Saturday, January 21, 2017

How Old Are you?

Okay, so I am now a “SENIOR” (OMG)! The problem that I have is that I don’t feel like a senior, plus my friends tell me I don’t act like one either! I don’t think they were complimenting me! So, it’s hard for me to accept a senior discount. Judi always gives that long disgusted look… “ARE YOU CRAZY, TAKE THE MONEY!” I guess with me it’s pride. I just don’t want to be considered a “SENIOR”! Now, there is one exception, INSURANCE. Being older (not too old) and accident/conviction free does have its advantages, but every other “SENIOR” situation is not for me! My Dad, on the other hand, when he became a “SENIOR” loved to go to McDonald’s for their free cup of coffee (do they still do that?), but that was my Dad, frugal as a result of the “Great Depression”. Because of my “SENIOR” phobia, I think you can forgive me for my biggest “SENIOR” blunder! Judi and I were visiting a very nice festival in Smiths Falls. Part of the festival’s attractions was a tour of the local “Railroad Museum”. There was a cost to go in, so when we reached the entrance I said to the attendant, “How much and I don’t have to pay full price do I?” He kind of looked at me as if I was crazy and with a dead-pan face said, “How old are you?” I, like an idiot, said “Why?” He just repeated the question with the same expression, but this time with a twinkle in his eye! “How old are you?” Obviously I was in another world, I just didn’t get it! Finally Judi nudged me in the ribs and took over the conversation! She now told our frustrated attendant that we were indeed “SENIORS”. You see, it wasn’t really about age! With that he asked us for a $1.00 each. We paid and went in. The regular price for non-senior was $5.00. I’m glad there was at least one “aware” member of our family there! By the way, it was a great tour!

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

“Lights… Camera… Action!”
A few years ago a friend of mine asked me if I have ever thought of videoing the festivals we visited, and then put them on “You Tube”. He figured that people would be interested in seeing videos of an event. He also thought it might increase traffic to our www.ontariofestivalsvisited.ca website. I told him that I hadn’t, but that I’d like to give it a try! So, here we were at the Bowmanville Maple Festival & All That Jazz. I had taken a lot of still photographs, but no video. I told Judi what I had in mind and she said “Give it a try, what’s the worst that could happen?!” I switched the camera’s mode to “movie” and started “shooting”. We had just entered the Midway area and one of the rides was about to begin. I pointed my camera in that direction and started to videoing.  Anyway, I videoed the ride for a few seconds and then stopped. Next I videoed a kids’ train ride, then the Midway’s arcade area. Each time I turned the camera on and off, thereby creating a disjointed series of videos. From the Midway, I took to the main street, shooting video scenes along the way. As I walked along, I gave a running commentary of what I was seeing. It was easy and it was fun! Even though each clip was quite short and disjointed, I knew I could piece them together into a longer more cohesive video, one that will be fit for “You Tube”. The only challenge was, how to put everything “together”! Fortunately I had an instructional CD that was included with my camera when I purchased it.
Since that first video, Judi and I have taken “hundreds” of videos! So much so that we now have over 200 You Tube Videos on our Ontario Visited You Tube Channel and we have had over 18,000 views! Also, the video are now being posted on our Ontario Visited Facebook page. We now travel across Ontario, visiting communities and their events, taking lots of video along the way. As a matter of interest, all of our new “adventure articles” include fun videos! We’ve come a long way since that first video, it’s now the way of the future.

So, “when you least expected, SMILE, you’re on the Nomad’s camera!”