What’s up with my “spell-check”?

 

And no, I’m not going to get silly and call it “spell-cheque” either.  Please.

However,  ever since I took the leap and started using Google Chrome, I’ve noticed that certain words like neighbour say,  were coming up as being WRONG.  *harrumph*

Well, not north of the 49th there kids.  Sorry.  We Canucks like to spell things a certain way,  don’t cha know?

Anyhoodle,  it took me a couple clicks here and there and a back and forth, (it’s in there *somewhere* dammit!)but now I can write night,  and it’s not going to try and change it to nite.  It’s hard to say good-bye to those extra letters.  We’re a quirky bunch up here in the Great White North, that’s for sure.

And this, Ladies and Gentlemen,  is where I am on the learning curve.  If it were some real life inclined plane, I’d barely be breaking a sweat.

*thinks*

If I learn one new thing a month….

…then it’s no flippin’ wonder I’m so behind. And will never, ever catch up.

 

 

Now,  (and there’s my segue) speaking of breaking a sweat,  for the last couple of weeks,  I’ve been pedalling my arse to the pub and back on a Friday afternoon/evening.   Note the inclusion of the *slash* evening part?  Not trying to sugar coat it.  Since pedalling doesn’t necessarily involve any kind of “Drink Driving Spot Checks”,  I’ve found that I have no qualms whatsoever about going for that second and perhaps third beer.  

I know!   Whatever happened to “One Beer Bob” you say?  Meh, my tolerance has been getting better.  Loose definition of the term “better” I suppose. 

The real measure of ones sobriety,  or lack thereof, is discovered within the very first moments of the journey home.  Just have to get up to speed,  and float on home.

That’s the theory.

Of course when I use the term “floating”, you do realize it’s best to do a washroom visit just prior to departure. But invariably by the time I’m about a block from the house,  I really hafta go!  And we’re not talking normal city blocks here either.  Well, maybe they just seem bigger, somehow directly proportional to how badly I have to go.

 

I have to point out at least one stupid thing I see on the bike path.

A stop sign?  (there were several)

There are no “Stop signs” when it comes to biking!  What are ya thinking?  The CARS are the ones who should be stopping, which isn’t to say that I was going to tempt fate by getting into any conflicts with several thousand pounds of metal hurdling down the street.  I ain’t that dumb.  But I’m not going to stop if I don’t have to.  We have too many stop signs in this town as it is.  Best not to go along.  That would be too much like “enabling”. Not gonna do it.

Besides,  I’ve seen the way most drivers of motorised vehicles “stop”. 

Right, I’ll just slow down too.

 

They do provide bike parking right in front of the pub, and you can understand why I totally missed seeing it two weeks ago?  Not expecting a big biking crowd I’m guessing.  But really, biking there makes so much sense!

 

I can hear the Dutch sniggering now.  The average Dutch family needs more bike parking than that.  Just for Mom, Dad and the kids.

But that’s an example of our “bike infrastructure”. 

Gawd.

 

Speaking of the Dutch (are you counting the segues?) I noticed this “NEDERLANDS”  scrawled on the pathway on the way home.

Oh lookee here, was someone having some pangs of homesickness?  I know I do miss the cycling that we experienced in the Netherlands.  But that was then, and this is now.  And no, it wasn’t me who scrawled that.

When I first made this little excursion a couple weeks ago (didn’t mention it here, because I wasn’t sure it would ever happen again) I really and truly wasn’t sure how it would turn out.

When Travelling Companion asked incredulously, “How did you ever make it?”  I said, “I don’t know,  I just kept pedalling.”

And I wasn’t a cripple the next day.  Who knew?  So until we start getting some really nasty weather, I’m not sure I’ll be getting to the pub any other way.  Hell, I need the exercise, annnnnd I don’t have to drink soda pop.  *chortle*

 

 

Lemme see.  Yesterday was a bit of a blur.  Travelling Companion and Daughter Number Two went to get their hair coiffed. 

Gotta tell ya,  some of those places are gold mines.  Sure wish they sold dividend producing shares.  Seriously.  I won’t offer any amounts, but you probably have a pretty good idea.  Took them almost five hours,  (what?)since they each wanted the same “hair stylist”.  I put that in quotation marks since well, I have some issues with certain types of “jargon”.  I mean, a barber is a barber, but when it comes to the ladies, there are all kinds of fancy terms.  Of course, you’re going to pay more for caviar than you are for fish eggs.  I’m just saying.

 

At some point in time,  although that wasn’t yesterday,  I broke down and put up the blinds once again. 

They’re kind of beat up,  since somebody thought it would be OK to get another cat.  Little bugger tore our blinds.  I like(d) this particular type too,  which is why we’ll quite likely be replacing them with something very similar.  The cat moved away, so new blinds will be safe.

Anyway,  it was just a wee bit too open with nothing there,  especially in the evenings.  Well, as long as you sat there in total darkness I suppose it was OK.  Not very practical though. 

 

Not much else going on.  We did have a bit of a family visit today from a couple sisters-in-law and an old school chum that Travelling Companion and one of her sisters went to school with.  This was a *few* years ago,  you have to realise, but this lady and T.C’s sister have kept in touch all these years.

Anyhoodle,  she hadn’t seen the house for many a year,  and I’ve made a *few* changes.  For example,  if we went back in a time machine and stayed in the same spot but went back twenty years,  (‘cause that’s the way Time Machines work) there would be a wall running right through that table there.  Remember The Time Machine? 

 

Speaking of going back in time, (number three, right?)  and since I can’t very well leave the whole Syria conundrum alone, I’ll offer a quote from a documentary that I’ve watched a couple times called The Fog of War.

This feature is about an hour and forty minutes long, and I highly recommend it.  You can now find it on YouTube.

 

 

Quote from Robert S. McNamara:

(quotations in italics represent his emphasis,  not mine)

“What makes us omniscient? Have we a record of omniscience?

We are the strongest nation in the world today. I do not believe we should ever apply that economic, political or military power unilaterally.

If we had followed that rule in Vietnam, we wouldn’t have been there.

None of our allies supported us. Not Japan, not Germany, not Britain nor France.

If we can’t persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we’d better re-examine our reasoning.”

Excerpt from The Fog of War, at approximately 1:20:30 in.

 

 

As much of a pariah that he was perceived to be during that whole era,  as he puts it, he was following the wishes of the President of the United States.  And my impression is that he tried to hold back the reigns on more than one occasion.  He also felt that,  if Kennedy had been around (instead of Johnson) things would have been considerably different.  But again,  that was then,  this is now.

 

As always,  feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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