Who's Ready for Christmas?

26 Nov 23

08:00 hrs 

     Well Campers, there is only a month left until Christmas. Have you completed your shopping? Is your tree set up? Is the house decorated with lights and shiny things? At the moment the lights have not been put up at the Wayward Inn. But, I'm going to get started on in and I'm going to recruit the two Couch Monkeys in the task. My Lobster always wanted our place to be illuminated just like the Griswold house. It will be bright but not that bright.

01 Dec 23

16:00 hrs

     Hello Kidlettes, 

     Well, the lights are up at the Wayward Inn. It looks pretty good. I want to put up some more and I do have more to put up. Just looking to find the time. My Lobster and I are looking ahead and since there is nothing bur fear and common sense to stop us we have gone ahead and booked a couple of trips South to get away from the crappy wet stuff that inundates the Valley at this time of year. 

     George Poerrgy Santos has been evicted from the Hugh-ess Congress for a whole whack of stuff, the least of which was falsifying - nee lying through his teeth - his own personal life history. The illegal use of campaign donations to pay for botox injections was just another unethical transgression. It only took just over a year to punt his ass out. Funny how the MAGA-Maniacs still won't dump the Orange Jesus who has been indicted four times on ninety-one charges including the attempt to overthrow the government. Crazy shit!

03 Dec 23

08:15 hrs

     It's a really shit day outside. The wind is whipped up and the rain is driving hard. A typical winter day on the Left Coast. My Friend from Over the Hump and his Lobster are on a long duration boat ride around the Med. We had thought of undertaking such a trip but in truth the cost and the notion of living on a floating petri dish for a couple of weeks is not something we would relish.

     About a week ago I received a gift from my meds supplier. I didn't even know it was coming. Free. Gratis. Welcomed. Ot was a hat. A fur hat with drop down ear flaps. l like it. It's so snuggly. And when I wear it at work I'm sure there will be a couple - one for sure - grumpy bastards who will scream that I can't wear it because I'll be out of uniform. Hmmm...bite me! This one guy is the same clown who chided me for wearing my Santa hat last year. 

     It turns out that several weather systems have begun to hammer the Left Coast. This is great because in recent years our snow pack has not been as deep as it used to be. In past years the local ski hill would have a base of over 1000 cm. That's 10 metres or greater than 30 feet. Allow that snow meant that the slow melt through the spring would greatly reduce the chances of a large scale forest fire during the summer and fall.

     When we were in la Belle Provence our host had a surprise for me. It was a container of creton - a regional dish made of ground pork and/or veal that is simmered with aromatic herbs and cream until it is a smooth spread. It was actually for everyone but no one except myself and our host enjoyed it. Chef Blaine recreated a reasonable facsimile here at the Wayward Inn. Of course no one else has ventured to try it. Good. More for me.

     I saw that the Nation's Capital got whacked with their first big snowfall. Something like 15 cm. It may have been more. I've seen what the traffic is like there and that amount of the white stuff will not be pretty. On another point it would appear that our PM is also falling...in the polls that is. It would appear that after ten years of his leadership the populace may be ready for a change and this has been largely driven by his singular objective of averting climate change in the Great White North to the detriment of the average taxpayer.

07 Dec 23

04:45 hrs

     "Today is the Day of Infamy!" Those were the words broadcasted in 1941 shortly after the Hugh-ess naval base in Pearl Harbour was attacked by Japanese carrier aircraft killing thousands of people. It's something to think about with all of the conflicts going on in today's world. It sure seems that things have gotten worse not better since WWII. 

     When does a person recognize their age? The other night my Better Half and I watched Grumpy Old Men. It's an excellent movie starring Jack Lemon, Walter Matthau and Anne Margret. A laugh a minute. I've seen the movie many times and was one of my Dad's faves too. When you watch a movie for the first time you may not pick up on everything and it's only after seeing it a couple of times when key points hit home. For example, the characters are all elderly retirees and at one point it is stated that Lemon's character is 68 years of age. My Better Half pointed out that his character is less than 10 years older than I am. Another point? Did you ever watch All in the Family? How old was Archie Bunker supposed to be? Any guesses? When the show first started he was supposed to be 50 years old. I am now older than one of the TVs first Grumpy Old Men. Maybe I should just go fishing.

Who knew?

07 Nov 23

12:00 hrs

     Well Campers, it's time for another installment of the tales from the Left Coast. 

