2317 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review

As I continue to struggle with motivation and find myself mostly tired at the end of each day, a curse I normally feel in the waning days of autumn but so foreign at this time of year, I wonder when inspiration will return.

Outside of work, where contrary to everything else I have found a new groove. I find myself on the couch binging Netflix until the wee hours of the morning. Covering the entire five seasons of The Last Kingdom, a BBC/Netflix series based on Bernard Cornwell’s epic series of novels, The Saxon Stories/Chronicles over the last two weeks.

I have mixed feeling about historical fiction. I am impressed with writers who can research a place and time in history and build an entire world around it. Skillfully inserting fictional characters into the backdrop of real historical events. Seamlessly meshing fictional characters into the lives of those who came before us. For many, it is our only glimpse into our history, our past.

My mother is a voracious reader, even in her 80’s she reads just about anything she can get her hands on. As a child, I remember shelves filled with books she’d read. Those shelves themselves only a small portion of what she’d read, the precious few she wanted to keep and read again. Now most of what she reads resides on her Kindle.

She is a huge fan of historical fiction. In the 1970’s I remember her waiting for the next installment of John Jakes, Kent Family Chronicles (aka The American Bicentennial Series) series to publish. I never read the books myself but she was a devout fan of the historical genre. Many of the books she read such as Gabaldon’s Outlander series or Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, taking her back in time to her familial roots in England and Ireland.

But historical fiction is a double edge sword. While many of the tales open our hearts and minds to history they also bastardize it. In the moment, the reader knows the stories to be fiction. Authors like Cornwell, who was driven by a need to tell a history that he believes is absent in Britain even provides context in his series to allow the reader to parse the history from the fiction.

However, as these novels become part of the cultural landscape the tales become interwoven into that history, romanticizing them. I think of the conversations I’ve had with people over the years who can’t separate fiction from history. Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code is one of these novels where I have listened to people talk of fiction as reality. As time passes the fiction begins to creep into history even more and the truths of our past blend into the fantasy until only the historians hold the truth.

That said I enjoyed the series, although I am not certain I will watch the movie follow-up movie The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die that was created to end the series. It does not appear to have been written based on Cornwell’s novels but rather as a vehicle for Netflix to wrap the series up in a bow for the masses, disregarding so much of the history that provides the stories backdrop and that of England herself. In this instance, I will stick to the novels.

My Leafs managed to get out of the first round of the playoff for the first time since 2004. Hopefully exorcising the ghosts of the past. Even better the Boston Bruins, the so-call greatest team of all time based on the best regular season point total in league history were unceremoniously bounced by the Florida Panthers. My disdain for Marchand and the Bruins makes this almost as sweet as the Maple Leafs’ victory.

This week in music I re-discovered another classic from my youth, U2’s Rattle and Hum. The follow up to The Joshua Tree, one of the greatest albums ever recorded. When Love Comes to Town, the B.B. King collaboration results in one of the greatest Rock and Roll moments of all time.

Five Word Weekly Challenge

Qué sera sera | A coming-of-age tale written by Sadje at Keep It Alive.

Imposter | A conspiracy theorist nightmare with a twist by Paula at Light Motifs II.

Four Line Fiction Challenge

More highlights from Greg’s Blog…

T-Shirt Wisdom Wednesday

Around the Blogosphere…

The blank spaces here are a product of that lack of motivation I describe above.

Next week…

Look for the usual features, Five Word Weekly, Four Line Fiction. I said it last week and like a broken record will say it again… Hopefully, I find inspiration this week.

2316 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review

I knew it was going to be one of those weeks when I woke up to the snow pictured in my “From 29°C to WTF?” post and it did not disappoint.

The night I posted that entry my wife got hit in the head with a steel rod. It seems a co-worker didn’t secure the item properly when they were putting it away and when she went to grab a box it bounced up and hit her above her left eye. She was lucky not to lose an eye but has been suffering with headaches all week since. Likely a concussion that has kept her home and on the couch. To make things worse she also picked up a nasty cold.

At the same time, it is one of the more hectic weeks at work. The staff bid on the lines they would like to work for the next six months. Although I am not directly involved in the bid process, I am responsible for entering the results into our scheduling system. You would think this to be straightforward but it involves a bleep-ton of massaging the data to ensure the upload goes smoothly. If I were building schedules.

