Hiya,
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Around here, that means giant pink insulation Christmas trees.
Saw a clip of O-45 where he claims he won the war on Christmas during his tenure. He added that everyone now loves Christmas...Christians, Jews, Muslims. I'll add the Asian religions to that too. What a knob that guy is and I blow a gasket whenever I hear someone praise him by saying things like, small business owners loved his tax cuts. The absolute best thing I could say about anyone that votes GOP these days is that they are willfully ignorant. And they are gonna take charge of stuff in this next election...you just know it. Step up your resistance people. Call them out when you can and make them have consequences. I have suggestions.
One thing I loved in the old holiday times were getting the year in review letters from some people about their families. Always wanted to write up a parody version but realized some dopes would think it true and didn't want to embarrass the kids. Now, people just blurt their shit out on the toilet in a constant stream, and a few of us still post blogs, but this year was one of a significance for our clan and yours truly and thought I would put down some of the bigger events in print to document it.
2021 saw:
- Mom passed in January. Think about her a lot and miss our chats. A lot of my friends moms/dads passed away this year too. We used to go to a lot of friend's weddings, then it was our kids b-day parties, now we commiserate on our mutual losses. What's next? I'd like to think it'll be sharing pix of our grandkids, so will go with that. And that is by no means a hint to my children.
- Lost two beloved kids to mental illness this year too. Seems like forever since our baseball guy took himself off the field, yet think about him in some way every time I go out for practice. Another dear friend's son, who we've known since he was in diapers, lost his battle with his demons recently. I try to find words and they are never there.
- Betty and I bought a new house (and car) sight unseen and they are major steps in the next part of our journey. Together...for better and for worse my dear.
- I got two new knees that will change every step I take for the rest of my life.
- Both kids graduated (with distinction!) and moved onto the next phase of their lives. So far so good. And they both seem like caring and thoughtful humans. If you know me in the least, am loathe to use the word pride...but I am so fucking proud of both of them. Really.
That is some major shit.
Okey dokey...how about some Taiwan road work?
In our neighborhood the last few weeks are parked these little pink trucks with vials on the roof.
Digging through my saved Taiwan News articles from the summer, will share some today dealing with transportation.
This one has video of a 'horrific' scooter accident. It isn't one of those articles that is written in the goofy get my thesaurus style, but the video is brutal. No one was seriously hurt but there were a few broken bones. Hesitate to point it out, but a woman blew through the red light.
In other scooter news, heard about this before I saw it as people were mighty impressed. A family of 6 on a scooter! Is nice to see them all with helmets on, and am stunned that the fine for the infraction, which is possible for any more than two on a scooter, ranges from US$9 to US$18. Other than the video of the sextet, I enjoyed the shared community comments, and many were about how these folks should be celebrated for having so many kids. Taiwan has the lowest birthrate in the world and there is a low key but prevalent campaign for people to get busy.
Will stay on the roads to finish the local news section for this week. Surveillance cameras caught a dude getting out of his car in one of Taiwan's long ass tunnels in the middle of the night and doing some dance moves. I think it is adorable, but of course it is on surveillance cameras cause everything is covered by cameras in this place, which is why I publicly urinate a lot less in this country. It is also noted in this article that the fines for failing to follow signs is US$33 to US$66, The true mystery here is, what kind of music is this guy listening to that would compel him to dance in a tunnel? I get that the acoustics are probably pretty cool in there, but these people's taste in music is rat shit, and certainly undanceable.
The James Webb Space Telescope launched last night. Watched cause I'm a huge astronomy nerd. Watch tons of videos about all that stuff, and one of my go-to podcasts for sleepy time is called Astronomy Cast where a an astrophysicist and a science journalist will take on a topic weekly. They've been doing it for 12 years so it is almost endless. Not sure when or why this became a thing I love, but was reading a guy I like on a sports website that does a weekly mailbag column, and the question was what was the greater human achievement; the development of penicillin or man landing on the moon. The author went with the moon landing and the last paragraph of his explanation put words as to why I think I love space stuff so much.
More importantly, it represents both the ambition of mankind and its ability to fulfill that ambition. It’s very easy to get bogged down in Earth’s bullshit. I know. I have Twitter and everyone there is constantly giving each other reasons to feel like absolute shit about everything, all the time. I fucking hate it. Meanwhile, this is potentially the greatest—and only?—intelligent civilization in the history of the universe. You can think, you can see, and you can dream. And what better use is there for all of those faculties than reaching out across space and time and SUCCEEDING? People go to church for comfort, to remember that there are things beyond themselves and beyond the grasp of everyday living. I think about space in the same way. It takes me out of the day and sends me somewhere else, and I’m forever grateful for that.
Not much to report on knee rehab. No unusual setbacks, just dealing with throbbing pain that gets a bit less each day. I think it is about the same as last time, maybe a skosh better, but too early to tell. Supposed to get off the walker on Wednesday when I have my follow up doctor visit, which will be nice cause then I can start going out. He let me start driving at two weeks the first go around, and that was on the right knee, which I still find absolutely insane yet I got in the car that afternoon.
Am definitely taking it slower this time, which means that I have more time for watching stuff. The show I have adopted is The Expanse and am all in. A show about humanity 300 years in the future with Earth, Mars and the asteroid belt population (called Belters) vying for dominance. Am a couple of seasons in and it is well paced and is evolving in a way that it is keeping me guessing. During the day, it is either NFL, or whatever I can find on ESPN+, which is usually women's league cricket from New Zealand. Very calm and pastoral. And the announcers accents are so cute...New Zealanders have the most pleasant of the English accents in my opinion. On Thursday, watched a spirited match between the Canterbury Magicians v The Northern Brave Women, and it was a warm day. The crowds are not huge, maybe a hundred or two surrounding the oval, but they were selling ice cream, and for the better part of 3 hours, the announcers would see a shot of someone eating an ice cream cone and then comment on their method of eating it. One guy licks around the edge, another is a biter, then a kid is licking their arm cause it dripped down it, and finally, the announcers got their own cones and had a lengthy discussion about how tasty they were on a warm afternoon. I think I fell asleep for a good hour or so of it...great viewing.
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