Lying On The Couch.

It rained. It was sunny. It rained again. It was wet. We spent the morning on couches with blankets. And when I was encouraged to build a fire mid morning, Sam reminded me it was a gym day, so I went to the gym instead. It rained on my walk there, it rained on my walk home. Sam was ordering charcoal chicken to be delivered because we couldn't go walking in the rain to find lunch, now could we? Then not long after I was home the rain stopped, but the cold continued, so I took advantage of the clear skies and went out and cut up kindling, and the funny thing about cutting up kindling, is that by the time you are finished, you are warmed up and you are no longer cold. The sun was shining by the time the Panda delivered our lunch, and Sam said if we'd only waited, still, that wasn't the case. So then when we'd finished eating, we walked to the supermarket to get groceries for dinner, and dog food, and we were something like half way there and the rain started to fall again, of course it did. We'd only just made it to the shop and were under shelter again when the rain really started to pour down, and there Brun, Otto and I were standing there under the shop veranda watching it pour down. Yay, I thought, as Sam shopped. A woman with a black poodle and a husband told me how her neighbours had bulldogs which they bred, which they didn't look after particularly well. "A contrast to yours," she said. I wondered if I should tell her I beat them. Ha ha, that's just my sense of humour. There were lots of people out and about shopping, and eating in cafes, and drinking coffee under shelter on the footpath, and walking their dogs, and walking under umbrellas. There was an attractive 30 something couple, seemingly, window shopping, competing with the rain, being out for a leisurely morning, and I hear him say to her, as they get to me, "Shall we just go back to my place?" and she says, "yes." A Saturday morning Tinder date, I wondered. I would have said yes to him too, she was cute also, I am sure all the straight boys would agree. But then the rain stopped just before Sam reappeared and we were able to head home again, no problem. And the rain started to fall again, when we got home, but it still can't be that cold as I still haven't built that fire. I'm on the big couch under the large pink blanket with one dog against my shoulder, head on my pillow, and one dog lying over my bent right leg using the fold of the back of my knee as the place he is resting his head, both snoring, with the leg lying dog twitching as well, but keeping me toasty and warm at the same time. I am typing this with my left hand, as I need my right hand to hold on to my laptop as I type one handed. Still, when I fart, neither of them care, not one bit. I still have the kindling, and I might just build that fire yet. We're going to have dips and flat bread for dinner.

Paulin Hanson Is Not The Answer

The current support for Paulin Hanson is baffling.

Here is someone who opposes multiculturalism in the most successful multicultural country in the world. (That in itself should disqualify her from power)

She is someone who denigrates people from other countries, particularly ones that don't look like her, specifically Asians and Muslims.

She is someone who claims immigration is a problem in a country that doesn't have an immigration problem.

She is someone who continually calls climate change a hoax.

She supports fossil fuels.

She is someone who thinks Donald Trump is the answer to the worlds problems, and not the cause.

She (her party) is someone who now supports the repeal of abortion laws.

As I say her support is baffling.

What is it that makes people want to vote for her?

She has nothing to offer modern Australia.

Winter Is Here, And Boy Did it Rain

Mid afternoon, we got caught in the rain. It had rained for most of the day, and we probably shouldn't have risked it, but what is the worst that can happen? 

And the rain poured down, the gutters in the streets were raging rivers to be crossed. What is the term, fording, in some places. The gutters full of autumn leaves made me want to grab sticks and poke at the drains.

We took shelter twice in doorways. People scuttled past with umbrellas. Everyone looked damp. During a couple of lulls we had to make a run for it, with varying degrees of success. We were kind of wet by the time we made it back, running between the rain drops, as if that is even possible.

It poured even more after we got home.

I made a fire.

Sam went back to work.

I imagine there was flooding in some parts of town, the rain was so hard. We'll hear all about it when the misery hour news comes on later.

Sometimes

Sometimes, I come away from talking to shop keepers who i see regularly, wondering did anything I just say make sense.

You know, your a bit socially awkward, and you talk in incomplete sentences, and usually it is all a bit rushed.

It happened today, when I went to the bakery and got blueberry pie. Did I make sense? Perhaps I should have thought about eating lunch, before I came over here to get something sweet, then I might not have need something sweet, yap, yap, yap. Is it just me, or does everyone feel that way, sometimes?

I dunno.

Shrug.

Oh, don't get me wrong, it is really just a fleeting thought, as I look both ways and cross back over the street, not some great confidence trick, but a thought none the less, as fleeting as it may be.

A revision, if you like, of what was said and my part in it. Does everyone feel that way?

I still don't know.

