Saturday, March 16, 2024

putting aside the elbow macaroni

I went to my first plasma donation yesterday morning, for the first time this year; it went smoothly in all aspects.

I watched most of the first set of the second semi-final of the Indian Wells BNP Paribas tennis tournament, I fell asleep before the set ended and when I awoke I saw that the tennis was no longer showing. I checked my mobile device and found that Sakkari had beat Gauff 6-4 in that first set, but that it had been suspended. So I stayed awake until midnight and the match was still suspended at that time. Apparently it rains in a place that is called the desert. I awoke this morning to find that Sakkari had won; they played the remainder of their match after I went to sleep.

The two men's semifinals are being played this afternoon/evening, but there is an event at my church I am volunteering for; it is a games night where we open the table tennis table, put out card tables with chairs for other kinds of games and will have snacks and drinks. So I won't be able to watch the tennis.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

taste the bar stool

Who would have guessed that Huey Lewis and the News song Jacob's Ladder would have topped the charts on this day in 1987?

I for one, like some of their other songs better.

I want a new drug
If this is it
Heart of rock and roll
Hip to be square
Heart and Soul

Sunday, March 03, 2024

image

It has taken 18520 days for me to receive my first and I hope last dog bite. As I do not own a car I am often walking to get to and from wherever it is I am going. On the walk home from church this morning I passed a man walking his dog; this is not an uncommon occurrence as many people are walking their dog at all hours and so often I cross them. The dog looked tame enough as I passed, but the leash was loose and as I passed, the dog attacked me and bit the back of my left leg, fortunately only once.

Soon after taking the photo I washed that part of me with soap; it is still irritating at the moment but I expect that to diminish over time,

There have been news stories across North America over the last decade of the occasional attack that is far more devastating, with people having their faces mauled, or arms broken open, or neck torn at. I am glad that this is all that happened, and can remotely sympathize with those others who were very much more damaged.

I do not know if there is a protocol for me to have dealt with that dog owner in that moment, but as I am conflict averse, I just continued on my walk home.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

crouch then jump

It isn't every day that I get to post on a leap day. These happen rare enough that I ought to do something special on this day, but alas, I haven't anything happening that is different from the modus operandi or status quo.

That this day falls in the midst of my job's very busy season means I am unable to take this day off of work, which is perhaps one thing I would do to make it special.

If you read this today, or any day subsequent, I hope you will have had an excellent leap day.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

bent, not broken

Last week, no online banking; too risky.

This week, no such things as dinosaur fossils as erosion, earthquakes, volcanoes and hurricanes would have pulverized any bones.

I voice what we know of the universe started about 13.8 billion years ago; the look she gives me is clear that what I am saying is nonsense.

There is a wind storm outside, I can hear it through the windows, walls and ceiling/roof of my apartment. This wind is the bringer of a flash freeze, dropping 25c in about twelve hours from about above to below with the center at 0c.

I am watching tennis in Acapulco; a place when I was a kid was only imaginary. As it is on the west coast of Mexico, it was never a place anyone I knew any time would consider as a vacation place, given I live in the eastern half of the continent. As is true at anytime I watch tennis on TV (Tsitsipas vs Cobolli) I dream of actually going there at some time in the future to watch the tennis in person. The previous week was in a place called Los Cabos which is at the bottom of the Baja Peninsula; so I could imagine flying to Los Cabos to watch the tournament there, then see if there is a boat that could take me across to Mazatlan and then take a bus down to Acapulco. Watch the tennis there for a few days, and then fly home. I do not speak Spanish in any way whatsoever so this would be an obstacle for me; though I suppose I could learn a few basics.

Both tournaments seem to have their matches only starting in the late afternoon to avoid the crazy sunshine heat. This means some matches will go past midnight. If I was to attend I would for certain change my sleep schedule to awaken later in the morning than I do here since every night would be a late night.

The best part of the idea about it, the more I give it thought

Saturday, February 24, 2024

box kite small fight broad light

The MT put me asunder, without the pantomiming, putting aside the wish, the dream, the solid sleep.

Hopefully the divorce settlement arrives in time.

Slouch, couch

Rough, tough, stuff

Prize, size, rise

Perhaps Capitalism is at fault, we'd need to paint it all shades of equanimity. Mite.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

keep right except to pass

Not all of the ice cream cones that got slobbered upon by the nine year old rottweiler were made of Amazon delivery person ear wax flavoured straw hats.

I learned about the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar earlier this week (actually, 1455 days ago); I had not heard of it before. Curiously, the day I was born was a Tuesday, and the date of my birthday on their calendar is also a Tuesday.

A cicada and a cricket were one-upping each other to see who could be the loudest. The nearby cat did not enjoy this competition one bit.

The sound of a cicada will always remind me of my youth, cycling through the town I grew up in and hearing them in the depth of summer. The sound of a cricket triggers no such fond memory.

Sauntering on the running track, so long as you keep to the closest inside route, is acceptable. Sprinting on the running track, so long as you avoid the closest inside route, is also acceptable. Napping on the running track; not acceptable.

