Want to see something really scary? My wife, who spends a lot of time watching horror films (for professional reasons as well as fun), was amazed at how well suspense was established and maintained throughout this little delight.
My wife also grumbled about not having access to a space like this for her projects.
†I worked a couple of days at the end of last year that NO ONE ELSE did, so the start of this week redressed that balance. I am now a strong advocate for a 20 hour work week.
No film last week, no update yesterday– you might think something terrible had happened to me. Happily, it’s just a quantity of unpleasant distractions demanding that I use my time otherwise.
I won’t try to penetrate the veil of traumatic amnesia which obscures the New Year’s Eve duties that ate my lunch hour, but the thing that kept me from yesterday’s (lack-of-)progress report has some grim amusement in it which I’m willing to share.
My intent was to add some air to a tire that wasn’t holding air particularly well. This is a tire that has been giving me trouble for a long time, and that should have been a hint– the problem extended through switches between summer and winter tires.
[An aside– I may have said this previously, but if you live above 45ºN in the Americas, get winter tires if at all possible. I had taken all-season tires at their word for years, but having tried winter-specific tires, there’s such a difference in traction that I have to urge them]
I will at this point mention that the weather here has been… I don’t think “abominable” is too strong. Most of the last fortnight has had lows under -30C, and most of this week the highs have been below -30C. A tire looking a little squishy is to be expected, but this one was VERY squishy. Using the front end of the lunch period to run to the gas station for some air was sensible, and even more so when I applied my tire gauge to it– a mere 15PSI, less than half what it should be.
[Second aside; yes, I use Centigrade for outdoor temperature and PSI for tire pressure. I’m a GenX Canadian, and a lot of us are wired that way thanks to the fifteen year conversion of Canada to Metric with which we shared our school years]
I applied the air hose to the valve, the sound of inflation followed, and when the tire looked more itself, I removed the hose to check the pressure. The sound of rapid deflation followed.
That ain’t right.
Let me show you my tire valve.
More than usually portable…
The cold weather was probably the last straw for this little fitting, but as this is the second time I’ve had this happen. The previous event was explained to me as an exercise in cost-cutting by vehicle manufacturers. In earlier ages, the main element of the valve stem was made of brass. Now, with this vital part being an exterior manifestation of the pressure monitor system, brass is considered too expensive for OEM parts. What we have now is “pot metal”, which is the foundry version of “100% unknown fibres”. It is given to failure.
I’ll leave this to you to decide if this is a manifestation of the wickedness of capitalism.
Yesterday was thus devoted to swapping flat for spare at -31C while apologizing to the dozens of other people wanting to desquishify their own tires whose efforts I was obstructing.
So, with that as a foundation, let’s have a progress-free report for the week.
Now, as a final disappointment, I’ve run out of time for this session to select a film. Hopefully next week will see a restoration of normalcy. I’m also DESPERATELY hoping that this week is not a setting of tone for the year, because that would be pretty hard to take.
I’ve given myself license to lounge, writing-wise, until the new year when I shall spring into action like a crowd of Harryhausen skeletons. Dealing with the still-air temperatures this week is enough creativity.
A title with a double meaning. Over on my other front, I’m sharing “Wilden Klausen” which is about seasonal traditions and their underpinnings.
Here, I’m sharing what is a bit of a trans-Canadian tradition. One of the few things that is shared by all parts of Canada is CBC Radio service. Not everyone listens to it, but it’s there. Those of us who do listen to it have a yuletide tradition– listening to the sonorous Alan Maitland reading Frederick Forsyth’s attempt at the traditional English seasonal ghost story.
I’m taking next week off, so I may not look in here on Christmas Eve. In anticipation of that, I’ll wish you one and all a comfortable Christmas, Xmas, Yuletide &ct. (but not Festivus– take your pole elsewhere!) with people that bring you joy and without people that bring you COVID.
Before I start, let me touch on something I forgot to mention yesterday, because my life is as dizzily blurry as the scenery of a Tilt-A-Whirl rider. Last Monday, I put another of my no-longer-protected published stories out when you, your best chum, and Avery T. D. Harrie can see it. “Without Fear, Favor or Affection” is a historical epic (in as much as epic can be applied to something shy of 5000 words and containing a mere handful of named characters) which first appears in Creatures in Canada, and continues to do so.
For today’s film, somethings that’s not seasonal as such, but… well, it’s some favourite fountain pens.
To my mind, the M600 is a better point of comparison to the 140, as it doesn’t have a heavy brass mechanism and is just that much smaller. Watching this does make me wish I could lay my hands on a fine or medium for my 140… which is not to say I’d give up the oblique bold it’s currently fitted with, because that’s fun.
If anyone out there is shouting “What the hell are you thinking?!” they may rest assured that I can’t hear them over the screeching of my own internal critics. Updates as they develop… which given the careful approach to this unknown country I’m adopting, will probably not begin until Mid-January.
† It’s my birthday and I’ll use the same pen as the previous day if I want to. ‡ I have never taken my birthday off prior to this year. I recommend it, to be honest, if it doesn’t make life too miserable for co-workers. There is, however, still a price to be paid… ³ Never be The Indispensable Man. I’m not, really, anymore but I’m still not easily replaced despite writing and polishing instruction manuals for the past couple of years. ¤ The Skrip is NOS, just opened on the day of pen-filling, but isn’t quite contemporary to the pen; it’s got the red label from the last days of the dip-well bottles. The Quink, on the other hand, is possibly slightly older than the pen but definitely from the same rough era of manufacturing and also unopened until I got my mitts on it. I don’t know how this happens.
What's up at Ravens March. 
