So it’s been about five weeks since I added to the blog. I think this is the longest I’ve gone between posts since I started doing it, fourteen years ago.
I’ve gotten to a point where if it’s outside of my routine, I generally don’t write. And the routine has been a bit all over the place lately. Since September 9th, when I last posted, I went to work… then on the first day off, flew to Newfoundland. Was home for around twelve days. Went straight back to work the day after getting back to town. Then on my next round of days off, mom and dad arrived here. I was then back to work again the day after they left.
So today is the first “routine last day of my four days off before going back to work tomorrow.” In other words, it’s my first time since September 9th, when I’d normally be sitting down to write.
Lots has happened since my last posting. Today I’m writing from my computer room. Sitting on my patio furniture, looking out at the yellow and red of the forest across the street.
I should explain that my patio furniture is an indoor/outdoor wicker set that, when the summer fades away, I set up in my mostly empty computer room. It makes it a nice little winter sitting room… and it saves the furniture from the winter elements.
So I’m writing in a solid Autumn frame of mind. Summer is in the rear view mirror. Winter is just around the bend. Spring is right out! (A play off Python there… oh goodness it’s been a while).
The Blue Jays are in the playoffs. Barely. They barely made it in. They’re barely still alive. But they are now by far my favourite sports team to watch. It’ll be sad whenever it’s over. Knowing that quite a few of the players won’t be back next year. I’m especially torn about Bautista. I don’t want to see him play for another team. It feels like he should always be a Blue Jay. But it also feels like he’s now a DH at best… and maybe a guy who should be coming off the bench fifty games a year while DH’ing the rest. Part of me wishes the Jays would storm back, win it all, and Bautista decides that there’s no better way to go out than on a championship.
But I know the Bautista retirement is likely not going to happen. And he’ll probably be a DH in Houston or Boston or somewhere else that’ll just look wrong to see.
The US election is nearing it’s end. Trump is just… not worth talking about anymore. I know Hillary isn’t a likeable person. I don’t much like her myself. There’s nothing very inspiring about her and she does have an air of that stereotypical, unlikeable politician you see in the movies. But she knows politics. She takes it seriously. She’s intelligent. And she has discipline. Trump is a spoiled egotist who gets mad and spiteful when he’s not worshipped.
I cleaned out my facebook and feel all the better for it. That is to say, I removed one person. I had been unsubscribed from them for a while but would still go to their page to see what kind of silliness they were getting on with. Racism, sexism, anger, resentment… it was all there. I tried to reason for a while… then argue. In the end I wouldn’t do anything but view and shake my head. So I decided, why bother at all. Unfriended, blocked, all gone. Life feels more hopeful when you don’t always see the venom.
Actually, I also had to unfollow the Snopes facebook page, for the same reason. Even though that site would be debunking the crazy thoughts that float around out there, I just thought to myself “I don’t need to see how much crazy is going on.” Some may say it’s me burying my head in the sand. But it isn’t. I know the nutty things that some people believe. I see plenty of it both at work and on the news. Twitter still links me to many wild stories. I just decided I don’t need to be saturated by it. And I’m all the better for it.
I think I’ve gotten a sign that the Blue Jays will not complete the comeback against Cleveland. As I was writing, an actual Blue Jay landed on the tree across the road. I decided to go get the camera. When I returned… he was gone. So close… so close.
This past week I heard that scientist now believe dinosaurs may not have roared. The sounds they made may be more duck like. I’ll never be able to watch a Jurassic Park or dinosaur documentary again. Ah scientists… sometimes I think you’re such quacks.
My body is pretty solidly back into shift work mode (and side note… I just wrote shift without the “f”, by accident. Had I not caught it, this entire paragraph would have taken a different light). I actually feel fresher now than I had the last few months of working a five day week. My pre nights naps are refreshing. I sleep seven or eight hours on my days off… waking when the eyes pop open rather than by way of alarm. I know shift work shouldn’t go on for a long time. I figure I’ll be ready to switch off of it again within five years. But, right now, it’s the shift for me.
And with that, I think it’s time for a nice Fall walk in the woods. I’ll bring along the camera… and hope to capture that Blue Jay… and remove the curse before the baseball game comes on this afternoon.