     It would seem that an individual on the far side of the Rock is in real deep ca ca for killing a mom and juvenile bruin who happened to be up a tree in his yard. They weren't threatening or anything else but he decided to take action. As described by the witnesses the perp firsts used a long bow and then a crossbow to kill both bruins (in a residential neighborhood). The King's Cowboys arrived he stated that he knew nothing about it. Except for the fact that the two witnesses had even called out to him while he was carrying out the deed. His sentence included thousands of dollars in fines, 30 days in the hoosegow,  a ten year ban on hunting and a ten year ban on firearm possession. An idiot, to say the least. He even tried the self defense angle. Nope. Testimony from the wits shot that down too. 

     The USAF is thinking about removing the 105 mm laser guided short barrel howitzer cannon from the AC-130 Ghostrider gunships in favour of some pylon mounted ant-radar cruise missiles, which, in their opinion, would be more effective. Mounting missiles on a Herc? Why not!? I once saw a Brit Jaquar fighter with Sidewinder missiles mounted on rails that were on top of the wings. Crazy!

10 Nov 23

07:00 hrs

     I remember when I was younger, and at a time when I believed that I was invincible, I could/would, at times, consume mass quantities of libations and as a result of my stupidity would suffer from gut wrenching reverse paristalsis while enjoying comfort of the cool floor next to the Great White telephone. Now, I can laugh at my past stupidity only because I survived. Recently, our eldest Couch Monkey found himself in the same situation after indulging in some Devil's Lettuce and an online drinking game with a few virtual friends. From what my Lobster told me, the sounds emanating from the washroom were most concerning to Jack the Mall Cop who sat by the door wondering what kind of beast was dying just three feet away. For the next couple of days our son had a head like a ten pound Smartie! 

     Bwaa Haa Haa! 

     The folly of youth!

     Tomorrow is Remembrance Day here in the Great White North. Did you know that it is not a National Holiday? Federal government employees recieve the day off work as do some provinces. But not all areas of the Great White North observe the sacrifices made our military service members. My Better Half and I will probably attend the local ceremony, listen to the words of solace for the fallen and the words of promise to end all wars while thoughts turn to the current conflicts across the globe that are still claiming lives.

14 Nov 23

04:30 hrs

     We attended the Remembrance Day ceremony and you know you're getting old when you start to recognize names of the fallen. Later we celebrated the Sr. Couch Monkeys birthday. Elric and his Lobster came over for the festivities. 

     Chef Blaine spotted the remnants of a Big Box Store chicken in the fridge and decided to make a pot of chicken soup. It turned out pretty good and the recipe was written down to be included in the cookbook. My Lobster had asked me several times if I was going to put in a stir fry recipe. It was an interesting notion but as there are a million ways of doing a stir fry I elected to simply focus on the procedures because the ingredients can be changed.

18 Nov 23

07:30 hrs

     My Lobster and I are planning for some holidays. Some in country and some out of country. Some to see family and some not. We're looking forward to it. Stay tuned for our destinations.

     So, do you think the Hugh-ess is going to enter into a Civil War 2.0? It all hangs on what happens to the Orange Shit-gibbon. I think that it is possible If Trumpy is  convicted and jailed or he loses the next election or if he wins the next election. There are just too many radicals with too many guns. 

     And the idiocy doesn't stop at the border. With the current state of extreme unrest in the Holy Land the antisemitic rhetoric has increased in the Hugh-ess and unfortunately here in tbe Great White North. Jewish shops have been damaged and individuals have been attacked. At the source, each side is guilty of some pretty bad stuff but that is no excuse for carrying out atrocities here. Are we not supposed to look for solutions that will bring about peace? Some have suggested having UN Peacekeepers be put in place. A nice thought but it only works if both sides want peace. And besides, the Israelis are pretty pig headed and will act decisively entirely in their favour. About ten years or more ago there were some Hezbollah fighters sheltering near a UN observation post in the Golan Heights. The UN Observers knew it and so did the Israelis. The Hezbollah had been conducting raids against Jewish settlements and then snuggling up to the UN Observation Camp knowing the IDF couldn't touch them. Wrong. Without warning, the IDF shelled the UN post with heavy artillery taking out the Hezbollah fighters and the UN Peacekeepers. So sorry. 

19 Nov 23

07:45 hrs

     It's Grey Cup Day. As much as I like the CFL, I only take time to watch the final game of the year. The Couch Monkeys don't follow sports teams. They get that from me. Is that a bad thing? Maybe it is. I enjoy watching baseball and football but I'm not a rabid fan like some people I know who follow a player's career and track a team's stats. There was a pencil-necked kid in my apartment block, some 40 years ago, who kept a notebook to track every goal scored in every Canuck hockey game. He recorded who made what goal at what point in the game assisted by who and against what goalie. He also tracked penalties incurred as well. He kept books on similar stats for the BC Lions too. We called him Whitey because he spent so much time compiling the data that he was rarely exposed sunlight. In the end, I think he probably evolved into a mushroom.