Good morning October

The rains are here. The cold winds begin to blow. I’m thankful for the roof, fireplace and furnace. I got out the winter comforter last night and slept soundly.  The night before my toes had been cold.  Little things count.  These changes of Weather that Carne Fraudsters have given a pseudoscience name and called Climate Change are making a few people very rich while the rest of us carry on. Carbon is the element of life. They’re taxing it and calling it pollutants. The schools really were better in my day. We learned basic biology and science rather than being left to be filled by political charlatans.  When will Al Gore be arrested?

They are forever talking of ‘redistribution of wealth’ but never of the wealth of cronies in the crony world of crony socialism and crony capitalism.  Runny dogs the lots of them.  I’m uncertain what the day will bring. 

I like that I have somewhere to go. There are fine people I’m going to be joining. As Buddhism says I’m doing ‘right livelihood.’  And what would I do if I didn’t work today, go for coffee, go to a meeting, walk the dogs, just more of what I did on the weekend.  And why is the weekend so enjoyable , because of the order and discipline and control of work days by comparison to the freedom and chaos of the weekend.  So what would weather be without it’s mood swings.  There is no ‘new’ global warming, just a longer cycle like we’ve had before.  

As I once wrote, when the leadership build underground and insist that coastal cities move inward, I’ll take these lying hustlers seriously but for now I recognize a money making scam. This is todays , Emperor has new clothes and let me sell you some swamp land in Florida.  

I did talk to a retired friend and enjoyed their ‘lighter load’, more time to get things done, less days of work and less hours and slower pace. I was envious of their sense of time. They felt we who worked were really harried and that the city was hollow and hasty while their life in the country was more healthy and human.  I’ve done both and frankly am not yet ready to go to pasture but it sure does sound great.  The city is lively and I’m now wondering what cultural events I should see. I am looking at the Opera and Early Music Society and Vancouver Symphony and thinking can I afford that, do I have the time, will I want to go.  There’s Massey Hall and it’s whole range of offerings I just saw.  

In the country I remember the sunsets and sun rises were more spectacular and I loved talking to the chickens and cows. I’d love to be sailing along a coast with fair winds and following seas too but God has me here.  I’m supposed to be focussing on the present , being on call to God for his next option of service.

I’m trying to follow Jesus as faithfully as I can. Not a particularly good Christian. Mediocre really. I’ve considered the billions and the accomplishments of others and I’m no longer deluded into thinking I’m special, except as a child of God.  I’m good enough, okay but will continue to reach for the impossible star.

Please God let me know you today. Holy Spirit Come.  Let me be of maximum service but show me the way and let me do my best without getting lost in the factory sense of the city.  Thank you God for all your blessings. Thank you most for Gilbert, George, family and friends and those I can be of help to today.  Thank you Jesus.

Valentines Day Snowstorm, BC Ballet, A&W meal, Terrorists for dinner and Sealy Posturpedic

