I wasn’t sure what exactly I should write about so I just started writing and ended up covering a lot of different ground…

Heated Rivalry is coming to theatres. Seems an interesting idea, seeing all or some of these episodes in a group setting (not to mention on a big screen), but as always the actualities of it are proving problematic. First, there’s no way I’m going for the marathon showing of all episodes at once—that’s too long to sit in a theatre. Second, episodes 5 and 6, the cream of the crop, are playing at 10:30 pm. That’s too late! It’s way past my bedtime!

I’m having similar challenges with You Can See Everything. I’m sort of desperate to participate in the experience without encountering too many spoilers first, but the darn thing is quite long. I believe people who say it moves along quickly and doesn’t feel like the length it is, but it is over 2 hours, so you still have to fit into your day somehow. But unlike with streaming, you can’t pick the ideal time for you to watch; you have to take what the theatres have on offer. I don’t want to miss meals for it, or stay up late.

Possibly I’m inflexible curmudgeon.

Jean and I did get out to a 3-hour thingie this week: the live musical Into the Woods. We both thought it was good— excellent performers and a fun premise (fairy tale characters encounter one another in the woods, and have to deal with the aftermath of “happily ever after”), but just too long. Apologies to Sondheim fans, but some of those songs could have been cut down once we got the point of them. Chop, chop. Move it along.

(This is not disproving the inflexible curmudgeon thing.) Now we would like to see the movie. Which is only 2.5 hours long, I would note! (Still not.)

I’m also slogging through the novel What We Can Know by Ian McEwen, which is interesting enough that I don’t want to give up on it, but I am frustrated by its reading pace. Such long paragraphs! The characters are intellectuals, with so many thoughts! I miss the snap, snap reading pace of romance novels, or popular fiction by Frederik Bachmann. But what’s my hurry, though? Aren’t I retired? I am!

I can tell because I’m rewatching stuff, something I had largely given up on when still working. Pulling out the DVDs and Blu-rays and revisiting Before Sunset and Bohemian Rhapsody and Music and Lyrics and so on. And even taking a second pass through far more recent programs, like Heated Rivalry, yes, but also Off Campus, the straight hockey romance series based on a Canadian novel. I’m not even going to claim you should watch it, but I am going to say that I quite enjoyed it. Both times. It’s on Prime TV.

I also read one in the series of the books it was based on, and that took no time at all. Which is good, because the book just wasn’t that great. Frankly, the series was much better! Without getting particularly spoilery, the object of the crush, the reason for the breakup, the nature of the reconciliation… All of it was far more complex and better motivated in the series than in the book. Kind of the opposite of what you’d expect.

(With Heated Rivalry, I would say both books and series are worthwhile, just with different focuses.)

I then turned to watching Prime TV’s Sterling Point, which doesn’t have hockey, but is another Canadian story (though not Canadian production, I don’t think). It’s really a family drama at its core, with romance on the side. It takes place in Muskoka, and the locale is center point of the piece, as contrasted to New York (which barely appears). Not saying it’s perfect, but it’s fairly compelling and I got pretty caught up in it, as did a lot of people.

I then went looking for the book, and was surprised to find out there isn’t one. This is an original series! How original.

Another original we recently experienced was the live Cirque du So Gay, a circus troop with a bit of a drag / queer flair. We saw them at sold out show at Centre in the Square’s smaller Studio Theatre. We found out only at the end that this was the group’s debut performance. I wouldn’t have guessed, because it was a pretty polished mix of acrobatics, trapeze, and clowning. Quite a physically attractive group as well!

They very much encouraged us to take pictures and video, but while tempted, I ultimately declined in favor of staying in the moment. (Just a 90-minute show. Nice!)

Also rather nice has been this Fall weather. While temperatures really plunge at night, it has been a whole long series of sunny days that reach into the high teens (Celsius). One day we decided to take advantage and bike to Sole for one more round of lunch on their lovely patio. They had their heaters running, such that we didn’t even need our jackets. Very enjoyable to be dining al fresco at this time of year, especially given that the food and wine were very good.

The weather also means that cat Mac has been getting near daily walks on a leash, which he really enjoys (except when they end). I play podcasts as I hold on to my end of his tether as he visits our yard and, occasionally, walks down the sidewalk. (He’d love the visit the neighbours’ yards also, but I don’t allow that). So many walks, I’ve never gotten through podcast episodes so quickly. I keep having to scramble to add more to the queue.

