coyotes

i spotted a starving coyote in the park and it was also missing over half of its fur so feeding coyotes has become my charitable cause for the season. the first 3 days i dropped off a bag of dried dog food each afternoon and when i checked the next morning, it was gone. i poured the food onto the ground so  some animal had to have came and ate it, this made me happy. but when i checked this morning, almost all of the food was still there?  wtf?

the first 3 days i had dropped off high protein salmon dried dog food but yesterday i dropped off chicken/rice. are the starving animals picky?

i think the reason is they're nocturnal creatures and can smell the salmon as they forage but the chicken/rice stuff doesn't have nearly as distinctive of an aroma. this afternoon i'm going to mix in a little real beef with the chicken/rice food and see what happens.

this little adventure is working out well. not only do i get a warm feeling from feeding the wildlife, i'm ending up with a cool little high school science project. i'm pretty sure that i can rule out rats taking the food. it either has to be coyotes or raccoons.

merry feckin' xmas

billy loves you sons of bitches.

seeds and knees

the giant chinese pumpkin seeds finally arrived and they sure don't look giant to me. in fact, they're the smallest pumpkin seeds i've ever seen. maybe i'll buy some giant seeds from the ukraine. there are still two orders from china in the mail so maybe something good will arrive but i'm highly skeptical.

last week i ordered some ink jet cartridges from amazon and mistakingly assumed that i was buying them from amazon but after the order was placed and paid for, i noticed the goddamned things were coming from china. this will be a test to see if amazon has better chinese quality control than e-bay. once again i'm highly skeptical and will probably end up buying a laser printer.

last week i went to the doctor for my annual  check up and to get the results of the blood tests and knee scan and received quite a surprise. my family doctor wasn't there so i had to deal with a different doctor from the same office. my blood work and urine were just fine so that was the good news. but the knee news was not good.

for years i've had a very sore right knee and my doctor told me it was due to a lack of synovial fluid and he also removed some scar tissue which helped but he always told me the the knee was structurally sound. the replacement doctor went through my records and showed me the history. it seems my knee has shown wear and tear since 2012 and they've just been waiting for the right time to tell me about knee replacement surgery.  this totally pisses me off, why the hell haven't they been telling me about the structural problems?????

it looks like the sons of bitches have been managing my expectations more than treating the problem. after a bit of research on knee replacement i've decided to delay it as long as possible and hope for improvements in the the surgical procedure. it seems that they've recently come up with a procedure which is less invasive and does less damage to the thigh muscles. maybe they'll be able to sprinkle a few stem cells on the knee in a few years.

i'll probably have a new knee before successfully growing a giant pumpkin.

billy loves you sons of bitches.

back in the game baby!

many years ago and several blogs ago i used to bullshit about all the scavenging i would do.  i would get up at 4:00 am and head to the park with ruby.  the youths and thugs would be out partying the night before and leave huge amounts of empty liquor bottles/cans and what ever else they lost while getting shit faced drunk. normal people wouldn't venture into the park infested with thugs in the dark but i had ruby. thugs and bikers like pitbulls.

i still pick up any empty beer cans i come across, maybe $5 a month, but i don't do it with the gusto of yesteryear. but last week i found a pair of converse chuck taylors in the park and today i came across an old stove in the lane behind some apartments. (i was on my way back from the supermarket where i had sampled several lindt chocolate balls) the converse sneakers just happen to fit me perfectly, an act of god if i ever witnessed one.

i've been on the lookout for old stove burners for a long time and finally got lucky. our stove has one burner that is on its last legs and the hardware store wanted $35 for a new one. i plugged a replacement burner in and it quickly went red hot. so i got that going for me too.

previously i've mentioned the bean soup mental happiness evaluation technique.  the more often i make home made bean soup, the better my state of mind.  so far i've made 2 pots of bean this fall and now some world class scavenging.  the bean soup index is far more reliable than any diagnosis from an over paid psychiatrist. brain be happy.

141 days until baseball season begins, i'll need about 10 big pots of bean soup.

billy loves you sons of bitches.

hello sunshine

yesterday was a glorious autumn day in the great pacific northwest but today is a stinker, cold and wet. but all is not lost, the weatherman tells us it will be warm and sunny for the next few days after this little bump in the road. it might just be the last opportunity to wash the bed sheets and let them soak up the sun for a wonderful bedtime experience.

the weather is promising  and last night was an excellent start to the world series, kershaw was on his game and the game was worthy of storage on the pvr. i have all the previous dodger games on the pvr and will add the remaining world series games to the collection. i'll watch these games throughout the winter. although i'll remember which team wins the series, i'll forget the the details and enjoy the encore, maybe more than once.

baseball is a state of mind, adding synchronicity and order to a world gone mad. watching the concentration and sweat drip off the pitcher's face as he shakes off signals from the catcher gives me faith in the human spirit.  it's a battle, the bases might loaded with nobody out but a good pitcher like kershaw doesn't despair, he battles.

i'm still on the hunt for a new glove but haven't been able to find the perfect fit. the sporting goods stores have a poor selection at the moment so i'll probably have to wait until spring and who knows, i might find my old glove in the meantime. the woman's glove i picked up earlier is a great glove, too bad the son of a bitch has all that pink trim. the rip needs a strong role model and a male human wearing a pink baseball glove might harm her psyche.

i've finished the gnostic gospels and it's just like all the other religions. it sounds terrific but there are a lot of strings attached with no guarantees.  the one good thing about gnosticism is good old mary magdalene gets a fair shake, not like the raw deal she was given by those misogynists padding their expense accounts at the council of nicea. countless strings attached and no guarantee of eternal bliss, i'll remain a religious free agent.

faith solicited does not equal faith freely given and the guys in charge of religion don't give much stuff away for free.

