Money Essentially out the Window

My younger brother sure fooled me last evening ─ he was home by 7:50 p.m., if I am remembering this aright. And I was truly annoyed, for it appeared that I would have to be sitting up late in operation of our Android TV Box once the Canucks / Golden Knights playoffs game was over with.

Had he not gotten home even as early as 8:31 p.m. from wherever he had been drinking, I would have gone to bed early to avoid becoming enmeshed with him, but he well preceded his unspoken 8:30 p.m. deadline.

I had been so very much looking forward to having an early evening. I hoped that by doing so, I would be able to have a productive morning today and maybe get in some early grocery shopping before things got too populated and busy out there in the world around me.

The usual reason for him arriving home on a Saturday evening is because either he or his girlfriend Bev became too disagreeable for the other to tolerate, for they tend to spend Saturday evenings together and he will often enough even remain the night at her home.

Thus, it is often the case that he has become too drunkenly insufferable for her to tolerate, and so he'll haul his beer-soaked carcass home to inflict himself upon whomever is here.

So what was I to be treated to?

Let's just say that it took him 15 minutes before he actually came into the house. I suspect that he had fallen asleep (passed out) in his vehicle. I kept hoping that he would somehow not make his entrance until at least 8:31 p.m., but that was not to be, of course.

The hockey second period was underway when he did come in.

Ultimately, the Canucks were to lose this third game in the series without scoring a goal (3 - 0). They had also lost the first game without a goal (5 - 0). But they somehow won the second game with a score of 5 - 3.

So now we're down two games to one in this best-of-seven contest. If we lose two more games, the season is over for us. And once more, a promising Canucks team will have failed to be the very first one to finally win the ─ so far ─ unattainable Stanley Cup.

And we've been trying for 50 years!

In the very last few minutes of the game, I noticed my brother's head sink to his chest as he briefly passed out. He rallied, alas. I hoped so strongly that he would sink into oblivion and I would be able to cautiously take my leave and get to bed.

Once the game was done, he wanted me to use the Android TV Box to "put on something interesting" ─ in other words, find an episode of one of the T.V. series we follow in common.

This was not something I wanted to do, for I fully expected that he would only be passing out during the episode and I would then have to re-watch the damned thing in the daytime once he was sober so that his continuity in the series was not disrupted ─ this does happen far too often.

But as soon as I got an episode of something playing (the third episode of the final season of Z Nation), I saw that his eyes were tight shut, and he was just moving his head about as if loosening his neck.

I knew that he was losing a struggle against unconsciousness, for the episode opened up from the previous episode's cliffhanger ─ an explosion at the site of an election that had taken place in Altura, one of the outposts of the hoped-for Newmerica.

So here was the new episode leading off with the explosion and all of the mayhem in its aftermath, yet my brother is sitting with his eyes shut tight and lolling his head about, clearly oblivious to it all.

I quickly backed right out of the episode, turned off the Android TV Box, and switched the T.V. back over to its basic cable programming.

Without a word, I left my brother to his solitary beer-guzzling and consciousness-teetering, and I came upstairs to soon get to bed. I was in bed by 9:54 p.m., I seem to recall.

I was to get some sleep, but I think that before it was yet 2 a.m. I found myself awake. I tried for 15 - 20 minutes to sink into some further sleep ─ even one block of sleep would have been very good; but it would not come.

And so I rose and was soon enough working at the addition of content into a post I am developing at one of my six hosted websites. However, it was to take me longer than I had anticipated, for I had figured that I would have time to seek a rest before making the round trip hike of at least 2½ miles to shop.

I thought that I could leave here by 6:30 a.m. ─ the Save-On-Foods outlet (Google map) in Whalley opens at 7 a.m. But I never finished working on the website post until nigh 6 a.m., and I had suffered a serious decline by then due to lack of adequate sleep.

Utterly lacking in spirit and vitality, I returned to bed feeling defeated, and trying to justify that the bit of shopping I had intended wasn't indispensable.

As I lay in bed seeking to relax into some sleep, my thoughts revolved. There actually were some items that I could use before next weekend. And what of next weekend anyway? I might have every bit as much failure of resolve then as I was feeling now ─ after all, I never had it in me to go anywhere yesterday morning.

All could go wrong next weekend ─ it could not be predicted.

A fire of desperation was kindled. I rose and went downstairs to boil some water for a cup of black instant coffee, and I began readying myself for the hike (I do not drive).

And finally, I got on my way ─ just a few minutes ahead of 7 a.m.

The Sun was already climbing above the horizon and was soon shining in my eyes.

And I was astonished at how many other people were out there walking around ─ I hated it. This is the sort of thing that keeps me home.

But I persevered and was to get my shopping done. I was even to have a lovely interaction with sweet cashier Dolma, probably my favourite at that store.

I doubt that it was any later than 8:40 a.m. by the time I was back home.

One of the items I bought was a litre of heavy liquid whipping cream ─ I use about a litre a week, and it is my preferred creamer for my special hot caffeinated beverages that I tend to mix up twice a day.

Normally I have been buying the cream at a distant outlet of the Real Canadian Superstore ─ I can get two of them there for $3.59 apiece, which is what I have been doing for the past several months.

However, as of yesterday, that store made face masks mandatory for its customers, and I refuse to be victimized by any such mandate. I only have a monthly pension for income, but I am now willingly paying $5.65 at Save-On-Foods for a litre of heavy whipping cream ─ yes, over $2 more per litre.

That is how important it is to me that I will not be told that I must wear a face mask just so that I can be allowed to spend my money in a store. If it means that I must start paying more at a different store that does not seek to dictate my compliance with nonsense like the wearing of a face mask, then I will definitely do so.

Enough of that conversation for this post.

I was to have a fairly short ─ if deep ─ nap in the latter morning. And then I went out into the backyard and commenced sunning while attired in just a pair of gym shorts.

I started quite late in the morning, and finally finished up at 1:13 p.m. ─ just over 44 minutes for my front, and just over 40 minutes for my back. When I came into the house, I found that my brother had already left for the afternoon ─ and would be anon resuming his drinking somewhere, no doubt.

It was good that I sunned as early as I did ─ by 2:30 p.m. the sky was thickly hazed over.

While I have been working on this post, I have been involved in a succession of texts with my wife. She hasn't paid her cellphone bill since June, and the carrier got after her today by calling her directly.

The gist is that she has no money to pay it herself, so she asked me to make an online payment from my quite newly-arrived monthly pension ─ she asked that I make a $200 payment.

I had earlier this month paid my own bill of $51.51 online, but my latest billing claims that I still owe for it as well as my latest billing that is due September 17.

I have now gotten confirmation that my $51.51 that I paid on August 11 actually went into my wife's cellphone account.

So really, I have paid $251.51 now on her behalf.

And she also said that she is expecting a shipment from Thailand that she has found out needs a Custom's fee of nearly $19 paid to DHL that had to be paid online before they would make the delivery because they no longer make in-person collections due to SARS-CoV-2 fears.

I have now had to pay that for my wife, too.

And now I am already too broke to make an order I had planned to do to Amazon. I have to wait an entire month for my next pension now before I can place any such order.

My life is just too bloody lovely for proper words.

I had more that I wanted to say today, but I still have to make a post in my private blog, and I also have some exercising to get done.

Incidentally, that thick sky haze has proven to be cloud cover ─ shortly after 5 p.m. I noticed that it had begun raining very lightly.

Well, game four of the Canucks / Golden Knights series is on T.V. this evening ─ a start of 7:30 p.m. here on the west coast of Canada. It is already after 5:30 p.m., so I need to bring this post to a close without any further preamble.

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A Rather Lacking Saturday

Unfortunately for me, my younger brother was home by 8:20 p.m. last evening, so I felt obliged to sit up with him and operate our Android TV Box to find sources for an episode each of four of the T.V. series we follow in common.

I even had a can of the strong (8% alcohol) beer that I try to keep in stock. I opened it around 11 p.m. ─ well past the start of my 16 hours of intermittent fasting (since last weekend, I seek not to take in any calories from about 8:30 p.m. until midway through the noon hour).