Vancouver 20 cm plus snow storm hit on Friday. I had tickets for the Ballet and Pacific Theatre that night.  Laura was out in Point Grey where the steep hills had cars sliding and lanes blocked with snow. I was driving my Ford F350 4x4 truck around Surrey and Burnaby.
I didn’t want to go into town because of Vancouver drivers.  All of them are aging hippies with cataracts, stoned on BC Bud, drinking BC wine by the case since Alberta boycotted it when BC refused their flatulence. Everywhere cyclists are defending bike lanes and seeking ICBC claims.  The rich Asian immigrants, criminals from Communist countries ,where their profits are based on who they know and knowing where the bodies are buried, well, they just buy their driver’s licenses here.  The kids high on crack and crystal meth speed their Lamboghinis.  No one knows how to drive in snow.
I might catastrophize a tad about BC drivers faced with white stuff. At least we’re not in Ontario or Quebec where the Climate Change Dicaprio Cult is at their fiercest.  Climate Bartie groupies with Offended Ken see any change in weather is proof of their religion.  They’re worse that the Cargo Cults.   Meanwhile the middle class is sacrificed en mass to the latest fashionable get rich quick taxation scheme.  Which citizens can we demonize this week.
“Can you move the tickets to Saturday night, “ I asked her.  She’s good about dealing with tickets. She was already switching my friend Dr. John’s tickets to Saturday so his son could go in his stead.  I told John his wheel chair tires need studs. They slide to much on the ice.  But the city complains studs hurt the roads.  All the Gaia folk don’t want you to walk on the planet and the city doesn’t want you to hurt the roads.
Laura wasn’t even sure she could get home in the snow. “I didn’t bring my tall boots with me. Only the ankle boots. They’re going to fill up with snow.”  She was house sitting caring for a dog out in the Point Grey boonies.
Saturday the snow had stopped and the big thaw had begun.  Fabulous day.  Sunshine and warmth.  All one could hope for in a spring day. I’m sure the blue crocus and yellow tulips that had poked their heads out of the soil were pleased too.  They’d committed with hope and faith to the coming of spring. Now this had struck.  The Vancouver city plows were doing a masterful job.
Locally, Mack was working the plow in our neighbourhood.  Dave actually came by and shovelled my walk. He’d go on to shovel his daughter’s big Langley driveway.  I wasn’t dressed yet and had to assemble the shovel I’d bought at Home Depot.  Now that the founder of Ikea is dead everyone is muscling into his turf.  Home Depot Ikea type shovels.  While I was assembling my shovel Dave had finished the walk.
I’d bought another propane tank at Meridian RV and more toilet paper the day before in case we really were socked in.  Eric had fixed my furnace the week before and I didn’t want to stop enjoying the tropics in my home just because I lacked propane fuel. If I had any say in the pipelines from Alberta I’d say run them right to my door.  Being without heat is devastating in Canada, even in a Vancouver winter.
Last week I’d been going to work and coming home to a living room with a 30 galpropane tank with indoor heater head from Canadian Tire. I was also relying on electric heat and electric blanket at night. It was all precarious.  My back still hurt despite exercise, industrial supply of ibuprofen, ASA , robaxin, voltaren and chiropractic visits. Chronic pain gets worse in cold..  I had so much work that was backing up too.  My environment was fighting me all the while the government was stabbing me in the back. At least I was not alone.
While Canadians were suffering unprecedented snow storms, terrible cold, flu season and gnarled traffic our dynastic Stoner Prime Minister was making a fool of himself in the heat of India. His trip was naturally  paid for by the carbon taxing of Canadians, old folks and veterans dressing in three and four layers of clothing in an attempt to use as little heat as possible to ’save the planet.   Carbon  dioxide is the air plants breathe as do we. so yes, the air we breathe was being taxed so our Selfie Socked Prime Minister could galavant with terrorists in India.   Others in the UN Agenda 21 hegemony were similarly redistributing wealth with pseudo science.  Meanwhile  the Sharia
Communist, feminist ,virtue signalling PM Trudeau who had hoped to dine with terrorists again so he could give them the standard Liberal $10 million dollar terrorist encouragement bonus was blocked by an aghast Indian press who thought the man daft.
CBC would never have question  holy aetheist family of Quebec.  He  was shocked that others didn’t find his boyish charms amusing. So he fell back on his winning strategy. Buy your friends with Canadian taxpayer dollars.  gave Indian billionaires $750,000 in exchange for an $250,000  claiming a major business and diplomatic coup, a billion dollar trade agreement with India. This was from the economic idiot who said ’the budget would balance itself.” .  Only it turned out that  Canada was giving his Indian Billionaire cronies $750,000 and getting only $250,000. Just like taking candy from a baby.
Behind closed doors there were no doubt lots of promises that Punjab in Canada would vote as told by their colonial and post colonial leaders.  Trudeau was dancing up a storm in his latest tax dollar wardrobe.
Then to add insult to injury, he flew in from a Canada an Indian chef, not a particularly good one either, but charming like Trudeau and no doubt a major Liberal supporter.   However to fly in an Indian chef to India is the height of cultural insult. A form of Cultural terroism.   As if India doesn’t produce it’s own Indian chefs.  Someone must have stopped Justin and Vijay slaughtering a sacred cow for the dinner because not a moo was heard. With his hourly costume changes he’s looking more and more like Gadaffi every day. At least with him out of Canada Canadians could get on with winning at the Olympics.
A three quarter of an hour drive across town on the lousy roads and still blocked traffic took me an hour and a half.  Laura was out on the street waiting for me in her ankle boots in the snow.  The streets were turning icy with the night.  Parking the F350 with crew cab and 8 foot box is it’s own trick.  I’d told Laura I’d take her for dinner.  But with traffic, snow, parking and everyone else of like mind there were long line ups at the restaurants near Queen Elizabeth.  We walked three blocks to the almost empty A & W.   Laura is a trooper. One Ballet it snowed while we were inside. She was dressed in a little black number and high heels.  I’d picked her up on the Harley and that’s how I drove her home in the snow.  This night was   Mamma burgers and fries.   We normally have fast food driving with Gilbert getting a little burger paddy.
The Ballet was tremendous. Medhi Walerski’s choreography was spectacular.  This last evening was sold out.  Some of  the Friday night folk like us appeared to have, like us, moved their tickets to Saturday night. It was a squeeze. It was also an older crowd than Friday alone.  Because it was an adult theme there weren’t the gaggles of ballet children.  Well coiffed and exceptionally well dressed adults though.  I loved that the fellow sitting beside me with his husband had an appliqué coat.  Great fashion idea.