billy loves you sons of bitches.

adios sunshine

the warm weather is gone and the struggle with winter is about to begin, i hope i'm ready.

after the harrowing experience of being kidnapped by a nogoodnik neighborhood punk, the scooter is in dry dock. i spent the better part of yesterday cleaning out and organizing all the treasures and clutter that were collected in the summer to make room the poor thing. the oil was changed, the tank was filled with ethonal-free high octane gas and now it's just a matter of finding the trickle charger to finish the task.

i've had the scooter for two summers now and try as i may, i couldn't come up with a good nickname, but this morning jesus whispered the magical nickname in my ear.

from this point forward, the mighty scooter shall be known as MACK. mack is a very important name in classic literature. it was mack who ended the reign of terror from yertle, the tyrant of salamasond and it was mack who organized the mighty frog hunt in cannery row. yes, mack is a titan of classic  literature. long live mack and thank you jesus!

but scooters aren't the center of my universe at the moment.  the baseball playoffs have me in seventh heaven. yesterday i watched verlander throw a complete game for the astros with 13 strikeouts!  it's pretty rare to see a complete game pitched in the era of bullpens and pitch counts. the cherry on top was the fact that it was against those evil new york yankees! verlander's cherry on top is kate upton.

the dodgers beat the cubs which was great but kershaw only lasted 5 innings which has me worried. kershaw is my favorite player and he was on the disabled list this year due to a back strain and that gives me pause. kershaw vs verlander in the world series would be a match made in heaven.

speaking of heaven, i've decided it might be the place for me after all.  studying the nag hammadi library by day and orgasming on baseball in the evening has convinced me that there just might be something to the intelligent design point of view.

mack, verlander, kershaw, nag hammadi library...........

billy loves you sons of bitches.

i be thankful

today is canuck thanksgiving, big deal eh?  but i'm thankful.

i'm thankful because there are 4 playoff baseball games on today and thanksgiving is over for me. i cooked a prime rib roast yesterday and i didn't fuck it up.

yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, possibly the last sunny warm day of the year for us and i took full advantage of it. i sat in the sun, on the old aluminum web lawn chair and read oscar wilde's de profundis for the 3rd time in a month. it's a beautiful piece of literature.

the second half of de profundis is about wilde's perception and relationship with christ, it's the tenderest and most sincere depiction of christ that i've ever come across. that's why i've read it 3 times recently and why i'll probably read it a few more times before the year ends. it fills me with contentment and a tiny bit of humility and has moved me to absorb more of the christian spirit.

i might have the spirit of christ but i didn't just fall off the turnip truck. i realize that the official new testament is a product of the council of nicea and is more of a political compromise than an accurate account of events that may or may not have taken place. in order to fill my thirst for all things christ i turned to the public library and made my selection, the complete idiots guide to the gnostic gospels.

you can call me doubting thomas.

can you not believe in god and still be a christian?  me and oscar think it's not just possible, it's the logical thing to do. christians aren't into smiting those that give us pause.

billy says feed the needy, not the greedy.

knots

it's all over now but the shouting as far as splitting wood goes.  yesterday i decided to do battle with the few renegade knots which had caused me grief back in august.  the sons of bitches didn't get any weaker after a month of drying out.

you wouldn't believe how securely this knot was embedded in the trunk

it took a sledge hammer, two wedges, a hand saw and an impact driver to break the bond of love between those two seemingly innocent pieces of wood. but in the end, justice was served.

here's another knot that i removed over a month ago. this is knot was my nemesis, i hurt my back taking golf swings with the mattock to break it up. the injury occurred when i missed the son of a bitch and tried to control my follow through, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

the lovely mrs myshkin and most of the neighbors thought i was crazy battling the wood. but i saved several hundred dollars and learned a lot about how trees are constructed.  so it goes.

billy loves you sons of bitches.

scooter be gone

some rat bastard son of a bitch stole my scooter!!!!

monday evening, as i was leaving to take the rip for her usual evening stroll in park,  i noticed something was amiss, my scooter was gone!!!  the big question was whether to rush back and call the police or take rip out for her walk. i decided to take rip for her walk before calling the police.

upon returning, i called the police and obtained a file number which i used to file an insurance claim. then i decided to have a hot bath to relax.  just after hopping into the tub, the doorbell rang. i had to quickly hop out of the tub and get dressed to greet the strong arm of the law. the rat bastard thief not only ruined the evening stroll with rip, he/she ruined my bath!

the next day i resigned myself to losing the scooter but then started worrying about the house being burgled. i decided that it was time to reassess my security and start locking doors when i wasn't home. there was only one problem, i only had keys for one door and could not locate the missing keys. son of a bitch, i would have to get organized and start taking the time to lock and unlock doors when making quick trips shopping or walking the rip. what a hassle, eh?

on wednesday evening after i hopped into a steaming hot bath tub the goddamned door bell rang again, it was the police again. the officer told me that my scooter had been found and it was in my back yard. somehow they got the theft location and the recovery location switched around.  after swearing on a stack of bibles that i didn't have the scooter the officer re-checked her information and left to confirm where the scooter had been found. this time i stayed away from the bath tub.

the officer returned and escorted me to the scooter. yes, it was my scooter and it seemed to be none the worse for wear. the first thing i did was unlock the seat and see if my turtle helmet was still there and yes it was. but more importantly my riding gloves were still there. the gloves were an old beat up pair of black leather dress gloves that my dad used for yard work. losing those gloves was bumming me out more than the thought of losing the scooter.

in summation:

scooter was gone
scooter is back
leo be happy.

i don't want a pickle, i just want a motorcycle.

billy loves you sons of bitches.

baseball!

baseball, it's almost playoff time baby!

