A Complete PC Reset and Windows 10 Reinstallation

Here it is, the final day of February on a leap year.

I never made a post here yesterday due to extreme computer 'technical difficulties'. It all began late in the afternoon, and I never achieved any sort of resolution until I finally resorted to the utmost drastic action mid-evening.

This is actually just a short description of what I went through ─ I made this comment today to someone's YouTube tutorial on how to get a Windows 10 Edge browser to connect to the Internet when it suddenly fails to do so even though the Internet connection is there:

Unfortunately, I had to undergo a total reset of my PC last evening and reinstall Windows 10 because nothing would display after I tried to load Windows following a power disruption. The monitor was fine. The Windows logo would display, but then all would go dark while my PC busily made all the noises of a happily working machine.

Believe me, I tried and tried; and I also waited for long periods of time while I went off and did other things, but the monitor remained dark. I was never presented with the login screen. I could shake my mouse and my cursor would display ─ somewhat enlarged; but it would soon disappear if I quit moving the mouse.

Using Safe Mode was useless ─ the screen was dark then, too.

I tried a System Restore, but only two points were offered. When I tried the most recent, the process failed. When I returned to that area to try the second point, this time it was claimed that I had no System Restore points!

So I felt that I had no other option but to attempt the total PC reset and reinstallation of Windows 10.

Upon going through that lengthy process, I of course lost every app / software I had ever downloaded. Two or three of them I had paid to have a decade or more ago, and those are now lost, for I have no idea where I originally got them.

I have no backups. I am a 70-year-old pensioner so damned deep in debt that I will die this way. If my computer had actually died, then I would have gone dark myself ─ my Web presence would have probably come to an end, and I'd have kissed away my six hosted websites and two free blogs.

A stepson managed to somehow access an Explorer browser that worked, so I used it to install Firefox. Since then, the Explorer browser seems to have vanished, and I am still left with an essentially dead Edge browser.

I've been using Firefox to download the crucial free apps / software I used to have that are involved in the area of security and so forth, and I've also downloaded the Chrome browser; but Edge just won't connect to the Web.

I tried following your video, but I can't proceed beyond 1-min and 40-secs at the Network and Sharing Center because there are no active networks: "You are currently not connected to any networks."

When I attempt to "Set up a new network" and I am led to an empty box that is apparently supposed to populate with "the wireless router or access point" that I am to then select and try to configure, nothing ever appears in the blank box.

Evidently I am going to have to live without Edge. I never used it before, except to have access to my Gmail account because it involves an entirely different set of Google credentials than those I otherwise use ─ that is, I have two Google accounts, and I prefer not to have to keep logging in and out of them to switch from one to the other. Thus, I always used Edge for the one account, and Firefox and Chrome for the other.

Perhaps I will see about setting up Chrome with the Google account that I always kept active in my old Edge browser, and exclusively use Firefox for the other Google account.

Anyway, thanks for the opportunity to vent!

I remained up last night until after midnight because the Windows 10 installation is not a swift process, and of course initially I did not have a functioning browser until my youngest stepson saved the day for me by finding Internet Explorer.

Since posting that YouTube video comment, I have since located my lost Internet Explorer for myself, but by then I had already set up Google Chrome as the location of my alternate Google account. Mozilla Firefox is the browser I use for my two free Blogger / Blogspot blogs, as well as my six hosted websites.

I had actually gone to bed after beginning the full computer reset and Windows 10 reinstallation, for my younger brother had arrived home barely ahead of 9:00 p.m. and ─ by his unnaturally loud exhalations and mutterings ─ I adjudged him to be far too drunk to bother with insofar as watching any television with was concerned.

We use our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box to follow a vast number of T.V. series, but I am the only one of us who can wield the device. I had no intention of becoming involved with him in that role.

But I could not sleep, try as I did. I was in too much tearful anguish, assaulted as I was emotionally from a multiple of directions.

Eventually I even went downstairs to join my brother in the living room, relenting a little on my earlier decision to avoid him. He said nothing as he watched the news station he had on T.V., and I expected him to utter his usual, "Put it on something interesting."

