Faucet failure with a side of slutty

Sunday was a whole lot of nothing. Well, that isn't true. I did get a couple things scratched off my to do list. The jungle got repressed, once again. The eco spray seems to be doing a nice number on the dandylions, but it isn't touching the vetch and that other stuff. Another flower box got finished off, ready for planting. A ton of Anise Hysop is coming up. I thought we'd got rid of that a long time ago, but I guess it's patient. I looked at playing with money to pay bills, but lost ambition. Maybe tonight.

There was an embarrassing moment in the washroom of the pub where we hold our book club meeting. I was waving my hands under the outlet, and nothing was happening. Then I realized this is a more primitive model, where I actually have to touch something to make the water flow. Oh, the humanity! I'm glad nobody was watching.

What I was trying not to watch was either of the two waiters. I can appreciate that they need to hustle for tips, and it helps to dress to accent your highlights, so to speak. But there's a line, and both of crossed over into slutty territory. One had a mostly off the shoulder top and a spaghetti strap bra on. Well, mostly on. Most of of the time it and the top was not just off the shoulder, but off the bicep and working on the crook of the elbow. I figured it was even money the right boob was going to make a break for daylight. The other waiter was more covered, but the outfit, the hair, and the makeup looked like she had just got off shift from her dominatrix job. She was scary. Service was very slow. In the few months we've been there things have gone downhill pretty far.

Much of Sunday was working on my novel. A new and interesting character has shown up in two different places.

Then the important part of the day, placating the mammals of the house. And BBQing the bison burgers.

There was a really good stretch and core session after getting warmed up working on the lawn. I can feel it in my hams today. I'm already tired of the lawn growing, and monsoon season can end any time now. Getting a bobcat in to strip off all the grass is more and more attractive.

This glass of wine is tasting very good. I'll be ready for bed soon.

I ran again, actually ran!

Saturday was supposed to be rainy all day, so my initial plan was to putter about the house inside. I did manage to get two items checked off my to do list - excavate the laundry table, and bleach a bunch of wine bottles.

It's nice to see clean glass emerge after the remnants of label goo, old water spots, wine film or other buildup is removed. Some of that goo is pretty stubborn. It's a peaceful activity, and can be almost meditative. My hands still smell a bit of bleach.

We had a thunderstorm sweep through with some light hail. I didn't see it. By the time I emerged from the basement it was nice again. My feet were itchy for a run. I was feeling warmed up, having been doing lots of bending and stretching and squatting and twisting, and all that while doing wine bottles.

Changed and headed out, with the thought I'd do whatever my feet and legs were happy with. Look at the pace time on this graph!

My feet and legs were happy and light. I wasn't pushing the pace at all or trying to run fast. It was warm but not hot, with a nice breeze. I could see the mountains. I was relaxed and enjoying it. This is how running is supposed to feel. My lungs and heart were working a bit, but could have carried on longer. Just at the end I could feel my run form starting to fall apart. Rather than push it, I hit the button, and walked home to cool down. There were some interesting tingles in my left calf, almost as if a prickly plant was brushing against the top of my calf.

Good stretch and core session after, including plank. Lots of wine in the evening. Today my feet are feeling a bit tender. I'll go do a bit more stretching, and rolling my feet on the ball. That feels so good! Book club in a little while.

We had some Telus guys show up at the door. At first I thought they were Jehovahs Witness, but no. They wanted to give me a TV, and a PVR, and a cable package for $130 dollars a month. He kept asking me what I liked about Shaw, and didn't seem to understand that I wasn't getting my internet from them, and that I'm not especially keen to have phone, internet, and cable all from the same provider. Nor am I keen to pay the extortionate fees for cable service. If we do this at all, we'll buy our own equipment, and hook it up to Netflix or Hulu, or whatever else seems good. Anybody else try that Telus package? What did you think? We can't be the only door they banged on.

Where am I?

First things first. If you missed it, and it hasn't even been there 24 hours so it's entirely possible if you have a life, you might want to read one of my better rants. Mainly political, but that's where the Stupidity Kool-Aid seems to be getting drunk these days.

On to today, and the pool in the morning. Swam 45 minutes, the usual workout. Water ran after. It wasn't as rusty as I thought it might be given how long it's been since I was last in the pool. I think I can carry on the way I was with swimming.

Once home, onto the bike for an hour. Easy warmup, 20 minutes at the middle of endurance pace or so. Heart rate 115 to 120, light sweat, easy breathing. Easy spin to cool down, with some spin ups to 115 rpm. Sit bones complaining a bit, quads a bit tired, especially just above the knee, and hams were feeling it. Toward the end I could feel my spin losing smoothness. I think I'll stay at this level for a week or two, trying to stay on the bike a bit longer, but hold off trying to push big watts.

