A Few Quick Notes 588

-Though today started off hot and humid, a few periods of rain and thunder showers have done a good job at bringing the temperature down by a few degrees.  Of course, it's still incredibly humid and sticky here.

-Because I couldn't talk Jeannette into going with me I had to go to the local busker event solo yesterday.  Despite the fact that it would have been nice to have someone to share the experience with, it was also nice to be able to not have to worry about causing someone to stay through a show they weren't enjoying.

After a somewhat lacklustre first performance (I think the heat likely had something to do with it) I happened to walk by another show just as it was about to start.  Like most of these shows the ramp-up was a little long-winded, but once they eventually got down to business they did a pretty good job.  Though they are likely not the only group with their own portable aerial gymnastics equipment on the busking circuit, they were certainly the first group I've seen with such a rig.

Oh, and it turned out that this group is based in Michigan.

-It was nice to have a little rain today so that I won't have to deal with the afternoon and evening watering sessions.  In addition to this natural watering session, the main development of the past few days is the ripening of our sweet peppers.

Maybe in a few days these three peppers will be ready for consumption?  I certainly hope so.

The rest of our plants seem to be fine, though nothing particularly exciting has been happening.  I'm starting to wonder if we might have enough time for a second planting of a few of them?

-Jeannette's tricked me into watching too much of the Olympic coverage.  I'm starting to look forward to upcoming events.  Ugh.

A Few Quick Notes 587

-We're in the midst of another hot and humid day in Ottawa.  I made the mistake of going for a short walk at about noon and was really feeling the consequences of my mistake by the time I returned home a little while later.

-Despite the fact that Jeannette isn't a fan of buskers and their ilk, she was kind enough to let me know about a busking festival currently taking place a few blocks from where we live.  Though I didn't go to any full shows today, I did walk buy just in time to see a grown woman stuff herself in a  small plexiglass box.

Though Jeannette definitely won't be joining me, I may try to head back at some point this weekend to see one or two of the shows.

-Despite a relatively good harvest a few days ago, things have taken something a turn for the worse in our balcony garden.

We woke up this morning to find that something, presumably a squirrel-like animal, did some substantial digging in a few of our pots.

So not only are we losing consumables, but finally we've started to lose plants because of this infestation (at least one of the two bean plants in this pot seems to have died).  I really hope this soon comes to an end otherwise we aren't going to have many plants left.

This turn of events is definitely something of a bummer.

-I've definitely fallen out of the habit of blogging regularly haven't I?

A Few Quick Notes 341

-We are presently in the midst of a rainy period, which is somewhat of a contrast to the past few days. The other major change in the weather is that it is a fair bit cooler today that it has been the past few weeks. It is cool enough that I might actually be tempted to put on a sweater at some point today or this evening.

-As is common for us these days, Neil and I had an Ultimate game last night. Unfortunately, only 5 of our players showed up so we didn't have enough people to field a full team. In the end we picked up a few players from the other team and played a game. In the game that we did play, though it won't count in the traditional sense, we managed to win by a score of 15 to 7. In the second half we score 8 points to their 2.

Unfortunately, one of the points, I believe the last point of the first half, I managed to jam one of my toes. Though I didn't feel much at the time, this were definitely a little less pleasant by the time I tried to go to sleep last night.

-On Saturday night after catching a few Busker Festival shows with Neil and Rebecca we decided to head to the local casino to see if would could also catch some free live entertainment there. As it turns out, we missed the final show of the evening by about an hour, but we did manage to spot Team Gushue.

-On the subject of spotting people, as we were walking to the Busker Festival I ran into a friend with whom I attended junior high and high school who seems to be living here now. It was quite fun to run into someone who I haven't really seen much since high school.

-I just baked another batch of bread. This time I ended up with four loaves. Hopefully I will have room for about three of them in the freezer.

-In terms of food production, my balcony garden seems to be on a good roll these past few days. Aside from continued pea growth, I have finally spotted about a dozen scarlet runner beans, though they are still quite a ways away from being ready for consumption. The tomatoes are also continuing to grow quite rapidly. At last count I had about 20 tomatoes ranging from as small as only millimeters cross to about as large as a full-sized grape. I am really looking forward to further harvesting activities.

-As this post makes clear, I have been doing a very good job of avoiding my school/thesis related work. I guess I should try to put a few hours in starting now. I really wish that I wasn't so skilled in the art of procrastination, it really doesn't seem to help me out all that much.

