Runaway Zebra

In unusual news, apparently 4 zebras escaped into the Washington countryside after the driver who was transporting them stopped to secure his trailer off I-90 east of Seattle.  3 of the zebras were captured, but one remains loose.  And it has managed to elude capture for 48 hours now.  Nice.  The area where the zebra escaped is close to a lot of hiking trails - so that would make for quite an interesting wildlife encounter and a great photo.  

Neighbor Noise

I finally broke.  I couldn't take being continuously disturbed by the noise of my neighbor using his backhoe (JCB).  I've absolutely no idea what he's doing with it - looks like he's just shoveling dirt from one spot to another.  I've recorded 10 days this month where it has bothered me.  Yes, I'm oversensitive to noise - but I don't think this was unreasonable to complain about.  So I wrote a note.  I'll save a face-to-face confrontation as a second resort.  Spent a long time composing the note - trying to strike that compromise between being polite and being direct.  Finally happy with the wording, I dropped it in his mailbox on Saturday (under the watchful eye of another neighbor who probably thought I was stealing his mail or something).  Accompanied with the note was some information on the laws regarding outdoor burning, another of my pet peeves with this guy.  A few weeks ago I filed a complaint with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency about his likely illegal outdoor burning, but they rather unhelpfully called back and told me I should call 911.  Which I definitely wouldn't do as this does not constitute an emergency.  Anyway, he was both using his JCB and had a fire going when I dropped the note off, and was shocked by the strong smell of smoke.  At least I don't live close enough to experience that, but I would be really surprised if another neighbor hasn't said anything - I've recorded 10+ days this month of outdoor burning.  So, let's see what kind of hornet's nest I've stirred up or whether it doesn't make a jot of difference.  Nothing promising so far, I've heard the JCB both yesterday and this morning, and he had another fire going yesterday.  Perhaps he hasn't read the note yet.  Perhaps it is just my wishful thinking that he hasn't read the note yet.  But I'm happy to have finally said something and to at least have made them aware that there is a problem, even if they don't act on it.  The next few weeks will be interesting, and we'll go from there.      

Trail Cam Update

I don't know why my trail camera stopped working, but it appears to be okay now.  Just from the last week:

Sports Music

You know that stupid darts anthem that you see all those drunken fools dancing and singing "Oi Oi Oi" to?

Well, I thought it was exclusive to darts.  But, shockingly, I've heard it a few times now during the ice hockey playoffs.  Is it also becoming a North American sports theme?  How unexpected.  Mind you, I'm fairly sure I've heard American stadiums still playing Gary Glitter's Rock 'N' Roll (Part 2) so their judgement on good taste is questionable at best.    

Car Woes

Didn't I just blog about things going wrong with my car once it gets to 40,000 miles?  Sure enough, yesterday I turned on my car and my dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree with every single possible warning light illuminated.  

The display told me I had a road departure mitigation system problem, hill start assist problem, vehicle stability assist problem, power steering system problem, emissions system problem, and tire pressure monitor problem.  Obviously not all of these things are really broken, but now I'm extremely nervous to drive my car anywhere in case something does go wrong.  I did risk driving over to the service department of my local dealer, but they were too busy to see me.  The earliest I could get an appointment was Wednesday.  And although my car seemed to drive okay, I will really limit my driving until then.  Based on my Google search of this problem, I fear this could be an expensive fix.  With the car expenses starting to add up, I feel like I'm going all in on keeping my car for at least another 40,000 miles now even though I don't particularly want to.   

Red London Telephone Box

The most recent addition to my Lego collection - the perfect accompaniment to the rest of the London Lego sets I have on display.  I'm not quite sure what to make of this particular model - I like it, but it is very niche and I think I preferred earlier versions which had ivy coming down one side or also included a red post box.  This final version is somewhat conservative.

Shogun Finale

I’m still digesting the Shogun finale from last night.  No big action set pieces, but that didn’t make the finale any less powerful, effective or poignant.  This was never a show about the action – it was about the storytelling, the characters, the language.  And it was consistently brilliant.  I’m going to say it, but it might be the best miniseries I’ve ever seen.  With it’s political machinations, most people have likened it to Game of Thrones.  But I think the show that I most liken it to is Chernobyl – another miniseries where authenticity was priority.  Just because Shogun is fictional, it didn’t make it feel any less real.  I hope they don’t make a Season 2.  Don’t spoil the legacy.