I’d start with a master that includes the full staff complement. First, I’d determine what staff require static lines such as those working static Monday to Friday lines or those accommodated schedules. Once that part of the schedule has been determined I move to the biddable schedule and as we never operate at full complement, I’d begin removing extra lines from the master schedule to ensure a balanced distribution of staff across the entire schedule. This would avoid creating areas with overstaffing and others where we operate short.

Unfortunately, that is not how these schedules are built, instead we build the bid schedule first and then add the static lines. The problem is nobody seems to be aware of who is not bidding so it becomes my responsibility to figure out who is missing from the bid schedule and build their static lines and accommodated schedules. It is an inefficient way of assembling a massive jigsaw puzzle that invariably leads to holes in the schedule and people being missed.  Admittedly, it is exacerbated by the fact that I am new to the role, and it is my first time working the back end of the scheduling process.

None of this helps as for the last week to ten days I feel like I’ve been mired in the mud. My motivation is low and my mind is focused on other things. The cost of living, my daughter’s summer baseball schedule, ongoing car problems and of course my wife’s health are all weighing on my mind. Oh yeah, and that damned snow that has reared its ugly head again after a week of summer weather in April!

So it has been nothing but vegging in front of the TV and listening to music. I have spent countless hours watching the Leafs, Blue Jays and the Netflix show “The Last Kingdom” or listening to homegrown artist JJ Wilde.

Five Word Weekly Challenge

Blissful… | The joy of spending time with family and friends and a trip to the zoo by Paula at Light Motifs II.

A Journey from Fracture to Freedom: Anna’s Tale of Triumph | A journey by Anna written by Pankaj Kumar at The Inkwell

Four Line Fiction Challenge

Riddle of the Fox | Paula at Light Motifs poses an interesting riddle in her post.

Writer Ravenclaw also posted a warning for our fox friend in the comment section of the Four Line Fiction post.

More highlights from Greg’s Blog…

Around the Blogosphere…

Next week…

Look for the usual features, Five Word Weekly, Four Line Fiction and T-Shirt wisdom Wednesday. I said it last week and will say it again… Hopefully, some more new posts too.

2315 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review

What a record-breaking week. The temperatures here for the last few days have set records across the board. Dry warm April weather that coincided with my day of rest. For those wondering I work a five days on, four days off rotating schedule so my off days shift and this week I happened to luck out and be off for some beautiful sunny days. As I return to work for the coming week the temperatures will drop to more seasonal.

The nice weather has made for a productive week. The previous owners of my home had built all the decking from old skids. What?!?!? Yeah, I said the same thing. That wood is the cheapest, softest, that was likely pest treated but is nothing remotely water or weatherproof. Sure on the deck in the back, they covered it with composite deck board but a pig with lipstick is still just a pig. The front they didn’t even try and hide it. It was covered in spruce or pine boards that they then just painted grey.

The front deck was so bad that I fell through the top last fall. It was only a skids depth, about 11cm (5″) but I was worried that my wife, son, the neighbour’s kids or the mail carrier would fall through and break an ankle. The last thing I need is to be sued by a neighbour or the post office.

The other problem with using skids is the space it leaves beneath the deck boards is perfect for all sorts of wildlife. Last year I used some old stone and pavers to evict a family of skunks and several chipmunks. Both can be very destructive to home foundations.

For the record, it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. It appears my vehicle requires new ball joints and/or tie rods. A fairly expensive job. I am pretty handy and after watching some YouTube videos thought I’d take a stab myself. I’ve done car work before and this didn’t look all that hard to do until I got the car up on blocks and realized that I’d developed a fear of going under the car. Just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Pretty sure it stems from an incident several years back when I was changing breaks. I had the car on the jack and had been sitting with my legs under the vehicle as I worked. I got up to grab a drink of water and when I came back outside the chocks had failed and the jack tipped, spilling the car onto the driveway. Five minutes sooner and I’d have lost my leg for sure. Thank God the car was not damaged either but I think the only way I could get under a car now is if I had a proper lift and I don’t see ever getting one. So I guess it’s off to the mechanic. My guy is pretty good but the job will still be expensive.

Working outside I had to have some loud music playing. Something heavy and I found myself listening to the Italian outfit Måneskin. We saw them live a few months back and the music rocks!

