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.
Yeah… I kind of missed the film last week, didn’t I? A sign of how damn tired I am from The Regular Job’s demands, which over the past two weeks have been enhanced by a self-inflicted demand to make sure the people who are looking after my usual duties have an easy go of things.
I am, at least, taking a good long break– I don’t put rump to office chair again until 19 July. I also don’t have a lot of projects in mind for the vacation period other than writing and some personal pen-work, which is good, because that mass of killingly-hot air which has been afflicting the north-west coast of the continent will arrive here… sometime tomorrow.
Although it will have shed some heat along the way, for which I am extremely grateful.
Here’s two films because there wasn’t one last week: One jolly interesting and one quietly amusing.
I don’t expect to be making up any entertainment deficits when I return, because I know my limitations. See you in three weeks, everyone, unless I melt in the interim.
In addition to being four days from my second COVID vaccination, I am thirteen away from my annual summer vacation.
Which is why I’m feeling extremely depleted and non-clever. Here, have a video featuring someone talking about two pens which, despite brand and model, are not at all the same.
Her speculations about the feedback of the older one– any or even all of the above.
What's up at Ravens March. 
