Instantly Not Quite.

 I just went to stick some pop in my fridge, thinking about eating some chips.  I noticed the piece of fish left over from supper the other night, and grabbed that.  Grabbed a 32 gram bag of Old Dutch Salt and Vinegar potato chips, and found myself with instant fish and chips.  Sort of.

Double Outage.

 Modern technology is so useful, but so annoying if it doesn't work.  I woke up this morning to find the Wifi in my apartment had quit.  It took until this afternoon for the techs to come along to fix it.  So no Internet.  On top of that I found out this afternoon that my cell phone wasn't working, and of course I couldn't check my account online because I had no Internet access.  I eventually tried a reboot, which has worked.  I guess it decided not to play nice because I was in Alberta on Tuesday and Wednesday, and disconnected at some point.  And if you don't use your phone, you don't know you're not getting calls because it's not working.

Defeated By The Common Cold.

 I was supposed to have eye surgery today.  It's not something I wanted to do so soon, or of course at all, but had come to accept it.  But I came down with a cold the last few days, and so my surgery has been put off.  All because of a virus that most of us just find a nuisance.  

Mirrorless.

 O.J. Simpson has died, apparently of cancer.  He was 76.  

After he was acquitted of murdering his former wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman he stated he would try to find the real murder.  This makes me wonder if he didn't have any mirrors in his house.

Welcome To 2024.

 In a way I'd like to go back.  But I know better.  I might improve my life a bit, but going back say ten years wouldn't stop all the terrible crap that has happened.  Like Donald Trump.  

Hopefully your 2024 is better than your 2023.  Unless you're evil of course.  If you are, like say Ron DeSantis, all I can hope is that your realise the harm you've done and repent of your ways.

I Saw An Alex Jones Sticker On A...

 ...well, it doesn't really matter what kind of car I saw it on.  Just seeing one at all in Saskatoon was a surprise.  One sticker read "Alex Jones Was Right!"  A second was a generic Infowars sticker.  And the third mentioned something about freedom.  Someone who believes the swill Jones puts out is the kind of person who I wonder how they get dressed by themselves in the morning.  I'm guessing he believes the full gamut of nonsense, such as that Justin Trudeau is Fidel Castro's secret son.  Maybe they'll get a clue someday, but I doubt it.

Slightly Better.

 Recently I got interested in protein bars after passing by them in various places.  I'm not interested in actually buying them regularly, I just wanted to see what they taste like.  The first one I tried a few weeks ago was from One brand, labelled as chocolate chip cookie dough flavour.  That labelling was optimistic.  It didn't taste or have a texture like cookie dough.  In fact it was awful enough that I only ate half.  Especially annoying was the taste of the artificial sweeteners they use instead of sugar.

Today I decided to give these products one more shot.  This time I bought a Quest brand bar of the same flavour.  I doubt I'll be buying one again, but this was considerably better.  For one thing it actually looked like chocolate chip cookie dough, being a beige colour with chunks of chocolate inside.  The texture was better, and the taste was as well.  Overall I'd call it edible, and wouldn't say no if someone offered me one again.  It also seems like it's probably healthier than the One brand offering as it contains less fat and less saturated fat.

But the price of these things!  The One brand bar was on sale for $3.99.  The Quest bar was on sale for $4.29.  I think you could find alternatives that would serve the same role for cheaper. like some nuts and cheese.

I Met An Oldie Today.

 This afternoon I used the automated checkout at a local Dollarama.  Imagine my surprise when it gave me a paper 5 dollar bill in change.  This is the first paper Canadian bill I've seen since 2019.  On top of that it's a 2002 issue 5.  The last paper 5 issued in Canada was in 2006, which had security features added.  So this one could be more than 20 years old.  You have to wonder where this one has been hiding all these years,  as paper bills are removed from circulation by banks.  Will I ever receive another one?  Stay tuned.

Welcome To 2023.

 Here we are.  We made it.

But it certainly isn't the 2023 I expected as a kid in the '70s.  A lot of what we have would have seemed amazing, but a lot of what isn't here would be surprising.  So much of what we thought we would do has proved much harder than we thought.  

