Making It Up As I Go Along #544

Spring Returns

The return of the tadpoles.

Wobbling through still creek waters

Soon to sprout legs

The tail to shrink away

Frogs mere weeks away.

Back is the snake

Laid out in crispy leaves

Lazing in a pocket of sun

Rustling away upon my approach

Causing an extra hop in my startled step.

Hello school of fish

Exploring the runoff stream

Finding homes in gullies

Lingering in miniature whitewater

Fighting the current towards new worlds.

A school heading back to the pond

Meets a lingering group

A few moments of socializing

Before the pond bound head on their way

Neither realizing I’m on the shore

Watching fish culture

WEDNESDAY…

--- Day shift remains a busy time as of late.

THURSDAY…

--- More days.  Less busy than yesterday but still kept going. 

FRIDAY…

--- Nights goes crazy at 3:00 AM.  Work doesn’t stop at all from there to 5:15 and I’m bug eyed looking at fingerprints by the time I’m relieved.  Two hours constant isn’t so bad during the day or early evening.  At 3:00 AM it’s torture.

--- Gets into the 20s today.  About 25 with the humidity.  It’s cloudy and rainy but still nice to feel the warmth.

SATURDAY…

--- Warmth is gone.  5 or 6 degrees with an occasional flurry to boot.  Fed up with the inconsistency. 

--- Somewhat disturbed by the US reaction to catching the Boston Marathon bomber.  I’m glad he’s caught but it seems the media and general public are all trying to make this event into another September 11^th… and the bomber has been made into another Osama Bin Laden.  So much talk about not letting terror win and to show the world how Americans will prevail.  These weren’t a worldwide terror organization.  They weren’t a nation attempting to defeat America.  This gives them too much credit.  They were a couple of brothers who lost touch with reality.  It was also disturbing to see the blatant prejudices coming out.  When a school mate of one of the brothers said “He’s as American as you and me” a CNN reporter added “I don’t think that’s true.”  Reality is, if a 19 year old has spent the last ten years in your country… and he’s a citizen of the country… he is as “American” as you.  Immigrants, especially non-white ones, seem to always be seen as not real Americans.  In fact, for many Americans, it seems like a real American comes from a small town in the mid west… is white… and goes to church every Sunday before sitting down for a good afternoon of NFL football.  People on the coasts are “elitists” who, although citizens, aren’t respectable Americans.  People born elsewhere but now a US citizen are kind of American but not really.  Anyway, these bombers were sick individuals but to try to paint them as foreign radicals in a war against freedom is a distortion of the truth and rather sad to see.

SUNDAY…

--- Tired day.  Put a ball game on and putter around my workbench area.  Organizing nuts and bolts and the like.

--- One thing I’m getting real tired of with Blue Jay games is the computer overlay advertising.  A camera looking down the first base line gives us a company logo laid out in foul territory.  Looking out towards the centre field stands, the batting eye is plastered with more logos that aren’t really there.  JP Arencibia hit a homer to centre and rather than see the ball bounce off the hitting eye stands, it disappears into a Home Hardware logo.  Soon they won’t be swinging bats anymore.  To the eyes of TV viewers, it will be super imposed with a 12” Subway cold cut combo.

MONDAY…

--- Out for a walk and make a grocery run.  Softball practice in the evening.  It’s nice to get outside playing ball again.  A bit too much goose poop but still nice and with the sun and 15 degrees, it’s a pleasant evening to boot.

TUESDAY…

--- Another walk today.  First snake of the year startles me along the paths.  Also a load of little fish along the runoff river.  Probably a school of close to a hundred going up and down the stream.  And saw a couple of big tadpoles by the beaver dam.  It seems the beaver is likely gone.  There are two dams along the creek but both have been opened up and I’m sure a beaver would have closed off the opening again lickity split.

--- Fairly tired most of the day.  Considering taking the day shift off this week.  Just feeling run down and tired and thinking the extra couple of days would be a good recharge.

WEDNESDAY…

--- Early Blue Jays game.  That’s on at noon and I lounge the afternoon away.  Feeling quite tired today.  Slept around six hours but really didn’t get going much before noon.

--- By 4:00, I make the decision and call Keith.  Thursday and Friday off is the plan.

Making It Up As I Go Along #543

The Ghosts of Bigfoot

TV is a fine thing.  Especially for single people alone in the house… it educates, entertains and inspires.

I try to make most of my TV watching worthwhile.  For example, I stay clear of most regular sitcoms.  I’ve watched Honey Boo Boo silliness only twice (each time with mouth agape in shock over the stupidity).  I PVR the Nature of Things and Doc Zone and watch well written shows like Mad Men, Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad.

But I have flaws in my TV times as well.  I regularly watch Survivor… rooting for my favourites while shaking my head at the antics of the ‘villain’.  

But my biggest weakness in the world of stupid TV are those shows in which they investigate the supernatural. 

