November Musings
The month when pumpkins rot
November Musings by Corliss Buenavida
October baseball wasn’t enough, so this year we had November baseball too. What a World Series – much to my chagrin I must give congrats to the L.A. Dodgers.
Whoever you were cheering for, I think we must agree it was one of the most entertaining Fall Classics of all time.
I know I was rapt and probably had a lot of extra innings worth of too many beers. With that vast liquid intake one might question how such a wonderful elixir can be a dehydration agent? While not as much of a diuretic as hard alcohol I accept the science and compensate with saline snacks.
And is there a better treat to enjoy while watching the games than dry salty peas? Maybe ‘peanuts’ sounds better?
Yep, they are legumes and only called nuts as culinary terminology. Also they are not the lone pea that grows underground as this is also the case for chickpeas, lentils and soybeans.
But enough about peanuts, even if they are great as a shell cracking fidget food while hanging on every at bat. They also provide the required salt for anti-diuretic effect but I can get that from potato chips, which I also snack on with regularity; and don’t worry about all this beer and junk food, I keep my semi-svelte physique through plenty of cycling and swimming. No; peanuts, chips, pretzels and popcorn (did I mention pretzels and popcorn) are all fine and dandy but nothing beats a good cheesie or twenty-five!
Now we’re talkin’! Salt and pseudo cheese flavour, crunchy or soft options, can it get any better?
But that’s just me, everyone to their own tastes.
THIS JUST IN
Some people don’t have beerfloat.calm saved as an icon on their Home Page!
How can this be? Why is this a concern?
At a festive gathering the other night a friend tells me about his can crusher. I say, “Oh, what did you think of the recent blog?” He says, “I didn’t get an email that there was a new blog.” Thusly, with one quick touch of my screen, I was visiting the blog page and presented him with the aforementioned scribbles.
That is why you should have the icon on your start up page – on all your devices! We don’t send out an email for every blog I am fortunate enough to have beerfloat.calm post, nor every time somebody sends in a new picture for the ‘floaters fotos’ pages. We don’t want to pester you constantly by filling up your Inbox.
The onus is on you to take moments of your day to cheer yourself up.
You play Wordle or Connections almost every day or visit your favourite gambling site so why not just add another icon – the good old ‘circle B’ for beerfloat.calm or whatever that damn logo is supposed to be?
Speaking of which, word has come down that the ‘Create a new beerfloat.calm Logo Contest’ winner will be announced in late December to help you celebrate Christmas and New Years! If you haven’t created your entry or entries yet you still have time.
Getting back to having quick access to beerfloat.calm, I know I am not the most tech savvy human, but I know how to “Add to Home screen” when I want quick access to a website on my phone or “Pin to Start” on my computer.
However, in my continuing effort to gratify desirable floaters I have taken the plunge into a more sociable access method for staying in tune with everything beerfloat.calm by paddling up the Instagram creek - like it or not.
Now you can hear about every new post as it happens, if you follow me?
On the subject of modern technology and communication, you can have a smart phone but still be very dumb.
Recent studies show that after years of gradual increases in IQ across humanity numbers are now dropping and the experts say cell phones are likely the primary cause.
You may have heard that teenagers’ academic abilities fell sharply after Covid-related school closures. But the Programme for International Student Assessment notes that scores on their tests actually peaked in 2012, which is right around when smartphone use became widespread. They’ve been falling steeply since.
Our habit of scrolling means saying goodbye to long-form reading, concentration and focus. The multi-year Monitoring the Future survey of 18-year-olds “finds a steep rise in the percent of people struggling to concentrate or learn new things.”
But who needs to memorize all those facts and figures when at anytime you require you can just ask your ‘learnin’ machine’ to cough up something close to an accurate answer; of course, George Washington had wooden teeth! (He didn’t.)
Speaking of Presidents, how do you create peace amongst all the nations in the Middle East? Tell them all they’re gonna make a lot of money!
