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Tag: aging

Getting Out-Out: Two Nights Running.

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Been a very long time since I’ve gone out twice in one month, let alone two consecutive days in a row in the same week. I feel like a twenty something again! If only briefly, that is before I feel tired by 10:30pm and want to go home to bed. Had a really good time both nights, so a weekend to remember! Rehydrate Friday with fellow school drop off friends, and the Martin’s at the Meridian Center on Saturday. That’s both Steve, and Short. Still sharp as ever into their seventies. Glad I had the chance to catch them live and in person before any kind of decline in health. Hell we were sat maybe ten rows behind Eugene Levy! Fantastic seats. Great theater. Wonderful show.

Oh course, being out late twice means I feel hung over even though I drank only a little on Friday, and not at all on Saturday. Being up late makes me feel discombobulated and hung over anyway. Whether or not I drink, the late night must trigger my bodies memories of getting totally blotto in my youth and just assume I must need the headache, dry mouth, and a need to pee throughout the night. Oh to be aged. Such a luxury! But seriously, that’s like a years worth of social interaction for me, and I could do with a rest, and hiding from interactions for a day. I don’t include my children, nor spouse in that exclusion. Contrary to popular belief I’m not a total bastard.

I miss going places, and doing stuff, but I also like to not be social, and be at home where my comfortable stuff is, like a no line toilet, food I’ve already paid for, drinks that I’ve already got available. My couch, a blanket, movies and the ability to be lazy! See – so hard to choose! Friends and social interactions, or cuddled on the couch, both are a win in my book. As an older guy with intestinal issues I lean towards staying near by, or at home. Getting caught out is not something I enjoy very much, but my guts keep on trying!

To be honest I thought (when i was twenty or more years younger) that i would be hosting more dinner parties, or dance & drink gatherings than we do. Covid put a stop to everything, yes, but now it’s also difficult to navigate schedules, cleaning, desire for social interactions, and a host of other factors. I grew up with my folks having loud, long parties with dancing and lots of drinking. A tradition I thought I would spend more time doing myself. But I do get up and dance with loud music along with my kids. But, we don’t have people here doing the same until the wee morning hours, just to find our kids asleep under tables or chairs (like I would do, as a child 5 or so years of age). With loud music, food and booze you should be able to have a hell of a night, if you can’t that’s on you! Was the motto I grew up hearing. I have not yet hosted a rager like that, not since high school anyway. Ha!

Sunday Funday today. I think we have some Christmas lights to hang at the inlaws today. They go all out for the season. Had won the local lighting competition multiple years in a row. I know the uncle Fred situation had upended alot of their plans for the Fall, but I think him being back in the hospital to stabilize means they can now focus on something more light hearted for the holiday season. Fred’s in good hands, being well looked after for a brief stint. Honestly it’s the best thing for him. Should certainly make him feel more comfortable knowing all those nurses and doctors are around. Can probably sleep better now too knowing they are all there at the hospital. It’s only Markham Stouffville,  but better than suffering at home alone at night.

I have two more projects with one client left to do this week, and then one large report to do for another and I think that will most likely close out my 2023 year. I look ahead to doing my year in review post about my reading challenge. As I get older I feel more confident leaving books half read. I hated doing that in my youth, but I don’t much feel like grinding through books just to get a cover to cover completion rate. I’ll enjoy what I can stand of any given book and will then move on. I think that shows growth! Not a loss of stamina or patience, or stick with it – ness.

But I digress. Save some for the sequel! Ciao Bella.

Watching the new slate of consoles pass me by.

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I am still heartily enjoying my Xbox 360, so have missed the Xbox One, Playstations 3, 4, and 5. I see the graphics get exponentially better, but the gameplay doesn’t seem to do anything for me. I liked in the room Co-OP as a kid, but am not the least bit drawn to online multiplayer, so the bulk of the last 10-15 years worth of gaming has whizzed by me without a care in the world. I’m not the demographic they are after. No problem. I do look longingly as things like the Nintendo Switch that still builds platformers, and single player self contained campaigns that don’t need DLC. I’m old now. I want the whole finished product in my hand at the time of purchase. The Switch lite is calling out to me. Just a little bit. But I know if I get one I’ll either spend just about every waking hour with it to the detriment of everything else in my life, or I’ll use it two or three times and put it away, where the batteries will corrode and ruin the whole thing inside of 18 months. There is no inbetween. I used to lose days at a time with Fable (1, 2 & 3), Diablo 3, Space Marines 40K, and a couple others. Having kids meant putting that stuff to bed so as not to be neglectful. But now my oldest is nearing double digits in age, I think the tech draw might make a come back. I just don’t know about the nearly $1,000.00 price tag for the unit, additional controllers, and an early stable of games to play. Disks and not downloads either. We can see the shenanigans going on with streaming, no way that Ish doesn’t burn the gamer crowd too. So physical media it will have to be.

