GOOD FOR YOU STRANGER THINGS

The fourth season of Stranger Things was released last week and they refused to follow the recent trend of streaming services parceling out episodes one a week, making people wait. Yes, I know there are supposedly good reasons why they release them on weekly basis but I still remember the “good old days” of binging a series. Isn’t that how Netflix rose to fame? By allowing people to binge a series?

By the way, the fourth season is excellent so far and since I can continue to watch a new episode as I finish them, I’m not tempted to forget about it and go watch something else. I wish I didn’t have to go to bed because it’s a school night!

LATE TEA

I had a very late dinner tonight at around 9pm. I was lucky to be dining at an Asian restaurant downtown and for whatever reason, I ordered a milk tea with my meal. A long story short, I drank too much tea and it time for bed and I am wide awake. Tomorrow morning is gonna suck.

SUMMER READY

Despite this being one of the coldest May months in the history of the greater Vancouver area, I bought my parents a portable air conditioner, which should be arriving on Monday.

The heat dome of last summer caught a lot of people off-guard and many want to be prepared for whatever may happen this summer. I think my parents will have their A/C unit in the living room to begin with but we might move it to their bedroom if they need to be cool while they sleep.

An interesting thing about my parents’ home is that there are several flights of stairs between the living room and their bedroom, so getting that heavy A/C unit might easier if they wheel it out their front door, wheel it through their parking garage and then go into home through the parking garage entrance, which is closer to their bedroom.

Are any of you first-time owners of air conditioners for this summer?

SLEEPY HEAD

I managed to get through the first day back at work after a five-day break without too much trouble but I quickly faded after dinner. I retired to my couch to watch some TV and I found myself falling asleep quite easily. The next thing I knew it was already 9pm.

It’s a good thing it’s a short week because I am ready for another weekend!

WINDOW CLEANING

I just had five wonderful days off from work and I spent part of one of those days cleaning the outside windows of my apartment. With shame, I must admit it has been years since the last time I cleaned the outside of my windows. It got to the point the dirt was obstructing the view outside on parts of some of the windows.

The weather was pretty good on Friday, so I didn’t mind stepping out onto my balcony with a few buckets of water, a large bottle of window cleaner, and a telescopic brush/squeegee. I started by spraying each window with a healthy amount of window cleaner. Then I dipped the brush into a bucket of warm water and started wiping away the dirt and grime. I kept dipping the brush into the water and cleaning until the window looked sparking (or close to it).

After doing this several times, the buckets of clean water turned almost black with dirt. The water got dirty rather quickly, telling me these windows were caked on with a ton of dirt. I had to change the buckets of water a few times, otherwise I’d just be cleaning the window with dirty water.

After I was done, the view outside was much improved and I no longer had to see through a layer of grime. While my windows are now somewhat clean, the rest of my balcony remains very dirty. It’s quite difficult to clean my balcony because I can’t allow any water to go into the drain. The balcony drain just exits over the side of the balcony and goes straight down. There’s a strata bylaw that states any water coming from a balcony is prohibited and is subject to a fine.

In years past, I have waited for a rainy day to disguise my patio washing runoff as just rain but it’s difficult to plan for such a day. In the meantime, I can just use a brush and dustpan to clean up the large, solid bits of dirt.

POOPS

I gotta admit, from this afternoon on, I was dealing with some diarrhea issues. I’m not sure what caused this problem but let’s just say this was one of the many times I was thankful I work from home. The situation got better in the evening but I wasn’t exactly out of the woods just yet.

I’ve been left weakened by my malady, so I’m going to get some rest now.

LIKE AN OLD FRIEND

About ten years ago, I used to watch reality shows dealing with hoarders. It was a fascinating look into the lives of people were struggling with dirty and/or cluttered homes. Most of these people had undiagnosed mental issues. I stopped watching these shows because they all began to seem the same. All the messy homes looked alike after a while.

Recently, I started subscribing to Discovery+ and they have their own hoarding show. Just for old time sake, I started watching a few episodes. The one above reminded me why I enjoyed them in the first place. Seeing that man’s roach infestation was both shocking and sad.

COLD

It’s currently one of the coldest May’s in recent greater Vancouver history. The current temperature is just 6 degrees Celsius and it’s rainy out. In the past week, wearing a light jacket would probably leave you feeling the chill for sure. The high tomorrow will be just 12 degrees.

I think most residents could withstand this chilly snap if at least the sun were out but it’s also been a very wet May. The forecast calls for rain the entire rest of the week, through the weekend, and into the next week. No one is getting an early tan in Vancouver this year.