Sometimes UFOs are tackled. Where all video evidence has been filmed on “fuzzy” setting and a bruise on the leg, shrugged off by most as “I must have bumped something” is, to the believer, proof of abduction and probing. 

But the shows that I occasionally crave and enjoy the most are those dealing with ghosts and Sasquatch. 

There is currently a Ghost Adventure show that seems to be on at least fifteen hours of each day.  And I admit, the marathon sessions of the show… where they show five or six episodes back to back… is tiring.  But to watch an episode here or there is often fun. 

The Ghost Adventurers always end up locked in a haunted building over night.  And they’re always in the dark… literally.  All the lights are turned off so only infrared cameras separate the show from a radio broadcast.  And why would they think that ghosts are nocturnal anyway?  Are we expected to believe that, when we die, we take on a bat-like state?  Does sunlight hurt our… vapor?

Anyway, each episode of this show is basically the same thing in a new spot.  Head to a different warehouse/home/bar/jail/insane asylum… turn off all the lights… lock the door… and plead for a sign.

Most of the time it goes something like this…

“If you are here, do something! Throw this lamp or push me over.”

(slight tapping on the wall down the hall)

“Did you hear that?!?!” “shhh shhhh”  “If that was you… do it again!”

Nobody is ever pushed over.  No lamp is ever thrown.  A mouse running over abandoned junk two rooms down the hall turns in to a sign from the great beyond.

And when they aren’t begging for a sign, they’re trying to capture voices on recorders.  But if ghosts were real, the adventurers forget completely who they’re talking to.  I’ve seen episodes where they’re in an old set of tunnels used during the underground railroad and they hold up a tape recorder and say “If you have something you’d like to say, speak into this recorder!”

And I’m left thinking, “would the ghost of a black slave from 1850 have any idea what a tape recorder is?”

Still, noises are recorder and played back a multitude of times.  And within the static, we clearly hear “bah ma meh foo da”.  A little unclear on its own.  So we’re provided with subtitles to clarify that what was actually recorded is “get out of my house”.  But of course.

Hunting Bigfoot is much the same type of show only ghosts are removed from the hunt and are substituted with… well… Bigfoot.

These people go all over looking for Sasquatch.  It’s not just the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.  They’re in the swamps of Florida, the hills of Tennessee, and the suburbs of Chicago.  Well… not the last one, but pretty much everywhere else.  Anywhere that a grove of trees stands, an eight foot primate must live.

I actually generally think Sasquatch is possible.  Not as some sort of monster but a very reclusive primate that hides out in the mountains.  I don’t go as far as to say it is definitely real… but of all the mythological and paranormal legends, Sasquatch seems the most likely to be possible.

But these guys take wild leaps of logic in their hunts.  First off, as with their Ghost Adventure cousins, the Bigfoot Hunters must wait until nightfall.  So break out the night vision again.

Then, they tramp around in the woods, splitting up into pairs to cover more ground, and calling out to each other across the valley.  Great “woops” and “yelps” echoing across the mountains.

About a third of the time, the callings lead to howling coyotes answering back.  And half of the time, when this happens, the “hunters” stop and look at each other wide eyed (night vision cameras make them look even more wide eyed) and they proclaim “that was a ‘squatch!”  Leaving me crinkling my eyebrows thinking “uh, no it wasn’t.”

The other half of the time, they admit the sound coming back was indeed a coyote.  But… “Where coyotes are, so are Sasquatches… because they eat the same prey.”

Tree branches cracking can’t possibly be a wandering elk.  They’re actually a Bigfoot trying to warn the “hunters” off and owl hoots are male Bigfoots seeking a mate.  It’s just so obvious if you know what you’re looking for.

But, with all the ridiculousness of it, I still enjoy the watching.  Sometimes it’s like watching a murder mystery… trying to come up with the explanations.  But other times I sit thinking maybe this will be the time.  Actual proof.  And if I don’t watch now, I’ll be the sucker who missed it!

And at the end of each show, I am the sucker alright.  I am the sucker indeed.

TUESDAY…

--- Busy day at work.  Bit of TV afterwards… then bed.  Life of 12 hour shift.

WEDNESDAY…

--- Busy again.  Rare to be steady busy two days in a row. 

--- BBQ some burgers for supper (get the last of them BBQ’d before the… sigh… snow comes).  TV after that.

THURSDAY…

--- 8 hours sleep.  A rare thing for me but after two days of busy day shift, I suppose it was due.

--- Little afternoon baseball on TV before afternoon nap and night shift.

FRIDAY…

--- Second night is much quieter than the first.  Wendy’s and chips make for a fine cheat night.

