Challenges for 2022

I did it again but there's no "oops."

Ever since I signed up for my first Conqueror virtual challenge, I've been receiving promotional offers and notifications of new challenge routes. I don't mind getting these offers in my mail box because I'm genuinely interested in continuing the challenges for as long as I can.

When choosing a challenge to join, I only have one criterion: the distance of the route must be at least 300 kilometres. Because I typically cycle the majority of the route (be it on a spin or road bike), I want the journey to last more than a couple of weeks. In a typical week of cycling, I tend to cover about 150 kms.

Since about the middle of 2016, I vowed to never set foot in the United States again and at first I thought I wouldn't join an American virtual challenge. But I realized that this decision was silly (the virtual challenge one) because I'm not really setting foot in the U.S. and there is some beautiful countryside to see (though, for the majority of my virtual Route 66 journey, the view has been boring).

Even though I've only completed just over two-thirds of my virtual Route 66 challenge and I still have an 805.5-km loop around the Scottish Highlands to complete, I've signed up for three more challenges, each of which I won't start until sometime in 2022.

Last week, I received a notification that there is a new Conqueror virtual challenge and I was intrigued. This challenge takes me to China and follows the Great Wall. It's a 3,513.1-km trail that has me fondly remembering when I visited this colossal structure in 1998, while I was living in South Korea, and thus fulfilled a dream that I had had since I was in elementary school and we studied this colossal human achievement (albeit, on the backs of forced labour).

(I wrote about my experience of visiting the Great Wall of China, making it Roland Axam's memory, in my novel Songsaengnim: A Korea Diary.)

On Black Friday, The Conqueror sent out a promotion, where I could join this new challenge at a 30-percent savings, so I signed up. It was my chance to revisit the Great Wall without setting physically being in China.

Ever since China first detained the two Michaels (Kovrig and Spavor) in retaliation for the house arrest of Meng Wanzhou, who was to be extradited to the U.S. for fraud charges, I had vowed to never set foot on Chinese soil. But as with my vow against the U.S., the pledge is physical.

China is a beautiful country and its citizens are wonderful. I just have a problem with its government.

So, I'm looking forward to starting this trek as soon as I've finished the Scottish challenge.

At the online checkout, I was offered more savings. I could earn an additional 20 percent off the purchase of three more challenges or 17 percent off two more. So I joined two more challenges.

When the Great Wall challenge was announced, I already had considered what my next challenges would be. I would love it if The Conqueror would put together a trans-Canada route, but in the meantime, I began eyeing the Appalachian Trail (3,167.6 kms) and decided to add it to my shopping cart. Looking for some Canadian content, I also added the Cabot Trail (299.4 kms).

I know: the Cabot Trail is under 300 kms (barely), but DW and I drove the Cabot Trail, years ago, and I've always wanted to do it again. The starting line is even at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, a place that we visited in real life. It was hard to say no to it.

To date, I've covered just over 7,266 kms (as of time of writing this blog post) and I still have 1,188 kms left to go on Route 66. With these three new challenges, plus my Scottish trek, I'd say that 2022 is pretty full.

And these challenges have been much cheaper and way more motivating than a gym membership.

Overwhelmed

Perhaps it's the short days, the lack of daylight, that is getting to me. I find it even worse on days that are overcast.

Feeling in the dark.

Because I work in our basement—I used to work in the room that DW and I renovated after our elder daughter went away to university, where we set up a home office and had two desks that faced each other: I moved to the basement after our kid came home for the summer and decided to stay put—it's even darker. I have a light, above my head, that has a motion sensor. But when I'm reading from my computer screen or typing away, with very little motion other than my finger tips, the light goes out and the only illumination comes from my computer screens.

I really should get outside, at lunch, but I find that I just don't have the energy. Thankfully, I find the energy at the end of my workday, when I climb the two flights of stairs to my bedroom, hop on my spin bike, and watch the sun set through the window.

I read a blog post that was recommended by a Twitter friend and as soon as I saw the subject, I knew that this was the mental ailment that I was suffering. What I thought was ennui is most likely executive dysfunction.

For months, I've found that I often lose focus on tasks at work. I'll read something several times and it just doesn't sink in. I'm easily distracted. I'm so unorganized that I have to make a list for everything. I have to set alarms to remind me of the simplest tasks.

I attend meetings but almost immediately forget what was discussed unless I write it down. I read an e-mail message but find that my mind wanders halfway through it. I need to take a break before I get back to it.