Share Price

Depressingly, my company has lost 20% of it's share price since the start of the year.  And thanks to my enrollment in the employee stock purchase plan and my tendency to hang on to the company shares after they have invested, this 20% decrease has a significant affect on my net worth.  Which is not good.  I don't want to be working in my 60's.  But with the way things are going - the economy, the increased retirement age, the increased cost of living, my dubious investment choices - it seems inevitable that I will not be able to retire early.  And by the time I retire, I don't imagine I'll be in the best of health.  Which is why I really want to take some time away from work sooner rather than later, while I'm in relatively good health.  I really wish my company offered a formal sabbatical like I know at least one of our competitors does (6 weeks sabbatical after every 6 years of employment, which I really approve of as a benefit).  I might still put in a request for a leave of absence when I turn 50 - but that comes with risks.        

Playoffs

 "PLAYOFFS?!  Don't talk about - playoffs?  You kidding me?  Playoffs!?!"

A quote that I suspect most people outside the US have absolutely no clue about.  And although the quote was from (American) football, it applies right now.  Because this weekend both the NBA (basketball) and NHL (ice hockey) playoffs started.  I don't watch much of either sport during the regular season, but I do during the playoffs - the stakes are raised, the quality of play is raised, and the drama is raised (for example, two basketball games today had classic endings).  Sadly, no Seattle representation.  The Kraken didn't make the playoffs, and Seattle still doesn't have a basketball team (there's been lots of talk about the NBA expanding and Seattle is near the top of the list of candidates for getting a team again - it's probably between us and Vegas - but who knows if or when that might happen).

Is my trail cam broken?

I checked my trail camera for the first time in a while, and it hadn't captured many images.  In fact none after early March.  The batteries hadn't run out of power, so I'm not sure what the problem is.  It's a shame, because I know I've had a lot of deer action over the last month - plus who knows what else.  I shall have to check it more often, or else buy a new camera (an expense I don't really need).

 

Reading

Something that I don't do nearly enough of, and that I want to do more of, is read more books.  There are a lot of classics I have never read, and a lot of very good books that I'm missing out on.  In the past I have printed out one of those lists of Best Books of All Time, or Best Novels Everyone Should Read, and started to get through some of them.  But that was a long time ago, and I haven't read anything of substance for a very long time.  Instead I spend way too much in front of my telly, or worse playing some stupid mobile game on my iPhone.  All the blue light I expose myself to can't be good - and is perhaps one of the reasons I don't sleep that well.  So I think I need to spend less time on my phone and more time immersing myself in a good story.

Delivery Fail

I hate Amazon delivery drivers - they're the ones who keep on driving over my grass.  Which is why I get most of my Amazon deliveries made to my office now.  But FedEx delivery drivers, who I expect more from, are testing my patience as well.  And today's delivery takes the biscuit.  I was getting some bookcases delivered.  I was in the office today, so wasn't at home for the delivery.  But that didn't matter, because they left the package right at the bottom of my driveway.  Frankly I was surprised to still see it there many hours later when I got home, because anyone driving by would've seen it and could easily have stopped and taken it.  This is not the first time that a package has been left at the bottom of my driveway, but this one wasn't even hidden from the road.  And this package was heavy, so I had to carry the blasted thing all the way up the driveway to my house without a hand truck.  Which was exhausting and took ages.  Whereas the delivery driver would've had one of those - but didn't bother to take the package up to the house.  Really unimpressed.  I think I will make a complaint because this is unacceptable.  I feel like for any future home deliveries, I'm going to actually have to include delivery instructions to specify that they make the delivery to my house and not just the driveway.  Which should be self-evident.  Frustrating.        

A Solid Bet

I had an enlightening, and depressing, conversation with my landlord yesterday about politics, the economy, the country, etc.  He represents two demographics that are key to the presidential election - baby boomer and blue collar.  He is no fan of Trump, but he hates Biden even more and hates the current state of the country.  I think this is a sentiment shared by a lot of people.  And these are not the views of an obvious Fox News type viewer, but someone quite rational and intelligent.  Based on this - I'm not a betting man, but if I was then I think I would put a considerable amount of money on Trump winning the presidency again.  An absolutely awful prospect, but one that I think we have to be prepared for.       

