Category: ‘Fun’ with Frustration? –

Yesterday’s News?

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Thursday, March 15th, 2018 —> -2˚C / +28˚F & not snowing in the dark @ 11:11 pm in Atlantic Canada —

Lights on Wellington Court

– I don’t know if it’s me – Or are there higher vibrations effecting the way we all see things lately – Even the streetlight and house lights on our street look a bit more magical. –

— We got something like 2 feet of wind-blown hard-packed heavy-wet-snow in our driveway overnight, and the stuff was so hard to deal with the snowblower was squawking and trying to go up and over the snow instead of through it – every three or four inches the darned thing would feel like it hit something solid – It really was a struggle. Our next door neighbour, who’s lived around here all her life came over and asked me, “Have you ever seen snow that was this hard to work with a snowblower?” { Nope }

— I had to stop several times to rest – and at one point, did not think I would be able to finish the job. We had to take a break to go get more gas for the snowblower – pushing hard and then pulling back and pushing again ( even though the thing is powered – when you hold down the lever on the handle -). Wheels were spinning and going nowhere.

Snowing - driveway, partially cleared van.

– Late morning – the snow hadn’t quite stopped – Doesn’t look like much, but the ridge left by the town’s contracted out snow plows was deadly. – and the four inches of compacted snow that hadn’t blown over the van in the impressive wind – probably weighed as much as a foot or more would have. –

— I fell asleep after we went to get more gasoline – woke up around 5:30 pm? & wanted to go back to sleep in a big way, but decided to give the driveway’s messed up edges another try –

— It turned out that using a lightweight snow shovel ( plastic ‘business end’? ) was a lot easier than going absolutely nuts with the snowblower ( & all the guys in my family die of heart attacks… eep? )

— But I got the job done.

— Almost forgot to mention, Cathi was able to work from home today – She gets more done this way & doesn’t have to deal with ‘schnarr’ office politix – And it’s always good to have her here. Even when I keep being told not to bother her with casual conversation – oops – But when I think something’s important lately I want to blurt it out before I forget it.

— Shrug —

Finally cleared the driveway as dark approached.

– It wasn’t snowing, but it was starting to get dark when I finished the driveway in pretty much the shape you see here –

— I did dig a canyon to the mail box ( the mailbox is wearing the number “5” here ) after I took this photo. and then, before I collapsed, but was about to, I saw that Cathi was finished with her last minute work stuff and brought her outside to show her a couple things, and that’s when I took the un-retouched photo at the top of this article. I love my iPhone. Just wish it saved the photos with the date and time instead of just the number for a name.

— Sigh —

 

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— That was yesterday, I felt pretty good after the bit of a workout with the shovel – which didn’t quite survive intact, it’s splitting at the semi-tubular – um – corrugations? – That look like they’re supposed to be a reinforcing, strength-enhancing feature? Looks like maybe one more deceptive bit of planned obsolescence engineering to me.

 

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— Meanwhile, our game world developmental spurt is going “gang-busters” – And today in a brain storming session one of our artists took a look at what we’ve been doing and said, “Yeah, it’s pretty – and some of those quirky innovations you came up with to hide flaws really work, but what are we doing here? Will it ever all come together? Will it ever actually be open to the public, maybe even paying customers?”

— So we broke out the pencil sketch diagrams and explained the dotted lines and she looked at all of that and gasped, “Holy [ Schnarr ] This makes sense. I really think it works – And I thought you guys were just kind of twiddling your thumbs and kidding yourselves – Wow – I like it.”

— So, with that little shot in the arm – we should bid a fond farewell for the evening and either get some rest or stare at computer screens like electronic zombies for a couple more hours – fueled with our – “The end is in sight -” Or more like, “The real beginning is almost here -” enthusiasm.

— I’m really impressed with the new builders who’ve shown up.

