Angry Friday, Great Saturday

       So my fuse is short. Four-day week because of Thanksgiving (Canadians first, ye Yanks) but that was three days too longer for my lack of good temper. I was not the only one who felt this way. Burnout and it's just October. That was yesterday, anyway. Today I went to my cousin's baby shower - we were all double vaxxed - and I got to see (and hug) some of the best extended family members I know. My memère is going to get a fourth great-grandchild next month. Girls outnumber boys in my family, and have for three generations. My memère had four daughters and one son; at my level, there are three grandsons vs. six granddaughters. At the next level down, there are two girls and one boy, and a third girl on the way.

     It was a lovely baby shower. My cousin got everything but the kitchen sink in the gifting, and she had insisted we not play any games. My esteem for her was already high, but it went through the roof today. Anyway, it's been a while since I posted anything so here you go. It rained a bit this past week but is clear and cool today. I also got to meet my other cousin's son - the last time I saw him, he was in his mom's belly. So many hugs. The little guy has a perfectly frowny face and fusses a little. Moves like a snake across the floor if you put him on his stomach.

    That's all I have for you. No pics today.

BYE.

No going to Al Simhara

      I went to nraas and they suggested I reset everything but it's still no use. I guess this one family of mine will never go to Egypt again. They also suggested I get Traveler and ErrorTrap. I guess, if you get one of those mods, you should get them all? Not that my game is buggered or anything; just a minor inconvenience.

      Who taught Jesse Ball to write? Pity they never taught him how to end a story well. So damn anti-climactic it hurts the head. The dude has great style and can start and see a story through, but he is an utter fail at closing a story down. I read 'A cure for suicide' and 'Samedi the deafness' recently, and was ready to slam Ball into a door and give him a disease-laced sammich. Do I even want to try this dude's works hoping third time's the charm or should I just throw up my hands and suggest Ball go swimming with the Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water?

      It rained a fair bit this weekend, and we needed the rain badly. Mom met me in the park with A&W yesterday. I think she's really looking forward to everyone in Canada getting both doses of the vaccine so we can open up and go back to pre-pandemic times. I'm an antisocial so-n-so, so this life is not nearly such a hardship. All in all, it's been a lovely weekend. I beefed up a can of cream of potato soup with mashed potatoes, cheese, bacon bits, and dill. I tried to get cheap chives but came up empty. I also made curried potatoes with beef flavouring. I've eaten plenty of starch today; that's what I'm saying.

      Amazing that we're in May already. June is just under the horizon. I don't expect that there will be another lean summer in my future for 2021. The division would have had to tell us at least a week ago if there was in fact a plan to let the support staff go a month early. I guess they could still let us go at some point in June, but it seems doubtful at this point. There's a rumour that the 7s and 8s will be back full-time at some point, but that just seems like madness.

 

This dude has it down; anybody for a swim?

BYE.

Saturday before Shutdown

       That's a hydro shutdown. I don't know if it's a case of pole fires, Manitoba Hydro hiring scabs who don't know their red from their black wires, or I Been Eating Weiners (IBEW) causing shenanigans, but areas in Winnipeg have been having a lot of outages lately. It happened again the other night around 1:30 and the power only came back around 4. Today Hydro's coming out between 12 and 5 to fix the problem. I am not very pleased with the situation but I am going to blame Brian Pallister because he is a worthless Tory and a bully. When in doubt, blame the Tories. That's what works for me and it will work for you too.

      Big kudos to Randall Munroe and XKCD for helping me understand quantum mechanics (sorta). First I encountered the concept of matrices, which would have wrecked me had it not been for 'Matrix Transform'. Then I encountered Alice and Bob (A system and B system in the book), but I've encountered Alice and Bob in a piece about cryptography. I feared Physics when I was in high school but books like 'Quantum mechanics' by Leonard Susskind & Art Friedman don't scare me as much as make my brain feel like a wad of soft serve that wants to slide out my ears. Not the worst experience.

