Whoosh

 In the " about me " section to the right , I explained about whoosh , as in , a whole bunch of stuff goes right over my head.
On the deck at the 'bee , there was a whoosh and two screams. I stepped outside , saw everyone looking up...  and there it was , our patio umbrella on the roof.
Now ,we've been saying for 3 years that we need a weighted umbrella base ,I guess , we really should get one now.
I climbed up on the metal roof ( gasps and worrying sounds coming from M ) and brought the sucker down.

The weather has been terrific. Now , we live in the big smoke and our summers vary from hot and humid to a little less hot and humid.
' Wa happened '. Cool and breezy or tolerable and nice. OK We'll take it.

The ribs were a success. Maybe slightly charred but not dried out and not greasy which for ribs is saying something. 

Burgers on Tues , got the same treatment , soya sauce for overnight and beer in the afternoon. Juicy and flavourful , maybe a little more salt was needed in the burgers. Still a big hit.

So , again , soya sauce for about 12 hrs and soak the meat in beer.
Ribs get cooked on indirect heat and smoked w/ wood chips.
Burgers med hi to start and lower the heat for the last 5 minutes.

The bass were not co-operating , 2 or 3 every trip out. However, the bass I'm getting are all real fighters. They all are about a 1 lb or 1 1/2 but rip around like crazy Good job guys

R.E.D.

Went to the Redbox. There was no ' Robot and Frank ' , instead I rented Retired. Extremely. Dangerous -' RED '. Stars , everyone - Bruce Willis , John Malkovich , Morgan Freeman ,helen Mirren , Richard Dreyfuss. Mary Louise Parker is the love interest. Yes , I'm in love again. She is so cute.

You get 24 h w/ the rental. I'm watching ' RED ' for the 3 rd time. This run through is w/ the commentary by an ex- CIA type. Normally, you get the director etc , doing the back-slapping routine for everyone including themselves. This CIA dude is truly interesting. A little ego but a lot of hubris.

MLP is so cute

Weather : humidity is there but it is cool out there 65 F , right now.

I'm in charge of dinner to-night and the menu is ribs. Pork back ribs.
The ribs thawed yesterday and are rubbed down w/ soya sauce.
I've decided that I'll no longer fool around w/ different marinades and rubs. I've tried many varieties of treatments for meat.
The basic rule here is soya sauce first and soak the meat in beer. I once thought the beer water logged the meat. But if you smoke the meat , the time will be longer and the smoke does tend to dry out the meat. Thus, a little moisture in the meat is OK.
I own and have owned 3 different models of smoker for meats. Now, its the gas BBQ , heat on the off-side , meat cooks / smokes indirectly , as in an oven.
The experts in books , poo-poo gas BBQ s. They say you can taste the gas or the lack of real wood leaves the meat w/ no flavour.
The charcoal or wood method takes forever. To smoke w/ charcoal , I'd start in the morning at 10 AM , start the fire and smoke a roast from 11 to 4 PM. The temperature has to stay constant , most pros use the 225 F ideal or pretty close.
So , I'm a closet , gas BBQ-er. I still have a tower smoker in the basement. Its got a home down there and it has been left to its own devices.

Report to follow.

So ,the rating on R.E.D. - 0.85 out of a dollar. MLP is 0.99 out of 1.

What kind of Morning

Do you plan your morning ?

Wake up - coffee on ..... and

Well, this morning. 
Unload dishwasher *
coffee on *
laptop on*
breakfast ?  Nada 

Thus, muffins were needed. I'm getting good at muffins. Recipe in my head , except occasionally I forget how much oil. Recall , the specialty is raisin bran muffins ala moi.

Weather - cool , dampish and overcast - rain coming

Saw the preview for a possible movie for to-day ,  ' Robot and Frank '
Storyline is a techie - luddite ( No , this is not me ). needs something in his life.  Companion, helper or friend. Yepper , gets a Robbie the robot , character. Starring Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon. Sounds like something to brighten up a Sat evening - summer edition when everything on the boob tube is re-runs.

Talk about a downer , the World Weekly report w/ all the stats is about graft and corruption , in Italy and focusing on the grand barrier in Venice.
5.4 billion Euros - over budget by double. 14 arrests and 140 offices raided
4 - the times Venice has flooded since 2000 - the barrier was started    in 2003

As well , the Pew Research Centre , surveyed the perceived shift in global power , the U.S. v China.
a 63 % median favourable opinion of the U.S.  for 39 countries v 50 % for China

Favourable opinion of the U.S. 
Canada 64 % , 
Phillipines 85 % and 
11 % Pakistan

Will Obama do the right thing - 
Canada 81 % favourable
China 31 % favourable  ( 62 % in 2009 )

Well , southern audience , now you know , treat us better. You got Canada and the Phillipines on your side.

Cape Cod has new tourists flocking to the area. In 2012 , there were 20 confirmed sightings of great white sharks. Two beaches were closed this year , after shark sightings. 34 great whites carry tracking tags and the migration pattern is now defined. Out to sea for winter and back to Kennesbunkport for the summer. Yippee and does ' Oops ' cover this ?
The big attraction is seals. In 1972 , to protect seals etc , the U.S. passed the Marine Mammal Act to prevent the slaughter of seals.
Success , 2011 , 16 000 grey seals c.f. 6 000 in 1999. Shark education seems to be high on the agenda in Cape Cod. Don't swim w/ the seals. Really.
An advocacy group for sharks maintains ' if sharks wanted to eat humans we would have a lot more attacks , occasionally , a shark makes a mistake '  Is this an .... Oops ? ....... 

