A Pilot Uplift

Although I failed to get to bed last evening by 10 p.m., I was still unable to sleep until my 3 a.m. cellphone alarm set to get me up for my outing to the nearby elementary school playground.

I used the toilet around 2 a.m. (my youngest stepson was still up) and tried for a little further sleep; but when it was futile and I checked the time around 2:49 a.m., I of course rose then. Fortunately I did not feel any worse than I would have had I slept.

As I slowly readied, but also spent time here at my bedside computer, a text arrived from my youngest stepson at 3:32 a.m. saying that he would transfer a contribution tomorrow to go towards the mortgage, and he also said that there were some takeout chicken and fries downstairs in the kitchen for me.

I am certain that I had heard it very lightly raining, but I was going to hobble to the playground anyway.

When I left, it was raining just enough to prevent anything from drying off.

As I proceeded through the short alleyway beside our house that connects our cul-de-sac with a main avenue ─ the alley is blocked with concrete Jersey barriers at our end preventing vehicular traffic from using it, and has three right angle turns to it ─ at the last stretch was a car creeping about suspiciously. The driver may have driven in thinking that he could use the alley; but whatever the case, the car had turned around and could have left, but it was just sitting there with engine running and lights on as I approached.

I hate 𝔰𝔥𝔦𝔱 like this ─ I want my damned privacy! But I had to walk that final stretch of the alleyway with the car's headlights fully spotlighting me from behind, completely robbing me of my anonymity.

As I hobbled towards the main avenue, the headlights had illuminated an owl fluttering about at the mouth of the alleyway, and then it rose up and was sitting on the powerlines just above the sidewalk on that side of the avenue. I was to have to hobble right beneath the bird. I did so as if I was unaware of its presence. Happily, I had on a baseball-style cap with a long bill (or visor or peak), so I was only slightly uneasy about the owl being the cranky sort that might have swooped down at my shaven scalp.

Anyway, at the school I could not wipe the monkey bar dry for long that I would be using for pull-ups and chin-ups, but that isn't of much importance anymore due to how few repetitions I am capable of in my enfeebled old age.

I had weighed myself before leaving so that I would know my fully clothed body weight, so I was working with a total of 190 pounds (incidentally, stripped fully naked yesterday afternoon for a bath, I was barely a sliver under 180 pounds).

Opening with a set of pull-ups, I only managed three, and so I had two more sets of just one pull-up in each. Then it was two sets of chin-ups with two repetitions in each; and the same for two sets of pull-ups between a pair of half-rings, but those took all I had and were not exemplary.

Then back at the monkey bar, I think I only held a dead hang for a 40-count.

And after going over to the nearby metal ramp, to manage 10 full-range decline push-ups, I probably had to rest with arms straightened out for as long as 10 seconds to complete each of the final three of those.

Upon hobbling back home, I believe that it was around 6:21 a.m. before I returned to bed. My youngest stepson was still up.

I never remained in bed quite two hours, correctly expecting that my younger brother was likely downstairs watching T.V news. Nevertheless, I waited until maybe 9:15 a.m. before joining him, and by then he was ready to invite me to operate our Android TV Box.

The first video I tuned in was 25 minutes (25:50) and had been uploaded yesterday to YouTube's AnitaK challenge: "Manufacturing Consent, The Psychological Assault on Canadians, with John Carpay.

Manufacturing Consent
https://www.jccf.ca/new-report-warns-...

In this interview, we dig into Manufacturing Consent—Canadian-style. For more than a decade, the Government of Canada has quietly built a behavioural-influence machine inside the Privy Council Office: the Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU). Modelled after the U.K.’s Behavioural Insights Team, this unit tests psychological messaging, nudges public reactions, and helps steer Canadians toward “acceptable” opinions on everything from climate policy to Covid mandates.

We break down how these tactics work, why you’ve never heard about them, and what it means for democracy, free speech, and informed consent in Canada. If you want to understand how governments shape narratives without ever passing a law, this interview is a must-watch.

My next video choice exceeded an hour (1:11:58) and was published November 25 to Rumble's Bonobo3D channel: Farmers Protest - Pit Stop Rally.

