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.