The blog is back after my longest layoff. Been too busy to get in a writing frame of mind. Even now my mind isn’t really into it simply because I’m still not back to the normal routine. Mom and dad have been in Ottawa for about a month now… and six of the last eight weeks. It’s starting to setting down but there were weeks of running around shopping for their condo. So four days of work would be followed by four days of shopping… before returning to work once again. But they’re pretty well straightened out now. Appliances, furniture, household goods, a car. Three or four IKEA trips… four or five Home Depot trips… the hell that is Walmart. Throw in some Christmas shopping and it’s been a busy time.
Looks like it’ll be a white Christmas. Been cold and snowy this December.
The woods around me took another hit a few weeks ago. The stuff directly in front of me remains intact. But about half, or maybe even two thirds of the woods beyond the farthest pond has been removed. And the woods that’s around the corner from me is also gone. I can now go to my driveway and look at the playground that was once shrouded by forest.
Soon, that area will be built up with houses and a road. But right now it’s a scar. I’ll miss the coziness that I felt from having it there. I’d stand in my backyard, with he BBQ going, and look beyond my fence at the green of the summer trees where birds would dart in and out of safety. Next summer it’ll be a construction zone. The summer after that, I’ll be looking at townhouses over there.
I still like the neighbourhood. I’m sitting now, writing and looking out my front window at the forest across the street. And I realize that where I live was also once a forested piece of land. But I hate seeing that scar where once a forest stood.
Six days from now, the hope is that it’ll be family Christmas time. Edena and crew due in at that time. Of course, there’s currently a forecast of 15-20 cm of snow the day they arrive. So here’s hoping flights make it ok. It also likely means I’ll have another extended blog break after this post. The crew are due to leave New Years Day. I likely won’t write again until a few days past that.
The First Snow Walk
It comes each year.
Between fall hikes
And Winter snowshoed treks
A few weeks,
Of Snow Walks.
The first workout.
Working rusty muscles.
Unstable and sliding.
As a walk in a child’s ball pit.
Tire spinning feet
Burning muscles and lungs.
Soon the muscles tighten.
Regain the memories of past years.
And the lungs will catch up too.
But on this first,
It’s as a mountain expedition.
Training for Everest on a twenty foot slope
As tufts of grass peek out
From the fresh white snow.
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Tuesday, November 07, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #692
Been a while since the last post. Two weeks of mom and dad here was very busy. Running around shopping and organizing for their condo. And lots accomplished. And I was back to work the day after they left… so not much time to sit and post.
The darkness across the street is not as dark as it once was. Looking across at the woods, at night, has been a time of mystery. I’d always be left to wonder what the darkness hid. Working beavers? Patrolling coyotes? Fox? Deer? Moose? Or, on those nights where spookiness is in the mind… ghosts… or demons? Sometimes I’d look out expecting to see the red glow of evil eyes peering back.
The woods remain, but they’ve been substantially thinned since I moved in. A hundred yards through a section of the woods now bring you to a road. And with the leaves having dropped south for the winter, glimpses of street lights break through the birch and maple. Perhaps I’ll sometimes see the lights as extra terrestrial orbs… but, for now, the mystery has been broken.
I’ve slept my last on the only mattress I’ve known in Ontario. It’s bagged up and ready to go. Delivery people will be here this afternoon… bringing memory foam into my room. It’s odd to be nostalgic over a fourteen year old mattress… and I’m sure I won’t much miss it in the long run… but bagging it up, this morning, felt like a form of abandonment.
I am done with the concept of “thoughts and prayers”. America seems to have a mass shooting every few weeks now… at least a newsworthy one. And each time it’s the same old reaction. Shock… statements of there’s nothing that could be done… and “thoughts and prayers.” It’s a routine now for an event that should never be accepted as routine. Thoughts and prayers are completely useless and meaningless. Especially when given by politicians who have the power to actually do something concrete that would curb such violence. But, instead, they take their NRA money and offer up thoughts and prayers. I’d rather they say nothing and own the decisions they’ve made to get our southern neighbours to this point. “Thoughts and prayers” are a mock solution to a problem that could actually be solved if the desire was really there. It isn’t that complicated. Ban civilian access to assault rifles that were developed for use by soldiers in war zones. Mandatory background checks. Register the weapons that are legally purchased. And, in the wake of the Vegas shooting, once a civilian has purchased his tenth firearm, perform a more thorough investigation. I mean, honestly, any person who owns forty or fifty firearms should likely be checked in on from time to time. But America doesn’t really care. It’s freedom this and 2nd amendment that. And if people die, that’s the price of freedom.
A stat I heard the last few days that really strikes home. Columbine, the shooting that was so shocking to the world when it occurred, is no longer in America’s top ten biggest mass shootings. God help America when laser guns are developed and civilians will be able to vaporize a stadium of people within three seconds. Cause seriously, when the 2nd amendment was created, semi-automatic assault rifles would be as much science fiction then as laser guns are to us now.
As a society, we are too addicted to the economy. Sometimes it feels like we’ve been brainwashed to think we were put on this earth simply to buy stuff. One can’t get away from the advertising. Turn on the TV… every 8 minutes you’ll get 4 minutes of advertising. Radio is a constant barrage of advertising that’s occasionally interrupted by a few minutes of music or programming. Newspapers are blocked full of ads. Sports facilities are named after corporations and the playing surface is painted full of business logos. The internet got so full of advertising that I often skip articles on certain sites because I know I’m going to have pop ups to work around. I actually took to “the Athletic”… a pay sports site… so that I can read about hockey and baseball without being overwhelmed with the advertising. I constantly get a community newspaper delivered to my front door. I used to be nice about it… emailing the company and asking them to remind their carrier to skip by my house. But every few months it starts up again. Now my emails are much less friendly. And my dream is to find out where that carrier lives so I can bring that advertised rag right back and leave it on their front doorstep. And now, today… the car parked quietly in my driveway got a flyer for windshield water repellant tucked under the wiper. It’s all just too much.
But the sun is out… The bare forest is still and I’m a week away from once again living in the same town as my parents (at least for approximately half of the year). So life isn’t too bad.
The darkness across the street is not as dark as it once was. Looking across at the woods, at night, has been a time of mystery. I’d always be left to wonder what the darkness hid. Working beavers? Patrolling coyotes? Fox? Deer? Moose? Or, on those nights where spookiness is in the mind… ghosts… or demons? Sometimes I’d look out expecting to see the red glow of evil eyes peering back.
The woods remain, but they’ve been substantially thinned since I moved in. A hundred yards through a section of the woods now bring you to a road. And with the leaves having dropped south for the winter, glimpses of street lights break through the birch and maple. Perhaps I’ll sometimes see the lights as extra terrestrial orbs… but, for now, the mystery has been broken.
I’ve slept my last on the only mattress I’ve known in Ontario. It’s bagged up and ready to go. Delivery people will be here this afternoon… bringing memory foam into my room. It’s odd to be nostalgic over a fourteen year old mattress… and I’m sure I won’t much miss it in the long run… but bagging it up, this morning, felt like a form of abandonment.
I am done with the concept of “thoughts and prayers”. America seems to have a mass shooting every few weeks now… at least a newsworthy one. And each time it’s the same old reaction. Shock… statements of there’s nothing that could be done… and “thoughts and prayers.” It’s a routine now for an event that should never be accepted as routine. Thoughts and prayers are completely useless and meaningless. Especially when given by politicians who have the power to actually do something concrete that would curb such violence. But, instead, they take their NRA money and offer up thoughts and prayers. I’d rather they say nothing and own the decisions they’ve made to get our southern neighbours to this point. “Thoughts and prayers” are a mock solution to a problem that could actually be solved if the desire was really there. It isn’t that complicated. Ban civilian access to assault rifles that were developed for use by soldiers in war zones. Mandatory background checks. Register the weapons that are legally purchased. And, in the wake of the Vegas shooting, once a civilian has purchased his tenth firearm, perform a more thorough investigation. I mean, honestly, any person who owns forty or fifty firearms should likely be checked in on from time to time. But America doesn’t really care. It’s freedom this and 2nd amendment that. And if people die, that’s the price of freedom.
A stat I heard the last few days that really strikes home. Columbine, the shooting that was so shocking to the world when it occurred, is no longer in America’s top ten biggest mass shootings. God help America when laser guns are developed and civilians will be able to vaporize a stadium of people within three seconds. Cause seriously, when the 2nd amendment was created, semi-automatic assault rifles would be as much science fiction then as laser guns are to us now.
As a society, we are too addicted to the economy. Sometimes it feels like we’ve been brainwashed to think we were put on this earth simply to buy stuff. One can’t get away from the advertising. Turn on the TV… every 8 minutes you’ll get 4 minutes of advertising. Radio is a constant barrage of advertising that’s occasionally interrupted by a few minutes of music or programming. Newspapers are blocked full of ads. Sports facilities are named after corporations and the playing surface is painted full of business logos. The internet got so full of advertising that I often skip articles on certain sites because I know I’m going to have pop ups to work around. I actually took to “the Athletic”… a pay sports site… so that I can read about hockey and baseball without being overwhelmed with the advertising. I constantly get a community newspaper delivered to my front door. I used to be nice about it… emailing the company and asking them to remind their carrier to skip by my house. But every few months it starts up again. Now my emails are much less friendly. And my dream is to find out where that carrier lives so I can bring that advertised rag right back and leave it on their front doorstep. And now, today… the car parked quietly in my driveway got a flyer for windshield water repellant tucked under the wiper. It’s all just too much.
But the sun is out… The bare forest is still and I’m a week away from once again living in the same town as my parents (at least for approximately half of the year). So life isn’t too bad.
Friday, October 06, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #691
A busy last little while. Home for a trip that included lots of cleaning up during the day and many evenings out. Then pretty much straight back to work after getting back.
The trail is finally being developed along the tree line across from my place. Once done, it’ll sure beat the ditch that has been sitting there the last year or two.
Went to the far woods a few days ago trying to size up winter walking and snowshoes. It was kind of depressing to see. Many acres of the woods is now gone over there… soon to be developed. And an orange fence cuts straight through a large chunk of the remaining forest. I guess they want to keep people back away from the work that’s coming. But having a trail cut off by those plastic orange fences just leaves you feeling down.
For the first time ever, I got snow tires put on the car on a day that I’m wearing shorts and sandals. But many of the nights are already slipping into single digit temperatures and the first snow and frost isn’t far away.
Micky has come back. The greatest stuffed toy I ever had… Mickey Mouse bought from Disney during our family vacation in Florida around 35 years ago… is back in my possession. He spent the last fifteen plus years sitting in mom and dad’s attic. I’m not sure how he got up there. Other stuffed toys made the trip to Ontario. But the king of all stuffed toys… the one worn with love… that I literally could not sleep without having in the bed for at least five or six years (even going as far as stowing him away in my sleeping bag when going to friends houses for sleepovers)… he found his way into the attic… until now. Mickey is back in my room, looking towards my bed from the comfort of a nearby bookshelf.
The best of the hockey cards has returned. When I packed to leave Newfoundland, I put all of my best and most prized cards together in a box separated from all the rest. And upon reaching Ontario, fourteen years ago, they were gone. I sifted through every box over and over again… but there was no sign of them anywhere.
And when I moved from Avalon to Trailsedge, five or six years ago, I thought maybe the cards will reappear during that move. That they will give up a secret hiding spot from the old home and join me in the new. But, again, nothing.
I hoped they were in my friend’s basement with boxes I stored there… they weren’t. I hoped they were tucked in a remaining box in mom and dad’s place… no sign. I was left to assume that the movers that brought my stuff to Ontario had a go of them… or that maybe the box they were in was assumed to be garbage in mid move, and they’d be gone for good.
But this trip home brought them out of hiding. While cleaning out mom and dad’s basement… with hockey cards totally out of mind… a small box was tucked along a shelving unit.
The writing said “Hockey Card & photos and dart board”. But was it old writing from a former use? Probably so. Still, I opened the box out of curiosity. And there on top… my table top dart board.
I had actually completely forgotten the dart board. The sight of it floods me with memories of Hayward Ave living. And lifting it, I see a few pictures. Including one I’d always wondered about. A lost shot that had vanished with my cards. Me in the backyard… full head of hair… toddler Fraser sat next to me… and Schokee in the grass below us, enjoying the sun of a summer day.
This is actually the last picture of Schokee. Our last family dog died a few months after this picture was taken.
So once I saw the dart board and this picture, the thought of hockey cards crept back into mind. And I bring the box to the sofa and sit to give it a good going through.
A few more photographs are glanced at… both with nostalgia and a growing anticipation of what may lie beneath… and then, with the lift of a last photograph… they appear.
