Cycles and stuff

The bass boat went to sleep this week. The engine is fogged and the lower gear case oil is changed. A loose tarp is over the boat for rain and dust protection. In about two weeks , the batteries are removed and the tarp upgraded.
Thus , fishing as its been over the last 6 months is over. Sort of fall turn-over. And other work to do up on the 'bee.
In retrospect the 2 key factors current and minnows let me down , this fishing season. I found minnows but infrequently. And there is current now. Tues PM fishing , I couldn't believe the push downstream.
However , no pattern emerged this year that I could follow.

Weather : warm and rain , lots of rain , more to come.

Last night Monacle , the BBC arts report thingy went off the air at 1 AM and then PRI took over but I forget anything that they covered.

P.S. for real , its now 10 hrs later.
The adventure begins. The venue is Staples . The goal discover the potentials in an " USB hub "
I had specific instructions - make sure the hub is 3.0 - this from the poker guys.
Helpful associate spent 10 minutes w/ me and answered all my questions ... I think.  Whoosh
For every number that I tossed at him , he came back w/ two more

I'm pretty sure that I now have the proper hub
What I'm not sure of is what happened.
He agreed that using a laptop for a hard wired desk computer makes sense. After that Kablooey

The history. The present ' main ' computer is oldish. The desktop machine came preinstalled w/ what , I can only assume is a non licensed copy of Windows XP. A warning window appears that asks ' do you want to verify that this is a genuine Windows program '   ----------     NO b/c .........
To upgrade to Home 7 is 224 dollars. The desktop is slower than laptop and has less memory. The Windows program on the laptop is legal. The ' USB hub ' makes the laptop almost the equivalent of the desktop in functionality. At a cost of the USB hub , maybe  ... These things are tricky.
The laptop would require a cooling pad ( USB powered ) that I have.
But needs a port to plug into hence the hub.
Technically I'm a go for transition.
Any screams that you hear to-morrow would not be ghosts or goblins but me.

Slavery

By the numbers in the Torstar , was on slavery. We are not reporting the whole thing. Canada was 144 th on the list of most slaves at under 2 000. The U.S. came in at + / - ,  25 000 slaves. Criminy , don't go out in the woods at night... is real advice.

Weather better. Less blustery , less humid and the cold isn't biting.
Vacuumed the car ( s ) out yesterday afternoon. Figured once every two years , a thorough ' hoovering ' is required. Interesting things popped up .... not underwear , but maps , coins, and someone eats popcorn in the car ( aha , got you - except its me ).

We've discovered on-line gambling. We watch less TV but screen time is about the same. Who am I kidding. We play 2 - 3 hrs each.
The good thing. I'm getting bored much faster , in fact , I'm ready to stop.

Insomnia

Found another reference to real knitting , 5 hrs on overnight TV.

Weather - rotten ,  cool to cold but miserable. Rain , blustery wind.
Sound awful to you. Nah , this is Canada. In Newfoundland , this weather could signal a summer day. Here in S. ON, well , its autumn.

This is Saturday , we have a sluggish day going. Not that this would be that much different from any other day , but sluggish kinda covers it.
Coffee and muffin ( left-over applesauce on top ).

Oh , I got the shingles shot. Zostra the Great or somesuch name.
In fla , a neighbour had shingles last year , and it was not nice.
Actually , results may not be total immunity. You could still get shingles but my doctor believes the symptoms will be greatly reduced. I'll take less.
The way my skin reacts to everything , I'll take any protection that I can get.
I've got bite welts in 3 places right now , hopefully , they are bite marks - anything else , well - don't really want to know.
Thurs , my dentist appointment was a mystery. ' Failure to launch '
He was setting up to freeze me solid , tap the tooth and ..... nope , no qualifying pain. " Which tooth is the problem " , tap , tap. Nothing. Warm water. OK a little response. Ice , yepper, but it faded fast , too fast. So ,I was sent home to wait.
The fact is that there are 3 teeth back there that are potential culprits. Priller the Driller doesn't want to make a mistake and then end up doing root canals on adjacent teeth... and maybe 3 teeth.
BTW - the nickname is an affectionate one , he's been my dentist for 36 yrs and he's very good. Besides , we see him socially now , b/c we set him up w/his current live-in partner. Bonus !
So, this Sunday , no pain , no hint. We wait some more.