     It is supposed to be a nice day out, so I'll drop off a library book (or two, depending if I finish 'Qm' today) and go for a walk. I won't get much simming done unless Hydro gets it all done early. Of course, they would need to get here early. Who's to say they'll be done by 5? They better be done by then. Anyway, as I won't get much simming done this afternoon, here are some pics to comfort me.

 

     A vampire and a fairy are my main game these days. They had a vampire son today. I'll have pics of that in a while. Stay safe, ye insomniacs.

BYE.

My pen persists

      Something about ballpoint pens. My blue one likes to trick me; first it seems like it's on its last dregs of ink, only to charge forth as strong as anything. That sounds like a neat name for a blog, doesn't it? 'The Pen Persists'. You, my few and fantastic followers, are welcome to use it. Besides, this is the only blog I use. Yeah, I was on LiveJournal once a long time ago, but that's lost to the mists of time. As far as I understand it, LiveJournal is deader than disco. Blogger might be fading like the dodo, but this has been my base of operations for some time, and I have no intention of going anywhere new.

     I've had the year of 2017 on the mind lately. One of my second cousins was born in 2017, while another one was born in 2016. A third one was born only a few weeks ago. My cousins are going wild with the babbies these days. We had a wretched cold snap - on par with Texas only Canada's used to such dealings - and the cold killed my car's battery. Cue my bitter frustration with a very overworked CAA. Anyway, I had a new battery installed and now I'm paranoid. Something at last for my rampant anxiety to sink its yellowed teeth into! It's been almost a week since that happened, and my car's working fine.

    2017 was a momentous year. A wedding, a journey to Nova Scotia, a second cousin born in China, and a very sad event for my great-aunt and great-uncle. Anyway, the cold snap has passed and tomorrow calls for a high of 0. Very good news all around. The fact that it's Saturday is also very good news. Assuming my car doesn't die again on me this weekend, I'm going to see my fam and eat some excellent potato casserole. Another of my Grandma's recipes, and it is amazingly good. Anyway, I thought about posting some Sims stuff but I changed my mind. This is just all the nonsense of my life. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you are all staying safe and warm.

BYE.

Welp, stuff went crazy

       Others have spoken and written about the shameful, pathetic, hopeless temper tantrum that happened on January 6th. The Orange Freak in the White House (not for much longer, thanks Be) has these mindless thralls who share a half dozen brain cells, and a few thousand of them decided it was time to embarrass America one more time by storming the Capitol. Their rampage brought them no closer to changing the course, and Biden is STILL going to be the president. Accept it, already! Only consolation about this whole travesty? That rampage was a perfect super-spreader event. The pandemic may yet catch up to them.

       Many others have also spoken at length of the disparity between what happened the other day and what's been happening with the BLM demonstrations. I won't get too much into this discussion as others have said much more and they said it much better than I ever could. Geez, it's been barely 48 hours since the whole thing happened. A boring president is needed to restore gladdening calm to the world. Biden has what it takes, I think. Here's to a lovely boring four years, America. 🍻

        I'm listening to chill jazz this Friday evening and getting ready to yell at my Sims. Now, more than ever, stay safe and be well. Hope you have a lovely weekend.

BYE.

I am thankful, y'know

       Today I had a day off because it was Thanksgiving in Canada. Why wouldn't I be thankful? I went to Mom's for dinner on Saturday and am slowly eating through the care package of leftovers she gave me. Besides the leftovers and the day off, I'm thankful that my grandmother is still around. She's 93 and any possible twinge and twist in her day could signal a hard time ahead. No hard times on the immediate horizon, thankfully. Mom made her a care package as well. It was only the four of us at the dinner table - Mom, my sister, my brother-in-law, and me - so we were following the rules to ensure we were all COVID-19 compliant.

