Apples

 Was struggling to find a subject that I wanted to tackle this week, and realized I was holding an apple with all my might.

So let's talk about the humble apple! 

The apple in question. Honeycrisp 2026.

There's an age-old question, made most famous in the Colbert Questionnaire: "Apples or oranges?" I assert rather stubbornly that I'm a "both" guy. I must have my orange evert morning and I must have my apple at lunch. Except during peach/necarine season, at which time either the apple or the orange could be replaced by a peach or a nectarine. I mean what are those but the sweetness of the orange without the inconvenience of segements? 

Apples have always seemed like that perfect combination of tasty and healthy. They say it keeps the doctor away, but I also believe they keep the dentist at bay and the Metamucil in the medicine cabinet. 

Recently, a video came up on my YouTube feed where the host went on a mission to find the last wild apple tree forest and dig down to the origin of the humble apple. It occurred to me watching it that I'd never had an idea where the apple came from. I've known that oranges are from China and that the apple was spread far and wide in the Americas by Mr. Johnny Appleseed, but never knew where they came from beyond waving vaguely to the east. To save you the trouble of watching that whole video, the answer is Kazakhstan. Not the Garden of Eden as a certain book I once read would indicate - unless Eden was in Kazakhstan. In which case, things have really gone downhill in the last 5000 or so years. 

I did find it funny when the host tried the wild apples and found them to be borderline inedible. I've eaten enough crabapples to have predicted that the experience wouldn't have been a good one for him. In fact, I always assumed that the apple pie was invented to make crabapples and bitter apples palatable. Because otherwise, why mess with it?

I'm a bit surprised that I didn't dig into learning more about this sooner. Beyond my previously stated fondness for the fruit, I recall watching a great video about why the Red Delicious apple really isn't that delicious. It's always occured to me because it's by far my least favourite apple. But somehow it's delicious? At first I thought it was just the usual thing of people used to be a lot tougher with less choice. So a red delicious is probably a lot better than say roasted bison dung. But nope, it's just gotten worse and worse over the years. 

Planning out survival strategies for the post-zombie invasion is a popular passtime for may, including the humble reader of this blog. Restarting agriculture is an important part of the long-term post-zombie survival guide and I think I'd make starting a good apple orchard a big part of my plan. It provides a bountiful harvest of good, high energy food. There are a number of ways to preserve apples for the long term and even a dead tree can become firewood or a crappy bench. Plus, you can ferment apples into hard cider, something I even tried before I cut down our humble crabapple tree back in 2020. 

RIP old tree, we miss you.

Speaking of that old crabapple tree, cutting it down is one of my true regrets in life. It was getting too big and as a result it wasn't producing very good apples anymore. Add to that the fact that they'd just go to the ground and attract wasps as a result and the choice was almost made for me. Kinda wish I'd just pruned it way back. I miss the blooms in the spring and being able to go out and grab a few for a pie or alcoholic brew. 

Favourite apple cultivar? I'm really fond of the Cosmic Crisp apple and Jazz apples but with my recent focus on buying Canadian, I've focused more on honeycrisp lately. 

Roof apples

Best apple themed album by a Canadian alternative rock band? Road Apples by the Tragically Hip. 

Best depression-core female singer? Fiona Apple.

Prettiest actress from Married with Children? Christina Applegate. 

Favourite computer operating system? Windows 95. You can't win them all. 

What's your thought on apples? What do you pick at the store? Ever put an apple on your roof? WHY NOT? 

Take 2

All right let's try this again. 

*self check* - no bruises, no abrasions. Nothing hanging off of me, no puddles undeneath me. 

Ok, I think I can write a positive post today. 

Well, let's start off with the latest bit, the eye. Thankfully, it started to open up a bit on Wednesday night, and I could at least see a bit. With my right eye always being weak and hard to use on its own, just this little bit was a huge relief. As Thursday went on, it opened all the way, and I was able to read and see the things I was working on. It's hard to articulate just how much relief this brought me. Like I spent most of Thursday and Friday just sighing in relief. Not only was I able to watch Jonas' game, but I was clear-eyed enough to spot his number when he got on the field. Unfortunately, I was also able to see that he can't catch a ball. 

Football! 

Haven't hardly talked about football this year, and it's been another fall full of watching the gridiron. Twice a week at times! Jonas has been put in at slotback on the Thom Collegiate Trojans this year. Since he’s a rookie, he’s not getting a lot of snaps, but he’s getting a few and showing some hustle. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so hard on his ability to catch last week, as he got put in on wide receiver to cover an injury. I don’t know if he knows that playbook per se, so maybe I should go easy on him. But I won’t.

I also split a pair of season tickets with Mom and Dad this year. I’m really enjoying going to so many Rider games this year, and if they’re still up for it, I’ll probably do it again next year. Even if the last half of the season has left much to be desired. I dunno, one of the boneheads on The Wolf still thinks we’re going to have a Grey Cup repeat this year. I have my doubts.