Another example: last Thursday, my eyes fell to the clock on the taskbar of my computer and I freaked out. I'm late for dropping off my CR-V at the mechanic's shop! I was supposed to be there an hour and a half ago!

My heart started pounding and I scooped up my smartphone and stood up from my desk, ready to race upstairs, rouse DW and jump in both vehicles. And then I remembered that I had driven our vehicle to the auto shop two days earlier. The work on the CR-V had already been completed.

Wow.

I sat down, tried to calm myself. But I was worried about this total lapse of memory.

We all have a set of so-called executive skills, which includes the following:

• a working memory
• the ability to observe and be cognizant of what is going on around us
• the ability to control our emotions, exercise self-restraint, and tolerate stress
• the ability to maintain focus
• the ability to define and achieve goals
• the ability to plan, prioritize, and initiate a series of tasks
• the ability to organize and manage time
• flexibility

As I read the post, I started seeing my recent behavior and started checking off boxes. My memory is awful. When I'm in a stressful situation, I tend to shut down, literally stopping motion, closing my eyes, and doing nothing until the stress fades.

I've already said I can't maintain focus (I had to re-read what I've written to make sure I did, in fact, mention that already). If I don't write something down, I'll forget about it. I start one task and then move onto another, and forget where I left off on the previous task, so I start over.

DW has suggested that perhaps, at some point during this pandemic, I caught COVID-19. Perhaps it happened after I had been fully vaxxed and felt no more effect than being run down. And perhaps the after-effect is the so-called 'brain fog' that other people who had been affected by the virus have dealt with.

Perhaps.

I feel that I need a reset. I need a vacation. And yes, DW and I have gotten away for a few days, but these getaways were extended weekends, camping, and for me that's not what I consider to be a true vacation. I haven't had a vacation since May of 2019, when I went to South Korea. I was away from the office for two weeks and came back feeling refreshed.

DW's and my getaways were relaxing, for the most part, but when I returned to work, I didn't feel that I had recharged my batteries.

On December 9, after DW and I finish our workday, we're going to jump in our car and drive to Toronto. We'll check in to a hotel across the street from Pearson International Airport, and get some rest. Early the next morning, hours before the sun comes up, we'll board a plane and fly to Cuba. For a week, we'll stay at an all-inclusive resort, where we'll relax, snorkel, swim, eat, drink, and (hopefully) recharge.

When we return home, our vacation will continue and we'll hopefully enjoy the Christmas holidays. I don't have to think about work until Tuesday, January 4.

And with any luck, my brain will be better. Hopefully, I'll be able to focus and achieve tasks.

If this doesn't happen, I'll seek professional help, knowing that getting away from it all wasn't enough.

I'm overwhelmed, as many of us are. I'm hopeful that in 11 days, that'll turn around.

Primrose

I've seen the statue several times and every time I have, I've had questions.

What is that?

Why is it there?

What's the story?

It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago, as my daughter and I were walking from her campus in search of lunch, that we passed by the tall statue and finally stopped to examine it.

I searched for a sign or plaque that would tell the story of a tall donkey, with pink plaster casts wrapped around each of its forelegs, but found nothing.

It took a plea on Twitter to find the answers. Sort of.

Primrose is a donkey that was born prematurely in the UK without fully-formed forelegs, and veterinarians in Shropshire set the casts to help her develop properly. You can see a video here.

So, I know who the donkey is and why she's got pink plaster casts. But I have one unanswered question: why is there a statue of her on Bay Street, Toronto, next to St. Basil's Catholic Parish at the University of St. Michael's College?

What is the Toronto connection?

If you know the answer, please leave it in the Comments section.

Happy Friday!

Beer O'Clock: Chicken Man & Cat Lady

Chicken Man and Cat Lady sitting in a tree
D-R-I-N-K-I-N-G
First comes pale ale; next, IPA
When they're all done, they call it a day.

That take on a kids nursery rhyme came into my head as soon as I made my way out of the LCBO.

I hadn't set out to buy any beer that day. DW and I were in our local Loblaws, shopping for groceries to make dinner to celebrate my mother's birthday and my mother rarely has anything to drink. But when we turned down an aisle that was stocked with wine and craft beer, my eyes naturally turned toward the myriad cans.

