Making It Up As I Go Along #277

MONDAY...
— Quiet night at work. Atlas, Jonathan Christy, Sue White and me in AFIS. And Sue leaves at supper time.
— I’m still not back to 100%. I am really tired part way through work and feel drained by the time I’m home. So with that, I won’t go for a walk tonight. I did an hour last night and would like to go out tonight... but I’m afraid I’m going to make myself sick again.

TUESDAY...
— Better night. I do an hour walk after work, so the energy is up. Out earlier than usual though and this means more cars/people and, for the first time, no rabbits.

WEDNESDAY...
— Chip Wagon with Devin for supper tonight. We get visited by a baby skunk there. It wanders out of the bushes and comes within four or five feet of me in it’s wanderings. Cute little fella. No after work walk as the rain hits just before I was to go.

THURSDAY...
— Hike for an hour and a half with Karl before work. At work, we’re given an extended supper break to wish Devin good luck in going to certification. We head to Montana’s and the steak is pretty good.
— Some dick has stolen my recycling box... again. It’s angering because this box is clearly marked but was still taken. It’s also tempting to blame the person living at 2250 Bois Vert. Their box is left on the corner all stuffed with garbage that wasn’t supposed to be in it in the first place. So I’m thinking they decided to take my empty box and leave the stuffed box of garbage for someone else to deal with. Morons are plentiful in the world.

FRIDAY...
— Not a bad night at work. A few of us get Chinese food for supper.
— Very rainy day today. Pretty constant from early this morning until about 3:00. Probably the rainiest day of the summer.
— Just cloudy tonight... so I do an hour and a half walk.

SATURDAY...
— Nice sunny day... so it’s out playing the mini golf for the first time in years. Follow that up with a drink on a patio. Pretty relaxing, nice day.


What Were You Thinking?
People and logic... sometimes the two don’t come together. This week, there are several examples of this chasm.

Recycling...

A wonderful concept that’s made to be about as easy as it can be for adults to partake in. They have even sent out cardboard cheat sheets for us, telling people what they can and can’t throw into the plastic or cardboard recycling bins. One of the things not to be recycled in this way is plastic grocery bags. It’s stated clearly.

So with recycling comes the morons. And one guy who dumps a mountain of plastic bags in his bin. Hoping to sneak it past the collectors I guess. Too bad there’s no cover on the bins and this bags are all put on top.

Normally, you’d ignore such things. If people want to be dumb, let them. But the problem is, I get directly affected by this one. Coming home late from evening shift, I can only hope that the address which is clearly written on my bin keeps it on the corner waiting for me. And when I come home, there is one bin waiting... but it’s full of grocery bags and has a different address posted to it. I feel like going to this person’s house, banging on the door, and tossing the plastic bags over their sleepy head. And I’m betting I know where my bin is... grocery bag boy was too desperate to dispose of the clutter and the grabbing of an empty bin was too much a temptation. Sometimes, the lack of logic enables people to do the weirdest things.

The War on Terror...

I recently heard someone say that the invasion of Iraq is justified now, not because of weapons of mass destruction... and not because of bringing freedom to an oppressed people. No, now it’s justified because Al Qaida is in Iraq. The problem with the logic is that it is well known this terrorist group was not in Iraq until after the US lead invasion. Yet now it’s presence justifies what went on before it?

Going by this logic, America will be justified to invade Canada... smoke screen the reason for a year or so... and then, after Al Qaida grabs a foothold within Canada (a likely response to fight back against invaders) America could say “See! Invading Canada was right... Al Qaida is there!” It is the modern day the Chicken and the Egg scenario... only in this case, everyone knows you won’t get the chicken without the egg. And the US “farmer”, who doesn’t want any chickens, decides to bring in an incubator, and lay a fertile egg in there just to see what happens.

Fashion...

My neighbour. I noticed this earlier this week. I looked out the window and saw a tight orange top and home done, cut off jeans that left little to the imagination. You can’t help but take a second glance when you see this. But here in lies the problem... cause the second glance shows you... this is a man!

I was forced into a repulsed stare of horror. Those jean shorts are so short that the white pocket liners are seen sticking out on his thighs, a good inch or two below the denim. Just writing about it brings back a cold sweat of panic.

My hope was to never see this neighbour again. Definitely not in those shorts anyway. It was just too much to take. But today, another horrible thing. On a bright and sunny afternoon, the neighbour decided to wash his van. And, by God, it gets worse. Back come the jean shorts... but this time without the orange shirt. Has he no shame? For the first time in my life, I’d rather see a man naked than with a pair of shorts on. At least naked, he’d pull off some sort of natural look. This is just horrifying though. A skinny white guy spraying down his caravan with these rags draping his loins like some sort of urban Tarzan. I stared in fear... unable to look away. I was just waiting to see him begin to grind his chest into the soapy windows of his van. I tell you, insanity was mere moments away from me.


Wendy’s...

Advertising can work. It’s been proven that people will go out an buy something that they see on television. But advertising can work against you as well. I refused to buy Charmin toilet paper after they made men look like idiots in their commercial. Those adds where the man is at the grocery store, staring dumbfounded at a wall of toilet paper. He’s unable to decide what to buy... so he gets out the cell phone and is talked through the procedure by his wife. It’s like one of those movies where a pilot sits on the radio at the tower, explaining to the flight attendant how to land the plane. But it’s TOILET PAPER! Any company with so little respect for a man’s intelligence can get by without this man’s money.

Well Wendy’s is insulting both men and women these days. It saddens me to see because, out of the fast food places, I generally feel okay about Wendy’s. Once or twice a month with a Spicy Chicken burger or a taco salad is okay in my books. But now comes the Baconator. Half a pound of beef topped with six strips of bacon. Sounds both tempting and frightening all at the same time. But, thanks to Wendy’s advertising for the vegetarian nightmare, my mind is made up.

A bunch of women’s bodies are topped with men’s heads... and they’re standing around the street, screaming in hysterics. It’s the next coming of the Beatles. The breasted man-girls can barely contain themselves. And then, clomping out like a monster from a Japanese movie, comes a giant guy in a Wendy’s red wig. With great seriousness, he points to the great billboard behind him and, like the most dramatic segment of a call to arms from the “300" movie, he yells “BACON!” The man-girls are bursting at the seams. They scream even more so and begin running towards the billboard. Bacon is here... and again, as in “300"... “tonight, we dine in hell”.