earlier this summer i became obsessed with getting a few genuine mlb balls. any idiot can buy a new ball but i wanted a few that were genuine and had actually been handled by real players so the hunt was on.  i found cool store on the west side so it was time to hop on the scooter and score some balls!

i bought a few and liked them so much i went and bought more. 

last week while watching a game on tv and fondling my balls i decided it was time to dig out my old glove. i searched everywhere and couldn't find it. i even hauled everything out of the crawl space and still no glove. i was totally bummed out. it was a great glove that my parents bought me almost 50 years ago and it was very well used and cared for. a perfect pocket and beautiful smooth soft leather. it might still be around the house but the hunt was on for a new glove.

i wanted to get a rawlings heart of the hide or wilson A2000 but couldn't find the right color and model so it was time to hit craigslist. i couldn't find what i wanted but ended up buying 3 not so great gloves. i went to look at one glove but the silver tongued devil selling it talked me into buying 2. then he threw in a 3rd glove for free.

two of them were hard as rocks so it's giving me something to do, soften the sons of bitches up. so i soaked the brown one in water and tied it up, i tied up the black one without soaking it so i could compare the success of the techniques. in a few days i'll untie the brown one, toss it in the dryer and begin working on the son of a bitch.

the smaller brown/pink glove was the free throw in and it's really an interesting glove, an 11 inch woman's fastpitch glove.  it's a really cool little glove with a large pocket for the large ball. a fastpitch ball is larger than a baseball but smaller than a softball.  

so far i love the woman's glove.  my only problem is rip keeps trying to steal my balls.

spark a bud and fondle my balls.  if that isn't nice, what is?

billy loves you sons of bitches. 

nix pineapples

the pineapple tomatoes were a resounding failure. the plants grew very well and produced 16 good sized tomatoes, but i couldn't give the goddamned things away! i ate one myself and the lovely mrs myshkin threw one into some sort of stew but that's about it. i ended up with a bowl of "throwing" fruit.

the patio tomatoes were a smashing success, lots of fruit and low maintenance. but i did learn that patio tomatoes grow better when not in a pot on the patio. the pot quickly dries out in the sun and if you add too much water too quickly, the fruit gets some sort of rot on the underbelly. it will be patio tomatoes in the garden next year.  hopefully the patio tomatoes will provide enough misdirection so that the lovely mrs myshkin won't notice the giant chinese pumpkins until they need a crane and forklift to be moved.

it's almost time to begin the annual deadwood marathon and i'm all fired up after watching john wick and john wick 2.  i was very pleasantly surprised to find al swearengen (ian mcshane) in the first john wick and pleased as punch to see that mcshane had larger part in john wick 2.

if you like al swearengen and have a fondness for pitbull type dogs, you gotta watch this clip. it's totally excellent.

john wick, al swearengen and a cool dog!

if this isn't nice, what is!!!!

billy says he loves you sons of bitches.

windows 10

windows 10:

TO THE LAST, I GRAPPLE WITH THEE
FROM HELL'S HEART, I STAB AT THEE
FOR HATE'S SAKE, I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE!

yes, i hate windows 10 with a passion. i always think it's looking over my shoulder and recording my every move. and i'm sick to death of getting messages that my "one-drive" is full and i better go buy some more storage or something nasty will happen.

after throwing a tantrum yesterday, my daughter happened to drop by  and spent a few minutes monkeying around with it,  now all is well with the world. "one-drive" has been given a one-way bus ticket to siberia. i had asked sonny about it a few times and he blew me off. my daughter is an apple person and never uses windows 10 but she figured it out very quickly.  i wish she would drop by more often.

i've been coerced into going to a bar-b-q this evening and there will probably get into a good argument with a few "clintonistas".  yes, us crazy canadians argue more about american politics than our own politics. for some funny reason, these canadian "clintonistas" blame poor old bernie for clinton's loss at the polls. a few months ago, several "clintonistas" ganged up on me when i voiced support for bernie.

i hate hillary more today than a few months ago and i'm pretty sure the "clintonistas" have figured out a way to blame bernie for north korea's adventures with hydrogen bombs.

eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die, and i'd rather spend eternity with bernie bots than clintonistas.  (but the trumpsters probably throw better parties)

what can i say, i'm just a ...................

 billy loves you sons of bitches.

wood

i sincerely apologize to my international readership for another post about my adventures in wood splitting. after taking a break to rest my weary bones, yesterday i was back at it. a few gnarly and highly uncooperative chunks of wood met their maker. it's been an excellent learning experience for me, too bad it's happened so late in life. my dad was always splitting wood but he never took the time to give me any advice, he just gave me that axe and told me to start whacking.

i was having a hard time holding a wedge and bashing it with the big sledge hammer so this morning i hopped on the scooter and picked up a small 4 lb sledge.

it's a terrific little piece of equipment, i should have picked one up years ago. but 30 years ago i was strong enough to swing a full sized sledge hammer with one hand. so it goes.

the photo above is a patio tomato that has a few specimens ready to pick but i'll keep them on the vine for a few days just to annoy the lovely mrs myshkin when i boast of my success.

here's photo of a "pineapple" tomato.  from what i've read, pineapple tomatoes don't turn red so it's hard to get an exact reading on how ripe they are. i love the smell of tomato plants and i also love it when spiders arrive in late summer.  i'll not only be monitoring the tomato, i'll be monitoring the growth of my favorite spider.

now here's my excellent household tip for those readers who have bothered to read this until the end.

if your garbage stinks in the hot summer weather, throw a freshly split piece of wood into the bin. our garbage is no longer picked up every week, now it's bi-weekly and in the hot summer weather, it can really stink. a few weeks ago i tossed a piece of gnarly wood in the bottom of the  bin and the disgusting garbage odor was replaced with the wonderful aroma of douglas fir. it's similar to cedar.