— Yes! —,

~~~~~ Jim

The Play Of Light And Shadow { No – we’re definitely not in Kansas – }

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Sunday, March 4th, 2018 —>  +1˚C / +34˚F with light rain { actually looked like very fine – almost invisible snow was falling here } @1:23 pm in Atlantic Canada —> On Marcia Logan’s Birthday { And Michaela M.’s & a couple more people who might not want to be reminded that they’re aging —

 

Fashion Statement?

– “Fashion Statement” –

 

 

— { I did not expect the above photo to load full sized. }

 

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1.

 

I count my ‘mindless pursuits”

among the most productive form

of therapy

available to me

-when in the course of another day’s

fierce concentration

I find my ‘self’

where my brain says, “NO!”

and flatly refuses

to even attempt

to solve another

mind numbing

dilemma –

And then

a mindless game on a computer

or other ‘device’

may not seem like much

but if it’s engaging

enough

the deeper reaches

of my mind or soul or -?

-whatever-

often sighs with relief

as my ‘conscious’ mind (fried)

allows that simple solution

(I couldn’t see)

come bubbling up out of nowhere

in spite of all the conventional wisdom

our contemporaries spout

and try to live by

and act like they believe

we all should-?

 

 

2.

 

“Getting Somewhere?”

 

Moving the new desk into my cluttered office

I can’t move without knocking something over

but I look around

And hey – there’s more space in here –

 

( don’t tell Cathi – I’ll never hear the end of it?)

March 4th, 2018

 

 

 

“the Play of Light and Shadow”

 

Working all night

on keeping this world together

with duct tape and anybody else’s discards

after an un-predicted

catastrophe

brought earthquakes –

shattered homes

shattered lives –

 

There’s nothing to do

but keep on moving

-pull one more

piece of debris

from another collapsed

home

in the hopes that

someone under that mess

may still be alive –

 

Then – in the morning’s first light

old “Rescue Central”

sent in the relief team

and, exhausted –

we turn around and blink

dumbfounded at the piles of rocks and bricks

that just the other day

was a thriving neighbourhood

And I stare at the friend I’ve been working along side –

wonder where she finds the strength to do this –

and the two of us gasp and stumble toward nothing like ‘home’

numb to everything around us

until the play of light and shadow

on the one untouched masonry hacienda anywhere

for miles in any direction –

takes our breath away

we can almost imagine children

running around, playing

happy and free and

care-free?

Yes, we’re both  mesmerized –

Then she sighs and looks around at the hills and the jungle and the river –

“This place really is beautiful, ya know?”

March 4, 2018

 

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~~~~~ Jim

Aggrivation With Scanners & One More Reason To Hate Google

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Saturday, March 3rd, 2018  —> +2˚C / +35˚F — Overcast and ‘Dark’@ 905 pm in Atlantic Canada. —> on multiple Birthdays day – Tom Poplawski, Elsa C., Ian Punnet — and the anniversary of the release of  ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ by Pink Floyd. —

 

— Moving stuff around in my “office” here these last couple days, I found some real treasures when I opened envelopes I don’t remember seeing before. { Might have been something someone handed me at a ‘Life Celebration’ { A funeral by a euphemistic name? Although we did try to keep it positive, my mother always was an ‘Earth Angel’ – She just dropped the ‘Earth’ part} }. And trying to get these scanned has been a buster-

 

Brookses, Bordens, Georges + Wellingtons

– Extended Family Portrait – circa 1950 –

 

— Really don’t know when the above photo was taken. Standing, left to right, Dorothy May Brooks Borden, Robert H Borden, Dorothy Eleanor Borden Wellington, Robert C Wellington Jr, Edith Grace George Wellington and Robert Carlson Wellington ( Senior ). Seated: Willie Brooks ( nee Willie Brooke ) Eliza Morgan Brooks, Clarence  George. & dat’s me on my Great Grandmother’s lap.

 

– I think this is World War II Liberation Money. It was the last thing my father gave me before he shuttled off to the Spirit Realms. –

 

— I thought he’d given me Liberation Money from the Philippines, But this looks Dutch to me.

 

Backside

– Back side of the above Liberation Currency –

 

— So, the first thing I tried to scan – on our mono laser printer ‘all-in-one’ got as far as ‘Scan to PC’ – and the danged thing would still be spinning, looking for the PC if I didn’t mercifully ‘pull the plug’ – { Hit the ‘Off” switch. }

 

Me in the 70's

– Me in the early 70’s at my Borden Grandparents’ 45th Anniversary Bash –

 

— Don’t know the exact date on this one either. There was a big party at my Aunt’s ( & Uncle’s ) in Milford. The photographer was a young guy, friend of my sister, Sharon.

 

Me?

– And, This was me at a ridiculous hour of this morning, trying to figure out a clunky old data base. –

 

— Weird things happen when your cursor gets too close to the ‘camera’ icon.

— And a lot of very odd and frustrating things kept coming at me today.

— So I soaked in a bathtub full of hot water until my brain turned soggy – { shhh, I won’t admit that the brain was soggy before the incident with the tub full  of hot  water –

— And later I reconnected an old scanner that seemed to be working, but it wanted to save everything as pdf files. { What the —- }

— The latest schnarr frustration came when I had to email the photos in small groups because the computer that can connect to the clunky old scanner doesn’t know any other way to do things, and now it decided it can’t use firefox and google chrome wants to send everything to a google drive so it can steal all your private information and sell it to the highest bidder. — and after I said “NO! Do not involve Google Freakin Drive! – it did anyway and then google freakin drive would not let me download from their freakin cloud, I could look at it, but I couldn’t touch? Or use anything? — Are you kidding me?

— Yup, so – every step of the way between thinkin’ I could scan and share a couple photos and now as full of flying monkey wrenches.  – Which – I hope – I managed to duck –

— { Quack quack already — }

— Sigh —,

~~~~~ Jim