Good stretch session after, with just a bit of core. There was a bit of clicking in my left knee, but that ironed itself out.

Five years ago tomorrow was my first triathlon, the Chinook Half ironman. I still want to have a good day that this race, but this year isn't going to be it. During my ride today I was feeling a bit out of shape, compared to myself from 5 years ago. I'm pretty sure I'm not ready to go do a half iron, though these things are hard to tell until you try.

In some ways I think I'm stronger, and I think my base cardio fitness might even be a bit better, but my muscular endurance sucks. Hopefully that will come around. So at this point I want to continue the core stuff, and start swimming and biking regularly again. This will start working the muscular endurance and building the cardio more, without the impact of running. That will come. My thinking is to run a little bit, nice and easy so I don't forget how, but don't stress them too much as they work on the bike. A year is a long time for a gradual build.

The Stupidity Kool-Aid Rant

There must be something in the water lately. Not just here, seems like everywhere. I almost don't know where to begin.

The 3.1 Billion is still missing, as far as I can tell. However it's possible that they found where it went, and the media is focussed elsewhere. No surprise there.

For my lifetime, Canada has mostly been a pretty sensible place. Compared to many parts of the world it's heaven on earth, which explains why so many people emigrate here. Oh sure, there's been a few scandals here and there, and some exciting politicians. They are generally from the coasts. One was Flying Phil Gaglardi. Another was John Crosby. And what do we get from the middle of the country? Buttermilk Bill Davis from Brampton, the King of bland.

But generally Canadians are a pretty boring lot. We go about whatever the business at hand is, and over the last 146 years have produced a great place to live. Sometimes it's muddling through, and on some things we got lucky, but there have been any number of Canadians over the years that are widely regarded as being extremely good at what they do.

But now? Again, I'm struggling to know where to begin. There is simply so much of it. Stupidity, that is. Federally. Provincially, in several provinces. Municipally in the biggest city in the country.

It isn't even like shit happened and people are dissecting the entrails. Oh no. Most of the stories are on full boil, with new developments daily. It's hard to say if the boiling will make things better or not, but the odds are against it.

Let's start with the guy that gave a sitting Senator (the politician, not the sports team) $90,000 to pay back expenses he had improperly claimed. Even that bland statement covers a multitude of sins, all of them stupid:

• Nigel Wright was at the time the Prime Ministers right and left hand man, being Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister's Office, making him one of the most powerful men in the country. By all accounts he is supposed to be a smart man. What on earth was he drinking to think he could give a Senator $90K?
• And why did Duffy accept it? It's not like he's poor, or he shouldn't be. Senators earn very good money, thank you very much, and have expense allowances and other top ups. Plus when he worked as a media person, he was making a very good salary. At the very least he could have made arrangements to pay it back.
• Why did Duffy claim the expenses he did? Frankly, if he tried that for any other employer in the developed world he'd have been fired for theft, and maybe charged with fraud. The man claimed expenses to which he was blatantly, obviously, clearly not entitled. One once, but many times.

The story spirals out from there. It seems there is a slush fund for the PMO that only Wright, and the Prime Minister himself had signing authority on. They vehemently deny that the $90K came from there.  Harper denies being involved, and I almost believe him. But then, that's why one has a chief of staff. It appears that Duffy was never eligible for the Senate appointment in the first place, and made some pretty bald attempts to further feather his nest.

Today the RCMP is actively investigating and the Senate Ethics officer has suspended their investigation. It shouldn't take the RCMP more than a few days to make either Wright or the bank cough up the cheque. I have not the slightest doubt there will be more revelations to come. And the whole thing from beginning to where we are now is stupid! Every attempt to minimize or hide the initial crime has made it worse. You'd think they'd learn.

Which leads naturally to the current Alberta Health Services fiasco. The whole health department has been a running sore of an embarrassment for years now. The Health Minister just yesterday fired the entire board for not doing what they had been ordered to do. It isn't like this board is comprised of rogue elements going wild. No, the thing to remember is that they were appointed by THIS VERY MINISTER! 

We all know that people chosen for such positions have one overwhelming qualification, best put by the immortal Sir Humphry Appleby, as "they are one of us." The chair of the recently fired board has tried to dress it up as maintaining the integrity of a (supposedly) signed contract. Said contract was to pay about 100 senior executives about $3.2 million between them, at a time when they are cutting services to the disabled, and the government is hectoring other unionized staff.

Yes, the Health ministry is a huge, complicated beast. But good golly, the stories of stupidity that have emerged over the last few years make me wonder what is in the water. Google Duckett and the cookie. And yes, they have tried to make the various scandals go away, and they only get worse. So the board didn't learn, and so the government hasn't yet learned. 