A convoy from Hope BC headed to a rally at Vancouver's Kitsilano Beach (Nov. 22/25) in protest of the recent brutal and senseless killing, by the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency), of over 300 ostriches in Edgewood, B.C.

Our final video was what remained after we had watched 28 minutes of an old movie yesterday ─ 1959's The World, the Flesh and the Devil.

My source had been published February 19, 2022, to BitChute's ittabena channel: The World, The Flesh And The Devil 1959.

I'm sure my brother and I must have seen the movie at some point (we're both in our 70s), but neither of us could recall it specifically.

The two major problems for us concerning its realism is the absence of any bodies. And the ending ─ are we to assume the three go off and start their own tribe with Inger Steven's character sharing the two men as her mates?

I recall Inger Stevens to some degree, but I was surprised to read that she died at the age of 35, supposedly from barbiturate poisoning, although this has always seemed a tad mysterious.

My brother returned to his bedroom for further bed rest at the movie's conclusion. I had eaten the food my youngest stepson had left me, doing so right after I was back from my ¾-mile round trip hobble to the school playground for exercise there. The fare was a boxed meal for one from Popeyes. It comprised a crispy piece of chicken (likely a thigh section), a fair amount of French fries, and two baking soda-style biscuits.

It was amazingly filling!

So I was able to seek my early afternoon nap during the first half of the noon hour, and was abed until maybe 1:30 p.m., only reluctantly rising because I had missed out the two previous days on the usual light exercising I try to engage when my wife's bedroom is available (she did not come home last night). I don't use the blinding electric light; so due to how early it gets dark now ─ 4:30 p.m. is impossible, and even 4 p.m. is pushing matters ─ I wanted time for my day's second mug of hot instant coffee before the exercise.

All has gone according to plan. As I type these words at 6:36 p.m., I have even had a rather filling supper ─ the last of fare my wife had previously brought home from the Thai restaurant where she works part-time.

For the second consecutive evening now I am without any beer, so I am going to watch a Christmas movie while sipping Jack Daniels Black Extra-Aged Bourbon ─ I think I have maybe two shots of the stuff remaining in the bottle.

🟪🟪🟪

My choice was 2018's Marrying Father Christmas. First, though, when I realized that it was the third in a trilogy of Father Christmas movies, I had to research to ensure that I had in previous years watched the first two ─ and I had.

I adore lead actress Erin Krakow! That gorgeous long chin of hers, and that 'mouthful of teeth' ─ she is uniquely beautiful to me.

And I just watched another Christmas movie of hers two days ago!

I have to complain about my movie sources, though. I tried a few, and they all seemed to use the same primary source, for each of them would occasionally buffer for maybe a second and then jump ahead by a few seconds. It didn't happen often, but enough to sometimes be annoying when conversations were occurring. It happened twice when the couple were making their marriage vows during their wedding.

My ultimate source was this MovieZone.tv link. Each of the sources I tried indicated the movie length to be barely shy of an hour and 24 minutes, whereas IMDb lists the movie as being an hour and 27 minutes, leaving me to conclude that those buffering stutters wiped out about four minutes of the movie in total.

I had a little difficulty holding myself to just a shot of bourbon, but all else I have on hand here in my bedroom is a 2020 bottle of a Wayne Gretzky (Wayne Gretzky Estates) red wine. It seems criminal to be drinking that down entirely on my own instead of sharing it with someone.

When I tuned in my second and final show, it was so darned good I could barely fight back the urge to open the wine. The show was the "Pilot" episode of Stargirl ─ I loved it! Looks like actress Brec Bassinger is now within the huge scope of actresses I am a fan of for one reason or another.

This show deeply touched me more than did Marrying Father Christmas. I have always wanted to be a hero.

My video source was this GOOJARA.to link.

Right now it is 10:53 p.m., and I will not be setting my cellphone alarm for any earlier than 6 a.m. when I get to bed ─ and I hope that's no later than 11:30 p.m. We'll see. I still have to brush my teeth and wrap up a few things here on my computer.