Ape wanders in and takes an octopus to munch while he gets things going

Good morning, crew. Still wrestling with jet lag a bit but improving. Flaked out early last night so work up early this morning. I hope things get back to normal on the weekend.

I have put some Brazilian dark roast in the coffee maker. There's Assam and Red Rose in the teapots. If you need a cold beverage, as I suspect many do these days, there's freshly made unsweet iced tea and lemonade in the fridge.

Tinkering with the continuation of Spirits of Tan Maldrin right now. A journey to an icy wilderness where a demon is imprisoned in a volcano. Yeah, my trip influenced this one a lot.😉

So the world of the Tana stories is getting an Iceland analogue, I think. I plotted out a new story about the cast of Spirits of Tan Maldrin set in the frigid, volcanic north country of their world. A demon imprisoned in a volcano is involved. A journey through a lava field, a night or two living in a lava cave. It's wonderful how travel can inspire one's literary inclinations.

Our vacation included an eight day circuit of Iceland, but we didn't have to drive (guided tour in a Mercedes minibus). Forget the total length in km right now.

Just realized that Graham Yost is involved with Justified. Cool. His dad, Elwy Yost, was a journalist and film buff who hosted movie showings on TV Ontario, our provincial educational network back in the seventies and eighties. There was Saturday Night at the Movies, which usually ran a couple full-length films, and Magic Shadows, which serialized old movies. I first saw the wonderful British kaiju film Gorgo on one of his shows, along with some other classic s-f.

Bernard, especially his Dark Age and Medieval stuff, is more my taste

Ride a horse or hike/walk a trail?

Lent - Lens

Been kind of grey and wet here, not mention muggy. Supposed to cool off on the weekend, but the showers persist until Saturday. Oh well, this is fairly typical SW Ontario July weather so I can't complain too much. Better than the extreme heat in parts of the US and Europe.

Coffee is on. Went with Jamaican Blue Mountain today. Teas are Scottish Breakfast and Earl Grey Cream. Iced tea and lemonade are refreshed.

Currently working on a story for another site and might have to start over. Like the basic premise and plot, but it just isn't hanging together well, esp. towards the end. Hate stories like that, the ones where I love the story arc and characters but just can't get things to flow in a way that works.

Watched an interesting half hour video by religious studies scholar Dr. Andrew Henry (his channel is Religion for Breakfast) about the history of The Rapture in Christian belief and theology. While it is actually a feature of fairly modern Dispensationalist theology, he shows that there are much older roots of it.

Tent - Tint

Good morning! Hot and muggy here for a couple days, to the point where the weather boffins have put out a heat warning (meaning some air conditioned city facilities will be available as cooling centres for the homeless or people who lack AC).

Putting on some Fire Roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe in the coffee pot. Teas are Sunday Tea and Irish Breakfast. Fresh pitchers of unsweet iced tea and lemonade are in the fridge for others needing cooling off.

And ape was slinging pancakes this morning, so there's yummies available, too.

Quote by AnnaMayZing
Can you believe this was released 45 years ago?

Sadly, I can. I was quite fond of it. Love that opening sax riff still.

Learned about Laufey while in Iceland. Her father is Icelandic and her mother is Chinese. She is currently living in the USA, though, pursuing a career in jazz after doing a degree at the Berklee College of Music. Here she performs live with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, in which her mother played(plays?) violin.

Peaceful.

Scary story or funny story?

Quote by JamesPBear
Gonna post any particularly good photos? We don't need to see 2,000 pix, but maybe 3 or 4 would be nice!

Yeah, I was planning pick out a few nice ones and put them in a thread. Maybe on the weekend. Got medical stuff tomorrow, then back to work Thursday.

Jet lag. You know I hate it.

Ape yawns

Hate jet lag. Iceland is 4 hours ahead of my time zone so I was awake waaaaaay too early. However, that gives me time to get this place into shape.

does some dusting, washes floors, replenishes condiments, all the while whistling a merry tune

For coffee, here's a Nicaraguan dark roast from the fine ladies at Las Chicas del Cafe in St. Thomas, Ontario. Teas are Aged Earl Grey (new flavour I discovered, it's Earl made with Assam rather than Ceylonese tea) and Red Rose. Pitchers are washed and refilled with iced tea and lemonade.

