I Didn't Install Windows 10.

Yep, last night's deadline came without me putting on my computer.  I didn't see the point of doing so when my computer runs very well with Windows 7.  I also heard more than a few stories of people trying to install it and having major problems with their computers, not something that inspires confidence. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft tries another campaign at a future point to get people to install Windows 10.

Gas In Saskatoon, July 29, 2016.

Despite this being a holiday long weekend the slow downward trend continues.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 88.9 cents a litre at most locations.  I suspect we won't go much longer without a price increase, but I've been wrong before.

An Odd Desire.

For some reason this morning I got the urge to hear the Three's Company theme.  I did see multiple episodes of it when it ran, but it wasn't exactly a favourite of mine. 



The show was a big hit in the '70s and '80s, but by today's standards the premise seems a bit weird.  A man pretends to be gay so he can share a Santa Monica apartment with two women, because the landlord doesn't approve of co-ed living arrangements.  If it had been set in a small town in a more conservative part of the country it would have seemed a bit more believable, but in a city in Los Angeles County? Not to me at least. 

Gas In Saskatoon, July 22, 2016.

It would be nice if Saskatoon gas stations would only change their prices one specific day of the week, but it doesn't work that way.  Friday was the price change day this week, with gas dropping to 90.4 cents a litre at most locations.

Protect Your Brain.

Do not watch the Republican National Convention this week.  The sheer stupidity on display is likely to melt your brain. 

If you're from Cleveland I hope you're off on vacation someplace until it's done.  Or that you have a bomb shelter to hide in.  Definitely stay away from the area around the convention if at all possible.

Who Has The Receipt For 2016?

With the events of the past week, including a murder of a woman and her daughter in Alberta, the mass murder in Nice, France, and now a coup in Turkey, added to all the crap that's already happened it's pretty obvious this 2016 is defective.  Let's return it and get a replacement.

How about we get a hashtag going for this?  #2016isdefective

Gas In Saskatoon, July 15, 2016.

Another drip down to report.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 91.4 cents a litre at most locations.  I wouldn't be surprised if the price drops below 90 cents a litre over the next few days.

I'm Not Good At Math...

...but apparently I'm better at it than Australian politician Pauline Hanson.  Hanson was someone I would have assumed was gone from the Australian political scene, but it seems she's back in the news after Australia's recent election.  Her party got enough votes to secure a seat in the Australian Senate for Hanson, who had some brief popularity back in the '90s.  Like many anti-immigrant types she's latched on to Muslims as the target du jour, claiming that Australia is in danger of being "swamped" by Muslims.  Australia's Muslim population is about 2 percent of the total population.  Yep, they're going to be introducing Sharia Law any day now with that many Muslims.

Hopefully no one will let Hanson do their finances, because with math skills like that she'd probably really screw things up.

800 And Beyond.

It's been a while, but I've finally hit another Where's Willy milestone.  I received my 800th bill hit today.  Getting hits has always been streaky for me so this has taken a while since my last milestone, my 900th hit.  My next target?  1000 hits, which may also take a while, since I'm currently at 953 hits. 

Sploosh.

Saskatoon is under a heavy rainfall warning.  At the moment it's raining quite hard.  Yet, despite the warning and the forecasts for the last few days that said we'd get heavy rain today, I saw quite a few people going about their business today without jackets.  Admittedly it did look for a while this morning that we'd only have cloudy skies, but once the rain kicked it things got very wet very quickly.  I wonder if some of them are the same people who run around with an open jacket when it's -30.

I Ate Too Much Today.

Seriously, I ate a lot today.  It's surprising I can still walk.  Fortunately for me I did do some walking today, and perhaps burned off a tiny little bit of what I ate.  Hopefully I'll eat a bit less tomorrow, but I wouldn't count on it.

Gas In Saskatoon, July 8, 2016.

Just a tiny drop to report this week.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 93.4 cents a litre at most locations.  Down is down, but a bigger drop would be nice.

Bus Time Machine.

