This will be another late post – whoomph week has finally arrived and there is a lot of work involved in keeping the property cleaned up!! For the uninitiated ‘Whoomph Week’ starts when one day you are looking up at all the pretty leaves changing colour on the trees on your property and the next day you walk out… and a lot of leaves are now on the ground!! So… you start blowing leaves into a pile, raking them up, using the tractor to sweep up the leaves, stuffing them into paper bags, and then stuffing them into your vehicle to take back to the recycle depot. Before you leave you stand in the front yard and admire all the work you’ve done – not a leaf in sight!! Then when you come back from the depot the leaves have started falling again and by next morning the whole property is covered in leaves again!! … And you have to start all over again!! Right now about 90 bags have been filled and taken back to the depot… about 50 more bags to go!! It should all be done in another weeks’ time… but, man, that’s a lot of work!! 😊 So in a couple of weeks I will have lots more time for updates …well, for a couple of weeks anyways…the Mexico Riviera cruise out of San Diego starts in less than five weeks!! Really looking forward to it – really enjoy the five ports that we are going to; Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, Loreto, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta!! …And the food on the Holland America Konigsdam is amazing… and it will be nice to have 10 days of sunny and hot weather 😊 Speaking of weather – it still is pretty strange around here this year; many days with the temperature in the ‘20’s and many nights below or around 0C!! 😊However, not a lot of rain the past few weeks and the local farmers have had a pretty good harvest this year … so I guess everybody is happy with the weather this year… so far 😊
The American elections will be taking place in 1 week – November 5 – the race appears to be still fairly tight with Kamala Harris having a slight lead over Donald Trump. The campaign has deteriorated to the point of racist remarks and name calling – and at a Trump rally, alienating Puerto Rico and its people by calling the island territory a ‘pile of garbage’. Not a brilliant career move on the part of the Republicans as: A. Puerto Rico is an American territory…. B. Puerto Ricans are able to vote in the U.S. elections ….and C. Pennsylvania – one of the so-called ‘battlefield states’ – has over 400,000 Puerto Ricans in its population, which if they are alienated against Trump, can make a major difference in the election results. Well, as Forest Gump’s mother said… ‘stupid is as stupid does’ … so if the Republicans lose Pennsylvania… ‘tough shit, live with it!’ 😊
The war in the Middle East is still ongoing – and is getting increasingly worse☹ Israel has ramped up air strikes and launched missiles across Lebanon in order to target Hezbollah; more than 2,700 people have been killed by the Israeli bombardment and towns close to the border have been left in ruins. Several Hezbollah leaders have been killed – Sheikh Naim Qassem was named its new leader this past Tuesday. Iran has launched missiles against Israel; Israel retaliated by attacking Iran directly for the first time targeting military installations – some close to the capital of Tehran. There is a distinct possibility of all-out war breaking out between Israel and Iran ☹.