No Drivel

I'm missing imput for this blog. Overnight radio seems to have gotten transferred from news of the world to Monacle , an arts and living report.  Monacle does artsy stuff - restaurant trends in London - and of course , we are not talking street food.

Topic not Drivel but driving. My opinions on driving. These ops are not sanctioned by the NRA or NHRA. The National Rifle  Association and the National Hot Rod Assn , respectively. There is no proof , that any of this is true , thus it fits right in w/ the rest of the verbiage on this site
1. Anyone who claims to love driving is suspect for , some reason
   Driving is risky. No matter how good you are , which you aren't according to me - your control of the situation is less than 50 %
Alternately ,some people gain their identity or release their frustrations while driving. Yeah , I'd love to be chauffeured by someone getting their noogies off behind the wheel.

2. If you use your brakes on the 401 ( I-series highway ) , you've done something wrong. This opinion is very radical b/c some drivers can't exist w/out standing on the brakes.

3. Long distance driving is proof , something is wrong in your life.
OK. Once or twice in a lifetime , maybe, more ? - what are you doing !

A long time friend tried to convince me that he knew the Zen of driving - he could get into a zone. Maybe he can but the car pays the price. His driving is a substitute for some psychological trauma from his youth . Pure myth in his head.

Weather, cool and cool ,w/ fall rains. Temps on the 'bee were 32 F this morning (  9 AM )

How Do You Spell......

....success. I don't know.
However , yesterday , 2 good things were accomplished.
In the never ending battle to save money and re-use or reclaim ,I managed to get alternate speakers hooked up to the TV.
The speakers in a TV are usually 10 W which means a lot of i-pod thingies are close in quality or volume. What you can't tell the difference , Nope !
Previously , w/ the 40 in. flat screen , I connected a bookcase stereo system that I purchased for the job. The speakers were 20 W.
When the present 50 in. TV arrived , I couldn't get sound out of the stereo.
I ended up using speakers from a Walkman set that I had. Very poor , the speakers were not much more than 10W , themselves.
Sunday , I said , something will work , fiddle around.
First try , and why it wouldn't have worked last time that I tried , I was able to connect Bose bass assist speakers to the TV.
The Bose speakers were purchased for my dad b/c he kept the volume too high at home. You could hear the TV in the kitchen w/ the door closed.
My dad used hearing aids and the salesman said that most speakers produce best  and people hear , the higher pitched sounds. Older folks need the bass end. The older listeners swap volume for bass end.
Well , the old Bose speakers make a difference. Yes , the speakers are close to 30 W , but the bass is excellent ( or mega better than before ).

Associations.......

a game. The psychologist e.g. would say a word and you respond , the first thing that comes to you

In sports , Arsenal beat Norwich , and are undefeated in 7 games , this is good. Alabama munched on Arkansas. Thus , all my red teams won.

So , the game. 
Norwich is close to , where M's cousin lives , I think. We were in Norfolk and very near Norwich. 


Stars

Arcturus , Orion and Physarius. Physarius was the name chosen for an alien spaceship in ' StarTrek , the first one '. The Enterprise runs into an unbeatable alien. The alien tells Kirk that the Enterprise will be towed to the alien home. The tow ship is a little thing. While towing the Enterprise , the tow ship malfunctions. The Enterprise saves the pilot , Baylok , who is a dwarf. Of course , the effort to save Physarius proves the good intentions of the Federation and all is well.
' Stars Fell on Alabama ' the song title - Roll tide
In Fla , last year , after the NCAA championship , I wore my Ala. shirt and got to say ' roll Tide ' about 6 times on the morning walk.
' Stardust ' by Hoagy Carmichael.
' We Are Stardust ' by ????

The ultimate in reality shows ... no way , you say , ' Real Knitting '
5 1/2 hrs of knitting per week , per show. Didn't bother to read the story of course.
Watching knitting ? Can you do a sweater in 5 hrs ?

