Oh Brother!

After lying awake at one point in the night as I awaited my 3 a.m. cellphone alarm, I began wondering if it was near enough to that hour that I could just get up then to ready for my six-block walk to work my bad right leg.

Imagine my consternation to not only check the time and find it to be 4:17 a.m., but my cellphone was claiming that it had been sounding its alarm ever since 3 a.m. ─ but it was not making any sound whatsoever!

I rose, unsure what to do. By the time I readied for my outing and got away, there could well be others on foot out there ─ early-bird commuters.

Finally I decided that I should at least walk about the cul-de-sac I live in, so I got ready to check that out.

I was to find my wife's car absent, so I knew that she hadn't come home.

Once I was outside, I expanded my possible walk somewhat, and opted to risk a rectangular route of maybe two or even three blocks ─ so potentially, half of my normal walk. Even so, I was to see two other pedestrians ─ one was a young chap who had already passed by the intersection I was approaching, but he was travelling in the opposite direction that I was to take.

Then just over halfway along, someone approaching another intersection and who was coming from the direction I would be walking proved to be a young South Asian woman yapping on her lit-up cellphone, so she was no negative experience, involved as she was with her device.

And soon I was back home.

By the time I had returned to bed, I expect that it was well past 6 a.m., but I am unsure if ever I actually slept. I was up again and seated here at my bedside computer when my younger brother emerged from his bedroom no later than 8 a.m. to watch some morning T.V. while drinking instant coffee. I had already taken the first of my day's usual three mugs of coffee.

As is also usual, I did not join my brother until after 9 a.m., by which time he was surfeited with his usual morning programming available on our T.V.'s basic cable package.

At being invited to begin operating our Android TV Box, I led us off with two relatively short videos uploaded earlier today to YouTube's AnitaK channel:

⭕ Buttons, Brutality and Bank Freezing (20:40)

My comments on Button Gate, a brutal police assault by an independent journalist all caught on tape by Rebel News, Alexa Lavoie. Another bank account freezing by Vancity. Viva goes on Jimmy Dore and trash talks Pierre and the conservatives.

⭕ The Pierre moment that left me verklempt. (7:41)

A clip that moved me quite a bit as Pierre Poilievre opened up about his special needs daughter.

I confess that I felt let down by Anita in both videos because I do not trust the Conservative Party ─ I never have. Historically they always proved themselves as unpalatable as the Liberals anytime they came into power ─ this is why political party terms in government always come to an end. So I am getting tired of her focus on boosting them, and doing nothing else in her videos.

Next I tuned in the latest video at Rumble's Stew Peters Network channel, but it was even more disappointing ─ I refuse to even cite it.

Then it was on to a six-minute (6:21) video uploaded September 25, 2024, to YouTube's Ember channel: EPIC South Dakota HIKE : NOT the BADLANDS.

I woke up in “Paha Sapa”, home to the Lakota and Dakota nations, ancestral and sacred land for many Native American Tribes.

Commonly known as Black Hills National Forest, this unique geographic area in South Dakota holds many mineral deposits, of which I noticed mica, rose quartz, and black tourmaline.

Rugged rock formations, canyons and gulches, open grasslands, tumbling streams, deep blue lakes, and caves stud the land. On my hike I saw deer and turkey vultures, among other birds, and squirrels.

I hiked an epic loop trail with breathtaking views of rocky spires, then on the way down I walked through aspen groves and fields. I noticed patches of mullein growing where the earth had been disturbed. After my hike, I cooked a meal on my camp stove and headed towards my next adventure.

I'm liking this bold cutie, but I honestly do not believe that she is entirely by herself. There's gotta be some unseen dude there with her, probably wielding the camera.

The final video I tuned in had to be postponed for another day once we were well into it because my brother wordlessly went out into the backyard to prepare for the year's first mowing of the back and front lawns.

I had a delicious hot, thick soup I had heated up comprised of two of my wife's leftover dishes, so I took that upstairs here to my bedside computer just in time to avoid Bev's emergence from their bedroom to begin her long day of nothing but T.V.-watching.

My brother even managed to nip off and restock on beer, and possibly another four-litre box of the white wine Bev likes, but she does not often bother herself to accompany him when he does any shopping.

Then when he was all done, he evidently left on foot to catch a bus and begin his usual daily social drinking somewhere.

It was a very sunny day, and I had thought that I might sit out in the backyard to benefit from it; but Bev's omnipresence in the living room in full view of the stairs makes me reluctant to use them because I do not in the least care to provide a spectacle as the cripple I now am makes his way laboriously down the stairs.

She makes me feel cooped up. I wish she wasn't so feeble at 59 years of age and would go out with my brother instead of making the living room her home for most of the day, each and every day.

Although I had my usual early afternoon nap, sitting cramped up here at this computer wore out my eyes so drastically that I had to darken my bedroom and return to bed with a blindfold for at least half an hour.

After that I was able to rally and use my absent wife's bedroom to try and improve my weak right leg ─ or at least give it some hopefully beneficial working.

My brother returned home this evening not too much shy of 8:30 p.m. As far as I was concerned, it was too late for my involvement with him ─ better he and Bev share their drunken enjoyment of whatever basic cable programming might offer them.

I shut myself up into my bedroom and found a source for an episode of FBI: International ─ episode 10 ("Red Light") of season three. It was absorbing from the start; and towards its conclusion, two different scenes had my eyes burning with some emotion.

My flawless source was this GOOJARA.to link.

Unfortunately I found the evening to be a bit too early at circa 9:30 p.m. Mulling over what to entertain myself with next, I finally decided that another regular series was just too long to drag out a second can of Cariboo Malt ─ I can tease down the first one, but the second is no longer a treat and I am inclined to drink with a little more disregard.

So I selected Cybill ─ episode 17 ("Oh Brother!") of season four. Darned if it didn't have a touching scene that affected me emotionally ─ Cybill recollecting the only time she ever met her (half?) brother, an occasion captured in a photo from an old publicity shot at a movie theatre.

My source was this uFlix.to link, but it did launch an unwanted advertisement window (not a tab) in my browser.

That second beer brought my supply down to a mere half dozen, so I must needs involve myself when next my brother restocks, but I will need to venture the necessity of accompaniment beforehand, for he practically never alerts me when he's going off to do any shopping. Ideally, it would be grand to know the day before.

Anyway, it's late enough for bed. I will have one final visitation to the toilet, and be set. At present, it is 10:33 p.m.