Making It Up As I Go Along #674

Got my day all screwed up by Donald Trump.  Flipped the channels this morning and saw that he was due to have a press conference at noon.  Thought “I should check that out I suppose.”

He didn’t actually appear until close to 1:00 and then went on a crazy man rant for the next 75 minutes.  Scolding the media (again).  Talking about the election results (again).  Belittling Hillary Clinton (again).  And praising himself (again).

The differences this time… he did suggest his popularity would rise if he decided to blow the Russian ship, that’s sitting 30 miles off the US coast, out of the water.  He also tried to shame a Jewish reporter over asking him an unfair question about anti-semitism.  He claimed things in his team are running like “a well tuned machine”… while at the same time saying there are serious leaks coming out and those people will be found, and it’ll be serious consequences.  And he asked a black reporter if she could set up a meeting between he and the Congressional Black Caucus because he figured she must know somebody there.

This last remark being pretty much the stupidest thing the President has said.  It’s about the equivalent to me going to a Blue Jays baseball game… seeing a black fan in the stands… and asking him if he could set up a meeting between me and Marcus Stroman.

But really, if I were an American, my main takeaway from this press conference was that the President just wasted my time.  It’s an hour of my day that would have been better served washing the floors, shovelling the driveway, or picking lint off my sweaters.  I’d actually love to see the press rebel against the stupid.  As soon as Trump would bring up the election or Hillary, just everybody stand up and walk out of the room.

Where an American should be embarrassed is from the press conference the day before.  When Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu were answering questions.  That’s where Trump showed how little he really knows while also showing how arrogant and unaware of his own stupidity he is.  Telling Netanyahu to “take a break” from building communities.  And claiming that he’s fine with any decision between Israel and Palestine just as long as they’re both happy with it.

At one point, Netanyahu looked at Trump and chuckled in a manner equivalent to asking “what the hell is this guy talking about?”  So congratulations, America… You now have a president that makes the leaders from other nations completely unable to take you seriously anymore.  I mean seriously, it became a news item that Justin Trudeau held his own against Trump in the simple act of shaking hands.  This is the “greatest country in the world”… reduced to the equivalent of a game of thumb war.

So, other than Trump… I got out snowshoeing on three of my four days off.  Funny thing is the one day I didn’t go was the best weather day of the four.  But I just needed some rest after back to back treks through the woods and lots of shovelling of the driveway.

Between that shovelling and snowshoeing, my winters have suddenly switched from the time of year that I’d fatten up… to the time of year that I’m actually dropping pounds.  Funny thing with the snowshoeing.  It’s given me a new love of apples.  Most years, I don’t even touch an apple until the fall.  The rest of the year that just don’t taste as good.  But I’ve gotten into the habit of bringing one with me to eat at the halfway point of my snowshoeing sessions.  And I must say, an apple never tasted as good as while standing in the woods on a winter day.  Who knew?

Not much else to discuss… and this talk of food makes me realize that it’s time to get some food in my belly.  

Making It Up As I Go Along #673

I’m getting old.  I just can’t do it for a fourth day.  Despite the shinning sun and mild winter temperatures, I can’t go out snowshoeing today.

Each of my first three days off I went out for an hour or more.  The first day, coming off my night shift, was with little energy, and I had to be careful with each step on the way home… as if trudging through a desert after days with no water.

The other two days went well.  And yesterday was turkey day!  Saw around ten of them, crossing my path and rushing to safety through the woods.

Side note, in light, fluffy snow, turkey tracks look like they were left by miniature cross country skiers.

Last night there was a combination of snow and freezing rain.  This morning, I tackled my driveway… and my energy got zapped.

So I look out my window thinking it would be nice to get out there.  Wishing the search out the turkeys once again or size up tracks of a fox.  But if I feel tired and listless now, I’m not sure how it’ll feel a half hour in to a snowshoe.  Let alone the half hour back.

I never do much of any hiking or snowshoeing during my four days of work, so I know if I don’t go today, I’m not going again before Monday.  But after three straight snowshoes and an hour at the driveway, I’m thinking the old body could use the rest.

Speaking of the driveway, I’m pretty much at my limit with clearing that without help from the city in plowing the road.  I think they’ve plowed once this entire winter.  Maybe a second time while I was home for the holidays.  But in all that time, snow mounds gradually edge out from driveways into the streets.  I’d think, at this point in time, there is 3 to 5 feet of lost road.

So where, early on, I could throw excess snow out at the edge of the driveway, I’d literally be throwing it into the street now.  A narrow, snow covered street.  And with the freezing rain creating a crust on my already five foot mound where my lawn once lay, any snow thrown up there would simply slide straight back down from whence it came.

So really, I’m stuck.  Anymore snow without prior melting or street widening will leave me with no real options beyond packing it down and driving over it.

Five weeks to Florida… can’t come soon enough.

Speaking of Florida, before now, I’ve never thought about having issues at the border.  Before moving to Ottawa, all my border crossings occurred in the pre September 11th world.  And since my move, I’ve always figured that a white guy who works with the RCMP would have very little issues at the border.  And that has been true.  And, I guess likely will remain true.  But still, I now think about the scenarios at the airport.

I heard some talk of the US making all foreign visitors supply websites they visit as well as all of their cell phone contacts.  I have nothing to hide on any of those fronts but I think it would be completely ridiculous to be asked to supply any of it.  Not without good reason.  And I can’t think what I’d do to cause that good reason to occur.

If Trump’s vision for America comes to be, I think the rest of the world can stop calling that country the Land of the Free.  Trump’s America would become the Land of the Paranoid.  Perhaps it will increase safety from terrorist threats.  I’m not convinced it would but perhaps an argument could be made it will.  But his vision promotes walls and a viewing of everyone around you with complete suspicion. In Trump’s America, freedom is a fantasy.  It’s little more than an empty slogan.

Watched a bunch of movies on TV this week.  One thing that becomes more and more solidified in my mind… Mad Max: Fury Road is indeed the greatest action movie of all time.  I must have watched it at least seven or eight times at home.  It’s become one of those movies where, when checking the guide, if you see it there, you can’t help but flip over.  I think my favourite part of the spectacle is the vehicle that carries the beat of the bad guys.  That is to say, for whatever reason, they have one vehicle in the entourage that seems to create the rhythm of the chase.  Six big Japanese like drums on the back… one guy with a flame shooting electric guitar on the front… and a wall of speakers separating the two.  It’s like the modern day version of the drummer on the back of Viking ships as the villains give chance across the desert.

Also, having rewatched Fargo… again… that’s for sure one of my top five movies.  The characters and cinematography are both just incredible in that one.

And there isn’t much more to share this week.  The length of this ramble, coupled with my general level of tiredness, doesn’t have me very creative either.  So I’ll leave it with a picture of the turkey cross country trails.