He had seen me, for I saw his eyes look askance in my direction. But not a minute after I sat down, his eyelids closed, his head dropped, and he began snoring.

Just as I earlier surmised ─ he was too sloshed to watch any T.V. with. And so I came back upstairs and awaited the completion of the dual tasks being performed on my computer.

I realized that my various 'apps' were going to be lost with the computer reset, for I had seen this warning and accepted it: "All of your personal files will be deleted and your settings will be reset. All apps that you installed will be removed. Only apps that came with your PC will be reinstalled."

But it was a last ditch effort ─ I have no other computer serviceable enough to use for my blogs and websites, and I cannot afford another.

The reset and the Windows 10 reinstallation both were successful, however. I was not to be denied an Internet presence quite yet.

Incidentally, the power disruption that brought on all of my computer grief was a result of a slight jostling of the power cord. You see, the cord fits so loosely into the socket of my computer that a connection can only be established by getting the cord into a precise 'sweet spot' that can never be jarred even in the slightest, or the power connection is lost.

Finding that 'sweet spot' again is a process of often several or even numerous manouevrings until the connection is finally made and is held by a precise placement of the power cord from which it must never again be nudged or bumped loose of.

Late last afternoon, I stupidly nudged the cord, and the socket connection was lost.

Apparently the several bursts of electrical power that resulted when I continuously tried to restore the power cord connection to its 'sweet spot' were too overwhelming for my old machine. But at least it didn't crash.

And so I never got to bed early enough for me to feel up to rising early and getting anything done before the dawn of day this morning.

Before all of that computer trouble struck, right after 2:00 p.m. I had resorted to my bed for an afternoon nap. I wasn't down for even 90 minutes, but a lot had apparently occurred meantime ─ my wife had arrived home unexpectedly, and did not have her house key.

I nap with a bandana blindfold and earplugs; and I have taken to not having my cellphone in the bedroom with me because of intrusive phonecalls and texts from origins I want nothing to do with.

Alas, my poor wife had to sit outside in her car in futility, texting both of her sons, neither of whom were here. When I came downstairs to boil water for a hot caffeinated beverage, I noticed her car out in the driveway, so I checked my cellphone and saw that she had both texted and phoned me.

When I phoned her to let her know I was here, she claimed that she had even been ringing the doorbell!

I do not often manage to sleep that deeply.

One recent reason that I now do not have my cellphone in the bedroom is because of Sandra W*****, a ladyfriend of my old friend William Alan Gill.

I have known Bill since at least as far back as 1962, I would say. But he moved over to Vancouver Island maybe two decades ago, and we have not seen one another since. Several years ago, he had to be taken in by a full-time care facility; and for the past couple or more years, he spends most of his time just laying in bed with a catheter and an adult diaper, unable to rise on his own.

I know he and I will never see one another again, for I cannot afford to spend even one night in a hotel over where he is, and I do not drive ─ the public commute to get there and back as a day trip from Surrey where I live is an ordeal. I doubt that I would have even two hours to spend with him before I would have to begin the trip back.

However, Sandy lives in Vancouver, and a few times a year she will make the trip. She also has some connections with cousins of his, whereas I do not. And to phone Bill requires doing so through the care facility, for he cannot answer and hold a phone. Sandy is known to the staff, and she doesn't seem to have qualms about making those occasional assisted calls to him.

Consequently, she is my only source of updates concerning Bill.

But I don't have the time to spend in frequent discourse with her ─ a call can take an hour or more to complete. She lives alone ─ I do not.

As a result, I only phone her every few months, and I otherwise ignore her phonecalls and texts, as well as her Facebook messages. To respond would initiate as nearly an endless exchange in terms of time as would be the time spent with a phonecall to her.

Well, a last straw arrived two days ago when she began texting me ─ I don't know if she was being malicious because I never phone her, or if she really is this inconsiderate. I will include below every single text she sent ─ one arriving hard after the other in continuous succession. The constant ding of each text's arrival ─ and the repeated ding a number of seconds later when my phone reminded me of the earlier arrival of the same text ─ became so unberably aggravating that I had to turn my phone right off to escape the noise.