TV Theme Tunes #87

We are going contemporary this week, with the theme from my current favorite show.  Another absolutely terrific episode last night, with a heart-breaking and shocking ending (this is where I'm glad to have never read the book or watched the 1980 miniseries, so not aware of any spoilers).  Really sad that there is only one episode left.  Highly recommend you try to watch the series if you can, it's so good.

TIE Interceptor

I kind of want to get this Lego set when it comes out, but then I also kind of don't.  I don't need yet another unused set that stays in its box.  Especially with a franchise that I don't care much about.  I think if I owned more of the "Ultimate Collectors Series" sets, then I might be more inclined to go for it.

I Hate Streaming Services

I knew that streaming services had introduced an ad-free tier.  Yet another needless expense.  But what I didn't realize until this weekend is that the "standard" tier doesn't come with the best quality audio and image quality (such as Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos).  You have to pay for the ad-free tier in order to get these.  That is definitely not something they openly announced.  And this never used to be the case.  I wanted to catch up with Season 2 of Reacher on Amazon Prime (a good series, much better than the Tom Cruise films)  - but not only did I have to endure ads, I had to watch it without Dolby Vision (which I think my TV supports) and without Dolby Atmos (which my soundbar definitely supports).  Extremely disappointing.  And I discovered this issue wasn't just specific to Amazon Prime, but the same thing is going on with Max (HBO).  And if I subscribed to Netflix, the same deal.  What a ripoff.      

Liverpool 0-1 Palace

Well, that was a good result.  I was going to say an unexpectedly good result, but after Liverpool's midweek showing I was quietly optimistic.  Liverpool have looked vulnerable, and I think they were there for the taking.  But when watching the game and seeing that they were honoring the Hillsborough tragedy at the start, I feared the worst because that's the kind of motivation Liverpool needed.  But nope, they still choked.  They had their chances, but so did we - and this time we didn't concede in the last 10 minutes.  And the icing on the cake was then seeing Arsenal choke afterwards.  I am confident we should stay up now, and looking forward to what Glasner can do with our team.  And the title race is still very much alive, but ominously in Manchester City's hands now.  I'm no fan of them, but I hate - and have always hated - Arsenal, so as long as they're not champions then I'm good.   

Gentrification

While out for a lunchtime walk at the office recently, came across a house being torn down.  

Made me sad because this single family home will probably be replaced by 4 of 6 soulless apartments or townhouses.  Because that is what has happened throughout this neighborhood.  Gentrification at it's worst.  There's not enough parking, the cost of housing is ridiculously inflated (not that I would ever want to live in this neighborhood), crime has gone up, and the neighborhood has lost all it's character and charm.  I've just discovered that a woman was attacked by 2 dogs recently in a part of the neighborhood that I often walk through.  And, surprise surprise, the dogs were living in a car with a homeless guy.  Because the presence of lots of RVs and homeless people is also a massive problem here.  I've actually noticed a lot of security cars driving round the vicinity of the office recently - I think the building owners, who also own a lot of the other buildings round where I work, must have taken notice of the neighborhood changes.  Or makes you wonder if something else happened...    

Ping Pong

After a long absence, I've started playing ping pong again on a semi-regular basis.  The good - it's great exercise.  The bad - I'm a long, long way from being close to my best.  Which is the main reason I didn't enter the ping pong tournament at work that is currently going on.  I don't think it would be much fun for me to play and lose to people who I shouldn't lose to.  And as a 4-time runner up, I do not want to enter another tournament that I'm not going to win (at my best, and considering the people who no longer work in my office, I think I would be favorite to win).

Car

My car has reached the 40,000 mile mark.  And that is normally the time when costs start to mount up.  Do I get a new car, or do I stick with my current one?  Judging by the amount of money I spent today on some new tires, I think I'm sticking with my current car for the time being.  Which is not really my preferred option - I've already been looking at new cars.  Ideally, I think I'd like to get a Mazda3 with all-wheel drive.  But just not yet.     

TV Theme Tunes #86

I'm currently listening to a comedy podcast featuring this particular show.  Even though I don't think I've seen a single one of it's 430+ episodes.

Couldn't agree more with the first YouTube comment: "I appreciate how the camera stays on each actor just a little too long". 

eBay Addiction

I don't have a problem.

This is, obviously, money well spent.  But in my defense, I have been losing a lot of eBay auctions recently because I'm being a lot more judicious with my bidding. 

Mail Theft?