Monday, February 12, 2024

rating rates of wraiths

I watched the Superbowl last night, it went into overtime with the KC Chiefs winning over the SF 9ers. Pre-game I had no preference but as the game progressed I began to root for the 49ers, so it was unfortunate that it ended how it did. I was supposed to have gone to a friend's house to watch together, but she messaged me earlier that day that she had tested positive for COVID, so we agreed to rescind the invitation.

Presuming I come back to read this a decade from now I would be remiss if I failed to mention the Swift Kelce link, that Taylor Swift the music superstar and Travis Kelce the top tight end of the NFL became a couple earlier in the season and she has been present and occupying televised space during the latter half of the season up until and including the game last night. This couple has produced outrageous media attention where the Swift universe and the NFL previously had been two separate and enormously followed entities and now there was significant overlap.

In other news it is snowing outdoors at the moment I compose this post, soft slow snow.

On yTube one of the many channels I follow is Mark Manson's and on this video I posted a reply. Unexpectedly I got a reply from what could have been Mark himself to the message I had sent, simply asking me to reply back to him; when I did it was addressed to an odd entry including 'sms'; I just let him know that of the 1000s or more of people that respond to him I am surprised he would contact me.

I do not understand what of my response would trigger him to reach out to me if that is, in fact, him that did so. I also do not know what in addition to the comment I left, I would have to say to him with respect to what that video instructed. I suppose I could go into more granular detail about the three questions he poses.

And finally I am enjoying watching the MLTT; it is a league that is completing its inaugural year with just a few events left before the first Championship being held in Chicago at the end of April. I have looked into attending any of the events were they to happen in the same places in fall 2024 as the remaining dates for the season this year vacation days are prohibited for me to take from work. The closest location is Bedford Park IL (basically Chicago) and with my desire to not take airplanes, taking either bus or train to get there takes two to three days of travel. So for example three days travel there, three days of the event and then three days travel back is not great. There are enough flights that if I did go that way, I could fly to Chicago the morning of the first day and fly home on the evening of the last day of the event.

Friday, February 09, 2024

braking up the wrong icicle

I had intended to subject this post with, as the starting word, 'barking'.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

I mistook last night for being next Wednesday; I planned my post work time and evening to head out to the church for Ash Wednesday service, walked the fourteen minutes to get there to see that it was dark and closed when it ought not to have been. I opened my mobile device only then to check my calendar and found I was six days early. It was a very pleasant evening for a walk, so I walked home in a circuitous route.

The Superbowl takes place this weekend; I have been invited to go to someone's house to watch this game between the Chiefs and 49ers. I do not have a preference as to which team wins; if there is one of the two teams that has a quarterback who makes a 50+ yard pass to a receiver for a touchdown - that is the team I would root for. I had been rooting for Baltimore, but they couldn't manage to get past the Chiefs in the semi-final.

There was a summit yesterday in Ottawa to discuss the growing concern with respect to car theft that is ballooning, especially in Ontario and Quebec. It seems a large portion of these stolen cars are being put into shipping containers and then sent to Africa or the middle East on ships out of the port of Montreal. On Wednesday evening the federal government announced 28M$ of funding to go to CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) inspectors to increase their number in the ports and to give them better technology to scan shipping containers to locate cars within. I worry for the safety of these inspectors if the port workers who move these stolen car containers are also part of the organized crime network making all of this happen.

One of the ways that thieves steal cars is to use a receiver/amplifier that they put against the door or wall of a house that can pick up the signal from the car's key fob and transmit it to the car to unlock and start it. I read about a family whose car was stolen, and they found there was a special box they could buy that would block the signal from being picked up by these receiver/amplifiers. So thus far their replacement car has not been stolen. If this faraday box or bag works to prevent thievery, perhaps it ought to come as a product with the car when the car is purchased.

Given I do not own a car, none of this is a concern to me.

Friday, February 02, 2024

Mesopotamia on rocks

So I drowned the ePlancul, no more, no less, no most, unless.

It isn't radiation that killed the cat's inclination to meow during the bottom half of the even hours.

I dream of a Cat that climbs a tree, smiles at me, refuses to pee.

But as a derelict, clumsy and an aberrant - there isn't anything unlike it.

This post reeks of an undulating lack of sensationalism. I should know.

Sunday, January 21, 2024

life is what it is

Like what the nest said to the egg.

Unlike what the squirrel squirreled away.

Try as one might, the ripped rotten soup pattern got emptied into the lake.

Slight as one might be, the ePlancul has been stopped.

As deep a hole as one can get into, there is but the steepest ladder to be used to escape.

A temper tantrum serves no purpose, not even under the most punishing circumstances.

Regret serves no purpose either, especially if we can choose to live in the moment. Or moments.

Unfortunately it put asunder my dreams for this year, but alas, there is the Sisyphus curse to put asunder any thoughts I had of progress.

I suppose there is always kite flying I can do.