I did wrestle over having the beer, but I finally had to conclude that I had little option other than practically giving up drinking. I'm not going to restrict any drinking to the afternoons or early evenings, after all. And I normally only have anything to drink while I am enjoying some evening T.V.

So as I said, there was no real choice, other than to not have anything at all to drink.

I was not to get to bed until 12:08 a.m. The consequence of doing so was that by 4 a.m. I was awake, and ere it was yet 4:20 a.m. I had given up trying to sleep because I was too ill at ease over not being able to find the time later to add the minimum quota of content that I seek to add on a daily basis to whatever post I may have under construction at one of my six hosted websites.

I never returned to bed until shortly after 8:30 p.m., but I never felt normalized throughout that time ─ either physically nor wilfully. I had hoped this past week to get away early in the morning today to do some shopping, but I just didn't have the inner strength to go forth and face the public ─ it was essential to feel far more rested than I did.

I do not drive, so I have to walk.

Anyway, I was not in bed too much over another 1½ hours. And right now, it is 11:02 a.m. while I finish up a large cup of black instant coffee. The day is now too busy for my liking.

Obviously I blame my late evening with my brother yesterday for this failure to make use of my morning. He goes out drinking on a daily basis; yet he is very effective at arriving home surprisingly early on Friday and Saturday evenings from wherever he has gone to do his drinking, and it quite annoys me.

Most people who are out drinking at pubs or bars have those two evenings as the ones they are most likely to stay out latest ─ but not him! Those are the only two in which he is most likely to show up back home early.

And since Saturdays and Sundays are the only two mornings of the week in which I have the time to venture forth to do my shopping, he is sabotaging my chances to do so.

Now tomorrow morning is my sole hope to get any shopping done.

The day thus far is quite sunny. Since I am going to be home, I would like to try and get in at least 40 minutes sunning both my front and my back. However, as yet the backyard is still primarily shaded because of the late-Summer positioning of the Sun, so I must wait. Nevertheless, I am going to break from this post now and work on an entry in my private blog.

oooooooooooooo

It is now 5:16 p.m., and I did get in that sunning. If I am correct, I managed a minimum of 44 minutes for each of my front and my back ─ my day's first meal and hot caffeinated beverage served as an intermission between the two sessions.

I have since had a short afternoon nap that has left me feeling rather awful. I am having my day's second and final hot caffeinated beverage to bring me out of that state, for I have some exercising that I yet wish to conclude.

Game three of the NHL playoffs series between the Vancouver Canucks and the Vegas Golden Knights is scheduled for 6:45 p.m., and I wouldn't mind watching some or all of it. However, I really do not wish to be sitting up late this evening, so I have no intention of being caught up by my brother if he is not home until after 8:30 p.m.

There is a chance that he will instead end up going to his girlfriend Bev's home this evening to catch the game and then spend the night there, but I cannot bank on it. Rather, I must be all set to evacuate the living room and the T.V. if I notice him arriving home even as late as 8:31 p.m., or else I will be dooming myself to remaining up for the ensuing totality of the evening, and in so doing jeopardize tomorrow's early morning shopping hopes.

Note that I don't have any pressing grocery needs ─ it is actually the walk that is my primary concern. If I fail to feel able to get out and hike anywhere early tomorrow, then I will not have another opportunity until next weekend. And this is not at all good ─ going on a good walk every other week is unjustifiably inefficient from a health and fitness perspective.

That is especially so for this 70-year-old.

I just got diverted doing an online search for a nutritional supplement (leucine) to see what was available, and I exhausted considerable time. It is now after 6:30 p.m., and I have yet to tackle that bit of exercise ─ I must do so with alacrity.

And so I bring this post to a close ─ tomorrow is (usually) another day. 

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Reaffirming My Intention to Boycott Real Canadian Superstore

My wife arrived home quite early last evening after likely working at her friend's Thai restaurant. Even so, I was not to let her presence deter me from getting to bed as soon after 8:30 p.m. that I was to see my younger brother arriving home from wherever he had been drinking.

In the case of last evening, I was thus to bed by approximately 8:50 p.m. My wife was in her two sons' den area having a meal with them, so I did not feel like I was abandoning her.

I was to enjoy at least three blocks of sleep as I waited for my brother to eventually take himself to his bedroom ─ which he tends to do around midnight or soon into that hour.

However, around 12:45 a.m. I was disturbed from some sleep by my wife's apparent overtures to betake herself to bed, and so I waited until she had done so and turned off her bedside lamp before softly announcing, "Okay, it's my turn".

And so I rose to eventually start adding further content into the post that I am building at one of my six hosted websites. I was to remain up until nearly 5 a.m. before returning to bed for a little further sleep.

I believe that my morning may have commenced just ahead of 8:30 a.m., if not nearer to 8 a.m. Whatever the instance, I was here at my computer just before my brother emerged from his bedroom following his morning shower.

Just before he made that emergence, I exchanged goodbyes with my youngest stepson as he headed out the front door to go to work.

Friday is my brother's laundry day, so he took a load of it downstairs to get it started before he got himself an instant coffee and turned on the T.V.

I generally join him around 10 a.m. on weekdays; on weekends, I reserve those mornings entirely for myself. But this morning, my wife actually rose and went downstairs to commence cooking well ahead of 10 a.m.

She was preparing a couple of dishes for the household, for she would be leaving us late in the morning to drive off to her day at the restaurant.

We were to have another lovely, sunny day.

I watched T.V. (via our Android TV Box) with my brother until 1 p.m., and then he sought some bed rest ere heading away for the afternoon to eventually resume his drinking somewhere.

While he was resting, I went out into the backyard and ─ beginning at 1:21 p.m. ─ I spent just over 40 minutes sunning my front while attired in a pair of gym shorts, and slouched low in in a deck- or lawn-chair, my bared feet on the ground.

I was back into the house and having my day's first meal here at my computer when my brother came forth from his bedroom and anon left.

I would very much prefer being able to get to bed early again this evening, but that will depend upon whether my brother is home by the unspoken 8:30 p.m. deadline that I have in place for him. If he is not home by then, I will not be sitting up to operate our Android TV Box and watch T.V. with him ─ not even if he is but a minute later than 8:30 p.m.

A deadline is a deadline.

My wife is unlikely to be home again until after the weekend (such is our sorry marriage) ─ she tends to spend her weekends somewhere in Vancouver (we live in Surrey).

This seems to be the arrangement God wants for me. He has never done aught to provide the means for me to change matters, so I can have no other conclusion ─ years of pleas have meant nothing to Him.

He evidently has no intention of delivering me from the crushing weight of debt that I have allowed my wife to bury us under.

Enough of that. I took a small break for some exercise to help divert my frame of mind.

I still have more exercise that I need to soon get at, and I also want to take a bath. My evening is already underway, so I had best put my efforts toward bringing this post to a close.

Before I do call it quits, I want to follow up on a post I made early in the week concerning Real Canadian Superstore ─ they are mandating that the public wear face masks in all stores as of tomorrow.

I think that it was last Sunday that I proclaimed that I would no longer shop there for as long as that stupid, baseless dictate was in place. But then the very next day, I demurred, citing that the three main grocery 'necessities' which I keep in stock here at home are quite a few dollars cheaper at Real Canadian Superstore than they are in other stores.

I am a 70-year-old pensioner with just a monthly pension as my income. And I don't even drive ─ I have to walk to do my shopping.

But I have re-thought the matter. I have decided to stick to principle ─ I will not submit and comply and wear an unnecessary face mask.

If Real Canadian Superstore does not want my dollars, then I will spend them at Save-On-Foods ─ the only other market that I know of which opens at 7 a.m. Since I do not drive, and I abhor being out in the public once the day becomes busy, I do my best to arrive to do my grocery shopping as soon after 7 a.m. as I can ─ even when it means leaving home soon after 6 a.m. because I have a few miles to walk to get to Real Canadian Superstore.