Shark 1 : " Human ? didn't mean that one , shucks , guys blew one ,  sorry. I spit him out, quick. "

Shark 2: They're sending Richard Dreyfuss and that Scheider dude.

Not Alone

The great dichotomy for humans. Each of us , wants to be an individual but we'd also like to be the same , or treated the same , mostly.
I think that I have these problems in spades. Last night , on PRI / CBC radio , there was an item that caught my interest. Firstly , I have thought that lawyers should not be allowed to become judges.
I think that by the time a lawyer gets to be experienced enough to get selected , these people have already forgotten what they got into the job for. Truth has gone out  the back door to do the lawyer jobby thing. And these guys are judging other people ?????

OK. The item. In Cumbria , England , each year , they hold the        ' World's Greatest Liar ' competition. There is a stipulation that contestants cannot be lawyers or politicians. See , someone else figured it out too !
There are countries that have judges graduate from judge school to qualify as a judge. I'm not sure that the system is better but at least it takes awhile for cronyism to kick in.

Weather , A-OK. Sunny , lovely , warm and all that.

Yesterday , after our traditional dim sum lunch , ' Ant ' and I went to Bass Pro Shop which is also a tradition. The trick is to get out w/out spending over $ 200. Da da , made it. $ 95 - there you go. the problem - I bought a jacket and a fishing reel.
So what , you say. Well ,the only person that I knew w/ more coats and jackets than me - was my Dad.  Growing up , either my brother or myself was wearing one of Dad's cast-off coats. We are not talking - worn out - but worn 4 or 5 times and left in the closet.

I noticed once , Dad wearing one of my coats , and we weren't even living in the same house. This condition has got be genetic. I really hope so anyway.

The jacket is a non-woven rain and wind jacket. A famous make called ' Frogge Togs ' has been making similar outerwear for years. In fact , I'm replacing a ' Frogge Tog ' jacket which has a broken zipper. The FT has been great but it is getting thin and pilled up. BPS got me w/ a price of $ 22 which is what I paid for the FT jacket on sale for 50 % off.
The fishing reel is about the same level of lunacy. This baitcast reel is # 5 , in the collection. To be fair , there are 2 bc reels that are so old the sound that they make on casting is like hearing a washing machine on spin cycle.
One of my good bc reels is squeaking  I figure to repair the thing would be $ 50 and the new bc reel cost $ 56. As well , the reels are improving every year. I'm not sure about quality but in performance , definitely. There. I've proven my point.        I think.

Taking the Gold Cure.....

In the novel , 'the Devil in the White City ' , circa the Chicago's World Fair time , a popular trend was for the well-to-do to visit a health clinic, to treat alcohol dependency.The treatment featured gold as the active ingredient.
Not being , well-to-do , I have to take it where I can get it. Instead of a t-shirt from New York ( which I also received ) M brought me vodka from the duty free store. She and her sister were going to each buy a bottle , in a 2 for 1 sale , or some such. Nope , my vodka didn't qualify , M , dear heart , bought it anyway.
On opening the bag , we discovered , why . For the last month , my screwdriver cocktails have been made w/ gold. Yep , flakes of gold. The item is Smirnoff's  ' Gold Collection ' , cinnamon flavoured vodka with real edible gold flake. The bits of gold are suspended in a gel and , float right out in the liquid so , that you can see them , hanging there.
As to avoiding alcohol , its not working , but I feel an urge to splurge and gamble. hence , our trips to NY and Fallsview Casino. What would you expect from daily doses of gold.

The weather is benign. cool , sunny and fragrant. Well , maybe not fragrant , but it sounded good. The halcyon days of summer.
Normally , in this kind of weather , we enjoy our gold flake vodka and sit back and relax. Oh yeah , like its different from any other time of the year.

We are contemplating another trip to NY and Fallsview , well , at least Fallsview ( Niagara Falls , ON ). You see, M's sister took home a voucher from the casino , and mailed it back from England , in the hopes we can use the voucher , within the 90 day period when the voucher is valid. We feel a deep obligation to cash the voucher. And since we're going to Fallsview , why not another hour to Salamanca and the Seneca casino. What we do for relatives.
Apparently , this carrying vouchers away from the casinos is genetic , M did the same thing in Fla. Its that gold flake , I'm sure.

P.S. the clafoutis report. The little tartlet , for thats what it is , was great. But I'm the cook and very bias. Still , a delicious treat. The ingredients aren't bad healthwise. 1/4 cup sweet butter and 1/2 cup sugar , everything else is minor - and 3 cups of berries. There is a chance that I may substitute whole wheat flour and splenda brown sugar for the next home trial ( just us , opposed to guests ).
Calfoutis and gold flake , thats the cure.

Fair .. what's fair

The A/C will get fixed on Aug 1. , it was sweating like a prize fighter last week.

To-day , I got out early to fish , knew the wind was going to be up but no one said how cold it was going to be. My ear was hurting from the cold wind. Bitch , moan , bitch , I know. But it was cold. The wind was revving up to 18 MPH.

We are sub-normal for summer temperatures here , we warm up come Fri to seasonal.

We stopped at the British store , and I bought my usual , Walker's Salt and Shake. The gimmick is that you salt your package w/ the little blue sachet and shake to mix the salt on your crisps ( potato chips ). 

My aunt who is older , called form Vancouver, BC , to ask my opinion concerning their will and power of attorney. After 30 minutes , I finally told her that I don't have an up-to-date will or power of attorney. Always the way , the advisor doesn't do it.