billy says he loves you sons of bitches.

the garden

i'm still battling the wood and for now, the wood is winning.  i was using the mattock trying to break up the toughest knot in the western hemisphere and got the bright idea of trying a different angle. i teed up the wood and took my mightiest golf swing at the son of a bitch.  it was a great plan, but i lifted my head and missed that rat bastard piece of wood, i pulled a muscle trying to control the follow through. i'm taking at least a week off. hopefully my ears will stop ringing while waiting for the muscles to heal.

on the plus side of the ledger, my tomatoes are doing very well. a bumper crop and the little darlings are beginning to ripen. ain't nothing in the world like homegrown tomatoes.

now it's time to build on the tomato success and try something a little more challenging. i'm pleased to announce that i've been the winning bidder on some giant pumpkin seeds on ebay. i could have played it safe and spent $10 on some tried and true north american  pumpkin seeds, but my inner cheapness took over and i'll be growing giant chinese pumpkins.

giant chinese pumpkin seeds; what are the chances i'll end up with a squash or cucumber? i'm not going to tell the lovely mrs myshkin that i'm growing giant pumpkins, she's a real wet blanket when it comes to my brilliant ideas.

billy says he still loves you sons of bitches.

ouch

who knew gnarly wood was goddamned difficult to split?

i took a break due to ringing in my ears and general stiffness.  sonny gave me some foam earplugs along with strict instructions on how to properly use them. but what the hell, who needs ear plugs for a few test chops?   well, the problem with a few test chops is once the adrenaline kicks in, a few chops can quickly become many chops and the goddamned ears started ringing again so it was time to take a few days off.

then sonny came through with 2 new wedges for me; a standard wedge and a star shaped "wood grenade".  i decided to start with a modest sized piece of knotted wood. but before i could say, bob's your uncle, i had the axe stuck in the wood. no problemo, right? just pull out the wedges. 

as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men.......

soon i had the axe and both wedges stuck in this motherfucker piece of wood. i must have whacked both wedges over 50 times with a good sized sledge hammer and that fucking piece of wood would not budge!  then i spent almost an hour trying to get them out. i ended up using an impact driver along with a hammer and chisel to get them out.  once again, i was dripping sweat and the ears were ringing. and i had a few slivers in my hand!

a few days later i started again. this time i was more selective and gave the more gnarly pieces a pass. with this new approach i managed to split several pieces. but my ears started ringing and somehow or other i whacked my finger with sledge hammer. now i'm typing with nine fingers and it hurts. as does my shoulder and back.

but fear not. i'm not giving up. tomorrow i'll be back at it. it's become personal between me and the wood, my honor is at stake. of course the lovely mrs myshkin is giving me zero support and plenty of criticism.  so it goes.

billy loves you sons of bitches.

sweating like a pig

sweating like pig, and loving it!

a few days ago i had a giant tree cut down.  i loved that tree but it was getting too dangerous. when we first moved here, i took a look at the tree and thought; "if it falls and kills me, it's a good way to go".  but then i got to thinking, what if the son of a bitch falls down on a car load of syrian refugees? i'd be bankrupt!

this is only a small part of the wood!  i put a free firewood sign in front of it and so far a few rounds have been picked up. i've spent a fair bit of time in the hot sun trying to split some to give away to friends and it is really hard to split this stuff when it's just been cut.  i've been using a wedge and sledge hammer that work pretty good but it's really, really hard work in the sun.  like i said, i've been sweating like a pig.

the first day i spent about 90 minutes splitting it before calling it a day. as soon as i finished, i noticed that my ears were ringing, bummer eh? this morning i started again but put moist kleenex in my ears. once again i really got into sweating like a pig and quite enjoyed it until my ears started ringing again, double bummer eh? so i called sonny and he's giving me some industrial ear plugs that he uses in mine sites etc.  in a few minutes i'll be hopping on the scooter to pick them up.

this afternoon i went out to clean things up and when i came back to the house i noticed that the sole on one of my loafers was encased in sap. that sap shit is hard to get off, triple bummer eh?

i'm gonna be busy for the next few weeks. i might head to the hardware store and pick up another wedge, some of those big sons of bitches are really hard to split.

billy loves you sons of bitches.

the young pope

the young pope is now in my all time top 5 of tv series.  i almost said it's my number 2 series of all time, of course DEADWOOD is the all time number 1 series in my world.  i would have made the young pope number 2 but there 's a good chance that i've watched some really good stuff that i can't remember.

the funny thing is that i almost gave up on the young pope 20 minutes into episode one but i was too lazy to get up and remove the disc.  or maybe god made me keep watching. the more i thought about it, the more i thought that the young pope closely resembled deadwood and the sopranos.

in deadwood, the series revolved around al swearengen and his crew. in the sopranos, the series revolved around tony soprano and his crew.  in the young pope, the series revolved around pope lenny and his crew of cardinals.  and the young pope had the hbo attention to little details along with extremely clever dialogue. i'll definitely be watching the young pope again this winter and just like deadwood and the sopranos, i'll be entranced with the characters so much that the plot will become secondary.

