Washington Park Arboretum

As promised, I went for a 3 hour lunchtime walk from work today.  I don’t know how many miles that was, but it feels like quite a lot because my back is aching since coming back (just in time for the work ping pong tournament coming up – I play my Round 1 match on Friday).  I went to the Washington Park Arboretum – in the hope of catching some nice fall colors, but I think I probably missed the best of it.  This is kind of place you could go to a 100 times and never walk the same route - a big park with lots of trails crisscrossing it.  I stuck to a fairly basic route –  along the waterfront and then up and down the main paths through the park – but with so many different areas to explore I probably missed out on the best views and the best photo opportunities.  And just looking at their website, I should have printed out a map of the monthly highlights – oh well, next time I’ll know better (and I think I would like to come back at different times of the year, as it’s a nice place to go – and perhaps I can drive there so that I don’t spend quite so long away from work!).  Just a couple of photos:

Lack of Momentum

I feel like I'm running out of steam on these blog posts.  Perhaps reflective of my mood as the nights get longer and the weather gets gloomier - though having said that, we have had some really nice weather the last few days.  And it's nice to get out on a fresh autumnal day with all the fall colors.  If nothing comes up at work, I'm going to sneak out tomorrow afternoon and go for a long walk.  And that gives me a chance to get back to work and stay late, hopefully avoiding any potential trick and treaters - though my landlord said we don't get many where we are.  I have bought some candy just in case - sadly, I've ended up consuming most of it myself already.  Hence the need for the exercise!

NFL

I've been a fan of American Football a long time before I moved to America.  And although I am still a fan of the game - though probably not as much as I used to be - I am no fan of the NFL organization.  I hate the cover-up of brain injuries.  I hate the predominantly old, white, rich, pro-Trump team owners.  I hate the fact that they blackball a player who takes a knee during the anthem, but a free pass is given to all the players guilty of assault, domestic battery, etc.  I hate the ridiculous schedule that includes long trips to London, meaningless exhibition games, a Thursday night game that doesn't make sense when everyone else plays on Sunday or Monday, and only one bye week per team per season.  I hate that advertising and business interests have slowed the game down even more than it already is.  I hate that they can just take a team away from a city.  I hate the inequality of wealth in the game.  I hate the over emphasis and over-exaggeration of fantasy stats.  I hate that the game just doesn't seem as enjoyable and entertaining to watch as it used to be.   

Ballz

I am playing a lot of Ballz on my iPhone currently.  But I shall resist engaging in lots of double entendres with that fact.  Sorry.

Road Rage

As the traffic only gets worse in Seattle, so does the quality of driving, and so does the instances of road rage.  And, sadly, I am guilty of this as well.  There are so many bad drivers, but worse there are so many clueless drivers that don’t think they are doing anything wrong – signaling is apparently not something they teach at American driving schools.  It’s no wonder there seems to be a fender bender or some other crash that snarls up the commute most days.  I haven’t been involved in an accident yet, though I’ve had my share of close calls.  But I have been involved in multiple instances of road rage – and I probably don’t help myself in that regard because I follow a philosophy of “no signal, no space” and also if I see someone behind me lane weaving, I will close the gap to make sure they can’t get in front of me.  But also, there have been several instances where someone has just started tailgating me for no discernible reason – and that happened again this morning.  Perhaps they see the GB sticker on my car and don’t like me as a foreigner, perhaps I inadvertently did something to annoy them, perhaps I’m going too slow for their tastes.  Whatever the reason, whenever it happens I am prone to slowing down to annoy them even more.  And I am prone to gesticulating – which normally results in an exchange of middle fingers.  Perhaps I shouldn’t do this – I wouldn’t be surprised if someone I exchange pleasantries with in this manner has a firearm in their car or truck (and truck drivers are the worst).  And it’s probably not worth the hassle or the stress – I hate going into work flustered, blood pressure raised and pissed off at something that has happened on my commute.  I need to chill out.

PS If I develop cold or flu symptoms in the next week, I know exactly who to blame.  I was in a company-wide meeting this morning, and a person sitting directly behind me had the sniffles and was constantly clearing their throat and loudly sniffing throughout the meeting.  RIGHT BEHIND ME.  As you can imagine it was beyond annoying, yet I’m too gutless to actually say something.  I could almost feel their germ-infested breath on my neck – shockingly selfish and inconsiderate.  If you’ve got something contagious, don’t go to a meeting with 100+ people in attendance.  Some people… and this was someone who has an office and so has some degree of seniority and importance (more than me), so you’d think they’d know better.  People suck.

JFK

So they've released some documents that will probably reveal absolutely nothing new about the JFK assassination - a not subtle distraction from whatever calamity the "mentally deranged US dotard" has said or done now.  I despair. 

Baseball

It's currently the "World" Series between the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers.  I don't care, baseball sucks.