I hope everyone gets to be the best version of themselves they can be this year.  Of course my idea of that best version would appall many of the people I'd describe it to.  Like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. 

Hopefully I'll be writing a similar post a year from now.

A Long Time Coming.

 I've been entering bills into Where's Willy for a long time.  But all these years Prince Edward Island has been elusive.  But no more.  I received my first PEI Where's Willy hit this morning.  It turned up in Mount Stewart.   I find it a bit ironic given the recent storm damage to the island.  Hopefully this means things are going well in Mount Stewart.

Gas In Saskatoon, September 30, 2022.

 I thought I wasn't going to get in a post this month, but here we are.

Gas in Saskatoon is currently 175.9 cents a litre at most stations.  It's taken a big jump lately.

Busted.

 I just broke a glass in my bathroom.  What a mess!  The glass not only shattered into large and small pieces, but into a bunch of glass grit as well.  This made cleanup a real pain, but fortunately not of the "Cut up your bare feet" kind. But it was close.

Gas In Saskatoon, August 19, 2022.

 It's been a while, hasn't it?  I was just too lazy in July to post about anything.

Gas in Saskatoon is currently 155.9 cents a litre at most stations.  

Gas In Saskatoon, June 10, 2022.

 And the dreaded 2 dollar mark has been broken.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 206.9 cents a litre at most stations.

Gas In Saskatoon, June 3, 2022.

 We're getting close to the dreaded 2 buck mark.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 195.9 cents a litre at most locations.

It will be interesting to see if stations eventually change their signs and pumps to show gas prices in dollars per litre instead of cents per litre.  It seems unlikely we'll see gas go below the dollar a litre mark again, but you never know.  A lot will depend on what happens as electric cars increasingly replace gas powered ones.

Gas In Saskatoon, May 6, 2022.

 This is really getting to be a bad habit.

Gas has gone up again.  It's now 178.9 cents a litre at most Saskatoon stations.  But it could be worse.  In some parts of Canada it's now 2 bucks a litre or more.

Maybe Their Lives Too.

Some heavily firepower has been taken off Edmonton's street.  Edmonton Police and ALERT, the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams, have seized a number of firearms.  One of them was an Ingram M10 submachine gun.  Also seized was a silencer for it.  Often referred to as the MAC 10 it's not much larger than a large frame semiautomatic pistol.  It appeared in the mid '60s and was paired with a silencer designed by the Sionics company.  The compact size and noise suppressor led to its limited adoption by various armed forces, usually for use by their special forces units.  Hollywood and other film industries became a fan, so if you've seen many '70s and '80s action films you've probably seen one on screen.

The M10 has a cyclic rate of fire of 1200 rounds a minute.  This means it can empty its 30 round magazine in 2 seconds, which makes it hard to control unless you have extensive practice, and it's sometimes derided as a "room broom."  Not that this makes enough difference if you're on the receiving end.

Looking at the photos in the Edmonton Journal article I wonder if it wasn't only the lives of possible victims that were saved.  The M10 seems to be in poor condition, with most of the bluing missing, and obvious signs of rust on the gun and its magazine.  Given that shooting it might be a danger to the shooter as well as whoever he aimed it at.

Gas In Saskatoon, April 15, 2022.

 Better late than never.

We got a bit of Easter relief.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 165.9 cents a litre at most stations.  It will be interesting to see which way prices go, since China is increasingly locked down due to their "zero COVID" policy, and that means a lot of driving isn't going on, pushing down demand.

Gas In Saskatoon, March 18, 2022,

 There's actually a bit of price relief to report this week.  Gas in Saskatoon is 168.9 cents a litre at most stations.  Hopefully the price will remain at that level, or better yet drop, but I wouldn't count on it.

Gas In Saskatoon, March 11, 2022.

 It didn't take long for the price to go up.  In fact it went up twice this week.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 178.9 cents a litre at most locations.  I'll be entirely unsurprised if we hit the 2 dollar mark by this time next week.