6 feet under had the best final 10 minutes of any series i've watched but the young pope is a close second and who knows, it might climb to number one.  the final 10 minutes of the young pope got me a little verkclempt and final 60 seconds were nothing short of exquisite. in contrast, deadwood and the sopranos had pretty weak final scenes.

as for religion, i found the series to be very critical of the vatican at the beginning but by the final episode, i was warming up to the vatican.  it was pretty cool watching the pope continually shaking his disposable lighter trying to spark his cigarettes. the young pope enjoyed his cherry cokes and cigarettes.

and of course like all hbo series, it has excellent opening credits.  you really need a dark room with good sound to appreciate just how cool this is.

billy loves you sons of bitches.

tomatoes

after taking a year off, i've jumped back into the tomato game. last year my excuse for not planting tomatoes was ripper fatigue. when she sees freshly turned soil, she starts digging. i don't mind filling in holes but i don't like when she trots into the house with muddy feet. the other thing that makes me reluctant to plant tomatoes is her fascination with bees. she'll stand in front of the tomatoes and snap at any poor unsuspecting bee.

since the rip does her best to keep the garden free from bees, pollination can be a problem. this year i planted 2 patio tomato plants and 2 "pineapple" tomato plants. the patio tomatoes seem to be self pollinating:

the "pineapple" tomatoes are  probably just ordinary old tomatoes that someone decided to label "pineapple" because it sounded cool and would probably attract a few lunatics who thought they were going to get pineapples rather than tomatoes. i have to admit that i'm curious to see what kind of tomatoes i end up putting on a burger.

when watching several you tube videos on how to hand pollinate tomatoes, i learned that standard good old tomato plants are called "indeterminates".  that's because they can grow to an indeterminate height. apparently they can reach 50 feet in height under the right conditions. so far the patio tomato plants are a lot easier to look after, minimal pruning.

and here's the bee slayer:

billy says he loves you sons of bitches.

bikes

wow, it'been a while since i've posted anything.

i've had countless topics but out of respect for my sophisticated international readership, i've deemed these topics unworthy of their valuable time. but what the fuck, who doesn't enjoy a good bicycle story?

a few months ago i bought myself a new bike. a lovely little street/hybrid that was a pleasure to ride, small and lightweight, great for short commutes.

i generously offered the iron maiden to my daughter as she had told me that she wanted a bike but she wasn't interested.  when she dropped by and and i offered to give her the new cute little white bike, she immediately snapped it up. those darn millennials are quite choosy. so  i was back to square one and had to go find another bike.

a few days ago i noticed a neat little bike for sale and quickly pulled the trigger. so far i love the new bike. it's small and light for those short commutes and it also can hop over curbs and go down a few stairs. i might be old, but i still ride like a kid. but what really stands out is the gear ratio.  the middle front sprocket is just right, not to big and not to small.

it lacks the curb appeal of the white bike but that's something i can live with. now i have to come up with good nickname for the little beauty.

the blue meanie?
baby blue?
the rock? (it's a rocky mountain)

billy says he loves you sons of bitches.  and he thinks i should go with "the rock"

another one rides the bus

the rip has another notch in her belt. i found the carcass below in our yard this morning around 11:00. it wasn't there yesterday afternoon and from the atrocious smell, i would guess she had a successful hunt last evening.  not only did she kill it, she skinned the son of bitch so i'm not sure what it was.  there were a few tufts of long black fur/hair around it so i 'm guessing it was a black squirrel, or maybe a giant russian sewer rat. so it goes.

billy says he loves you sons of bitches

the greens

last week we had a provincial election, lucky us.

the previous government was self-named as liberal. our liberals are actually a little to the right of our federal conservatives but call themselves liberals nevertheless. aren't politics wonderful?

so far last week's election has not produced a winner.  to form a government in beautiful bc, a party needs 44 seats. last week the liberals won 43 seats, the ndp (the political left) won 41 seats and the greens won 3 seats. this puts the greens in the position of king makers. they can unite with either the liberals or ndp and reach the magic number of 44.

firstly, the greens said they wouldn't compromise their ethics by joining a with a different party and the leader said he wasn't interested in accepting a cabinet post in return for his support. i immediately thought; you stupid son of a bitch! what are the chances of this happening again? well there are two chances and slim just left town.

now the greens have announced what they want in return for their support. they want more money and power!  jesus fucking christ, it would have been nice if they announced that they wanted to stop a pipeline or protect our fisheries but no, they want money.

i voted for the greens this time around and have voted green in most previous elections and most of my friends vote green. i don't vote green because i think they're going to save the world. the reason i vote green and i'm sure that many people vote green is because we don't have a party named "none of the above."

i'll continue to vote green but i'd have a lot more enthusiasm if their dear leader had come out and said the cost of his support would be to stop the pipeline and ban all oil supertankers from our coastline.

if the greens don't make a deal and the whole thing falls apart, there will soon be another election and they'll have blown their big chance.  so it goes.

**UPDATE**

the greens are now talking about STOPPING THE PIPELINE.

interestingly the ndp are in power in alberta and are pushing strongly for the pipeline to be  built. the ndp in british columbia are strongly against the pipeline, just as the alberta ndp were against the pipeline until they won the election and formed government. it's all about money, the party in power needs money to grease the wheels and reward their supporters.

billy still loves you sons of bitches.

cosmos

somebody touched me, must have been the hand of the lord.

and that somebody told me to watch cosmos again. only an idiot would argue with the lord so i dug out the discs and started watching cosmos. i watched it years and years ago and only remembered that it was good.  i forgot that it was really, really, really good.

it's hard to believe that cosmos was made 37 years ago, oh how time flies, and sagan makes a point of telling us just how fast time flies. the science has been refined and expanded upon in the 37 years since the series was created but it's not the science that captures my attention, it's sagan himself. sagan's enthusiasm and love for humanity shines through and it's contagious, even to an old cynic like myself.

looking back, i would have watched it on a crappy little tv with no home theater and in a dumpy old house.  but i was single and probably had a glass of scotch wiskey in my my hand. and i would have had the original space hound by my side, a jet black shepherd/lab cross. being young, half drunk and naive, i probably would have thought the world was my oyster. now i watch it on nice big tv with excellent sound so it's probably saw off.

