The marathon weekend

No, not me, I'm not doing a marathon. Not this one. Some of my buddies are, though, and I'm just scoping out the route, and thinking about where to cheer from. Hope everybody has a great race!

Lots to do this weekend, left over from last weekend's list that I didn't quite finish. There's one flower box that has just a bit of root sorting to go. I was on a final push to finish it last weekend, when I realized I'd been out in the sun for 5 hours, and I was done.

My legs have been getting less and less cranky, which is making me more and more happy. It's a pity it's pouring out right now. If it was nice I'd have gone for a run, but I don't want to run so much as to run in the cold rain. Funny, I'll run in snow and much colder, as long as it's a dry cold. A wet cold is just no fun at all.

So I was indoors on the bike. Only a half hour, mostly brisk spin to get the blood moving in my legs, then a good core and stretch session. Stability plank feels much better, and I can even do the side plank X again. Push ups even.

The two major Canadian political farces are still playing out. Ford, the Toronto mayor who several reporters say they've seen a video of him smoking crack, doesn't deny it, just sort of parses around it in weasely terms. I think he knows the video is out there and will surface sooner or later. Oddly enough, even if the video does surface, there are no provisions to remove him as mayor until he is actually convicted. If he is convicted.

Which leads to a quickie side rant. What is it with public figures getting caught by an open microphone, or clandestine video? These people have to realize they are public figures, with a press corp or general public that will often take delight in publishing unflattering footage. Don't they assume every mike is recording, and there could be a video camera anywhere? Why would you do something so stupid as to smoke crack with known drug dealers? At best it renders you subject to blackmail, and that may well be the case here. There was Romney getting caught telling his truth, or what he thought was the truth to that particular audience.

Whatever happened to "Always tell the truth, that way you don't have to remember what you said." Much as I would not like to have a camera in my face, we're living in a world where that's the reality. From the moment I walk in the front door, to the moment I leave the elevator lobby, I'm under video surveillance. I'm pretty sure there isn't a camera pointed at my computer screen, but I behave as is there was. More and more of our public lives either is, or has the potential to be recorded. Cops have cameras in their cars. Some bouncers have little mini cameras attached to head sets. There are CCTV cameras in the streets. In some cases I like it, since it can be a documentary record that hopefully puts a cramp on abuse of police power. However I worry that incriminating evidence is tampered with, or "lost".

The ClusterDuff continues. I lost track of it today, and haven't bothered getting back on track just yet. Suffice to say the stories still do not add up. Now it seems that in addition to supplying $90K to get Duffy off the hook, Wright also provided some input on what the Senate committee report should say. And if Harper didn't have is finger in that pie, it must be the first pie ever.

Now that they look at it, there seems to be even more stuff he was claiming that he shouldn't. Maybe it's not on the scale of the moat cleaning claimed by one English Peer, but still. It's proof that nobody is above having their expense claims examined.

In really important news, we've been combing the cats daily now that the nice weather is here, and we've been getting great clouds of fur off both of them. More off Curtis, of course. His fur was a bit coarse, but not it's considerably more silky and soft. We think a year of good living finally has the good fur growing in. There is a new brand of wet food in the house. We will see what the little gourmands think of it tomorrow.

I failed at Savasana

This morning's swim was pretty good, for having missed several weeks worth of swim because of a complicated schedule. Mainly I got wet and swam for a while. Did a bit of water running, and swam a couple of medium fast laps, then some backstroke to cool down. The clock was too far away to see, but from starting and stopping times I'm guessing I was in the water 20 minutes or so.

The best part of the experience was the hot tub. Even though the tub was full of the swim club kids huddling in a little circle, the good jet was free till I got there.

At work I'm trying to get up regularly to move around and keep my legs mobile. That failed once, when both my office roomie and I realized at the same time we were freezing. The temperature seems to dip in the office early afternoon.

Yoga was brutal. Not our instructor! It was a perfectly nice lesson plan, but I bailed on just about everything. My left hamstrings were not happy with me, sending out pre-cramp notes of complaint. Even Savasana, I couldn't wait for it to be over. My left leg was twitching and thrashing around. Not restful at all.

Bedtime now.

Ran, ignoring Twitter

And found several hundred tweets waiting for me when I got back. I am in awe of @kady.

