- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 233
And finally, 3 weeks later there are 2 "sprouts" on my window ledge. The Carolina Reapers, of 10 seeds bought and paid for, 8 arrived, and just this week, a couple of days ago, 2 of them sprouted. First one, one day, then the next another. The other pots show no signs of life.
***
Work, sleep, boring, boring. I've promised myself a Jeep come month end, a necessity of summer, for my mental health, but given the erratic pay-periods of this job (1 week already past last pay date, and 3 weeks tips due back) I'm not sure how to commit. I will figure it out - but there are questions...
***
And the fudge, from the neighbour I'd fed steak, that mystery at least solved, and she seemed pleased to have given me it; or at least been acknowledged for it...
***
Cleaning, the inspection this month. The bedroom, more or less, cleaned. I could go deeper, into the closet, there are a number of things I need to be rid of, old computer, monitor, an abundance of clothes I never wear that should now be moved on. And my necktie collection, some 500+ ties, where to get rid of these? The kitchen/main living area, I took an hour and cleaned off the bar-island, moved candlesticks, rocks, to other settings, unboxed some puppets (NJ) and untangled them somewhat and hung them, one on the easel, the other off a candlestick on a shelf. These things inspire me.
The living room, the last big mess, piles of canvases, art supplies, mixed media, that need some order, arrangement, and where to begin? Where to begin? It doesn't matter, I've come far enough there isn't much left...
***
And that is where I am at the moment. Watching a new miniseries - "The Peacekeeper", some comic-book inspired drivel, superhero stuff, with John Cena as the "Peacekeeper", good, for what it is, but I have no clue, I've never referenced the source material, not a Superhero fan, but this is I suspect better drivel than most.
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 275
Which I found after work and took it in and scarfed all down. Delicious, I sent a text to the upstairs neighbour thanking her, whom I figured it was responsible, made up a bowl of coconut-curry soup to share, gave it to her in the same bowl, she returned it the next day, apparently it wasn't her bowl, and - It could be the other neighbour I fed last week, but - well, even when I run into her we seldom chat, same planet, different worlds, and so I'm a little stumped as to where to return this bowl...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 189
Sorting out the boxes of photographs to best fit them into the apartment. It's overwhelming, boxes stuffed to overflowing, and I swear, 40 years of taking pictures and only started taking "good" (not great) pictures when the children were born.
By good I mean that sort of staged photography you get at a high-school graduation.
A lot of travel photographs, from living in London, Prague, Visits to Kathmandu, Japan, Tangiers, Spain.
Too many. They take up real estate, and it's time they go. There's a few good ones, most are rubbish. How many thousands of dollars wasted on taking photos, buying film, developing, now to all head to the trash. And hours spent sorting them out, no cheery-memory lane sort of stuff, just-too many.
Then there's the antiques, the gun-sight (WW1), the compass (WW2), vintage bowls, knick-knacks, candlesticks (don't get me started!!!) - something's gotta give. Too-Much-Stuff.
I cart a couple of loads to the antique shop, I'm gonna need multiple loads, and there's more - always more. This is not the place to sell them, and I haven't the time for Facebook Marketplace, the Antique Shop, they're planning on retiring, they're reluctant to take anything and I'll take a bath - for sure, but - there's no place for it, and I've hung on to it all long enough.
And this is where I am at the moment, letting it all go, bit-by-bit, piece by piece...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 250
Woke up yesterday to the sound of bagpipes outside my window.
Friday night, out and about on Baker, off work early, and there are two "troops" or "regiments" or whatever they're called, 8 or 10 per regiment, walking up and down the street. A treat for those inclined to dine on the Patio. So I wasn't so surprised to hear them again outside my window.
And, soon enough, more joined him and he had a full on ensemble going.
Now this is the thing. I like bagpipes, not so much that I'd learn to play, but the sound raises a certain Nostalgia in me, and I always feel I have to stand and salute when they're passing. Probably some Legion associations there, but anyways...
One bagpipes sounds like bagpipes. More just sounds like more. Like a "gathering" of bagpipes, it doesn't lend itself to melody or harmony or any of that, or - in any meaningful way, make it louder, or cacophonous, it just sounds like "more". A drummer, maybe, to set the beat, that would be good, or a flautist skipping along ahead to be first shot over the hill, but more bagpipes is just more bagpipes and we don't need more bagpipes.