Now for the ‘week in review’…

Five Word Weekly Challenge

The Doll | A poem of renewal and finding joy in things forgotten and discarded by Piper at Piper’s Adventures

A Terminal Opera | A story of hope and connection written by Pankaj Kumar at The Inkwell

Four Line Fiction Challenge

A funny thing happened on the way to this week’s Four Line Fiction. The day before my post was scheduled to drop Fandango at This That and the Other, by chance chose the same image from Unsplash. You can check out the respondents at Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge.

A Mess Everywhere | A cat tale mystery by Sadje.

Staring Into the Face of Me | A introspective poem by Rockstar Girl.

Missing | My own contribution to both mine and Fandango’s challenge.

More highlights from Greg’s Blog…

16. Revenge: The Captive Soul | The four-part 16th installment of the Revenge Series written for several of Sammi Cox’s #WeekendWritingPrompt. I will eventually catch up on all of them.

T-Shirt Wisdom Wednesday

The Karaoke Cowboy | Written in response to Fandango’s Provocative Question (#fpq) The fifteenth installment in the Revenge series revealed the darkness Charlie holds within.

Decapod Delights | Written as a response to Rebecca at Fake Flamenco‘s April poetry challenge featuring sea creatures.

Around the Blogosphere…

With The nice weather and the return of baseball, I did not get much reading/blog surfing done this week.

Next week…

Look for another Five Word Weekly, Four Line Fiction. I said it last week and will say it again… Hopefully, some more new posts too.

My Blue Jays dealt the Tampa Bay Rays their first loss of the season. snapping their 13-0 start to the 2023 campaign. Thirteen straight is an impressive feat even against weaker opponents but they did not fair quite as well against another World Series contender. One of the best quotes after the streak-snapping Toronto victory was the Wizard of Oz-esque, “Yes Tampa, you’re not in Washington anymore!” referring to the woefully inept Washington Nationals who the Rays had previously swept.

2314 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review

I am not a religious person. However I was raised in a Catholic household and as a kid attended church every Sunday, and participated with my Catholic schoolmates in receiving all of the obligatory sacraments. I really can’t recall the last time I was inside a house of worship of any kind other than for a wedding or funeral.

Now that I am older I don’t believe in magical and benevolent sky beings or hateful demon creatures torturing the dead in the infernal fires of hell. The Christian holidays have become more about family getting together and enjoying our time here on earth with those we love.

The weather has finally been nice enough to get outside and start some early-season yard work. The previous owner of my current home thought using wooden shipping skids would make a great foundation for the three different decks they built but of course, the untreated softwood has rotted into a pile of mush beneath composite deck boards. I guess they believed the layer of plastic and sawdust would prevent water from getting through. No, I take that back they were just cheap.

Oops, kinda lost focus for a half-inning. The Toronto Blue Jays were sucking a** in Anaheim today but just scored six in the sixth to tie it up! Let’s complete the comeback with a “W” before returning to the newly renovated Skydome! I know but I won’t acknowledge the current corporate stadium name.

This week I found myself listening to one of the albums I cut my musical chops on as an almost teenager. I won’t say I’ve forgotten but it has been a while since I listened to Roxy Music’s Avalon. The album came to the fore again while I listening to Alan Cross’ “The Ongoing History of New Music.” He was talking about how good the album sounded on vinyl because it was originally produced in analog from start to finish. It doesn’t hurt that it was produced at a time when recording quality mattered as well. I do not have a vinyl copy but it sounds great even from my fully lossless streaming service. It was hard to pick a video to post with such great tracks as More Than This, Avalon, The Main Thing but settled on Take A Chance With Me. Hope you enjoy…

Now for the ‘week in review’…

Five Word Weekly Challenge

Lost in the Commotion | A creative use of the prompt words in a very creative look at the afterlife written by Piper at Piper’s Adventures

Ghosted | A hysterical look at what might await a player when he crosses to the other side written by Paula at Light Motifs II.

Making History | I’m hoping Carol at Therapy Bits has given us a prophetic look at The Donald’s future!

A Trick of the Light or… | Sadje at Keep It Alive gives us a truly frightening tale of technology gone wrong and the complete lack of responsibility shown by those who create it. This could be Artificial Intelligence if left unchecked.

Lila’s Adventure on the Planet of Light | A magical story by Pankaj Kumar at The Inkwell

Four Line Fiction Challenge

Another slow week on the Four Line Fiction challenge.

More highlights from Greg’s Blog…

15. Revenge: The Morning After | The fifteenth installment in the Revenge series revealed the darkness Charlie holds within.

