Hello. It’s Sunday again and I’m not quite sure how that happened. Does time seem to be speeding up?

It’s Super Bowl Sunday in The United States, an event that I have never cared about ever. Even during the three years that I played fantasy football, I never cared about the Super Bowl, because my season was over by then.

Does it surprise you that I played fantasy football? It kind of surprises me actually. A friend of mine suckered me into it. The first year I played, I won. I lost the second year and won again the third. I decided to quit while I was ahead. It was surprisingly fun while it lasted though. Possibly because I won 2 out of 3.

Someone at the dog park asked me if I was going to watch the Super Bowl. When I said no, he said, “Not even for the commercials?” Why the ever lovin’ holy fuck would I  watch something for commercials? We spend the rest of our lives trying to avoid them, but people actually turn on the boob tube expressly to watch Super Bowl commercials? Seriously? What the eff?

I don’t get it, but I’ve never really understood popular pageantry of any kind. The Super Bowl falls into The Category of Parades to me. It’s a phrase I stole from a Finnish book trilogy: Under The North Star by Väinö Linna, a really excellent series of books, by the way.

If you’re at all interested in reading Finnish literature, I’d recommend this trilogy. Remember when I said I was fond of subtle humor in old books? Yeah, read those books. Finns are known for their dry humor (kind of like mine) and those books are chock-a-block with it. Actually, the funniest Finnish book I’ve read is Seven Brothers by Aleksis Kivi, the national author of Finland. Read that one, too.

Anyway, the Category of Parades includes anything surrounded by hoopla that a lot of people passively stand around watching, e.g. fireworks, hot air balloons, and of course, parades. Like Jussi Koskela in the books, I don’t get it. I have better things to do with my absolutely beautiful sunny California weekend. I took this picture yesterday:

That’s me driving around with my sunroof open in February. Don’t worry, I was stopped at a light when I took that. Safety first!

I absolutely love winters in Los Angeles for exactly that reason. It’s not always that nice, but every once in a while during the winter, the stars align and we’ll have a gorgeous weekend. I’m going on a hike with my dog and friends later today.

I hate the word hike. It scares me, because I once had a friend trick me into climbing a mountain. She said we were going for a hike. I guess if you consider walking almost straight uphill for four hours a hike, then that’s what we did. She said, “Had I told you we were climbing a mountain, you wouldn’t have come!” Damn straight I wouldn’t have.

It’s not the climbing of the mountain that’s the problem; it’s the climbing down. I’m not good with down. I’m very ungoatlike. I panic that I’m going to fall, which in a vicious circle of ungoatliness, causes me to be even more unsure on my feet until I actually do fall. Falling down a mountain is not my idea of a good time. The only hikes I like are actually walks through flat ground or with handrails. I will never climb Everest and I’m perfectly alright with that.

I plucked this tree branch from the top of the mountain I was tricked into climbing. I didn’t have a flag to plant, so I stole a branch instead.

Later, I found out it was from a protected eucalyptus tree and it was illegal to steal it. I’m such a scofflaw. Now, I always have a reminder not to trust my friends when they say let’s go for a hike.

Today’s hike is by Sepulveda dam and isn’t really a hike at all. They have a Japanese garden there that I’ve never been to because it’s by appointment only. I tried to go there one day, discovered the appointment only nonsense and have never made an appointment. I guess I’m more a spur of the moment type, which is too bad, because the pictures are absolutely stunning and I adore Japanese gardens. If I ever own my own house, this is what the yard will look like.

I don’t think they allow dogs anyway, so it wouldn’t be much good for exercising the canine.

Let’s see, what else happened this week? Oh, I played my dork game, where we killed several NPCs before they could even react. Then the cleric stepped in and gave a rousing charmed speech, whereupon the dumstruck crowd actually cleaned up the mess for us. Best. Fight. Ever. Then, in trying to make a hole in a wall to get to the bad guys, I inadvertently knocked the building down with my super orc barbarian strength. Whoopsies.

I still haven’t had much time to catch up with your blogs this week. Y’all are some prolific bastards. So, what’s been going on in your world?