I miss the old school platformer type games. I did enjoy Halo as a run & gun fps, but now it seems like everything is a sand box, or open world, or requires 100 hours to git güd.  I’m not about that – son. I want to flow in, flow out of a saved game with ease, and not need to manage overly complicated skill trees, inventories, maps, directions, mission details and what not. I want to move from the left side of the screen to the right, bounce, jump, punch, or kick some shit, and carry on as the screen scrolls forward a bit. Like old school TMNT, or Double Dragon, or Fists of fury, Alex kid in shinobi world, pac man. Simple but fun. That’s not to say that I won’t enjoy a brief foray into something more complicated. I just know that if/when I do, I may get too distracted by it.

Oh well. Those are my Monday morning musings for today. Are you all looking forward to week nine of the summer break? Wow huh. Time flies! Although this one is just a little longer with the holiday Monday next week. What a strange, long, and short summer it has been. Work was consistent this summer. And I feel like there will be a good amount of projects coming in the fall aswell from other clients to finish the year strong. I don’t have any foresight into 2024 as of yet. But I feel as though this year will likely have been just as strong as 2022. Which is terrific. Amazing even.

Never did get out to see Oppenheimer,  but I am reading “American Prometheus” upon which it was based, so that’s cool. Long form, indepth, and as nuanced as one could make it, I suppose. It’s good. I’m enjoying it. The question of his CP (Communist Party) affiliations takes up much of the beginning of the book. Sympathetic to the cause, certainly, an on the books die-hard member? I should think not. I’m interested in the time spent at Los Alamos. Those few years are what I’m interested in reading more about. The demon core tragedy took place at that time too. I read Robert J Sawyers Oppenheimer alternate history book last year and it was a fantastic read too. Very interesting. The whole physics, chemistry, & math wizz thing goes right over my head. But it’s interesting to see how others, much smarter than myself, synthesize, and iterate answers to such complex problems. By all accounts Oppenheimer was a great ideas man, not so good on the detailed follow through. I love that. Fascinating. To be able to understand the big picture well enough to know things will work, but not know those finer details down to the third decimal place, is astounding. Incredible. Like I said, those folks are much smarter than i am.

Was thinking of taking my oldest to see Barbie but that didn’t materialize. Then I had hoped to see the new animated TMNT movie with both kids in tow. But the youngest has expressed zero interest in the franchise, nor the ability to sit through 90 minutes of a movie she’s never seen before. Given how expensive everything is I don’t fancy spending almost $100.00 but for three 3D tickets plus food & snacks for her to NOT watch the film, or negatively impact the viewing experience for my eldest daughter or myself. Not cool. So now we wait for Bluray/DVD to get released and we can sit and watch it over and over on multiple occasions. I’m good with that.

All the best out there. Ciao Bella!

The Inevitability of Changing Tastes.

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I’ll give you one example, that came up just today. The idea of a massive bowl of candy for breakfast was once ‘The Dream’ to have at my disposal when I was eight. Now the idea of a bowl full of sugar makes my stomach turn. If I’m going to bother to eat breakfast now, it will be Raisin Bran or some kind of Nuts n’ Honey type thing, with granola in it. Still sweet, but not primarily sugar based. For a very long time I couldn’t eat breakfast because I always woke up feeling like I would throw up if I ate anytime between 5:45am and 9:00am. Never found out why that was.

But nowadays staring across the island at a bowl of Sugar Crisp, Lucky Charms, Coco Pebbles, or Count Chocula would probably make me want to just pour it in the green bin. Can’t do it. I’m not more conservative, I’m just not interested in sticky sugary teeth, and ultra sweet cereals any more. Grown out of it. Can’t point to the exact date and time I switched, but I switched nonetheless. Funny how that happens.