They named the baby George , HRH George ..... Cambridge. So , if I'm lucky I'll get to be ruled by another King George. Who woulda thunk.

the 'Bee is fine

Generally, I get to see the result of boating , all week-end. The weeds get torn up , which is good, but the flotsam is amazing as it floats down the 'bee. This refuse of weeds will all disappear in a day.

I slipped out early , caught 5 bass and came home.  definitely , a casual and relaxed outing. Except , using a replacement baitcast reel , I think that I'm developing casting wrist. This older reel sounds like a washing machine when I cast. Definitely , I need the other baitcaster repaired.

Weather is slightly overcast , thus , the morning was cool. I fished all morning w/ a sleeveless fleece outer layer and was comfortable.

Ah , now its our trip into the 'borough  ( Peterborough ) , its like recreation and tradition , all in one

World Weekly

This title , is a section in the Toronto Star , on week ends. Its a statistical look at the world.

Pollution in China is the lead this week. Talk of air quality has b/come quite open and frank. Terms , such as , major concern and marked deterioration were used in reports from the Ministries of Environment and Public safety. China , as other administrations do , tries to put a brave face on the reality , not now , though.
Life expectancy is 5.5 yrs lower in N. China vs the south b/c of pollution levels ( coal usage is high in all of China )
27 / 113 cities reached air quality standards. An aside here , I think China has over 20 cities w/ populations above 3 million.
Ground water was found to be bad or extremely bad , in 57.3 % of wells tested
The rivers that were polluted or seriously polluted was 30 %
The area covered by heavy smog last year , 1 million sq kilometres.
Oops , probably doesn't cover this one either.

The failed states index , by Foreign policy and the Fund for Peace , ranks the governmental failures
#1 Somalia  and in the top 10 , Chad , Haiti  and Afghanistan.
Falling out of the coveted top 10 is Burma
But Syria , Libya and Egypt jumped into the top 25.
In Yemen , 44 % of people are undernourished
For Afghanistan , 97 % of the GDP comes form foreign aid.
In the Zimbabwe treasury , there was $ 217.00 left before the IMF , kicked in some cash reserves

I suppose there is a good news part of the paper but .............

And I don't know when it happened , I noticed only to-day, this blog has 2 official followers.

Sunday , morning edition , actually , the world report comes out on Saturday. Thus ,you're getting day old statistics , from last year's survey.

Weather , well ' its a beautiful day in the neighbourhood ' a phrase made famous by Mr. Rogers of the TV show , ' Mr Rogers Neighbourhood '. A true summer delight. Winds are up a bit , full sun and little humidity.

Do yourself a favour , and find or play Verdi's Four Seasons , esp Summer , now that summer is  here.  Correction !!!! Vivaldi not Verdi , my error.

Breaking bad.....

... is a TV show. But last night , here , in the Golden Horseshoe ( oh, another name for the region bounded by the cities of Niagara Falls , Hamilton and T.O. probably as far as Oshawa on the shores of Western L . Ontario. ) the storm front hammered the area.
Reported funnel clouds , dropping down , strong winds and rain. Hydro lines went down under tree limbs etc.

W/ some trepidation on M's part , I started forth at 7: 30 Pm , for a poker game well north of the city ( 25 Km ). Spatters of rain hit the windshield and blue skies popped out with clear air. Right , blew right past us in a hurry.
Didn't matter , I lost at cards anyway. C'est La Vie

Our A/C seems to be hanging in ( XXX fingers ). However , the water on the floor that I thought came from the A/C sweat , may originate from the water heater  ( oh yeah ,everything breaks at once  ). We've seen that water before but thought the A/C was the culprit.

The royal baby is becoming a downer. Kate was supposed to deliver , soon. The paparazzi started early outside the hospital and have now run out of all their material. Come , baby , come is the cry.

This afternoon is clafoutis time. Clafoutis is a dessert / or breakfast
fruit custard. The recipe that I found called for blueberries and raspberries. I wanted fresh fruit so when I saw the blackberries on sale , I grabbed them. Thus, we will have blackberry clafoutis ( this is not the phone but blackberry as in the fruit ).

Clafoutis , hails from the Limousin region of France. Limousin is also , famous for those cars that rich people are driven around in.

You can use any fruit and serve the clafoutis dolloped w/ creme frais and beer in the aft or evening or w/out beer for brekkies. Me , I'm thinking clafoutis and milk as a drink. Or clafoutis served w/ French vanilla yoghurt.

Report to follow.

Weather as we speak , clear  /  sunny and cool - ish , I think.
4 days of seasonal or sub seasonal temps. A little rain in 2 days.

Luddites Unite

The Loop had a feature article in pictures , ' Devices for the Non - Tech savvy.
 1. Best phone was the  iPhone 5 , advantage large icons
      or the BlackBerry Q10 , advantage is a  QWERTY board
2.  Best tablet was the  iPad
3.   Best laptop was MacBook Air ( $ 999) or HP Pavilion M6          ( $ 550) +      Windows7   
4. Best TV Samsung ( 1500 )
5. Best E-Reader was the  Kobo mini ( 50 ) , advantages small size , WiFi

you see , I really thought this article was right up my luddish alley.

Except these devices are expensive , well to me they are. The phones are $ 200 + / - , w/ a three yr contract ,  which is closely akin to slavery here in Canada.
$ 1500 for a TV , the bleeding thing better sing and dance on its own.

That Kobo mini is the treat of the week, 50 smackers , not bad. But I'm still doing the hard copy thing.