SATURDAY…

--- The original plan for tonight was to have some people over for movie night.  But getting people together is an art I no longer possess and the combo of other plans and lack of enthusiasm have me cancelling the whole thing.  Ah life in Ottawa… I’m on the periphery of many lives… at the centre of none.  I know I’m not the most outgoing person and I have no issue with my alone time.  But still, unless you’ve got a long time circle of friends in this town, you’ve got to book people a good month in advance for the simplest of get togethers… and confirm with them at least four times within that month or it’s just assumed the plan is off pretty much the day after it was set up to begin with.  I miss the simple life… call someone Friday afternoon… make plans for Friday night.  Or, for a bigger group, make the call three days in advance.

--- Anyway, it all makes for a much easier Saturday for me.  House cleaning isn’t as urgent and, after getting up around 11:30, I lounge more than anything, watch some baseball… some hockey… some UFC.  BBQ some burgers.

--- Get news from home that uncle Almon passes away.  Not shocking, as he’s been unwell for quite a while… but it does make you wish you were closer to family.

SUNDAY…

--- Out walking for about an hour.  Need the rubber boots as there are lots of melt water pools everywhere.  And what isn’t pooled is muddy.

MONDAY…

--- Grocery run is followed by another hour with the rubber boots and tramping through the woods. 

--- The BBQ is cranking up… hot dogs for the first time in 2013.  Mark it on your calendar. 

TUESDAY…

--- Fleece sheets come off the bed.  A sign that Spring must be here.

--- Vin Scully proves again how he is by far the best sports announcer that there has ever been.  He is in his mid 80s and calls ball games alone.  No colour commentator to fill out the picture for us.  Just Vin chatting with the viewer through the ball game.  Last night, while Buck Martinez is asking Pat Tabler what a screwball is… Vin Scully is telling us a story of the Sword of Damocles.  And he’s tying it in to the pitcher on the mound (who has been dealing with injury issues for a few seasons).  So basically, with each pitch, the Sword of Damocles hangs over him menacingly.  And, as the story wraps up, a home run is hit… causing the sword to loom ever closer… I swear, Vin Scully called ball games seem scripted they’re that good.  While other announcers lob easy questions back and forth to a sidekick and talk about every player on the home team as if he’s a future hall of famer.  

Making It Up As I Go Along #542

Spring is Coming

Spring is coming.

Walks have been on hold

Held up with rain and wind

Held up by melting sloshiness

Winter freeze is gone.

Where ground is frozen hard

Bundling up keeps warmth

And snowshoes allow adventure

But summer warmth is still not here

Where dirt would make fine hiking

Breezes will keep the heat at bay

And animals will pose for pictures.

It’s been a middle land.

Unfit for snowshoes with granular snow

Hidden traps within the snow

Ready to swallow you whole

As you step into oblivion.

But today is Spring.

Rubber boots are all that’s needed.

Bringing me over the remnants of snow

Splishing me through forest melt water ponds

And fine for those small patches of forest ground.

Exploration shows the beaver.

Not seen live but hints.

Fresh bites along trees

An open channel of water into the mud bank

Even brand new bitings

Where stumps sit wet

Glistening in the afternoon sun.

The land is returning to life. 

The simple softness of water makes all the difference.

The trickle of melt water through ice

And the gentle hiss of the mouth of the creek

Where it meets the pond

Leaving an open space

Already claimed by ducks

Soon will come the snakes.

Sunning themselves among the dead leaves

Shooting off with a rustle as I get close

Causing me to jump with surprise

And today I met the robin.

Upon my approach he gives up forest floor exploration

Four flaps into a tree

Sitting on a branch

With the sun shinning brightly in the background.

Spring is certainly coming.

MONDAY...

---Day shift... It's been a while.  I make it to but it goes from slow and dull for a while to a flurry of activity and back again. Steady is better. Slow to flurry is just annoying.

--- Catch up on the PVR shows after work. Highlighted by season finale of the Walking Dead. But... Almost more highlighted for the commercials for Sunday's premier of Mad Men.

TUESDAY…

--- Day two, really tired by the end of it… just about ready for bed by 4:00 PM.  

--- Perk up after some evening napping and I’m not in bed before 4:00 AM.

WEDNESDAY…

--- Nights.  Thai food ordered tonight and work is fairly steady.

THURSDAY…

--- Spend much of the afternoon on the laptop.  Partly to help mom with hers over the phone… and partly fiddling around with my iTunes library.

--- Quiet night at work.

FRIDAY…

--- Pretty tired today.  Only slept about 4.5 hours.  Go to grocery store for a fairly big load of food… the cupboards and fridge were getting near bare. 

SATURDAY…

--- Hang out and rest… nap… watch baseball and hockey.

SUNDAY…

--- Kind of more of the same.  Sleep in.  Catch up on some PVR stuff.  Baseball (Jays get killed so it’s hard to watch… but it’s early). 

--- Knocked out of the playoff round in the hockey fantasy pool.  I qualify for playoffs up until about 6 minutes left in regulation for the final game of the night.  I’d rather be bounced out two weeks ago than in this fashion.