Rants, musings, and other general purpose blog entries reflecting the thoughts du jour.
Photo courtesy Julia Williams
(Photo courtesy of Julia Williams) This Memorial Day is a bit of a milestone with Nicholas preparing to graduate from Enloe High School and it being just slightly more than five years ago that we got our date for Dad's service at Arlington National Cemetery. It seems almost a lifetime ago that it was my turn to walk across the stage at the Ocean Centre in Daytona Beach as a graduate from Spruce Creek High…
Nicholas and I were rolling up to Enloe High School this morning when we noticed an interesting looking group of what appeared to be ultra-fundamentalist characters unloading a fair heap of anti-abortion posters from a truck just up the street from the conga line. Sure enough, as I'm pulling out of the traffic circle in front of the western building housing the main office, I can see a couple of them stationed on the sidewalk…
The main reason I opted for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was that it seemed to be much more predictable than the others in terms of side-effects induced when the second jab in the sequence irritates the immune system into creating many B and T-cells which will be the body's long-term defence against infection. From a casual survey of other Pfizer recipients, it seemed that the worst period was generally 24-36 hours after the second injection.…
The Petrol-Pocalypse(tm) has left the vast majority of petrol stations completely out of fuel thanks to the Russian criminal gang DarkSide taking down the Colonial Pipeline with ransomware that got behind their firewall and royally buggered their operations. The Colonial and Dixie Pipelines are the ones that supply the vast majority of petrol, diesel, and aviation kerosene from Houston TX to New Jersey and all points in between with the Colonial accounting for 45% of…
On this 108th anniversary of Grandma Williams' birthday, it was finally time to get the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19 and start on the journey to getting a reasonable immunity against this bloody virus. Shot #1 was three weeks ago which I detailed in this BLOG post: https://www.sunfox.com/doing_the_news/2021/04/21/11221/ Give me that Pfizer jab! Today's experience was pretty much the same as before...everyone was polite and efficient, the nurse listened to what her…
We actually ended up starting the annual acknowledgement of the entropy odometer yesterday evening due to a certain someone having to go to work later today but that trip to Neomonde for an amazing Mediterranean dinner was definitely an enjoyable appetizer especially after being up until the wee hours of the morning putting the final touches on the evidence for the upcoming hearing in front of the State Property Tax Commission. The morning started out…
This morning after dropping Alex off at school, I received the first dose of the two-dose Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine regime at the building that usually serves as my voting precinct location. Wake County has done a reasonably decent job of cutting down on some of the more tedious aspects of getting the jab...the registration and appointment were made online, a QR code scan and some girls asking questions armed with the contact-less temperature phaser currently…
BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JUNE 24: Queen Elizabeth II meets cast members of the HBO TV series 'Game of Thrones' Lena Headey and Conleth Hill as she views some of the props including the Iron Throne on set in Belfast's Titanic Quarter on June 24, 2014 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Royal party are visiting Northern Ireland for three days. (Photo by Jonathan Porter - Pool/Getty Images)
Today started off with the sad and unwelcome news that HRH The Duke of Edinburgh has passed away at Windsor Castle at the age of 99. Prince Philip as he was also known was a larger-than-life figure who was a decorated veteran of the Royal Navy prior to marrying Princess Elizabeth who ascended to the throne much earlier than anyone had expected in 1952 and has been sovereign ever since. His tireless devotion to his…
TOPSHOT - Mercedes' British driver Lewis Hamilton (R) sprays champagne at Red Bull's Dutch driver Max Verstappen (L) after he won the race during the F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone on August 9, 2020 in Northampton. - The race commemorates the 70th anniversary of the inaugural world championship race, held at Silverstone in 1950. (Photo by ANDREW BOYERS / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW BOYERS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
If that first grand prix in Bahrain is any indication of the possibilities of the new season, the world championship fight should be one of the most epic ones in memory! It's not often you can watch a grand prix and truly be OK with whoever came out on top in the end, particularly when it was that closely fought in the final five laps. Will Red Bull use their new found pace and stability…
A recent post where I opened up about the feelings that came out of a seemingly innocuous conversation with Katie on a rainy day trip for school photographs really seemed to strike a chord with the community of friends on Facebook with whom I shared the link to the story. The prevailing view seemed to be on the scale of being moved to tears themselves to actually thinking I'm a writer. The irony was that…
It's not the cheapest technique I can envision but it certainly was very successful this afternoon! Ingredients: Planet MarsMars Reconnaissance OrbiterMars 2020 Perseverance Lander"Seven Minutes of Terror" So, nerd that I am (and have been repeatedly accused of being by my daughter Katie!)...of course I was taking a break from the current project of mining the interesting Facebook posts of the past several years and preserving them for posterity on sunfox.com to watch the play-by-play…