But I didn't care. It's a beautiful summery evening here, perfect for a run. A bit gusty for a bike ride, though and getting worse. Clear blue sky. I had to run.

Thoroughly limbered up, and walked a bit. Then ran 5 K, 33:42 nice and easy, concentrating on form. My shoulders wanted to slump; maybe I need to be doing more of the rowing exercise. The run meter graph is all over the place, and I don't think my pace varied that much.

There were a few tickles, I'll call them, in my calves. It felt like someone was brushing the backs of my calves lightly with something with prickles. I've never that that before. Otherwise my legs were slow to warm up, and I didn't push. My left calf was feeling a bit tight throughout.

Rolled the ball and stretched lots afterward, catching up on the Twitter feed.

I remain appalled at the mess in Ottawa, and much less than pleased that my MP is ignoring the whole issue as much as possible. He is the one with the most stroke in determining what happens. Now he's flying off to Peru to work out a trade deal. The 3.1 Billion is still missing. This group of facts had better not be related.

The aftermath of the gardening flower bed was very sore and cranky legs by the time I went to bed.

Unimaginable, it gets worse

Today I was out digging up and excavating roots from a flower box. One set was nearly 6 feet long. Roots appear to grow right through the wood. I was at it for 5 hours straight, and darn it, I'm counting it as a workout. It sure feels like one in every sense but cardio.

Twitter has been going crazy with the shit show in Ottawa. I didn't think anything else was going to happen till Tuesday. I was wrong. Never underestimate the stupidity of the elected. Read that bottom tweet from the recently elected Calgary Centre MP.

She is the one that said she would do whatever the PM told her to do, so I'm guessing this is a precursor to the official government response. It probably isn't the stupidest thing that could be said, but it's right up there. The responses have been savage. It was worth getting a Twitter account for this thread alone.

I am beginning to seriously think that aliens live in the Peace Tower of the Parliament buildings, and they're sucking the brains of our elected and unelected representatives. That theory is just as plausible as some of what's been floated so far trying to explain this mess.

Something that occurred to me is that it's rumoured that lawyers were involved in the deal that saw Wright cut that cheque. Since bribing an elected official is illegal, wouldn't the lawyers involved be abetting a crime? Shouldn't they be facing (at least) disciplinary proceedings from their professional association?

It boggles my mind that every time I think we've hit a temporary stable point, another piece of shit hits the fan. Tuesday all the players should be in the same building, and it will be interesting to see what comes out. The least acceptable response is for Duffy to apologize, resign from the Senate, and pay back (himself) everything he's taken from the Canadian taxpayer since being appointed, since he accepted the post under fraudulent circumstances. Then the RCMP can arrest him. What I'd like to see is a replica of his head on a pike to warn the others. What I expect to see  is another insult to Canadians.

The retaste zone in sight for first time in a while

What a nice long weekend it's being! Originally it was supposed to pour rain the whole time, which is better than snow, but it's been pretty reasonable. A few rain showers, enough take the edge off the fire danger.

Friday we went to a Food Truck street fair at Kingsland market, and I finally got to sample Cheezy Bizness. I had a very yummy pulled pork with a mix of cheese on it. There was a huge crowd, and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Saturday we were off to OEB for breakfast with a buddy, but she never made it. I guess I should have confirmed that it was THIS Saturday or next, but I just assumed. If it's next, we'll just have to FORCE ourselves to go back. Here's what I had.

Did you guess what's between the slices of French Toast? Cheesecake. Yes. It was very good. I was very pleased to get a coffee compliment from Linda, saying she likes my coffee better than what they were serving, and I had thought it was fairly good.

Here's what Linda had. I didn't even get a taste of it.

Later Saturday I was out for a run, 5K, 33:30. I'm still letting my legs run however they like. I'm not trying to run fast or slow, but I am trying to run lightly on my feet, and paying attention to form. It ended up being a pretty steady 6:30/K pace, not working too hard, and feeling good the entire time. I could have gone further. Here's the Runmeter graph. I don't know what I was doing in the last few minutes of the run. I didn't think I was going that fast. The rest of it I'm pretty pleased with. Long stretch session after.

