Making It Up As I Go Along #517

Rainy Afternoons

Rainy afternoons bring memories

Of Chinese Checkers tinking onto the tin board

Marbles to tin as the rain to the window

My grandmother tinkering in the kitchen

As I tinker with the game.

Rainy afternoons bring thoughts

Of massive plates of nachos

While recorded movies whir on tape

Geoff fast-forwarding ads

As I gulp milk

Looking for salsa burn relief

Rainy afternoons bring shadows

Of blanket forts in corners of the house

Tucked behind the sofa

With cushions used as anchors

While I hold Sparky hostage

Scribbling crayon art

Rainy afternoons bring ideas

Of block built construction

Lego block moon bases

Mighty baseball stadiums

Or a CN tower all multi coloured

Red, yellow, blue, green

Not enough white to get the job done.

MONDAY…

--- Days alone.  Slow morning… busy afternoon.

--- Softball in the evening.  We get beat pretty bad.  I take two line shots off my wrist.  Glove would have been better.  It’s a bit swollen and sore after the game but fine the next day.  I do hit my first homer in two years… first one since my shoulder injury.  But we’re well behind by then and I hit it almost more out of anger than anything.  Well, softball anger… hardly ulcer worthy.

TUESDAY…

--- Alone again.  Fairly steady all day today.  Not much downtime. 

WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY…

--- Nights alone. Makes for long, fairly busy nights.  Play some ball before Wednesday’s shift and have Thai for supper.  Left over Thai for Thursday.

FRIDAY…

--- Awake way too early.  In bed by 6:30 this morning… awake for good by 10:30 after having woken up a few times in between those hours. 

--- Two hour walk today.  Walk to Farm Boy along the power line corridor… get a few groceries there… walk back with a couple of bags of food.  It’s warmer than I thought today… in the 30s for sure with humidity… so I’m feeling pretty tired and thirsty by the time I get home.

--- Bit of an afternoon nap is much needed.

SATURDAY…

--- Morning walk.  Do about an hour today.  Afternoon movie.  The Abyss really was a good movie… holds up well all these years later.

--- Head for the movies with Sarah but it falls apart.  The movie apps on my phone show The Apparition playing at 9:20… the cinema isn’t even showing that movie at all.  So we head off for some patio time… a snack and some drinks.  So still a nice night.

SUNDAY…

--- My neck is giving me some trouble.  Likely from falling asleep on the sofa at an odd angle is my guess.   

Making It Up As I Go Along #516

Things were slow going in the blog.  I basically missed the Aug 11 posting due to having to switch my shift at work.  When you work seven of nine days at twelve hours a day, there isn’t much time to put to anything else from a mind point of view.

Now, after four days off, I’m still tired and not sleeping great… but getting back to the swing of things.

Lawn Fridge

Who wants a lawn fridge?

Our garbage’s across the street.

Another car comes pulling up

The neighbours not to meet.

The fridge it is for sale

Three hundred to take it home

Just watch for mice up in the back

With fridges they need not roam.

On garbage day the cans

By the fridge they will sit

The other six days of the week

Why it’s by the forest that they’ll fit.

The cars they come all day long

In driveway, street and garage

Often drivers yell out the door

Of humanity, it’s a great barrage.

The fridge it sat for two full weeks

The lawn below did turn

I doubt an offer came to them

No lowball try to spurn.

The garbage sits in overflow

A meal for woods critters

I do believe the sweet raccoons

Will become garbage can sitters.

I know the world it takes all kinds

I know I shouldn’t complain

But when you have neighbours such as these

You’re liable to go quite insane.

MONDAY…

--- Off work for the stat holiday.  I do a walk and watch some Olympics while doing laundry.  US vs. Canada soccer is exciting but frustrating.  Horrible inconsistency from the ref and Canada ends up losing 4-3 in extra time.

TUESDAY…

--- Back to work.  Fairly quiet day.  Return of the Jedi on Blue Ray for the evening.

