My Most Popular Post

On June 16, 2018, I wrote the text below as part of my post. A few months later, my blog started getting a lot of hits from Russia and Ukraine and ever since, this post has remained as my most viewed or second most viewed and both Russian and Ukraine have remained a high source of visits to my blog.

I’m fed up with ignorant leaders. I’ve met many lovely, ethical and empathetic people of limited intelligence. I hate how horrid it sounds to say that but I’m glad I can because otherwise I’d blame stupidity for Donald Trump, all the Trumps, Rudy Giuliani, Jeff Sessions, Betsy Devos, Doug Ford and the like. 

It’s not their lack of intelligence that’s the problem; I loathe their conviction that their way of thinking should affect public policy and all the lying, despicable language and hate talk. I hate the pendulum swing between our social polarities.

What if there were two ballots for our elections—one for left leaning people and one for right and you can only have one? What if each side chose their leader and governments were jointly led and social policy had to be hammered out between them? That way, perhaps public discourse would be less objectionable and not posturing.

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Hannah, who’s eighteen, is coming by today to learn the ins and outs of caring for Fred, Ethel and Sheba whilst I’m in Vancouver next week. I’m finally emotionally reconciled to this trip; until recently I’d been suffering a lot of angst about being separated from Sheba for so long.

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Jonathan Franzen held my attention easily for eighteen hundred pages, but a lot of the fascination was his talent with plot and structure. He has a talent for telling a story that moves about in time and perspective that I admire. Richard Powers, author of The Overstory is an altogether different kind of master storyteller: He’s a magnificent writer. His prose paints pictures in my mind; as I read his novel it gives me a feeling of being adrift on gently rolling waves. His prose is powerfully emotional and it has nothing to do with plot. He makes me glad I’m a reader.

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Last year I made a concerted and successful effort to reduce my use of electricity because my Hydro bill from my first year on Gabriola was $4,500! My annual total for my second year was closer to $1,200. Well, I’m happy guy because I just checked on my consumption for this year compared to last, and look at the results:

The light blue shows my levels of use for 2020; the dark blue shows use in 2019. I’m chuffed to see that I get better and better at living here and reducing my living expenses.

Calceolaria uniflora is also called the flower-doll plant