Last week Jupiter was in opposition (closest point to the Earth) so I took a photo and it worked out pretty damn well!
Amazing that you can even see the various bands of the clouds on the planet! That and the 4 Jovian moons are also visible which is amazing. One of my best photos, I’m really happy with this one.
As a species we fight over the stupidest things, no wonder aliens don’t visit us. While I find the clips coming out from the Hamas attack, Israel retaliation & footage from the ongoing Ukrainian war, it makes me so sad to see the needless killing. What is this all for really, all the fighting does is harden all sides in the conflict making peace less likely. As much as some may dislike politics, it’s a necessary evil to help solve our problems and only when we talk and address the root causes of the problems in our world will we move forward and make things better.
The Thanksgiving long weekend was relaxing but that’s overshadowed by world events. Looking at the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, I understand that what Israel is doing with Gaza is wrong and that the roots of this go back many decades but what was the point of Hamas attacking Israel? They didn’t think they could actually hold territory right, was this all just to hit back hard for once? Didn’t anyone have enough foresight to realize Israel will retaliate and when they do, it’s the people of Gaza who will suffer?
I always side with the oppressed and thought the BDS movement was the only way to cause enough pain for Israel to give Palestinians their own home but this was just stupid. Attacking military or governmental entities is one thing, attacking innocent civilians (sometimes brutally) does their cause a great disservice and only hardens resolve. You can’t kill or fight your way out of this (for either side), there needs to be political will and right now everyone is acting like a bunch of school children.
Netanyahu’s grip on power was tenuous but now it’s as solid as ever, the world needs that asshole to leave before we can move forward and the weekend attack by Hamas has only set back that timeline and their cause.
Sorry for the lack of posts, just haven’t been motivated to blog recently. Hopefully that’ll change and I’ll try and do better at posting a bit more often but just wanted to mention that things are well on my side. 🙂
I meant to post an update earlier this week, we returned from Punta Cana on Monday but I was suffering from food poisoning and now I’ve tested positive for COVID. Great, I’ll post some pictures and shit on the weekend hopefully when I’m feeling better.
This morning Brandon and I went for a walk at Lynde Shores and man I absolutely love that place.
Hearing the wind whistle through the leaves in the trees and the smells of nature it all makes me very happy. 🙂
Maggie’s dad had surgery to relieve the clot in his brain last week and has been recovering well, well enough that she’ll be coming home for Saturday. I told her that if she wanted to spend more time with her folks that’s fine but she wanted to come home. Can’t wait for her to get back!
Since Brandon’s birthday was last Thursday we had a weekend bonanza of birthday events… Friday we went to African Lion Safari with my mom, Estelle & Georgia.
For Brandon and I, it was seeing the elephants that was special. They were removed from the Toronto Zoo many years ago and seeing (and smelling) these majestic animals in person is really something else. It was a great trip and I’m glad that everyone had a great time.
Saturday we had Brandon’s party at home, a much smaller event compared to previous years and since we have a pool it’s easy to entertain lol.
It was a mix of kids from Brandon’s BJJ classes & kids from his current school and the nice thing about kids are they all play together easily. Oh on a side note, all the kids and one of the parents that stayed loved Sinky lol… Kept remarking what a great friendly cat he was and yeah he’s a very awesome cat for sure. 🙂
Finally yesterday we had our traditional family gathering to celebrate my mom, Estelle, Brandon, Imran & Frank (not there, had to work) birthdays in August.
It was a lunch thing and we returned home mid afternoon. In the evening, Brandon and I went for a nice night walk, I love doing that and am glad the boy will join me on those adventures.
A pretty good weekend (especially for Brandon) and it’s back to the salt mines today lol.
Man how time flies when you’re having fun, Brandon celebrates his 13th birthday today. I’m so lucky to have such a great son, it’s been a wonderful journey so far and I am excited to watch him grow into a man.
Happy birthday son and here’s to many more! We love you more than you can imagine.
Picked Brandon up from camp last night and it was great to see him. He said he had a decent week, though was frustrated at the younger kids for not listening and messing around when instructions were given lol yeah that happens. Next year he wants to attend but as a leader in training instead, he saw a few of the older scouts doing that and thought it’d be fun.
Before I picked Brandon up though I went for a walk with Mike, he wanted to explore the trails at Edward Gardens so I arrived an hour early to take a picture of the bugs and they did not disappoint!
I was using the Canon RF 100-500mm lens and it’s macro capabilities aren’t bad at all at 0.33x magnification (though I’m not selling my Canon RF 100mm macro lol). As for the park, when Mike arrived, we walked down the main path down to Sunnybrook park. He wasn’t feeling super hot though so we turned back soon but it was really nice to get out and walk around at least.
With Brandon returning home, I slept much better last night. He has a lot of experience outdoors so I was not worried something would happen but still I feel better when he’s around. I’ll sleep the best after Maggie returns from China, right now that looks to be around middle of August but we’ll see.
