Canada itself has a pretty good reputation.  This was the worst crime that I'd ever heard having been committed in my home city.  Official report said that the cause of death was unknown.  I'd assumed she'd OD'd or something.

Wrong... Apparently she was a prostitute and drug addict.  Her murderer was a client who had behaved violently towards prostitutes in the past.  Her death came from being strangled.