One was enough, thank-you-very much.
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 241
The election, everything I'd hoped for/expected. No bad news regarding the local candidate, the entitled child of affluence and entitlement, the incumbent conservative candidate yet again by a clear majority against both the NDP and Liberals combined. Not good news, but better news than the Liberal Candidate.
I've talked with a few of the ex-customers of the old restaurant, the old "Cock-'n'-Suck", and they agree, although some of them voted the party and not the man, and I'm quick to chastise them, "YOU KNEW THE 'man'!!!'".
It was a tough choice. But Carney in and that's what we all wanted.
Except for Alberta, that foaming, rabid mass of conservatism...
I'll come back to that.
I got rid of the dinosaur bones (the "more" dinosaur bones the son found in my locker and thought I needed...), a listing on Facebook, "Free", gone in 2 hours with disappointed latecomers. I hoped they went to a schoolteacher, it looked like it, but who knows? I kept the best pieces to sully my shelves...
And time for the building to replace my heat-pump/heater/AC, which pooched a couple of months ago (when my place was clean), and only now can they replace it...
Inane they need to replace a whole unit when it was clearly only the fuse that went.
The building manager is in attendance, I assure her it's not as bad as it looks. It is. It's worse, really, but damn, there's only 400 square feet and the boy dropped off the worst of possible things...
Anyways, I'm on the deck, cleaning up the community planters (1 of which failed on me badly last year), sweeping up the mess, rewiring, making them sketch-stable, filling them again with dirt, getting ready to get the "community" garden started. A beautiful day. When everything is repaired and filled I head down and buy some starters to fill them - Lemon Balm, basil oregano strawberries, thyme, other herbs, anything edible.
I've been waiting for my Caroline Reapers to sprout in their window pots, impatient, like a kindergarten child and his sunflower or corn seed, checking on them every few minutes, nada, it’s been 8, 9, 10 days now…
Probably it's not sunny enough or hot enough outside but I'll give it a couple more weeks and see.
Using Google Lens to look up value of items, the WW1 gunsight, one sold at auction in the UK, better condition, original wood box, etc, 35 Quid. Damn. I paid 300 Quid 35 years ago. Not looking good. But I find another listing, also sold, also better condition, but $600 USD. And so back to writing creative copy for my inane garbage, I need a major downsize before inspection, I also need cash for the Jeep 2025.
The WW2 Compass, the same, either break even or hope for some sucker "needs it now" and will pay above spot.
So it goes, google lensing every thing I own only to discover I've been the biggest sucker on earth, bought way to in to the value of material things, my children have learned (thank god!!) that this is not where it's at, but I'm still stuck stomaching the loss.
I run into S****, and we talk, she’s run me down, pretty, but not like her mother, beautiful but different, she’s had a run of ill-fortune, Mother (Dag) died, then her step-father, her real father, neighbour, another, Covid and the world has changed and then all this within the past year, her world grown suddenly smaller and I know, I know…
So we’re talking and I give her the Kootenay hug, and…
Missed kiss?? Her backwards glance, hesitation, smile, it's been so long, I don’t know, it'd be nice to connect with someone on anything less than a superficial level but I’m not looking for any trouble...
News, drivel from the National Post - https://nationalpost.com/opinion/terry-newman-on-election-night-cbc-shamelessly-cheered-on-mark-carney - a little like a man voting not to have his head chopped off, one of the only National News Sources that is Canadian Owned opining (MY GOD!!) for it's own survival, the National Post is increasingly shameless with it's pro-Trump rhetoric, burn it down, shoot the staff, we need to be done with all this. If not today then tomorrow.
Links of interest the past week:
Flowers of the Sky - A Public Domain Review collection of images (drawn, etc) 500 years worth - of comets, meteors, meteorites and shooting stars. Interesting in that it displays how we depict things we don't/can't understand.
Spooked - A podcast devoted to true-life supernatural stories told first hand. While I don't necessarily "believe" in these ghost tales they speak to something deeper in the human condition, and therein lies their value. Their universality. That we all will experience something beyond ourselves, and how we make sense of it will define us...
NSTMF LAB - a web simulation of Gravity. Interesting in that it offers an interactive simulation of how gravity works. I haven't tried the other two yet. I will.