I Hate Them

I think I've said before in this blog about how much I hate crows.  Well my hatred has just escalated to a new level.  I was in the office today and went for a post-lunchtime walk, and at one point during the walk a crow attacked me.  Twice.  Was it because I was wearing a black top today?  Maybe, but I'm not sure whether the color of my top really mattered.  Was it because I was walking too close to it's nest?  Much more likely.  I know where to avoid walking next time.  It didn't exactly hurt me fortunately - but just kind of brushed over my head.  A very weird sensation, I didn't know what it was first of all.  I never actually saw it coming either time - but certainly I saw it on a nearby roof aggressively cawing in my direction right after both times.  Don't know what else it could have been.  Got me really paranoid for the rest of the walk whenever I heard other crows cawing.  This is not the first time a crow has attacked me in Seattle.  Nasty creatures.  And that is why I really hate them.       

Covid Scare

What you don't want to hear - that a friend/colleague has tested positive for COVID.  The same friend/colleague whose house you went round over the Memorial Day weekend, and who you spoke to last week for a while in their office.  Yikes.  I'm already a bit nervous, because I've had a nagging cough for about a week now - but nothing else to suggest anything more serious.  Until now.  I did test myself this morning, but fortunately I came out negative.  So let's see what the rest of the week holds.  Good timing that I just got some more free COVID tests delivered today.   

Out of Stock

There are 2 Lego sets I want - Titanic and Back to the Future Time Machine - and both of them seem to have been "temporarily" out of stock more or less all of the time since the day they were released.  Which has been for what feels like ages.  Talk about frustrating.  For Titanic, you can arrange to get an e-mail notification for when it is in stock.  But I have found this to be utterly useless - you get the notification in the middle of the night, and by the time you try to read it and go online to order it then they are out of stock again.  I think and hope at some point that both sets will be readily available again, but who knows when.  Ideally I would like to get them around Black Friday, because that is when you tend to get the best free sets with your order (which make perfect gifts for nieces/nephews!).  I imagine they will probably be available later in the year, because Lego have announced price increases which will come into effect during summer - somehow I predict these sets will become magically available only after the price increase.

Two shows

A quick shout out to two TV shows I've been watching.  Better Call Saul had it's mid-season finale recently, with only a handful of episodes left now before it finishes forever.  And this is high quality TV - very cinematic and totally enthralling.  It maybe gets lost in the shadow of Breaking Bad - but shouldn't do.  It is outstanding in it's own right, and arguably just as good as Breaking Bad even if it has a slightly different vibe.  This is definitely in my list of top 20 TV shows of all time, and may even make it it into the top 10 if it sticks the landing in the remaining episodes (which I am confident it will).  The other show I want to mention is We Own This City - a 6 episode "based on a true story" look at corruption in Baltimore police.  And yes, the mention of Baltimore should mean something to you - it was written and directed by the same people who did the The Wire, and even features some of the same actors.  By it's factual nature, it's not really a true sequel to The Wire - but definitely shares similar DNA, with an even more pessimistic view of police enforcement.  Again, highly recommended viewing.  

June Gloom

Last month went down as one of the wettest and coldest in Northwest history.  And apparently June is not going to be any better.  This month has started with thunderstorms and some REALLY heavy rainfall.  Like all my gutters overflowing heavy - I think I need to clear out all the tree debris in them (or ask my landlord to do so!).  Quite unusual to get that here.  I got woken up yesterday about 5 am by the loudest crack of thunder I've ever heard, and it was right above my house.  Scary.  In this first week of June, apparently we are going to get more rainfall that we normally get over the entire month of June.  So much for getting out and about more - at least I don't see wildfires being a big issue this year.    

A Swizz

So, I want to change my phone provider.  I've found a new one that offers all the same features my current account has, but $15 less a month.  It's a no-brainer right!  But in order to change my provider, I need to unlock my phone.  Shouldn't be an issue I thought - I meet all the criteria that allows me to unlock the phone: I've been with the provider for years, I've been using the phone that I want to unlock for years, etc etc.  But nope, when I logged onto my account it told me I had to wait 6 months in order to unlock my phone.  Then I chatted with a customer rep, who after a lot of back and forth told me the same thing and was absolutely no help.  Then I went to a retail store and spoke to a manager there who was really helpful but could do absolutely nothing about the situation.  Apparently when my current phone was activated 2 years ago, my account was not updated to associate the new phone with my account.  So I've got to wait 6 months until I can unlock it.  Utterly ridiculous, nothing I did wrong, and I'm stuck with this stupid provider for the time being (guaranteed I'm changing provider as soon as I can).  I think it's within my rights to kick up a right fuss about this, but I just can't be bothered - and that's probably how they screw you over.  It's also a lesson that when I get a new phone (something I've been thinking about, since my current phone doesn't use 5G) then I'm going to buy the phone already unlocked.    

Song of the Week #112

This week we have a ... novelty record.  Oh dear, my apologies.  But for whatever reason, this song randomly returned to my consciousness this week - despite not having heard or thought about it for many years.  Not sure how I feel about it - the artist in question is somewhat tinged by Operation Yewtree allegations (though never prosecuted), and the "novelty" part is from a TV show that was a bit before my time so I never really watched.  But for some reason I do remember this song from when it came out in the 80's.  Memory is just weird that way I guess.