- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 355
Slight sense of achievement, 2 electric razors, neither of which would even slightly trim my beard, instead merely pulling it out in bloody hunks. One even stopped doing that.
So get onto YouTube, watch a few how to videos, fix one, then oil them both.
And now 2 razors, good as new.
***
The car, the car, always in the forefront of my mind. Finally, finally, after 100 false starts I go up the hill, it's still there, tires flat, windows broken. I call BCAA. It's looking good, only have to wait for the tow truck driver, only about 20 minutes later they call back, my car, is it insured? How long has it been there? They're on to me, no tow.
And so I call the wreckers and they actually promise to recover it that day.
There are things in it I could use, a waterproof camo jacket, fishing rod, lures, but, damn, let it go, I can get all of the above for $10 at a garage sale next year.
The next day, through the rain and drizzle, I walk up to where the car is - and - praise the lord - it's gone. Should I have grabbed the plates? I don't know, I only know it's off the large list of things I have to worry about. Now there's room in my life for a working high-clearance 4 Wheel Drive Jeep.
***
And the weather, perfect, fall, clouds in the morning, rain, drizzle, cold temperatures. Wake up, have a coffee, go back to bed, the snow's coming down the mountain. You can see it, maybe 100 meters up, not so long now, not so long at all...
***
And reading, after "A Voyage to Arcturus" Bloch's book on De Sade is looking pretty damned sane. And I'm still getting pages of notes out of it. I'll be a little more thorough in my review, but he's excellent, and far more entertaining than De Sade ever was...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 341
...being the marvelous history of General Augustus Sutter
Which being the history of a remarkable man and time in history, told by Cendrars becomes poetry and art. A slender, although marvelous read, from the point of view of a man who can't seem to reconcile the swings of fortune God (and man) have assigned him.
Cendrars is kinder to him than history is, although how much information he had access to is uncertain. The historical accounts currently do not describe him as kindly in his dealings with natives.
You can read the bare bones of his life here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sutter
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 328
Sooo, brought in a few of my less valuable books for trade and discovered Bloch's "Marquis De Sade - His Life and Works", which puts him into context with the rest of the Era, the countless unforgivable crimes of Louis XV, his concubines and Mary Antoinette, the innumerable vices and sins of the Clergy and Church, (with many pages given over to police reports detailing the "in flagrente delicto" acts of Monks, Jesuits, Priests, etc. It is very laugh-out loud, and while I'm barely 30 pages in I've already made as many pages in notes. Unfortunately it demands a bit of attention, and my attention has been a bit scattered by the events of the weekend.
Anyways; news I've been following, the apparent closeness of the Russian American election, news that Elon Musk has apparently been in contact with Putin, that he's paying voters to vote Trump, his Million Dollar Lottery, his dancing dipshit routine, and Trump, who's so chaotic and terrifying that there's no keeping up with him, and no point even trying...
Closer to home, news of the poor girl burned alive in a Halifax Wal-Mart Oven, Temporary foreign worker/or International Student, I knew all this without even reading the article, Canada, we've become the Dubai, the UAE of North America, bringing in cheaply paid foreign workers, giving them little to no training, and placing them in dangerous situations where this should not even be possible, yet clearly it is and it's happened. Or the recent case of an employee found dead in a Cambridge, Ontario, walk-in Freezer, Canada's become a bit like France, over there you serve 5 years in the French Foreign Legion and you become a citizen, over here you work 5 years for some of the dodgiest employers ever and - if you survive, you get citizenship.
Back to the election, Bloch and the Marquis De Sade, It's worth noting that while eventually the populace in France rebelled against the obscene hypocrisy and corruption of the Nobility/King and Clergy, resulting in the French Revolution, In America they're seriously considering reelecting them in. I mean - time, if ever there was one, to yell "Off with their heads...". Win or lose this election won't be so clean cut...
There are no clean players, from Trump, Musk, Bezos, Thiel, the list of corrupted technocrats, politicians and their sycophants should keep the guillotine busy for quite some time...on the other hand, never have they been easier to identify, merely look for the Trump Logo/Flag.
***
Other than that, my books slowly arriving - early last week (the same day I was setting my chops to Bloch) Muireann Maguire's "Red Spectres" arrive, one I've long looked forward to, as well as Friday I received David Lindsay's "A Voyage to Arcturus". And there are yet two to arrive by Cendrars, and I've lengthened my list with a few more via Bloch.
***
Friday night, the Dosed Party, up far too late (in fact didn't sleep, a little sketch all day and only slightly recovered for work Saturday, today feeling a little bit better. You can have too much of a good thing. I am getting a little bit too old for this, and am going to need a few weeks banging on a Tamborine following a granola truck to fully recover. This is how the Yellow Deli gets you...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 389
And so I've another scheduled trip to the dentist, only without a car and so a friend steps up, opportunity for her to visit her family, and we're off. Beautiful autumn colours, stop at a pub in Rock Creek for lunch.
The pub, far better on the inside than outside, lunch, the big "Fell off the back of a GFS Truck" feast, onion rings, chicken wings, cheese sticks, chicken fingers, spring rolls, celery/carrots, fries, gravy.
Fucking appalling. $40 for maybe $4 worth of food, chicken wings cut from chicks still in the eggs, fingers more aborted McNuggets, spring rolls without filling, Onion rings that forgot the onion, carrots/celery recycled since the beginning of time, I mean, this was the worst - and most expensive - iteration of the classic Kootenay Roadhouse Menu I've seen in my life. It's like GFS has a secret menu for even worse food that what they usually sell these places, somehow, if possible, they managed to sell them on the "D" menu, half the price of the "C" menu which is what most places buy and is easily ranked as "appalling".
What kills me is that while it's far too generic, commonplace, the menu virtually identical to every other restaurant for a couple of hundred miles, it doesn't have to be. You could - from scratch - make an amazing fried cheese. Or Chicken Wing. Or French Fry, or Chicken Finger or Spring Roll or - well, all of it, you just have to know how to cook and take 5 minutes to prep it. But I swear GFS unloads this shit directly into the deep fryer and - the results, well, you know, you know.
***
Onward to Kelowna, a couple of thrift shops, I pick up a few nice shirts, pair of pants, if you're into thrifting, Kelowna, it's the place to be. Any number of treasures, and I could have searched a lot longer, harder, only I was being done a favour and didn't care to impose further.
***
The Dentist, fine, the standard, and then home, a couple more thrift shops, if I'd had time I might have found some treasures, the quality of the post-consumer landfill there is great, far better than the Kootenays, only I was a little disinclined, the dentist, the impatience of my ride, and so I cut it short, but next year, new vehicle, and I'll be making the trip for sure...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 350
Getting drunk and ordering books I've been meaning to find forever...
Like "Voyage to Arcturus" by David Lindsey. A couple of books by Blaise Cendrars. And, of course, previously mentioned, "Red Spectres". I'm laying in for winter.
And I'm wondering why i didn't order them sooner, like, what was blocking me?
Books soothe my restless soul. So we'll see.
Anyways, something to wait for...