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Bear on the Pier
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
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The other night, at the restaurant, an ursine visitor. Senior describes it, a clatter in back, on the loading dock, comes down to confront a black bear on it's hind legs. Somehow, cozy on the sofa inside the restaurant, I missed it.
Last night, a comfortable bench by the Prestige on lakefront. Homelessness I'm used to, but without a vehicle it sucks. That should resolve itself in a month or so. In the meantime I'm carrying my bag, laundry with me, light sleeping bag, as well as a notebook and laptop and chargers, etc. 40 lbs of "essentials". It gets a little old walking around with all this shit, but - what are you going to do?
Anyways, eat in town yesterday, 3 squares, a vegan wrap and side at "Sprouts", a Pho at Yom Sum, and then again later a Yogi Burger at the Yellow Deli.
These weekends at the restaurant - I eat there as well, but a lot less, the food bores me (after 5 years, yeah, of course). And so I'm trying to catch up, balance my diet while I have a chance.
8:00, I'm down on the waterfront, watching the blue-bottomed (swifts? swallows?) comb the water for insects. There are dozens. Watch the people. A couple fighting, she's going off for an extended stay at a "Hot-Tub" party, he wants to break up, she's pleading with him that it's just a "Hot Tub Party" and it's more work than it sounds like. Joggers, Dog walkers. Later, after the sun sets, an Eagle in a nest across the lake makes it's appearance. When the sun goes down I spread out my sleeping bag on the bench and go to sleep.
1:00 AM I'm woken by a drunken asshole swearing into his phone, he's surprised to find me there, he came down to the waterfront looking for privacy.
Eventually he wanders off and I drift off again.
2:00 I'm woken by a large splashing in the water. A lot of noise. I strain my eyes against the darkness. Nada. About a minute later more splashing, then I see it - a very large black bear has swum to a pier about 30 yards away. I sit up and light a cigarette. I don't want him swimming over to me and finding me in surprise. He's a big one, maybe 400, 500 pounds, larger even. He cuts a big silhouette against the stars on the water. I watch him pacing, before eventually jumping in the water and swimming to shore. I watch to make sure he's not heading my way, he's not. Back to sleep.
By 3:00 AM it's getting cold. Curl in and cover up.
6:00 AM and I'm awake, shivering, waiting for Oso to open so I can get a coffee, warm up, charge my phone...
And - for the moment, this is life. Coffee, 7:00 until 8:00, then off to work at the thrift shop.
Finish at 4:00, find somewhere to eat and kill time until the sun goes down...
Meanwhile, at the thrift shop...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 744
It goes. From this:
The foreground mess is unsorted donations. This was 2 weeks ago. Now, the area is largely clear.
Finds along the way (and I should be taking more pictures, really) include an "electric paring knife", like - wtf? And this:
Now, nothing extraordinary about this - we get dozens of "similar" as seen on TV "labor saving" K-Tel or Ronco devices every day. Mostly they don't sell. We give about half of them a week on the shelf before they're culled for the dump. What I found - haunting - about this one - look at the woman's face:
I mean, that smile, those eyes, it's like she thinks she can win back some marital affection by making all these sweets and devilled eggs. Clearly from the "Isn't Princess Diana Beautiful" days, there's just something a little off about it all. Anyways....
Real finds: a 50 year old Chinese Alarm Clock, with a party slogan and (?? Chairman Mao ??) on the face. Many new pots and pans, a pretty crystal necklace, various items of clothing, old clock, treasures too many to list and now that I'm on the turtle carrying my possessions on my back I'm ill inclined to add to the weight...so it's just look and don't touch.
Thrift Shop Art
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Found
- Hits: 891
An Instagram Account devoted to nothing but thrift shop art treasures (there seems to be a bit of crossover - bad coffee mugs, DVD's, etc. - but the focus is on the Art.).
There's something about Jesus and Princess Diana that - well, it brings out the worst in artists. Or the best. Anyways - a veritable gold mine, and I find much the same DAILY.
Noteworthy: Drag Jesus, Darth Vader & Jesus, Freddie Mercury, The Book on "Setting Realistic Expectations", Kenny Rogers, David Bowie, Jimmie Hendrix, Clowns & Children, I could go on forever.
The Universe 25 Experiment
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
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A link to an interesting "social" experiment conducted in the 70's with mice:
John B Calhoun set about creating a series of experiments that would essentially cater to every need of rodents, and then track the effect on the population over time. The most infamous of the experiments was named, quite dramatically, Universe 25.
In this study, he took four breeding pairs of mice and placed them inside a "utopia". The environment was designed to eliminate problems that would lead to mortality in the wild. They could access limitless food via 16 food hoppers, accessed via tunnels, which would feed up to 25 mice at a time, as well as water bottles just above. Nesting material was provided. The weather was kept at 68°F (20°C), which for those of you who aren't mice is the perfect mouse temperature. The mice were chosen for their health, obtained from the National Institutes of Health breeding colony. Extreme precautions were taken to stop any disease from entering the universe.
As well as this, no predators were present in the utopia, which sort of stands to reason. It's not often something is described as a "utopia, but also there were lions there picking us all off one by one".
The experiment began, and as you'd expect, the mice used the time that would usually be wasted in foraging for food and shelter for having excessive amounts of sexual intercourse. About every 55 days, the population doubled as the mice filled the most desirable space within the pen, where access to the food tunnels was of ease.
When the population hit 620, that slowed to doubling around every 145 days, as the mouse society began to hit problems. The mice split off into groups, and those that could not find a role in these groups found themselves with nowhere to go.
Read the full article here: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/footage-shows-the-infamous-universe-25-experiment-that-turned-into-a-mouse-apocalypse/
Or watch the Video on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CXj0AGuh4c
And, yes, people have more complex wants and needs than mice, but - you can certainly some parallels in our society at the moment.
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