A Few Quick Notes 340

-We had another rather warm day in Halifax today. According to Environment Canada, it made it to as high as 28, and if you include humidity if felt as though it was as high as 33. Tomorrow it seems likely that it will be warm and humid, maybe with some rain. Can't wait.

-I am not really sure why I think it is so important, but for some reason I keep thinking that I should mention that AC/DC is performing in New Brunswick this evening (though I imagine the show is over by now). I guess I am inclined to mention this as I have a few friends who were planning on attending and because I find the idea of 60 000 person shows impressive (if not tempting). Anyway, presumably there will be some strange traffic patterns tomorrow as people make their way back home from New Brunswick.

-Early this afternoon I decided to go to grocery store to pick up a few things I needed for dinner. Soon after I stood at the end of an express checkout line a guy approached me and asked if he could go ahead of me as he had only one item.

Given that this guy appeared to be drunk and that his one item was store-brand mouthwash I decided that it would probably be easier for all involved if I just let him cut in front of me. Once I had made this decision the guy in front of me also let this guy go in front of him. As he made is way past us there was a rather noticeable body filtered mouthwash smell.

After thanking both of us for allowing him to pass, the drunk guy, while waiting his turn, decided to tell us about how he had saved a woman's life by taking a broken beer bottle to the face. He was even kind enough to point out the scar on his chin. Unfortunately, as the drunk guy was caught up in his story-telling he forgot to pay attention to the cashier and wasn't ready for the transaction that he was so anxious to attend to.

Eventually he managed to put is bottle of mouth wash on the belt and let the cashier ring it in. When she asked if he wanted a bag he said yes. She told him the price and he started to get his money out to pay. As the cashier was making change the drunk guy continued to fiddle with his money. Eventually, as the cashier was ready to hand the guy his change he tried to giver her another $5, presumably to pay. Then the cashier had to explain that he had already covered it and that he could take the change she was trying to give him.

Eventually, once the money situation was squared away, the guy picked up his purchase and seemed to be baffled that it was in a bag. He seemed to have forgotten that he asked the cashier to put his purchase in a bag less than a minute before.

Why this stands out to me is that for years I have heard about drinkers so hard up for sauce that they go to cleaners or mouthwash to get their fix. While I understood that this occurred, I had never actually seen anyone that I suspected would or had gone to such lengths to get drunk. Now I have, and it was definitely not a pretty sight.

-After dinner I made my way to the waterfront to check out a few of the busker shows at the Halifax International Busker Festival before returning to my school related work. Almost as soon as I was in the right area I came upon a show that was just starting, as the guy was holding flaming juggling clubs I decided to stick around. It turns out that was a mistake.

The performer spent most of the time berating the audience and getting cheap applause (literally insisting on it) and only occasionally doing anything that one might normally associate with a performance (such as juggling for 30 seconds). While the finale was kind of neat, it definitely wasn't worth the awkwardness and unpleasantness of the lead up. I feel that if instead of spending so much time and energy telling us how important it was to donate and applaud if he had actually been performing tricks the lectures wouldn't have been necessary.

After the first show I made my way a little further along the waterfront and came upon a break dancing troupe from New York called the USA Break Dancers. This time the performers focused on performing, instead of lecturing, and put on a very entertaining show. I was particularly impressed with the way this group seamlessly integrated audience participation with the show. Furthermore, only at the very end did they mention that they were paid only by donation and that they would appreciate contributions from the audience. Though I don't have the numbers to back this up, I would imagine that this approach likely pays more, but I could be wrong.

The other important thing that I learned is that they seem to be selling the festival program for $2. This would explain why this material isn't on the festival's website. As I was walking home I was hoping that I might find either a trashed or recycled copy that I could pick up for free.

-Neil and I are thinking about going to Cole Harbour tomorrow afternoon to catch the Sidney Crosby Stanley Cup parade. While this normally isn't my kind of thing, I feel that I may not have too many chances to see either Mr. Crosby or the Cup.

A Few Quick Notes 339

-Though today was as hot and humid as other recent days, for some reason it just didn't feel quite as bad. Maybe I am getting used to it? On second thought, I am pretty sure I was sweating rather profusely all day, which would suggest that I did in fact feel the heat and humidity.

-This evening, to test out my newly repaired bike, I went on a quick 5 km bike ride (though at the time I assumed that I must have gone at least 10 km). The ride was quite nice, and at times I found it hard to believe that I hadn't ridden a bike in almost a year. Assuming we have nice weather tomorrow I will probably try to take similar trip then, though I might mix up the route a little just for something to do.