The war in Ukraine is entering the usual autumn / winter slowdown – with a few differences. Normally the Russians take advantage of the cold weather and bad ground conditions to rebuild defences (ditches, tank traps, dragon’s teeth, etc.) and concentrate on destroying the Ukrainian power grid and infrastructure. This year they have intensified their ground attacks and trying to advance in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine; no regard for losses, they keep pushing ahead. Over a thousand…possibly up to three thousand … North Korean troops have been brought in for training and will probably be posted in the border regions to free up Russian troops for further advances into Ukraine. North Korea has also destroyed all bridges linking them with South Korea – it looks like both Russia and North Korea are gearing up and preparing for a major war ☹. On the Ukrainian side President Zelensky has been promoting his victory plan to the U.S. and his European allies that he hopes, if adopted, will bring the war to an end in late 2025!! … Of course nothing is really decided until the U.S. presidential elections are done in three weeks time ☹ and will either last for years to come; or be over in a matter of weeks / months. The Ukrainians are still in the Kursk region with thousands of soldiers, tanks, and artillery. The Russians have had to relocate thousands of troops and weaponry from the Donbas region in order to constrain and push back the Ukrainians but they are having limited success. However, they are having more success in the East – they appear to have complete control of Vuhledar (a strategic city in the Donetsk region) after 2 and ½ years of fighting. The Russians are attacking Ukraine every day with hundreds of missiles, rockets, and drones. The Ukrainians are having success with the destruction of several large ammunition facilities resulting in a third of Russian artillery shells being destroyed. Both sides are accelerating their attacks in order to inflict as much damage as possible before winter sets in and makes land attacks almost impossible due to making the ground impassable ☹. … And, as always.. the coming U.S. elections will play a large factor in determining if Ukraine will have the necessary support from the Americans that they require in order to win this war. If the Democrats win I figure that the war will be over by late 2025 – in Ukraine’s favour. If the Republicans win Ukraine will lose, more wars will break out in Europe, China will invade Taiwan, Iran will declare war against Israel, global chaos will ensue; … and you might as well kiss your ass goodbye – the world will not be a happy place ☹
A lot of home cooking has been going on as usual – pasta dishes; Beef and Pork Roasts with roast veggies; Chinese dishes with Noodles and/ or rice; Pineapple Stuffed Chicken; Wild Sole Poached in Vermouth; Chicken and Beef Curries; Shepherds’ Pie; lots of different type Paninis – Pastrami or Ham and Chicken; Steaks; BBQ hamburgers and sausages; and many other dishes. My plan is to go back to trying new recipes and food ideas. We will see how that works out 😊.
On the Netflix and Prime front: We have watched a lot of English / U.S. series in the past few weeks: ‘Peaky Blinders’ – British period drama about gangland warfare in the ‘20s and ‘30s, amazing series with lots of twists as well, ‘Florida Man’, ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ - the third season following Mickey Haller, a defense attorney who works out of his Lincoln Cadillacs and other models – excellent drama, ’19-2’ – four seasons following Montreal police working out of a crime ridden precinct – extremely well done and well acted, ‘Deceitful Love’ (okay, that one was in Italian) – a mid-thirties con man with a mysterious past entering into a romantic affair with a lady in her 60’s – beautiful to watch, lots of twists and turns, ‘Ripley’ – based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith and the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio about a con man in the ‘60s taking over another person’s life and personality – slow to start but keeps you guessing, many others that I can’t remember, ‘The Perfect Couple’ – a murder mystery set in Florida, mehhh, and one movie, ‘El Camino’ – the sequel to ‘Breaking Bad’ that shows what happened to Jesse after Walter’s death. I intend to write up full reviews in the coming weeks
On the NHL front – The regular season has just started – the Toronto Maple Leafs are 5 – 4 – 1 in the middle of the pack, and the Seattle Kraken are 4 – 4 – 1; still too early to determine if this will be a good season or not for both teams.
On to baseball – The World Series Championship is ready to start with the last two teams – Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees now tied at a game apiece.
On to golf … The Fedex Cup Fall Series had its 2nd and 3rd tournament in the last two weeks – Mackenzie Hughes tied for 8th in the Sanderson Farms Championship; in the Shriners Children’s Open Tyler Pendrith came in 8th as well. The Zozo Championship in Japan took place last week – the three Canadians – Taylor, Svensson, and Silverman not really doing that well ☹. The next FedEx Cup Fall Series tournament will be the World Wide Technology Championship in Los Cabos in two weeks starting November 7th.
NFL news – The Seahawks started off the regular season by going 3-0 and then went 0-3 in their next 3 games ☹ The defense was badly injured and it showed ☹ However, defense came back healthy in their last game, got 2 interceptions and 1 fumble recovery and helped the Seahawks to beat Atlanta Falcons 34-14!! They still have a tough schedule ahead of them before having their bye in 4 weeks time – playing Bills, Rams, and Forty Niners – hopefully they can win two out of three 😊. Update – they lost big time against Buffalo – the less said the better, horrible, horrible, horrible!! ☹
Have a great and safe month … pray for Kamala Harris to win … winter is coming...we will see you in a bit!! 😊