Note that each paragraph break below is a single text ─ even each single line is a single text. The whole stream of nonsense began with this image and brief video selfie of Sandy:

Sandy is a dear for what she does for Bill, and I emphatically do appreciate her efforts on his behalf, but this was just too much:

Hi g*****

Are you being a bad boy?

No cockroaches biting you

You must be drinking beer

No vitamins in there

I guess your princess will be home tomorrow

That’s good

I went to the dentist today

Teeth bothering me

They took xrays but no cavities

But my sinuses are too close to the tooth root. So they figure my sinuses are plugged and that’s why I’m having pain

So they prescribed me antibiotics

And also have to take cold and sinus Advil pills to unplug my sinuses

Tomorrow another appointment at 1pm for more xrays on other teeth and cleaning

Then I’m done

Then next is mammogram test

Then checking my eyes

Then as far as I know I’m done for all those things

And I heard from bills cousin Barbera whose in charge of bills things and she’s the executor of bill will and things,etc....
Bills got a big giant lump on his neck

He had a biopsy on it. Tests came back.
And it’s cancer but they called it something else

And he’s gotta go for another biopsy on the lump again very soon

Then another test but don’t remember what the other test is

The doctors are going to have a meeting with bills cousin about the test results

Then Barbera will let me know what’s going on

Bill already has cancer all through his body

Started in the adrenal glands

And kidneys too

So we will see what happens

I’m going to see bill on
April.8th for his birthday

Although April.11 is his birthday

It lands on a weekend and I don’t like travelling far on weekends and plus buses,etc...
Are slower

No idea
What I’m giving him.

He can’t do anything.

He needs nothing

He’s got clothes

And I think there cutting back on his clothes

But Barbera his cousin says he can eat

Not sure on nuts but I thought about some chocolate covered raisins and
Those wafer icing cookies. Not the Oreos. But the wafer icing cookies

Not sure you know what I mean

And I will get him some fruit too likes grapes and berries

So including the image and brief video file, that totalled out to 41 texts if I counted correctly. Can you imagine? One right after the other ─ and each with its own notification ding and then a probable reminder ding soon after because I was not reading the damned nuisances.

That was the sole confirmation I needed to not again have my cellphone with me in the bedroom when I try to have a nap.

Anyway, I need to bring this post to a close, for my evening is well advancing. I would like to try and get away to do some grocery shopping at least 1¼ miles away, and I will have to walk since I do not drive.

First, though, I want to post some photos I took of the blood flow restriction training bands that arrived for me two days ago from AliExpress.com a mere 13 days after I had placed the order. I have yet to even take the bands out of their plastic wrapping, let alone use them; but I hope to maybe give them a shot tomorrow.

These rather poor photos lead off with a shot of the package they arrived in, and then the black drawstringed pouch that the bands are to be kept in:

The suggested workout guide is printed on cardboard.

As I reported two days ago, I paid no shipping to AliExpress.com, and the full price in Canadian dollars was $25.97.

This is the exact advertisement at AliExpress:

AliExpress.com Product - Gym Fitness Occlusion Bands for Bodybuilding Weightlifting Arm Leg Blood Flow Restriction Training Heavy Workouts Muscle Growth

I reported on a ridiculously more expensive set of the very same bands in that post of two days ago that were available at Amazon Canada, but I have now found a cheaper set. Yet even so, they cost $35.98, with $5.54 more for shipping.

I actually took a screenshot of that much more expensive set of bands, however:

 

The savings I achieved in ordering from AliExpress.com is quite remarkable. And considering that the package was shipped from China, to arrive here 13 days after I placed the order is probably even more remarkable ─ and with no shipping charge.

The BFR bands were the first order I have ever placed with AliExpress.com, and now it's not going to be my last.

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Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) Bands ─ Mine Have Arrived From AliExpress

I have little time for today's post, for it is already after 7:00 p.m. My wife had come home last afternoon, and remained for the night.

She recently went part-time at the Thai restaurant that employs her, but I am unsure if she worked at all Monday through Wednesday.

Today, she headed away just after 3:00 p.m., so it is possible that she was going to work the latter part of the restaurant's day ─ it shuts down daily from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

This state of not knowing when she is going to show up is rather interfering where my daily routine is concerned.