It begins with the youthful face of a Peter Forsberg rookie card peering up at me. This isn’t one of the ultimate treasures… but it’s telling me they’re here. Forsberg was a favourite player of mine and I would have included this card with the others. And added digging confirms it. An old Larry Robinson card… the last card of Gordie Howe… a birthday gift of a pair of Patrick Roy cards under glass. And then the favourites appear. The Roy rookie card… his goalie mask card… the Mario rookie… Gretzky rookie… Bobby Hull autographed… and Vladislav Tretiak autographed cards all come back. Like a child at Christmas I call out… “This is THE cards.” Mom knows right away what this means… and she shares in the joy.
There is still one that remains among the missing. A birthday gift from friends… an autographed Larry Bird card, in a wooden frame was not packed along with these. It’s too bad… I wish it was… but after fourteen years of thinking they were all gone, it’s a small price to pay.
I think the two of these cards that mean the most aren’t even overly valuable. There is the Tretiak autographed card. In a random bit of oddness, he happened to be in St. John’s one day, signing autographs at Leon’s Furniture. You were supposed to by 8x10 pictures to autograph but I had a “goalies” card from the commemorative set from the 1972 series. Dryden and Esposito on one side of the card… Tretiak on the other. So I brought it to him… as he sat there on a sofa next to his backup goaltender from ’72 and St. John’s Maple Leaf, Andrew McKim.
Upon seeing the card, Tretiak asked me where I got it. In a not very clever response, I think I said “I got it in a pack of cards I bought.” Tretiak than showed the card to his backup goalie, speaking about it in Russian. McKim looked at me and asked what they’re talking about. All I could do was shrug. But then after a moment, Tretiak signed the card and gave it back to me.
The other is the Roy goalie mask card. It was a special card randomly inserted among packs of Pro Set hockey cards. Roy was my favourite player and I always loved his Montreal mask.
On a summer trip to Nova Scotia, dad took me to a card store and bought me a complete set of baseball cards and a box of unopened Pro Set cards. I remember being so surprised that he was willing to spend this much on cards for me. I went hoping for perhaps $25 worth of cards… and we probably spent around $100.
Back in Inverness… where we stayed at my uncle’s family farm… I began opening the hockey cards… pack by pack… tearing in and sorting through the cards. Hoping for a Roy Mask card.
Memory makes facts cloudy. My memory says I was down to the final pack in the box, and still no Mask. Perhaps reality is that I had three packs left to open. Perhaps six. I know it was most certainly near the end… and I’m pretty sure it was literally the last pack. Either way, as I sorted through, there it was. A simple hockey card. A picture of the Mask. And I jumped around the farmhouse in glee. The satisfaction of reuniting with that card again… fourteen years since I last saw it… and twenty-five years after that original opening… Even with a book value of around $3.00 today, that card is a treasure of memories.
The trail is finally being developed along the tree line across from my place. Once done, it’ll sure beat the ditch that has been sitting there the last year or two.
Went to the far woods a few days ago trying to size up winter walking and snowshoes. It was kind of depressing to see. Many acres of the woods is now gone over there… soon to be developed. And an orange fence cuts straight through a large chunk of the remaining forest. I guess they want to keep people back away from the work that’s coming. But having a trail cut off by those plastic orange fences just leaves you feeling down.
For the first time ever, I got snow tires put on the car on a day that I’m wearing shorts and sandals. But many of the nights are already slipping into single digit temperatures and the first snow and frost isn’t far away.
Micky has come back. The greatest stuffed toy I ever had… Mickey Mouse bought from Disney during our family vacation in Florida around 35 years ago… is back in my possession. He spent the last fifteen plus years sitting in mom and dad’s attic. I’m not sure how he got up there. Other stuffed toys made the trip to Ontario. But the king of all stuffed toys… the one worn with love… that I literally could not sleep without having in the bed for at least five or six years (even going as far as stowing him away in my sleeping bag when going to friends houses for sleepovers)… he found his way into the attic… until now. Mickey is back in my room, looking towards my bed from the comfort of a nearby bookshelf.
The best of the hockey cards has returned. When I packed to leave Newfoundland, I put all of my best and most prized cards together in a box separated from all the rest. And upon reaching Ontario, fourteen years ago, they were gone. I sifted through every box over and over again… but there was no sign of them anywhere.
And when I moved from Avalon to Trailsedge, five or six years ago, I thought maybe the cards will reappear during that move. That they will give up a secret hiding spot from the old home and join me in the new. But, again, nothing.
I hoped they were in my friend’s basement with boxes I stored there… they weren’t. I hoped they were tucked in a remaining box in mom and dad’s place… no sign. I was left to assume that the movers that brought my stuff to Ontario had a go of them… or that maybe the box they were in was assumed to be garbage in mid move, and they’d be gone for good.
But this trip home brought them out of hiding. While cleaning out mom and dad’s basement… with hockey cards totally out of mind… a small box was tucked along a shelving unit.
The writing said “Hockey Card & photos and dart board”. But was it old writing from a former use? Probably so. Still, I opened the box out of curiosity. And there on top… my table top dart board.
I had actually completely forgotten the dart board. The sight of it floods me with memories of Hayward Ave living. And lifting it, I see a few pictures. Including one I’d always wondered about. A lost shot that had vanished with my cards. Me in the backyard… full head of hair… toddler Fraser sat next to me… and Schokee in the grass below us, enjoying the sun of a summer day.
This is actually the last picture of Schokee. Our last family dog died a few months after this picture was taken.
So once I saw the dart board and this picture, the thought of hockey cards crept back into mind. And I bring the box to the sofa and sit to give it a good going through.
A few more photographs are glanced at… both with nostalgia and a growing anticipation of what may lie beneath… and then, with the lift of a last photograph… they appear.
It begins with the youthful face of a Peter Forsberg rookie card peering up at me. This isn’t one of the ultimate treasures… but it’s telling me they’re here. Forsberg was a favourite player of mine and I would have included this card with the others. And added digging confirms it. An old Larry Robinson card… the last card of Gordie Howe… a birthday gift of a pair of Patrick Roy cards under glass. And then the favourites appear. The Roy rookie card… his goalie mask card… the Mario rookie… Gretzky rookie… Bobby Hull autographed… and Vladislav Tretiak autographed cards all come back. Like a child at Christmas I call out… “This is THE cards.” Mom knows right away what this means… and she shares in the joy.
There is still one that remains among the missing. A birthday gift from friends… an autographed Larry Bird card, in a wooden frame was not packed along with these. It’s too bad… I wish it was… but after fourteen years of thinking they were all gone, it’s a small price to pay.
I think the two of these cards that mean the most aren’t even overly valuable. There is the Tretiak autographed card. In a random bit of oddness, he happened to be in St. John’s one day, signing autographs at Leon’s Furniture. You were supposed to by 8x10 pictures to autograph but I had a “goalies” card from the commemorative set from the 1972 series. Dryden and Esposito on one side of the card… Tretiak on the other. So I brought it to him… as he sat there on a sofa next to his backup goaltender from ’72 and St. John’s Maple Leaf, Andrew McKim.
Upon seeing the card, Tretiak asked me where I got it. In a not very clever response, I think I said “I got it in a pack of cards I bought.” Tretiak than showed the card to his backup goalie, speaking about it in Russian. McKim looked at me and asked what they’re talking about. All I could do was shrug. But then after a moment, Tretiak signed the card and gave it back to me.
The other is the Roy goalie mask card. It was a special card randomly inserted among packs of Pro Set hockey cards. Roy was my favourite player and I always loved his Montreal mask.
On a summer trip to Nova Scotia, dad took me to a card store and bought me a complete set of baseball cards and a box of unopened Pro Set cards. I remember being so surprised that he was willing to spend this much on cards for me. I went hoping for perhaps $25 worth of cards… and we probably spent around $100.
Back in Inverness… where we stayed at my uncle’s family farm… I began opening the hockey cards… pack by pack… tearing in and sorting through the cards. Hoping for a Roy Mask card.
Memory makes facts cloudy. My memory says I was down to the final pack in the box, and still no Mask. Perhaps reality is that I had three packs left to open. Perhaps six. I know it was most certainly near the end… and I’m pretty sure it was literally the last pack. Either way, as I sorted through, there it was. A simple hockey card. A picture of the Mask. And I jumped around the farmhouse in glee. The satisfaction of reuniting with that card again… fourteen years since I last saw it… and twenty-five years after that original opening… Even with a book value of around $3.00 today, that card is a treasure of memories.
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #690
The backyard is getting overrun by wasps in this late summer time. I’m not 100% sure but I don’t think there’s a nest on my property. Either they’re next door at the pigsty or they’ve got a nest in the nearby woods and, in either case, they come around my yard because of the direct sun and heat. My backyard gets lots of sun and the whole back side of the house is in direct sun most of the day. But yesterday there were several dozen wasps buzzing around the yard and back of the house. They haven’t had a go at me… but it’s still a bit unnerving to see them patrolling around.
With all the hurricane footage on TV, I’m just on reporter-being-blown-across-creation-for-our-amusement overload. They treat it as if it’s a duty. But at the same time, they act all amazed when they see other people walking around out there. They’ll run up and stick a microphone in someone’s face and say “don’t you know you shouldn’t be out here!” Practice what you preach news reporters. We can understand the severity of a storm without watching you attempt to talk into a microphone in 100 mph winds. It’s just dumb, and becoming cliché. Every weather event that occurs, you just know we’re hours away from water-soaked newscasters getting blown down the street.
I’m not sure what kind of sports fan this makes me, and I saw someone write about this just today as well… but I’m kind of enjoying the fact that the Blue Jays are currently not playing meaningful baseball. I can watch a game more relaxed. And I enjoy when they’re playing a few of the younger players that were just called up.
It annoys me how we always have to keep on top of billion dollar companies to not rip us off. After two years of an acceptable fee I had to pay Rogers for my phone, TV and internet, my discount came to an end and my bill shot up by almost 40%. Luckily, Bell sent an offer in the mail which I could quote to Rogers with the threat of leaving. When it was all said and done, I basically have everything I wanted from Rogers (losing a few channels I never watched anyway) and I’m now paying $5 a month less than when I was on the previous discount. So… do nothing, and get charged an extra 40%. Or basically haggle with them to keep it at a reasonable amount. I don’t think I should have to haggle with billion dollar companies. But I guess this business model is why they are, in fact, billion dollar companies in the first place.
Of course, then there’s the other kind of business model. Like, yesterday, with the wasps at their peak, I called a pest control company. I pushed the right number for wasps and explained my situation to the woman on the other end of the line. Happily, she says “oh let me transfer you to our expert on wasps.” I get voicemail… leave a message… and never hear from them again (this being 24 hours later). You’d think, if the person was away on vacation or something, they’d not transfer me to her. And if she’s not on vacation, I appear to be a low priority. Or perhaps the wasps have taken over the city… and I’m number six thousand on the message list. God help us all.
Evil Legs
Evil legs dangle
As they haphazardly meander
Carefree flying
Through the sky
No fear of us giants
If situated within their flight path
Even your face
An obstacle they expect will move
A yell from me
Drives great bears away
Panicking through the woods
Out of fear of being seen
But yelling at them
Little evil sky marauders
Brings on boredom
As they veer towards your nose
Nature’s thugs
Running the neighbourhood
An invading gang
Going as they please
I cower in fear
I hold up within my house
Fearing a waspy shiv
As evil dangly legs meander by my window
With all the hurricane footage on TV, I’m just on reporter-being-blown-across-creation-for-our-amusement overload. They treat it as if it’s a duty. But at the same time, they act all amazed when they see other people walking around out there. They’ll run up and stick a microphone in someone’s face and say “don’t you know you shouldn’t be out here!” Practice what you preach news reporters. We can understand the severity of a storm without watching you attempt to talk into a microphone in 100 mph winds. It’s just dumb, and becoming cliché. Every weather event that occurs, you just know we’re hours away from water-soaked newscasters getting blown down the street.
I’m not sure what kind of sports fan this makes me, and I saw someone write about this just today as well… but I’m kind of enjoying the fact that the Blue Jays are currently not playing meaningful baseball. I can watch a game more relaxed. And I enjoy when they’re playing a few of the younger players that were just called up.
It annoys me how we always have to keep on top of billion dollar companies to not rip us off. After two years of an acceptable fee I had to pay Rogers for my phone, TV and internet, my discount came to an end and my bill shot up by almost 40%. Luckily, Bell sent an offer in the mail which I could quote to Rogers with the threat of leaving. When it was all said and done, I basically have everything I wanted from Rogers (losing a few channels I never watched anyway) and I’m now paying $5 a month less than when I was on the previous discount. So… do nothing, and get charged an extra 40%. Or basically haggle with them to keep it at a reasonable amount. I don’t think I should have to haggle with billion dollar companies. But I guess this business model is why they are, in fact, billion dollar companies in the first place.
Of course, then there’s the other kind of business model. Like, yesterday, with the wasps at their peak, I called a pest control company. I pushed the right number for wasps and explained my situation to the woman on the other end of the line. Happily, she says “oh let me transfer you to our expert on wasps.” I get voicemail… leave a message… and never hear from them again (this being 24 hours later). You’d think, if the person was away on vacation or something, they’d not transfer me to her. And if she’s not on vacation, I appear to be a low priority. Or perhaps the wasps have taken over the city… and I’m number six thousand on the message list. God help us all.