I couldn't help but stop when I saw a green can that showed a man on a bicycle, transporting a chicken on a basket. Unable to read more than the name of the beer because I was without my reading glasses (and my eyesight is getting worse and worse), I picked up a couple of cans and thought I would surprise myself when I was finally ready to sit down and try the pale ale.

From Loblaws, DW said that we should stop by the neighbouring LCBO because she was out of vodka and had reminded me that I had complained that we were out of rum.

There was a time when I worked in a mall that had an LCBO and I couldn't pass by without stopping in and saying hello to the staff, who knew me well. Inside, I couldn't leave without checking out the Vintages section to see what was new in the world of wine. And I couldn't leave without picking up a bottle.

That would be rude.

Today, I can't be in an LCBO without checking out the craft beer aisles, and while I am actually able to do that without picking up any beer, this visit had me spy an IPA that made me think of my Loblaws purchase and I had to pick it up.

The brews were Chicken Man Pale Ale, by Furnace Room Brewery, and Cat Lady IPA, by Bellwoods Brewery.

Go back up to the top of this post and re-read the rhyme.

Today, I'm reviewing both ales because, although they are from different breweries, they seem to belong together. Let's start with the pale ale...

Chicken Man Pale Ale (5.5% ABV; 35 IBUs)
Furnace Room Brewery
Georgetown, ON

Appearance: clear, bright gold, with a generous, foamy head that settles down to a dense lace and clings to the sides of my glass.

Nose: lemon-lime and subtle hops.

Palate: dried fruit (peach?), grapefruit, and pine, which end in a short, dry finish. The hops linger with successive sips and seem a bit more astringent, but overall, this is a simple, light-bodied ale.

Overall impression: Chicken Man is named after an unknown resident of Georgetown, which is located to the northwest of Mississauga and lies between Brampton and Guelph. It's a story that is relevant to the town's community but was lost on me. My impression of this pale ale is a bit lost on me, too. I had expectations for this pale ale. I expected a medium-bodied, medium-hoppy ale. I found the nose and mouthfeel to be light and basic. But then the finish builds and lingers as you drink more and more. It's light up front, but more bitter with the passage of time.

In all honesty, I'm not sure how I feel about this pale ale. it's a bit off-balance for me, yet it is dry and easy to drink. Would I drink it again if it was offered to me? Yes. Sure. Why not? Will I seek it out again in Loblaws? Probably not.

Would I recommend it? Yes. If you like easy-drinking pale ales, this one does deliver. But if you're looking for a bit more, perhaps look elsewhere. The Chicken Man got my attention, but he didn't hold it.

Beer O'Clock rating: 🍺+ 1/2

Let's hope the Cat Lady does better.

Cat Lady (DDH) IPA (7.2% ABV) 
Bellwoods Brewery
Toronto, ON

Appearance: a hazy orange, like a pale orange juice, and a creamy, white head that leaves a solid cap that is retained as the ale goes down. Looking at the full glass, it's not what I expect to see when I pour an IPA but it seems to be the new norm.

Nose: juicy oranges (or tangerines) and tropical fruit. Hints of wood.

Palate: flinty minerals and fruit that makes me think of guava, and a bit of pineapple. The clean finish leaves my mouth dry. And though this brew has been double-dry hopped and has a high alcohol level, it is not overly bitter nor is it boozy; rather, it's well-balanced with its flavour profile.

Overall impression: I admit that I have developed a hang up over breweries that release a non-traditional IPA and call their brew an IPA. The appearance, nose, and palate reveal a hazy, fruity, juicy ale vary so far from what the British originally produced that a new name should be attached to these tasty ales.

On the whole, I love Cat Lady. It's the bigger-than-life, juicy beer that I tend to reach for more and more. Sometimes, by accident, because what I really want is a traditional IPA. I love the appearance. I love how it smells and tastes. If you like hazy, juicy pale ales, this one will make you purr.

Beer O'Clock rating: 🍺🍺 (I would have given this ale two-and-a-half mugs but because it wasn't the type of IPA I expected, I'm sticking with two).

You can get both Chicken Man and Cat Lady at the LCBO. Chicken Man is also available in select Loblaws stores.

Cheers!

Weather: Morning and Afternoon

On a Podcast Kick

Source: WallpaperAccess.

I'm really late to the podcast world.