Medhi Walerski was also in charge of costume design which in its modern minimalism was so well conceived.  I loved the simplicity of the Theun Most design using rectangular blocks as doorways and benches.  Elegant really.  The whole cast of the ballet were on stage for most of the show making it very exciting and busy. The fight scenes were gloriously rendered in high art.  C.T. Roland Cooper’s Sword Play and Joshua Reynolds Combat Instruction was all filtered through the most ingenious dance mind of Medhi Walerski. Every move was symbolic and refined.  A joy to watch.  So much happening all the time.  Montagues and Capulets everywhere literally flying about with great leaps
and bounds. I do think Shakespeare would have approved.  The dance was worthy of his genius.
Kirsten Wicklund had been Juliet and Christoph Von Riedermann Romeo on Feb. 23.  Emily Chessa was Juliet and Brandon Alley Romeo the other nights.  Their pas de deus and interpretations were
exquisite.  The whole first set was a delight.  I really did like the clever use of curtain and scenes.
In the washroom at break, a fellow commented, “the death scene went on a bit long’.  We all laughed as so one said, ”It wouldn’t be art if it didn’t.”  It really was of an era when a ‘good death’ was to be desired.  Such drama. Such poise. The last moments of a man and woman so important. Such a contrast to the proletarian present with it’s utilitarian approach to death and such efficiency euthanasia.  Death captured Shakespeare in all its historical glory.  An age of innocence. High art. BC Ballet did it well.
The shorter second act dealt mostly with the star crossed lovers.  Beautiful dance.  “It reminds me of the opera,” Laura whispered. There was alot of the acting of parts to explain the poisons and the parents.  Then the love scenes. Nothing says joy better than a man lifting a white clad girl high above his head as she arche swan like to the heavens.  Such beauty and form.  I loved the fake death and the rippled sheet so like sand on a beach. The music of the London Symphony with Andre Previn was so good that Laura looked for the actual orchestra. More deaths more drama and more remarkable dance.
For me it ended too abruptly, artistically true, but lacking the meaning that Shakespeare meant of the tragic loss of star crossed lovers that mocked the very division of Capulet and Montague rivalry. The cost of hate to community. It was there but the ending seemed to focus on the loss rather than the lesson.  But these are post modern times and morality is subsumed by beauty. The ending was so dramatic that the audience lept to it’s feet en mass in great applause.  What a wonderful night of BC Ballet. They’ve been invited to tour Europe.  Well deserved too.  The Ballet BC is a unique company of contemporary dance at its finest. We’re so fortunate to have their innovation and genius here in Vancouver.
Out in the cold the roads were icy and unplowed in Point Grey so I was thankful for the truck despite the difficulty with parking down town. A good choice.  I left Laura with the gifts I”d ordered from Amazon which had thankfully arrived in time for Valentines.  We kissed. She went off to house and dog sitting.  I drove back across the city to the warmth of my home and my blind dog, Gilbert.   Gilbert and I walked the block at midnight. He seemed miffed that the snow had covered the messages of friends.
Finally in bed, the expresso I have at shows to avoid snoring, inevitably keeps me awake later.  I was looking forward to the Canadian Sealy Posturpedic Mattress I’d ordered from the Hudson Bay. It was to arrive on Sunday.  Here I was on Valentine’s Day longing for my true love, bed, at my age.  A Sealy Posturpedic back mattress my Valentine’s Day gift to myself. Laura is excited that  she’ll be able to share the new firm King sized mattress with George, Gilbert and me next week.
 We loved Romeo and Juliet we really couldn’t related to the passion,poison, suicide and daggers. When we were younger for sure. But now the prospect of a Sealy Posturpedic mattress and a better sleep, that’s exciting. . I don’t suppose that would make a great theme for Ballet BC.  The whole idea of the new mattress is to reduce the movement in the night not increase it.
The mattress did arrive.  It was a trial for the young Pun Jab men, one of who showed me a picture of Trudeau and told me that he was going to help Khalistani separate. I supposed we were going to war with India.  Maybe  he’d teach the Khalistani how Quebec extorted billions from Canada by constant threat of separation.  I liked these guys though. Good workers.  Friendly.
I love my Indian friends here and so loved my time in Mumbai.  I certainly don’t want a war with India.  I just burned some incense I’d bought home from the Paramehansa Yogananda ashram outside San Diego. I’m so looking forward to going to the International Society of Addiction Medicine Conference in Delhi next year this time. Really I’m just envious of Justin Trudeau.  I’d like to take a week or two to go from the north to Goa and Kerala.  I’m covering in the clinic for my Indian doctor whose home is Goa. As a good son he’s dutifully visiting family.
These two fine strong gentleman had their work cut out getting the king size mattress through the smaller doors. I thanked them for their efforts before they headed off for another delivery.  I’d had to get out the screw driver and make room so finally the mattress was seated.  Kaloo Kalay! He chortled in his joy.
When it was finished I was inspired to tidy vacuum, shake rugs and wash floors on my hands and knees.  A new Sealy Posturpedic mattress deserves a good clean home.  George, the cat had bolted into deep hiding when the mattress had come. I’d put Gilbert in the back room.  He whined. Now the two were out of sorts with all the vacuuming and cleaning. Gilbert and George think everything below knee level is their domain. Gilbert was especially annoyed  that I was moving his toys. At first opportunity he got some out and spread them about the living room.
I then made the great bed.  New mattress cover. New clean King Size Sheets. Duvet.  Electric blanket. Hudson Bay Point Blanket, this year's much loved  Christmas gift from my sister in law and nephews. .  I helped Gilbert up on the bed and we both tested it. George is still suspicious of new things.  Gilbert and I loved it.
Now I’ve slept in it and though the firmness results in tingling in my fingers I’m hoping the new Water Pillow will reduce the neck flexion and eventually all will be well. I love the support on my back and waking this morning less stiff with less pain. I think I love the ballet as the mental images teach my resistant body of what it’s supposed to do. Of course I was a dancer once.  I once did such moves, I  lifted up lithe ladies over my head so they could swan on my shoulder. Ah those were the days.  Now I long for aSealy Posturpedic.