Evil Legs
Evil legs dangle
As they haphazardly meander
Carefree flying
Through the sky
No fear of us giants
If situated within their flight path
Even your face
An obstacle they expect will move
A yell from me
Drives great bears away
Panicking through the woods
Out of fear of being seen
But yelling at them
Little evil sky marauders
Brings on boredom
As they veer towards your nose
Nature’s thugs
Running the neighbourhood
An invading gang
Going as they please
I cower in fear
I hold up within my house
Fearing a waspy shiv
As evil dangly legs meander by my window
Monday, September 04, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #689
Sometimes I think the world is too kid friendly. Or at least little kid friendly. This past week, I had a nice visit with friends from back home. This had me playing tourist for a few days and included a tour of parliament’s centre block.
Our group had at least a half dozen kids who would have all been under the age of ten. Many of them likely less than six.
It made our group what I began to call a World of Squirm. They just can’t sit still and know no personal boundaries. If they wanted to get from point A to point B and your legs were an obstacle, they’re climbing through.
And the worst part of the Squirm tour was that, twice, while the tour guide gathered people in a circle to discuss the history of rooms we were standing in… toddler fart drifted through the air.
Perhaps the rule should be that if you’re too young to understand to hold it in, you’re too young to join the tour.
Fall is quickly coming. Leaves are beginning to turn… rain is picking up again after a few weeks of dry… and nighttime temperatures are sliding to single digits. It got down to 5 degrees one night last week. It’s funny because Fall is now my favourite season, and I’m looking forward to aspects of it… but I’m still dreading how quickly summer is leaving. I think it’s the knowledge that winter is indeed coming.
It’s funny, actually. Each of the four seasons is the same length but winter and summer always feel much longer than spring and fall. I guess spring and fall are transitions to the two extremes (the hottest time of year versus the coldest). This leaves parts of spring and fall feel like winter or summer. But even though fall is my favourite season, it always only feels like it’s a month long.
TV commercials for drugs that are supposed to help treat such issues as dry skin and stomach disorders are simply bizarre. They all start talking about your symptoms as if you may soon be shunned from society. Then they switch to the glory of the drug and how life will become bliss. And the finish is the soothing voice of a woman explaining the possible side effects of the drug.
And the side effects always seem worse than any good that may come. Increased risk of cancers, trouble breathing, nausea, diarrhea… in rare cases, death. Surely the dry skin is better to deal with than those possible side effects. I’d rather avoid foods that may inflame an irritable bowel than be able to eat mom’s spicy chilli in peace while risking my ability to breathe. I can’t imagine any of these commercials bringing some great swell of sales for these drugs.
Trump
Trumpeting Trump is trumping
Trumping around the room
Trumpeting Trumpy trumpisms
Just like a simple fool
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #588
First blog post not being shared to Facebook. Makes me feel like I’m likely now only writing to my parents… but that’s fine, I suppose.
I’m now at that age where you can have to deal with aches and pains through the act of doing nothing. Sleep can cause it… apparently. I now have a tender spot on my hip. It doesn’t affect walking but if I push in that area, it aches… and if I sit funny on the sofa, it barks at me pretty good.
And now my left shoulder is acting up. Several years ago I injured my right one fairly badly. Right now the left feels kind of like the right did in the week prior to blowing out. And all I can put to it is sleeping on that side. I suppose I could have done something to it while mowing the lawn or vacuuming the house, but the sleep seems like the most likely answer. Perhaps it’s time to invest in a better mattress.
In some ways I feel like I’m becoming a bigger fan of the Dunedin Blue Jays than the Toronto team. I follow them on twitter and keep an eye on how the team does. And I find myself wanting to make a summer trip there to catch some of their games. For the last three years I’ve gone and seen Spring Training Blue Jay games in Dunedin. But I’ve always been curious about how it would be to watch the minor league team during their regular season. It’s an amazing difference in fan support between the big leaguers Spring games and the minor leaguers regular season ones. Almost 6,000 there, selling out during the spring. Barely 1,000 there during the summer. And through it all, there’s more temptation to jet down to Dunedin for a few games there than to pop down to Toronto for games in the Dome.
Backyard Bunny
My yard is his oasis
Stretching out
The occasional grassy snack
He lounges against my hammock frame
Twice of witnessed
A glance out my back door
And he just sits
Ears attentive to danger
He isn’t the first
Melting snow shows pellets
Hints of a garden toilet
On snowy winter nights
But it’s the first I’ve watched
Comfortable enough for daylight hours
Nibbling his supper
In the early evening shade
Spotted during TV breaks
When I go for a snack
And glance out the door
Freezing in double take as he sits
Has me glued to windows
Snapping pictures
And simply observing his life
As my TV goes unwatched
I’m now at that age where you can have to deal with aches and pains through the act of doing nothing. Sleep can cause it… apparently. I now have a tender spot on my hip. It doesn’t affect walking but if I push in that area, it aches… and if I sit funny on the sofa, it barks at me pretty good.
And now my left shoulder is acting up. Several years ago I injured my right one fairly badly. Right now the left feels kind of like the right did in the week prior to blowing out. And all I can put to it is sleeping on that side. I suppose I could have done something to it while mowing the lawn or vacuuming the house, but the sleep seems like the most likely answer. Perhaps it’s time to invest in a better mattress.
In some ways I feel like I’m becoming a bigger fan of the Dunedin Blue Jays than the Toronto team. I follow them on twitter and keep an eye on how the team does. And I find myself wanting to make a summer trip there to catch some of their games. For the last three years I’ve gone and seen Spring Training Blue Jay games in Dunedin. But I’ve always been curious about how it would be to watch the minor league team during their regular season. It’s an amazing difference in fan support between the big leaguers Spring games and the minor leaguers regular season ones. Almost 6,000 there, selling out during the spring. Barely 1,000 there during the summer. And through it all, there’s more temptation to jet down to Dunedin for a few games there than to pop down to Toronto for games in the Dome.
Backyard Bunny
My yard is his oasis
Stretching out
The occasional grassy snack
He lounges against my hammock frame
Twice of witnessed
A glance out my back door
And he just sits
Ears attentive to danger
He isn’t the first
Melting snow shows pellets
Hints of a garden toilet
On snowy winter nights
But it’s the first I’ve watched
Comfortable enough for daylight hours
Nibbling his supper
In the early evening shade
Spotted during TV breaks
When I go for a snack
And glance out the door
Freezing in double take as he sits
Has me glued to windows
Snapping pictures
And simply observing his life
As my TV goes unwatched
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #687
Not much to say this go ‘round. I could complain about Trump but simply have no desire to devote any energy to him when I’d simply be saying the same thing over and over again. I did see several people calling for Twitter to suspend his account. And then read, in the news, that his tweet storms actually make twitter somewhere in the vicinity of $2 billion. So I suspect there will be no suspension of accounts if that’s the reality.
Has anyone on America’s Got Talent ever done anything beyond getting on that show? I admit I’ve never watched it, but it seems Rogers thinks Blue Jay fans are into the show, cause it’s constantly advertised during a Jays game. And in those ads, I see clips of an audience going wild and judges proclaiming how they’ve never seen anything as spectacular as ‘you’… and then, as best as I can tell, the contestant disappears back into the rest of society. If that’s all it’s supposed to be, that’s fine and good I suppose. It’s just felt to me like this show is supposed to find the next big star or something… and that never happens. Either way, I don’t care. I’ve never watched it and have no plans to.
Walking yesterday, a went by a house where a man in his fifties or sixties is sitting outside, blasting Guns & Roses ‘Welcome to the Jungle”. The world has gone full circle. When that music was new, people in their fifties and sixties proclaimed it to be ‘noise’ and they ordered younger people to turn it down. Now the younger generation play lots of soft music where you wouldn’t be able to find a drum or guitar anywhere in sight at a live show… and their grandparents are sitting around, relaxing to their hard rock music.
I know a few people who either got off Facebook or never even got on there in the first place. And, I must say, I kind of envy those people. I have to admit I don’t get much enjoyment from the world of Facebook. The format is pretty ad filled and cluttered. And much of what shows up in my news feed… well… it’s basically there to be scrolled by. But I stay in the Facebook world in order to have some semblance of an idea of what’s going on in the lives of some family and friends that I rarely see or hear from otherwise. So it seems the choice is either to endure that which needs enduring or to completely lose touch with a group of family and friends. So I endure. But, with that said, I think I am going to stop linking my blog to Facebook. I can’t say I’ll never link it there again, but at this point in time, I think I won’t bother doing so. I’ll keep up with the blog. So if you’re interested in checking it out, maybe the best thing to do is bookmark it on your web browser and check in every week or so.
I think that’s about it for this week. With so much of the news dominated by racism, politics and terrorism I just don’t feel like writing about any of that stuff. And it doesn’t feel like the proper time to write about turtles, frogs, trees, or any other part of nature.
Has anyone on America’s Got Talent ever done anything beyond getting on that show? I admit I’ve never watched it, but it seems Rogers thinks Blue Jay fans are into the show, cause it’s constantly advertised during a Jays game. And in those ads, I see clips of an audience going wild and judges proclaiming how they’ve never seen anything as spectacular as ‘you’… and then, as best as I can tell, the contestant disappears back into the rest of society. If that’s all it’s supposed to be, that’s fine and good I suppose. It’s just felt to me like this show is supposed to find the next big star or something… and that never happens. Either way, I don’t care. I’ve never watched it and have no plans to.
Walking yesterday, a went by a house where a man in his fifties or sixties is sitting outside, blasting Guns & Roses ‘Welcome to the Jungle”. The world has gone full circle. When that music was new, people in their fifties and sixties proclaimed it to be ‘noise’ and they ordered younger people to turn it down. Now the younger generation play lots of soft music where you wouldn’t be able to find a drum or guitar anywhere in sight at a live show… and their grandparents are sitting around, relaxing to their hard rock music.
I know a few people who either got off Facebook or never even got on there in the first place. And, I must say, I kind of envy those people. I have to admit I don’t get much enjoyment from the world of Facebook. The format is pretty ad filled and cluttered. And much of what shows up in my news feed… well… it’s basically there to be scrolled by. But I stay in the Facebook world in order to have some semblance of an idea of what’s going on in the lives of some family and friends that I rarely see or hear from otherwise. So it seems the choice is either to endure that which needs enduring or to completely lose touch with a group of family and friends. So I endure. But, with that said, I think I am going to stop linking my blog to Facebook. I can’t say I’ll never link it there again, but at this point in time, I think I won’t bother doing so. I’ll keep up with the blog. So if you’re interested in checking it out, maybe the best thing to do is bookmark it on your web browser and check in every week or so.
I think that’s about it for this week. With so much of the news dominated by racism, politics and terrorism I just don’t feel like writing about any of that stuff. And it doesn’t feel like the proper time to write about turtles, frogs, trees, or any other part of nature.
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Doxing
I’m writing this not to inflame or prolong a debate but to finish my part of one. As well, I know I’m a social media light weight. So anyone who doesn’t agree with my thoughts are welcome to simply ignore me. I don’t expect to change anyone’s mind. And I’m not even writing this to tell someone else that they are wrong to feel the way they do. It would be arrogant of me to think I wield that kind of power. But I also know too many people whose lives have been, and continue to be, in the field of law enforcement, to simply sit quietly at the suggestion that our law enforcement agencies can’t be trusted.
I write this all in relation to the subject of doxing people via social media. This has most recently come up in the white supremacist march last weekend. And, to be clear, I have no sympathy for any white supremacist. Those individuals sicken me and I don’t believe they have earned any place in a civilized society.
My concern through all this is the idea of the general public sharing screen grabs of these individuals with the goal of publicly sharing their personal information for all to see. And again, that concern isn’t based on any feelings of sympathy for the racist people being called out. The concern is for the misidentifications that can, and have, occur. Innocent lives can potentially be ruined or, in a worst case scenario, ended, all based on a similar appearance to an individual from a screen grab. My thought was, and remains, if you think you know one of these people, inform law enforcement, and let them investigate the matter further… privately… out of the public eye.
I’ve previously shared that concern and, in a civil Facebook discussion, I’ve had several people disagree with my thoughts. Fair enough, I’m alright with that. But the troubling part of it all, for me, is hearing others saying they can not trust the police to do the right thing in regards to these potential hate crimes. That people are better off outing these individuals via twitter than informing the police that they may know a potential suspect of said hate crimes. And I’m concerned with the thought that if a few people happen to be misidentified, well that’s the price to pay for the greater good and their lives won’t be drastically affected anyway (an idea that none of us actually know to be true).