I still don’t drink coffee, tea or any sort of wine. Though!, I will say this. Yellow Tail makes a delicious sparkling white wine called “Bubbles” that I will mix with Orange, Cranberry, or Grape juice on Christmas, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day mornings along with a piping hot cooked breakfast. That I will indulge in. Otherwise I don’t really drink any type of wine the rest of the year. I’m more of a Rye and, or a Rum and, type of guy. Usually with Coke. Not the sniffed version, but the red can.

Last year I bought all the spirits I needed to make Sex on the Beach, a rather involved mixed drink, by my standards. And I found it to be exceptionally good. It takes far more work to produce than I would typically care for, but when I bother to make a pitcher of the stuff, BAM! I’m into it, like a dogs nose in a crotch. Which reminds me, I need to buy more orange juice, Cranberry cocktail, ice, and some Sprite/7Up if I’m going to make myself some for Father’s Day next weekend. We have some fancy cheeses I bought for my wife’s birthday that we have left over, I’ll grab some fresh bread. Watch a movie, drink(s) in hand, cheese at my side, and maybe play a little guitar while I’m at it. The rest of the family have a sleep over for Guides that doesn’t involve me. A quiet Friday night to myself.

I’m saddened to learn that the new animated Spiderman has been bumped out of imax/AVX theaters for yet another Transformers movie. I’ll need to wait until I can buy it on bluray now. I really wanted to see that in imax 3D for the full experience. I had intentions of going to see Guardians Vol 3 too, but just couldn’t find the time. That’ll come to Disney+ at some point later in 2023, so I’ll still get to see it. I may just buy it on disc anyway. Never k ow when these streaming sites will go bust, or simply pull the content you like and it’s all gone for good. Modern problems.

Today is the big day, both kids perform in their respective dance recitals. Will have a frantic afternoon doing hair & make-up while we dress them in their expensive (yet overly small) costumes. We need to then get them to the venue 90mins prior to showtime, which seems like way too long, for kids this young. Sign them in, then kick rocks in the parking lot for 90 minutes until the doors open and the show starts. Their photos looked really good that they had done for the playbills. Professional and everything.

This is a longer Sunday post that usual. It looks to be drizzling a bit. Roads out front are wet, with standing puddles, agood sign! Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

Clear signs that I am aging.

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Slept on my hand a bit funny last night, and it woke me up around 2:00am, and kept waking me intermittently throughout the night. Feels as though my body weight shifted some bones in my hand. The use of my thumb and pinky finger together is nearly impossible this morning. A very prominent ache sings from my knuckles to my wrist on the three fingers furthest from my thumb. The tendons ache as well. Brushing my teeth was so bothersome I switched to my other hand. I know that if I sit on either foot I can cause myself some momentary aches and pains, but three or four hours of sleep has really left a mark on my right hand this morning. I slept poorly afterward because I couldn’t find a comfortable position for the hand so that it didn’t hurt. I may wind up being a grumpy sob today. I’ll try to keep my mind on something other than the throbbing pain in my hand. So, yeah – aging is fun. I’ve got that going for me, which is nice. Ha.

It’s bothersome, sure, but I don’t imagine it’ll last more than a few days before it subsides or disappears altogether. Lesson learned. Don’t sleep on your hands! And other timely lessons I am bound to learn in the coming years. Such as, don’t let the Tums run out. Have aspirin on hand, buy a decent medical/emergency kit, own atleast one tourniquet, fix small problems before they balloon into giant costly ones. Simple things like that. Experience you earned by being dumb, so now you seem old and wise regarding your experience with such things.

Wednesday, humpday, middle of the week, day. All of the above! Snow is inbound. Snow is imminent! How much snow? Yeah I don’t know. I need to look it up. But the white stuff is coming to town once more, so warm up those shovels, and keep the Voltaren handy! Looks like a few days of constant accumulation, so don’t leave it all for the last day, but don’t rush out there right away, you’ll just wind up adding one additional shovelling session to your to-do list.

Finished book four, a good ways into book five, and then it’s back to the Robert Evan’s old Hollywood autobiography- again. And that means I have until the end of June to finish it, and still maintain my schedule for 12 books in a year. I would like it to not take that long, but it could if it had too. Though, not to lie, if I don’t finish it in another week, I’ll swap out for the Adrian Tchaikovsky book I got for Christmas, and will read that instead. I have a feeling I’ll still be trying to get to the end of the Bob Evans book around Christmas of this year! Ha. Can you imagine.