Save-On-Foods is possibly no more than 1¼ miles from here ─ less than half the distance that the nearest Real Canadian Superstore is.

So in view of the distance that I will be saving myself where toting home groceries is concerned, then for as long as Save-On-Foods welcomes the general public with our uncovered faces, I will shop there ─ even though I will be paying quite a lot more for the things I tend to buy.

I refuse to subscribe to the coronavirus hysteria.

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That Blight Within

I took another deep dive into that which is unspeakably foul last evening, rather than getting to bed as early as I could have.

As it was, I retired at 10:20 p.m., for my younger brother had still not bused home from wherever he had gone to drink.

I suppose that I did have a good initial block of sleep, for I was not to check the time again until around 2 a.m. when I then rose to put work into the post I am developing at one of my six hosted websites.

I was not to return to bed until around 6 a.m., and I remained there until possibly 8:30 a.m. before rising for the morning. My brother was already watching T.V. by then, but I did not join him to put our Android TV Box into play until 10 a.m.

We were to have a lovely, sunny day.

My brother had sought his bed rest shortly after 1 p.m. to restore himself for his afternoon away to begin his drinking again. I must have gotten caught up in E-mails and such, for by the time he was stirring and readying himself in his bedroom for his public appearance, I had still failed to get in the backyard toolshed exercising session scheduled for today, nor to do any sunning.

But I had unearthed something that I knew would be of profound interest to him ─ the fairly recent breaking news that there was not likely to be a 'game three' this evening in the Stanley Cup playoffs between our Vancouver Canucks and the Vegas Golden Knights.

I had found an article link posted on Facebook by a former co-worker ─ it was a link to CityNews1130.com: Vancouver Canucks game postponed in protest against racial injustice.

And so when my brother emerged from his bedroom, I called his attention to it.

At first his tendency was to question the authenticity of the article, but a Google search revealed too many others presenting similar declarations.

All of this seemed to have boiled up within the previous three or so hours.

If indeed there is no evening hockey game, then it may be that my brother will be in no haste to arrive home this evening, and I may well be able to have an opportunity to be to bed by mid-evening or thereabouts ─ although my wife is due home at some point this evening after she finishes working at her friend's Thai restaurant.

Nevertheless, I will not let her potential presence forestall my bedtime if my brother does not show up until after 8:30 p.m. ─ that is his unspoken deadline. I choose not to sit up with him and operate our Android TV Box into the late evening to locate episodes of any of the T.V. series we follow in common.

Anyway, I was to have both my toolshed exercise session, and just over 40 minutes sunning my front while attired just in a pair of gym shorts, my bared feet on the backyard lawn as I slouched low in a deck- or lawn-chair.

I believe that it was 3:32 p.m. when I called it quits, and came into the house to soon have my first rather small meal of the day.

I am somewhat trying to follow an intermittent fasting routine whereby I take in no calories except between 12:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. ─ in other words, over an eight-hour period.

I used to wait until at least 10 a.m. before having my day's first hot caffeinated beverage, but as of this past weekend I have begun holding off until into the noon hour. And although I did not weigh myself today, yesterday I was hovering around 180 pounds ─ and have been doing so for a few days previous to that.

This is a drop of at least five pounds over what I weighed maybe 10 days to two weeks ago.

I don't have any kind of weight problem at five feet and something under 11 inches in height, but at my present age of 70, I have noticed more of an abdominal 'pouch' than I care to display.

For most of my adult life, I have weighed around 185 pounds or just under. But I am most curious to see what this eight-hour eating window is going to achieve for me.

I of course will break it on any evening when I happen to sit up and have a beer or two while watching some T.V. with my brother, but I will not eat anything outside of that eight-hour window on those occasions. The beer ingestion will be my sole liberty, and I do not foresee any negative issue therewith.

By the way, my youngest stepson arrived home in the latter afternoon, home from his near-week 'road trip' away to Calgary with two of his friends (we live in Surrey). None of the three know anyone who lives in Calgary, nor had any of them been there before.

However, I have yet to ask the 22-year-old about his adventure ─ I finally sought a nap soon after he was home, or else I would never have been able to sit here to blog. My eyes are so very poor.

It is already after 7 p.m., and I have yet to create a post in my private blog. With that being so, I must now take leave from this post and get it published.

I just want to observe how difficult it is now to sun both my front and my back ─ there just doesn't seem to be sufficient sunshine in the backyard anymore due to the advance of Summer.

Since I like to try and expose both my front and my back for at least 40 minutes each, I always take a break between sessions ─ usually to eat, but sometimes even to nap. However, since I only waste three or so hours (10 a.m. - 1 p.m., approximately) of my day watching T.V. with my brother on weekdays and not the two days of the weekends, perhaps I can squeeze in some extra time this Saturday and Sunday ─ the sunshine is supposed to endure. 

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💀☠💀☠💀☠ A Catch-up Wednesday

I ran out of time yesterday where blogging here was concerned. I was far too in need of a latter afternoon nap ─ it had priority.

My wife had spent the night; and when she left that day to go and work at her friend's Thai restaurant, she said that she would be back that evening.

The Vancouver Canucks were having their second game fairly early that evening in the 'best of seven' competition they are in with the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and we had lost the first game 5 - 0 ─ and so I faced this second game with considerable trepidation.

I stated a post or so back that whichever team wins this series, they would move on to play for the Stanley Cup. However, that is not so. There is still one further series to get through.

In their 50-year history, the Canucks have never won the Cup, so this series is becoming of considerable interest to me.

Due to the game last evening ─ and my expectation of my wife ─ I forgave my tardy younger brother who was not home by the unspoken 8:30 p.m. deadline I have for him. I remained up and watched the third period with him which he arrived home in time for.

We then continued to sit up until midnight as I operated our Android TV Box to find an episode each of three of the T.V. series we follow in common. My wife didn't arrive home until we had essentially finished watching our shows.

I was to precede her to bed.

And I remained abed overnight, too in need of sleep to rise in the wee a.m. ─ it was actually around 6 a.m. when I rose to get to work adding content into the post I have on the go at one of my six hosted websites.

I was not to gain a nap today until the latter afternoon after my wife left in the mid-afternoon to go and visit her friend / employer, saying that she would not return until tomorrow. My brother had left afoot to catch a bus and rendezvous with one or two of his drinking buddies at a pub, so I know he will not be home until into the latter evening.

This is the main reason I am presently still blogging, for it is after 7:30 p.m., and I even have some exercising yet that I must do. If there was a chance that my brother would be home before mid-evening, I would not now risk blogging.

Note that yesterday I managed to put in just over 40 minutes sunning my back; and today, it was my front's turn for a similar period of exposure. My dear wife even came out into the backyard this afternoon while I was out there, and she involved herself in her exercise routine. When I came into the house, I considered taking at least one candid photo of her, but I felt that it would be too unkind.

Now before I close so that I can exercise and then have some supper so that I can be set for an early evening of things, I want to present the following ─ it is the content of an E-mail forward that I sent out to around 55 people back on August 19:

This is a CBC documentary nearly 20 minutes long, so read the description below to decide if you want to get into it. I certainly found myself caught up.

**********

In 1988, Jessica Stuart was nine years old. Her family embarked on a cultural odyssey that would greatly influence her life: the Stuarts dug up their middle-class roots in Vancouver’s Jewish community and replanted them in a rural Japanese town called Saku for a year.

It was during this absorbing year that Jessica met Fukue, a bright and bubbly girl with rosy red cheeks and an endless smile. Fukue and Jessica became like sisters, spending their days frolicking in the autumn leaves, dancing under snow-blanketed trees, watching hot air balloons illuminate the skyline in spring, and sneaking through rice paddies in early summer.

Strangely, Fukue never invited Jessica to visit her family home. One day after school, Jessica insisted. Fukue reluctantly brought Jessica to her house; it was a derelict shack on the outskirts of town. Shocked and disturbed, Jessica started to make sense of the name-calling and bullying that Fukue suffered at school.