after watching a few episodes, i've decided to add it to deadwood and make it an annual event. i, leo myshkin, do solemnly vow, to watch cosmos once a year. when i really like a movie or tv show i'm able to just sit back and enjoy the moment. in fact i get so mezmerized that i don't really remember tht plot. no shit, even though i've watched deadwood over 10 times, a lot of the plot is new to me whilst watching the events unfold. the ability to forget is a very valuable ability to possess, of course it can also create problems.

contrast the leaders who funded the library of alexandria with the current creature occupying the white house and as nasa would say; houston, we have a problem.

god bless the blue dot!

billy loves you sons of bitches more than i can say.

back in the game

my good buddy, john from cincinnati, told me that i should get back in the game, so i'm back in the game baby!  the mighty honda scooter is insured and ready to rumble. i took it for a short ride this afternoon but it's still a bit chilly so it was a short scoot. if the weatherman is correct, tomorrow should be a warm sunny day here in the great white north, so i might venture a little further from the bat cave.

it's funny how one thing can lead to another. i was watching penny dreadful and one of the main characters was named dorian gray which touched something inside my brain and the oscar wilde obsession took hold. it's also funny how person's outlook can change with age. i remember being forced to read oscar wilde in high school and not liking it at all. the problem with reading this stuff in school is you can't just read it and enjoy it, you have to write little essays to a humorless teacher and try to find some inner meaning in the story etc. and of course reading books written by gay authors was not the sort of thing that a young man gravitated towards in those days. we were down right  homophobic.

it only took me a page or two to fall in love with oscar wilde this time around. it seems that every page, if not every paragraph, contains some excellent play on words or pithy observation. at first i thought to myself, how the hell can this guy come up with so many great and funny observations on life, then it hit me. old oscar spent a lot of time socializing with educated, upper class brits and being the smart rascal that he was, he must have soaked up their words of wisdom like a sponge and made use of them in his writing. or course, i might be totally wrong but that's how i imagine things when reading his pearls of wisdom. 

if anyone had told me 40 years ago that i would become a teetotaling, scooter riding oscar wilde devotee in my old age i would have thought they were nuts but as they say,  life, or truth is stranger than fiction. but all is not lost, jeffery, the dude, lebowski is still my hero and i do spend a lot of time abiding.

this isn't from oscar but it's my new favorite adage:

THE STONE AGE DIDN'T END BECAUSE THEY RAN OUT OF ROCKS.

shit, the rip has even taken an interest in oscar wilde!

billy says he still loves you sons of bitches.

john be gone

the 15 minutes of nightly bliss that john from cincinnati gave me has come to an end, mega bummer. it's a great series and it gave me a lot of laughs. it only lasted one season and that is a crying shame. there were parts of it that rival the big lebowski for making me laugh out loud but all things must pass and now it's time to decide on what to watch for my nightly 15 minutes of bliss.  john from cincinnati is a tough act to follow. the other decision i'm facing is how long should i wait before watching john again. 2 years?

fuck me, a few minutes ago i was totally flummoxed as to what to watch but jesus came through for me again. that son of bitch really knows his tv.  the rip from cincinnati and i will be watching.............................................

the mighty boosh!

the big fuck me at the moment is income tax.  i'm one of the holdouts who refuses to file on-line. it's certainly a lot easier to just enter the figures and let the computer do the rest but i get a better of grasp of what's going on by sitting down and putting pen to paper. it's crucial to have your ducks in a row should the taxman decide to ask a few questions. but if the taxman does ask too many questions, here's my standard answer:

this is very complicated case, maude.  you know, a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lot of what-have-yous. and uh, a lot of strands to keep in my head, man.

billy says he loves you sons of bitches.

knives

for some unknown reason, i recently decided that i needed a new pocket knife. it was probably that guy whose dad arranged for him to be nailed to a cross  whispering sweet nothings in my ear again. that son of a bitch won't leave me alone after i've sparked a bud or two. i still haven't figured out if he whispers in my ear because he genuinely likes me or if he's just fuckin' with me.

the first knife i picked up was a BUCK MINI ICEMAN. it was dirt cheap and it feels real good in my hand so i have no buyer's remorse. it has thumb studs for one handed opening which isn't exactly easy with this small knife. it was a struggle to open with the thumb stud and it hurt my thumb but i kept fritzing around with it until i mastered the technique. then i looked at my thumb and it was bleeding! now my thumb hurts like crazy so i'm trying to stop playing with it until it heals.

since my thumb was injured, i decided to pick up a knife that opens with a flipper: BUCK VANTAGE SELECT. the flipper works better than the thumb studs so once again i have no buyer's remorse. after playing with it for a day, my index finger hurts and i can't open it as quickly as i could when it first arrived but the index finger is not damaged like the thumb. just a little sore.

so i have 2 new pocket knives and also have 2 sore fingers. the good thing about having 2 sore fingers is it has dampened my enthusiasm for buying more knives. but the fingers should be good as new by the time the weather improves and the scooter is back on the road. if i get a good enough knife, maybe i can join an outlaw biker gang. now that i've played around with a few cheap knives, i might be able to select a good knife that i'll  actually use rather than just stick in the drawer and forget about it.  so it goes.

billy loves you sons of bitches.

complicated plots

i just finished watching season 6 of game of thrones and i'm not too proud to admit that most of the plot went over my head. i just can't keep up with all the plots, sub-plots, battles, kingdoms, characters and yes, even the fucking dragons. there were 3 dragons and i thought one was killed but now there are 3 dragons again, and those sons of bitches are getting real big.

the decision i have to make is whether to read about the episode on wikipedia before watching it or read about the episode after i've watched it. so far i'm reading about the episode after watching it and even then, i'm usually confused and end up with about 5 tabs being open as i click on characters and kingdoms trying to piece it all together.  one of these days i might begin a marathon and watch all six seasons one after another but i'll probably still have a tough time keeping up with the action.