Share Your World | Written as a response to Di at Pensivity101’s movie-themed Share Your World prompt.

Around the Blogosphere…

Scilla Luciliae | Delicate flowers with soft colours from Vova Zinger’s Photoblog.

Cognitive Dissonance | Fandango outlines the frustration we all feel when our elected officials seem to be so far disconnected from reality.

Next week…

Look for another Five Word Weekly, Four Line Fiction and some T-Shirt Wisdom. I said it last week and will say it again… Hopefully, some more new posts too.

My Blue Jays did come all the way back and then almost blew it again. They ended up beating the Angels of Anaheim 12-11. Woohoo, have a great week,

2313 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review

Although I could read the calendar this week my comprehension of how it works is suspect. Truth be told when I got home from work I started watching The Night Agent on Netflix. One in the morning and four binged episodes later with the blog completely on the backburner I crawled into my empty bed and fell fast asleep. So Sunday Digest is a Monday feature this week!

Have you ever started a new job, well new position at the old job and found that a series of predecessors had cocked it up so bad, this is sounding like it belongs on the Monday Peeve, it may take months to recover. So far I’ve found four different filing systems, with parts of each file in different physical and electronic locations. Pieces of files missing or buried in unprotected predecessor emails, or encrypted in a generic mailbox so that I cannot access them. Worse the only way to access the encrypted files is to have the original sender or recipient open it and many of those people have moved on to new jobs and locations. Of course, the encrypted emails should have been decrypted and moved to the corporate cloud where access can be granted outside the encryption process. Apparently, too much effort to click and drag! A week and a half in and I already have staff asking about the status of their requests for which there are no files anywhere or key pieces from their file including personal information is completely missing.

Time for a musical interlude and a chance to breathe, found myself listening to a lot of Glass Animals this week. I love the creativity of this band and one of my faves has to be Space Ghost. Plus the video is one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen.

The rest of the world has gone mad, I think. Sure Trump was indicted by the Grand Jury (about effing time) and I saw one of the funniest memes about it. It is nice to see the racist orange man getting his comeuppance even if he gets off in the end one can only hope the stress takes years off of his pitiful existence. My only concern is if they get the legal shit wrong it could boost his run for another term in the White House. A risk that would be catastrophic for America and the free world.

Even more puzzling is Russia taking the lead of the UN Security Council for April. How in the name of God we can let that happen is ridiculous and shows how toothless our governmental and international governance models are broken. I read somewhere that Ukraine is incensed at the notion of the Russian State dictating the agenda at the UN. Do you blame them, as Putin continues to murder innocent civilians and military personnel protecting their homes the rest of the world allows them to dictate proceeding in an international forum that is responsible for keeping the peace between nations. Shit like this further erodes trust in government agencies as the world hurtles toward anarchy.

My Blue Jays (like I own the team) got off to a great start with a win in St. Louis but then dropped the next two. Everyone says it’s early and in baseball terms it is but it was a frustrating opening series for a team projected to make the post-season. Pitching is still a concern that I don’t think the front office has adequately addressed. Here’s hoping next week is better.

Everyone always says end on a positive note. Despite the mess at work and in the world I have to say I’m grateful for all I have and with spring here and warmer weather on the way I am looking forward to getting back outdoors and into the garden.

Now it’s time for the ‘week in review’ portion of this post…

Five Word Weekly Challenge

Ponderings, Paula at Light Motifs tale of forbidden high school romance.

Think, Think, Think… where Sadje takes us into the mind of a student contemplating the weight of work she needs to complete.

Four Line Fiction Challenge

Politicos written by Rugby843 at The Bag Lady.

More highlights from Greg’s Blog…

T-Shirt Wisdom Wednesday | A baseball theme for this bi-weekly feature.

Home of the Braves | A terrible take on cultural appropriation written for Chel Owen’s Terrible Poetry Contest for March 2023.

Vitamin D | A beach tale written for multiple Fandango #fowc dailies.

Winter’s Last Gasp | It has been a while since I last posted in the photography category on Greg’s blog. I find the camera, like myself, tends to hibernate over the winter. This one was from my phone and was posted for bushboy’s Last on the Card challenge.

Around the Blogosphere…

Winner of the Terrible Poetry Contest | Lots of hilarious terrible poetry hosted by Chel Owens.

Next week…

Another Five Word Weekly, Four Line Fiction and hopefully some more new posts. My output has been light of late.

Have a great week,