As the Stuarts’ year in Japan came to an end, Jessica and Fukue assured one another they would keep in touch. They became pen pals, writing letters back and forth for two years, until the letters from Fukue stopped — with no explanation.

Now a musician in her 30s, Jessica has never forgotten Fukue. Her memories of their time together are beautiful, but haunting. And so her thoughts turn to the unknown. Where is Fukue now? Does she remember Jessica? Why did her letters stop all those years ago?

Now, nearly 30 years after she left Japan, Jessica is going back to find the answers to these questions. She’s going to find Fukue.

• They were best friends, then pen pals — until one day, the letters stopped coming | Finding Fukue

I hope that link remains valid if you try to access the video.

The reason I posted it here was because I wanted to also post the reactions of three of the recipients.

First, from Glenda:

Oh, thank you, G*****, for sharing this with me.  This makes my heart happy. 

Then from Graham:

Great story G*****.  Hope you and your gang are keeping well. 

And finally, from Guli (Gulzar):

Aaah! All the incidents that happened to me back home in Tanzania I thought I will not cry so much again.

Well not so much, but I did watching this documentary.  Thank you G*****.  Hope you are keeping well.  Take care.

How serendipitous that all of our first names start with the letter 'G'!

Okay, that's it for me today.

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Colossal

Upon some further reconsideration of the claim I made in yesterday's post about not shopping again at Real Canadian Superstore once they impose a mandatory face mask upon customers beginning this next Saturday, I may comply ─ but only out of utter necessity.

I had thought that I would just be having to accept that I would be paying around $1.50 or more for a litre of heavy liquid whipping cream at any other store (I use a litre or so a week), but it is worse than that.

They also sell the tall tins (475-gramme) of Nescafé Rich instant coffee that this household exclusively uses for our at-home coffee, at a price that is a few dollars cheaper than other stores.

And the honey that I buy for our coffee ─ in a 3-kg container ─ is only available there. The other stores I have access to only sell two-kg containers, and the cost per kilogramme is considerably more than is the case at Real Canadian Superstore.

Collectively here in this house, we probably go through one of those 3-kg containers in under three weeks ─ maybe more like two weeks.  

I am a pensioner with no other income source ─ I have to pay attention to my expenditures.

There are no doubt other deals that are just not coming to mind at present.

And on top of all that, I need the weekend walks.

Sure, I walk to the store because I don't drive, and I would undoubtedly drive to the store if I did drive. But I never walk anywhere during the week, whereas the nearest Real Canadian Superstore outlet is at least a round trip of 5.625 miles ─ that is considerable activity for this 70-year-old, especially in view of the groceries being toted home after shopping.

I happen to possess a surgical face mask that my wife gave me a few months back, but I have never taken it out of its wrapper. I could easily bring it with me just for wearing in the store.

And if I have to keep wearing this same mask for years to come because of these mandatory face mask impositions ─ and to hell with the nonsense about needing a new one because a mask becomes contaminated after every use ─ then I will definitely wear it for years to come.

I will use the same mask for the remainder of my life if I must. These things are an unnecessary farce. And if grocery money was not of much consequence to me, I really would shop elsewhere.

So we shall see how this plays out come this next weekend.

Well, our Vancouver Canucks got badly whipped last evening in their first game against the Vegas Golden Knights (5 - 0). The two teams are playing for the right to see which of them goes on to play in the final series for the Stanley Cup.

I think that this is our worst loss over the course of the two series we've already been through. If we meet with defeat tomorrow evening, then we're in serious trouble indeed. We've never won the Stanley Cup in the team's 50 years of existence.

I intended to get to bed last evening if my younger brother was not home by 8:30 p.m. from wherever he had ended up drinking.

He was not home by then, but I kept watching the game. I figured to just hustle up to my bedroom when I noticed him arriving home at whatever time that proved to be.

Well, as misfortune would have it, I was outside in the open carport dealing with our wheelie bins because my two stepsons are slobs who have no compunction about putting what I deem to be naught but filthy 'garbage' into the recycling bin.

As I was doing some sorting, along came my brother.

So I watched the game with him until the second period ended, at which time the score was 4 - 0.

He was clearly drunk, and directed that I should switch the T.V. over to "something interesting" ─ that is, he wanted me to put our Android TV Box into operation and bring up an episode of one of the T.V. series we follow in common.

And so I did.

But about five minutes into the episode, I noticed his head falling to his chest, although he would quickly enough raise it. But he was keeping his eyes closed ─ he was no longer paying attention to the show.

Then when he began snoring, that was enough for me ─ I began backing out of the programme and finally switched the T.V. back over to the hockey game. My brother perked alert during that process, and tried to feign being aware by asking if I was just checking on the score.

I knew better, and I as much as said so.

And I left him with the game and his solitary drinking, and came upstairs here to my computer to make a final check of my E-mails. I was thereafter in bed by 9:44 p.m.

I cannot tolerate this feeble-brained state of my younger brother. If he wants so badly to drink himself unconscious, he can damned well do it all alone.

I was to sleep in fragmented fashion after finally getting asleep. Initially, I had to work at quelling some guilt about abandoning my drunken brother as I had done. After all, we are getting on in years and probably will not both be here for all that much longer.

Eventually I rose in the wee a.m. to put work into the post I am developing at one of my six hosted websites ─ possibly I was up ahead of 3 a.m. And I don't think that I returned to bed until just after 6 a.m.

Incidentally, it was raining very lightly over much of the night.

I remained in bed until nearly 9 a.m., and I was again here at my computer just ahead of my brother's emergence from his bedroom for the morning.

I am unsure, but I do not believe that he remembered that I had watched some of the game with him last evening, for he seemed to announce the final score as if I knew nothing at all of the progress of the game.

If that is the truth, then he would have entirely forgotten that I had forsaken him and left him alone with the T.V. ─ it is distinctly possible.

Anyway, as is usual on weekdays, I joined him at 10 a.m. and took over the T.V. to put our Android TV Box into operation ─ I had a movie in mind.

It was to prove far better than I was expecting, and even my brother seemed taken with it ─ 2016's Colossal.

I am aware of the existence of actress Anne Hathaway (she played the main character in the movie), but I would never have been able to name anything she's ever acted in, nor would I have been able to identify her because I had no idea what she looked like.

Her character in this movie was not anyone I much liked through the early part ─ or for most of the movie, in fact. She had serious character flaws.

But when her childhood friend (who always carried a fixation of sorts for her) began to turn into some malignant and possessive creep who would willingly have murdered untold numbers of Koreans every day of his life (in the guise of a giant robot) if she did not remain with him, I only then began to really like her.

She did her best to stand up to him ─ even engaging him in a fist fight to prevent what he intended to do. But she was no brawler ─ he gave her a pretty darned good beat-down.

The movie ends with her finally killing him ─ it was the only way to finally stop him from constant mass murder. And that was when she won me over entirely ─ she recognized that her friend was probably hopelessly insane, and there was no other way to make him stop.

One thing that boggled me and that was not explored was why this wretch's two best friends ─ who knew what he could do to the innocent citizens of Seoul, Korea ─ displayed no desire whatsoever to put a stop to him. They just left it up to our heroine to deal with the guy.

The final scene in the Korean bar is ambiguous. I like to think that maybe she and the female bartender got along exceptionally, and she was offered a job there ─ if such is possible for a visiting American in Korea.

We are left to guess and make up our own ending, apparently.

Yes, I enjoyed the movie.

My brother and I probably watched T.V. until 1:20 p.m. before he sought some bed rest, and I soon sought a nap. My brother was gone for the afternoon when I emerged from my bedroom.

I will not sit up if he is not home by 8:30 p.m. this evening ─ enough of this weak-brained display he presents.

Incidentally, it was only late this afternoon or early this evening that I noticed that my eldest stepson had phoned me twice just ahead of midnight yesterday, so I asked him about it. Did he perhaps find himself locked out of the house? He was not home that evening.

And so it was. He had taken his Harley-Davidson for a ride late that afternoon, and reportedly even visited his girlfriend at the Vancouver International Airport where she works. It was only when he was about to return here to where we live in Surrey that he realized he had better try and make some arrangements about getting into the house because he did not have his key.