My elder daughter has been listening to podcasts for many years, starting with one that discusses Dungeons & Dragons campaigns in a storytelling format. She has discussed some of the episodes with me and told me that she consumes podcasts so much that she has become used to listening to them at two-and-a-half times their normal speeds, while still understanding them, so she can listen to more of them, more quickly.

I've only sped up one podcast, and listening to it at one-and-a-half times its normal speed, I had to pay attention.

The first podcast that I heard, to be honest, didn't seem to count as a podcast to me because it was simply a CBC radio show that I listen to on a regular basis, but had missed the episode when it had originally aired. I wasn't listening to the show in the true sense of listening to a podcast.

As a regular CBC Radio One listener, I often listen to Podcast Playlist, a show devoted to highlighting interesting podcasts, playing enough snippets to get the listener interested. For a year or so, I had often been interested in the podcasts that were being featured in the show but never remembered the name of the podcast or looked to download them.

My 'real' podcast didn't come until this summer, in late August, as DW and I were driving from our home, in Ottawa, to Killarney Provincial Park, along the north shore of Georgian Bay. Neither of us wanted to listen to each other's music and I wasn't in the mood for an audiobook, so DW suggested a podcast.

"What kind of podcast did you want to listen to?" she asked me.

"True crime," I answered without hesitation.

After some searching, DW found one that we were both interested in. It was a murder, where the accused and convicted suspect has always maintained his innocence. It was Season 1 of the podcast, Serial. We listened to the first half of the season on the drive up to Killarney Provincial Park and the second half on the way back to Ottawa. It was very well done and both DW and I were hooked, trying to figure out if Adnan Syed was truly guilty of killing his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.

As lovers of mystery novels, DW and I were hooked on true-crime podcasts, so afterward, on a future long drive to Toronto, we listened to a CBC podcast, Someone Knows Something. As we had heard snippets of various seasons while listening to Radio One, we decided to find a season with which neither of us was familiar, and listened to Season 2, which involves the disappearance of Sheryl Sheppard.

If her boyfriend/fiancé isn't guilty, I don't know who is.

Since then, I've been paying closer attention to Podcast Playlist and have actually started writing down names of shows that have interested me from the CBC show. To date, here's what I've listened to:

• ars Paradoxica: more radio theatre than other podcasts I've listened to or heard of, ars Paradoxica tells the story of time travel during the Cold War. In the story, physicist Dr. Sally Grissom finds herself transported from the present onto the deck of the USS Eldridge during the Philadelphia Experiment, in 1943. It caused me to pay a lot of attention to follow along, and while I enjoyed it, I stopped listening at the end of the second season.
• The Flamethrowers: if you've ever wondered why the United States has become so politically and socially polarized, this podcast tries to explain the evolution of right-wing talk radio. If you're not offended by what you hear in this podcast, I don't think you and I could become friends.
• The Pod Directive: to clear my mind of vitriol after listening to The Flamethrowers, I went to a show that appeals to my Trekker side. Hosted by Tawny Newsome (Star Trek: Lower Decks) and Paul F. Tompkins (BoJack Horseman, Comedy Bang Bang), the two talk all things Star Trek and have famous guests who are equally nerdy. Because each episode is separate, I'm taking my time with this podcast, going to it when I need to clear my mind.
• Stuff The British Stole: another CBC podcast, teamed with Austrailia's equivalent, the ABC, where host Marc Fennell gives us an unusual history lesson in explaining how British institutions that are housing foreign pieces from the past came to acquire them. It'll have you scratching your head the next time you're in a major museum.
• Bomb on Board: yet another CBC podcast, this is what I'm currently listening to, having found it just yesterday. In Season 2 of the podcast, Uncover, CBC journalists Ian Hanomansing and Johanna Wagstaffe investigate the the mid-air explosion of Canadian Pacific Flight 21, which occurred on July 8, 1965, over the B.C. Interior and killed all 52 people on board. I had never heard of this act of mass murder before (I was only four months old when it happened) but I'm gripped by this investigation.

This is my list, so far, and I'm looking for more. What are your favourite podcasts? Leave your recommendations in the Comments section.

The Last Ride

It's official.

With our first snowfall, I'm officially marking the end of my outdoor cycling for the year. Though my last ride was Monday, November 8, I did hold out hope that I would be able to squeeze one more ride out of the season.

This year will go down as a record for the number of rides I've done in a single season. I didn't actually count the number of rides that I've done, but I probably could if I wanted to. Thanks to my virtual journeys that I've done this year—and continue to do—every ride has been recorded through The Conqueror Virtual Challenges app.