I didn't let her presence prevent me from going to bed at 9:30 p.m. yesterday. My brother had arrived home around 9:15 p.m. or so from wherever it was that he had been drinking. I offered to my wife to put on a movie she has been wanting to see; and she said to do it, confirming that my brother ought to enjoy it.

But then she went and sat in her two sons' den area with a bowl of something she was eating.

Well, I had no intention of trying to watch a movie with my brother at that time of evening ─ I adjudged that he was probably too drunk to appreciate it, and would likely lapse in and out of consciousness. I had only made the offer to my wife for her sake.

So that was when I washed my hands of one and all and retired for the night without a word to anyone.

I eventually managed to drift into and out of sleep a few times, once checking the time around 11;00 p.m. during a wakeful spell.

The next time I checked the time, it was nearing 1:30 a.m., and my wife was in bed beside me. I had not noticed her before then, so I must have been deep into one of the bouts of napping that characterize my nightly sleep.

It was time to rise and put some work into the post I am constructing at one of my six hosted websites.

Eventually I took a break just to perform a five-minute and 31-second plank. But I never returned to bed until it was approaching 5:00 a.m.

Sleep was still elusive, but ultimately it came and went in successions. And then I believe that it was a little ahead of 9:00 a.m. when I decided to rise for the morning. My brother was already downstairs watching T.V.

I waited upstairs here at my computer before going downstairs nigh 10:00 a.m. to join him for some T.V., for I had a 1964 movie in mind that I read about earlier this week ─ a Shirley MacLaine showcase titled What a Way to Go!

Shirley wouldn't have been any more than 30 years old when this was filmed, and she looked exceptionally attractive. In addition, there were several huge (as in big-named) male co-stars.

But if I ever saw the movie before ─ which I certainly must have over the years ─ I recall none of it. If I did see it, then I undoubtedly found it most forgettable.

To be absolutely frank, it was a dreadful feature. Since then, movie-making has...well, is 'matured' the proper word? 

There was nothing realistic about the movie ─ it was sheer nonsense.

But at least there was lots of Shirley's lovely physique to enjoy, for she often wore very little, and frequently sported legs galore. She truly was a lovely young woman.

My brother watched it, but he was often up and off doing other things. He has a very poor attention span for any filmed entertainment that is not action-heavy. And much of the movie was really very naive when viewed this far removed from 1964.

When my wife has to work a full day, she usually rises around 10:00 a.m. to begin readying, for the restaurant opens at 11:00 a.m. And so when she remained shut up in the bedroom, I could only conclude that she was again not going to be working.

But I do not know beyond any doubt that she actually did go to work this afternoon ─ I am merely presuming so. Or maybe it is only an assumption. I was inclined to ask if we would be seeing her this late evening, but I refrained.

I would like to try and get to bed early again.

I am feeling considerable financial stress today, and I just don't know what to do. Prayer is utterly useless.

The only good thing to occur today was the arrival of an order I placed on February 12 to AliExpress ─ I had never before placed an order with them. Considering where my order was coming from ─ China ─ that it arrived here a mere 15 days later is quite remarkable. This was as speedy as an order might well be for something from Amazon Canada, for I do not have a Prime account. I would have to choose the cheapest shipping option available in order to keep my costs down.

I ordered two sets (one set for arms, and one set for legs) of TAVIEW Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) training bands.

This was the actual product advertisement at AliExpress.com:

AliExpress.com Product - Gym Fitness Occlusion Bands for Bodybuilding Weightlifting Arm Leg Blood Flow Restriction Training Heavy Workouts Muscle Growth

As I mentioned, it was my first purchase at AliExpress, so I was eligible for at least one discount. I also did not have to pay for any shipping.

Now, this same item is being sold at Amazon Canada for (in Canadian dollars) $47.99 plus $5.54 for shipping.

Believe it or not, the total I had to pay at AliExpress in Canadian dollars was $25.97! And as I said, it arrived as quickly as a regular shipping order placed to Amazon Canada probably would have ─ maybe even slightly quicker.

For U.S. shoppers who use Amazon, you might be able to find the same bands for a price comparison if you run through the results in this search I made: Blood Flow Restriction training bands.