I do not Tweet or use Facebook ( I am a Facebook name ). Our TV is not hooked up to Netflix , wirelessly , although it could be.
Our last TV came free from using Airmiles.

So , Luddite or El Cheepo ?  I suppose the question is then , if it were less expensive , would you get the technology ? 

WiFi connected phone - maybe , but I barely use the phone for phone calls , ergo , the internet , umh , probably not.
See more Luddite than cheap , although there is plenty of that to go around.

I borrowed a ' Thor ' comic from the library. Got 2/3 through it and stopped. Not for me , lots of Asgardian history and stuff , but fundamentally , boring.

I'm back to re-re-reading , the series " Tyranny of the Night " by Glen Cook. I've read these books so often , the characters are friends. Fairly pathetic , I would say.

Finished a CD book , that friends loaned us , back in  May. Actually , driving from OH, we were 1 1/2 discs from the end. Forgot about the CD book , and had to start all over again , we couldn't remember diddly from three weeks before. So , in essence , driving to Seneca Allegany , we re-listened and last week end got to the last disc.
The CD book is called ' The Devil in the White City ' by Erik Larson , the story takes place in and around the World's fair in Chicago , at the turn of the century , give or take. The fair was called the World's Colombian Fair in honour of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World.  The ' devil  ' was a mass murderer and the ' White City ' was the facade of the World's Fair.

Anyone is free to borrow this CD set , as we were told it has passed through many hands. One thought is to offer the CD set, at the ' Porch and Pint ' pub ,  in Peterborough. The Porch has a lending library on the window sill. I have populated my bedroom shelves on the 'bee w/ books from the window sill. Maybe , its justice if I donate an offering rather than taking , exclusively.

Weather , do I see a bit of wind stirring out there ? We've been virtually , breeze free for these last few days. A cold front is near and should shake things up a bit. Sat. on , for 4 or 5 days seems tob looking good.

Its All Right

Now. I'm sitting in 74 F A/C and comfortable.
Yesterday , the temperature rose all day from 74 to 80. The cooling box on top of the furnace was sweating like a stevedore or hod carrier ( always wanted to use those words in a sentence ) . Late last night , the neighbour and I decided that the cooling coils were frozen and I shut off the A/C , ostensibly to let the coils thaw.
It worked. I turned  the  A/C  on again at 11:30 PM and the temperature dropped all night.
We called the H & A/C people and they're sending someone b/c freezing up isn't good.

In fact ,the blog has been interrupted while the service guy tested and prodded all over the A/C unit, inside and out.
The culprit may be / most likely is a thermal expansion valve inside the cooling stack on top of the furnace. I'll bet that it is a $ 80 part w/ 3 hr labour for 2 guys. The furnace & A/C are supposed to be on Ten yr warranty ,parts and labour.
The service guy left and there was no charge to check the system.
they'll order the part and call us. So far so good.

There's the story of the young boy and Zen master. The boy receives a pony for his birthday. The villagers are all abubble w/ excitement.
' We'll see ' says the Zen master.
The boy is out riding , falls off and breaks his leg. The villagers , all condemn the pony. ' We'll see ' says the Zen master.
The army comes to the village and takes away all boys for their service but our pony boy still has a cast and isn't fit for service , and is left behind by the recruiter. The villagers all exclaim ' he's so lucky '. 'We'll see ' says the Zen master.

Ten yr warranty - We'll see 


The weather specialists ( means they aren't meteorologists , just talking heads ) tell us 2 more days of HH w/ thunderstorms and unsettled conditions ahead.

To while away the hours , yesterday , we unpacked the off-set umbrella package. At the 'bee the sun pours in the front window from about 1 PM to 6. We've been using a table umbrella , tilted , to block the sun but the umbrella needs to move about 3 times as the sun swings west.
This  umbrella is 9 ft diameter and can tilt as well. We're hoping that a large diameter brolley will need less movement. We bought the sucker at Target north , here in T.O. regular price $ 289 ( I think that means in Bangladesh or wherever ) our price was $ 74.10 ( beat that Mr Walmart ). It was summer clearance at Target.
However , before hauling the thing to the 'bee , I thought let's see what needs doing to assemble. It will take 30 min w/ the tools provided ( 2 hex keys ) for normal mortals.
First , its heavy , w/ 3 sets of tubes. The base is called fabric.
So , all it needs , is assembly and 176 lb of sand. The sand goes in 2 plasticized rectangular saddle bags . This base is not meant to move.
The whole umbrella needs taking down and interior storage for inclement weather. Thus , some poor sucker ( moi ) needs to schlep , 2 x 85 lb baggie things loaded w/ sand.
Nope ! I'll put the saddle bags down w/ 25 lb of sand inside. then I'll use free weights from an old weight lifting set ( 25 lb each ) and tie the base down to the deck. Even I can manage 25 lb. Yeah , 80 lbs bags of sand , no way , Jose.

So , SNAFU , here at the manse. Situation Normal All Fudged Up

' I Was Drunk '

No not me , Vincent Plum , he stuck his tongue down his cousin Stephanie's throat at her own wedding. After some threats , Stephanie Plum gets hired as a bond enforcement agent , bounty hunter for Vincent Plum Bail Bond Co..
The Redbox had , ' One for the Money ' for $ 1. OftM is the first in the Stephanie Plum series , by author Janet Evanovich. 
Rating 0.5 out of $ 1. Katherine Heigl got the lead. Pretty good but the story didn't have much zip. I got used to KH as Stephanie.