WEDNESDAY…

--- Go to softball before work but we get rained out about 20 minutes in.  So I’m at work about 20 to 30 minutes earlier than normal.

THURSDAY…

--- Good afternoon nap.  Good to the point where I wake a bit later than normal and look at the clock wonder if it’s AM or PM. 

--- Work is fairly normal.  Last night with the latest team.  I head back Sunday working as a tandem with Keith… though he won’t be there Sunday.

FRIDAY…

--- Rainy day.  Get groceries and go for a wet walk.  See something coming along a river ditch… either a beaver or a big raccoon.  I think raccoon… it veered off into the woods before it got too close to me.

SATURDAY…

--- Walk in the morning.  Rain much of the afternoon while I watch TV.  Supper with Karl and Jennifer.  We planned for a movie afterwards but mixed up the times and went to the Mayfair at 7:00 for a 6:00 showing.  Oops.

SUNDAY…

--- Back to work.  Fairly quiet day but do have some priority things to do in the afternoon.  One of those times when it feels like you’re being there can make a difference.

--- Catch the end of the Olympic closing ceremonies.  Not bad from what I see.  The Who really are a band with presence. 

MONDAY…

--- Steady go on dayshift alone.  Bit of a walk after work… a half hour… some TV after that.

TUESDAY…

--- Night shift.  Back with Keith at work. 

WEDNESDAY…

--- RCMP ball before work.  Funny how my infield arm is fairly good now but my outfield arm is that of a little girl.  Different muscle groups I suppose… but somewhat pathetic when I’m forced to throw beyond the cutoff. 

THURSDAY…

--- Off again.  Not a moment too soon.  I pour a glass of cereal and am motioning to pour my bowl of juice next to it for breakfast before catching myself.

--- Groceries… a leisurely walk filled with frogs and toads… plus two heron encounters… a big one taking off out of a tree I’m under followed by a young one flying up to a tree when I startle it.  Some TV and laundry in the evening.

FRIDAY…

--- Brisk walk… several blue jays out there now.  You really get an idea of animals in relation to time of year when walking the woods daily. 

--- Next door neighbour’s house for sale.  Makes for a slightly nervous time.  Don’t want some hicks who keep a fridge on the lawn next to me.  Here’s hoping for a young couple that are easy going.

SATURDAY…

--- Bad shark movie that was fun to watch… a walk…  bbq hotdogs for supper.  Decompression from previously working seven of nine days is nearly complete.

Making It Up As I Go Along #515

Mitchy-ha-ha

I’ve always been a bit of a nature buff.  This has gone back as long as I can remember.  One of my first favourite TV shows was a nature show.  Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom had me entranced.  Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler venturing out into the African grasslands… showing us elephants, lions, and crocodiles.  Their voices told a delightful tail and the images had me glued to the set.

Of course this was way back.  Forget HD TV.  Forget remote controls even.  I’d be plopped down on the floor next to our TV and, if you wanted to check around during the commercials, you’d have to hop up and click the dial around.  But with less than a dozen channels at the time, and not wanting to miss a second of the show, I never dreamed of searching the other channels. 

I’d sit during commercials and daydream about the Serengeti.  I’d think about a croc grabbing hold of a wildebeest.  Of vultures picking at zebra bones.  And of lions basking in the African sun.

I was young enough that I didn’t even know how to say my favourite show’s name.  Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom was simply Mitchy-ha-ha.  I’d ask my mother “Is Mitchy-ha-ha on?” with hopefulness in my heart.

My grandmother was also a big nature show fan.  We’d sit and watch Mitchy-ha-ha… or The Nature of Things together.  Sometimes it would be when they’d visit us… with popcorn at the ready.  Often times it would be on our visits to Botwood.  A rainy afternoon would be made cozy and enjoyable with a nature show on and a bowl of fresh blueberries… swimming in milk with some sugar on top.  Granddad would never show much interest.  Perhaps he’d be at the dinning room table playing solitaire (or Patience as it was called).  He may glance up at the striking shark as he reshuffled the deck.  But Nanny and I would sit upon chair and sofa respectfully… her perched ready to rise to the kitchen when a pot of soup needed stirring… and me spread out atop knit cushions.

