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.