-I wonder if the increase in buskers that I mentioned a few days has something to do with the Halifax International Busker Festival that is to start tomorrow and run until the 16th? While the website seems to mention a number of the associated acts I can't seem to find a performance schedule. I guess they want you to just head down and check things out for a few hours a time.

-I cooked some Jacob's Cattle beans for dinner tonight, though as Neil and Rebecca weren't here I am the only one that has had any of them yet. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.

-I guess I should try to get back to work, especially if I am thinking about attending a few of the Busker Festival performances.

A Few Quick Notes 338

-I guess today was a pretty nice day, if a little humid. Strangely, I really don't remember to many of the meteorological features that I must have experienced today.

-Neil and I had another Ultimate game on Sunday. Given that neither team had enough players at the beginning of the game, I don't know whether we won by default, won by points, or lost by default, or lost by points. Anyway, I guess I could check the HURL website if I really wanted to find out how the score was reported.

For the most part the game was pretty good. Unfortunately, the other team had at least one, and maybe two, rather intense players who made things a little less fun. One of the guys on the other team wasn't particularly careful with his body and managed to hit both Neil and I (Neil's lip is still bruised) and run into another player on our team. The most impressive part of all of this was that he wanted to call a foul on me, apparently for hitting his post-throw hand with my upper-chest.

-The other big Ultimate related news is that while I was putting my cleats on before Sunday's game one of the plastic components broke. While I was able to finish the game with few problems, I will obviously need to find a way to secure for next game.



Now that I look at the design I can see that having the eyelets in this piece of plastic is a horrible design decision because if it goes the entire cleat becomes non-functional. I now feel lucky that I have managed to get 4.5 seasons out of this pair of cleats.

-A few days ago, either Friday or Saturday, I dropped my bike off at a local bike shop. I was asked by when I wanted the bike ready and indicated that I was willing to go with whatever was most convenient for them. I was then told that I should stop by on Monday to pick the bike up. On Monday, which happened to also be Natal day, I made my way to the shop by walking through a largely closed and empty downtown. Not surprisingly, the shop wasn't open on Monday.

When I went back to the shop today I learned that not only was my bike not ready, but that they hadn't even started yet. Apparently they are a little behind because they weren't open on Monday. Anyway, I am hoping that it will be ready by tomorrow, though I am not a little more skeptical of this shop's proposed timeframes.

-A few days ago I mentioned that a young woman (and occasionally a young man) is allowing her puppy to defecate in the grassy area across from my desk. The woman then, typically, departs without cleaning up the puppy's droppings. At first I thought public shaming on Montifax had been working as yesterday I saw a bag in action. Unfortunately, today I noticed that the woman and dog were back without even a bag in sight. I guess thinking that a largely obscure blog could have such power was a bit presumptuous on my part, but it would have been pretty cool if that was why someone started to clean up after their dog.

I guess if I wanted to get particularly aggressive about public shaming I could start photographing or videotaping the incidents and then posting them here for all to see.

-For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the bike shop, these past fews I have been downtown and then decided to walk home along the waterfront. I have noticed that compared to earlier in the summer there are really quite a lot of buskers. Today was a particularly busy day for street performers. While I am normally pretty supportive of such things, a number of these performers really should give it a rest. One guy in particular, a piper, was not only massacring Amazing Grace, but also drowning out performers in one block radius.

-On a related note, the piping on the waterfront really gets to me as it fall into the faux-Scottish thing that is going on here in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia should emphasize its own culture and be proud of it and stop the second rate imitation of Scotland's culture.

-I finally harvested a few vegetables from my balcony container garden. I used all nine pea pods and three beans in a stir-fry that I made for dinner tonight. While I will give the pea pods a pass, I was rather disappointed with the beans. Presumably I should be able to conduct similar harvests in coming weeks.



-I should also note that the tomatoes are continuing to grow. The one that is the largest is now almost as large as a small grape, or something in that vicinity.



-A few days ago I re-potted most of my tobacco plants, meaning that I now have only one or two plants per pot, instead of the 15-20 that I had in the paper pots. Interestingly, the plants in the only paper pot that I have not re-potted are now the largest. Though, as you can below, this doesn't mean that they are particularly large yet.



At this rate I don't think my plants will be particularly large by the end of the summer.