Au Cochonnet Marin

For the past seven years, we have provided free room and board for an individual afflicted by (I believe) a bipolar disorder.

“Bipolar disorder, formerly called manic depression, is a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression).”

 Typically, she can be playful and friendly, but suddenly, without any provocation, she can bite or scratch. Despite her excellent physical condition, she is not interested in any kind of job. She spends most of her time snoozing, reading trashy novels, or snooping on the neighbors.

Above all, she is atypical. Although she looks like a feline, she does not behave like one. She never purrs and does not like to cuddle. Like a beautiful woman, she likes to be around people, but just to be admired… You can look at me, but don’t you dare to touch me… I know excellent lawyers who have won all their cases of sexual harassment.

She is also very territorial and guards what she considers her home with great vigilance. Night or day, any trespasser will be repulsed by loud cries and hissing sounds. And nothing is more frightening than the sight of an angry female.

A cat is supposed to be nice and cuddly, but this one probably was a juvenile delinquent. When we adopted her, we didn’t bother to check her criminal record. Maybe we should have… because who knows what evil lurks behind her fearsome green eyes?

Even though she is rather indolent, she is capable of extraordinary feats. She can scale fences and posts as easily as Spiderman… probably even better.

Lately, I have started to suspect that she belongs to a subversive organization called « Coalition secrète des chats conspirateurs pour l’asservissement des humains » or «Secret Coalition of Conspiratorial Cats for the Enslavement of Humans”.

Do you remember the flick called Planet of the Apes? If we are not vigilant, we could soon end up on the Planet of the Cats. And it could be tough. The felines would certainly treat us like slaves (they already do) and force us to submit to all their whims.

Moral of the story: beware of individuals afflicted by bipolar disorder. They might be good-looking but they are difficult to live with… unless you subscribe unconditionally to all their caprices.

In spite of it all, I still love that darn cat… but she does not deserve it.

Alain

When you attempt to write about an event that you witnessed (and photographed), the first thing that you need to do is triage. You need to go through the hundreds of shots that you took and discard the undesirables. And it is a difficult and times consuming task… but you to learn to suffer for what you love… Then you can look at the pictures while writing what you witnessed.

In many respects, photography is somewhat like pétanque… sometimes you hit, and many times you miss. And due to the many shaded areas of our beautiful field, I bungled a lot of shots. But, c’est la vie… One word of advice though… if you want to look your best in pictures, don’t wear black… or white. They absorb or reflect the light and prevent a photographer from taking clear, well-focused pictures.

All right, let’s get down to business. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I missed the opening of the tournament, but I will try to redeem myself. So on August 8^th, I managed to make it to the field around 12:30 while everybody was munching (and moaning about lost games).

The weather was partly cloudy and ideal for pétanque.

As I was made aware, 30 select doublettes made it to the field, ready to brawl (and some almost came to that). The Heavy Weights (bogeymen) made it to the Concours, and the others were shown the door to the Consolante.
By the way, I want to pay tribute to Christine Cragg for a well-run tournament. It is never as easy as it looks, and she did a great job. Merci mille fois Christine!

In the afternoon, while I was busy putting as much stuff as possible on film, people lived and died on the field. I got to watch the fight between Max/Antoine Lofaro versus Paul Yang/Jer Thao and it was Homeric. The Lofaros won by a very thin margin and made it to the finals.

I got a few glances at the game between Paul Kos and Isabelle Kos and Brigitte Moran and John-Philip Wyek. I was surprised by the skills of the Kos formation that literally tore apart two seasoned players. If I am not mistaken, Paul and Isabelle won First Place in the Consolante. Congrats guys!

The finals saw Wolfie Kurz and Mickey Coughlin (two heavyweights) battling Antoine and Max Lofaro, also two very good players.

Mickey played as a pointer and Wolfie as the shooter. They were in total sync and played beautifully, especially on gravel. On the Lofaro side, Max was the pointer, and Antoine was the shooter. From the beginning though they did not fare well. They lost 4 points on the first mène, and it looked bad. While Wolfie and Mickey continued to be extremely accurate, and Antoine missed a few crucial shots. In the finals it is deadly.
Mickey and Wolfie won 13/5.

Concours
1^st place: Mickey Coughlin and Wolfie Kurz:                  $260.00 ea   Gold medal
2^nd place: Max and Antoine Lofaro                                     $173.00 ea    Silver medal
3^rd place: Janice Bissonette and Mike Lee                         $130.00 ea    Bronze medal

Consolante:
1^st place: Paul and Isabelle Kos                                             $103.00 ea
2^nd place: Chong Xiong and Linda Bedrossian               $69.00 ea
3^rd place: Joe LaTorre and Rob Everett                              $43.00 ea

Alain

 PS: to watch the pictures, click on “My photos”
The photos of the Consolante winners were taken by Christine Cragg

Don’t take to task, those who ask, why don’t you wear a mask?

Masks can be bothersome, but they are our first line of defense against viruses. You don’t see the little buggers, but they are there, everywhere, waiting to ambush you. And like guerillas, they will hit and run the minute that you lower your guard.
And by the way, these little beasties are atheists… they don’t believe in God, in prayers or incantations. Don’t count on divine powers to ever intercede for you.

Some people thought that like bad guests, masks abused their stay, but this is not the case. The authorities are now warning that in view of the resurgence of the Covid Variants, masks may become mandatory again in all public venues.

Yes, it is a constraint, but what is the alternative? Moving to another place? This is a worldwide problem and no place on this planet is safe…

And then, instead of circling the wagons, we have the skeptics, the doubters, the rebels who feel that this is not necessary. We don’t need no stinking masks or vaccines they say. This is much ado about nothing… we are healthy, and the proposed cure might be worse than the disease… we don’t know what is in these syringes and it might do more harm than good.

Well, let’s consider how many people died from the disease versus how many people died from the cure. The margin is so wide that it is not even debatable. And let’s look at the annoyance of wearing a mask versus the satisfaction of not wearing one. Is the smugness of being a free-thinker worth the risk?

You might opt to swim with the sharks without any protection, but personally, I would rather wear a stainless-steel mesh suit to frolic with these guys. Yes, it is more cumbersome, but it is way safer.

And if you are still unwilling to wear masks or get a free jab in the arm, just consider what it would cost you if you were to be hospitalized.

According to Healthcare Finance,

“The average cost of hospital care for COVID-19 patients without insurance or who receive out-of-network care varies greatly by age – from $51,389 for patients between 21- and 40-years-old, to $78,569 for patients between 41 and 60 years old, according to updated cost analysis data from FAIR Health.”

 A little sobering isn’t it? Save yourself and your family a lot of troubles and get vaxed! It is much cheaper than a little stopover at your local hospital.

“I got the bill for my surgery. Now I know what those doctors were wearing masks for.” ~ James H. Boren

Alain