Well, I do not normally have my cellphone with me when I go to bed ─ I prefer leaving it here by my computer in the small room next to my bedroom. I do not like having unknown callers ruining my sleep.

He phoned me twice to no avail, so he then tried my brother, all the while dreading that my brother was either passed out or else also in bed. However, the phone would not ring ─ it was likely powerless.

So he tried the house phone (landline), but got no response.

He ended up riding his bike in to Vancouver to wherever it is that his mother spends her weekends, and he got her house key.

According to him, he was back here around 1:30 a.m. this morning.

He claimed that it was rather enjoyable riding around as he did, although it was a little chilly.

He's 25 years old and quite a 'gym rat', so maybe he was rather enjoying himself to some degree.

I expect that from this time forth he will be more attentive about taking his house key with him, however.

His younger brother is in Calgary until Thursday, so he was of no help.

I have to wrap up this post, for it is already nearly 7:45 p.m. ─ I should have a bath, but I don't think I have the time now. I do not want to be caught up by my brother if he is not home by 8:30 p.m., after all.

Our overcast morning gave way to a fair amount of sunshine in the afternoon, but it was only in the latter afternoon that there was sufficient sunshine that I could have sunned. Unfortunately, I had too much else to do ─ my days have so little spare time, alas.

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Goodbye Real Canadian Superstore!

Although I do not feel particularly well right now physically at 5:35 p.m. following an earlier nap ─ my second of the day ─ I felt in excellent spirits this morning.

In view of how I felt yesterday, this was a blessing.

I got to bed last evening just ahead of 10 p.m., but I was still wide awake an hour later when my youngest stepson's two friend had apparently come to pick him up for their road trip.

He only told me that afternoon that two of his buddies were coming for him around 11 p.m., and they were going to drive overnight to Calgary where they already had a place booked to stay at.

We live in Surrey.

None of them have been to Calgary before, nor do any of them know anybody living there ─ this was strictly for the adventure. They plan to return next Thursday.

The 22-year-old looked a little surprised when I told him that I have two batches of relatives living in Calgary. Had he only let me know about this trip well before, I could have made a Facebook post to see if anyone over there might have been interested enough to volunteer to meet the lad.

Anyway, I eventually got to sleep, of course; but it was my typically broken sleep. And it was either around 2:45 a.m. or else 3:45 a.m. that I checked the time and decided to rise to get in some work on the post I recently began at one of my six hosted websites.

This was where my good spirits really came into play, for I wanted to later make the 5.625-mile round trip hike to the Real Canadian Superstore outlet (Google map) nearest here that opens at 7 a.m.

I do not drive, so walking is my sole option.

To help sustain me, I fixed up a mug of strong black instant coffee, and then passed the time.

I got a slightly later start than I wanted, for it was 6:11 a.m. once I was standing outside the locked front door and set to begin the hike.

It may well be that I am adding a wee bit of extra distance to my route. I say that because I felt I was making good time; yet better than five minutes from the store, I checked and saw that it was already 7:12 a.m. ─ I had been walking for just over an hour.

It was a good walk, though. Initially the day was still relatively gloomy because the Sun was not at the horizon as yet. The air was cool and moist, and the smell of the good earth and decomposing vegetative matter was everywhere.

I got my shopping done, and was back home well ahead of 8:50 a.m.

By the way, my younger brother spent last night at the home of his girlfriend Bev. However, he was to show up here around 9 a.m. or soon thereafter.

As usual with these outings, I declined rather quickly after getting home, and had to return to my bed around 9:30 a.m.

I doubt that I actually got in a nap much longer than a half hour, but I remained abed in excess of an hour. It always feel so danged delicious just laying there after outings like these.

When I emerged from my bedroom, I saw that my brother was shut up in his own. He never sleeps well with Bev due to her wicked smoker's cough.

I intended next to do some sunning and donned my gym shorts and tank top, but I found that the Sun had not yet risen sufficiently high to banish the shade in the two main areas in the backyard where I prefer to do my sunning.

And so I came back into the house and worked on a post in my private blog.

It was 11:50 a.m. when I was back outside and beginning just over 40 minutes sunning my front as I slouched in a lawn- or deckchair, my bared feet on the ground. I had taken off the tank top, of course.

There was still considerable coolness in the air, and a cool breeze doubled the effect.

When I was done, I returned here to my computer with my day's first hot caffeinated beverage ─ this is a special sustaining drink that I have devised. The very early black instant coffee contributed no calories, so this later drink was my first ingestion of any.

My brother soon left for the afternoon after finishing up his time in his bedroom, but he pointed out that the first game of the semi-final NHL contest featuring the Vancouver Canucks and the Vegas Golden Knights was being televised this evening at 7:30 p.m.

To get to this point, the Canucks had to knock off last year's Stanley Cup champions, the St. Louis Blues. That being so, maybe we can also take the Golden Knights and actually end up in the playoff game.

That's certainly the hope.

I doubt that I will be having an early evening of things today ─ my brother will likely be home rather smartly to tune in the game. Otherwise, if he is not here by 8:30 p.m., I will be getting to bed before I become embroiled with him.

I intended to sun my back this afternoon after I had that hot caffeinated beverage, but when I went out into the backyard, the sky had become so heavily hazed over that it was impossible to perceive any shadows.

I would be wasting my time.

So I came back inside and had my day's first reasonably small meal after some exercise in the backyard toolshed.

My first of two usual daily meals tends to overburden me, and this was no exception. That was when my second nap became required. However, by then it was again most sunny outside, and largely remained so for the rest of the afternoon.

It was too late for me ─ I had to have my nap.

And since having it, I have felt unhale ─ I feel considerable eyestrain, and feel that a slight headache is imminent. Perhaps I will improve once the day fades with the advent of the coming night.

I have learned something this afternoon that is going to change my shopping choice where the Real Canadian Superstore is concerned.

Even though it will mean that I will henceforth have to pay at least $1.50 more for a litre of the heavy liquid whipping cream that I use in my hot caffeinated beverages, I am going to stop shopping at that store.

As of next Saturday, the store is mandating customer-use of face masks. See CBC.ca: Real Canadian Superstore and No Frills impose mandatory face masks for shoppers.

I refuse to shop anywhere that adopts that unfounded safety measure.

But even if I did comply, I would just use the same mask ad infinitum ─ even if masks were mandated for all things everywhere. I know that many folks already do use the same face mask over and over.

It would be a farce.

Nevertheless, for the time being, I am just going to boycott Real Canadian Superstore and do my grocery shopping elsewhere. They need me ─ as a customer; but as a customer, I do not need them.

I will shop elsewhere from this time forth until they come to their scant senses.

It looks like Save-On-Foods will be seeing me regularly each weekend from now on. I have no doubt that there will be other shoppers doing similarly. We will not be overlorded in this face mask nonsense.

I may even give Lucky Supermarket in Whalley's Dell Shopping Centre a try if they also have no silly face mask restrictions ─ or restrictions on customer reusable shopping bags.

Or maybe I won't ─ I have just discovered at their website that they do not open until 9 a.m. That's too late in the morning where my shopping needs are concerned ─ I detest being out in the busy day.

Enough blogging for today.

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💀☠💀☠💀☠ Hoping for Better Days

None are as low as I.

I cannot climb from the foul mire that firmly grips me; and all the while, God just ignores my pleas.

oooooooooooooo

I believe that I may have been to my bed last evening at 9:30 p.m. ... or was it 10 p.m.? Scant matter.

I was to remain abed, sleeping on and off, until nigh 3 a.m. before I finally rose to put some work into the new post I recently began at one of my six hosted websites. Ultimately, the plan was to get away early to do some grocery shopping.

My sole transportation are my feet, and my chosen destination this morning was a store approximately 1¼ miles away.

However, as the night gave way to day, my resolution faded dramatically. I hate being out in the public ─ it is beyond my ability to describe it.

As well, there was nothing I was in serious immediate need of, although some of the produce on hand here would not last me beyond mid-week at best.