I have yet to try the bands out, for I am a little unsure of just what manner of exercise programme I will be undertaking. I also have the problem of lack of privacy to exercise. I need for both my wife and my brother to be away.

I rather like the training advice offered in the description beneath this seven-minute MercolaPeakFitness video at YouTube: Blood Flow Restriction Training | Effectively build muscle with this simple technique! 

Joseph Mercola can afford the pneumatic bands, but us poorer folk have to rely on these more elementary versions.

I want to at least photograph what I received before I pull it all apart and start trying to use the bands, so I will say no more about them in this post.

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12 Monkeys and How I Live Now

Since my wife has reduced her working hours to part-time at the Thai restaurant that employs her, I never know when she will show up anymore, nor how long she will hang around home.

Normally, she spends her weekends somewhere in Vancouver (such is my sorry marriage), and it seems likely that she is putting in some extra time hanging out there now.

I don't think she worked at all yesterday or Monday. 

But when she is home, I cannot do much by way of blogging. That is why there is no post here for yesterday ─ she never went anywhere until maybe around 7:00 p.m. She had spent the night here, but around 7:30 a.m. she and her eldest son took off for somewhere after he rapped on our bedroom door to rouse her.

I have no idea what that was concerning, but they never returned until around midday. Anyway, I have not seen nor heard from her since she left again early last evening (again, such is my sorry marriage).

I want to report that late yesterday morning / midday my brother and I finally watched the final and extra-long episode of the T.V. series 12 Monkeys. And I'm frankly glad it's over.

It had grown quite tiresome and too damned noisy. And although that final episode had some stirring and even emotional moments, it worked out that none of the recurring 'good' characters that had been killed off were to remain dead. They all had their 'happily ever after' in some alternate timeline or timelines.

My favourite character was the young version of Jennifer Goines as played by Emily Hampshire, whom I love from her surprisingly similar kooky character in the T.V. series Schitts Creek.  

The only other characters I enjoyed very much were the 'good' (i.e., loyal) versions of Deacon (played by Todd Stashwick) and the too-seldom-seen FBI agent Robert Gale, who was portrayed by actor Jay Karnes. The reason I liked this character was because of Jay Karnes himself. He almost always has roles as someone who ─ if not exactly evil ─ is not someone who can be trusted, and so it was very nice to see him represent somebody with actual values and courage.

Actress Amanda Schull was a pleasure to look at ─ she is exceptionally fit and beautiful. There was one scene in an episode in which she appeared dressed as a devastatingly sexy Nazi:

Even Emily Hampshire (as Jennifer Goines) was looking pretty darned good in that episode when she was fronting a rock band performing to an approving Hitler.

But like I said, I'm glad the series is done. It just jumped around in time periods and locations far too much and was so, so loud.

My brother and I watched quite an interesting movie late this morning via our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box (which is how we watched 12 Monkeys). The movie was 2013's How I Live Now, starring Saoirse Ronan.

I had the title written down on a long list of movies I might eventually get around to watching, but when I tuned it in, I did not know what it was about. I rather expected that it was going to be a family-friendly coming-of-age story of a troubled U.S. teen (Saoirse Ronan) who was sent by her father to spend time living in Ireland with an aunt and cousins who had a farm off in the country.

I never expected the drama that was to come ─ almost apocalyptic! Even my brother was very pleasantly surprised, for he tends to detest feel-good, touching, and romantic movies. 

Saoirise is certainly a beautiful young woman.

It wasn't until I was watching the credits that I saw that one of her T.V.-cousins ─ a 14-year-old who gets killed somehow ─ was actually played by Tom Holland. He is more familiar to current movie-watchers as the latest Spider-Man.

I had no clue that the character (i.e., "Isaac") was being played by someone I should recognize. 

The movie was a pretty darned good choice.

My evening is already upon me, and I have quite a few photos to post, so I had better get at it.