Sunday was a two coffee day. Two HUGE cups of coffee. I was on the edge of vibrating. The bike session was the best in about a year or so. I felt very strong on the bike today. Maybe that was just the caffeine talking. Easy warmup, then steady state at the top of endurance pace, then some bursts maintaining +100 rpm going up through the gears trying to maintain easy circular pedaling up to well over 400 watts. This is the hardest I've pushed on the bike in a long time. I like a good sweat, but I was starting to feel a bit clammy instead, and I could feel a bit of tummy upset coming one, so I cooled down and packed it in. One very solid hour. For a while Celina was cheering me on from her perch in the window. Again, getting in a good stretch session afterward.

At the end my legs were tired. So tired I had to bend over all the way to undo my shoes. I couldn't get them up to my knee like I usually do. But there were no niggles, no almost cramping, and my knee was fairly happy about standing. The left leg is still weaker than the right, as proved by some one leg drill. Improvement is happening.

The other adventure today was putting Curtis in the big sink, and washing his nether bits. He has long fine fur, and occasionally some matts form. We washed and trimmed. Not much fun for all involved.

The shit-show in Ottawa is still on full boil. I've never been a big Rex Murphy fan, but he absolutely ripped a layer of skin off all involved. Enjoy. This will probably prompt a blog or two more as things sort themselves out. We certainly can't rely on Harper to, contrary to his own published statements. I think worse of him all the time, and he didn't start particularly high in the standings. If you're a twitter user, and think so, you may wish to use the #PMHarperMustResign tag on Monday. I don't think that will happen, but maybe an outcry will force some honesty. Trying can't hurt.

I've even had a chance to work on my book today, for the first time in a while. This blog is already long enough. Maybe I'll do an excerpt tomorrow.

A recent anniversary

Recently I turned 20,000. It seems a suitable time to review.

Things are going well, thank you for asking. I hope they continue to go well, and have tried to make prudent plans about that, while having fun now. My legs are generally less cranky by the day, and everything else internally seems to be well. I was recently reading that if I can hang on 20 years or so, we'll have a confluence of nanotechnology and genetic biotech that will enable us to all live substantially longer in good health. Me in particular, in case you were wondering. I plan to be as close to the front of the line as possible. Things will be wearing out.

The problem is that the world seems to be going to hell in a hand cart. Why a hand cart? Because the pipelines and storage tanks leak, so there is no gasoline for an auto car.

My only reassurance is that things have been going to hell for generations according to various authors throughout history, and yet nobody until very recently carried around an iPhone. Or, given a slightly longer time frame, had reliable hot showers and flush toilets, which is one of the major hallmarks of a civilized society. I note the Burg Dubai has a fleet of tanker trucks to empty the septic tanks beneath the building. I guess they haven't figured out how to build a sanitary sewer system yet.

One of the recent examples that one of my high school teachers gloated over was The Club of Rome. They noted that population went up geometrically, and food supplies only went up arithmetically. The teacher gloated that would leave us starving about the time he kicked the bucket. The laugh is upon him, however, as two things happened. The food supply went up through the green revolution and other changes, and lifespans increased. As far as I know he's still around, probably being a pain in the ass to his children and grand children, if any.

That's the thing. Throughout all of history there has been a persistent "Doom is upon us" school of writing. Generally the "solutions" proposed are to make things worse for people here and now as a sign of devotion to god. Which is idiotic, but that's all of a piece. Another school of writing is to propose a solution that directly or indirectly benefits the proposer, while making things worse for everybody else. The religious get in on this act too but there are no shortage of secular con people willing to give it a try. There is a great deal of it happening now.

There is a much smaller school of thought noting there are problems, and they might get worse, or not, and that it might be prudent to do certain things, or stop doing certain other things. There are usually a lot of numbers in this school of thought, which makes the great unwashed masses very uneasy. Generally this school of thought gets overlooked till it's much too late. Sometimes there is a new invention out of the deal that clearly solves old problems, and then later introduces new problems. There are nay-sayers that say this proves that technology is a bad thing, and we shouldn't try new things, because they create new problems. They conveniently overlook that they would have starved to death, or died in a plague, or been tortured to death by religious fanatics had the old technology not been put into use. In case you missed it, the three I'm referring to are agriculture, modern medicine, and the printing press.

