A little more "This and That" from "Oldest Living Blogger"....

We're still blanketed in an all-engulfing cloud of smoke this morning, turned a weird shade of yellow by the rising sun.... in fact, hold on a minute, and I'll get us a picture of it....

This is looking uphill to the northwest toward British Properties, our elegant West Vancouver home of the rich and famous, and those who want to be, and this morning, it's mostly invisible in the smoke. I can barely make out the outlines of the Hollyburn Country Club, where a family membership will cost you $45,000, plus monthly fees. That's a pretty rare neighborhood. Not too many of the "riffraff" make it in that gate. And when you get in there, it's mostly a fancy exercise club of tennis courts, exercise rooms, etc., of the same variety that litters our other less-high-toned 'burbs. So in other words, it's a mutual admiration society for the monied set from whatever background, who have egos uncontainable by normal standards. Spare me. I'd die of boredom in a week in a place like that. Or be thrown out in twenty minutes for insulting some rich mobster's trophy wife....

The Hollyburn Country Club

In the news this morning, the Calgary Stampede is in full swing once again, and protesters are holding up signs about cruelty to animals because a horse broke a leg in the chuckwagon races, and had to be "euthanized", a nice word for "put out of its misery". The leader of the protesters looks like Moses in expensive eyewear, prompting the question "If he can afford those fancy glasses, why can't he find haircut money?" Our hippy-dippy-yippies are getting older, Kiddies.

I've only been to that Stampede once, out of curiosity. I've never wanted to be a cowboy, even when the Lone Ranger and Tonto or Gene Autry The Singing Cowboy were the main attractions at the Saturday Matinee at the old Empire Theater. I'm afraid of horses, don't care for horseshit, verbal or otherwise, and girls with guns scare the shit out of me! So I usually avoid all that like the plague. 

Also in the news, in addition to forest fires in our Beautiful British Columbia, we are told there's others in Saskatchewan. That really surprised me. I've always believed Saskatchewan has the fastest-running dogs in the West, because those trees are twenty miles apart! So what's to burn?......but actually, as it turns out, the northern and swampy end of it does have a lot of stunted growth that they euphemistically refer to as "timber". Timber, my ass! Here in B.C., we wouldn't call that stuff "underbrush". But I guess standards are different for flatlanders.

And something must be wrong at Microsoft this morning. I haven't received a daily replacement operating system for the Windows 10 yet today. But the day isn't over yet, so maybe I'd better withhold the smart remarks for a while. The day is young yet. Just remember: Mondays are the potholes on the road of life.