Oh, what to do on a dreary Saturday morning doing it's best imitation of properly wet and dreary British weather? I've spent the morning going to the shoppes for groceries, Nick's off to work at DQ and I'm thinking it's well past time for lunch but haven't a clue what I'm in the mood for considering that my local Burger King was recently torpedoed amidships and is going to be in dry dock for a…
A week ago, Katie and I had a bit of time together as I had collected her from Clayton for her photo appointment at Enloe High School...a task that necessarily did not include her constant companion named Mistletoe! As we're on the way back toward Clayton, the conversation turned toward the looming second impeachment trial of former President Trump who stands accused of "inciting an insurrection" and how different Washington DC was now compared to…
Today's bit of joy dealing with customer disservice comes to us courtesy of Amazon. Now, don't get me wrong...Amazon has been a god-send during the pandemic to keep me out of the brick-and-mortar germnasiums and help with practicing social distancing (yay!) without having to wear a mask (not so yay!). And to be fair, the vast majority of orders come through quickly and correctly though they could certainly add a bit more padding in the…
Watching the Penguins-Rangers game being played in a nearly empty Madison Square Garden and listening to the crowd noise backing track and I can’t help but wonder this: Did the Rangers slip in that very distinctive wolf whistle you often hear at MSG that is followed by the entire arena yelling “POTVIN SUCKS!!!"? I haven’t heard it yet but wouldn’t be surprised if they slipped it in a couple of times when the network censor…
I came across some interesting bit of local news this morning prior to making the usual journey to collect Katie, Alex, and Mistletoe for today's bit of virtual schooling at the house. It seems that someone fell asleep at the wheel round 0420 and ended up torpedoing the Burger King that I tend to visit every now and then with a direct hit amidships. Fortunately, the driver will apparently be OK but to give you…
The motorcade carrying President Biden and Vice President across the Memorial Bridge to Arlington National Cemetery on their way to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Dad’s section would be behind the Visitor’s Centre (to your right as you’re looking back toward Abe’s place over the bridge). Thanks to the President and Vice President for allowing me a glimpse of a place I hold very near and dear to my heart forever. :) UPDATE: I…
Two weeks ago, Katie and I were watching the debate in the Senate after the challenge to Arizona's slate of electors during the certification of the Electoral College votes that was set to confirm President-Elect Biden's victory in November. All of a sudden, Vice President Pence interrupted Senator Lankford of Oklahoma who was in the middle of his speech and abruptly adjourned the session subject to recall of the chair and hustled out of the…
If tuning into CSPAN and CSPAN2 isn't enough to convince people you're a masochistic political junkie (though truth be told, most of the time it is for Prime Minister's Questions from the British House of Commons on Wednesday morning!)…noticing that the graphics used to show the vote tally during the House of Representatives recorded votes has not significantly changed since 1979 certainly will! And whilst we're on the subject of the yeas and nays…even though…
OK, so it probably won't be as momentous as the "To The City and the World" blessing given by His Holiness the Pope but reflecting on the year that was and the thoughts for the year that is yet to be is a tradition I truly do enjoy. There's no getting round the fact that 2020 was a complete dumpster fire of epic proportions and any semblance of normality has gone out the window for…
My 10 year-old builder-installed Carrier heat pump decided it really wasn't all that keen on continuing it's job of pumping heat into the house. To be fair, that Carrier system was never particularly competent at heating heating both floors simultaneously so I'd often turn off one floor to heat the other. And of course, this is all happening right before Christmas when the mercury took a nosedive! Jason of Wake Heating and Air came highly…
Lots of presents littered the floor, three happy kids, and the occasional bit of ham and the trimmings…it was a very good day hanging about at Julia's place for Christmas. And there were things to be learnt as well…not only am I completely rubbish at this new card game called Fluxx, I'm not significantly better at another card game called "Exploding Kittens". Yes, it's kind of as weird as it sounds but at least Nicholas…
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to…
Even though these pictures were taken the day after the closest approach of Jupiter and Saturn to each other that has been observed in 800 years, it was still an impressive sight. I wasn't sure how good the viewing angle would be from the cul-de-sac last night so I was content to see where they were with binoculars with some of the more nerdly-inclined neighbours. Tonight's fun would involve bringing out the longest focal-length camera…
As I'm waiting to make the right turn onto the I-440 East ramp, I happened to notice that this particular mail van is delivering a bit more than the usual pile of bills and junk mail. I love it that this particular carrier managed to requisition a decent sense of humour which is decidedly lacking in the ones that tend to "service" my address. Goodness knows I needed it this morning after an evening enjoying…