Of course, there is lots of doom for the "doom is upon us" crowd to point to. You don't even need to fudge your numbers or edit your sources. There is no shortage of shit happening, and problems that need solving. Idiot politicians are only the most obvious problem.

I am reassured that about half of the smartest people that have ever lived are alive right now, and have access to information sources that people a generation ago couldn't even dream of. When we have to, we can build amazing stuff. Three words, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity. They hoped the those first two rovers would last 90 Sols. Spirit was alive for about 2200 Sols, about 24 times longer than expected. Opportunity is just starting it's 10th YEAR, or 3300 Sols, about 36 times longer than expected. Curiosity survived a sky crane descent onto Mars that boggled my mind. Some engineer buddies of mine were in awe about it. There was so much that could go wrong.

Until very recently, stupidity has always been a capital crime. Historically speaking, stupidity got you killed very quickly. Even just being unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time got you killed. Even just talking to the wrong person could get you killed. It's a Darwinian process. Generally speaking the smart and the lucky survived to breed. If it wasn't a plague, it was a war, or a revolution, or religious hysteria, or a famine, or climate change, or any number of other things.

We are smart enough now, and well organized enough to mostly deal with most of those things. We are getting on the flu bugs quicker, and the world has never been more peaceful than it is now. There are easily enough calories being produced to give everyone on earth all the food they need, if only we stopped losing so much by cycling a significant part of through cows for beef. We're still trying to get a grip on climate change, but the problem isn't the science, it's the idiots sabotaging the discussion at every opportunity, and going over the top to prevent anything from actually being done. Because, of course, they profit from things the way they are. Duh.

Overall I'm pretty positive about the future. I can't wait to see what happens next!

One thing I never in my life expected to see, I got a photo of the other day on the way home from work. Look carefully at what the window washers are wearing. Of course, the first thing I thought of was an old movie called Carry on Up the Khyber.

That 3.1 BILLION is still missing

Meanwhile the press is fixated on Duffy. Which, under normal circumstances is commendable. After all, here is a senior public official who is a crook. A thief. A fraud artist. Well, not terribly artistic, I guess. And now he's been bribed with $90,000. I'm guessing it wasn't in cash, but who knows for sure? Well, that's what you call it when you give money to a public official.

Just another example of what a disgrace our Senate is, and what poor judgement our Dear Leader has. Duffy should be ridden out of the Senate on a rail, AND be made to pay back his Senate salary for the entire time. Why? The rules state you have to be resident in the province you represent, and he isn't. He took the job under false pretenses.

But I haven't heard much about that missing 3.1 Billion dollars. That's more gazebos that even Tony Clement can build in one riding. Peter MacKay would have to spend much of it on helicopter maintenance just to get them to fly enough to give him more rides for that kind of money. The longer we don't hear about a resolution, the more I think it was stolen by those in charge.

And how about those poll companies, eh? I love it when they have egg on their faces! First the Alberta election that they got wrong. Now a BC one. Not just wrong by a few points or a few seats, but totally miscalling which party was going to form a majority government. Why would anyone ever hire them again?

As one Tweeter said, either their methodology is wrong, or people are lying to them. I say bully for the liars in this instance. Most people don't even want to talk to pollsters. They aren't supposed to call cell phones, so they still try to reach people on land lines. I'm sure they call our number often. It's why we have it, to give out to people we don't want to talk to. It's worth the monthly fee. We never answer it. We don't even twitch anymore when it rings, unless we're actually expecting a call.

It has happened that pollsters do get me every once in a while. There are two basic strategies I highly recommend. The first is to creatively lie, giving conflicting data if possible. The second is to ask if the data they want is valuable. They always assure me that yes, it is valuable. Then I tell them my per question rate ($25) and ask if they have an account set up with me. Usually the questioner retires in confusion, but some press on gamely. To them I will give nonsensical answers, like 42, blue, Diefenbaker, cricket, or whatever random information comes to mind.

If all of us did this, eventually the polling companies would go out of business. Politicians would actually have to talk to people to understand what we want done with our money. Political parties would have to campaign blind, going all out in all ridings. News organizations would have to wait for actual results. Maybe without the poll results to skew people's thinking, they would actually vote for the person they think would do the best job, as opposed to voting for the person the polls say will win, so they don't "waste" their vote.