I do not shop during the week anymore ─ I just cannot seem to brave the world on weekdays, so all I am left are the weekends.

Unfortunately, for most of my life ─ since perhaps my early teens ─ I have accepted the legitimacy of the claims of the Seventh-day Sabbatarianists. And so ─ despite not having attended a regular church service since sometime in the first half of 1964 (if my memory is true) ─ I feel flagrantly sinful engaging in commerce on the day that I came to accept is the true Sabbath.

My youthful church attendance involved two different denominations that were both Sunday Sabbatarianists ─ specifically the Baptists when I was a boy; and then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the approach of my adolescence.

Thus, I have never actually attended a Saturday church service in the entirety of my life. Yet I believe so firmly that I ought to be observing that day as "holy" ─ even if I only refrain from conducting commerce on that day ─ that it has become extremely difficult for me to do any shopping on Saturday.

I feel no compunction at all about shopping on Sunday, incidentally.

But doing all of my shopping on Sunday when I have no transportation beyond my own feet is too limiting ─ I can only attend but one store, and then I am done for the day. And usually, my preferred store in nigh six miles from my home.

Anytime I shop there, I am done for the day ─ the ordeal of hauling home my purchases completely depletes me. I am 70 years old, after all ─ not some young 50-year-old.

This morning around 6:30 a.m. I found myself on my way to the nearer market ─ i.e., the one maybe 1¼ miles from here.

However, the day was already bright, and the sky predominantly blue. There seemed to be considerable vehicular traffic on the streets, and fellow pedestrians were also out there.

I did not want to endure this public experience when I had no real pressing shopping need ─ it might well have been different if it was not Summer. If instead it was a gloomier month when it would still be fairly dark even after 7 a.m., then I might have found some favour with that comforting blanket of anonymity that the darkness extends.

I did not have that.

It might have even helped if the early morning had been overcast and perhaps also lightly raining.

But it was not. The morning was brilliantly bright. And I felt that it was no place for me.

I may have travelled as much as a quarter mile before what little determination existed within me evaporated entirely, and I turned myself about and headed for the refuge of home, free from the scrutiny of the world without.

In my defeat, I soon proceeded to plunge myself even deeper, wasting at least 1½ hours in what can only be termed as self-degradation when I could have instead been acquiring some further sleep to better rejuvenate my outlook and spirits.

I was to eventually return to my bed, but it was in my fullest defeat by then, and I think the time was well beyond 10 a.m. Even my younger brother had risen and was downstairs enjoying his coffee and reading the Saturday morning edition of the Vancouver Sun that I subscribe to.

When he first emerged from his bedroom and was passing by this small room where I keep my computer, he enquired if I had watched last evenings Canucks / Blues playoff game?

I had not; I had even forgotten to check online to see how we did, for the series was tied up with two games apiece in this 'best out of five' competition.

And the St. Louis Blues are last year's Stanley Cup champions ─ whereas the Canucks are the oldest NHL hockey team to have never won that trophy despite many decades (50 years) of trying. We have in fact only ever gotten to the finals three times.

So it was with some glee that my brother happily announced that we won the game last evening ─ and did so by a four-point margin (6 - 2). The Blues were gone.

I have since learned that we are the last remaining Canadian team in the playoffs, even though there is still another series of games to be played before it is decided which two teams vie for the Cup.

Now we face the Vegas Golden Knights ─ a fairly new team, for sure; but they are "top-seeded", whatever that signifies.

Can we possibly beat them and make it to the Stanley Cup game? It sure would be nice!

So would living to see Vancouver finally win the Cup. It's been a long wait, and I've come to think that I will be gone before it ever happens.

Anyway, tomorrow evening is apparently our first game against the Golden Knights.

It is now 1:37 p.m. and my brother just left a few minutes ago for the afternoon ─ maybe for the evening, if he happens to spend tonight at the home of his girlfriend Bev. But I can't bank on it.

I am going to take a break now and enjoy some backyard sunshine.

oooooooooooooo

I have to wrap this up fast because it's already after 8 p.m.

I put in over 40 minutes of afternoon sunning ─ but just my front. I started too late to have the time for my back.

I want to conclude with the following response I made to a YouTube video link that my older maternal half-sister forwarded to me today ─ the video is titled People Need to Take This Everywhere!!! Bill Gates & Fauci Wicked Agenda Exposed!!

This was my response after I watched a fair bit of it:

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who bothers trying to check things out.

I went to that video and saw that it had over 5,000 comments ─ and as far as I could tell, not one person voiced any questions about its validity.

So I just now made this comment ─ and I'm sure that my comment will be quickly pulled or deleted:

I started to get a little excited about this, even though I'm Canadian. Big changes like this would dramatically affect things here, too.

But when I looked for the link to any documentation proving the video's claims, there were no links nor even article or document titles ─ and why was the document blurred out in the video that the doctor kept flourishing?

And who is the doctor anyway? ─ I couldn't clearly catch his name. I tried to do a Google search for him and found that people have apparently been doing this long before because "dr scott prone marietta ga" and "dr scott promo marietta ga" were already commonplace, but had no results associated with them.

So I did a bit of research about the lawsuit that any of you can do for yourself ─ for instance, do a Google search for "del big tree and robert kennedy jr win lawsuit against u.s. government".

The only event like it occurred back in 2018 ─ not just in the past few days.

And what has it meant since 2018? Obviously, absolutely nothing.

So this is old news that never apparently went anywhere and is now being recycled as some brand new triumph ─ for some bizarre reason.

I hate this false sensationalism. I really hoped that things were about to get turned around. 

Okay, that's it for today. Man, I hope I have a happier day tomorrow.

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Topics Rambling from Channel Zero to Windows 10 Upgrading to SARS-CoV-2

I got my early evening to bed yesterday ─ I now do not recall exactly, but I doubt that it was as late as 8:45 p.m.

I am unsure if I heard my younger brother finally arrive home ─ probably not. The same goes for my wife, who had worked late that afternoon and through much of the evening at her friend's Thai restaurant.

I may not have even been aware that she was home until around 12:45 a.m. when I became awake enough to be curious on the time, and lifted my bandana blindfold to find that the lamp at my wife's bedside was turned on, even though the bedroom door was closed.

I quietly rose and took a bathroom break, noticing that my brother was not yet to bed. My wife seemed to be here in my computer room ─ the small room immediately adjacent to our bedroom.

I could see that my brother was not in his chair downstairs in the living room, and was probably rinsing out his beer mug in preparation to finally get to bed. I heard him engaging with my eldest stepson in the exaggerated conversational style my brother adopts when he is drunk.

I got back to bed and managed a little further sleep, finding myself awake again about an hour later. It was then that I decided to rise and soon get to work adding some content into the new post I have begun at one of my six hosted websites.

As I was pulling on my pants, my wife came into the bedroom ─ she was set to retire for the night, confessing that she had been up enjoying three glasses of wine even though she had to work again with a start late in the morning.

I believe that it was lightly raining outside; and it continued to do so throughout much of the later day. This is the second in which I of course could not benefit from any sunning, but it sure does free up some time to do other things.

I worked on my post until I began to suffer an unpleasant decline in well-being ─ it seemed related to eyestrain, and it was serious enough that I had sufficient concern that cerebral pathology was possible by way of the development of something like a stroke.

So even though I had not worked as productively as I had intended to, I was probably back into bed by 5 a.m.

For some reason, 8:30 a.m. seems to be my limit for further sleep when I sit up overnight like this. Nevertheless, I held fast in bed until near 9 a.m. before quietly rising and coming here to my computer.    

As I typically do on weekdays, I joined my brother at 10 a.m. to put our Android TV Box into operation (he doesn't understand its intricacies).

Anon my dear wife rose, and shortly after 11 a.m. she was on her drive to the restaurant. I will be surprised if she returns home later ─ she typically spends her weekends somewhere in Vancouver (such is our sorry marriage).

One of the T.V. episodes my brother and I watched was the first season finale of Channel Zero ─ the first season was in fact a complete series of its own titled Candle Cove.