Selection Bias and Alternative Facts

Alternative facts is better termed ‘alternative reality’.  CBC News is a prime example though CNN is equally entertaining for these marketing strategies that are unscientific and commonly called ‘pseudoscience’.  An example is a left leaning poll, knowing that marijuana smokers sleep in , work from home, or don’t have jobs, pollsters will poll during the afternoon.  The right wing anti marijuana smokers by contrast are commonly early risers and at work.  Such a poll is then used by the CBC or CNN to support in a pseudoscience way their contention that the majority of Canadians want more access for themselves and their children and their pets to marijuana.  

Selection bias worked in the university regarding Climate Change. The UN IPCC mandate was to publish evidence of ‘man made weather changes’.  Strong the Canadian communist supported by his Chinese and globalist partners was against fossil fuels.  China has maintained fossil fuels but by demonizing them in the west Strong and the communists saw the undermining of the western military economy by hampering the west’s efforts to compete with the military build up of China and countries in the Middle East, specifically those agains the principle western ally, Israel.  In all these other countries they are using cheap energy to in military competition with the west who increasingly have found their ability to defend the west undermined at home. It’s long known that the American military won the War in Vietnam only to have it lost by the Media at home.  

Selective bias is to report Canadian carbon ‘footprint’ one of the best in the industrialized world and tax the already over taxed Canadians all the while countries like China continue to pollute massively.