       Beside all this, I am thankful that the public library has not shut down again because of pandemic restrictions. I finished reading a touching book called 'The time it never rained'. Calamity in West Texas. No happy endings here but life continues to roll and flow. I spent the long weekend noshing on rice cakes. Crunchy and mildly flavoured. I assume this lacking snack is better for me in the long run. My diseased worries went on a rampage this weekend but they are quiet once again. I shouldn't speak too soon, as I know the GADabout can rise again at any moment.

      No brain farts in my game so I'm following the life and times of Egge and her main man Hinge. Addy and Tony are a newlywed werewolves looking forward to having their first cub. Here are some pics of Addy's family.

     

They are not in any real order, btw.

BYE.

Update on Schtuff

The watch never became a warning and no tornadoes came for a nightcap. A relief, eh? I wonder what Oz would be like. Anyway, we did not even get a thunderstorm out of this. The weather is lovely today and things look promising for the weekend.

Anyway, I'm reading a history of the police force. It's called 'Rise of the warrior cop' and it's about 'the militarization of America's police force' by Radley Balko. My cynic's heart is used to the grim and ominous but this is a worrying book. The U.S. needs cool and rational heads right now. Hmmm. This may take a while.

Oh, and I said good bye to a lovely sim-couple. Luckily the social worker came for the cats.

BYE.

Something on the Weekend

         A word to the few: if you've read 'Fight club' and would like to read more of Chuck Palahniuk, I would give 'Beautiful you' a miss. This book was my first foray into the works of the man and, like many people on Goodreads, I have found this to be an awful book. I will, in time, give Palahniuk another go - his other pieces have to be better than this waste of paper and ink, right?

        Choppy writing, dislikable characters, and nothing that could be considered as funny. This is not a proper representation of satire - he missed by a country mile if that's what he was aiming for. Had the book been longer I would have marked it Did Not Finish and continued merrily with my life. Perhaps this book was a poor choice for first foray. That's why I will try his works again and see how it turns out.

        It was Father's Day today. Mom and my sister picked up some flowers, water, and a little broom and we went to pay my pepère, my grandma and grandpa, and Dad a visit. We said hi to the gloried dead, swept dead grass away from their plaques, and put flowers into their vases. It will be three years since Dad did battle with the Crab and lost. I felt a small lump in my throat even today. We also paid a visit to some of my mom's aunts and cousins who departed a long time ago. Can you imagine the card game they must be having up there now?

         Elsewhere on the literary frontier, I'm reading an excellent book by the late Vladimir Pozner. "The disunited states". He departed when I was 12. I expect to have nothing but good things to say about this book when I'm done. I keep reaching for it - you know a book is good when you're trying to pace yourself but keep failing at it.

         That is all for now. I'm taking a bit of a break from my dear sims today but, like me trying to pace myself, that might not last.

Now, in honour of Father's Day... some dads!

Paulson men playing darts.

IF father and daughter.

Never walking in on a romantic moment. Who said Dads can't make memorable entrances?











BYE.

And here's the weekend report

     Hail to the weekend! Why the rain is giving my neck of the woods the slip I have no idea. It's pouring buckets and flooding either coast but leaving the middle alone. The wildfires are going to catch up with us soon, I fear. But enough fear-mongering. Time for the sports report.

     I am not a hockey fan. I prefer the pigskin over the puck and the Bombers over the Jets. This is the first time that I have ever been interested in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Pride in the 'Peg, I guess. By now, thanks to Toronto's loss, many Canadians are looking to Winnipeg to keep the Cup in Canada. The Jets have a ways yet but they may get there and hoist the Cup with pride.

    Meanwhile, in Winnipeg, this is our song. Sing it proudly.

      Yeah, it's Ace Burpee. Please don't judge. 😁

      Tomorrow the Jets wage war with Las Vegas and its Golden Knights while Washington does battle with Tampa Bay. Predators, we hardly knew ye. Enjoy the golf, guys!