As part of the peace process, or should I say further fragmentation of Gaza and creation of the new Mediterranean Arab Riviera, investments (and ownership) from other countries in the region are set to create a local population of tourism employment and profits for everyone else.
And how is that ceasefire working out? I think there was one day this week that Israel didn’t launch any air strikes!
Regarding things flying through the air, I noticed while cycling around town this year that after our annual fall raptor migration the number of road kill items visible on roads & bike trails has vastly increased. I am only making an educated guess here but it would appear that with the departure of our summer vulture population (and their kin) nobody is left to do the cleanup which these aerial scavengers are so adept at thereby leave a slew more of the poor victims to rot in public.
Another thing I saw while cycling not long ago was rather odd.
A local transit bus pulls up beside me at a red light at which I am waiting patiently. I am not concerned, as I have my own lane, and I know I can take him off the line, allowing me to get past the bus stop on the other side of the intersection before he pulls over to the curb for his passengers. Never-the-less as is my habit, I glance over to check if the driver is aware of my presence.
Well, with bright reflection on the bus’ door I can barely make out where the driver’s head is, but then I see a little movement and; Wow! Am I in a ‘Men in Black’ scene?
From what I can see, commanding the bus is a guy with a shrunken head!
I’m pretty sure it is just the reflection but it is not until he turns that I can see it was just his lips, nose and chin making it look like a tiny head on top of the big body.
So, that was kind of weird.
More amusement witnessed while traversing the bike lanes of Toronto.
I saw two little white Scottie dogs (or similar breed) that were leashed together but off the owners hand running through a park to join a women I will presume to be their owner who was ahead and climbing a ramp to a little view point. Because this walkway was rising to an elevation a safety grip railing was mounted along the edge.
The rambunctious pups were tearing up the grassy slope to meet her and separated sufficiently that each of their trajectories was on either side of a post for the aforementioned railing. The dog on the left being a little further ahead won the race, although both would end up losing. The result; for the dog on the right, having the shorter end of leash wrap around the pole, sent it into a circular rolling flip while the lead dog merely came to a choking halt. As if this behaviour was a practiced skill, both dogs were back up in a flash, with the lower pooch looping back around the pole and joining his comrade in a continued trot up the hill, none the worse for wear.
Ah to be young and four-legged.
And finally, there is a brand new park, named Biidaasige, from the Anishinaabemowin Indigenous language meaning “sunlight shining toward us”, along Toronto’s waterfront, which is part of a massive infrastructure redevelopment including re-routing the Don River. Apart from the extensive path system, picnic areas, off-leash zones and fishing spots, a large portion of this acreage is made up by a group of connected themed playground areas with all the latest interactive structures a child could dream of. There is Cable Canyon with two zip lines, both Woodland and Badlands Scrambles and climbing structures including a giant racoon and a much talked about snowy owl which children can clamber around inside.
Because this owl had been in the news well before the park’s opening, I found myself during city rides, looking at the structures in other playgrounds. One such apparatus which caught my attention is in Tom Riley Park in Toronto’s west end in the Mimico Creek valley.
When I saw it, a thought came to me, likely because I have the mind of a juvenile delinquent, that thought being; at what point for children who play there do they have their epiphany moment? That is, they go from thinking of it as a toy play structure to being related to something else. What would cause these thought patterns?
I imagine what happens is the older kids who kinda know what they are talking about will tease the younger ones who are clueless and this goes on through a constant cycle of new children gaining a new perspective on life. So, I wonder at what age the older kids inform them of another interpretation of this creature.
Of course I’m referring to the knowledge of the mighty beaver being a great symbol of Canadian national heritage.
What were you thinking of?
I can’t believe you went there?
Now, I’m very hesitant to tell you about another green space just a little north-east of there, called Donnybrook Park. I don’t want to fight you on this!
Alright, I’m getting a little cheesy…
…mmm, cheesies!
Wipe that smile (or the crumbs from it) off your face,
Corliss
beerfloat.calm = beerfloat.net not beerfloat.com