I first got on my road bike in mid to late April and rode it at least three times each week; sometimes, I rode as many as five times in a week. Even when I was riding with the Ottawa Bicycle Club, I would only ride twice a week, and not every week.

It's a record year for distance travelled on my bike, too. Again, thanks to The Conqueror app, the distances have been tallied and I'm proud to say that I clocked 2,775.5 kms on my road bike. I can't help but feel good about that.

I've already started planning rides for next year, as soon as the roads are clear of snow and debris. I want to cycle to a friend's house, which is out near Plantagenet. I had already plotted it out, this year, but never found a weekend to make the trek.

I also want to cycle to Oxford Mills and Burritts Rapids, but so far it's a 111-km trek and I'm trying to limit myself to 100K rides because I find my body suffers when I exceed this limit (my longest ride, this year, was 89.05 kms). We'll see how I feel when I get back on my bike.

Until then, I'm back to using my spin bike. I'm approaching the two-thirds mark of my Route 66 trek, and I'm averaging about 30K or so each day.

So it's farewell, for now, to my road bike. Let's hope for an early spring.

Alternate Sky

I'm just imagining how the sky would have looked, had I stayed in Toronto, on the Lower Don Lands harbour pier, until sunset. As I said in Tuesday's post, if I didn't like the sky, I could always change it.

Happy Friday!

Beer O'Clock: Porter Porter

I sort of feel like my father, in the 70s, when he came up with the name of a chocolate bar a couple of years before Cadbury released it: Wunderbar.

Sure, the chocolate bar isn't my father's creation. Any time he ate something that he liked, he would exclaim "wunderbar!" as the literal German word for wonderful. At one point, he said that he thought wunderbar would be a great name for a chocolate bar.

Apparently, it is.

Source: Google.

Fast-forward about 40 years or so: I was sitting on the patio in my back yard, sipping a porter, when I spy a plane flying overhead (my house is along the flight path of the Ottawa airport and airplanes are relatively low as they make their final approach). The plane was a turboprop and I recognized the logo on the tail as Porter Airlines (the tail literally has 'Porter' printed multiple times all over it).

"Someone should make a porter that they sell exclusively to Porter Airlines," I told DW. "They should call it Porter Porter."

Fast-forward again to the fall of 2021: Beau's All Natural Brewing Company has released a porter whose label shows an airplane with a panda riding atop (Porter Airlines' mascot). It's name: Porter Porter.

Because Beau's follows me on Twitter, I'm now starting to wonder if I had shared my conversation with DW on the social-media site, and whether Beau's was paying attention.

No matter.

Because this porter is available for ordering online, I had to try some. Let's take a look.

Porter Porter (5.6% ABV)
Beau's All Natural Brewing Company
Vankleek Hill, ON

Appearance: dark-walnut brown, with a foamy taupe head that appears lighter on the top and darkens as it nears the actual beer. The bubbles in the head are distinctive and settle to a thin lace before they disperse.

Nose: bold cedar and rich chocolate.

Palate: distinct notes of tobacco and dark-roasted coffee, with a dark-chocolate finish that lingers on the tongue.

Overall impression: this is one solid porter that is so smooth and easy-drinking, with dark chocolatey goodness. The cedar, chocolate, coffee, and tobacco blend so well with successive sips. If you like stouts and porters, you'll enjoy adding this offering to your collection.

Beer O'Clock rating: 🍺🍺.5

As I said, you can get this porter online. Beau's delivers all over Ontario. It's also available from the LCBO, so check your local outlet to see if it's on their shelves. And, of course, you can also get it when you fly with Porter Airlines.

Beau's may have taken my idea for Porter Porter, but that's okay. They've done the name proud. (I also take royalties in cans of this fine stuff... just sayin'.)

And in other news, Beau's has announced this week that it has partnered with Toronto-based Steam Whistle Brewing, further broadening their sales and distribution. (It's been a while since I've had a Steam Whistle lager: perhaps now is the time for another.) You can read more about it, here.

Cheers!

Vimy Bridge

Dayscape

In October, when I was in Toronto with my family, I promised myself that I would visit a spot near the old port district to take a night-time photograph. I was rewarded with a great nightscape.

After taking shots of Canada's supercity from this venue, I decided that I wanted to return to this location again, at different times. So when I was in Toronto on Saturday, after driving my kid and her cat back to campus, I thought that before I returned home, I would swing by this spot and capture whatever the view had to offer.