      Now for news from the UK. Mares were musing over John Cooper Clark of late. Why he's still alive while others have fallen thanks to nasal activities. Well, my theory is that JCC found religion and that kept him going. In particular, he found the Honey Monster.

     Have 'Common sense' and bow down before the original 'Honey' Puff Daddy, ye fools!

    And now for some canine interest stuff.

That is all for now.

BYE.

First winter in the new digs

It rained a little yesterday evening but overnight the magic happened. I looked outside in the wee hours and saw the first signs. By this morning, the view outside my window had wonderfully altered.

I got a better view of the parking lot and this is what I saw.

Neko's a year old now, so she's seen the winter before. Today also marks 4 months that she's been my beloved roomie. Based on the video below, I think she's glad to be an indoor cat.

Soft skin and strong codes

Had my first spa day ever yesterday. A different experience; fascinating and definitely enjoyable. Maybe I should do this every couple of years. I should be able to afford going to a good spa and getting a pedicure and a fine massaging. The paraffin treatment on my hands was the most unusual part of the whole experience. Like wearing really hot mitts without thumbs. Lots of warm towels and steam to open my pores. It turns out I have really dry skin (REALLY?). Not on my feet, which was completely unexpected, but on my face. Obi Wan Kenobi said it best; "You have taken your first step into a larger world." For me, a world of moisturizers and lotions. Pampering the outer chica, so to speak. Not something I usually do. Mainly because I'm lazy and completely uninterested in that stuff. Yesterday was something of an eye-opener. After this most enjoyable morning, I met with Mom and my sister for lunch. Parking at the Forks was insane, but that's normal during the weekend.
As I mentioned the other day, I had planned to be deep in matters relating to the Samurai. Why can't people adhere to strict codes of honour anymore? Anyway, I'm reading 'Hagakure: the book of the Samurai' by Yamamoto Tsunetomo. I don't think it's the entire book, however. The translator apparently picked 300 out of the 1300 sayings and stuck them in this book. O to understand Japanese! The matter of committing seppuku is the ultimate end of obedience to a code of honour and ethics. And some of these warriors were ordered by their master to commit seppuku and they actually did it! That speaks of great honour and loyalty to the master. Again I'm reminded of the mighty kings and warriors in the 'Mahabharata'. If the treasured sage Drona had so willed it, men like Arjuna and Bhima would've gladly committed seppuku (or something like it).
People don't seem to have as great a respect for such codes or for oaths anymore. Something sad about that. Anyone interested in chatting about this, let me know. Going south this Wednesday if the roads stay open. That's all. BYE.

Mes vacances

I usually post on the weekend, but not this time around, as paradise beckons me. My paradise is a place a few hours outside of Winnipeg. A little farm-red cottage powered by propane and the sun, in a place where Hydro is non-existent (and has been for a very long time). My grandparents built their little paradise back in the 1960's and brought their kids there every chance they could. My grandparents have two photo albums-worth of summer scenes (b/w and colour) by the water at the lake. I started going when I was six weeks old, and have long cherished those trips we made on long weekends, spring breaks, and the ever-popular summer vacation. I guess that's why I still feel an overwhelming sense of peace and serenity when I'm there. I have gone so far as to call it my 'home away from home' and I have a very strong feeling that the lake is what Heaven will be for me when I get there.
May 1987 was a tragic time for my youth, for that was the year the forest fire ripped through my paradise and burned most of the cottages to the ground. I feared at one time that this virginal place would never be restored. I should've had more patience with Nature. The trees grew back with a vengeance and the birds returned. There are squirrels there now, as there were before the fire. Tomorrow we're going for a few days. My grandparents sold the cottage to one of my aunts, so we can still visit paradise on earth. The water is warm and the fishing is probably really good. The mallards and loons will be out on the water, looking for bugs, fish, and all the leftover toast they can swallow. Hot dog and marshmallow roast ahead. I cannot wait to return to the paradise that is the lake.
It would be even better without the mosquitoes, but hey, I can't complain. A la prochaine!