And it is this lack of trust in law enforcement that bothers me the most from these discussions. The fact is, I work directly with law enforcement. I’m not a police officer but I work with many. I’m related to several police officers. I consider several more officers to be friends. And in my work, I interact directly with dozens of police officers from many different police agencies throughout North America.
By no means am I saying law enforcement in North America is a perfect thing. I understand and believe that there is work to be done in both the United States and Canada to better the relationship between police and racial minorities.
But I can say with confidence, due to fourteen years of experience working with many of these people, if my goal is to get it right. To not make the mistake of misidentifying an innocent person and to be part of a just society, I would trust sharing information regarding potential criminals with the police 100% over sharing the same information with the multitude via twitter.
The great majority of those working in law enforcement are good people. They’re trying to help society and are trained specifically in order to keep us safe. They have resources at their disposal that far surpasses the world of Twitter and they are trained to use them. And, bottom line, they have willingly put themselves in harms way, willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. These people deserve our respect.
That’s it, I don’t hold any ill will towards those who feel differently during our discussion. A difference of opinion is okay and, when given respectfully, as has been my experience these last few days, these differences are good and make us consider and think more completely about complex issues. Plus these are disagreements among people on the same side of the bigger issue. None of us support these racial supremacists.
I just felt that, if I said nothing, I’d be doing a disservice to dozens of people I have worked with, as well as several people I consider my friends and several others who are part of my family.
I write this all in relation to the subject of doxing people via social media. This has most recently come up in the white supremacist march last weekend. And, to be clear, I have no sympathy for any white supremacist. Those individuals sicken me and I don’t believe they have earned any place in a civilized society.
My concern through all this is the idea of the general public sharing screen grabs of these individuals with the goal of publicly sharing their personal information for all to see. And again, that concern isn’t based on any feelings of sympathy for the racist people being called out. The concern is for the misidentifications that can, and have, occur. Innocent lives can potentially be ruined or, in a worst case scenario, ended, all based on a similar appearance to an individual from a screen grab. My thought was, and remains, if you think you know one of these people, inform law enforcement, and let them investigate the matter further… privately… out of the public eye.
I’ve previously shared that concern and, in a civil Facebook discussion, I’ve had several people disagree with my thoughts. Fair enough, I’m alright with that. But the troubling part of it all, for me, is hearing others saying they can not trust the police to do the right thing in regards to these potential hate crimes. That people are better off outing these individuals via twitter than informing the police that they may know a potential suspect of said hate crimes. And I’m concerned with the thought that if a few people happen to be misidentified, well that’s the price to pay for the greater good and their lives won’t be drastically affected anyway (an idea that none of us actually know to be true).
And it is this lack of trust in law enforcement that bothers me the most from these discussions. The fact is, I work directly with law enforcement. I’m not a police officer but I work with many. I’m related to several police officers. I consider several more officers to be friends. And in my work, I interact directly with dozens of police officers from many different police agencies throughout North America.
By no means am I saying law enforcement in North America is a perfect thing. I understand and believe that there is work to be done in both the United States and Canada to better the relationship between police and racial minorities.
But I can say with confidence, due to fourteen years of experience working with many of these people, if my goal is to get it right. To not make the mistake of misidentifying an innocent person and to be part of a just society, I would trust sharing information regarding potential criminals with the police 100% over sharing the same information with the multitude via twitter.
The great majority of those working in law enforcement are good people. They’re trying to help society and are trained specifically in order to keep us safe. They have resources at their disposal that far surpasses the world of Twitter and they are trained to use them. And, bottom line, they have willingly put themselves in harms way, willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. These people deserve our respect.
That’s it, I don’t hold any ill will towards those who feel differently during our discussion. A difference of opinion is okay and, when given respectfully, as has been my experience these last few days, these differences are good and make us consider and think more completely about complex issues. Plus these are disagreements among people on the same side of the bigger issue. None of us support these racial supremacists.
I just felt that, if I said nothing, I’d be doing a disservice to dozens of people I have worked with, as well as several people I consider my friends and several others who are part of my family.
Friday, August 11, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #686
So if course, in less than nine months of presidency, Donald Trump has threatened nuclear war on another nation. Though news agencies won’t actually acknowledge that. They keep repeating the terms Fire and Fury… as if they’re taking his threat to North Korea literally. That Trump will go to North Korea himself, dressed up like Rambo with a flame thrower in hand. Not once did I hear the people at CNN speak plainly on the fact that their president threatened to use nuclear weapons.
He’s an idiot with nuclear toys. A bully aiming to come off as cool. Fire and Fury… Locked and Loaded. It’s just all too much.
And then, of course, you get the Trump supporters on CNN. One guy quoting how Obama once told the North Koreans that “we could destroy you” and still, none of the liberal media took issue with that. Frustratingly, nobody on that panel took issue with that guy either. Because the Obama quote continued from the “destroy you” part. In fact, he didn’t even say it in a manner of speaking directly to North Korea. He said “we could destroy them”… talking to a reporter. And knowing how huge the US military is, it’s hardly a shocking fact to hear. But what the Trump supporter left out was that Obama then went on to say how doing such a thing is inhumane. And would also put the allies in South Korea in danger… so a diplomatic solution needs to be worked on.
So, Trump shill, that is why the liberal media didn’t freak out. Obama was saying America has the power to destroy a nation but can’t go down that path. Donald Trump is picking a fight with a crazy man while trying to come up with “cool” sounding catch phrases of power. He’s a spoiled, rich, thirteen year old bully in a 70 year old body… with toys powerful enough to end the world and enough ignorance to make the rest of us worry he may just do it.
Anyway, enough of World War III. Thar be turtles within my pond! Well… one turtle anyway… in the pond across the street from my house. It’s the first time since I moved to Trailsedge that I’ve seen a turtle in any of the ponds here.
In four days, I saw him sunning on a rock three times. Of course, the one day I went out with my camera was the one day he wasn’t there. And the zoom on an iPhone just isn’t worth the time. And any closer than twenty feet from him, and little Mr. Turtle simply stepped off the rock and slipped into the murky water. He’s a cautious little fellow.
So in honour of the turtle…
Turtle
Steps
Into the murk
Out of fear
Of me
Smiles
Across my face
Summer Christmas
Seeing him
The pet
I never had
In childhood times
Steps away
Legs
Mosquito gorged
The price I pay
To catch a glimpse
He’s an idiot with nuclear toys. A bully aiming to come off as cool. Fire and Fury… Locked and Loaded. It’s just all too much.
And then, of course, you get the Trump supporters on CNN. One guy quoting how Obama once told the North Koreans that “we could destroy you” and still, none of the liberal media took issue with that. Frustratingly, nobody on that panel took issue with that guy either. Because the Obama quote continued from the “destroy you” part. In fact, he didn’t even say it in a manner of speaking directly to North Korea. He said “we could destroy them”… talking to a reporter. And knowing how huge the US military is, it’s hardly a shocking fact to hear. But what the Trump supporter left out was that Obama then went on to say how doing such a thing is inhumane. And would also put the allies in South Korea in danger… so a diplomatic solution needs to be worked on.
So, Trump shill, that is why the liberal media didn’t freak out. Obama was saying America has the power to destroy a nation but can’t go down that path. Donald Trump is picking a fight with a crazy man while trying to come up with “cool” sounding catch phrases of power. He’s a spoiled, rich, thirteen year old bully in a 70 year old body… with toys powerful enough to end the world and enough ignorance to make the rest of us worry he may just do it.
Anyway, enough of World War III. Thar be turtles within my pond! Well… one turtle anyway… in the pond across the street from my house. It’s the first time since I moved to Trailsedge that I’ve seen a turtle in any of the ponds here.
In four days, I saw him sunning on a rock three times. Of course, the one day I went out with my camera was the one day he wasn’t there. And the zoom on an iPhone just isn’t worth the time. And any closer than twenty feet from him, and little Mr. Turtle simply stepped off the rock and slipped into the murky water. He’s a cautious little fellow.
So in honour of the turtle…
Turtle
Steps
Into the murk
Out of fear
Of me
Smiles
Across my face
Summer Christmas
Seeing him
The pet
I never had
In childhood times
Steps away
Legs
Mosquito gorged
The price I pay
To catch a glimpse
Thursday, August 03, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #685
Actually back on the laptop to write this
one. First time I’ve written a post on
the laptop in about two years. All
others have been done on the iPad, in that time. Part of the reason for that being the
slowness of my laptop. But I turned it
on, yesterday, for the first time in two months, and it’s working pretty
well. So I figured “why not”.
Cough is just about gone. I’m down to an occasional, throat clearing
type of cough. And it isn’t interrupting
my talking with coughing spurts anymore.
One month… and I’m pretty well back to normal.
Went to war with Yellowjackets this
week. Last week, I was stung while
putting the cover back on the BBQ. This
week I found a small nest on the underside of the BBQ. Sprayed it… and I figured it was all done
with.
The next day I found another small
nest. This time in my backdoor light
structure. I thought these things were
territorial yet, in two days, I found two nests within five feet of each
other. More spraying took care of this
one. And I took the hose to it too, to
get rid of the bits of nest left behind.
The following day, I notice yellowjackets
going in and out from part of the siding of the house. More spraying (three times in three days
within a 10 foot space).
I think it may be done (knock on
wood). Since then I’ve seen a few
yellowjackets fly through the yard. But
haven’t seen any perch anywhere around the house.
I also have had a small battle with
backyard ants. A while ago, I noticed a
little squad of them around my patio stones.
But I thought “if they’re going to stay around there, I’ll leave them in
peace”. But now I’ve noticed that
they’ve pretty well laid claim to my entire back patio. Scurrying about looking for food. So I took out the spray bottle and had a
go. I may have gotten some of them… but
that is a war that surely is not won.
I booked a flight home. The annual, September trip is a go. I won’t be there overly long but it’ll be a
solid week. Not sure if Fogo Island will
be included or if I’ll just stay around town. I had been back and forth about going this
year. Wondering if I’d be better staying
in Ottawa and having more available vacation time to help mom and dad with the
condo in the fall. But, in the end, the
deciding factor was the knowledge that if I didn’t go in September, I likely
wouldn’t go until next summer. That
would have meant being away from Newfoundland for a year and a half. When, in the past, I’ve been going home about
three times a year, the idea of going once in eighteen months just didn’t seem
right.
Summer Dreams
I used to dream of summers.
Being woken by the morning brightness.
No other season could match
The summer glow
Against my bedroom wall.
Summer lasted forever then.
With school’s end
It brought a year of adventures
Sports, sleepovers, backyard play and family
trips
All packed into months of golden green
warmth.
Years later, summertime work has never
seemed right.
What was spaced over months back then
Is now crammed into a few weeks.
Strict bedtimes and alarm clocks
Shedding the magic of summer youth.
In fact now I prefer the autumn.
With comfy fleeces to keep us warm,
Backyard wasp battles over and won.
And the postcard beauty of changing leaves
Making the forests a quilt of colour.
But nothing replaces those summer memories
Which come trickling back
In those quiet moments of newly woke
mornings
Bringing a warm, childhood glow
To my adult home
So many years away.
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #684
Three weeks later and the flu isn’t fully out of me. A lingering dry cough pops up from time to time… getting on my nerves.
Got a new shower head for my bathroom this week. You know you’re old and boring when shower heads come into your weekly highlights.
The hardest part of seeing Trump running America is when he gives speeches to teenagers. Corrupting the youth of America one speech at a time. He’s such a scumbag. There’s no kinder word to use… plenty of harsher ones but no kinder.
I’ve noticed that CNN has no real concept of time. Anything that has occurred within the last two hours can be described, by CNN, as happening “moments ago”. It’s as if the viewer just missed it. Also, anything that has occurred in the last six hours can be said to have “happened within the last hour”. And, honestly, “Breaking News” can go on for at least three days. Everything is Breaking News on CNN. “Breaking News, a commercial break just occurred… moments ago.”
Shark Week is back on TV this week. It really is a mixed bag of stuff during this week. Some shows are kind of entertaining. None of them are really educational. Even though they all have scientists and experts explaining that these sharks aren’t trying to kill you, this message usually doesn’t come out until the last ten minutes of the program… and the entire show has an undercurrent message that even though the sharks may not be TRYING to kill you… they still might. Shark Week treats the shark species as if there are only three or four actual types of sharks in the world. Great Whites, Tiger, Bull, and Hammerhead. That’s it. I mean the Whale Shark is the biggest fish in the world and gets no mention during Shark Week. The cost of being a filter feeder. And I’m amazed that there were people who (a) actually thought Micheal Phelps was going to get in the ocean next to a Great White Shark, and race it and (b) that there are people who got angry that (a) didn’t occur. Social media really does allow the stupid to show up way too easily.
Popular BBQ
First bought it gained loved one praise,
Such a great little BBQ you’ve got.
Just the right size for you,
And easy for cooking when it’s hot.
Next came the pretty robins,
This is a great place for our chicks.
And so, for six weeks, they moved in
And filled my BBQ up with sticks.