Which in the spirit of symmetry brings us to municipal politics. A minor one first. A prominent local developer was caught on cell video badmouthing city council's perceived policies on development, and notes they had given a fruitloop right wing organization more than a million dollars to stack Calgary city council with councilors opposed to Nenshi, I mean, those who would vote as they were told to, I mean, those who were development friendly. So far, they have been spinning madly trying to walk it back. Nenshi needs to merely refer to the video. 

Can I insert a quickie here about Mayor Nenshi? He is the major exception to my rant about stupidity. People have been astonished that Cowtown would elect a brown skinned practicing Muslim with unruly hair and a big loopy grin to be Mayor. It's only been a couple years, and he is widely regarded as one of the best mayor's we've had. There is an election in a while, and running against him is considered to be a fool's errand. Before him there was an endless succession of split council votes that would go around and around and around, as the councilors ganged up on the perceived weakest vote, then try again. Council was always in the news. Now, it works. There are some hiccups, but they are getting things done. I think we're pretty darned fortunate.

In contrast to Hogtown. Toronto. Pronounced, for my American friends, "Trawna". The news today is that Mayor Ford still won't answer any questions about the video of him smoking a crack pipe, that three trained journalists have seen, and independently reported on. The questions he won't answer today revolve around a police raid on the house where it is alleged the crack was smoked in. I haven't been paying a lot of attention to Twitter lately, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it mentioned that the local police knew about the crack video even before the journalists.

I don't see how this one can get any better, as seen from the perspective of Toronto. It isn't like this is Ford's first bought with, with, I don't even know what word to use. Notoriety? Yet he persists in carrying on, hoping, like all his previous offenses, that it will go away. The whole thing is stupid. Normally I'd say stupid with a capital S, but even this has serious competition in the stupidity department. See above.

From the record, it is my considered opinion that we shouldn't be voting for angry middle aged to old white men any more, especially those of the right wing persuasion. Recently they've been displaying a remarkable amount of stupidity. Maybe we should be seeking out brown skinned practicing Muslims with unruly hair and big loopy grins. 

But wait! There's more! Quebec is a different place. They say they are a different nation, and deserve to be a nation, and they are so special they want to be a fully independent nation as long as Canada pays the bills and continues the equalization payments.

So in Quebec there is the current stupidity, and institutional stupidity. The latter is exemplified by the current corruption scandals. As near as I can tell, every elected politician in and around Montreal, and all the construction companies are in bed together to fuck over the tax payer. But that's business as usual.

No, the current stupidity is the Quebec Soccer Federation, and no I don't know what that is in French, telling players that wear turbans they are welcome to play soccer in their back yards, but there is no place for them on the soccer pitch with other kids. "It's unsafe, and the rules don't permit it". Well, that same rule doesn't permit a lot of things, like female players wearing head bands or scrunchies for their pony tails. 

They are currently in a peeing match with the Canadian Soccer Federation, which has pulled their sanction for holding official events. And rightly so. They should take a page out of the Alberta Health minister's book and fire the lot of them. Supposedly Quebec is a secular society, except for Catholic relics. Those are allowed because they're "cultural". But they are going out of their way to restrict other cultures and religions.

Again, for American readers, in Canada it would be considered quite rude to ask someone which church they worshiped at, or to invite someone to worship at your church, unless that other person brought up the topic. As an example, even though I'm atheist, if a new neighbour wanted to know what churches were nearby, I'd be able to point them to a Catholic, JCLDS, Jewish, and United church not far from here. But I'd never take the initiative and suggest they attend, or that they shouldn't attend at all. It's quite simply none of my business.

I know people in Quebec, and they have much the same approach to religion. It's the people in public office that seem to be pandering to what they think of as the national interest. Which often means the old Quebec. Which, in an odd sort of way is really similar to the old Canada. The one run by and for old white men, Catholic in Quebec, Protestant in the rest of Canada. The one that is gone forever now. We have had so many immigrants from all over the world that we can never put that genie back in the bottle.

And you know what? I'm happy about it. There are a ton of Muslims that are just as horrified by their supposed co-religionists when they commit a terrorist act as we are. And yet, look at the USA, most of the terror  acts are either committed by white men with fruit loop beliefs, or by government agents for who knows what reason. Calgary has a huge Asian population, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and others. The simplistic, racist view is that it makes for good eating, and lots of choices for accountants. All the Asian people I've met and worked with over the years have been smart, hard working people that are a credit to Canada.

Stupidity is choosing people to run our country and institutions on the basis that "they are one of us". One of my key rules for life is that whatever is hidden away and done in secret will fester and go rotten. That goes for food, people, and acts of government. So when the Health Minister goes to appoint new AHS board members, they ought to open the competition to everyone in the province. Post their names and resumes on line, and make the choice in a clear, transparent way. See if the "one of us" is really the right choice.