Week By the Numbers 10 - 19

I've had my failures dealing w/ US Post but I didn't cause this :

1.9       $ billion , US Post has lost JA - MAR 2013
25         $ million , lost each day by USPS
25         % decline in mail handles since 2006
14         % hike in package handling
46          cents / stamp , lowest in the OECD

Living longer , enjoying it ................

4          % by poll who thought 100 yrs of age would be good
56        % wouldn't choose , medication to slow aging
66        % who think , only the rich could benefit
51        % who think , longer life benefits society
25        % polled , thought that 120 years of age possible by 2050

I don't know , this seems fairly negative , reportage


Weather cool and rainy - dreary all day
Sunday brighter but rain is back Mon and then Wed , Thurs  Fri
Quack , quack

.. Would have .....

' If to-day were a fish , I would have thrown it back '
Not necessarily to-day , as such.

So ,I can segue into fishing. Tues - Wed , both days I would have tossed back. Tues - nada on the 'bee : Wed , dismal and gusty , stayed home.
However ,there is walleye in the freezer. Mon. some luck shone down and I got 2 walleye ( nothing else ), Thus , if you're going to catch only something , walleye is good.

I fished hard - well ! as hard as you can sitting in a bassboat in the lap of luxury ( for a fishing boat ). And I get to scoot around the river at some 40 MPH.
The speedometer reads higher but Stratos tech people have told me
w/ a 75 HP motor 40 is tops , no matter what the gauge says. Its fast enough.
Generally , I catch myself singing choruses of  ' Ol' Man River ' - tote that barge and lift that bale - however , it is totally allegorical
... I think I know what I was trying to say there.

I was watching a videography on ' Jimmy Choo ' shoes. Mrs Jimmy Choo ( not her name ) was quoted as saying ' high heels empower me ' as opposed to being a disadvantage. Do tell.

You gotta admit the topics and information in this blog  are not uniform or even predictable.
In case , you're wondering if the random ramblings are a mistake - no , that is pretty much what you'd get in person. I catch myself before I use the same pattern or lack of pattern in conversations. I've noticed people aren't ready for a shotgun approach to conversation - or lack of conversation.

I've said that this blog is therapeutic .. and it is. Think of poor M , w/out this blog... she'd get the shotgun , metaphorically ,in conversation.
I pour out my soul here and save the wear and tear on M.

The Morning After

OK - not original   Live w/ it

WE survived TD - dinner was smooth . M did 2 veggie casseroles , always a big hit. Turkey turned out tasty and moist. One of the nieces cringes when you say moist. She hates the word.

Rice , stuffing (Mom's classic one ) and gravy rounded out the table

Oops , cousin brought the pumpkin pie w/ whipped cream  ,delish

Entertainment was the Beatles. 2 parts a) the nieces couldn't believe
anyone owned vinyl records as in the Fab Four.
b) a record player to use the vinyl on
The girls took pictures of the album covers , ' Hard Days Night ' , ' Twist and Shout ' and ' Sgt Peppers , Lonely Hearts Club Band '.
The record player turned out to be non-functional. The belt drive disconnected.
However , it was overall irrelevant whether the songs played.

My elf sword was an alternate attraction as well.

Thus , good food and outre amusements carried the night.

The day broke sunny and 50 + - blue sky , through the trees.

TorStar , by the # s

Oktoberfest , statistics :

6.7             million litres of beer , is down year over year
6.4             million beer tent attendees
638            patients at the medical tent , mostly  ' beer corpses '
                  unconscious from the alcohol
1                lost denture
8                lost children , one family

7.10            $ , the U.S. min. wage ( world baseline ) , 10 th best
16               $ , in Australia , highest min wage
9.77             $, Australian purchasing power , 3 rd best
10.37          $ , Luxembourg's purchasing power , # 1 in OECD
7.59            $ , Canadian purchasing power , ranked 10th

So, not as terrible as other reports , not as good as possible ( ??? )

We've discovered , on line , slot machines and table games.
Wait. All play money. sponsored by , who else ? , Seneca Casinos .
Complete w/ theme music and flashing lights etc. Oh yeah , what we needed , definitely.
Upside , we watch less TV but same screen format.
Downside , guess !