Now the wasps have moved on in,
They find life under the cover is the in thing.
Meaning anytime I’d like a hotdog,
I run the risk of a burning sting.
I guess I need an ugly ‘q,
One that nobody would give a care
Who knew the hardships in my life,
In the simple quest for medium rare.
Got a new shower head for my bathroom this week. You know you’re old and boring when shower heads come into your weekly highlights.
The hardest part of seeing Trump running America is when he gives speeches to teenagers. Corrupting the youth of America one speech at a time. He’s such a scumbag. There’s no kinder word to use… plenty of harsher ones but no kinder.
I’ve noticed that CNN has no real concept of time. Anything that has occurred within the last two hours can be described, by CNN, as happening “moments ago”. It’s as if the viewer just missed it. Also, anything that has occurred in the last six hours can be said to have “happened within the last hour”. And, honestly, “Breaking News” can go on for at least three days. Everything is Breaking News on CNN. “Breaking News, a commercial break just occurred… moments ago.”
Shark Week is back on TV this week. It really is a mixed bag of stuff during this week. Some shows are kind of entertaining. None of them are really educational. Even though they all have scientists and experts explaining that these sharks aren’t trying to kill you, this message usually doesn’t come out until the last ten minutes of the program… and the entire show has an undercurrent message that even though the sharks may not be TRYING to kill you… they still might. Shark Week treats the shark species as if there are only three or four actual types of sharks in the world. Great Whites, Tiger, Bull, and Hammerhead. That’s it. I mean the Whale Shark is the biggest fish in the world and gets no mention during Shark Week. The cost of being a filter feeder. And I’m amazed that there were people who (a) actually thought Micheal Phelps was going to get in the ocean next to a Great White Shark, and race it and (b) that there are people who got angry that (a) didn’t occur. Social media really does allow the stupid to show up way too easily.
Popular BBQ
First bought it gained loved one praise,
Such a great little BBQ you’ve got.
Just the right size for you,
And easy for cooking when it’s hot.
Next came the pretty robins,
This is a great place for our chicks.
And so, for six weeks, they moved in
And filled my BBQ up with sticks.
Now the wasps have moved on in,
They find life under the cover is the in thing.
Meaning anytime I’d like a hotdog,
I run the risk of a burning sting.
I guess I need an ugly ‘q,
One that nobody would give a care
Who knew the hardships in my life,
In the simple quest for medium rare.
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #683
First time writing in about a month. It was a full month at that. First, mom and dad came for a few days before the three of us head out west with the rest of the family.
After that, the three of us fly out to Calgary. I’m not used to flying with people I know anymore. So it’s pretty nice to share the row with the folks.
A night in Calgary and then we picked up the rental car and headed to BC. Day one was probably busier than we should have tried. Lunch at Banff followed by a quick stop at Lake Louise, on the way to spending the night in Revelstoke.
It was just all real busy though. Banff was swarming with people and we probably tried walking more there than we should have. Lake Louise was insane. You had to park fifteen minutes outside the area on the side of the highway and then take a shuttle bus to and from the lake. There just wasn’t enough parking otherwise. And the entire area around the hotel was just overrun with people. It was as if Lake Louise was the busiest mall you’ve ever been in… on Christmas Eve.
Still, I’m glad we went. Lake Louise remains one of my favourite places anywhere. I only wish I could be there at 6:00 in the morning, before the crowds show. Quiet, it is a special place.
From Revelstoke, we have a shorter travel day and only drive for about an hour and a half to get as far as Nakusp for the third night out west. Nakusp is the polar opposite of Lake Louise from a busy point of view. It always seems to be quiet and we have both supper and lunch at a nice restaurant that overlooks the lake and the mountains.
Leaving Nakusp the next day, we have lunch in New Denver while also doing some shopping at the outdoor store there. New Denver is another great quiet village along the lake and nestled into the mountains. And from there, it’s an hour and a half to the sister and family in Castlegar.
For the first three nights, we sleep at a B&B outside of Castlegar. After that it’s around five nights in the house with Edena and the family. Five days of an air mattress is about all I can do now. I’ve just hit that age I guess. The first few nights of it are usually not too bad. And at no time was I really uncomfortable in bed. But it’s the getting in and out that’s becoming trouble at 45. I’m not so limber anymore and, after a while, you start dreaming of a real bed.
Still, the time in Castlegar was enjoyable. Side trips to Nelson, Trail and Rossland. A round of golf and a hike. And a few fairly quiet days just hanging about the house are nice. Plus we are there to see youngest, Claire, graduate from high school.
Canada Day becomes a travel day. Mom, dad and I drive back to Calgary in one shot… stopping long enough for lunch at Fernie and pulling in for a little sight seeing here and there. It’s a long day of driving but it’s nice too. The scenery is pretty spectacular the entire way along.
Back to Calgary, we drop off the car and head back to the hotel where we started a few weeks prior. Get some Vietnamese food for supper (we’re the only white people in the restaurant and it’s quite a good meal). And then get back to the hotel for the night. We were told we could see Canada Day fireworks from the hotel but we’re all pretty exhausted at this point and I’m in bed with the iPad before 10:00.
On July 2, we’re flying back to Ottawa and get groceries and supper as soon as we get back. I’m at work for the 3rd while mom and dad take a few more days in Ottawa to break up the travel.
On the 4th, I begin coughing as I get up for work. By 1:30 that afternoon, I’m done and go home sick. Harley and family are in town for a few days and come to supper that night. I’m feeling pretty lousy but it’s great seeing my former next door neighbours and we have a nice evening with them.
By the 5th and 6th, I’m in rough shape. I take both those nights off work and can barely do anything. I’m freezing on 30 degree days… putting on sweats and a blanket in front of the TV… coughing up a lung and barely able to move without sweat pouring off me.
Still, I muster the energy to drive mom and dad to the airport and then I crash for the better part of the week. I coughed so much that I tore that little flap of skin that connects the tongue to the bottom of your mouth. I had to go straight from the bed to the shower for two straight mornings because I was so wet with a cold sweat. I had to change the bed sheets twice in three days because of that sweating and I barely wanted to eat a thing through all of it. It was the sickest I have been in many years.
Still, I got back to work last block. I probably coughed way more than my poor partner wanted to hear, but I was able to manage to stay through all my shifts this time. I was just thankful the partner was there to man the phones as my voice was near gone and much talking would bring on the coughing.
Even now, the cough isn’t fully gone… though it is much improved. But yesterday was also the first time I felt enough energy to get out for a walk that went more than fifteen minutes. And I have continued to sleep more than I ever have in my adult life. These last four days off, I probably averaged nine hours of sleep per night. My normal night’s sleep, when I’m perfectly healthy, doesn’t usually reach seven hours… so the extra two and three hours per night has shown how beat down that flu got me. I’m just thankful I didn’t get sick until after I got back to Ottawa. Dealing with that while in BC would have been a nightmare.
So things are slowly getting back to normal after the busy times of my vacation and the torture of my flu. Within the next week I’ll have to download and post my vacation photos. And the goal is to post a regular blog entry during my next round of days off.
After that, the three of us fly out to Calgary. I’m not used to flying with people I know anymore. So it’s pretty nice to share the row with the folks.
A night in Calgary and then we picked up the rental car and headed to BC. Day one was probably busier than we should have tried. Lunch at Banff followed by a quick stop at Lake Louise, on the way to spending the night in Revelstoke.
It was just all real busy though. Banff was swarming with people and we probably tried walking more there than we should have. Lake Louise was insane. You had to park fifteen minutes outside the area on the side of the highway and then take a shuttle bus to and from the lake. There just wasn’t enough parking otherwise. And the entire area around the hotel was just overrun with people. It was as if Lake Louise was the busiest mall you’ve ever been in… on Christmas Eve.
Still, I’m glad we went. Lake Louise remains one of my favourite places anywhere. I only wish I could be there at 6:00 in the morning, before the crowds show. Quiet, it is a special place.
From Revelstoke, we have a shorter travel day and only drive for about an hour and a half to get as far as Nakusp for the third night out west. Nakusp is the polar opposite of Lake Louise from a busy point of view. It always seems to be quiet and we have both supper and lunch at a nice restaurant that overlooks the lake and the mountains.
Leaving Nakusp the next day, we have lunch in New Denver while also doing some shopping at the outdoor store there. New Denver is another great quiet village along the lake and nestled into the mountains. And from there, it’s an hour and a half to the sister and family in Castlegar.
For the first three nights, we sleep at a B&B outside of Castlegar. After that it’s around five nights in the house with Edena and the family. Five days of an air mattress is about all I can do now. I’ve just hit that age I guess. The first few nights of it are usually not too bad. And at no time was I really uncomfortable in bed. But it’s the getting in and out that’s becoming trouble at 45. I’m not so limber anymore and, after a while, you start dreaming of a real bed.
Still, the time in Castlegar was enjoyable. Side trips to Nelson, Trail and Rossland. A round of golf and a hike. And a few fairly quiet days just hanging about the house are nice. Plus we are there to see youngest, Claire, graduate from high school.
Canada Day becomes a travel day. Mom, dad and I drive back to Calgary in one shot… stopping long enough for lunch at Fernie and pulling in for a little sight seeing here and there. It’s a long day of driving but it’s nice too. The scenery is pretty spectacular the entire way along.
Back to Calgary, we drop off the car and head back to the hotel where we started a few weeks prior. Get some Vietnamese food for supper (we’re the only white people in the restaurant and it’s quite a good meal). And then get back to the hotel for the night. We were told we could see Canada Day fireworks from the hotel but we’re all pretty exhausted at this point and I’m in bed with the iPad before 10:00.
On July 2, we’re flying back to Ottawa and get groceries and supper as soon as we get back. I’m at work for the 3rd while mom and dad take a few more days in Ottawa to break up the travel.
On the 4th, I begin coughing as I get up for work. By 1:30 that afternoon, I’m done and go home sick. Harley and family are in town for a few days and come to supper that night. I’m feeling pretty lousy but it’s great seeing my former next door neighbours and we have a nice evening with them.
By the 5th and 6th, I’m in rough shape. I take both those nights off work and can barely do anything. I’m freezing on 30 degree days… putting on sweats and a blanket in front of the TV… coughing up a lung and barely able to move without sweat pouring off me.
Still, I muster the energy to drive mom and dad to the airport and then I crash for the better part of the week. I coughed so much that I tore that little flap of skin that connects the tongue to the bottom of your mouth. I had to go straight from the bed to the shower for two straight mornings because I was so wet with a cold sweat. I had to change the bed sheets twice in three days because of that sweating and I barely wanted to eat a thing through all of it. It was the sickest I have been in many years.
Still, I got back to work last block. I probably coughed way more than my poor partner wanted to hear, but I was able to manage to stay through all my shifts this time. I was just thankful the partner was there to man the phones as my voice was near gone and much talking would bring on the coughing.
Even now, the cough isn’t fully gone… though it is much improved. But yesterday was also the first time I felt enough energy to get out for a walk that went more than fifteen minutes. And I have continued to sleep more than I ever have in my adult life. These last four days off, I probably averaged nine hours of sleep per night. My normal night’s sleep, when I’m perfectly healthy, doesn’t usually reach seven hours… so the extra two and three hours per night has shown how beat down that flu got me. I’m just thankful I didn’t get sick until after I got back to Ottawa. Dealing with that while in BC would have been a nightmare.
So things are slowly getting back to normal after the busy times of my vacation and the torture of my flu. Within the next week I’ll have to download and post my vacation photos. And the goal is to post a regular blog entry during my next round of days off.
Thursday, June 08, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #682
Watched the James Comey stuff on TV today… well… for a while. CNN will go non stop covering it for the next three days. And all the while they’ll show clips titled “moments ago”. Or “breaking news”.
And some Einstein decided to put Wolf Blitzer outdoors to discuss it. Meaning we have a gathering of the masses in the background. People getting on their cell phones and grinning while they wave to the camera. Or that one teenager who would shift around for the best spot before pumping his fist or giving a peace sign. And really, why do people even want to do this? Tops, you’re giving fifty friends and family a bit of a kick… “Oh look, there’s Billy on CNN!” But if there’s five million people watching this worldwide, maybe half of them don’t even notice you. And maybe half a million think you’re being cute. That leaves two million people, around the world, who think you’re a twit. Bravo teenage fist pumper… bravo.
As a society, the western world is drawn towards cameras. Any chance to get seen on TV can not be passed up. Be it at sporting events or simple news programming, people will stop everything they’re doing and make a fool of themselves in order to stand out for a camera (or they’ll call everyone they know to tell them they're currently on TV). No wonder Donald Trump is president of the United States. He’s very much a sign of the times.
I’m not sure if my deadbeat neighbour is throwing away his electric lawn mower or if he’s just… well… being a deadbeat. But last Sunday he mowed his dandelion patch and, when done, left his mower on the lawn next to the end of his driveway.
