It all started with a drippy faucet

I've been ignoring the drippy bathtub faucet for years. It's not really that drippy. But according to the Farm Manager, even a modest amount of drippage stains the tub, and how can anyone exist in the modern world with bathtub stains. You can imagine how enthusiastic I'd be to act on such flawed impluses, but unfortunately those impulses never go away, and I found myself last Thursday shopping for a new bathtub faucet. I was mightily impressed with how quickly I resolved the years-long dilema of the drippy faucet. In the space of a couple hours I had a shiny new faucet installed, and no drips! That's where I should have left things. But no. I was pumped. I was filled with can-do overconfidence. Overcome with optomism. That should always be a red flag. While I'd solved the big drip, there were also some very minor ones coming from the taps. Why not tackle them while I'm on a roll. By noon of Friday I'm having a heart to heart with the plumbing expert at Home Hardware. He's never seen the type of tap hardware I brought in to show him first-hand the results of my attempted washer change. He thought I was looking for the county museum! By noon Saturday I've got a brand new Milwakee grinder in hand with a cutting disc on, and I'm chopping up the last 20 ft of galvanized pipe. By now the old bathtub is out the end of the lane with "free scrap" scribbled on the side. It'll be gone in a couple of days. Meanwhile, I'm studying hard whether to go PEX or copper on my new water lines. The FM is busy finding possible bathtubs on the internet. That's a lot of stresss that could have been avoided by leaving well enough alone.

Globe & Mail finds a fascist in Ukraine - but he's Canadian

Every year on January 1st, Ukrainians gather in their thousands to celebrate the birthday of Stepan Bandera, the notorious Nazi collaborator and Ukrainian patriot whose followers murdered tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews during the WWII. Every year the Israeli embassy doth protest, but it's always the same old come next January. When Putin announced the "Special Military Operation" intended to "denazify" Ukraine, the thought leaders at the Globe poured scorn on the idea that there could be such a thing as nazis in Ukraine. Pure fantasy, they proclaimed. How could there be facsists in a country that elected a Jewish president? Well, their own team of journos found a facsist in a pub in Kyiv. Was he goose-stepping around the joint sieg heiling the glory of Ukraine? No, he was ranting about his hatred for... Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau! Who can imagine such a thing? A Canadian sullying Ukraine's nazi-free reputation! We, and even moreso the Ukrainians, should be outraged. PM Fluffy obviously needs to do more to rein in Canadian fascists.

Canada's leading newspaper spreading Russian propaganda

If you’ve been following the Globe and Mail's coverage of the war in Ukraine, you’ll know that it’s mostly a non-stop stream of pro-Ukranian propaganda. Fascists in Ukraine? Nothing but Russian disinformation. Putin has been increasingly cornered and desperate since early March, when he first started running out of missiles. His army is poorly trained, under-equipped, and in disarray. At every turn, we are assured that just a few more months and a few billions more in weapons and every square inch of Ukraine will be free again. Today we get a report from Chief Internet Correspondent Mark MacKinnon, who has been on the ground at the front, and if not the “front” per se, then at least in a pub in Kyiv. There he encountered a “tattoo-covered Canadian fighter, who drunkenly gave several fascist salutes in the middle of a Kyiv pub while talking loudly about his hatred for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.” Sounds like the guy they were looking for at the Ottawa trucker’s protest. He was in Ukraine all along! But seriously, Mark, it sounds like you’re parroting Putin’s talking points. Unless the only fascists in Ukraine are the Canadian volunteers. Later in the story, we meet another Canadian fighter, a CAF vet with combat experience in Afghanistan, who had this to say about his front line experience in Ukraine; “We don’t have air support here. We don’t have direct fire support. If I want to call in artillery here, I’m talking like in six or twelve hours I might get some artillery support.” Indeed. Pushing the Russians back for the past eight months without air cover or artillery support is a miracle of the highest order! Clearly, just a little more time and a few more billions in Western armaments, and Ukraine will be whole again!

