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
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