There needs to be some institution that can force the people that are perpetrating these acts of stupidity to bend and spread 'em. To produce the paperwork, to tell the truth, to come clean. The performance of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons over much of the last decade has been stupid and shameful, and there doesn't seem to be any way to stop it. I don't know what Kool-Aid they've been drinking, but it has to stop.

I can't help but think that what much of the world needs now is some adult supervision. I just don't know what that looks like. I have no idea if any of these people are still alive, but I wonder what the mother's of some of these idiots in the news think of their sons? Usually it's sons, but that $16 glass of orange juice comes to mind, small potatoes that it is.

In one sense I want to go slap some sense into those people. In another I just want to go away and ignore it, which is exactly what they'd like me to do. Because then they would continue the private gravy train.

Social media has facilitated some amazing events over the past few years. Maybe we can figure out how to harness it to reduce the amount of stupidity in the world. Given most of the blather that is on Facebook, for example, I'm not hopeful, but there is some promise. Any ideas?

pre-rant, and warm yoga

My legs continue to be good. If I'd known how warm the yoga studio would be, I'd have skipped class and gone for a run instead. It's such a nice night out, and our regular instructor is out of town. Her replacement was nice, and there were lots of good moves in there. However I was much sweatier today than usual.

There has been a ton of stuff swirling in my brain lately. Work is busy. My novel is percolating. I'm trying to get regular with workouts and continue with core. Plus, there is all the stupidity that's happening lately. In no particular order, Rob Ford (multiple indictments), Stephen Harper (multiple indictments), Duffy (multiple indictments), Wright, Wallen, Quebec Soccer Federation, Alberta Health system (multiple indictments), the Alberta government in general, and several others that are swirling too fast to be noted at the moment. Any or all of these might be involved in an upcoming blog. I'm thinking tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Yay, official end to cranky legs!

Normally I don't have much difficulty coming up with stuff to write about here. How much my readers like it is another story entirely, but that's their business. Some things they like, and I guess that's about as good as it gets.

The formerly cranky legs have been improving a lot over the last month or so, and the last week have been back into normal territory. Normal, in the sense of I've felt this way before after races and big workouts, the next day. Normal in the sense that things are still tight and I'm still hoping and working for improvement.

During my massage today I got worked over pretty good. There were a few tight spots still, but overall much better. She even got to work on my shoulders and mid back a bit.

Once home I was pretty eager to get on the bike. My idea was to do a bit of a spin to flush the legs, and then some stretching with a bit of core. And holy cow! My legs felt good on the bike, light, even, and spinning smoothly. At one point not all that long after getting on, I looked down to see 95 rpm, which over the last bunch of rides was bumping up against my limits. Today it felt easy.

Still, I didn't push it. Did a few spin ups, and tried a few minutes of moderate effort, with an easy spin cool down. 30 minutes altogether, then onto my mat. Good stretch and core session.

I'm looking forward to a gradual start, trying to build some consistency as I rebuild my base, and not get my legs cranky again. I never thought I'd say that I've missed running.

I see that the trailer for the second Hobbit movie is out. Smaug, what I could see of him, looks pretty good. Still, I have the same objections to it, that I had to the first one. There seems to be lots of stuff in it that isn't in the book, or even hinted at in the book. Making 3 long movies was expected for Lord of the Rings, and justice was done there. But 3 long movies for one short book? Seems like over kill to me. I suspect this one will end just as the main battle at the end of the book begins.

Core is hard when the cats 'help'

Shortly after the cats woke me, I headed downstairs. My thought was to do some stretching and core first thing, and maybe go for a run while Linda slept. It's really hard to do all that when 2 cats are all over you. Under you. Rubbing up against you. Watching and critiquing your form, or lack of it. I got some stretching in, then went upstairs for coffee and some breakfast.

It's been a quiet day here, with rain on and off and ON!! and off, and on again. I did some work on my book, and read through our book club book (Gift of Fear), but I found it hard going. I went back to my other read, Conspiracy of Tall Men, which is interesting me a lot. So far the Illuminati have not shown up. Can't wait. What's a book about conspiracy theories without the Illuminati?

Racked the red wine, and started the white, a Riesling. Washed some bottles, and for a wonder, even the hard ones weren't so bad. There's a ton that need bleaching though, maybe next weekend. Tidied the fitness area and need to vacuum it. Then the core part of the day, I guess.

No run or bike, but I think that's ok. I'm feeling just a bit of normal tightness in my hams, so progress is happening. A run would probably be ok, but I think more recovery is better in the long run. The core work seems to be doing really well, and I've read so much of people that try to push their recovery. They end up injuring themselves again, or delaying the return to full potential.