one problem i have is a lot of the characters are similar and it's hard to keep straight which kingdom they come from and which kingdom they're at war with.  i think the reason that the dwarf is popular is because he's the one character who is instantly recognizable and unique. the mother of dragons is also recognizable because she's the only blonde.

i've asked a few younger people if they can keep up with the plot and they tell me that they also have trouble keeping up with all the action. i'm not sure if they're telling me the truth or just trying to give me a little self confidence.

figuring out this crazy show has now become an obsession. not because i think it's all that great, i just don't want to admit that i'm senile.

on the other hand, john from cincinnati is bringing me more joy than a pond full of turtles on a hot summer's day.

billy loves you sons of bitches

destruction

this trump guy is a hard one to figure out. it's easy to figure him out on a personal level, he's an asshole. one of my favorite expressions has always been: i'd rather be an asshole than an idiot.  now this trump guy has me questioning that expression.  so it goes.

one minute i think trump is a total lunatic and he's going to destroy the world and then the next minute i'm thinking, maybe some good will come of all this nonsense. i'm talking about CREATIVE DESTRUCTION.  or as they say, out with the old and in with the new. there is no doubt that the world economy has been stagnant for the last decade despite the trillions of dollars in quantitative easing.  we now know that trickle down monetary policies are about as ineffective as trickle down fiscal policies.  in both cases, fuck all trickled down from the rich. but that's why the rich are rich, once they get a dollar, it doesn't leave their pocket.

creative destruction is on its way whether or not trump destroys everything first, he might just speed up the process. mechanization and artificial intelligence are here to stay so the big question is, what are the billions of humans going to do?  the answer to that question is easy, we'll do what we always do, reproduce and fight with each other. i guess the big question is, how will we divide the economic pie? the answer that question is also easy, we will not divide the economic pie equally.

has the pie ever been divided equally in the entire history of the human race?

NO!

trump's stated goal of replacing globalism with protectionism leads me to the following question?

would you rather buy a garment produced by a machine in your own country or a garment produced by a human in a less affluent country?

and while we have our thinking caps on;

is a genetically modified cotton plant as evil as a genetically modified corn plant?

just more shit for us to argue over.


so what's a guy to do?

when it comes to the human race, is there any difference between a pessimist and a realist?

billy still loves you sons of bitches.

the duck shoes

several months ago i was on cloud nine after getting the duck shoes, they were super comfortable and of course, very water proof. perfect for walking rip in the wet weather. this morning when i put them on, i happened to look at the side of one shoe and noticed that it had cracked. then i looked at the other shoe and it had also cracked. i was super bummed out. those lousy duck shoes were $80 so i figured that they'd last at least a year, maybe two.

i searched on line and found the receipt and then i had to hook up the printer to get a copy of the receipt and it was off to the shoe store.  the shelves were more than half empty and the clerk was skeptical that they'd have my size but as i'm so fond of saying, somebody up there likes me. they had my size and all was right with the world. new duck shoes, if that isn't nice, what is?

i am thoroughly enjoying john from cincinnati, it has me laughing almost uncontrollably at times, just like the big lebowski. and there's been one added bonus, the rip is now from cincinnati. i often get approached when walking her by people wanting to know what breed she is and since she was a rescue dog, i really don't know. but from now on when people ask, i just say, she's from cincinnati. i've also taken on the identity of butchie yost.  i gotta get fucking high man!

i wish i could find a good clip of butchie in his old vw van but al bundy will have to do.

billy loves you sons of bitches.

yuck.......

poor little me was sick as a dog last week. last wednesday i hopped on the bike to ride across town and pick up my favorite extra lean ground beef at the butcher and i ran out of energy, almost collapsed. i always stand up and ride as fast as i can for about 10 minutes to get my blood circulating. it's great cardio but on wednesday i just ran out of energy and had to stop. usually the legs get tired or maybe i get a little out of breath but i can keep going.  this kind of scared me.

the next day i got up and quickly got a bad case of the runs. it turned out to be very similar to the preparation for a colonoscopy. i crapped my brains out all day and felt like death warmed over. i had the norvovirus. it's a type of the flu for which there is apparently no vaccine. the upset stomach lasted about 24 hours and then it took a few days to fully recover.

i ate nothing on day one and just had a few bowls of oatmeal the next day. i've never liked beef or most types of meat and now the thought of any greasy, fatty meat sickens me. my new quest is find a good source of protein that doesn't include meat. for now i'll be eating a little chicken and salmon along with the ground beef in the freezer but only in small portions. who knows, in a year or two i might become a vegan.

on a different note, the deadwood marathon ended last night. for the last few years jack langrishe has been my favorite character and it was no different this time. the first few seasons it was e b farnum that made me laugh, then it was jane cannery who brought a smile to my face and now it's jack. i can look at jack and start smiling before he speaks. ian mcshane and brian cox truly do make deadwood shakespeare of the west.

in case anyone isn't motivated to drink a decent amount of water each day, take a look at what happens when the kidneys aren't cleansed daily. after crapping myself silly whilst ill and dehydrating myself in the process, i'll let swearengen be the  angel on my shoulder whispering in my ear, "drink the fucking water!"

billy loves you sons of bitches.

almost there

it's the last day of january and the weather is lovely here in the great pacific northwest, sunny and about 5 degrees c.  the bad news is we might get some snow in a few days but tomorrow is the first day of february and that means march is just around the corner. another 2 months and with any luck i'll be zipping around on the scooter.  that will be heaven on earth for me, hopping on the scooter and wearing nothing but a t shirt, jeans and an old pair of sneakers.