It was a cold day in Toronto, colder than it had been in Ottawa when we had left, shortly after 7 that morning. A strong wind blew through the city streets, making it feel even colder, and when I stood along the pier in Lower Don Lands, the eastward-blustering wind brought waves crashing into the concrete pier walls and occasionally splashing near me. The chill kept me from standing by the water for long.

When I first reached the boardwalk at Jennifer Kateryna Koval's'kyj Park, the sky became overcast and it looked as though it might even start to rain. I took a few snaps with my D-SLR and one with my smartphone before returning to my car, which was parked close by, on Polson Street. Sitting in my warm vehicle, I could see that the sky was changing quickly, so I sat and warmed myself for a few minutes, and waited to see if the sky would clear again (when my daughter and I had had lunch, a short while earlier, the clouds had cleared way to blue skies).

After about 10 minutes, some blue appeared through the clouds, and again I returned to the pier's edge to capture more images. A few more clicks. But the wind seemed to have intensified, as my ears were turning cold, so again I returned to my car.

I waited, as clouds covered the sun but still showed clear patches over the Toronto skyline. If I waited long enough, I could hopefully get some dramatic light. It was still a couple of hours before golden hour, and even longer before sunset, and as much as I would have loved to capture that light, I wasn't prepared to wait that long.

I had to get home, after all.

I waited about another half an hour and then returned to the boardwalk for one final set of shots. The light wasn't great but there were some shadows being created on some skyscrapers. I didn't like how the CN Tower was being illuminated, but I would just capture what was available and see how I could work with the images in post processing.

If I didn't like the sky, I told myself, I could always change it.

After nearly an hour at Jennifer Kateryna Koval's'kyj Park, I decided to turn my car around and head back to Ottawa. I wasn't going to get any dramatic light today.

But I have a kid who lives in Toronto; another kid lives not too far away, further down Lake Ontario. I was going to be back.

Three Years Ago

Ever since I started working from home on a permanent basis, since March of 2020, I seem to have lost all concept of the passage of time. It feels like we've had our kittens for years (it's only been just over a year) but seems like I last visited South Korea a couple of months ago (it's been more than two years).

But there is a life-changing event that I can never forget because I've put it on my calendar as an anniversary, including the year so that the exact date is never forgotten. It was exactly three years ago, today, that I underwent reconstructive surgery to, as my surgeon put it, "remove all of the pain" from my foot.

Those of you who've been following The Brown Knowser for years are familiar with my foot woes—probably more familiar than you wanted to be, I'm sure.

What I didn't know at the time—or what I may not have understood when my doctor first explained the procedure—was that not only was he going to fuse a bone graft from my hip onto my left foot to correct a degenerative disease, he was also going to remove my arthritic joints and replace them with a metal plate and eight screws.

"When I said I could get rid of the pain in your foot," he later told me, "I meant that I could remove all of the pain in your foot."

He was right.

In the three years since the surgery, I have not experienced any of the pain with which I had been familiar since my late teens. Sure, my foot gets sore if I've been walking for hours but I don't think the pain is any worse than any middle-aged guy gets from being on his feet for a long time. And, importantly, that sort of pain doesn't last for very long after sitting down.

My foot, today.

Sure, my foot doesn't look attractive, with a long scar that runs along the top and another, smaller, that occupies my instep. But I don't care how it looks nearly as much as I care about how it feels. It feels great.

Not all of the feeling in parts of the foot has returned and I get tingling sensations in other spots, but again, I don't care. Those feelings or lack of feeling sure beat being in constant pain.

On my last meeting with my surgeon, a year after the operation, I asked him if he could fix the pain that continues in my right foot. When I was in my 20s, I underwent an operation to correct the same degenerative condition but that surgeon did nothing to fix my arthritis. I'm sure that such a procedure was either unavailable or uncommon in the early 1990s.

My surgeon told me that he could probably remove the arthritic joints but couldn't guarantee that he'd be as successful as he was with my left foot. My left foot, he told me, was his best work to date. "As a surgeon," he continued, "I love to cut," but he said that he'd prefer to wait until the steroid injections that I was receiving for the arthritis were becoming ineffective.

With the pandemic, my injections have been delayed at the hospital. I haven't received a shot in more than a year and the arthritic pain has given me grief for most of 2021. I may have to go to a private clinic for relief.