M is a big Stephanie fan. She refused to watch OftM. She couldn't visualize KH as Stephanie.
The problem is that we've listened to  Stephanie Plum on CD , as read by Lorelei King. LK is the voice of Stephanie. Katherine is OK but not LK.
In fact , Janet Evanovich also ,wrote a detective series ,w/ another heroine. I borrowed the CD set from the library but couldn't finish the CD s b/c Lorelei was reading , and she was still Stephanie  to me , not whoever.

The weather - ick-a-rama. To boot , our A/C started thrumming last night. After several tries , there is a plank and towel jammed against the sheet metal and the noise is almost non - existent. I'm really handy w/ boards and towels - Mr. Handyman , hisself.
The forecast has 3 more days of ick ( notice , it isn't HH , now ).
To-day , will be the highest humidex by a tiddle. The week-end is looking to be seasonal temperatures and drier.

A Thousand Stories

Oops  What does it cover
I've made little goofs . oops I forgot to pay my credit card bill twice.
Actually , once , I made a payment to my credit card except , I had transferred the money from credit card to my chequing account ,so , my credit card balance went up not down. 
The other time ,  I came up w/  ' The 15 th , I thought it was the 18 th '. Good one , eh.

On CBC radio , this morning , a mason was interviewed. The story goes that he got a scholarship to Michigan State in baseball. His freshman year , he was All American and MSU won its first NCAA title.
In the fall, on a training session in Fla , the young man convinced the
coach to let him drive a team van to the beach w/ fellow players and girls. After a day's fun , the group returned to the parking spot and found no van.  The tide had come and gone , w/ the van. Oops
No scholarship . no career, See . Oops doesn't cover it.

Everything in perspective , I need to remember that. Actually , I need to re-remember that. In a movie called ' Colours ' the protagonists , have a saying ' We may not get what we want .         We may not get what we need but please , don't give us what we deserve '

Weather story is same old , same old. 79 F at 8:20 AM , in the shade. OK . I won't melt , it will just feel like it.

It's not everything.....

.. the weather. Sure , in winter we cocoon up here in the GWN , its cold. This week , has us doing the same , as HH victims.
OK. We're cowards. I went out fishing this morning at 6 AM , to miss the heat ( and the fish too it seems ).
We hit a casino on the way home to miss the heat , hey ,  did you buy that one .
This casino is called the Great Blue Heron , its an Indian charity casino , no , you make of it what you will. Not the biggest or the flashiest. Neat , clean and they took my money. M made money again.

The casino is on the way home from the QMH , sort of. We only detour slightly. We get to see neat little towns that we never heard of  or knew existed. Touring our own province is good.

The water is changing up at QMH. the heat produced an algal bloom. The bad , is the prevalence of slime in the water. Come fall the slime will decrease but I guess its here for the summer. 

Why We Have Brains

Maybe , 25 yrs ago , I saw the results of a Univ. research project. The group  discovered that the best pro football teams , univ football teams and basketball teams have the best players. Duh !
And to-day , in the Loop news. Research study finds.... looking at naked women reduces stress in men . Who wudda thunk, hunh.

In the Loop , yesterday , there was a lead in to an article from Readers Digest. I used to like Readers Digest then I discovered that RD has a reading level of Gr 6. Great.
Well , this article was ' What Not to Eat for Breakfast '. the list was basically , what I would eat for brekkies. NO ...... cold cuts , danish , pizza
The doctor suggested whole grains , her favourite is pumpernickel bread w/ jam.   OK , I can do that. But giving up pizza is hard.
I usually , start w/ a muffin - raisin bran. This morning , a open face pita - chicken - tomato sandwich finished the brekkies.

We have another round of HH here in S. ON. It was 75 F at 9: 30 or so. This run of HH goes for 5 days. 

Brings to Mind

In Salamanca  and Olean , NY , we saw Tim Horton's Coffee places.
I spoke of the ubiquitous nature of Tim's. The number is close to     3 , 500 in Canada and another 370 scattered through the U.S. 
There was / is a Tim's stand in the Kandahar base in Afghanistan.

Will we return to Seneca Allegany ? . Drive : 3 1/2 h.  facilities : VG
Promo deals : VG  Lung cancer : maybe

Its a toss up. Once a year ? Umh , yes. Twice a year , doubtful.

Our regret : We should have stopped in Ellicottville. In M's word , what is this place. The town was pretty and functioning. Salamanca was ghostly by comparison. Olean was a name w/ a Walmart store.
Crossing at Lewiston - Queenston , for sure.

Sat JUL 13. Weather , this will be HH for sure. Its 10 A and the temp in the shade is 75.
This morn was a muffin day. Ran out  and needed to re-supply the freezer. Morning b/c I want the heat to vent before the day gets hot.
Almost made it , didn't realize how hot this day was going to be.

For sure , the backyard view is tremendous. If its green - its big and bushy. B/c I'm a silver leaf dogwood grower   ( I can't grow much else  ) , the backyard is blooming and booming.

Yesterday , at Tim's , after our FRi chinese food lunch , we had coffee at Tim's (  natch ). Our donut was called ' apple cobbler '
ApC is a designer donut. A solid donut shaped like a star. Crunchy sprinkles on the margins and apple filling in the middle. Some chef lady created the donut for Tim's ' Duelling Donut ' contest.
There was an entry form advertisement on the bag.
I entered a donut design. My donut is called ' Cruncheroo de Pom '
( Pomme is Fr for apple ). Its a bi-lingual donut. Solid star  w/ apple filling and caramel plus the crunchy splotches , 7 for the 7 provinces of Canada ( Oops , couldn't fit anymore on the thing , computer went all ' question mark ' on me ). The prize is $ 10 000 and you're donut is featured at Tim's.