A new addition to the podcast queue that I’d recommend for people who enjoy films that deal with romantic relationships: Love Factually, in which two scientists discuss how well or poorly certain films represent what’s known scientifically about love and romance. I’ve also been enjoying Big in Canada, which looks at musicians who are very popular in Canada (often due to CanCon laws) but not so much elsewhere. It’s far less polished, though! (At least these earlier episodes that I’m listening to now.)

Both of these shows are also adding to my list of movies to rewatch and albums to listen to again, as well. (Did I mention I have a new CD players? Very happy with it. And also with the IBroadcast app for listening to your own music. It connects right to Sonos speakers, just like Spotify does.)

But back to the cats. Gus and Shawnee are not ones for leashing it up outside. Gus loves his daily pets and combs, and hanging out in the catio, but doesn’t do well get a collar put on him, let alone a harness. Shawnee’s OK in a collar but she does not want to explore the outdoors, even in catio form.

Since August, the three cats now roam the entire house, with no more gating required. It’s mostly going well, though Shawnee is a much more touchy-feely cat than Mac and Gus, so they’re negotiating that. Shawnee has also recently been featured as a Pet Patrol adoption Success Story, and is also one of their fundraising calendar cats. But I don’t think her fame is making Gus and Mac particularly jealous.

Monday are the municipal elections, and I’ve finally decided who to vote for. The local ones are a lot more labour-intensive, with no political parties, and Waterloo has a more complicated region / city structure that adds to the complexity. Nice of Doug Ford to make it easier by now appointing the Regional Chair, i.e. the most powerful local political, instead of letting us vote for who we want! Why would should we get a say in that, eh? Democracy is clearly over-rated.

I’m still going to exercise it, though, if only to be contrary. Will say that the official Waterloo Region Votes website is really excellent, deftly gathering all the information you need on who’s running for mayor, city councillor, regional councillor, and school board trustee, and continually updating with candidate sites, news articles, Redditt threads, video debates, anything and everything you can use for research.

CBC said that climate change was a major issue for people who responded to their poll about the municipal election. That’s a self-selected group, but it’s still interesting. Can’t remember what I picked when I did the poll, but climate change was probably in there. I find myself much more willing to read about that topic now. It’s clearly happening; seems better to try to understand it than live in denial.

Bill McKibben’s Substack The Crucial Years gives a clear-eyed view of what’s going on, and it ain’t pretty, folks! But he still notes good news when he can find it. Max Fawcett of the National Observer gives frequently optimistic takes on climate policy, which can annoy people (including his own wife, he admits). But he at least does bring the facts in his arguments. For example, he will point out that for all of Mark Carney oil pipeline boosting and carbon tax cancelling, he also removed duties on Chinese solar modules; restored the EV tax credit; allowed in some Chinese EVs; created the heat pump incentive; and wants to build a national electrical grid.

Then there’s the Doomers, who focus largely on their own survival. Not in the sense of wandering off to a country cabin with a bunch of guns, but by staying in your home a city and growing your own food. And running your own solar panels, with battery backup. And purifying your own water. And putting in a composting toilet. And stocking up on canned goods. I don’t think it’s crazy; more power outages, supply shortages, and water quality issues likely are going to be more frequent problems, and it is good to prepare for them.

But I just can’t quite become a full-on “prepper”, even though I will follow the occasional small tip here and there. There’s a full book (soon to be updated), free for the downloading: Survival Illustrated

The What We Can Know novel I mentioned earlier is mostly set in the future, looking back on our time. Future historians are just amazed at how people in our society go on with our lives, burning our fossil fuels, even though all of us know perfectly well how bad the situation is going to get. In the book, AI systems eventually start some nuclear war (as per their calculations, it’s the most logical approach). Humans fairly quickly put a stop to them, not until after a fair number of lives have been lost, but before the whole world becomes a nuclear wasteland. (Yay, us?)

A side effect of these wars is that particles are released into the atmosphere (part of the “nuclear winter” thing), which actually protects the earth from some the heating. The world thereby gains some time against the otherwise unfolding climate disaster, and manages to rebuild some cities with much less travel, far fewer types of food and animal life, and all renewable energy… But not a terrible life, all in all. (Yay, us?)

All of the above isn’t all that spoilery, by the way. It’s not really the point of the book. It’s just the backstory.

Just like You Can See Everything isn’t really about Elizabeth Holmes’ time at Theranos. Or so they say.

I think we’re going Wednesday. We’re going to spring for the comfy seats.