My first thought was he left it where he ended his ‘work’ and would move it out of the way later. Though this is the guy that left an empty oil bottle on his lawn for a month and a jack-o-lantern on his front step for four months.
Anyway, the lawn mower still sits there, four days later. I guess it’ll be a permanent fixture to his property… or at least until the dandelions reclaim the space. That electric lawn mower will likely become as an Aztec ruin, buried in the jungle for centuries to come.
Jungle Mower
Ancient artifact
Hidden amongst the Dandelions
What happened here?
What story has the millennia forgotten?
Your society's destruction must have been swift
To leave you here
Alone in the wilderness
Perhaps an earthquake
Or maybe volcano
Leaving you alone
One last remnant
Of a forgotten time
And some Einstein decided to put Wolf Blitzer outdoors to discuss it. Meaning we have a gathering of the masses in the background. People getting on their cell phones and grinning while they wave to the camera. Or that one teenager who would shift around for the best spot before pumping his fist or giving a peace sign. And really, why do people even want to do this? Tops, you’re giving fifty friends and family a bit of a kick… “Oh look, there’s Billy on CNN!” But if there’s five million people watching this worldwide, maybe half of them don’t even notice you. And maybe half a million think you’re being cute. That leaves two million people, around the world, who think you’re a twit. Bravo teenage fist pumper… bravo.
As a society, the western world is drawn towards cameras. Any chance to get seen on TV can not be passed up. Be it at sporting events or simple news programming, people will stop everything they’re doing and make a fool of themselves in order to stand out for a camera (or they’ll call everyone they know to tell them they're currently on TV). No wonder Donald Trump is president of the United States. He’s very much a sign of the times.
I’m not sure if my deadbeat neighbour is throwing away his electric lawn mower or if he’s just… well… being a deadbeat. But last Sunday he mowed his dandelion patch and, when done, left his mower on the lawn next to the end of his driveway.
My first thought was he left it where he ended his ‘work’ and would move it out of the way later. Though this is the guy that left an empty oil bottle on his lawn for a month and a jack-o-lantern on his front step for four months.
Anyway, the lawn mower still sits there, four days later. I guess it’ll be a permanent fixture to his property… or at least until the dandelions reclaim the space. That electric lawn mower will likely become as an Aztec ruin, buried in the jungle for centuries to come.
Jungle Mower
Ancient artifact
Hidden amongst the Dandelions
What happened here?
What story has the millennia forgotten?
Your society's destruction must have been swift
To leave you here
Alone in the wilderness
Perhaps an earthquake
Or maybe volcano
Leaving you alone
One last remnant
Of a forgotten time
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #681
Had a nice visit with the folks in town for a while. Took dad to Louis’ for pizza supper. Mom did a load of home cooking for my freezer. And their condo is getting closer with flooring, counters and cabinets all picked out.
The car gave me some issues. Three times (April 20, May 16 and May 17) the battery died. The last time it was so dead that the electric entry wouldn't even work. All this happened when it was time to bring mom and dad to the airport as well. So a quick cab call and me trying to figure out how to get in the car in order to boost it and get to work on time meant the visit with the parents ended very chaotically. Took the car to the dealer today and they say it was a cracked battery cell. So new battery in now and we’ll see.
Politicians can not help themselves. The ISIS attack in Manchester shows more of the political talking points. Thoughts and prayers… cowardly terrorists. I know there isn’t much more one can say other than “thoughts and prayers” but really, there’s no need for us to hear from the leader of the opposition on such a matter. And it always strikes me as wrong, somehow, to see news agencies quoting the politician via their twitter account. Do we really need to see a screenshot of a tweet in a time of terror attacks? And, honestly, there’s just no need for a politician to call those attacks “cowardly”. What are you trying to do, annoy ISIS? Would you say the attack is “brave” if it’s carried out with guns against a military instalment? By all means say the attack is immoral or evil… but it has nothing to do with cowardice. In fact, you have a better argument to say the western world is more cowardly in a time of war than ISIS is. Drone strikes and long range missiles hardly need an element of bravery to be carried out.
But what it all boils down to is that ISIS is a repressive organization that the world would be better off without and I have no idea how you go about destroying such an organization. And, by in large, we’d be better off not hearing from every politician via twitter. Oh… and Donald Trump can’t help but look like a moron. His sophisticated take… they’re “evil losers”. I swear Trump has a twenty word vocabulary.
After writing the above, I end up not posting but going back to work again. My blog timing is all out of whack right now. I got through what was written above and then just got distracted by baseball on TV and lawn care and groceries and trips to car dealers… and things just never finished.
As for the car… a cracked battery cell caused the problem of needing three boosts in five weeks. It’s been replaced and working fine (fingers crossed) now.
After working another block I was largely stuck on working the lawn during my days off. Dandelions had overtaken my front yard and I spent several hours pulling them, mowing, and reseeding. Then, a few days later, I went back for another round (those dandelions grow like a weed!). On to the backyard for more of the same and now both my yards look quite respectable. I also flushed out a toad in the backyard while I mowed. He hopped off the lawn, onto my patio stones, and clambered under my storage box. Good ol’ lawn toad.
And the wasp problem has become greatly reduced. I don’t know if it was my spraying a few weeks ago or if someone else in the neighbourhood did something, but where there was a constant six or seven making rounds in my yard and around the house/BBQ, today there’s only a couple that pop by.
Silent Storm
As bed beckons
I step through the darkness
Towards my window
For a last look
Into the night sky.
In the still
Stars glisten atop the black
Until the peace is broken
As jagged Frankenstein bolts
Illuminate great cumulus clouds.
It is silent lightning
Flashing again and again
Five seconds between blasts
A distant reminder of Mordor
As I watch from under stars
The car gave me some issues. Three times (April 20, May 16 and May 17) the battery died. The last time it was so dead that the electric entry wouldn't even work. All this happened when it was time to bring mom and dad to the airport as well. So a quick cab call and me trying to figure out how to get in the car in order to boost it and get to work on time meant the visit with the parents ended very chaotically. Took the car to the dealer today and they say it was a cracked battery cell. So new battery in now and we’ll see.
Politicians can not help themselves. The ISIS attack in Manchester shows more of the political talking points. Thoughts and prayers… cowardly terrorists. I know there isn’t much more one can say other than “thoughts and prayers” but really, there’s no need for us to hear from the leader of the opposition on such a matter. And it always strikes me as wrong, somehow, to see news agencies quoting the politician via their twitter account. Do we really need to see a screenshot of a tweet in a time of terror attacks? And, honestly, there’s just no need for a politician to call those attacks “cowardly”. What are you trying to do, annoy ISIS? Would you say the attack is “brave” if it’s carried out with guns against a military instalment? By all means say the attack is immoral or evil… but it has nothing to do with cowardice. In fact, you have a better argument to say the western world is more cowardly in a time of war than ISIS is. Drone strikes and long range missiles hardly need an element of bravery to be carried out.
But what it all boils down to is that ISIS is a repressive organization that the world would be better off without and I have no idea how you go about destroying such an organization. And, by in large, we’d be better off not hearing from every politician via twitter. Oh… and Donald Trump can’t help but look like a moron. His sophisticated take… they’re “evil losers”. I swear Trump has a twenty word vocabulary.
After writing the above, I end up not posting but going back to work again. My blog timing is all out of whack right now. I got through what was written above and then just got distracted by baseball on TV and lawn care and groceries and trips to car dealers… and things just never finished.
As for the car… a cracked battery cell caused the problem of needing three boosts in five weeks. It’s been replaced and working fine (fingers crossed) now.
After working another block I was largely stuck on working the lawn during my days off. Dandelions had overtaken my front yard and I spent several hours pulling them, mowing, and reseeding. Then, a few days later, I went back for another round (those dandelions grow like a weed!). On to the backyard for more of the same and now both my yards look quite respectable. I also flushed out a toad in the backyard while I mowed. He hopped off the lawn, onto my patio stones, and clambered under my storage box. Good ol’ lawn toad.
And the wasp problem has become greatly reduced. I don’t know if it was my spraying a few weeks ago or if someone else in the neighbourhood did something, but where there was a constant six or seven making rounds in my yard and around the house/BBQ, today there’s only a couple that pop by.
Silent Storm
As bed beckons
I step through the darkness
Towards my window
For a last look
Into the night sky.
In the still
Stars glisten atop the black
Until the peace is broken
As jagged Frankenstein bolts
Illuminate great cumulus clouds.
It is silent lightning
Flashing again and again
Five seconds between blasts
A distant reminder of Mordor
As I watch from under stars
Sunday, May 07, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #680
Caught kind of a cold something or another this week. I don’t often get the full fledged stuffed up, runny nose, cough kind of colds anymore. Most times I get sick now it’s extreme fatigue… throbbing headache… a little congestion. And, this time, I got sensitive, stinging, watery eyes to go with it. But, after four or five days, things seem to be getting back to normal again.
Recently re watched Chariots of Fire. I think it was the first great movie I saw, originally. I would have been nine or ten when it was out in theatres and I remember being allowed to go. My parents were probably afraid I’d get bored and asked to leave. I expect that every movie I saw up to that time were kids movies. But I liked it then… and like it all the more with each viewing.
My two next door neighbours make me wish for living in the middle of the wilderness. On one side… the one I share a driveway with… he leaves his car fairly permanently planted in place. And on back of that is either his girlfriends SUV or, even worse, his work van. They sometimes park carelessly and tight to my side. And with the big vehicles at the end of the driveway, I usually can barely see anything on that side when I’m backing out of my garage. The work van even spills out its last two or three feet into the roadway itself. Plus the guy’s a pig. Garbage bags left by the house. A discarded oil container left for weeks on his lawn. And there’s usually a piece of plastic or discarded bolt left on my side of the driveway.
On the other side, I have a nice enough family of musicians. And they somehow feel as though piano must be practiced between the hours of 10 PM and midnight. On one occasion I heard it playing at 1:30 in the morning. I tolerate the 10:00 practice. But anything after 11:00 is unacceptable. This week they began at 11:35 on Thursday night. This brought me down over my steps and banging on our mutual wall. It’s the first time it’s come to that, since they moved in, and must have startled them, because the piano immediately stopped and hasn’t been played later than 10:30 since. Though they’re a strange bunch. They have a thirteen year old daughter yet I often hear running around and playful yells and laughter well past midnight on week nights.
Video replay, surprisingly, is killing professional sports. I always assumed more video replay would be better for sports. Get the calls right and that sort of thing. But all it does is delay games constantly and needlessly. I wish there was never such thing as a coach’s challenge. All that means is, late in the game when there’s nothing to lose, they’ll challenge anything that could possibly be close. And for hockey to bring challenges about possible offside calls on goals is just ridiculous. Getting linesmen to hunch over an ipad to see if a play that occurred thirty seconds prior to the actual goal may take the goal off the board? Crazy. Trying to see if a skate is on the ice or in the air when the player is crossing the blueline? Come on. Just change the rule that as soon as the player breaks the plane of the line, he’s onside. Make it like the goal line in football.
Between excessive video review, inflated goalie equipment and an abundance of blocked shots from armour covered skaters, hockey has sucked the excitement out of the game.
And for video review in baseball, make the challenge immediately or not at all. Having the manager stand on the field holding up the game while waiting for a member of the coaching staff to look at video replays to see if it’s worth the challenge has got to stop.
This spring has been the worst one I’ve seen since moving to Ottawa. I know it’s still more spring like than what Newfoundland gets but it’s supposed to be much better here than it’s been this year. Every day seems to be windy. And real windy… not that Ottawa Valley definition of windy when people walk around complaining about 20km/h gusts. No, this spring seems like it’s 30 km winds gusting to the 40s most every day. I know… still not Newfoundland windy… but that’s still a breeze no matter where you’re from. And the rain! It’s like a rain forest here this spring. Virtually every day has some amount of rainfall in it… often it’s a day long thing. And now it’s even getting colder again. A few weeks ago we started getting summer like temperatures. Now it’s back to single digits and around freezing in the overnight. I wonder if this has killed off the hornets and wasps that were out around a few weeks ago?
Summer vacation is all planned out. It’ll be my first time back to BC in about four years I think. Mom and dad will meet me in Ottawa. We’ll fly in to Calgary together. Rent a car there and drive through Banff and Lake Louise on the way to Revelstoke. A night there followed by another night in Nacusp before meeting Sissy and family in Castlegar. That’ll be home base for the next week and a bit. Probably some day trips out of there to Nelson and New Denver, Trail and Rossland and probably Creston. Maybe some golf in Castlegar and some casual days around the town. It’ll be nice to be back in the mountains.
Recently re watched Chariots of Fire. I think it was the first great movie I saw, originally. I would have been nine or ten when it was out in theatres and I remember being allowed to go. My parents were probably afraid I’d get bored and asked to leave. I expect that every movie I saw up to that time were kids movies. But I liked it then… and like it all the more with each viewing.