I'm fairly sure that I've been a victim of mail theft.  Some things have been inexplicably missing from my mail.  For example, I didn't receive all the tax forms I was expecting.  I didn't think much of this, because I know a lot of companies have been switching to electronic delivery of these forms.  But then today I got a past due notice on my water bill.  Including a late penalty fee (only $4, but still).  I never got the original bill.  This is about the only account I can't switch to paperless - so I rely on receiving the bill through the post.  So when I don't get it, I don't think about paying it.  Frustrating.  But I own a locked mailbox, and I don't see it having been tampered with - so I'm confused as to whether I really am a victim of mail theft or not.  Either way, I hope my credit score isn't affected by not making my payment on time.   

Eclipse

There is going to be a solar eclipse in the US tomorrow. and naturally it's quite a big deal here because people treat it like a religious experience.  The path of totality goes from Texas through the NE of the US.  So here in Seattle we are about as far away from a total eclipse as it's possible to be in the contiguous states.  I believe we only get about 20% of the sun covered, which basically won't even be noticeable even if we had clear skies.  Which it doesn't look as though we will.  And nor will most of the US - which means that all these people that have spent so much time and money to travel to see this full eclipse might go away bitterly disappointed.  Maybe it's worth the risk, because the next total eclipse in the US won't be until 2044.  Just for comparison, the next total eclipse of the sun in the UK will not be until 2090.       

WrestleMania

It's WrestleMania this weekend.  Since it is airing on one of the streaming services I subscribe to, I thought I'd check it out.  I watched 2 matches, and they sucked.  So that was the end of that.  I am officially too old to be watching wrestling.  Which is fine by me, I haven't watched it on telly for ages.  

Cherry Blossoms

On Monday, made the most of the nice weather and lack of people in the office to take a lunchtime walk to the University of Washington campus.  Specifically, to check out the cherry blossoms in the Quad - a well known local attraction at this time of year.  It takes a good 50 minutes to walk there from the office, so this was a long lunch.  And even though the blossoms may have been just past their peak, the cherry trees had only just started to lose their blossoms so they were still very photogenic.  Unfortunately, just like the last time I was here, the crowds (students and visitors) were overwhelming - making any possibility of composing those optimal photos almost impossible.  So these are just some quick snapshots. 

Shogun Update

- Watch every episode on either the day it is broadcast or the day after.  Check.

- As soon as I finish the episode, go online to read recaps and insights on the episode.  Check.

- Rewatch the episode to make sure I picked up on every detail.  Check.

- Listen to the official accompanying podcast.  Check.

- Sad that we are quickly running out of episodes before the season (and series?) ends.  Check.

Shogun is meeting all the criteria for being a great TV show.  And, unusually for a TV show, it has been consistently good with not a single less than excellent episode so far.  Definitely in my top 50 TV shows of all time, with the potential to crack the top 20.

TV Theme Tunes #85

This week, more of a film theme than a TV theme.  But I remember watching this cartoon a lot as a kid.  Obviously, the most memorable character was Slimer.

Backhoe

Backhoe - a mechanical excavator that draws toward itself a bucket attached to a hinged boom.  Also what my neighbor across the way drives around his yard way too much.  And which really gets on my nerves - it's noisy, and when he uses it at night (like this evening, and god knows why you'd want to use it when it's dark) the fricking thing has headlights which shine right into my house.  I didn't know what this combined bulldozer/excavator thing that he has is called - hence looking up the above definition.  Just in case I need to file a noise complaint.   Which seems likely because this inconsiderate idiot is using it all the time.

Easter "Holiday"

No time off for old muggins here - as I'm sure you don't need reminding, Easter is not a federal holiday in the States so no bank holiday for yours truly.  Though I think a lot of places are closed for the day (e.g. schools) and a lot of people take the day off - judging by the fact that I went into the office today, and the commute was great and I think I was the only person on my floor who came in.  I had a bit of a craving for hot cross buns this Easter, but they're not really a thing here.  But I did go out hunting for some over the weekend (even though they're more of a Good Friday thing right?).  I think I have found them before at a regular supermarket, but not this time.  I should have got some when I went to the British shop a few weeks ago, but I got distracted by the chocolate Easter eggs!  However, did manage to score some from a local bakery at the expensive supermarket:

This is typical for the US hot cross bun - where the actual cross is made from frosting rather than actually baked onto the bun.  Which isn't right.  Though these ones actually tasted pretty good - I should hope so for how expensive they were (8 dollars, 9 with sales tax).  I should maybe try baking my own next year.