I surely do hope that the remaining three seasons' storylines are improvements on this one. I found that it grew to become most ponderous, with constant unnecessary and disinterestingly slow scans by the camera.

The main male character was also quite boring, with no physical prowess whatsoever. He was utterly ineffectual in terms of 'manly' action or activity.

The concluding episode was just too impossible quite apart from the supernatural element. For one thing, it made no sense that the main character's mother knew to smother him while he lay unconscious in a field ─ you see, by killing her son, his evil childhood twin would be unable to leave whatever hell he existed in. Had he left it, he intended to possess his now-adult twin's body in order to assume his identity.

A few whispered words from the main character's little girl were enough to get this guy's mother to suffocate her adult son as he lay unconscious in a field? She was that willing to embrace this insanity, following the homicidal instructions from her young granddaughter?

I don't bloody think so! It was ridiculous.

Please Channel Zero ─ get better than this.

I want to change topics.

In yesterday's post, I described how I was involved in having my laptop finally get updated from Windows 7 to Windows 10 ─ for free, of course. That process was still underway when I published that post.

Well, it was a success ─ the upgrade occurred without any hitches.

Now I'm wondering if I should uninstall Windows 7 to free up more data space on the laptop.

And I have just now discovered that I won't need to do that ─ an automatic deletion of Windows 7 will happen after 10 days following the upgrade. This is from an article at Support.Microsoft.com titled Delete your previous version of Windows:

Ten days after you upgrade to Windows 10, your previous version of Windows will be automatically deleted from your PC. However, if you need to free up disk space, and you’re confident that your files and settings are where you want them to be in Windows 10, you can safely delete it yourself. Keep in mind that you'll be deleting your Windows.old folder, which contains files that give you the option to go back to your previous version of Windows. Deleting your previous version of Windows can’t be undone. 

And here I've been thinking that ever since upgrading my desktop computer to Windows 10 early in the year, my machine was still burdened with Windows 7 somewhere deep inside its core. I have always been surprised why my computer has been running as effectively as it has with the two operating systems burdening it.

I find this OS deletion to be quite amazing, actually. The majority of computer owners probably wouldn't have done the job for themselves.

And now I want to switch topics yet again.

This past Sunday (August 16, 2020) at 4 a.m. I sent out the following E-mail titled "Coronavirus Irrationality" to over 50 people:

Here’s what can happen when government paranoids take control of you life.

Imagine if you got tested for COVID-19 infection just for the heck of it, and not because you were feeling unwell.

Then the test results indicated that you had the antibodies, and you were told you were going to have to be quarantined ─ self-isolation is no longer sufficient.

This happened to Elizabeth Linscott in Hardin County, Kentucky, a young married mother of a baby. She got tested because she was planning to travel to Michigan to see her parents ─ and her grandparents also wanted to see her.

The health department contacted her and “requested” she sign documents that would limit her from travelling anywhere unless she called the health department first.

In other words, she would be unable to leave home for absolutely any reason at all without first notifying the health department and getting their permission. She could not even nip out to the store or even go next door to have coffee with a neighbour without prior communication with the authorities.

So she declined, and sent a written statement to the health department that read, “I will do my best to stay home, as I do every other time I get sick. But I cannot comply to having to call the public health department everytime that I need to go out and do something. It’s my right and freedoms to go where I please and not have to answer to anyone for it. There is no pandemic and with a survival rate of 99.9998% I’m fine. I will continue to avoid the elderly, just like PRIOR guidelines state, try to stay home, get rest, get medicine, and get better. I decline.”

The title of this brief video news report says what came next:

• Couple under house arrest for not signing coronavirus isolation order

On a related note, there is even movement afoot in the States to make coronavirus vaccination mandatory once an approved version gets released ─ this article is from August 11: Doctors lay out plan to ‘punish’ people who refuse coronavirus vaccine: ‘There is no alternative’.

Do you really think Canada would move in a different direction if this was to happen?

“...don't allow religious or personal objections.…”

Apparently there are more than 200 COVID-19 vaccines in development as drug companies race to be first to develop a successful vaccine and, so far, clinical trials have produced mixed findings.

A science writer by the name of Ethan Siegel even proclaimed that the public should not be looking at any scientific research of any kind ─ we’re too stupid to properly interpret it:

'It’s absolutely foolish to think that you, a non-expert who lacks the very scientific expertise necessary to evaluate the claims of experts, are going to do a better job than the actual, bona fide experts of separating truth from fiction or fraud. When we “do the research for ourselves,” we almost always wind up digging in deeper to our own knee-jerk positions, rather than deferring to the professional opinions of the consensus of experts.'

Also, where coronavirus and vaccines are specifically concerned:

'It means that you need to be humble, and admit that you, yourself, lack the necessary expertise to evaluate the science before you. It means that you need to be brave enough to turn to the consensus of scientific experts and ask, legitimately, what we know at the present stage. And it means you need to be open-minded enough to understand that your preconceptions are quite likely to be wrong in some, many, or possibly even all ways.'

It seems that in this guy’s eyes, most of us are so stupid that when we seek to inform ourselves, we “are quite likely to [be] wrong in some, many, or possibly even all ways.”

So don’t think or form your own opinions and beliefs. Just comply with the “experts” and become part of the blind herd ─ question nothing you are told by the “experts”. It’s the only way you can be assured of not being wrong in “some, many or possibly even all ways.”

Has the long-delayed 1984, then, virtually arrived? 

As I recall, only three people bothered with a response (all favourably). But one of the three got quite animated in his reply:

This whole scamdemic is a farce. Is there a virus? Yes. Is it serious? With a survivability rate of 99.97%, I’m gonna have to go with not really. The worldwide infection rate is 0.003%, with 0.03% of those infected dying. Where I work, we’ve had an “outbreak” of covid. 5 cases out of over 500 staff, clients and support staff. 0.01% infection rate. 3 of the 5 have mild flu like symptoms, the other 2 have the regular flu like symptoms. None are hospitalized. Now mandatory for staff to wear useless cloth masks while working. Did I mention the ones that got infected were training at an off site facility and wore full facemasks and face shields?
 
Client at work was freaking out, saying “OMG, we just hit 20 million cases last week!” To which I replied: “I know, right? Only 40 million more to reach the number of H1N1 cases in the US in 2009.”
 
Long story short, the media and government has gone completely overboard in the overreaction to this “pandemic”. I don’t buy into the huge number of conspiracy theories floating around, but the overreaction, and near police state is far more scary to me than the disease. When I was forced to wear the mask at work, I had a number of supervisors ask me if I was OK, as the could see me struggling with anxiety and breathing with the mask on. I told them no, I couldn’t handle the mask. They told me it was “for my protection”. I told them, bullshit, it’s to placate the clients to make them think we’re doing something to protect them. The masks are useless. I’d rather get the f***ing disease. They left me alone for the rest of the shift.

I replied back:

Amen to everything you said, dear J****!

As far as I'm concerned, it's a ploy to make everyone affiliated with the pharmaceutical industry get fabulously wealthy ─ including those that the industry gets in bed with by getting them to prostitute themselves because they can't resist the money being offered to them.

The 'health authorities' are spewing the same lies and deceit that they have always done where vaccines are concerned ─ that is, that the vaccine is our best defence against catching the disease.

Really? What about a strong immune system? Why aren't they promoting that?

Not a word.

And how often do we hear that obesity ─ even mild obesity ─ escalates the chance of death among the infected? That can't be said ─ being fat is supposed to be perfectly acceptable. Doctors aren't even supposed to tell a patient he or she is obese ─ it's offensive.

I'm sick of the whole damned farce.

I haven't even put on a mask. However, unlike you, I don't need to where my livelihood is concerned.

But what are you going to do once a vaccine gets approved, and you're told by your employer that you have no choice ─ everyone has to get vaccinated? I'm sure that's ahead, sadly.

I understand that Walmart Canada and maybe even Shopper's Drug Mart have mandated that customers have to wear masks. Well, I have no intention of frequenting any business that does this.