The most recent evidence of selective bias and the alternative facts that follows from this alternative reality which excludes comparison is with the pipe line spills.  Pipelines are cheaper and safer than railways but corporate tycoons like Warren Buffet and the Trudeau government are heavily invested in the more costly and more dangerous railway transport of fuels.  By paying ‘activists’ and raising rallies these alternative corporate interests run a marketing campaign demonizing the competing industry. Oil will be carried but not by pipelines but rather by trains.  

The issue of ‘gun laws’ was the same with the exclusion of heavily armed Switzerland with it’s very ordered and safe society but instead looking at America and claiming that ‘guns’ are the cause of murder in the US.  What was further excluded from the debate was that 75% of Californian gang violence was by “illegal aliens’ but most importantly ‘legal guns’ in the US are simply absent in violence other than domestic violence where there are measures that have been taken in countries like Canada to reduce the likelihood of domestic violence without demonizing guns.  

The point is that the key to understanding the ‘alternative facts’ and the ‘alternative realities’ of the major competing ideologies of individualism of the right and collectivism of the left is to look first at the ‘terms of the reference’ of the research involved or the ‘study’ involved.  Then it’s critical to have an appropriate comparison group.

The place where I saw this was with ‘home deliveries’.  The Liberal government having taken all the tax payer citizen money for health care was attempting to keep it all for their own luxuries by schemes like as ‘deliver your baby in your home’.  They had this plan to cut costs and reduce the amount of money returned to the citizens for the medical care which citizens were willing to pay for.  So they also encouraged ‘mid wives’ to do ‘home deliveries’ and developed ‘dual’s.  These individuals were in direct competition with obstetricians whose work was the most scrutinized and regulated and subject to the highest costs in medical legal terms because of the demand for perfection.  Overnight the home deliveries were associated with deaths and difficulties but never subjected to the same scrutiny simply because it was ‘government approved’ and part of the main agenda.  The most important comparison was to use Britain and Holland as ‘comparison’ showing that Britain and Holland had home deliveries without problems. What was left out was that when I lived in London there was a clinic and hospital and life support facilities as close as pubs on every corner. The ‘density’ of the population allowed proximity to obstetricians and c sections.  By contrast in Canada the vast distances resulted in long delays from getting from the home to the hospital if anything went wrong.  

The key is to understanding the ‘terms of reference’. In the Downtown Eastside the agenda was to introduce costly ‘injection sites’ and promote the ‘culture of drugs’ but ‘control’ it and bring it into the same ‘marketing potential’ as the highly lucrative tobacco and alcohol industries with their lobbies and revenues.  There was no evidence that these incredibly expensive facilities did more than reduced a death per year at a cost of a million dollars. However by presenting a graph showing the drop of the deaths in the community which included the years before they were opened they ‘claimed’ success but now though there is a horrendous rise in deaths "as a consequence" of the injection sites, the very name SAFER marketing drugs increasingly to youth who no longer associate drugs with death, as they had after the Belushi death, instead we have a cry in the construction industry to build more empires.  This is an alternative reality to the proven success of street policing, abstinence baed treatment centres, methadone, suboxone, AA and NA.  The construction industry and other players are very keen on more bastilles which serve as a focus for spreading the ideology of ‘better living through chemistry’.  

The abortion industry is one of the most expensive and most highly paid and costly industries.  A simple comparison would be to consider as it was 30 years ago, what is the cost of abortion compared to supporting mothers and children.  The multi billion dollar abortion industry doesn’t wish to share it’s masses of money with mere women and children yet we could support well all the unborn babies if we had indeed presented the evidence without the ‘selection bias’ which came from the idea there are ‘too many people are the planet’.  What was never mentioned is that idea, that doomsaying, was first introduced in the time of Columbus.  Like Global Warming and countless other fear mongering ideologies, these serve to get people to give money to the organizations creating the problem.  

To understand all the squishy feel good promotions like save the wounded puppy campaigns understand that there is an industry behind everyone of these.  Pipelines debate isn’t about fossil fuel or not but about fossil fuel carried by trains or pipelines.  Look for the money that is competing and ask about the egos involved in the competition.  