My two next door neighbours make me wish for living in the middle of the wilderness. On one side… the one I share a driveway with… he leaves his car fairly permanently planted in place. And on back of that is either his girlfriends SUV or, even worse, his work van. They sometimes park carelessly and tight to my side. And with the big vehicles at the end of the driveway, I usually can barely see anything on that side when I’m backing out of my garage. The work van even spills out its last two or three feet into the roadway itself. Plus the guy’s a pig. Garbage bags left by the house. A discarded oil container left for weeks on his lawn. And there’s usually a piece of plastic or discarded bolt left on my side of the driveway.
On the other side, I have a nice enough family of musicians. And they somehow feel as though piano must be practiced between the hours of 10 PM and midnight. On one occasion I heard it playing at 1:30 in the morning. I tolerate the 10:00 practice. But anything after 11:00 is unacceptable. This week they began at 11:35 on Thursday night. This brought me down over my steps and banging on our mutual wall. It’s the first time it’s come to that, since they moved in, and must have startled them, because the piano immediately stopped and hasn’t been played later than 10:30 since. Though they’re a strange bunch. They have a thirteen year old daughter yet I often hear running around and playful yells and laughter well past midnight on week nights.
Video replay, surprisingly, is killing professional sports. I always assumed more video replay would be better for sports. Get the calls right and that sort of thing. But all it does is delay games constantly and needlessly. I wish there was never such thing as a coach’s challenge. All that means is, late in the game when there’s nothing to lose, they’ll challenge anything that could possibly be close. And for hockey to bring challenges about possible offside calls on goals is just ridiculous. Getting linesmen to hunch over an ipad to see if a play that occurred thirty seconds prior to the actual goal may take the goal off the board? Crazy. Trying to see if a skate is on the ice or in the air when the player is crossing the blueline? Come on. Just change the rule that as soon as the player breaks the plane of the line, he’s onside. Make it like the goal line in football.
Between excessive video review, inflated goalie equipment and an abundance of blocked shots from armour covered skaters, hockey has sucked the excitement out of the game.
And for video review in baseball, make the challenge immediately or not at all. Having the manager stand on the field holding up the game while waiting for a member of the coaching staff to look at video replays to see if it’s worth the challenge has got to stop.
This spring has been the worst one I’ve seen since moving to Ottawa. I know it’s still more spring like than what Newfoundland gets but it’s supposed to be much better here than it’s been this year. Every day seems to be windy. And real windy… not that Ottawa Valley definition of windy when people walk around complaining about 20km/h gusts. No, this spring seems like it’s 30 km winds gusting to the 40s most every day. I know… still not Newfoundland windy… but that’s still a breeze no matter where you’re from. And the rain! It’s like a rain forest here this spring. Virtually every day has some amount of rainfall in it… often it’s a day long thing. And now it’s even getting colder again. A few weeks ago we started getting summer like temperatures. Now it’s back to single digits and around freezing in the overnight. I wonder if this has killed off the hornets and wasps that were out around a few weeks ago?
Summer vacation is all planned out. It’ll be my first time back to BC in about four years I think. Mom and dad will meet me in Ottawa. We’ll fly in to Calgary together. Rent a car there and drive through Banff and Lake Louise on the way to Revelstoke. A night there followed by another night in Nacusp before meeting Sissy and family in Castlegar. That’ll be home base for the next week and a bit. Probably some day trips out of there to Nelson and New Denver, Trail and Rossland and probably Creston. Maybe some golf in Castlegar and some casual days around the town. It’ll be nice to be back in the mountains.
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #679
An unusual day last Sunday. Driving in to work… and see a young moose on the side of the road. A few hundred yards beyond was a wild turkey. Wild turkeys are barely worth noticing when they follow up a moose. After work, I met Bev for supper downtown. First time I’ve seen her in several years, and it was good to catch up. Then, on the way home from that, I spot a deer on the side of the road.
I still find it hard to think of Trump as the American President. It jars me when I hear people call him President Trump. He’s also the first president that, when he speaks, I don’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth. I’ve seen politicians lie before. But Trump is the first that I don’t think he’s necessarily lying about the things he says. Rather, I don’t think he has any idea what he’s talking about. And I think I’d rather think a world leader is lying than be totally ignorant of the facts of the matter.
The Yellow Jackets are around again this spring. Last summer I thought they were nesting in my siding, in the back yard. Now I wonder if they just like the warmth and sun in the back. I got one of those paper imitation nests to see if that will make them steer clear… but it’s been Newfoundland like windy since I bought it and that’s really best out there in calm weather.
The city of St. John’s is officially out of the AHL again. And this time, probably for good. AHL hockey was played in my home town for twenty years and dad and I partook in much of it. I really like the Mile One Stadium as a facility but my main memories of the hockey come from old Memorial Stadium. It was small and had the character that only an old arena can have. Narrow corridors, dimly lit corners… a closeness to the ice surface from no matter where you sat. Modern facilities are just more generic now. They’re like box stores… the same layout of feel no matter what city you’re in. I haven’t been to a game in St. John’s for several years. And haven’t been to one with dad in probably five… if not five, fifteen. But I’ll miss the idea of AHL hockey in St. John’s. It was always good knowing it was there. Knowing that each season may allow for me to get to a game on a winter trip home.
I never dreamed the Blue Jays being this bad this year. But it also shows how much more of a baseball fan I now am compared to hockey. Despite the 6-17 record, I’m quick to turn on a Jays game. Even when the Montreal Canadiens were playing a playoff game at the same time, I found myself more often drifting back to the baseball game. I find myself thinking GM strategy now. Wondering what can be done to improve things. Or what should be done as the record continues to slip. I actually got the release of the backup catcher dead on. I went to bed thinking “maybe now is the time to let him go and go with a younger backup”… and then I woke to find they did just that.
Wind Wimpy
I once tolerated it
When there was hair to dishevel
I’d endure the gusts
Accounting for a street hockey head wind
Jogging five feet away from a fly ball in softball
Knowing the wind would close the gap
I’d turn my childhood coat into a kite
Hoping the blowing would lift me up
As my pocketed hands stretched out my fabric wings
But now it drives me indoors
A sunny, warm walk gladly ended
As I look forward to getting out of the heavy breeze
Watching the sway of the treetops
I see it as I would rain
The price for having lost the wonder
If only my jacket really could grant me windy flight.
I still find it hard to think of Trump as the American President. It jars me when I hear people call him President Trump. He’s also the first president that, when he speaks, I don’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth. I’ve seen politicians lie before. But Trump is the first that I don’t think he’s necessarily lying about the things he says. Rather, I don’t think he has any idea what he’s talking about. And I think I’d rather think a world leader is lying than be totally ignorant of the facts of the matter.
The Yellow Jackets are around again this spring. Last summer I thought they were nesting in my siding, in the back yard. Now I wonder if they just like the warmth and sun in the back. I got one of those paper imitation nests to see if that will make them steer clear… but it’s been Newfoundland like windy since I bought it and that’s really best out there in calm weather.
The city of St. John’s is officially out of the AHL again. And this time, probably for good. AHL hockey was played in my home town for twenty years and dad and I partook in much of it. I really like the Mile One Stadium as a facility but my main memories of the hockey come from old Memorial Stadium. It was small and had the character that only an old arena can have. Narrow corridors, dimly lit corners… a closeness to the ice surface from no matter where you sat. Modern facilities are just more generic now. They’re like box stores… the same layout of feel no matter what city you’re in. I haven’t been to a game in St. John’s for several years. And haven’t been to one with dad in probably five… if not five, fifteen. But I’ll miss the idea of AHL hockey in St. John’s. It was always good knowing it was there. Knowing that each season may allow for me to get to a game on a winter trip home.
I never dreamed the Blue Jays being this bad this year. But it also shows how much more of a baseball fan I now am compared to hockey. Despite the 6-17 record, I’m quick to turn on a Jays game. Even when the Montreal Canadiens were playing a playoff game at the same time, I found myself more often drifting back to the baseball game. I find myself thinking GM strategy now. Wondering what can be done to improve things. Or what should be done as the record continues to slip. I actually got the release of the backup catcher dead on. I went to bed thinking “maybe now is the time to let him go and go with a younger backup”… and then I woke to find they did just that.
Wind Wimpy
I once tolerated it
When there was hair to dishevel
I’d endure the gusts
Accounting for a street hockey head wind
Jogging five feet away from a fly ball in softball
Knowing the wind would close the gap
I’d turn my childhood coat into a kite
Hoping the blowing would lift me up
As my pocketed hands stretched out my fabric wings
But now it drives me indoors
A sunny, warm walk gladly ended
As I look forward to getting out of the heavy breeze
Watching the sway of the treetops
I see it as I would rain
The price for having lost the wonder
If only my jacket really could grant me windy flight.
Friday, April 21, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #678
Well, skipped out on the blog last week in favour of working on organizing my photos. I should have been able to do both… but just got deep enough into the photos that I didn’t want to multitask. Almost 13,000 photos in my library. And I decided to buy the extra iCloud Drive storage for added backup protection. It took about three days for my photos to transfer to the cloud, but it all looks good now.
Cheering for sports teams can be pretty difficult. Montreal on the verge of playoff elimination… and the Blue Jays have fallen off a cliff. I knew they may take a step back this year… but 3-12? Never saw that coming.
Got a new car. Had to get out of my lease early on the old Mazda 3 but I didn’t want to deal with two more winters of it getting stuck in the snow. They don’t do a great job snow clearing in my neighbourhood and two or three times, each of the last two winters, I either couldn’t move the car and had to shovel it off the road… or I didn’t even bother to try, knowing the car wasn’t going to go anywhere if I did. So an all wheel drive CX-5 has taken over. My first automatic transmission since leaving Newfoundland… and my first SUV/Crossover. I have to admit it’s a nice thing to drive.
Favourite Places
Sometimes while I sit
I think of other places
Far off favourite spots
I wonder how they are
The nature reserve in Florida
Is the sun glistening off the lake?
Is a gator sunning on the shoreline?
Does an anole patrol that tree?
The costal trail of Cape Spear
The crook in the rocks where I have sat
Watching the seas while tucked from wind
Is it snowy and ice covered?
Can I hear the churning waters below?
That Ancient Greek track
Atop the climbing trail
Hidden from those not venturing
I imagine a lone bee
Patrolling the stadium’s edge
Inspecting mountain top flowers
For a tasty, historic treat.
I even think of nearby places
Of that spot in my woods
Where the trail arcs around a tree
And I wonder if there’s a sniffing dog
Or sunning snake.
I wonder if a robin’s there
Building a nest
With a trailside view.
And while I am left to wonder of the far off places
It is this near one I should go
To see if I can find that snake
Or get a scolding from the robin
For pausing too close to it’s springtime home.
Cheering for sports teams can be pretty difficult. Montreal on the verge of playoff elimination… and the Blue Jays have fallen off a cliff. I knew they may take a step back this year… but 3-12? Never saw that coming.
Got a new car. Had to get out of my lease early on the old Mazda 3 but I didn’t want to deal with two more winters of it getting stuck in the snow. They don’t do a great job snow clearing in my neighbourhood and two or three times, each of the last two winters, I either couldn’t move the car and had to shovel it off the road… or I didn’t even bother to try, knowing the car wasn’t going to go anywhere if I did. So an all wheel drive CX-5 has taken over. My first automatic transmission since leaving Newfoundland… and my first SUV/Crossover. I have to admit it’s a nice thing to drive.
Favourite Places
Sometimes while I sit
I think of other places
Far off favourite spots
I wonder how they are
The nature reserve in Florida
Is the sun glistening off the lake?
Is a gator sunning on the shoreline?
Does an anole patrol that tree?
The costal trail of Cape Spear
The crook in the rocks where I have sat
Watching the seas while tucked from wind
Is it snowy and ice covered?
Can I hear the churning waters below?
That Ancient Greek track
Atop the climbing trail
Hidden from those not venturing
I imagine a lone bee
Patrolling the stadium’s edge
Inspecting mountain top flowers
For a tasty, historic treat.
I even think of nearby places
Of that spot in my woods
Where the trail arcs around a tree
And I wonder if there’s a sniffing dog
Or sunning snake.
I wonder if a robin’s there
Building a nest
With a trailside view.
And while I am left to wonder of the far off places
It is this near one I should go
To see if I can find that snake
Or get a scolding from the robin
For pausing too close to it’s springtime home.
Wednesday, April 05, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #677
First writing in a while. Back from a successful Florida trip and a round of work straight after that. And with changes afoot regarding my car. This time next week, I should no longer have my Mazda 3… but a new CX-5 instead. Yes, it’ll cost more… but it’ll be a better car. A better ride and easier to get around in the snow next winter.
It has left me a bit nostalgic though. Once the switch happens, who knows when I’ll drive a standard again. I may be in my final days of a stick shift. And I’ve always been one to be against SUV’s. But my last two winters have been tricky with the smaller car. My road is often not well cleared for days after a snowfall and I’ve gotten stuck several times over the last two winters. Oh well… I’m looking forward to the new ride and I don’t drive enough to be playing a big roll on the environment. In two years with the current Mazda 3, I’m still at less than 15,000 km.