I bought an N.K Jemison trilogy that I’ve heard rave reviews of, and they look long(ish), so I can’t be dragging my feet if I want to complete the reading list. As a new to me author, I’m not sure what to expect. Will I fly through it, like a John Scalzi, or Michael Crighton novel, or will I slow walk it like a Stephen King, or a George R R Martin tome? I hope that for my sake they are fast and exciting reads. It’s great to finally find and add a new good author to the list. However to do that, you do wind up reading some less than stellar stuff too. That’s the gamble. Rave reviews by people you wouldn’t like don’t mean much. Have to pull those reviews from trusted sources, which can be difficult these days. Is it paid? Are they friends? Are the blurb authors from the same publisher? Do you trust the judgement of said blurb authors? All sorts of things factor in. Have they given you good references before to find books you enjoyed? Or did their previous endorsements kind of suck – at least in terms of your own interests. But I digress.

In positive news I don’t need to buy my books as large print just yet. My eyes, at least for now, seem to be holding up. My hearing is dog shit, but it’s been that way for a huge portion of my life. I do – *technically* need at least one hearing aid, but they are expensive, and I try to get all of my briefs, and change requests in written form, so that staves off much confusion from accents, speech volume, or ambient room noise that I find distracting. Also leaves a paper trail of why changes were made, and whom asked for them. Also, I don’t have an immediate boss, so I don’t need to listen to anyone talk on the daily, and that relieves stress in my life like you wouldn’t believe. Probably why I dislike books on tape so much! And why I watch the bulk of my movies and tv shows with the closed captions on.

Huh, aging, ain’t it grand! Ciao Bella!

The Black Pepper Society.

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Have you ever felt like you used up one of your best ideas too early, for something or someone you later felt didn’t warrant such an epic idea? And as a result feel as though the idea you used didn’t get to reach its potential, and was otherwise stifled? Yeah – I feel that way an awful lot, and it’s most likely not really what’s going on. An idea in your noggin’ is one thing, the execution of said idea to bring it to life in the real world is another. If you don’t execute it with any kind of precision or skill it will feel wasted. But you have to know where that failure lies. Most likely it is with yourself. Rushing to meet a deadline, or procrastination about starting because you later realize the scope of the idea at 100% is well beyond you. That’s your fault. Gotta figure that kind of stuff out with pen & paper before you end up cutting corners, or justifying major changes to suit your available time & skill.

I don’t want to say that I’ve Dunning Kroeger’ed myself in the past, but I surely have. Thinking I’m better than how I actually accomplished a story arc, or character driven story vehicle. Frustrating. Although sometimes I’m in such a rush (read that as panic) to create content to accomplish my writing every day challenge I’ll write whatever is in my head that second, only to realize afterwards, I should have held that thought back to explore it in greater depth. But two or more posts back to back on the same thing seems… lack luster.

But then the Fair comes to town and I write about that four plus days in a row, so maybe I’m just over thinking things again. This isn’t a nationally syndicated column with gravitas and cultural weight attached to it. I’m just some schmoe who tried to write anything he could once a day, for a whole 365 days. That hardly makes me the pinnacle of anything, so the feelings of wasted ideas are silly. Foolish even. Get a god damn grip my boy!

So that is how I woke up feeling at 6:54 am today. Also, had an upset stomach, so that is what really woke me up, and as I laid back down in my toasty bed, I thought about what I wrote late last night, and how I should have saved that post for today. Not to get out of needing to write even more today, but so i could go over it, and expand on points i now feel i should talk about in more depth. But does it need it? Most likely no. It was just a feeling i had. Humans are weird.

I wonder if we’ve secretly had Covid in the last three years, because i feel, ever so slightly, around the edges that I’m getting dumber. Or something akin to that effect. I can’t quite pin point it, but there’s some obscured thing there. Like the boundaries of what i used to know a lot about are fuzzy now, like has my knowledge turned from things i know, into things i ‘think’ that I know? My memory of some things has gotten fuzzy, in the softest sense. Very strange. Forgetful. Losing a word in the middle of a sentence. Or no clue why I came into a room. Misremembered events from a book or movie. It’s not major, but it’s a softly misting haze at the outer edges. Weird. Could it be that I am merely experiencing the regular effects of aging like every body else? Or is it more. Don’t know.

And on that bomb shell shall we say ciao bella!