George Soros who profits by bringing down governments investing billions in their downfall, buying up their currency before they rise again , all done artificially and by intention, is behind the black lives matter campaign which is a money making machine for black leaders and democrats principally.  In South Africa the blacks are persecuting the whites but there is no ‘white lives matter’ campaign there because in other countries there are no freedoms as we enjoy here.  Much of the terminology is based on this ‘selection bias’.  Asians with their history of success comparative to Caucasians are not demonized as whites are by the blacks because theres an agenda and ‘selective bias’.  Follow the money trails and ask who is profiting from this warm and fuzzy today.  

I am a researcher and I see such stupidity and wonder why people don’t go to university and study stats and research to know the fundamentals so they won’t be lead by the nose and turned into consumer slaves by the forces behind CBC and CNN.  I did my research training at the Masters level and this was simply 101. It's not new information but seeing Canadians vote and listening to Canadians discuss politics I'm quite frightened by the level of general ignorance about science and research. There's a tremendous pseudoscience and the new bullying of the brownshirt "identity politics' but a general ignorance about polls, democracy, socialism, communism, history, studies, bias that really is seriously troubling.  

Think alternative ‘realities’ and ‘selection bias’ and ‘terms of reference’. And polls are as limitted to who pays for them. Snopes for one is bought and sold.  

 

The best way to sucker someone too, is to bait them with a couple of truths so you can sucker them with the bigger false hood when their guards are down. That’s why these organizations are partially useful on the stuff that doesn’t really ‘count’.  Everything is grey.  Nothing is all bad or all good. It’s just where are you on the spectrum of naivity to intelligent discernment 

 

Also know that the search engines of the Internet are rigged. The queue of items is bought. The marijuana industry is so well funded and powerful that a recent research item about the harm of marijuana was 'buried' in the general search engines in the most sophisticated manner whereas it was front and centre in the scientific search engines. I liked the coffee mug, 'don't confuse your google search with my MD". It's increasingly tedious to explain to people the basics of marketing or sales and burst their bubble of overnight genius. Right now the 'left' is claiming to be the judge of 'truth'. Their new word is 'facts'. Beware. The best New Yorker cartoon showed a weather woman saying, "now we've given you the Republican weather report now we're give you the Democrat weather report." You can get a Jamaican, Saudi, female, gay or dog lover report now on just about any matter and mostly you'll be hearing the expensive monetarily back skewed view. One way to untangle deviation is to know a controversial story from the inside then watch how different media present the story. That gives a baseline deviation There will always be selection bias and alternative relations and social relativism will play a part but if you are aware of these forces you can factor them into your analysis. I know it's tough. I know you want the nipple of reason and the umbilical cord of facts to hang onto. Don't we all.

 

