As has been happening a lot of late, it was during the first half of the midnight hour last night that I found myself awake enough to be checking the time. I think that I may have lain there afterwards until something like 12:50 a.m. before choosing to rise instead of awaiting my 1:30 a.m. alarm to get me up to ready for my planned five-mile+ walk.
My younger brother was still watching T.V. downstairs, and did not seek his bedroom for the night until maybe 1:30 a.m. Even so, that did not exactly free things up for me ─ my eldest stepson took advantage of my brother's vacation of the living room, and set himself up at the dining table to watch videos on his laptop.
I had remained behind my bedroom's closed door, so no one was aware that I was up.
An online check for the temperature hereabouts yielded the claim of 7.5° Celsius (45.5° F.), but around the time that my brother went to his bedroom, I could hear rain outside.
And so I packed my umbrella, as well as ski gloves and my Titan baton flashlight stun gun.
When I was all set to go, my fully clothed weight was up as much as 192 pounds ─ rather discouraging, but I had missed out on any activity for two full days.
It was 1:47 a.m. by the time I had sneaked outside to avoid notice by my stepson. It was only slightly spitting some rain, and even that was to cease and remain so.
Possibly the rain had only been a passing shower that was designed to wet the playground equipment at the elementary school playground three or four blocks from here where I would be stopping for a half dozen sets of pull-ups and chin-ups.
When I did get there, I took the time to wipe dry a couple of the metal jungle gym monkey bars, and to my pleasant surprise I was able to open with five and then two pull-ups in the first two sets; three and then two chin-ups in the middle two sets; and a pair of pull-ups between two bars in both of the final two sets. I held the very last pull-up for a 20-count.
Then it was over to a cement ramp for 11 slow full-range push-ups in a declined posture.
There was only one event during my walk that was notable.
If the link to this Google Map remains valid, I was walking 'up' Quibble Creek Greenway from Fraser Highway and was bound for 100th Avenue. I never bothered to turn on my Titan, but I was carrying it 'just in case', for Quibble Creek Greenway is unlit and one never knows who (or what) one might encounter.
I had progressed a short distance beyond a very short spur of the Greenway that leads to 138A Street when it seemed to me that there was some peculiar flickering being reflected about me, as if from a Christmas display at one of the nearby apartment buildings; but none of the decorated balconies I had noticed sported blinking lights.
I turned about and was startled to see a couple of unusual lights behind me that may have attained the Greenway from that aforementioned spur. But one light was red; a companion light some other colour, maybe blue.
Thus, not anyone's flashlight.
I heard no voices, but clearly there were two different light sources. Might one or more people be coming along the Greenway on those powered scooters that are so popular which require the operators to stand upon as if on a skateboard?
I did not care to betray my awareness, so I swiftly turned about and headed for 100th Avenue with a more serious stride.
At one point when I was near that avenue and had not yet been overtaken, I looked back, but there were no lights in sight, and I could see all the way back to Fraser Highway.
What the deuce had gone on? I have before seen a few times someone distantly on the Greenway using a bright flashlight and who has been with a couple of companion lights. Whomever that was, he (or possibly she) seems to walk a pair of dogs that are each harnessed with lights ─ one of the dogs in red, the other in blue.
I always detour rather than encounter this grouping in the night.
Was perhaps that same party accessing the Greenway from the spur leading to 138A Street? Maybe the dogs had run ahead of their owner, and that is why I did not see a flashlight.
It is odd, though, that no trace of a light was in sight when I looked back that second time. Maybe the dogs' owner was not even intending to come onto the Greenway, and the two dogs had simply run onto it from 138A Street before they were called back.
It was rather creepy.
Anyway, I had my walk, with the usual little bit of 'old man' jogging along forested 96th Avenue between 148th Street and Green Timbers Way (Google Map) when thew sparse traffic would allow; and it was 3:41 a.m. by the time I was back home, the house by then in darkness.
I was to get caught up in composing a lengthy E-mail to an Edmonton cousin (Doug S.), with the consequence that it was at least 5:44 a.m. before I made my return to bed.
I later checked the time upon realizing that it was quite light outside, for I wondered if my younger brother was downstairs watching T.V. and wondering when the heck I was going to get up and come to put our Android TV Box into operation.
The time? It was 10:30 a.m. ─ even 9:30 a.m. was unusually late, so this was unheard of!
Well, he was not home ─ he had already left earlier to pick up his girlfriend Bev and drive her to work. I was to have time enough before his return to locate a couple of videos for play and to get some water heating up for an instant coffee ere he did return.
I love little Anita Krishna! So when I saw that she had a new 9½-minute (9:35) video out that she added yesterday to her Rumble AKStraightSpeaks channel, I led us off with it: A Little 'Network' rant for the end 2023.
After that we only had time for a 1¼-hour (1:18:53) upload to YouTube's ENDEVR channel: Jesus Town, USA: Where Christ Dies and Rises Once a Year | ENDEVR Documentary.
For 88 years, a small Oklahoma town has pantomimed a passion play on a bizarre reproduction of Jerusalem built into the Wichita foothills.
Jesus Town, USA is a light-hearted and comedic documentary chronicling the journey of a 100-strong amateur cast, a dozen horses, and very devout community. Once boasting audiences of over 200,000 the Pageant now struggles to find any audience at all. When the man playing Jesus for 8 years retires, his replacement, a long-standing member of the cast, has a secret he is hiding from everyone.
The journey from casting to opening night is a real-life ‘Waiting for Guffman’ set in the heart of Oklahoma. With endearing characters, quirky humour, and stunning cinematography, Jesus Town, USA documents a town grappling with questions of tradition, legacy, and what it means to be a community.
I see now that the documentary was originally released in 2014, but it was still quite enjoyable. Even my brother did not gripe.
I think that I located Zack's Facebook account, but I won't broadcast it here. (Zack was a main personality in the documentary.)
My brother sought some bed rest when the documentary ended, for it was just into the noon hour. I had a fairly light meal and then returned to bed for a nap. My brother was gone for the day when I was finished.
I want to record here that had my brother not been here today ─ that is, if he had spent the night somewhere else and would not be here in the latter morning ─ I would have followed my early walk with a Christmas movie and some drink. The mood was strong for both.
Then I would have gotten back to bed.
I believe that it was just ahead of 4 p.m. this afternoon that my wife showed up. I was at work blogging. I took a break around 5 p.m. to undergo some exercising in my absent brother's bedroom. So I am pleased to have been able to return to that activity after laying off over the three-day Christmas period.
Were my wife not home as of this latter afternoon, I would have headed out early this evening on another hike instead of having to get to bed before 10 p.m. so that I can rise by 1:30 a.m. to take on another late night venture as occurred last night. These wee a.m. outings can be exceptionally disruptive to one's sleep cycle.
Even mine, despite keeping oddball hours like this since the latter 1960s.
I was to finally have one can of Cariboo Malt (8% alcohol) today ─ my slightest alcohol intake in some days. I've noticed a touch of heartburn the past couple or so days, a sign that maybe the hard liquor is being unkind.
I had the can of beer early this evening while watching an episode of Batwoman ─ episode 15 ("Armed and Dangerous") of season two. I suppose that I could still have tackled an evening walk ─ my wife and I only had a single conversational exchange in all the while that she has been home today, so it is not at all as if we are socializing and keeping one another company; but I supped rather well prior to that beer, and doing so is always inhibitory. I would be unable to take on any exercising; and the walk itself might even initiate indigestion.
And so to bed relatively early, and another nighttime walk.
Taneth Gimenez
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