Thursday, April 08, 2004
Took the day off work to head back to Keswick, as I had discovered around the beginning of the month that my late Mother still had some open accounts at her old bank there. I thought I had closed everything down when I visited the bank last summer, but when I got statements in the mail that automatically renewed a couple of previously unknown RSP accounts, I originally thought it must be some mistake. The only mistake was that these two accounts had originally been missed, so I headed up to Keswick to sort things out.
It turned out to be a nice day to head up, though I was dreading going back. Not that the place itself was so bad, but that it brought back memories, and that there's truly no "going back home". I was saddened to see the extent of the construction going up at a furious pace on the approach to Aurora and Newmarket on the lands facing Yonge Street. A former horse farm's green rolling fields was now stripped bare, a field of muck studded with yellow bulldozers and pre-fab housing components littering the ground. One of the more ironic housing developments advertisements depicted some wild animals and featured the slogan "live in the wilds". I can't imagine much of either will be left after the construction is finished.
Got to Keswick and met with the same banking rep I had dealt with on my previous trip there. She was very apologetic about the situation but I confessed that it was a nice excuse to come to the town again, and frankly it was worth my while to come. We settled things up in short order and I decided to roam for a while, eventually settling into a charity store where I browsed their extensive bookshelves of used books looking for childrens books I could read to the girls the coming long weekend up north. Came away with a bunch of books for little Annie, including one treasure: an original first edition hard cover copy of a Little Bear book, illustrated by Maurice Sendak in the early 1960s. I also picked up a Boxcar Kids book for Vanessa, a mystery series I vaguely remember hearing about from my youth. In all I picked up about a half-dozen titles for the kids, spending just over a dollar for the lot.
I continually kept missing my connections, so while I had hoped to return by 2pm, I actually ended up coming home around 4pm. Along the way I deposited the money via bank machine. The funds are a happy windfall, since the local film industry still hasn't picked up and prospects in Erika's line of work seem bleak.
New Digital Camera – Olympus D-580
During one of the periods when I was waiting for a bus connection, I went into Newmarket Mall and ended up buying a new Olympus digital camera from the Japan Camera store there. I had been doing some research in this area for a little while, focusing primarily on Olympus cameras considering how much I enjoyed using the first one I had bought several years ago. One of the key features I wanted was the ability to record videos with sounds – the latter a feature my Nikon digital camera was lacking. The other thing that has always bugged me about my Nikon is the way that it heavily favours the red end of the spectrum, making some browns look almost red and pinks and reds almost seem fluorescent in pictures. Another key factor in my purchasing decision was a feature I had not run across elsewhere – the ability to digitally stitch together several individual shots into one big shot. I love taking panorama shots, and this oddball feature has real appeal for me.
Originally I had my eyes set on the latest-and-greatest model, but in the store I found the next-to-latest-and-greatest had all of the features I wanted, and was significantly cheaper. The only thing the pricier camera seemed to sport was a better protection from the rain, commanding a $100 premium. Nah. It's rare I'm outside on a rainy day with camera in hand. I was pleasantly surprised to find the sales rep very knowledgeable and helpful – I gathered that she was a part-time professional photographer who had the opportunity to "play" with many of the cameras in-store, and passed along that knowledge. My only real disappointment was coming away with a relatively measly coupon for printing 10 pictures free after shelling out several hundred dollars for camera, an extra 128 MB of SX memory and a battery charger.
I am looking forward to putting the camera to the test this weekend up north at Deloro.
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