But I'm starting to think that I should reach out to my surgeon to revisit the possibility of corrective surgery on my right foot. If November 15, 2018, was his best work to date, I'm sure he's done better work since.

It's time to start considering getting rid of all of my pain in both feet.

Early Darkness

On Sunday, November 7, 2021, at 4:41 pm, in Ottawa, the sun set. It was the first sunset after Daylight Savings ended. And it was beautiful.

I really wish that we would just move to Daylight Savings Time and leave it at that, year-round. I wish it wouldn't get dark this early and I'd rather have the sun rise later in the morning. After all, it's only going to get darker, earlier and earlier, until the Winter Solstice, in December. Why do we rush it by setting our clocks back?

Who's with me?

Happy Friday!

We Shall Always Remember

Fall Colours

AI Art

Just when I thought I had gotten used to applying filters to my photos, through Snapseed or Prisma, or even Tiny Planets, comes an app where I don't even have to provide a photo.

All I need is a single word or a phrase.

It's a great waste of time that one of my daughters introduced me to while she was at home, on her Reading Week break.

The app is called NeuralBlender. It is an AI art-creation tool that takes words and interprets them into visual images, like abstract paintings. Sometimes, the resulting image leaves a lot to the imagination; other times, it does a pretty impressive job.

Being cheap, and not wanting to input any personal information, I've only used the free app. It lets me modify whether my image is rendered with a horizontal or vertical aspect, or is just a square. If you want to see a higher resolution (512 x 512, versus 256 x 256) or have better blends, you have to pay.

The free version suited me just fine.

The first thing that I typed into the Create Art field was, not surprising, Brown Knowser. This is the result:

I know, pretty creepy.

I then typed a phrase I say every night, on Twitter, before I put my smartphone down for the night: "G'night, peeps. Sleep well." This is what the app came up with.

Not bad at all.

Here's what I got when I typed Dreaming:

Waste of time:

It's a fun waste of time.

Give it a try and see what you come up with.

Carhenge?

Americans are weird.

That's what I take away from my virtual Route 66 challenge, judging by the attractions I've passed so far on my journey. And, mind you, these are only the attractions that I've found when I've input my distances into The Conqueror app and seen my surrounding environment.

It doesn't include attractions that I pass, unbeknownst to me, while I'm actually moving. I don't see anything between points A and B—where I start at the beginning of the day and where I end up, when all of my exercise is done.

So far, I've seen a giant space alien, an Abe Lincoln in a wagon, a leaning water tower, and several Route 66 museums. I suppose these are far better than the countless stops, where there's nothing around me but highways and flat lands, or the many strip malls, or even the occasional prisons.

Actually, there are plenty of prisons. In all of the virtual challenges I've done so far, I've never seen any prison until I've crossed the United States. I've even passed a one-room jail, which was no bigger than a garden shed, in Oklahoma, near the Texas border.

Also, in Texas, I came across something called the VW Slug Bug Ranch, and I used Google Maps street view to get a closer look. It was no more than a field with a bunch of stripped-down VW Beetles, standing on end, with their front ends buried in the dirt. They were spray-painted with graffiti, and a neighbouring, former garage, looked like it had been trashed.

This was the so-called attraction.

Time to move on.

Just west of Amarillo, Texas (lots of weird things in Texas), I stopped near an attraction called Cadillac Ranch. Having not learned my lesson from the VW ranch, I thought this might be a farm with stables and a coral with plenty of horses. I thought it might be a place where travellers could stop, take in a theme ranch, and perhaps stay for the evening.

Nope.

Like the VW Slug Bug Ranch, this was a barren area of flat, treeless land, with Cadillac automobiles partly buried in the earth, standing on end like pillared rocks at Stonehenge. Without the circles and orientation to the sun.

I would say that these attractions are cheap American versions of the millennia-old one in England's Salisbury area, but I passed a cheap Stonehenge-like attraction in Rolla, Missouri.

Like I said, Americans are weird.

My virtual journey continues.

Rage in Eden

A few weeks back, DW texted me while she was out with her BFF. She had tried a new cocktail and was excited about it.

"New cocktail for home—Dark and Stormy. Mmmm."

I replied that I had had one before, and that I too liked the dark rum and ginger beer concoction, with just a twist of lime. I couldn't remember exactly where I had enjoyed one, but I thought DW had been with me at the time.