But on to Florida. This was my longest time there and with the least amount planned… and that was nice. We went to St. Pete’s Beach for a few days early. Stayed in an old style hotel that was pretty neat and only a block from the beach.
After that, there was two baseball games. The Jays beating Boston in Dunedin and then winning against the Tigers in Lakeland. And I had a ball bounce off the heal of my hand in the Lakeland game. That makes two times in the last five games of baseball I’ve been to where a foul ball has touched my hand, but I never make the catch.
The rest of Florida consisted of a round of golf with Lee (my first round in two years went well. Shot a 107 with a 49 on the back nine and no lost balls). And then there was the trip with mom and dad to the Circle B Bar Reserve. The reserve has become one of my favourite places anywhere. Last year I saw my first armadillo there. This time I see my first Eastern Coral Snake. And on any trip there you’re assured a load of gators and a multitude of birds and turtles. Plus it’s just a nice nature reserve to walk through.
Other than that, the rest of the two weeks was just fly by the seat of our pants stuff. Stroll to the pond in the gated community mom and dad have been staying at. Watch the anole lizards scurrying about the place. Family meals. A few walks about some of Lakeland’s lakes. And some time in the downtown shopping area of Lakeland.
I got a much better feel for the city of Lakeland on this trip. And it’s a pretty nice place. And, after two weeks of Florida… where you start to get into a bit of a routine… I can actually see the appeal for retiring there for part of the year. It’s surely pretty easy to get used to sun and 25 almost every day in March.
I think my body is also telling me I need to do away with winter. By February, I had several dry patches on my face that were irritating me. The cold and dry is just rough on the skin I guess… though I never had much issue with it before the last year or two.
But within a few days of being in Florida, my skin was pretty well cleared up. Not a problem for two weeks. And then, the first two days back in Ottawa, the dryness picked up again. Though with moisturizer and the warming going on here, it settled back down fairly quickly. Still, problems before Florida followed by a bit of a flare after getting back… makes you think your body is telling you something.
Finally, the melt is on. Walking today, I saw more water in the ponds and creek than ever before. The creek in front of my house is basically now part of the pond, actually. What is normally a six foot wide stream is currently a good thirty feet wide, body of water covering much of the bottom of the valley leading into the ponds.
A path going from the woods is more like a small stream as well. Melting snow flowing in the middle of the path and draining down to the ponds.
And ducks and geese are back. I saw a pair of each milling about where the water is open. I’m expecting there’ll be chicks of each before too long.
So that’s the catch up. I should be back on schedule with my writing now and will likely have a new car with the next update. That, and watching mom and dad’s condo slowly going up a short walk away… I think this year will promise to be quite different from recent ones.
And bring on Spring.
It has left me a bit nostalgic though. Once the switch happens, who knows when I’ll drive a standard again. I may be in my final days of a stick shift. And I’ve always been one to be against SUV’s. But my last two winters have been tricky with the smaller car. My road is often not well cleared for days after a snowfall and I’ve gotten stuck several times over the last two winters. Oh well… I’m looking forward to the new ride and I don’t drive enough to be playing a big roll on the environment. In two years with the current Mazda 3, I’m still at less than 15,000 km.
But on to Florida. This was my longest time there and with the least amount planned… and that was nice. We went to St. Pete’s Beach for a few days early. Stayed in an old style hotel that was pretty neat and only a block from the beach.
After that, there was two baseball games. The Jays beating Boston in Dunedin and then winning against the Tigers in Lakeland. And I had a ball bounce off the heal of my hand in the Lakeland game. That makes two times in the last five games of baseball I’ve been to where a foul ball has touched my hand, but I never make the catch.
The rest of Florida consisted of a round of golf with Lee (my first round in two years went well. Shot a 107 with a 49 on the back nine and no lost balls). And then there was the trip with mom and dad to the Circle B Bar Reserve. The reserve has become one of my favourite places anywhere. Last year I saw my first armadillo there. This time I see my first Eastern Coral Snake. And on any trip there you’re assured a load of gators and a multitude of birds and turtles. Plus it’s just a nice nature reserve to walk through.
Other than that, the rest of the two weeks was just fly by the seat of our pants stuff. Stroll to the pond in the gated community mom and dad have been staying at. Watch the anole lizards scurrying about the place. Family meals. A few walks about some of Lakeland’s lakes. And some time in the downtown shopping area of Lakeland.
I got a much better feel for the city of Lakeland on this trip. And it’s a pretty nice place. And, after two weeks of Florida… where you start to get into a bit of a routine… I can actually see the appeal for retiring there for part of the year. It’s surely pretty easy to get used to sun and 25 almost every day in March.
I think my body is also telling me I need to do away with winter. By February, I had several dry patches on my face that were irritating me. The cold and dry is just rough on the skin I guess… though I never had much issue with it before the last year or two.
But within a few days of being in Florida, my skin was pretty well cleared up. Not a problem for two weeks. And then, the first two days back in Ottawa, the dryness picked up again. Though with moisturizer and the warming going on here, it settled back down fairly quickly. Still, problems before Florida followed by a bit of a flare after getting back… makes you think your body is telling you something.
Finally, the melt is on. Walking today, I saw more water in the ponds and creek than ever before. The creek in front of my house is basically now part of the pond, actually. What is normally a six foot wide stream is currently a good thirty feet wide, body of water covering much of the bottom of the valley leading into the ponds.
A path going from the woods is more like a small stream as well. Melting snow flowing in the middle of the path and draining down to the ponds.
And ducks and geese are back. I saw a pair of each milling about where the water is open. I’m expecting there’ll be chicks of each before too long.
So that’s the catch up. I should be back on schedule with my writing now and will likely have a new car with the next update. That, and watching mom and dad’s condo slowly going up a short walk away… I think this year will promise to be quite different from recent ones.
And bring on Spring.
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #676
Heard of the strongest winds back home that I’ve known. They say it’s the strongest in forty years… and I’m sure forty years ago, I wouldn’t have paid much notice. But 157 km/h in St. John’s is nuts.
The strongest I remember from there was 146 km/h. I remember they called that night a winter hurricane and I went out for a few minutes and stood in the street. The roads were snow covered and deserted. It felt more like a trail in a mountain pass with the great peeks of row houses on either side of me. I could lay upon that wind. Leaning full into it without falling to the ground. And I remember it no longer howled at that point. It was screaming over my head.
Even though March means winter is winding down, these last few days in Ottawa have been among the coldest of the season. I haven’t gone out during these four days off (except to get groceries). I just see the windchill numbers and figure I’m done with this.
My hope is my winter is about five days longer. Due to fly to Florida on Friday and come back two weeks later. We may not be in shorts and t shirt weather by the beginning of April but surely goodness it won’t be -23 anymore.
A Brand New Wood
The woods lay inviting across the street
Making my window as a picture
Inviting me to the coldness
In order to walk the familiar paths
Bending around trunks
Bordered by fallen giants
Mossy and ‘shroomed
Inviting a friendly pat
A familiar hello upon the trail.
I’ve considered doing the walk in the unfamiliar
To venture out under the light of the moon
Follow the darkened path by memory and shadows
To explore the differences
To feel the still of it
To catch the moon’s glow through the branches
To reach clearings big enough to spot the stars
To experience the place I know so well
In a brand new way.
Still I’ve never done it.
The experience is locked treasure
Only imagined rather than remembered
Each night bringing new excuses against.
The wear of the long day
The cold of a winter’s night
The thought of nighttime encounters
With hoards of frogs squashed underfoot
With new spun webs hanging invisible in my path
The unknown aggression of night
Where fox and coyote become more brave
And perhaps an owl will attack
Under cover of darkness.
But still I must
The night will come
When exploration calls
And I’ll wander within a brand new wood.
The strongest I remember from there was 146 km/h. I remember they called that night a winter hurricane and I went out for a few minutes and stood in the street. The roads were snow covered and deserted. It felt more like a trail in a mountain pass with the great peeks of row houses on either side of me. I could lay upon that wind. Leaning full into it without falling to the ground. And I remember it no longer howled at that point. It was screaming over my head.
Even though March means winter is winding down, these last few days in Ottawa have been among the coldest of the season. I haven’t gone out during these four days off (except to get groceries). I just see the windchill numbers and figure I’m done with this.
My hope is my winter is about five days longer. Due to fly to Florida on Friday and come back two weeks later. We may not be in shorts and t shirt weather by the beginning of April but surely goodness it won’t be -23 anymore.
A Brand New Wood
The woods lay inviting across the street
Making my window as a picture
Inviting me to the coldness
In order to walk the familiar paths
Bending around trunks
Bordered by fallen giants
Mossy and ‘shroomed
Inviting a friendly pat
A familiar hello upon the trail.
I’ve considered doing the walk in the unfamiliar
To venture out under the light of the moon
Follow the darkened path by memory and shadows
To explore the differences
To feel the still of it
To catch the moon’s glow through the branches
To reach clearings big enough to spot the stars
To experience the place I know so well
In a brand new way.
Still I’ve never done it.
The experience is locked treasure
Only imagined rather than remembered
Each night bringing new excuses against.
The wear of the long day
The cold of a winter’s night
The thought of nighttime encounters
With hoards of frogs squashed underfoot
With new spun webs hanging invisible in my path
The unknown aggression of night
Where fox and coyote become more brave
And perhaps an owl will attack
Under cover of darkness.
But still I must
The night will come
When exploration calls
And I’ll wander within a brand new wood.
Saturday, March 04, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #675
It’s sunny out today… looks terrific outside… but I see -17 on my thermometer and I feel the need to take not one step outside this house. Went walking yesterday with a windchill around -20 and felt like I was very done with winter weather. Two weeks away from Florida (barring a snowstorm cancelling my flight). That’s what’s keeping me going now. Yesterday I watched a ballgame on TV. Seeing the Jays in Dunedin, with the green grass, fans in t shirts and shorts, palm trees… and all I could do was daydream about being in that very place three weeks from now.
People’s general desire for normalcy and good will cause Trump to do what he wants for at least four years of an American presidency. This week he gave a speech, written by someone other than him, via a Telepromter… and all people could do was talk about how this was a pivot moment. How it was him becoming presidential. News agencies that have been barred from White House press conferences are even saying this.
The reality of any president or prime minister is that these speeches are largely window dressing. It’s the bills, laws and policies that are brought about, under their leadership, that should count. And the man who suddenly became “more presidential” is also considering separating mothers from children at the Mexican border… in hopes of more easily turning back Mexican immigrants. They’re basically considering blackmailing parents with their own children in hopes of keeping them out of “the land of the free”. And today, Mr. “More Presidential” also accused Obama of tapping his phones… and made that accusation via twitter. So please, let’s not be so stupid as to normalize this man by way of a telepromter.
The First Sign
Last week brought the first sign
The sign of the world’s thawing
Weeks of warming brought breakthrough
The creek began to flow
Hard white and icy blues
Gave way to trickling sparkles
And reminders of life to follow
Soon frogs, will return along with flies of butter… and dragon
Little birds will fly low among the reeds
And bees will bumble from blossom to blossom
I could see all this
See Spring trickle in among the ripples
Watch summer’s approach
As a squirrel sprints across the snow dune plains
Those dunes will soon give way to meadows
Lining the banks of this creek’s valley
Barron white desert
Months from becoming the oasis I long to see.
People’s general desire for normalcy and good will cause Trump to do what he wants for at least four years of an American presidency. This week he gave a speech, written by someone other than him, via a Telepromter… and all people could do was talk about how this was a pivot moment. How it was him becoming presidential. News agencies that have been barred from White House press conferences are even saying this.
The reality of any president or prime minister is that these speeches are largely window dressing. It’s the bills, laws and policies that are brought about, under their leadership, that should count. And the man who suddenly became “more presidential” is also considering separating mothers from children at the Mexican border… in hopes of more easily turning back Mexican immigrants. They’re basically considering blackmailing parents with their own children in hopes of keeping them out of “the land of the free”. And today, Mr. “More Presidential” also accused Obama of tapping his phones… and made that accusation via twitter. So please, let’s not be so stupid as to normalize this man by way of a telepromter.
The First Sign
Last week brought the first sign
The sign of the world’s thawing
Weeks of warming brought breakthrough
The creek began to flow
Hard white and icy blues
Gave way to trickling sparkles
And reminders of life to follow
Soon frogs, will return along with flies of butter… and dragon
Little birds will fly low among the reeds
And bees will bumble from blossom to blossom
I could see all this
See Spring trickle in among the ripples
Watch summer’s approach
As a squirrel sprints across the snow dune plains
Those dunes will soon give way to meadows
Lining the banks of this creek’s valley
Barron white desert
Months from becoming the oasis I long to see.
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