Our local transit has mandated masks, but I haven't used a bus or SkyTrain in a few years, so I'm once again unaffected. 

The broad spread of ignorance out there is appalling ─ that's the true pandemic!

Then his final response:

Exactly right, I refuse to wear a mask outside of work, and I bitch and moan about it when I am forced to do it. In fact, they just announced the mandated mask on my last shift for the week. I may be calling in sick for the next couple of weeks. .

Here’s the thing...they won’t tell us who the infected people are, even though everyone has figured it out by process of elimination. Maybe I’ll just have to self quarantine for 2 weeks “just in case”.

When it comes to vaccines, I get a flu shot every year for the last decade or more. It’s voluntary, and I have diabetes and asthma, so I’ll get it. I haven’t had the flu since I started getting it, and have never had any side effects. Make it mandatory, and I will fight it every step of the way.

Now this: Just got an email from the head boss at work telling us all to stay away from groups, or we can be fired. I’ll be in touch with the union, because not only does that sound like a grievance, it sounds like a violation of every Canadian’s right of association, both in terms of Labour, as well as private life. Pretty sure she just bit off more than she can chew.

Here’s another thing: One of the best boosters to our immune system is fresh air, exercise and sunlight. But the “authorities” all want us cowering in the basement. Makes no sense whatsoever.

I’ve lost 60 pounds since I got diagnosed with diabetes, and it’s made it so much easier to control my diabetes. I still only need to take pills, and exercise. I’ve changed my diet a little, but not severely like some people I know. I still have dessert from time to time, just not after every meal. My A1C and blood sugar levels have been well below the danger threshold.

I’ve walked out of restaurants and stores that tell me I need to wear a mask. I had an appointment to get my hair cut. Driving to Kelowna (I live in Penticton, now), they called to confirm the appointment and told me to bring a mask. I told them I’m halfway to Kelowna, and I don’t have a mask. They said that’s OK, you can buy one here. I told them F you, cancel my appointment. She was all offended, I told her I don’t care. I won’t do business that requires a muzzle that doesn’t do anything.

I’m fed up with everything about it.

You notice a large number of TV commercials featuring people wearing masks? More media subversion to make people think it’s “the new normal”. I will boycott any company that jumps on board with that, too.

And finally, me:

I didn't know that you were diabetic ─ or that you had amassed enough weight to be able to lose 60 pounds of it!

From what you tell of your resistance to mandatory face masks, you're quite the staunch freedom fighter! I can easily imagine the consternation at that shop where you were journeying to keep a barbering appointment ─ the sheep out there just can't fathom why anyone would be adverse to this mandated new norm of compulsory face masking. That's probably why you were never even apprised about it when the appointment was first made ─ the clueless person you had first dealt with never even remotely imagined that anyone would have such strong objections about face masks that their face mask policy would merit being brought up as an initial conversational topic.

I can't say that I've noticed commercials yet that feature people wearing face masks ─ I watch T.V. shows via an Android TV Box, however, so I never have to put up with commercials. However, I do often watch some live T.V. by way of both the CBC and the CTV news channels, and I have seen a lot of the on-site news reporters wearing them. If actual commercials are out now as if face masks are indeed the new normal, this is getting truly sad.

I have noticed some buzz concerning the new T.V. season in that face masks are being incorporated right into the storylines that are now being filmed ─ even the futuristic vampire series Van Helsing that my brother and I have thus far followed.

Everyone is just going along with this nonsense as if it can't be helped and there is no other right and sensible choice because, of course, face masks are saving lives ─ yours, mine, and everyone around us we may come in contact with.

What rot.

And so many people don't even understand their application. I'm still seeing people wearing them who are out on an early morning walk in Nature settings ─ by early, I mean well before 7 a.m. There's no one else around them! Why the hell are they wearing a mask?

Your point about the essentialness of fresh air, activity, and sunlight in maintaining a strong immunity is spot on! Keeping holed up in one's home when no one is displaying any indication of being sick is beyond folly.

I even question those news reports that claim there's an upsurge in young people coming down with the virus because of their defiance and persistence in attending open-air bashes of one kind or another ─ I especially disbelieve that young people partying at some hot beach can be blamed for any so-called spread.

I think it's propaganda ─ lies. And just what level of 'coming down with the virus' or 'infections' are we talking about? Are these young people ending up bed-ridden? Or are test results just happening to be finding more and more young people with antibodies, for example?

That suggests to me the presence of a natural immunity. You can't be sick with the virus if you feel perfectly normal and will never be suffering any of the symptoms.

Every once in a while we do hear stories of a 'perfectly healthy' relatively young person falling deathly ill. But by whose standard was the person perfectly healthy? Just because people are walking around and don't have any obvious diseases doesn't mean that they are in the peak of good health. Vitamin D levels are a great example ─ half the population have low levels, if articles like this one are on the right track.

But of course, the sort of levels being considered are those that are sufficient to prevent the symptoms of clinical deficiencies such as rickets. That's not good enough ─ we need far more vitamin D than an amount that can comfortably prevent any sign of rickets if we truly want to enjoy robust health.

I bet everyone who is supposedly healthy who otherwise falls ill from SARS-CoV-2 would be deemed to have low blood levels of vitamin D if they were actually checked, but doctors don't normally look for that sort of thing.

Some doctors who do happen to be conscious about vitamin D's role in robust health recommend ─ for folks who aren't getting exposed to lots of sunlight in those months when the Sun is strong enough to generate vitamin D in the skin ─ supplementing with at least 4,000 I.U.s of vitamin D3. One doctor I am familiar with (Dr. Marc S. Micozzi) even touts 10,000 I.U.s of vitamin D3.

And apparently supplementation with magnesium and vitamin K2 reduces the actual amount of vitamin D3 supplementation that a person would need because magnesium and vitamin K2 help marshall the vitamin to best advantage.  

But I'm getting a little off track here. I was just thinking in terms of the value of sunlight and how we shouldn't be hibernating from it under house arrest because 'health authorities' say that's what we absolutely must comply with to avoid infecting ourselves and everyone else with COVID-19.

Anyway, I've railed on long enough ─ I see that it's 3:34 a.m. at this point, so I'm going to call it quits for now.

I hope you're getting a good night's sleep!

 

As I was working on those E-mail exchanges, formatting them for this post, my bad right eye suddenly started to react with alarming peculiarity.

It happened just after 6 p.m. as the Sun suddenly began dominating the outdoors ─ the window to this room is directly behind my computer. And although there is a closed curtain covering it, the brilliance after two days of sunless weather must have initiated an adverse reaction with my eye.

The entire upper field of my vision went into total shadow. It was not total darkness as if I suddenly went blind there, but it was such a dense cloud-like curtain that I could no more see anything through it than one would be able to see through a thickly overcast night sky to discern any stars above.

Nothing was visible ─ it was solid grey.

There was also a sense of strain to the eye. 

I immediately betook myself from my computer and then after some thought, I decided to tackle four sets of bent-over knee curls using a 43½-pound dumbbell that I have ─ I performed four sets of curls alternating with each arm.

I'm 70 years old, so I have to practically hurl the weight up with each curl, but the sets included reps in this order: 10 - 9 - 8 - 7.

My thinking was that the sheer strain of this effort would help drive some vital fluids into my eye and help rejuvenate it.

Well, whether or not that did the trick, or whether the break from my computer screen and the bright sunlight outside was the ticket, I seem back to what passes for normalcy for me.

But I don't wish to tempt a recurrence, so I am going to bring this post to a close.

Will my brother be home by 8:30 p.m., thereby compelling me to sit up late this evening operating our Android TV Box?

Or will he even be one minute beyond that point in time, thereby breaking the unspoken curfew that I have in place for him?

In the latter scenario, then I will have naught to do with him and T.V. ─ it will be an early evening for me.

There needs to be some cut-off ─ so I have it at 8:30 p.m. I don't like sitting up until midnight, and to start watching shows after 8:30 p.m. definitely makes for a late evening of things.

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