Journal:Bits and pieces

I returned from seeing my brother and sister in law and nephews, sailing on lake Ontario, being surrounded by 3 cockapoos, Pepper, Eva and Gilbert and motorcycling around the Greater Napanee area. It was a fine time.  I felt wholly different when I returned to work.  When I’d left I was feeling really overwhelmed, mostly struggling with the burden of an ongoing threat against my life and my dogs life.  It seemed like a  straw that broke the camel’s back, the lack of consideration of the authorities for it’s citizens, as evidenced at this microcosm level and the macrocosm level of Justin Trudeau.
Back at work I enjoyed seeing patients again. Loved seeing my colleagues and staff.  The fish had survived surprisingly.  Even riding the Miata back from the airport was fine. The weather wasn’t. I find the sunshine, which we’re having today, makes all the difference.  We had grey sky last week and drizzle then torrential rain at night.
Gilbert was so pleased to see all his toys. We both loved visiting Laura and walking over to Max’s for a sidewalk dinner.  There are good routines that are a joy to revisit.
Tom and I had another delicious meal at Vasili , the Greek restaurant on Kingsway with the red ferrari parked outside. A beautiful Kurdish waitress made the experience enjoyable.  Tom didn’t know about the Kurdish Women Fighting Brigade that’s been winning against ISIS. Canada had provided them air cover until ‘feminist’ Justin Trudeau withdrew Canada’s support.  Our waitress was proud of the success of the Kurdish women and happy when I noted it.  The lamb and calamari were excellent.  Tom and I talked about sailing, religion, politics and family as usual.
We’d been at Honda Centre where Lee and Lorry work.  I’d traded in the Yamaha 450 ATV for a new Honda 500 Pioneer Side by Side.  Tom was with me when we first came across it at the Sportsman Show.  It’s attraction over other side by sides is that it will fit in the box of the truck.  Since Gilbert hurt his back last year I can’t have him jumping up and down on the ATV so with this one he’ll be able to step up and down just like a car.  Besides neither Tom or I wanted to ride in the ‘bitch’ seat on the ATV when we were hunting together so this allows up both to be ready for game when we’re out hunting. Alone the ATV was a joy but I’m hunting more with Tom or taking another along when I’m hunting now as I get older or accept the lesson of when I rolled the Polaris and was injured so far from help after shooting the elk on Vancouver Island.  I’m just generally more cautious.  The roll bars on the Honda Pioneer are another attraction.  I’ve added the roof and windshield and door accessory as well as the winch and got the whole thing in camo colour. The roof and doors and windshield are rather ‘luxurious’. No more riding about exposed to rain and snow.  Laura looks forward to booting about the back woods with Gilbert and I.  Tom and I were celebrating the trade in and discussing weekend trips in the fall.
I was really happy to get on the Harley Davidson yesterday after the rain stopped. I’d been enjoying the Yamaha 250 out east. Gilbert met with Emory and Dave said ‘riding a 250 must have been like riding a scooter compared to your big bike’.  Good to see him and talk bikes. The dogs are best of friends too.  We think they’re wrestling.
My friends Aim and Alyson are pregnant and that’s just the best news!
Gilbert and I were up early this morning and walked the length of the river walk and back.  I got a picture of a bee in a flower.  Was taking the picture of the flower when the bee suddenly came out.
Watched the movie, Whiskey Foxtrot Tango (what the fuck) with Tina Rey and enjoyed it. I’ve been watching another season of Last Ship and can’t wait for next instalment.
I’ve just completed a few hours of ‘take home ‘work, which I try to avoid though can’t seem too. Patients have been calling all hours and I’m disappointed by the lack of resources.  It’s difficult for my patients and I see their plights in comparison with the propaganda of ‘perfect Canada’.
The Black Lives Matter did their grandstanding disruptive bit at the Pride Parade in Toronto. The shootings at the Gay Club in Orlando and then the sniper fire on the cops in Texas. They say there was just one shooter but it sure seemed like there were more than one.
Difficult and confusing times. Brexit in England and the Gotthard Tunnel horny goat celebration suggest strange times. Meanwhile the UN and Trudeau and Obama continue to lie about Climate Change and the scientific illiteracy is so profound that people don’t realize ‘carbon’ tax is breathing tax. They would I suspect, if someone said O2 tax but the level of stupidity politically and scientifically in this country these days has me wanting to say ‘beam me up, scotty, there’s no intelligent life here.’ The sad part is it’s just corruption all over.
Trump and Hillary are running for the American president and I’ve really been interested in politics for the first time, seriously , in almost a decade.  The last excitement was the Wall Street ‘rip off’.  Strange times.  I can’t help but remember that Freud when the Nazi’s were at the door and he was escaping said, “the paranoids were right’.  Given the politics of the day, the psychotics seem less crazy and indeed the paranoids might well be right.
Justin Trudeau seems to be doing everything in his power to have the greatest number of people stoned with his marijuana legalization and all these supervised injections sites for opiate abusers.  The message this gives to the kids is ‘drop out’.  We had that in the counter culture in the 60’s, a minority position, but now it’s mainstream.  Obama using cocaine and Justin Trudeau wine and pot affacionda.
Being ‘clean and sober’ I’m frowned upon because it really does give a ‘clarity’ that the abusers don’t like.  Not that i feel like I’ve any great insight right now. I’m just looking forward to getting out in the woods and enjoying wilderness. I also look forward to sailing again before the summer and fall are over.  Every year I just try to get enough good times to be able to survive the increasingly frightening winter months. This year 2 people died, one murdered and the other suicided. Last year it was a hanging and three overdose deaths.  I blame myself and don’t but I try my hardest to do the best.
I felt for my patient when he said “I just want to make a difference’.  His life had been one of service and care for family and others.  I feel irrelevant  We’re yesterdays news.  This aging process is physically disturbing but psychologically and intellectually it’s a challenge too.  I just want to sit in churches and pray or sit on the sides of mountains and mediate.
But there’s work to be done.  Thank you Jesus for the good times.



God bless.