I also shared my love of these shows with one of our dogs.  Schokee would often plunk down upon my lap as I sat on the floor of my bedroom and watched a nature show on my little TV.  She’d stare intently at the screen and twitch her head from side to side as wolves howled across Canadian mountain winters.

For some years, I watched less nature programming.  Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom was off the air.  The Nature of Things came on at times when I should either be doing homework or was more interested in sports.  My grandparents were both gone, as was the dog. 

So it wasn’t that I was no longer interested in nature as much as time moved on and, to state the obvious, things changed.

Things have changed again.  HD TV entered my world and nature programs have taken over the airwaves.  There are all sorts of programing.  Animals of every variety are featured.  Insects, reptiles, fish, birds… if it lives, it’s featured. 

But even if it no longer lives, the animal is there in high definition glory.  Computer generated dinosaurs are often the topic of the show.  Looking so real that you’d think they roamed a remote part of the globe to this day. 

And there are even those nature programs that don’t cover animals at all.  Mountain peeks are explored with such vividness that the camera flies over top and wisps of windy snow can be seen hundred of feet below our point of view.

And then there is the granddaddy of all HD visual treats… the Volcanoes.  I have seen nothing as spectacular in high definition as the brilliant red of a lava flow.  Molten rock so clear that you expect to feel the heat through the TV set. 

Yes, High Definition television has renewed my passion for nature programs.  Sports remain a high frequency watch for me… but if I was told I could only watch one type of TV show from now on, it would have to be a nature program. 

And often, as I watch… in one of those moments when something is particularly spectacular to me… I think of my grandmother.  Wishing she was there as well.  Knowing she would be as spellbound as me.   

TUESDAY…

--- Work nights.  It’s kind of busy and we get worked up over typical garbage politics going on in the office.  Ready for another vacation.

WEDNESDAY…

--- Bit of a walk in the early afternoon.  Watching some Olympics too but I must say, winter games get my attention much more than summer.  Most of these events bore me… Judo? Gymnastics? Weight lifting? Badminton?  Blah.  If the summer games was only rowing, swimming and diving, I’d be quite satisfied.

--- Softball before work is fun.  Getting into playing centerfield… even if my arm is garbage now.  Tracking balls is fun times.

--- Yesterday’s work garbage cleared pretty well today… changing teams in a few weeks… back to Keith.  Working with Claudio and Jonathan has been good… going back with Keith should also be fine. 

THURSDAY…

--- Out for a walk… run into a toad… then a deer crosses my path.  Walk over to where the deer reentered the woods and even though I don’t see it through the trees, it sees me… snorts several times and stomps through the woods away from me.

--- Groceries and some TV end the day.

FRIDAY…

--- Lunch and a walk with Karl.  Good on the patio and a nice walk… but I wonder if the fish and chips didn’t agree with me.  I get really tired later in the evening… nap for a while but am freezing in the house and have to bundle up… then am kind of hot later in the night. 

SATURDAY…

--- Feel better once I wake.  Try watching the Olympics… it’s a mish mash of coverage spread out too much over too many TV channels.  And even when I’m watching when events are happening live in England, I see more profiles of athletes and lead up to events than actually seeing events themselves.

--- And Moses… the moronic carrying on by the Canadian announcers after the first gold.  Rosie MacLennan wins trampoline and the crew go on pun overdrive.  “Jump for Joy Canada!”… “Everything is Coming Up Rosie!”… and the most horrid… “Champ of the Tramp!”  No woman wants any connection to the term Tramp… at least I’m guessing so.

--- Do a walk.  Out an hour in the heat.  About 40 degrees with the humidity.  I’m actually pretty used to hot weather now.  I don’t feel overly hot out there.