Social Media

I stopped using social media because of the a tsunami of idiocy that came for me when i did.

It is Angryville, and I decided that I just didn't need it.

And if I want to talk to my friends, dear god (used ironically) I will call them up.

You know, it's not that I find any of it offensive, I am almost impossible to offend, it's really because all of it is just not very interesting. Listening to dopes sprout rubbish thinking they are being clever, when probably a lot of it isn't even true. Yawn.

Who needs it.

I lost one friendship because she, a fitness nut, thought Daniel Andrews was Hitler because he stopped her going to the gym during the pandemic. She raved and raved and raved on about it until I couldn't hold my tongue any longer. She took offence.

I lost another friend because I question what the difference was between aboriginal dream time and Christian mythology. The context was climbing Uluru. I said I had climb it many years ago as a kid with my parents and because of that I'm happy to never to climb it again, but if I had never climbed it, I couldn't promise I wouldn't just view it as a large rock to climb. She didn't like that.

I lost another friend because he had a stroke at an early age and he thought I'd said something which I didn't say. He admitted that was true, that he sometimes got confused, but our friendship died anyway.

I lost another friend who started spewing conservative racist talking points and I told him he was a racist and he didn't like it.

This is the only social media that I do. Is this social media?

I dunno.

Sore Back

The Leg Press at the gym seemed to be hurting my back, so I tended to avoid it. I avoided it for some time. I did other exercises.

But recently I said to myself, oh, don't be a pussy, just do it. So I did. I started doing it again. 

So, that was a few weeks ago, and then I hurt my back. I don't generally suffer from a hurt back.

It got noticeably worse over the weekend. So, I made an appointment with my Osteopath. I have a great Osteopath.

I went to see him at lunch time. I rode my bike in between the rain today. It rained all day.

"What are you here for today."

"Lower back. I have a sore lower back."

"Okay," he said.

"I reckon it is the leg press at the gym."

"The inclined leg press?"

"It is the worst exercise for you back."

"You know I knew and I avoided it, but I went back to doing it just lately."

"Well, I don't have to guess what is wrong with your back," he said. "I'd say it is definitely the leg press."

What kind of dope am I.

I hadn't been to the osteopath for 5 years, as it turned out

Anyway, now my back feels great.

And, it's been a long time since a man has said, take your clothes off and get on the bed. Haha, not that I took my pants off.

Out To Lunch

My back twinges when I get up. It has been a little sore this last week.

Midday. We take the Bulldogs for a walk to find some lunch.

The sun is shining. The breeze is blowing. I guess, the day is what you’d call balmy, but nicely so. Nicely so, that is the day, that’s how it goes. Sunny and windy. More than a gentle breeze.

We wander through the park. The sun is warm, it is nice. There are lots of people out and about.

We’re decide on Taiwanese. I have sweet corn soup and sweet tofu.  Sam has traditional Taiwanese fried chicken bento box. 

It’s a bit cold now we are stopped still. The wind becomes stronger and the sun becomes weaker. Sitting outside in what is now a windy day to eat is a very Melbourne thing to do.

The Asian dad at the next table has sexy muscular, hairless legs coming out of his snug fitting shorts, I notice, as they get up to leave.

We get up not long after, and my back twinges some more. Grrr!

1pm. We’re walking home. The wind is blowing, there is a carpet of dead plane tree leaves swirling around now just above the ground almost like magic.

We meet a nice man sitting outside the ice cream shop with his caramel coloured poodle on his lap. He asks questions about the Bulldogs, how old they are, how much do they weigh. 34 kilos & 37 kilos. His poodle weighs 7 kilos. He seems nice.

We walk back through the park. It is spectacularly green with large yellow confetti thrown all over it.

Forty five minutes & we’re home again.

My back is really sore by then. I’m not exactly sure why? I did do leg presses in the gym yesterday. I have found in the past that leg press can make my back sore. I have avoided them for the longest time, I only really started doing them again just recently.

My back really twinges when I sit down on the couch. 

Fuck it, I think. I’m not going to the office tomorrow with this sore back. I’m nothing, if I am not an opportunist. But, I really do have a really sore back, it has got worse and worse as the day has progressed.

I will have to make an appointment with my Osteopath, I think. He’s moved, I will have to find him. My back twinges some more. I feel like a cripple suddenly when I get up. So, I take the having to make an appointment with my osteopath out of the mental to do list, and make one.

Midday tomorrow. Lovely.

And no going to the office. It is almost worth having a sore back just for that. 

I’ll have to remember to ask him about the leg press, if he thinks that could aggravate it?