Weather , gray and rainy. Warmish 68 F

to-day is Turkey day. For once , I'll go downstairs and know that the bird is thawed , really , ready to cook , not  " Oh , we'll leave it in another 20 minutes , it'll be done by 5 "
On Turkey Talk , last year , one famous cook , said , the problem is that we cook so , few , turkeys. After all , some people only do 2 turkeys a year and most do one , assuming you go out Thanksgiving or Xmas.
Last year , we cooked a turkey , for ourselves , b/c our traditional ( 8 years now ), family , do-eey , was four days after Xmas.
This year , the advice on ' Fresh Air ' the week end morning show , ' brine the turkey ' as in marinate.
I've gone w/ ' one size fits all ' thinking. Wash the dude and dry . 
Rub down w/ soya sauce. Slam ,bam , thank you , ma'am.
Sound familiar , it should , its the base treatment for all smoking and bar B Q ing.
We serve rice w/ TD dinner , so , no one notices the oriental thing.

Around the house , disaster. Versions vary. I've got the car zapper thingy , M has the garage door gizmo. the garage door came down , the SUV trunk lid didn't. The two doors met somewhere in the garage.
at Costco , Dupont , Scratch hider was in 3 packs ( what isn't in 3 s there ) for $ 10 . what the hey , right. Brought the stuff home. Washed the effected area. Waited a day , and painted it on.
It works. Except for one place , where I fear , there could be deeper damage than a scratch.

However , this Scratch repair pen is supposed to be a clear coat finish , and it protects the metal.

Avoid disaster , don't tell her to do anything. and she never listens anyway , OK she listened , I said close the garage.

Whoosh-a-rama -- or not

Things go - whoosh - right over my head. Its getting worse or always was worse.
On overnight radio , the topic was the U.S. stand-off , Obama vs the House. 51 %of Americans are blaming the Republicans , read , the House and 37 % are blaming Obama and the Senate. Both  guys speaking claimed their stand was for Americans. After the interviews , all that I could think was ' someone's screwed up royal '. 
Here in ON , the Liberal government ( your Democrats ) cancelled 2 gas fired Hydro plants which are no longer needed. The reason for cancelling was to save 2 liberal seats that were in jeopardy. This is the hyperbole we get from the Tories ( Republicans ).
The cost of cancellation was 1 billion $. All parties ( 3 ) would have cancelled the plants. But now , of course , the Liberals are the bad guys.
Had the 2 plants been built the government would have had to pay to keep them idle
NUTS
ON is already paying solar plants to stay off line b/c the power is not needed. On top of that the solar producers were getting a higher Kwatt rate to start.
Whoosh. Sometimes , I figure its better not to read the newspaper - or listen to this crap.

The bubonic plaque is back. In Madagascar , the infection rate is something like 30 %. BTW , ' bubonic ' is not even in " Spell Check " on Google.
Authorities have traced the problem back to rats escaping from a prison and getting into the general rat population. some prisoners had bubonic plaque. 
Imagine even the rats , want out of prison.
Great. I don't think we need more plaque , heck ,we've got Republicans and Tories.

Weather , same old ,same old - fantastic warm ,sunny and super cool at night. Rain comes Sunday.

Figures

Now , that I have the new 200 Mb plan and I've got my emails coming through on the iphone ... I've got an extra 60 Mb for the month and its over in 4 days.

Time. We're booking car rentals for JA 2014 already. This was a winner. Came home got on the website and saved us $ 300 from the reservation the day before. Hero time !!!!

Turkey thawing , early b/c its never thawed in the 3 days that the label says.

A Canadian won the Nobel for literature , Alice Munro. She is a short story specialist and if they didn't give it to her soon she'd get it posthumously , she's 82

I caught my fall muskellunge or muskie it was 5 1/2 lbs , w/ photo , in case you're a doubter. 
Finally ,got a largemouth bass ( been two weeks )
This was good b/c Roland Martin said stay ' Get out early , stay late ' to be a good fisherman. I was coming in and said try the rocks and bingo bango , a bass was there.