God Protects.....

fools and orphans and ........................me

Got stuck at craps again .... $ 100 something. Was fiddling around on the 1 cent machine , playing the minimum 45 cents. the machine hit $ 22 and then 3 spins later - $ 180........... BUT I was playing 5 x 45 cents ($2.25 ).

We will most likely leave w/out contracting lung cancer ... it is smoky in the casino

The weather sucks - it is rainy or really hot and sticky --- Hey ,is this Toronto ?

This blog is out of order , it goes before - coming home Guess you got that  ,eh ?

Just When You Think........

that you've got a story , well...

On our way home we stopped in Niagara Falls at the Fallsview Casino. I turn to the guy beside me and said ' if this had been Seneca Allegany , the beer would have been free ' , sort of bragging where we've been .
Reply ' thats where we're going next '
Not only do they visit Fallsview and Allegany on the trip , they've already been to casino Windsor on their tour of casinos.

In 1993 or whatever , we were anxious to tell our story of ' stranded in Pittsburgh , for 3 nights ' flying south to Florida . M is talking to a couple that got trapped in a motel , no cook and no electricity for part of the stay.
They ate out of the vending machines.
Our story was trapped in the downtown Pitts Hyatt w/ full bar service and in room movies - compted by the airline.

Our version of ' stranded ' includes some other juicy bits but after that couple told their story , we kinda gave up , telling ours... mostly
Its a good one , really.

To-day coming home. 
1. Missed the turn off for Niagara Falls , NY to the Rainbow Bridge.
End up crossing at Lewiston , w/ a 30 min bridge crossing and 30 min wait at Customs.
 then drag our sorry bottoms back to Niagara Falls and Fallsview
2. Approaching the city homeward bound ,  we go north to avoid a slowdown.  The next hour is 15 MPH almost to our exit on the 65 MPH , Hwy 401.

OK Tell your story , and deflate our balloon , some more.

Discovery , shooting craps is like gambling. Funny , you don't win all the time. If I were a baseball team , they'd be firing the manager to-night.
At Fallsview , at the video craps machine , I was down 48 dollars
and clawed my way back to down $ 4. What a battle , it was.
I fought tongue and groove w/ that machine. Victory comes in many forms

To the flood ravaged of many countries and Ohio , our wishes for your speedy recovery - hope the damage can be undone.

Weather : T.O. to-night. What Happened ???    Its cool and balmy , a marvie evening. Bet we pay for this to-morrow !

So Far Away

My report on Seneca Allegany ( some of you know about this already , so glean what you can )

Celebrate special price $ 85 + 15 for sign in

Parking is free

Room is 2 x queen -  clean , spacious w/ fridge and safe. Washroom has a lovely tiled walk-in shower that is very commodious. The washroom has a lavatory cubicle so that you can do your numbers and  its separate from the shower and sink.

Craps $ 5 min even at night ( up to7 PM anyway ). I was stuck $ 130 in 90 minutes.

Played ‘ Larry the Lobster ‘ doubled my money and quit. Took the profit and wandered over to the roulette table – put $ 5 down on ‘ 0 / 00 / 2 ‘ and hit on the first spin. Took my winnings and walked away. $ 90 dollars in my pocket.

At the Redemption machine , M is cashing in $ 260 in vouchers.

Overall , except for the smoker’s hack that I’m developing , a great place

 Weather is A/C in the casino. Its drizzly at least out there , in the Alleganies

Movie Review : '  Charlie's Wilson's War ' . Yes ,Amy Adams is in the credits. The movie is so cynical and  

I guess that I think it depicts how things happen in politics - dirty doesn't exactly cover it - really murky does.

CWW was on the TV this morning ,sort of wake up television.

" They're coming out  !! "

The Storm .... and T.O.

A commuter train is flooded out and the marine rescue unit is called to evacuate the passengers ( 1400 ). Video bits show water waist deep in the first floor car. A snake is swimming through the seats , looking for ....... shelter ,food , a mate ?
We saw video of water fountaining out of manholes and water roaring down the street.
BUT .... certain areas of T.O. got a month of rain in 2 hrs - 146 mm or approx 5 1/2 in.  and some areas 5 miles away got 1 in or so.
The 146 is a record for our airport which is now taking berthing requests from ocean liners. Hurricane Hazel back in '54 held the record at 120 something.
Here in the 'burbs we got rain that was less severe than the night before.
On the weather map the little red dot of max rain slid over downtown T.O. and sort of hovered before moving on... thus 146 mm.
WE are on the old dry shoreline part of Lake Iroquois which 10 ,00 yrs ago was the size of most of the Great Lakes put to-gether. Everything south and west of us , was the lake basin and last night was again.

In the news : A Hostess Twinkie now has a shelf live of 45 days.
I think this aging tenderizes the twinkie.
Years ago , I was in a 7 -11 getting early morning coffee. The ass'st manager was coaching a rookie employee " The sandwiches must be rotated every 2 weeks and the honey buns can last for 3 " 
OMG , 2 week old sandwiches. Changed my whole concept of fast food and 7 - 11 , TG their coffee isn't 2 weeks old ......... or ?

My food rules in the house 
1. Do not cover food going into the fridge warm
2. Three day old rice is perfect for fried rice
3. Surface green on cheese etc is OK but not if there are little veins running down into the cheese
4. Food should not be stored in aluminum as in ,  the take out container

Guess , your not eating here , right.