Yesterday Google Photos notified me of two collages it had created to celebrate that day. The oldest set of photos that were used were taken on February 25 back in 2014 when we had some snow hereabouts in Surrey. The top two photos in the collage are scenes looking out from the front of our house, while the bottom pair are a shot of the back of the house as well as a shot of a rickety old picnic table in our backyard:

And now here are the four original photos:

The second collage Google Photos created that day were from photos taken two years ago when my wife was attending the wedding of her niece back in Udon Thani (city):

These now are the original photos, beginning with this first one featuring my wife's mother seated in the front row of an assemblage of guests ─ her mother is the greying-haired lady seated second from the right, with her purse on her lap:

Here are the bride's mother and father at the right ─ the mother is my wife's sister:

In that photo above, the young fellow at the left wearing spectacles is the bride's cousin and thus my wife's nephew ─ he is the son of my wife's only surviving brother.

The bride's mother is also in this final photo ─ she is in the centre, just behind the little boy, and with her arm down across his shoulder:

Google Photos was at it again today, creating a collage from a batch of photos taken back in 2013 when my wife was again back in Thailand to visit her family and friends in her home village near Udon Thani. Probably all four of the photos in the collage were taken in Udon Thani itself:

That is my wife in three of the photos. I am not entirely positive, but the young woman whose face is nearly hidden by her hand may actually be the bride in the wedding photos.

And now here are the four original photos:

Apparently Karmart is a cosmetics or beauty store.

I hope to get to bed early this evening. My brother headed off by bus to visit and drink with his friend Greg who lives in Langley, so I will be most surprised if he makes it back by 9:00 p.m.

Note: My wife unexpectedly showed up here at 7:20 p.m. Nevertheless, I will still go to bed early if my brother is late arriving home.

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How Much Longer Can I Carry On Like This?

I just can't cut a break.

My younger brother arrived home last evening no earlier than 8:50 p.m. from wherever it was that he was drinking. Technically, that was ahead of the 9:00 p.m. deadline that I have for him which he knows nothing of, for anytime from 9:00 p.m. on is very unlikely to find him in any shape to watch our television shows with. 

We do so through a T9 Android 8.1 TV Box of which I am the sole operator.

So yes, he made it home ahead of 9:00 p.m., but I judged from his loud breathing and exhalations as he took off his coat and footwear at the front door that he was probably sloshed. Thus, I decided not to gamble on him.

I was probably in bed by 9:00 p.m., or very soon after.

I don't know why I was so keyed up ─ perhaps a combination of my late supper and guilt over abandoning my brother, for I began reflecting that at my age of 70 and his of 67, for one reason or another we may not even have another decade of life to share with each other.

However, if he was indeed hammered, then what is present of him is not any brother I want to spend time with. But what if he was not as bad off as I feared?

I suspect that shortly after 9:30 p.m. I might have begun descending into a state of superficial sleep, but I pulled out of it and when I next checked the time, it was about 10:00 p.m.

I was just waiting for my brother to go to bed so that I could rise and put some work into the post that I opened up yesterday at one of my six hosted websites. He does not typically go to bed before midnight.

Well, I remained wide awake until midnight ─ in other words, for the next two hours. Heck, as I waited during the midnight hour, I even got up and performed a five-minute and 32-second plank.

Most pleasantly, when I returned to bed after that exertion, I felt at peace and honestly believed that I might have thereafter been able to find sleep at last, but it was now too late.

He did not finally retire to his bedroom until 12:48 a.m. Only then did I rise after a frustratingly long and fruitless evening in bed.

I put in the work I wanted to do as a minimum on the website, and returned to bed at just about 4:00 a.m., I think.

It seemed like I was awake for periods at least equal to the length of the mini-naps I thereafter managed to rack up. However, I remained abed until a little after 8:30 a.m. And as it happened, I opened my bedroom door just as my brother opened his own to go downstairs to watch T.V. and drink coffee.

I sat here at my computer upstairs until just ahead of 10:00 a.m., then I went downstairs to join him, finally putting out Android TV Box to use. I wanted to lead things off with a YouTube documentary that I was curious about, so I used the YouTube 'app' that I have downloaded into our Android TV Box and retrieved DuPont vs. the World: Chemical Giant Covered Up Health Risks of Teflon Contamination Across Globe.

It ran for around a half hour, and I was pleased that my brother paid attention to it, clearly interested.