Since then, ginger beer has been added to our grocery list. We've gone through one bottle of dark rum and have cracked open another.

Candy-corn vodka.

As Hallowe'en approached, DW was looking for some haunting cocktails to mix. We would be attending a party and she wanted something to add to the theme. She explored Blue Curacao, Grand Mariner, and Cointreau to add with the ginger beer. She even took a few cups of vodka and added a generous handful of candy corn to add to her witches brew.

In honesty, the candy-corn-infused vodka tasted best on its own.

I joined in her mixology venture, looking to make a drink of my own. I had already done my own take on a mulata and even modified it to make a mango mulata, so I looked at the ginger beer to see what I could do.

I've done a lot of experimentation, adding ingredients, removing others, and I finally came upon a drink that I liked a lot. It didn't seem related to Hallowe'en, but that didn't matter to me.

I looked to DW's current favourite, the Dark and Stormy, and thought I'd make it more tropical. Here's what I did.

• 1 mason jar, half-filled with ice
• 1 1/2 oz coconut rum
• 1/2 oz Kahlua
• mango nectar, filled to the halfway line of the jar
• ginger beer, filled the rest of the way

What this sweet beverage gives you is a coffee-and-coconut-backed fruit drink with a bite of ginger.

I've since modified the recipe, upping the alcohol but removing the Kahlua: it now has 2 oz of coconut rum and 1 oz of dark rum. The coffee flavour, which really stands out—almost to distraction—is now tempered with the warmth of the dark rum.

It's incredibly tasty.

I was looking for a name for this new cocktail and reached out to my Twitter friends, but in the end I came up with a name of my own. This drink retains some of the goodness of the Dark and Stormy but the coconut and mango give it a tropical touch of paradise. It's a mango mulata and D&S hybrid: stormy and heavenly.

Rage in Eden.

The name came to my head and gives a nod to my favourite album from my favourite 80s band, Ultravox.

Give it a try and let me know what you think. Try it with the Kahlua and try it with the dark rum and tell me which one you prefer.

With the weekend upon us and days getting darker sooner, a Rage in Eden just might shine a bit of light. Cheers!

Beer O'Clock: Puppers

My favourite episode of the TV show Letterkenny has to be the one entitled, "Bock et Biche." It's the one where the gang heads across the border, into Québec, to attend a stag-and-doe party.

It's a love story. As much as you can have on Letterkenny.

As a beer lover, the opening segment of the show, where the main cast describes craft beer, was the best:

In every episode, Wayne (Jared Keeso), Katy (Michelle Mylett), Dan (K. Trevor Wilson), and Daryl (Nathan Dales) can be seen drinking a beer, called Puppers, and I had always wondered if it was a real beer, instead of, like other shows that use props such as breakfast cereals and packs of cigarettes with made-up names. I suspected this was a fake beer.

Folks, it's real.

And according to the LCBO, it's brewed by Mill Street Brewery, which is owned by Labatt Brewing, which in turn is part of AB InBev.

While the lager in Letterkenny comes in a bottle, it's only available in cans through the LCBO. And that's fine by me.

Puppers Golden Lager (5% ABV)
Mill Street/Labatt/AB-InBev
Toronto ON

Appearance: clear, medium-golden, with plenty of effervescence; a dense, foamy-white head that settles down to a solid cap and, eventually, a tight lace.

Nose: lemongrass and biscuit with a hint of floral.

Palate: more biscuit and good malt flavours with a solid body and a medium, clean finish that leaves traces of lime. 

Overall impression: if Blue is your go-to, you might want to give this a try. It's a solid-drinking lager. Before I went looking for this beer on the LCBO Web site, I did a general search on Google and saw a reference to Puppers, where the description stated that it was made by Labatt's, and I was set to be disappointed. I expected this lager to taste like Blue—in fact, I merely imagined that Labatt would simply be repackaging Blue for Letterkenny.

It's not.

Granted, it's a basic Canadian lager and doesn't really stand out, but it's got decent flavours held together with a good body. It's very easy drinking and will appeal to all levels of beer connoisseur. 

I can be an unapologetic beer snob, at times, and I like this lager.

Beer O'Clock rating: 🍺🍺

In the "Bock et Biche" episode, the gang are introduced to another fine beverage, one that now gets me double-knocking my shot glass on the counter. I'll review that one sometime soon.

Cheers!

Mud Lake, Autumn 2021