I finally got to ride a bus running under the new Saskatoon Transit route structure.  In a way it was like taking a time machine, since I rode the 18 College Park/University.  A route numbered 18 served our area prior to July of 2006, when the last comprehensive renovation of bus routes took place. 

My judgement on the new routes?  Too early to tell yet.  The actual times haven't changed from the previous Route 3 through College Park, so I catch the bus at the same time I had before.  And I can quickly reach the University of Saskatchewan and the Centre Mall simply by catching the bus on one side of the street or the other.  But now there's no direct route to downtown.  I'll either have to transfer at the Centre or the University to some other bus.  Nor have I had the chance to try some of the new routes, like the route from Centre Mall servicing the Stonebridge area.  But the changes aren't likely to bother me like they have some other bus riders.

Bounce Bounce.

I had my first jackrabbit encounter of the month this morning.  I saw one over on Park Ave.  Given how many I've seen so far this year there must be quite a few living in Saskatoon.  I would imagine the relative lack of predators makes up for the danger of being hit by a vehicle.

Ugh, That Last Post!

I had real problems getting it readable.  But finally it looks right.  Sorry for the annoyance.

Baturday.

You could of course call any Saturday during the Major League Baseball season Baturday(or perhaps it should be Batterday).  But yesterday seemed to especially fit the term.

Directly relevant to Canadian baseball fans was yesterday's 9-6 Blue Jays victory over the Cleveland Indians.  After Friday's 19 inning endurance match, which saw the Indians win in the 19th inning, a high scoring game was probably to be expected.  It ended the Indians franchise record 14 game winning streak.  On the other hand the Indians had something to cheer about in former Blue Jay Rajai Davis hitting for the cycle, the first time an Indians player has done so since 2003.

The biggest bash of the day was of course the Los Angeles Angels putting the beat on to the Boston Red Sox.  I went out to get a snack just before the 7th inning, with the Angels already ahead 9-1.  So I missed most of the top of the 7th, when the Angels scored 11 runs.  Nasty.  And the big heroes in the game were a couple of players you wouldn't have expected.  Albert Pujols having 5 RBI?  No surprise.  But unless you're an Angels fan you probably aren't familiar with C.J. Cron and Carlos Perez.  Yet Cron went 6 for 6, including 2 home runs, and earned 5 RBIs.  Perez went 5 for 6 and generated 6 RBIs.  Had Perez gone 6 for 6 it would have been the first time 2 players on the same team had gone 6 for 6 since the 1920s.  Perez also managed to increase his batting average 20 points if I'm not mistaken.  And to add insult to injury the Angels are not a good team this year, sitting 15 games below .500 even with yesterday's win.  John Farrell called Boston's performance embarrassing.

The weak beating the strong was also a theme in other games.  The lowly Minnesota Twins, at a dismal 26-54, beat the 52-30 Texas Rangers 17-5.  The wimpy Atlanta Braves beat the Miami Marlins 9-1.  Atlanta's currently 28-53, while the Marlins are 5 games over .500.  And the Cincinnati Reds beat the National League East leading Washington Nationals 9-4, the Reds being another team who are a long way from .500.

Not all the games were big hitting affairs.  The closest was the San Diego Padres(another team with a seriously losing record) beating the Yankees 2-1 with a walk off home run by Melvin Upton Jr.  But you still have to wonder what was in the Gatorade  around the league yesterday.

Interestingly Toronto was the only American League East team to win yesterday.  So thank you to the Angels and the rest for helping them out.

Gas In Saskatoon, July 1, 2016.

This may be a holiday long weekend in Saskatoon, but gas prices didn't jump up this week as many would have expected.  In fact they actually went down.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 95.9 cents a litre at most locations.  I wouldn't be surprised if the Brexit turmoil pre-empted any jump up in price.

It's Canada Day.

So make sure you do something Canada related.  Go to Tim Hortons or buy some maple syrup.  Watch the Blue Jays game that's just about to start as I write this, or one of the CFL games later this evening.  Listen to some Oscar Peterson or Rush.  Even looking at some Canadian flag pictures would be acceptable.