Rule 1 stems from the fact that cooling in the fridge is done via circulating air.. ergo no circulation , no cooling. As well , I usually stir the food around after an hour in the fridge

Rule 2 : Its rice , cool it right and when you fry the rice everything bad dies. One friend claimed that you couldn't make fried rice at home b/c it would clump. I asked how old was the rice and he said straight from the cooking pot.
Guess who doesn't order fried rice in Chinese restaurants.

Rule 3 ; Well , you takes your chances , I think of all those cheeses where you want the colour to be blue or green

HH , for another 2 days and then the air clears out

Bright Idea

Was going to be a typical HH day , here in S. ON.
Plan for fishing  : up early and beat the heat.
Cruised the shoreline , 1 rockbass ( not big ) , for 1/2 hr
Getting to the end of the deeper water and kathunk , something's thrashing around down there stuck to my line.
The mystery comes close and its a # 5 walleye. I was spinnerbait fishing and was paralleling the weed line. This guy is so heavy , that I couldn't one hand the net. No camera , you gotta trust me.

Well , it is a HH day , for sure. We're hiding in the A/C comfort of the house. If someone says ' You'd never survive in the ' Little House on the Prairie ' then I'll say ' Yep '.

Post Script : Torrential rains hit T.O.. Periodic bursts dumping several inches of rain in under an hour have paralyzed movement in and around T.O.  Subway service is suspended , the Don Valley Pky is closed in low-lying sections and the airport has cancelled all flights for the near future. Our flowers are being watered , thank you.

As well , the 6PM news announced that the death toll in Lac-Megantic ,PQ , is now at 13 and bound to rise. The rescue teams have just started searching buildings in the middle of town. The fires are now out. They tell us that the same train that fireballed travelled through T.O.
Surprisingly , a rural fire department reports putting out a fire on the same train hours before the train de-railed in the town. Oops , doesn't quite cover this one 

Sunday , It Is

The rain fell - skies are gray , T.O. has its fairly typical , uncomfortable summer. The week ahead is predicted to be steamy
still , maybe 5 days of HH.

Two nights ago ,  on PRI , the show called ' This and That ' featured an interview w/ a proponent of computer controlled cars. I caught the tail end of the interview. It seems a touch screen steering and control system is possible. I have to presume the ' steering wheel ' b/comes a touch pad w/ all functions activated by a finger tap or slide. This event would be video game gone real world.

Apparently , shipping petroleum by railcar some drawbacks. In Quebec , a train malfunction led to an explosion that took out 30 buildings and created a fireball. The list of missing is somewhere near 60 w/one death.

Whoa , Nelly

Following up , from yesterday. Only 30 died in Egypt ( a thousand were injured ). 

In Alberta ( W Canada ) , the CBC ( not the gov'mnt ) released findings on the environmental testing of the Bow R which is receding from record setting flood levels. The report showed E. Coli levels 100 times acceptable for normal water use. More alarming , the test showed E. coli :0157 present.
The sad part , the gov'mnt tested also but won't publish what they found. Mr Snowden where are you ?

We have another sticky HH day coming. Rain is possible. On the plus side everything green is firing out of the ground on all eight cylinders.
( now there's a mix of ideas and really non-organic ).

The sun is pouring into the kitchen and I'm typing away in a room bathed in light.

At the library , I found a ' Thor ' comic. now , this comic is more like a novel and I've a feeling that it doesn't cost $ 0.15 like when I was younger. The ' comic' is 3 x thicker than I remember and has glossy paper. And it seems that it has a lot of words. And , oh , the pictures are really vibrant and detailed. who knew ??

I gave up on overnight radio last night. The have a show called ' Monacle ' on Arts and Entertainment that they're flogging. Monacle isn't my cup of tea.
I rolled over and tried to sleep but it took awhile to drop off.

A Bigger World

To-day , we will go global and local and national.

In Egypt , they dumped their President who was Islamist and picked a court official  B/c , this is Friday , there are tense times , a tradition has sprung up in Egypt for riots and violence to flare after prayers on Fri.
To Western ideology , going to prayers and coming out rioting seems oxy-moronic. The deposed government was based on the Islamist Brotherhood , so maybe praying to Allah and then supporting the boys makes some kind of sense.

Home Grown terrorism. In B.C. , a couple was arrested after a five month sting op. The charges are conspiracy to blow up the BC legislature. You've got to know that BC is reknowned for laid back pot smoking life. Its a stereotype , yes , but the people are calm out there , maybe they should do dope in Egypt.
On the other hand , I think the mounties and CSIS get bored and jump on some unsuspecting slobbos , for a lark.

The news announced the latest data shows that T.O. home sales fell 1 % and house prices rose 4.7 %. There are indications that an inevitable rise in interest rates ( 3.2 % , as of now ) will kill the decade long run on house prices and sales. Lately , five yr mortgages have started to approach 5 %.

I'm typing and drinking coffee in our ' sunroom '. Some people build an addition ( as did the next door neighbour , to the west ). ' We ' had the tree removed , its a different room. The kitchen has cathedral ceilings , w/ slot windows on the east , and sliding patio doors plus a 4 ft x 3 ft crank out window over the sink on that N wall. That is tons of window or glass BUT take away that tree on the east and bingo bongo a SUNROOM is born.
We were so grateful we paid 40 % of the removal cost much to the reluctant surprise of our eastern neighbours. They need to realize what they've done for our house. Yippee.

Warm and humid , again , rain a constant threat.

