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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.
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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.
𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿-𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗮 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁
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Generally, not much. The boxes of trauma the boy so thoughtfully dropped off remain largely unpacked, amongst which there are 2 full boxes of rocks. Completely unnecessary.
The daughter visited over Easter, she's on her way to planting. Tom Yum Kung Soup with Coconut milk (more of a Tom Kha Kai), lunch, happy hour tacos(elevenses), Dinner, Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus, and she invited Lester over. I never have people over, for good reason, and look at the place now, it’s never been worse, but Lester sprawls on the floor like a champ and I - on a matter, several matters actually, of principal refused to clean for her arrival, she'd know it was a hoax, she's been there, and - bloody hell, this is on the daughter's say-so, why on earth would you invite anyone over to my place? I don't!!!!
For the daughter, lightening my load, a dozen books she'll have to summarize via ChatGPT - "Godel, Escher and Bach", "Lolita", "The Master and Margarita", "The Abortion", etc, etc. Dull, staid classics.
Facebook news, child saved by wolves in Minnesota, not news, yes, a child was lost, and then found in the wilds of Minnesota but wolves were not mentioned in all 3 of the articles I found. Too bad. It would have done them some good press. Fact check EVERYTHING you read on Facebook!!
And I started the Carolina Reaper seeds, pots on my windowsill, sunlight only allowed in by giving my daughter a stack of useless (???!!!) books and taking the rest to the one remaining used bookstore in Nelson.
6 weeks until they germinate and the temperature increases enough that I can move them outdoors.
The books I took to the bookstore, they rejected all the Blaise Cendrars that I rejected as well, "Hollywood", "Dan Yack", "Confessions of Dan Yack", others, I kept "The Astonished Man", more to my taste, the others I'd never return to. A shame, $20 USD to ship, $20 USD to buy, and not even a $1.00 CAN credit...
The 1000 Kikkoman Soy Sauce Lids arrived, the economy of fools, while Soy Sauce lids are in fact an in-demand item for Sushi & Chinese restaurants alike, not a single person has ordered some. Despite my discount pricing. SO I'm out $250. Not really pissed off so much as ... well, it'd be nice to recoup some of my investment...
I found the hard drive. My digital life over the past 20 odd years. Old bookmarks, files, “movies” that I’d missed, and wow - did I ever!!! My digital life, nice thing, you can encrypt it, not like finding old photos of ma and pa, or letters, this, to some extent, you can reduce a photo album, a genealogy, to a flash drive, to Google Storage, if you want to pay the rent...
Then there were the products listed on my facebook that reflect conversations I’ve had with Lester, the privacy-keeping microphone-blocking case for your phone, I had never seen such a thing, suggested it, and a few weeks later there it is, China, AI, Russia, they're all mining me for ideas…
And people, still connecting Michael, Faye (friend of Michaels, Cat Lady) - talking, about common interests, shared past experiences, with Michelle (Yoga, Nelsonite, drank all of the Kool-Aide and left nothing for me.) about film and books, The people you meet, that you're glad to see, while volunteering, or at work.
For the moment this is the news.
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Never knew what it was, only that I liked pulleys and gears. Upon unpacking (and vaguely remembering it) I set out with Google Lens to find out what it was...
An Antique Bobbin Winder.
Now, even despite knowing how collectable and valuable this is I'll never be able to sell it because what, then, of all my antique bobbins came unwound??