Full circle or just a question of mathematics.

Some things never seem to change. When I was a teenager growing up in Germany, we used to go to the movies usually on Sunday. It was sort of a standing joke with my friends: if there was a tall guy in the audience he would surely sit in the seat in front of me. In Germany even going to the movies was regulated. No drinks, no food. Not a bad idea actually. Keeps the room clean, not a pigsty like some movie theaters here. You couldn't sit wherever you wanted, either. You had to fill the row, no empty seats in between. One time I was almost lucky. A short person sat in front of me, but my happiness lasted only for a short time. The usher came and made everyone in the row in front move up, which caused a tall guy to sit in front of me.

Today we went to see 'Footloose' at Rainbow stage in Winnipeg, an outdoor theater in Kildonan Park. We sat in the third row. I was happy to get seats so close to the stage. Unfortunately, my happiness was celebrated too soon.The two seats in front of us were unoccupied until the moment the show started, then the two patrons appeared. The guy who took the seat in front of me must have been the tallest and biggest guy in the audience.
How lucky can you get? I looked around and didn't see anyone that big and tall. The top of the heads of the other people in the row lined up with the bottom of the stage. Not the head of the guy in front of me. His head filled part of the stage.I didn't see the actors in the center of the stage. Last year when we went to see Cats, the fattest woman in the audience sat a few rows in front of me. She blocked out a large part of the stage. I realize these people have to sit somewhere, but why always in front of me? Why...why...why?
Yes, things have come full circle.
What are the chances of that always happening? They say the universe is nothing but mathematics. Everything that happens can be answered through math. I'm sure it can, so what is the equation for getting tall people always blocking my view? What is the equation for winning the lottery?

Dallas is back and why are they cancelling these TV shows?

Are our tastes so different from the majority of TV watchers? I can't figure this out. It seems the majority of shows we are watching have been cancelled. Here is a list of additional shows we won't see in the next lineup of shows:

Alcatraz
Awake  (I'm the only one in the family who liked it).
Missing (What a great show. Plenty of action and suspense. And no stupid humorous dialog!)
Ringer (That one probably ran its course. I can't see how they could continue. It was a good show. Good action and suspense.)
The Firm. (They moved that show to Saturday, which is a death sentence. I don't see why. I loved the show).
Unforgettable. (This one was interesting. I liked Poppy Montgomery as the cop with a photographic memory. She's a nice-looking woman and a good actress. Perhaps I liked her because of her red hair. But...the show was cancelled).

This may prove my theory correct: Viewers don't like shows where the main character is a woman. Unforgettable, Ringer, and Missing had a woman as the heroine. Sod did 'Chicago Code' and 'Prime Suspect' (also cancelled some time ago). I hope my assumption is wrong.

I am happy to see these shows coming back, but they are not available on regular television:

Hell on Wheels  (A cowboy show about the railroad and revenge)
Game of Thrones  (Fantasy)  Best show ever for a long time.
The Walking Dead  (Science Fiction)
Falling Skies    (Science Fiction)

I hope 'The Borgias' will return. That is a great show. I'm surprised the Church hasn't boycotted that one yet.

Some of the new shows I'm interested in:

Continuum  (Time Travel)
Revolution  (Science Fiction. Apparently, it is about when electricity stops working).
Dallas (Yes! Dallas is back. The New Generation. We'll see.)

Storms and clouds

We've had thunderstorms all around us. Some parts of Winnipeg reported hail as large as a dollar coin. We were spared, but we did get rain. There were some scary and at the same time beautiful clouds in the sky. This is what we saw over our house.

The two yellow-headed blackbirds have been coming  back, but they are quite shy and stay only for a short time. I managed to snap one picture.

Yellow-headed blackbird

Today we had a couple of visitors we haven't seen for some time. Two yellow-headed blackbirds decided to sample our bird feeder. They only stayed for a short time then they flew away again. They are a bit larger than the red-winged blackbirds.

Monarch Butterfly

Not everything is ugly in this world we live in, even though, watching the news, sometimes it seems we are surrounded by ugliness. For the last few days we've been treated to some of the beauty nature provides us with.

We have a couple of Chinese Lilacs and this year they are especially beautiful. Last year I discovered a few caterpillars in my garden eating my dill plants. I did not kill them but made sure they were safe. Perhaps this year they are thanking me for my kind act, because every day for the past week our Lilacs were visited by a number of Monarchs. They fluttered back and forth all day long, flitting from one flower to another, feeding on the sweet nectar. Today I didn't see any, but there are other butterflies there now.

I tried to take pictures, but the butterflies don't sit still for long. Below are two of the best ones I managed to get. Perhaps with a better camera I might have gotten more pictures. I would have liked one with their wings spread, but the only one I got is blurry.

The following picture of the Monarch was borrowed from this site: http://www.gbbr.ca/our-environment/species-at-risk/insects/monarch-butterfly/

Last week I saw the first hummingbird on our feeder. The American Finches have been here for a few weeks now and they come to feed on the finch feeder, but they also feed on the feeders meant for other birds. It brings us great joy to watch them drink from the bird baths. Some years we've had them build their nests in our hedge. I don't know where they are nesting this year, but they are nearby.
We also get regular visits from Robins, Bluejays, and Red-winged Blackbirds. Once in awhile a crow may even land in the birdbath and make a big spectacle. Last year they were raising young somewhere close and one of them came all the time to dunk pieces of buns into the water. Of course, the noise they made was sometimes too much. So far we haven't seen any Magpies, but I'm sure they'll be around.