No upper dentures for Mom , checked almost everything in her room. The dentist is offering to replace the upper denture for $ 580.
I figure that it means , it will only cost me 120 dollars a day to keep my Mom in teeth if she keeps losing the dentures      ( or 580 divided by 5 ). Me thinks that she better get used to pablum. You can buy a lot of pablum for 120 dollars a day.

The universe continues to unfold, and unfold and unfold.........

Born on the 4 th of july

" I'm a Yankee doodle dandy " sang JC , w thanks to G M Cohen
 ( ? ). 
Irving Berlin , Geo M Cohen , Geo and Ira Gershwin , Hoagy Carmichael , Harry Chapin , all recipients of the Congressional Medal as songwriters.

The day broke gray and misty. Rain is off and on. Same all day.

The tree got removed. We have sunshine pouring into our kitchen.
there is a skylight but w/out the tree - well, its like day and night. The light is remarkable - equal to the lights on.

The dental front. Driller had another go at cleaning out the root canal and sanitizing the cavity. All was good. Now , we wait til the tooth settles down and see how the infection proceeds or does not proceed.

To-day , could be ' go look for the dentures day ' at the TLC.
Open all the kleenex bundles , sandwich ends , and everything.

146

W/ regrets , I failed to say that JU 1 was Canada's 146 th BD. But on reflection , maybe , it was a ' who cares ' kind of thing. Three hundred , would have been the Spartans and 144 were at Bilbo's 111 th BD. 146 , I don't know , it just hangs there.

Movie review : OZ , the Great and Powerful ,  Overall rating VG.
Not the way that I remember it w/ Judy. Entertaining is the key word.  Maybe , the only word that matters.
Slick and quirky are also descriptors.
At Redbox it was $2 but over the holiday they gave 1 extra day. Definitely a .7 out of $1.
Go see it. Oh ,  Amy Adams isn't in the credits for this one either.

Fished for 1 1/2 days w/ former students. They are younger , of course. My face is still glowing from the sun and wind. A and W will have a beer and forget about the strain and pain. I'll be nursing my body for 3 days ( and my spirit , I got out-fished , too ! )
Both are 1/2 my age and a bit. It shows.
Lesson : fish w/ people older than you , so you can feel superior.

Weather was mixed. Definitely sun for 2 days but the threat of rain was never far away although no rain fell til night. The wind was cool , all day yesterday.
To-day , started foggy and dampish but gave way to full sun exposure and I felt better when the guys said it was ' HOT ' , cuz I was melting out there.

All the drugs are gone. to-morrow is dentist day , and I 'll discover if the Driller thinks the infection situation is resolved.

Did I say that Mom's dentures are missing. Right , 6 weeks and       $ 2800 and in five days the upper denture is missing. Go figure. well, she chewed solids for 4 days. Hey , thats only $400 a day. I'm way ahead. 

To the southern contingent '  Happy 4 th of July ' bet its more than 146

A DAY for CANADA

Its Canada Day , JL 1. Google .ca has the parliament buildings ( Ottawa ) as its GOOGLE centrepiece.

For the southern contingent , things truly Canadian ( and we don't have much , being exposed to the mass media juggernaut south of us.

1. Back bacon or Canadian bacon , when we are in the States.

2. Tim Horton's double / double ( 2 cream /2 sugar ). BTW , TH s are the focal point of every small town. For U.S. types , think of Dunkin Donuts locations on steroids b/c thats how many TH s we have. At QMH , I can be at a Timmie's in 10 minutes. Here at home,  3 minutes to Tim's.

3. The Bloody Caesar , invented in Calgary in the late 60 s. Thats clamato juice and vodka or a Bloody Mary and ' kick it up a notch ' ala Emeril.

4. Poutine ( french fries , cheese curds topped w/ gravy ). I've seen dishes that look like that in the states but it was just sloppy fries.
Oh ,and we say chips for french fried potatoes.

5. And we spell these words like this : centre , honour , cheque etc. Lets put it this way , spell check isn't happy w/ my spellings.

6. Thrill gum is Canadian

7. Butter tarts are hard to find in the states esp. w/ raisins and walnuts

8. And we make better meat pies , up here.

9. When we're  fishing we often call the walleye , a pickerel

10. we have Stephen Harper and America has a leader.

11. Our passports are bi-lingual

12. EH , Canada has 3 ' ehs ', in it's name

13. We have universal health care. I think that that kind of thing affects our whole psyche

OK to be fair. Things that I look forward to when in the States.

1. 7 - 11 s. love that coffee machine and the price

2. Labelling on food containers , much superior to ours

3. Cheaper gas. We paid $ 1.23 / L or approx $ 5.30 / gal, yesterday.

4. CVS etc , b/c typically , we can't come close to matching your prices in stores like that.  However , your prescription drug prices and many OTC s are sky high.

5. Things that we can save money on in the states : bread , milk , eggs ( those can 1/2 our price ) , cars ( now , maybe 25% cheaper )



Weather : Cool but not too sunny , A/C off and windows are flung open. Thats a lie , ours slide up and down or swing out. The skies are cloudy. We will get rain this week , intermittent , but all week.
The Weatherboy monitor has an arrow up and no clouds. I don't think Weatherboy is looking where I'm looking.

Health ,VG but I'm still swallowing those Amox capsules and ibuprofen. Root canal is pain free , hopefully I'm getting infection free too !

I discovered that 95 people have looked at my profile. Mainly ,they ' googled ' the word  ' universe , etc '. And I still have 1 registered reader. Guess , I won't be eligible for sponsor money , any time soon.

Happy Can. Day