Making It Up As I Go Along #703

Winter is coming.  I can now see traffic through the woods across the street again (the camouflage of leaves is no more).  There’s a small layer of snow on the ground.  And today I put the fleece sheets on the bed.

Another interesting thing about this time of year is the hidden parts of summer begin to show themselves.  Walks will show bird nests in the crooks of tree limbs.  And yesterday I saw a rugby ball sized wasp nest hanging twenty feet up from a branch near the ponds.  I look for these things in the summer but they always seem to be so hidden in the canopy.

River otters are here.  In my nearly seven years at Trailsedge, I’ve seen muskrat and beaver in the ponds across the street.  This week, I saw river otters.  A family of four have taken over last years beaver lodge.  When I’ve been around, the lead otter has kept a close eye on me.  Diving for a fish every minute or so, then coming up to bob in the water, huffing at me.  Not sure how they’ll do.  I read that an adult will eat up to a few kilograms of fish a day.  I don’t think there’s enough little minnows out there for a family of four to get through the winter.  Unless there’s more fish in those ponds than I expect.

Mom and dad are booked and coming.  About five weeks away from having parents nearby again.  Winters are much more family oriented again.

I find I am slowly veering more towards streaming tv rather than the cable.  Last month I got Amazon Prime and now have access to their video service as well as Netflix.  It seems, since baseball season ended, I spend more nights on either Netflix or Amazon Video watching a show or movie there than surfing the channels.  Sports, news, nature programs and movies still draw my attention on cable.  But most of the TV shows I watch are now being streamed.  Perhaps the day will come when I just load up on my internet data and cut the cable entirely.  Who knows.

Not much else in mind to share.  Trump is a psychopath and possibly evil… like truly evil… but I just don’t want to waste my energy even getting into it.

Canadian hockey coverage is so incredibly Toronto biased that, even when you have a family history of cheering for that team, I find myself secretly wishing them to fail.  It really is to a point where there is no more Canadian national hockey coverage.  There is Leaf coverage nationally… and then regional broadcasts of every other Canadian team.  But the Jets are probably a better team than Toronto… it’s largely ignored.  Montreal has been very entertaining this season… ignored.  Vancouver has some good young players… worth a thirty second clip.  The best offensive player in the game is being forgotten in Edmonton.  Calgary is doing well but is completely forgotten.  In fact, the second most covered Canadian team is likely Ottawa… and that’s entirely due to the train wreck factor.  National hockey coverage is basically 75% Leafs… 15% How Ottawa is embarrassing themselves… 5% McDavid… 3% Petterson in Vancouver… 2% everything else.

I’ll aim for something more creative next week.  That’s it for now.

 

Making It Up As I Go Along #702

Back on schedule.

Winter may be here… or knocking on the door anyway.  Walked today with gloves and hat needed and a windchill below freezing.  Autumn goes by the fastest of all the seasons.

Baseball is my favourite sport but even I’d say it’s becoming pretty unwatchable.  3.5 to 4 hour games with not enough fielding… too many strike outs… too many pitching changes and too many batters stepping out and calling time.  My two greatest baseball wishes… a limit on the number of pitchers on a roster… and restrictions on the shift.  I’d love to see no more than eleven pitchers on a 25 man roster.  Do away with the one batter specialist.  Make it so relievers need to be able to go multiple innings and, with a reduced pitcher roster, a team can’t afford to use three pitchers in order to get three outs in a late inning.  And I wouldn’t outlaw the shift entirely, but I think the shortstop and 3rd baseman need to both stay on the left field side of 2nd base while the 2nd baseman and 1st baseman stay on the right field side.

Anyway, I still pay attention to the World Series but I’m generally not starting to watch until the 3rd inning or so… and that still gives me a good 2.5 hours of game to watch.

Memory foam mattresses promote hibernation.  Last night I was in bed for eleven hours (slept about nine of that).  It’s just too comfortable!  There’s no desire to get out of bed!

I found the Beachcombers coming on my TV each week.  Started PVRing it and now that show is part of my pre nap routine.  Watch an episode… then off to bed for my afternoon nap before night shift.  It’s a kind of corny show to look back on but is a nice memory of simpler times.  I’d much rather go to bed thinking about Nick and Relic boating around for logs than thinking about the stupidity coming out of Donald Trump’s mouth.

They’re Leaving
They’re leaving.
Once plowed fields
Black speckled
With hoards
Southbound travellers
Passing through
Pausing here
Preparing for the journey
As bordering trees
Bronze the horizon

But as bronze fades to bare
Wooden skeletal fingers
Reaching for that vanishing sun
They leave.

The leaving is gradual.
One flock departs
Replaced by a new wave
One family stopping
For leftovers of airborne cousins

But it nears its end.
A departure now leaves empty fields
We’ve reached that point
With small V’s of stragglers
Honking through the cold evening sky
Too late to land
They flap towards the southern glow.
Afraid to be overtaken
By the black northern cold