A miscellany of completely unrelated thoughts...

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HiFive, Marijuana, Trans Pacific Partnership, Photo, Minerals, party, Peace River, Roman, Incompetence, Bomb, Computer, Electrical, Nudity, famous puppet death scenes, Sirens, Laredo, Legion D'Honneur, Record, basement, house,

In the perfect location, situation, to do all things, instead finding myself increasingly anxious and bored.

There is no reason to be bored - I've much to do, but as much as I enjoy solitude it needs to be somewhat balanced with society. 

Society, at the moment and for the past year, has been out of the question, and Pandemic Fatigue is settling well in. 

The restaurant, while I'd prefer to finish things up and never return, at least provides some time away from myself, the society of others (and I know Ken must be missing my company...!), and the reassurance that for a time - worst come to worst, my finances can be restored. 

But rumor has it that the restaurant - despite March projections - may NOT be finally reopening, there are obstacles, and - it might be time to start planning for the new backup plan.

In short, paradise is seldom what it's cut out to be...

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Category: Miscellany

I'm now up to 12 every morning, waiting in the tree off the deck for breakfast.

There's always an even number, which makes me think that they're paired up - although they're not particularly social (not like sparrows or other smaller birds) - each Jay has it's own branch, some farther back, some closer, and when the closer ones swoop in for the nut the farther ones take their place.

After a fashion, we're kind of getting to know each other. The first bowl of food, it's a free for all - at first - riots, fighting at the dish, now it seems an almost orderly flight down - one or two at a time, another 1 or 2 waiting on the rail, things go until the dish is empty.

At this point I change it up. When I go outside for a smoke I place one peanut on the rail, wait until a bold one decides to swoop in and pick it up, then replace it.

There's a variety of approaches - the birds - indistinguishable - but they do seem to have very distinct personalities. 

There's a couple that will make swooping attempts to grab a nut, then abort at the last minute and swoop away. These will later follow the other, braver birds around the trees, presumably harassing them to give up their nuts.

There are the ones that swoop in - in one stroke - and grab the nut with their claws or beak and abscond with it without stopping. Others will land at the far end of the rail, hop half-way towards it, then jump over the nut to land on the other side of the rail, approach it again...

...this isn't a great strategy. Some other, more opportunistic bird will have beaten them to it before they finally get close enough to the prize.

Then there are those that land on the end of the rail, hop slowly (relatively, they're at best abrupt in their movements) towards the nut, then pick it up and look me over for 2 or 3 seconds before flying away.

In the intermission, between my replenishing the peanut there will be a wag that will land on the empty rail, hop over and pantomime looking for the non existent peanut.

One, having grabbed the nut and still with it in it's beak sees me lay out another, swoops back to the far end of the rail, sets his first nut down, hops over and takes the second nut (to the annoyance of another bird already on the wing towards it), then hops back to pick up the first nut, only to discover that he can't carry two at once. 

Try laying down 3 or 4 nuts at a time and all of a sudden there appears the connoisseurs, that will pick up each nut, shake it a moment, set it down, test the next one, and so forth, until having tested them all they can seize the best one and fly away.

Now, all the while they've got me wondering "What are they thinking?". This is, of course, the wrong question, they don't think like us, not at all, they don't have language which we use largely to form our thoughts - or - whatever equivalent they have in birdsong is unlikely to be shaping their thoughts in the same ways ours are. But - still - try and get into their heads. One is vocal with loud scoldings and kaws as soon as I lay down the nut, as if it's trying to shoo me from the deck so he/she can dine in peace. Another might make low chirps and birdsongs/warbles to itself - no others in the tree, or within hearing range, as it waits for a nut, and it reminds me somewhat of a cheerful inner monologue, the bird is simply going over the joyful moment it gets it's nut, "anticipating" out loud, as it were.

And then there's the whole - "Do they know they're being fed?" - which - I would think, yes, of course, but then why the super-abundance of caution? There's only 12, you need a minimum of 4 and twenty for any sort of half-assed pie. And there is the fact that - even now, as I'm writing this at the computer, they're landing on the rail, looking for nuts that plainly aren't there, then staring at me through the window...An I simply a careless forager, who accidently leaves nuts on the rail and should be followed around? Or...?

Anyways, for the moment largely the most intelligent companionship I have, so I'll enjoy it while it lasts. 

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Category: Miscellany

A friend forwards me a link - a GoFundMe page for an old chef I used to work with. The chef, 65ish and forever changing phone numbers - on the run, like so many out here - from a host of irate creditors, ex's, dodgy as fuck. One of those people who make reasonably great money yet - month after month-end - after liquor and cigarettes always a dollar short and a day too late, and when enough of those dollars had added up would skip out on his creditors, find a new town to lie low in.

Only now it seems he's run out of places to hide. He'd left for a year - places unknown, and now he's back.

His job ran out - they always do, he'd start off, make a good impression, only soon he'd be drinking before work and coming in hammered, during work, after work until late the next morning, then repeat. It became too much. And he got other jobs, where sobriety was less important, and they too would run out. 

He made good enough money even when he wasn't working. He lived with his girlfriend - another big drinker and smoker, and between them - with CERB and his pension and her band money they easily brought in $6,000 per month. Only it all mysteriously vanishes. 

Now the girlfriend - younger - maybe 45, but you wouldn't guess a day under 70. Lifestyle. Severely plagued with predictable health issues - all of which are covered by the band. Now she needs some dental work, and so he has the bright idea of setting up a GoFundMe to raise $5,000 to fund her dental work. 

I'm not making this up. And - looking over the link I have to laugh - they - him, her, the band - they could cover this tomorrow - if they laid off the sauce, cut back on the smoking. But of course they can't. They won't. And so they've set up a GoFundMe to pay for dental work she will never get - more a GoFundMe to keep them both on the preferred painkillers of choice (Budweiser), and I'm laughing, shaking my head, how fucked up do you have to be to set up a fundraiser to keep you drunk?

Mind you, there is the invisible machine...

This GoFundMe - it's nothing new, I've seen them for people looking to travel, buy a better car, house, go to Shambala, it's crazy what people feel entitled to, that somehow society is responsible for keeping them in the lifestyle to which they've become accustomed, or is somehow obliged to bail them out of their shitty life choices. Me, I've always grown accustomed to less, had modest ambitions, or none at all, and then learned to lower the bar, realized I was asking too much, and maybe I need to set up a GoFundMe - fuck, I could use serious dental work, a 12" schlong, better Vodka, more cigarettes, and when I got that I could raise the bar, make it a living, sort of "Instagram reality" that would probably be a bit too fucking real for Instagram, but - hey - maybe time to put the "reality" back into reality TV...

Anyways, I saw it, between laughing and outrage had to share. 

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Category: People

This is the endgame of the internet, sites you use daily lock you out with paywalls; "buy a subscription", subscriptions would cost me more than my rent, it makes me careful in my reading. Half-done an article and the "subscribers-only" window rolls up to block the rest of it. There are ways around it - clear your history, take a free subscription and submit to an inbox filled with spam (my mistake with the NY Times), or - a new hack - supposedly by adding a period after the .com - .com./article - will allow you in, there are more but I just take it as a sign that it's time to get off of the internet.

Here are a few other suggestions culled from the net:

Still, there's always a silver lining - it forces me to consider whether I really wanted to read the article - or was just wasting time, and get on with your day and read a chapter book - always a better option!

 

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Category: Blog
  1. Meanwhile, transcribing notes
  2. BlueJays & Snow
  3. Reddit VS Wall Street
  4. Christopher Dresser's Teapot

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