Let's not forget the sparrows that come every day. They have built nests in our Martin house and are regular house-guests. We don't mind, because the sparrows stay here through the winter. They are our loyal friends.
The Martins come to check out the house in the early Spring but never stay. Today we had a couple fly around the birdhouse. Perhaps it's not so bad they don't stay, because they were quite noisy.

A couple of weeks ago we had two tiny rabbits hiding under the cedars. And the parents came to visit also. The rabbits are cute, the only problem is they do too much damage. They ate some of the new growth on the shrubs. One year one rabbit ate all of my purple beans when they were just a couple of inches high. The beans never came back. I had to put new seeds into the ground. That's were my hospitality ends. Rabbits are not welcome. We are bird people.

There is beauty in nature. One only has to pay attention and look for it.

Luka Magnotta

Luka Rocco Magnotta, the guy who cut up another man in Montreal, has been caught. He was looking at porn in an internet café in Berlin, Germany, when he was recognized by the owner and an employee. They stopped a passing patrol car and Luka was arrested.

Now I’m wondering what is going to happen next. This is a high profile killer. Everyone in the world who watches the news knows about him. I wouldn’t be surprised if some lawyer, who wants to make a name for himself, is going to defend him. He’ll probably plead insanity, maybe he heard voices telling him to cut up somebody. Some psychiatrist will confirm that he is not normal, and he’ll end up in an asylum to undergo psychiatric treatment and that will cure him from his illness.

What BS!

We have a guy in a mental hospital in Selkirk, Manitoba. His name is Vince Li. He cut off somebody’s head a few years ago on a bus. He heard voices. Now, according to his doctor, he is pretty much cured. He is on pills and they are allowing him day-trips away from the hospital. He’ll probably be released in a few years. As long as he takes his pills, he is going to be fine…according to the psychiatrist. No threat to society.

The other day somebody phoned in to a radio talk show and said he suffers from schizophrenia, but he doesn’t take his pills because they make him feel dazed all the time and he can’t function.

This whole thing with criminals pleading insanity is nothing but a farce and a joke. Of course, anyone who commits a violent crime, especially one as horrific as cutting off somebody’s head or cutting up a body, is not normal. We don’t need a professional to tell us that. That should not protect them from being punished for the crime they committed.

These people can never be cured, no matter what the psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors, or other specialists say. They can’t be cured by taking pills or by talked to nicely. They cannot be reasoned with. Their brains are wired the wrong way and that cannot be changed, unless they open them up and cut out the damaged part and replace it with one that isn’t damaged. When there is a short in an electrical system it does not repair itself. It needs to be fixed by replacing the part that causes the short in the system. I know, because I’ve done that many times, being a retired Electrician. Things don’t fix themselves. Somebody has to fix them.

There will be plenty of bleeding hearts out there who will feel sorry for Luka. Our society has this thing about making victims out of perpetrators.

Criminals who commit horrific crimes like the one Luka Magnotta committed forfeit the right to live. They have no more rights. The only thing they deserve is the death penalty. Unfortunately, in Canada we gave that up a long time ago, and we treat our criminals to comfortable jail cells, good food, exercise programs, and widescreen TVs.

I’m curious to see what is going to happen to this guy.

Tomatoes and Peppers

I finished transplanting my tomatoes on Friday. All 42 of them. I went a little overboard with my tomatoes and peppers. I planted the peppers on Wednesday last week. 109 plants. The problem is I seeded a bunch of tomatoes and peppers into small containers and they developed and grew. I planted all of the peppers (I bought 66 and the others are my own.) I probably bought about 30 tomatoes, they were quite reasonable pricewise and I couldn't resist. I just couldn't throw away any of the ones I seeded myself, so I planted tomatoes wherever I found an empty spot in the garden.
This year I'm way ahead of other years. The lettuce, beets, carrots, corn, Swiss Chard, and most of the other vegetables I seeded a couple of weeks ago have sprouted and are growing nicely. The weather has been good, today it was quite hot and I watered everything. The plants look good.
If everything goes well, I should be eating fresh radishes in about 3 weeks. I should have plenty of lettuce and all kinds of tomatoes and peppers. That's okay, because we love them. We make salsa and pepper sauce. The pepper sauce is a recipe we got from my mother. You need peppers and tomatoes for that.
I grow some hot Hungarian peppers to make the salsa and the pepper sauce a bit more spicy. I don't grow any chili peppers. I did last year and they were so hot I gave them away to people who like hot peppers. The Hungarian ones are hot enough.
My soil is good this year. I mixed plenty of dried sheep manure into the soil and also fertilizer. In April I tilled a bag of clay buster and 2 large bags of Alfalfa pellets into the garden. Last fall I also tilled in a thick blanket of leaves. This year my soil is nice and fluffy. I should have a good crop. I also mulched my tomatoes with dried grass to avoid the soil splashing against the leaves when it rains. It should keep the blight away...I hope. It also keeps the soil from drying out too soon. I put cages over all of my tomatoes. I've been doing that for years and it works for me. Some people stake their tomatoes but I find cages are easier to work with. I wrapped the whole row of tomato cages with plastic sheeting to protect the newly planted tomatoes from high winds. I did the same thing with my peppers. They need warmth and the plastic does the trick. Later one, when all of the plants are tall and established, I remove the plastic.
Now I can relax a bit and pray we get some gently rain regularly, no heavy downpours, no hail, no high winds, no scorching heat waves. I know that is wishful thinking, but one can hope.