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood morning!

And for verbal:

Yes, a smiling cake is a bit creepy. But this is verbal we are talking about.

Peaches (and I think the bear has mentioned elsewhere that the Ontario crop is in so yum)

Peaches on their own or in a dessert?

Good evening. I am back from the Great White North. Or did I return to the Great White North. Hard to tell. I saw a hell of a lot more ice and snow in Iceland than we have here in July, anyhow. But come January, we will likely even that playing field.

To go with the Goji cookies, some nice hot, strong coffee. Not quite radioactive but should wake you up and get you roaring. Teas are Scottish Breakfast and Russian Caravan (nice and smoky, like Tokyo after a visit from you know who).

Still in the land of fire and ice. Might have a story idea coming together. New adventure for the cast of The Spirits of Tan Maldrin that uses Iceland as inspiration for the setting.

Streaming. Vinyl has its charm and unique sound but you can't scratch a stream.

Music or podcast?

Trey - Trek

Quote by Molly
In honor of me watching Godzilla (1954) here are some cookies.

Ah, the classics. Need a watch of that again myself.

Makes coffee and English Breakfast tea. Pours a tea and takes a cookie.

Saw whales today. Humpbacks and dolphins.

Quote by verbal
He uses a circular saw

Welp, that confirms it. Verbal is evil.😈😉😆

Good morning. Coffee is a nice strong brew courtesy of my last hotel. Teas are Birchall Earl Grey and English Breakfast. Birchall is a new brand I just discovered but apparently dates back to 1872. Cold beverages are on for those in places warmer than here.

There, took advantage of my time zone advantage to get everything ready before you lot are even up.

Have a good one!

And the rumours that I was swallowed by the volcano are entirely false.😁

Quote by AnnaMayZing

I didn't know we had a Flash Erotica category! 😲

Oops. Another missed edit. 😉😆

Ape walks in, takes off crampons and helmet, pours a cup of Tumultuous Tortie.

Yep I hiked a glacier today. Right under one of the biggest flipping volcanoes on the planet that is overdue to blow by about three decades (it used to erupt every 40-70 years but it has now been 105 years since the last one). And I can see its glacier from my hotel room tonight.

Ice ape out.

Quote by KatarinaTechgoddess
She's 17 now and still has grumpy moments.

You want to see and old cat get grumpy? Get a young, lively dog. Yeah, we made that mistake. I still remember the time the dog was dashing about playing or losing his f-ing mind or something and a paw shot out from a chair to rake his back as he flew by. She was already ten or so when we got him and she outlived him by a year or so.

😼

I found the best solution for heat and humidity. Visit Iceland. I haven't seen high temps this low since probably April or early May. The wind off the Atlantic makes downright chilly at times.

I didn't think we used character counts at all now, just word counts. <=100 is micro, 100-1000 is flash, 1000 is then the minimum for everything else. But, yeah, some clarity and maybe an update of that page would be a good idea.

Fade - Fane

Quote by verbal

Ape, are you really off to Iceland!? There's a big volcano there, like right now! Will you get to see it? That sounds amazing, but be careful! Bucket list stuff.

https://apnews.com/article/iceland-volcano-eruption-tourists-e997b7293f20322033649e42236df2c0

My tour doesn't actually go through that area (it's the same area as the eruptions last year and in 2021, just a bit further North) but the company does offer tours to the lava fields from those eruptions including a visit to this one. They were just waiting for the authorities to open it for tourism. So maybe if we run out of things to see on our first few days when we are just hanging in Reykjavik dealing with 4 hours of lag (they operate on GMT). And it might be visible from the highway that runs from Keflavik (where the international airport is located) to Reykjavik which I shall be traversing after arrival.

Good morning! I am still around but not for much longer. There's some nice Nicaraguan dark roast from Las Chicas in the coffee pot. There's an English Breakfast and Cream of Earl Grey in the teapots. Pitchers are washed and refilled with fresh iced tea and lemonade.

Quote by DenimAngel
Yay it's the All Star game and the Braves have 8 players that are all stars !!!!

Congrats to the Braves. Just heard that the Jays closer had to pull out of the all-star game with an injury. Bummer for him, I guess.

Wind - Wine