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The taste of impending famine...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 934
The last few weeks, cooler, rainy, in the evening downright cold. AN early start to autumn, no complaining after all the heat and smoke and misery of a too brief summer.
Counting down the days until the end of the September long weekend- when business, as usual, will drive off the first of many cliffs and the owners will give their head a shake and reconsider the "Open all winter...".
The last few days - Friday most notably, but then on through the weekend - business much slower. MUCH slower.
Not 3 or 4 waiter days, more 1.2, 1.5 waiter days. Busier than one can handle, slow for 2. The mask mandates have driven away the Albertans, most sensible people are declining to dine in, our business is switching to take away. And so while I've been dreading this, the last few days, it might have all been for naught.
Around the restaurant, the owner's son, his wife, they're together taking every other day off. Wigglesworth - our investment in a hefty little heifer from Trail, failed, she couldn't close numerous nights - birthday parties, family events, had to leave early, then couldn't come to work one day - was nervous driving in the rain, then, following payday had her mother call in with a "CRISIS" - her mother - !!!! FOR FUCKS SAKES!!!! WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE!!!!????
Anyways, a "Domestic Abuse" situation, or so we're told, probably a fight over the last dilly-bar in the fridge or some other such nonsense, I've run out of any sort of compassion for these people - the best job she'll ever have, never have again, and she's quit.
So down to me and the absent owner's son and his absent wife.
5 days to go, and then we'll see what's up.
The weather, it improves my mood, and now walking a great deal more than I'd like - well, time a bit to think and make other plans. Plans for the winter, plans for moving, plans to find some wheels, all sorts of plans, the gears are turning and I've only 2 months to get my shit together...
The roundabout road to a Jeep's demise (or: ALWAYS LOOK A GIFT JEEP IN THE MOUTH!!)
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 911
Last week, a new fuel filter. I'd set out on a trip to Revelstoke, thrifting, exploring, maybe some prospecting, but the Jeep sputtered, lost power, and somewhere around New Denver I came to my senses and decided it would be a lot better to break down nearer to home.
Turn around, plans abandoned.
Change the fuel filter.
This seems to fix things for a bit, but there's something new, always a new surprise under the hood. This a shaking and rattling as the Jeep changes gears. This, you can tell while riding, will be no trivial thing. So call and make an appointment with the mechanics.
"Maybe a U-Joint" they tell me. Fingers crossed.
Of course it's not a U-Joint, it's the transmission, it's shot. Completely. Add to this various oil leaks, seals, no suspension in the back end, shocks, welding...
And the grand total will be $5200. Roughly.
The answer is, of course, no, it should have been no a long time ago. $8000 in repairs in a little over a year and the jeep is still going over a fucking cliff, I could have been driving a new Wrangler - all the time, not just every other week - for the same as I've put into this. So - for this year - the gathering and prospecting is largely done, time now to address my income and find the means to level up my wheels.
Doomed by half-measures
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 1002
Mask mandate after mandate, lockdown after lockdown, we're being doomed by half measures.
Out, around Nelson, everyone doing the right thing. The required thing. Wear your mask into a crowded restaurant until you're sat, then take it off for an hour to visit.
Doctors, Nurses, protesting against getting a vaccine. How is this a thing? If you work in a hospital this should be a requirement - not debatable - just as during the great AIDS pandemic adult actors wore condoms or provided testing proof that they were HIV free. Yet Nurses, orderlies, etc. should be able to decide whether or not they get a vaccine?
Mother fuckers, your average porn star has more common sense than some of these loons.
Old folks homes, assisted care facilities - still reporting outbreaks amongst unvaccinated workers - HOW CAN YOU ALLOW AN UNVACCINATED VISITOR OR EMPLOYEE INTO THESE PLACES?
We are doomed.
Police in Toronto protesting mandatory Vaccines. They are civic employees - how is it a requirement you be vaccinated to go work remotely at Camps up North and yet the governments own employees are clamoring for a free pass?
And restaurants. The passport - demanding customers have vaccine passports - but what about the staff? And this is tricky - because - an awful lot of staff in restaurants haven't got their vaccine. Refuse to get it. For any number of reasons, the vast majority entirely stupid - but - if it were a requirement many restaurants - already short staffed - would be forced to close.
Every country reporting rising numbers, largely due to the unvaccinated spreading it, more and more breakthrough cases, vaccinated people getting it, subtle adaptations as it mutates, multiplies and spreads. We've allowed the stupid to speak to science as if their opinions were fact, as if they deserved an equal listen, as if common sense were political, an imposition on their freedoms, we're becoming victims of an excess of compassion, and this will drag on and on and on...
This is the pandemic without end.
Gender VS Taste
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 871
This in regards to my distaste for other peoples voiced sexual preferences and inclinations.
While I loathe to disagree with Conservatives on anything, in this they are right. There are only 2 genders. You are born either Male or Female. A sex change does not alter your birth gender. If you have a sex-change - for example from male to female - that does not give you the right to compete against women in the Olympics.
Now, to clarify - Gender is indeed a construct - from a social perspective - but there is no disputing that Men and Women are born different. The only exception or caveat I would qualify this with is in those - albeit very rare cases - where gender is uncertain and so assigned at birth by a Doctor, who gets it wrong.
Everything else is a matter of taste. You are a man who likes men? You're a Mr. You're a Man. You are a woman who likes women? Ms. or Mrs. You're a woman.
No additional pronouns or "Other" categories are needed.
The fact is - no matter what your taste or preferences, an excess of liberality has allowed us to "Gender" you based upon these preferences. This is first of all
A) Irrelevant
B) Wrong.
There are very few social situations in which I need or even desire to know your preferences. The vast majority of my friends and acquaintances I have no desire or inclination to sleep with. They don't need to know my preferences. For me to embarrass them with lurid embellishments of my sexual exploits or demand they conform to MY "NON-BINARY" (mis)Understanding of the world is as offensive as them demanding I listen to their exploits and conform to their expectations of the world.
Non-Binary is simply a means of assuming that your fluid tastes make you a far more colorful person than your neighbor. This may be true, taste is an idiosyncratic and peculiar thing, but as soon as you feel the need to elaborate upon it it also makes you a bore.
Now for a few words regarding "Gender".
There are 2 genders - which are described by an abundance of gender pronouns. Mr, Mrs, Miss, He, She, His, Hers, Etc. Not all cultures use them - for example Finnish, Estonian, Chinese, Etc. I will accept arguments against gender pronouns on the basis of a historical power imbalance - the patriarchy has embedded within language a deep seated power imbalance, that by implication prejudices the reader or hearer of the pronoun.
So, instead of creating more gender pronouns, create fewer. One. Accept people in personhood will be bigger step towards equality than creating a mass of pronouns to describe what should be regarded as a personal and intimate part of their lives. To emphasize any gender - or preference - makes it a bigger thing than it needs to be. No one - no whole person - should be defined by their taste in what is a relatively small and unimportant part of their lives and relationships with others. Therein lies true equality.
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