The Coyote choir

As you know, I'm a guy who spends way too much time on the internet. Yessiree, I gotta check the CBC news and the CNN news and the Fox news, and then I head on over to the news NewsGuard doesn't approve. I'm tangled up bad in that world wide web. It can make your head spin. That's why I have to head out to the stoop for a breath of fresh air once in awhile. I was just out there. The coyotes are singing. I have a hunch they'll still be singing when we're long gone.

Welcome to WW 3

If you’re in the “Western World,” the “Free World,” or more simply just the American bloc, ie USA-EU-NATO plus the cling-ons, you know the score. The free world of liberal democracies is standing up against the autocrats who intend to upend the rule of law and the established world order. The cabal of freedom-denying tyrants seeks to subvert the natural order of the universe by declining to take direction from Washington. Hence, we now have a war in Ukraine, wherein that former nation-state agreed to be the sacrificial lamb in the struggle to preserve America’s freedom to write “the rules of law.” Our free press assures us daily the tyrant is taking a beating at the hands of the defenders of liberal democracy. Putin has been pushed back since February and a glorious victory for Ukraine is just around the next corner of another multi-billion aid package, courtesy of the taxpayers of like-minded democracies. In the meantime, after eight months of pushing Putin back, the lights are out across Ukraine. There’s no way a defeated Putin could have done that without… IRANIAN DRONES!! And that’s where our media masters manage to bring another rogue DC-denying nation into the picture. We’re not just fighting Putin, we’re fighting Iran too. Welcome to the foothills of WW 3. How much further humanity scales the adjacent peaks is going to depend a lot on we in the free world waking up. The Iranians are bemused and flattered that after 40+ years of relentless sanctioning by the American bloc, they are deemed capable of producing something Russia can’t produce itself. All those years wasted on hypersonic missile development, and what Russia really needed was gasoline powered drones with lawn-mower engines. Not likely, but that’s the tale our media spin us, just to keep us sympatico with the next hundred million for Ukraine. After all, it takes a lot of master-class bullshitting to convince the general public that’s a good investment of tax dollars. Every single country in that American bloc has extensive needs at home that are being denied because America demands they “stand with Ukraine.” The reality is that every issue that is being fought over now, was settled by the Minsk Accords eight years ago. It was Ukraine, at America’s prodding, that failed to implement that peace agreement. And here we are. If we in “The West” don’t wake up to the bullshit our governments and our “free press” have been hosing us with, WW 3 will be taking us to new heights soon.

First snowfall of the season at Falling Downs

I stepped out on the stoop for a breath of fresh air a moment ago, and sure enough... snow! Summer is over. I shoulda seen it coming. No action at the hummingbird feeder for a couple of weeks now. I saw a gaggle of Blue Herons heading south the other day. The flying "V" formations of Canada Geese are well on their way the Carolinas, there to befoul the beaches until next April. And I suddenly remembered I meant to get the snow-blower going over the summer... Thank God I've still got that snow shovel.

Gather round chillin and let Grampa tell ya a tale of what used to be

Gather round, children, and let Grampa tell you a tale of what used to be. In what used to be Canada’s industrial heartland, southern Ontario, folks who worked in factories used to own their own homes. Real homes, not condos. Places where you could have a garden. Not only could factory workers afford homes with yards, cars and the attached garage to park them in, but from the steel mills of Hamilton to the factories of Galt, Kitchener, and Guelph, you could find folks who held season tickets. Most often you’d have a group go in on a pair of seats. Everybody gets a few home games, and then you’d have to sort things out at play-off time. Mind you, that hasn’t been an issue pretty much since the early Ballard era. I’ve a hunch there’s no factory workers holding season tickets to the Leafs in 2022. In fact, when I tour the industrial areas of Guelph today, I notice many of the key factories have been repurposed. Instead of one employer with a thousand well-paying jobs, you've got two dozen start-ups paying minimum wage. Used to be, the work-force would head to the parking lot at quitting time. Now they head to the bus stop. As our standard of living goes down the shitter, let us take solace in the fact that our demise is good for the environment. Happy trails!