by april i should be a real old freak. last july the kid got married and i was forced to get a short haircut and trim the beard back to almost nothing. i'm pleased to say that i haven't had a haircut  trimmed  the beard since early july. i've decided to let it grow for a year and see how things unfold.
it's almost 7 months now and things are getting pretty scruffy. the kids don't give a shit and find the whole thing quite comical but the lovely mrs myshkin is none too happy with my excellent imitation of a homeless man.

i'll put on my old leather biker jacket and look like a geriatric hells angel on a scooter. maybe i'll even pop into the cracker factory and show the drones what happens when a man no longer has to toe the company line in order to pay the bills. from what i hear, there's been another house cleaning at the cracker factory so most people won't have a clue who i am and will probably call security.

deadwood is almost done for the season so it's time to find a replacement for my 15 minutes of bliss before hopping into bed. it's been a few years since i watched john from cincinnati and i'm dying to hear butchie scream, "i gotta get high,  man!"

billy says i better don't get too high, and he still loves you sons of bitches.

something wonderful

let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

several wonderful things happened last night. the wonderful things would have been much more wonderful if they had happened spontaneously, but waiting for something spontaneous to happen is a young man's game.

the evening began with a truly wonderful bowl of bean soup that  had spent the day simmering and absorbing all the magical energy that had been waiting months for something worthy to dive into. a good hearty pot of bean soup can produce commercial grade methane gas. i'll be producing methane for the next few days.

after the dishes had been washed and the rip walked, it was reward time. years ago, things would have began with a glass of whiskey but the world turns and things change. last night things got started with the sparking of a bud and the eating of a raspberry cookie coated in white belgian chocolate. it was a good large cookie that i won't soon forget.

then it was time to put on little music, the be good tanyas, and finish the book i had been saving for this wonderful occasion, cannery row. i had about 15 pages left to read and they didn't disappoint. cannery row is definitely in my top 10 list of novels. it makes me happy, and happy is good.

then it was time for the second course, the final episode of the second season of fargo. the final episode was good, but i think the penultimate episode was better. watching season 2 of fargo was time very well spent.

and finally it was time to get grounded and set my mind straight. twenty four minutes of pure bliss; deadwood! al swearengen always puts my mind straight.

so i ate, i drank a little bean soup and i got merry.  now it's time to hop in the mighty hyundai and go see the doctor and that son of a gun is in for a surprise. rather than take the tests and medications he prescribed, i bought a real lucky coin and so far, i haven't lost the son of a bitch.

billy loves you sons of bitches

is it too late?

is it too late to change my new years resolution? maybe add a clause or rider?

i've spent a lot of time today looking for a pair of glasses. a while back i bought 4 pairs of prescription reading glasses. i thought it would be good to have spares in case i lost a pair but at the time i also realized that there was a potential problem. having an additional 4 pairs of glasses also meant that i would have 4 more things to lose. well guess what, i lost a pair.

i had a brain freeze, fell and broke a pair of glasses so it was time to take inventory and decide on a new favorite pair but  it quickly became evident that a pair was missing. and every time i turned around to look in a different place, a certain dog was standing behind me almost causing another fall. old age can be a problem.

the worst part of looking for lost stuff is rather than finding the item i'm looking for, i realize that i've lost other stuff and soon i'm looking for so much stuff, i can't remember what i'm looking for. so this all leads up to the rider i'm going to add to my new years resolution:

I HEREBY RESOLVE NOT TO BUY ANY MORE SHIT!  THE GOAL IS TO END THE YEAR WITH LESS SHIT THAN I HAD TO BEGIN THE YEAR.

while searching for a snow brush in the trunk of the mighty sonata i found 5 umbrellas. this was in addition to the 3 umbrellas on the rear seats. it just goes on and on and on.

now what can take my mind off all the missing stuff?

billy loves you sons of bitches.

the resolution - 2017

and the winner is ..........................

this year the resolution is moderation.

in the past i've been very fond of saying, moderation is for monks. if things work out, i'll be a monk for a significant chunk of 2017.

i'm talking about exercise and diet. my resolution is probably the opposite of 95% of the resolutions made by other fools such as i. i'm stiff and sore, my whole body aches. there's a really good chance that most of my aches and pains originate from all the exercise i do. moderation is for monks and in the past i've not moderated my exercise, i've overdone it.

same thing for weight, i want to put on a few pounds.  with almost zero body fat, i'm too sensitive to the cold weather, i need some insulation.

there's a good chance that all my troubles are the inevitable changes that occur with aging but son of a bitch, it's worth a shot. in my case, it's easier for me to exercise than not to exercise. 

while the rest of us plan for the coming new year and enjoy the comforts of home, there is a group of needy souls that usually go unnoticed, the homeless drug addicts. vancouver's downtown eastside is often called the biggest shit hole in the developed world. poverty and addiction are everywhere. when i was 15 years old i got my first job as a dishwasher in the area and experienced the horror show firsthand. it was alcohol and heroin in those days and now opiates and methamphetamines have been added to the mix. i often ride through the area on a sunday morning in the good weather and the stark poverty and suffering are unbelievable. 

WELFARE DAY ON VANCOUVER'S DOWTOWN EASTSIDE

the thing that always blows me away is the openness of  the drug dealing and trafficking of stolen merchandise. the federal government makes the drugs illegal but the city of vancouver does not enforce the law, they enable the addiction. there is virtually no effort to rehabilitate these poor souls, just give the appearance of giving a shit. we pick them up and save them from the brink of death from overdosing and then push them back onto the streets to do the whole thing again and again and again.

there but for the grace of god go i.

and of course i need an altar to pray for my salvation.

and best of all, now i'm ready for summer.

billy loves you sons of bitches and says: it's all bullshit, don't let it get you down.