I will note that I went to the yearly Truth and Reconciliation Day Roughriders game this year, and the celebration of Indigenous culture was far far far better than the football that night. I’ve expressed my appreciation of that game in the past, but this year was next level. They had EDM group, The Halluci Nation, perform along with powwow dancing, lasers, lights, smoke, fireworks and that thing where there’s an app on your phone, and everyone’s flashlights go on. It was beautiful, uplifting and fun. Heck, I think it was better than the Foo Fighters.

Music!

I haven’t returned to the hubbub of Jeremy and his Kazoo just yet. The shoulder issue brought that all to a screeching halt, and now I’m feeling a little unmotivated to return to that full steam just yet. It’s ok; the project was always designed to allow for a break like this. But I should probably get back to it sooner rather than later.

However, I have started playing guitar again. I’ve written some new music, learned some new songs and started planning a project with some friends. Part of my musical journey over the last few years has included a lot of open mic performances where I’ve been making friends. And some of those friends want to get together and start a band. We don’t get together for another few weeks, but we’ve been sharing demos and discussing covers that we can play. That’s pretty exciting.

Maybe a bit concerning is the kazoo bit. I think that the way I’ve been playing it in a harmonica rack and the way I need to turn and stick out my head to play might be a contributor to my shoulder/neck injury issues. For the moment, I’m minimizing the amount of time I play kazoo like that, and I’ve been exploring some new methods to how I hold my kazoos. There’s actually an old band from the 70s in Saskatoon who played kazoo in a harmonica rack very differently. I’m considering reaching out to a member of the group for a bit of advice. More on that as it develops!

Also went to see The Watchmen at the Casino last week. Haven't seen them before and while I've never disliked them, I never gave them the attention they're due either. Great band, tremendous songs, and awesome live. 

Home!

Just a little sick of that place, if I’m honest. But it’s been the usual laundry list of repairs and maintenance. I did manage to finish fixing the door I had to leave half fixed last weekend. It took all of 3 minutes. But I did comment to Rhonda as I walked past with my drill, “Warm up the car; I’m going to try fixing it again.”

The house really needs some top-down work at the moment. We’ve been in the house for 12 or 13 years, and there’s a lot of repainting, downspouts and touch-up work to be done around the place. It’s hard for me to keep up with when I’m doing well, let alone when I’ve had a year like this one – both healthwise and side-gigwise.

The kids!

Well, I’ve mentioned Jonas already in the football section. My only remaining offspring in grade school, he’s doing pretty well. He’s coming out of his shell in a big way, is interested in girls and football and making money. Ah, to be young again.

Kayah is a nervous wreck getting into her first year of University. She’s got midterms this week, so I’m sure I’ll hear nothing but frustration for the next few days. She commented that she didn’t want me going back to work because having a short chat with me in the morning before she goes to school has been centring for her. That’s sweet, but at the same time, I’m hoping she can start finding that centre in herself.

Tai is doing great. Her partner is having a bit of trouble with work, and that’s causing some strife there. But they’re a hard-working couple, and I know they’re going to do fine. Tai came by on Sunday for Thanksgiving; unfortunately, JP wasn’t feeling up to the visit. Watching her DJ with Rhonda was pretty cute and made me smile.

And I suppose that's about it. Getting back into the swing of things, looking ahead to Xmas and hoping I can avoid another setback. While it's been a pretty gross weekend, I think we've go a few more sunny days ahead before the snow truly settles in and I hope I can take advantage of that good weather. 

And maybe find a stage to play on soon. 

The goggles would have been very helpful

Well this is not the post I had planned today . 

The plan had been to do a little bit of an update. Say how good I'm feeling. I've been back to work for a few days. My shoulder is feeling better. Starting to get back to life. It's all really great .

That is until Sunday afternoon . 

I was trying to fix some stripped out screw holes on my front door on Sunday afternoon. I had drilled out the old holes and filled them in with some fresh wood doweling. The access was very hard and I couldn't get my little saw in there so I decided to use a pair of side snips to just clip off the ends of the doweling. Unfortunately, there was some lack of wisdom there and I forgot to put on some safety glasses. As a result. Of course, one of those pieces of doweling flew straight off and directly into my left eye.

We rushed over to the emergency room where I waited for 7 hours to be told that yes indeed I had injured my eye and I needed to go see a specialist.

I went and saw the specialist yesterday and he advised me that it's going to take a few days to feel better. Fortunately it's only a small scratch so it should get better but it's going to be a miserable few days until then.

Feeling very frustrated, very low right now because of it. I was just getting back to life starting to feel like I could rebuild myself after the shoulder injury and now I'm getting kicked down again. Really miserable really sour mood today.

Adding insult to injury. It's not even like I get a cool pirate patch. I just have to walk around with this inflamed eye full of ointments and goop constantly tearing and making me sniffle all the time. I 

 would really like to be able to post more positive stuff here on this blog. But for this week I'm just a grump.

This post was read out using voice to text and was not reviewed because I am blind. Please forgive any errors