We watched more typical T.V. fare thereafter until near the end of the noon hour, and then my brother returned to his bedroom to seek some more rest before he would be heading away to start drinking somewhere again.

I wanted to eat a little before seeking my own nap, or I would probably be too hungry and enfeebled for the exercising I wanted to do later.

And so it was just after 2:00 p.m. when I was into bed.

It took awhile, but eventually I began to fade towards a needed nap...when I became aware that my wife had entered the bedroom. She was home after leaving toward the end of last Friday afternoon (she tends to spend her weekends somewhere in Vancouver ─ such is my sorry marriage).

I knew that she had to work today at the Thai restaurant that employs her, but she recently became part-time there. Apparently she was not going to leave for work until it was time for the restaurant's 4:30 p.m. afternoon opening (it closes daily from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.).

We live far nearer to the restaurant than is Vancouver.

A nap and the chance to settle my meal was now impossible, so I rose. I think she eventually showered, and she may even have done a little cooking. She seemed to be arguing with first one of her sons, and then with the other soon thereafter. I don't know any Thai ─ I'm just surmising by the volume and pace of the two separate conversations that all was not joy.

I was standing in the living room staring out the window when she finally headed out to her car to leave for work ─ it was maybe 4:02 p.m. Even though she had to walk within a dozen feet of me to get to the front door, she said not a word as she departed. In fact, she never advanced any communication to me whatsoever in the time she was home.

Such is my sorry marriage.

Perhaps I will seek a nap towards dark, and risk that my brother will be in decent condition by the time he arrives home this evening. If we watch T.V. together, it will be into the midnight hour.

Saturday was my wife's 47th birthday, and I got her nothing. I was too broke, thanks to the enormous debt I have allowed her to plunge us into.

However, her eldest son (25 years old) treated his mother, brother, and I to a meal of sushi Friday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. at Maguro Japanese Restaurant (Google map) in Guildford here in Surrey.

Google Photos today notified me of the following animation that it created from a few of the photos that were taken ─ the subjects in the animation are my wife and her two sons ─ the youngest is at the right, and he is 22 years old:

I don't know why, but Google Photos also created two collages ─ and they are identical. I am posting them both regardless ─ you can see my shaven head in the background:

I have absolutely no doubt that my wife had lots of celebrating to do with the many partying friends she knows, so my inability to get her anything for her birthday for the very first time since marrying her in 2005 is no cause for too much concern. I know I was not missed, at any rate. 

Google Photos was quite busy today, for it also created a collage from some photos I took seven years ago (2013):

The photos were taken during a walk of reminiscence I experienced ─ and it most likely was on February 24 in 2013 because that day was a Sunday. I don't like going anywhere during the week because its all too damned busy hereabouts for my liking; and since I do not drive, I have to walk.

Those railway tracks were always known to me as the BC Hydro Railway, and I have probably spent a good deal of my life on them. I would have likely first set foot on them as a seven-year-old boy in 1957, for we lived near to them, and I had to cross over them on my way to school and back home afterward.

Anyway, this particular stretch in the photos lies between Nordel Way (Google map) and 128th Street (Google map). I did one heck of a lot of drinking along that stretch of tracks over the years, very often with my dear late friend Larry Ernest Blue.

When I took the photos, I was walking from 128th Street toward Nordel Way, and that latter was the direction in which I was facing when I took the top two photos in the collage.

Here are the four original photos:

Reminiscing takes a lot out of me ─ as does reflecting upon my shallow, pointless, and disappointing daily life in the present. So I do believe that I am done with today's post as of here.

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A Diversity of Photos

I was probably into bed by around 9:30 p.m. last evening ─ certainly well before 10:00 p.m. And I am reasonably sure that I soon heard my younger brother arrive home from the bar he had been drinking at.

I slept brokenly, and when I checked the time around 12:48 a.m. I realized that my brother would have by then gone to bed, so I rose to begin the construction of a new post at one of my six hosted websites.

I had my doubts about the likelihood of the good, long walk that I spoke about in yesterday's post; I had hoped to attempt it in the early a.m. But I didn't feel especially well slept.