I'm watching ' Eat Street ' where this guy samples food trucks in the U.S. , mostly. The truck is called ' Two Fat Two Fly '. The specialty is stuffed chicken wings. The 2 guys have a way to stuff a wing.
With mac 'n cheese , jambalaya and whatever. This things are huge - stuffed. Deep fried , of course.

Good news - kinda . Toronto was ranked 8 th of the best cities ( why , dunno ) London knocked Sydney out of first place. You won't get this unless your Canadian - 8 th is fanatastic b/c we are usually 24 th or 55 th.

The Ohio mob says that they were all caught up on the blog b/c I took a blogging break up on the 'bee. This blog will give them something to read.

The weather except for the nights ( 32 F to 38 F ) has been orgiastic warm and sunny ( rain on Sun though ) and the week is pretty much the same.

BTW - apparently , I don't know what busy is b/c we don't have kids. DINKs is us.
Busy is when you think its under control but your just waiting , for ........... the other shoe
We love other people's kids b/c we can walk away.

While I pondered dark and dreary

the lines are E. A. Poe - but thats the weather , aujourdhui.

The gutters were  clogged w/ rain pouring over the top , so , out went the ladder during a lull in the deluge. Cleaned out the eavestroughs and all should flow - for about 2 days and then it will clog again.

World by the Numbers : Actually , not bad this week, Torstar , of course.

1381                               hours that the Dutch work / year Lowest  
                                       among OECD countries
                                        The French eat and sleep the most

182                                litres of beer consumed per Cook Islander
                                      hard liquor 24 L by the Koreans

1288                             dollars lost gambling by the Australians
                                      close to this house as well

2.4                                  % of Scots do cocaine , highest in the 
                                      world

3800                               calories eaten by Austrians  
                                        9 of the top 10 calorie consumers are
                                        European

There is a section on the loss of Rain forest e.g. Brazil .. but I'm not doing that. It isn't good for plants or animals
The global child mortality rate is down 47 % since 1990 , this from the World bank on line site.   

Quoth the raven , nevermore   EAP.

Avast There !!!

The great crime spree
Pirating on-line , videos and music
The entertainment industry is crippled by piracy.

According to an English survey , those who pirate on the internet spend 26 pounds on entertainment , c.f. non -- piraters who spend 16 pounds.

We have rain and gray skies. Temperature is 60 F.

I haven't eaten since 9 PM last night. I'm fasting for a blood test.
And my physical is this morning

Foot in Mouth Disease

For a segue , to yesterday's piece re: ' the war on drugs is lost '.
At our on-the way-home restaurant , I conversationally announced the battle for drug control has been lost and drug quality is up. The waitress who was the intended target of the announcement as a open the dialogue kind of thing, came back w/ ' yeah , you can't even share a toke b/c the quality is so high , you'll get a headache '
Ta-da , got you , I didn't even have a comeback - ordered our drinks.

Weather is same old , same old - magnificent. Some unsettled conditions are arriving late to-night. Oh well , the good w/ the bad

Long term planning. We are arranging the finances for our southern get-a-way. Seems so far away. Does everyone pre-worry this kind of thing. We seem to be experts. Other couples seem so matter of fact about situations like this.
Being childless ? Perhaps , able to be a little more self-indulgent...little more , how about a whole lot more. Thats life , each of us deals w/ whats on our plate , good news , bad news again.

Quote of the day from the novel ( how big is a novel ? , this one was under 200 pages ) ' Lost Horizon ' penned by James Hilton.
Published in 1933 , its a little dated.
" we are moderately certain that a moderate change is good '. Love it. We'll see said the Zen master.

GN / BN

The yin and yang or good news  / bad news

The ' War on Drugs Has Been Lost ' from the UN
The cost of street drugs is down 74 % and cocaine prices are down 50 %.  However, the amount and purity of drugs has never been higher. You figure , the good and the bad

Fishing is good and bad. 3 trips and 3 fish ( bass ) skunked the last 2 times out. This can't be good

Weather is good. Fair skies , a dabble of rain and breezy

The internet , hotspot and i-phone. First , the i-phone gets the internet from the hotspot. Usage .8 Mb not the 7 - 10 Mb the laptop takes. can't get M s email address to work. G and N news