Monday July 24 2023: Queensland Beach, Oil Patch

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There is absolutely nothing more refreshing than dunking your bod into the ocean at Queensland Beach.

Applied for job at Fort McMurray oil patch, thanks to info from Sherriann Bella, whom I worked with the summer of 2018, driving Apple cars around Ontario & Quebec. Job pays twice what I earn now but I’d have to live in Calgary and work one week of 12 hour days on and one week off. All this to pay taxes the government has told me it doesn’t care about. They’d be happy to write them off. I breathe the spirit of Dudley Doright! I could work there two years and retire at the age of 78 with ten bucks in the bank.

Net annual income, $56,000 or $4,666/month

Owed to Gov’t, & trustee: $70,000

Pay off at 3000/month = 23 months

 

 

Friday July 21 2023: Camping at Keji

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Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla

Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla bla

Thursday July 20 2023: Goodbye Charlie

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Hey family— awfully quiet here now that you’re all gone. Missed groaning out of bed at 10 a.m. and getting down to your place by 10:30 knowing Toody would be right there with a cup of coffee and a snack, that Paddy would arrive full of learned pronouncements and opinions and we’d chase down Dennis via text messages. After all this time, this old curmudgeon has to admit that he loves you all.

D0n’t need to see Otto. I’m living the script.

Started the new week by getting rid of Charlie. I’m simply not a cuddly cat person and I make no apologies. He is a perfect gentleman but I’m a curmudgeon. Told the SPCA my daughter suffers from severe asthma and couldn’t stand to even visit me. Told Charlie it wasn’t his fault I didn’t like him and I hoped he’d find a more supportive family. He said he didn’t much like me either and left the armchair to skulk in his cardboard box.  SPCA was perfectly happy to take him back so now I am careless.

Good news from my employer who has promised to send a permanent offer of employment in due course. So I wheedled my boss into giving me this weekend off, and am now giving myself a short holiday. I’ll head off to the Gaspé in eastern Quebec tomorrow with kayak and sleeping bag. I’ll hit various beaches on the way. Water is very warm this year thanks to climate change so I’ll try out various beaches on the way up.

Resumed my regular music lesson yesterday and Rory said the new tenor sax is sounding  pretty good. My repairman, a former clarinettist with the Polish Symphony, says it will sound even better after he plugs a few holes. I live and dream of a sax I don’t have to fight with to make a decent sound. The prospect of actually being able to play what I want is exciting. As I might have mentioned I’ve been invited to play alto sax with a pick-up band doing a charity concert. It should be easy, fun rock ‘n’ roll tunes but it’s nice to be wanted.

It’s a lovely, sultry day in Halifax and I’m just finishing lunch at IKEA where they sell beer, so I had one in honour of Charlie. I’ll head back home and take my ebike to the practice room at Dal and honk my brains out for a couple of hours.

Hymn for Portapique


In April, 2020 a lone gunman in a replica RCMP vehicle killed 22 rural Nova Scotians and injured three more in a 13-hour rampage that began in the tiny village of Portapique and continued through 15 locations. An RCMP officer shot and killed the culprit after stumbling across him in a gas station. In the following days Normand Carrey, a musician, composed this piece in their memory. More information here: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/2020_Nova_Scotia_attacks

Tartuffe

Tartuffe, a play by Molière, was performed by the Dartmouth Players a community group in Halifax Nova Scotia on Nov 6, 2021, 457 years after its first performance in 1664.

Stripper

Taking it off ends with male stripper taking off

Halifax Daily News
Saturday Sept 1 1984

Women have stuffed as much as $300 into his g-string but stripper Danny Eastman says they won’t be seeing it again in public.

Danny, who goes under the name of Italian Stallion, says he’s quit his job at the Lighthouse Tavern on Barrington St. and “after I quit they fired me.”

He says the dispute was caused by the preference of a female stripper, Misty, who is in charge of the dancers, for another stripper, Bruce.

Danny said he enjoyed the job, which he started last January, until Bruce came on the scene six weeks ago. “Bruce is a nice guy and a good dancer,” he said, “but he started going steady with Misty and she started giving me a hard time.”

First, he says, the tavern cut his shows from three a week to two. Then, after he arrived 30 minutes late for an act, his wages were cut from $40 to $25 a show.

“I told them the only reason I was here was for the fun ot it and put in my notice. I said I’d do my last show this Saturday night.”

After Danny told Q104 Radio that tonight would be his last show, he said the tavern fired him and barred him for life.

A tavern employee who refued to give his name said Danny was fird and barred for drinking on the job and threatening other dancers. The wage cut was passed on to all dancers, he said, and Misty wasn’t playing favorites.

“I wanted to go out in style,” said Danny, “but they say if I go down there Saturday they’ll call the cops.”

He says his presence will be missed. “Hundreds of people have told me and the club that if I ever leave they’re not coming back.”

But his public career is over, though he may strip for private parties.

“I just want to settle down and try and find myself a girl friend, somebody who’ll take care of me.”

That may not be as easy at is sounds. “If I took some nice girl to a restaurant it would be pretty hard for her if the waitress recognized me and called me the Italian Stallion.

“I think some women think I’m a whore or something. I wish I could find a nice girl that would just be happy with me.”

He said he enjoyed the job “because I like dancing and don’t mind taking my clothes off.

“A lot of girls told me I’ve got a nice bum and I do my best to shake it around and do what they like.”

His act includes chains and whips. “I’d swing the whip around and carry on with it and take the chain and put in around myself— nothing serious.

“Women have their sexual fantasies and, in a clean act, I do my best to make them think about going to bed with me.

“I never realized how wild girls can be. They seem so respectable and quiet, they just don’t let anybody know about their feelings. They’re embarrassed to put money in my g-string in public, but they will at private parties— I’ve made up to $300.”

He says people like his act because “when I’m up there I smile all the time. I’m happy and people say it looks like I do it because I want to.”

Though some men get jealous “I try to make the boy friends happy by not staying around too long. A lot of guys have put money down my g-string in respect.”

Drone collage

I flew this drone over Halifax for a year or two, capturing scenes downtown and even flying out to George’s Island in the harbour. Unfortunately I crashed it into a tree while doing a job for a real estate agent. Drones need experienced pilots and spotters on the ground. Next time I need a drone video I’ll hire one.

Chebucto Big Band

I played alto sax in this band for a few years and wanted to do a video that would show their work and help them get bookings. They still use it. Because the scene was very dark I mixed video with shots from a still camera which does a better job in dim light.