And I did grow more weary as the time passed. Notwithstanding that, I never made my return to bed until 4:41 a.m.

Yet I was back up for the morning before it was yet 8:00 a.m., and I got back to work on that website post. I did well with it today, I must say ─ an excellent beginning to a new post.

For the second consecutive night, there was light rain. And today it has been quite gusty out there at times ─ an event I do not much appreciate. However, I cannot blame the weather for keeping me home all the day long.

I think that it was my eldest stepson who was to rise next in the morning. My brother never emerged from his bedroom until just after 10:30 a.m., by which time he had showered in his en suite shower room.

I had some exercising scheduled for the backyard toolshed, so I got at that later in the morning, and did unexpectedly well. That freed me up to finally have my first meal of the day.

My brother returned to his bedroom to rest up while I was having my meal; and then just ahead of 2:00 p.m. I sought my own nap. When I rose thereafter more than an hour later, I was home alone. I know nothing of my two stepsons' doings, but there is no question that my brother hied himself off to resume his daily drinking somewhere.

Right now it is 4:30 p.m., and I believe that it is my eldest stepson who has recently arrived home. It has been raining for some while ─ just lightly, but the wind gusts would probably exacerbate being out in it.

I have so many photos to post today!

I want to lead off with 10 that were taken on Friday afternoon when I went out with my wife and her two sons for a meal of sushi at Maguro Japanese Restaurant (Google map) in Guildford, Surrey. I believe that my eldest stepson bore the cost of that meal, including a Sapporo beer for each of us.

The reason for the family event was because yesterday was to be my wife's 46th birthday.

I was too broke to buy her a thing, so my feeble and sole contribution toward her birthday was participating in the celebratory meal as a family.

All of these photos were in my wife's Facebook account ─ I downloaded and then enlarged them (using Online Converter). They would have been taken soon after 4:30 p.m. on Friday.

The first five feature my wife sandwiched between both of her sons ─ the 25-year-old is at the left, and his 22-year-old brother at the right:

My wife then took three selfies, attempting to include all of us in each of the shots:

And finally, my eldest stepson then took the following two photos of me seated with his mother and young brother:

My wife tends to spend her weekends somewhere in Vancouver, so she was to leave us  late in the afternoon after we all had gotten back home.

Such is my sorry marriage.

The next set of photos were taken six years ago (February 2014) ─ Google Photos created this collage using four that were taken of the snow we had at that time:

The top left image shows the small toolshed where I exercised today, by the way. The bottom right image is the only one taken looking out to the street.

Here are the four original photos:

Our neighbour had that large tree cut down that you can see looming over and beyond our house in the second photo above. Also, all four of the photos were taken on February 23, so it was indeed precisely six years ago.

The last set of photos were taken in Thailand when my wife returned there to visit her mother and other family, as well as close friends ─ the photos are from February 2013, seven years ago.

Again, Google Photos created this collage from five of the photos taken during my wife's homecoming:

The top left image shows my wife holding a birthday cake, so it must have been that special day for her young nephew Daniel:

You can see my wife's mother seated in the background. The young lady (who goes by the name Milada) just behind my wife is now married to the son of the man at the right ─ that man is my wife's brother-in-law, and is married to one of my wife's two sisters.

In fact, this is Milada's future husband at that time ─ he goes by the nickname Mark, and he is with his young cousin 'birthday boy' Daniel:

Apparently the adults went clubbing ─ Mark's father (my wife's brother-in-law) overdid it with the drinking, and is here in this photo with my wife and his wife Lumpoon (my wife's sister):

I don't know why it is, but my wife seems to accrue Gay male friends ─ she is the only actual female in this photo:

That's Daisha at the left pulling the scary face ─ I like Daisha. I have also met Jak or Jack at the far right, but he was nowhere near as social with me as was Daisha. I've never met the "ladyboy" behind my wife. 

As for the temple in the final image, I have just now done some research and see that it is Wat Phothisomphon:

It is now 5:32 p.m. After I  proofread and then publish this post, I just may try and finally get out on a decent walk ─ despite the weather. I don't think it's raining at present; but if it is, then it is very lightly so.

Oh...I was wrong. It is still raining.

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