the latest on Bumpah

"The latest news on Dad is that he seems to have had a mild stroke. He has lost some control on the left side of his face, and leans to that side. Clearly he is in the terminal stage of his disease. This is such a strange way to lose someone. It is like he has been gone for some time, but some part is still here. Maybe I can understand how Hamlet felt when he was haunted by dreams of his fathers ghost. No, he was crazy, I'm not. Thank goodness I don't have that mother/uncle problem. They are taking good care of Dad at Ashland. They are very upbeat, cheerful people, and I can tell that he likes them."

OMG -- hilarious

my bad

ever have one of those days when you just want to push rewind and do things over?

well, check this out -- eddie griffin drove a ferrari enzo worth 1.5 million dollars around a race track on a practice run. cool, huh! yeah, except he crashed it beyond repair as he was rounding a curve. and he wasn't even the owner. uh-oh. the owner was daniel sadek and his reaction, as told in the article, was fairly classy.

vignette ~ Wait Up

“Wait up, Madeline, my shoe slipped off my foot!” Sherri quickly got her foot secured, then pushed her purse strap higher onto her shoulder and tried to catch up.

“Sherri, we’ve got to hurry ... we’re losing them!” Madeline dropped her notebook, tried to slow her momentum so as to grab it, then ended up stumbling and dropping her purse, too.

“Here,” said Sherri, stooping down to grab the notebook and the purse. “Let’s go!”

But it was too late.

“Oh, good grief,” whimpered Maddie. “I can’t believe those guys got away. We were so close!”

“Come on,” said Sherri, “let’s go in this place and have lunch. We can see if anyone else looks good. I mean really, how hard should it be to find a guy to practice on?!” She headed into the deli, tripping over her shoe as she crossed the threshold.

Maddie jerked to a stop to keep from running into her and dropped her notebook again. “You know,” she said as she picked up her notebook, “I just don’t get it. I mean, we’re two nice-looking, nice-acting, nice girls and we can’t seem to get any guy interested in us. What is the deal?”

They walked over to a window table, bumping the edge of it as they sat down. “I mean, it doesn’t show, does it? Like, written on our faces or something...” Maddie’s voice trailed off as she grabbed Sherri’s arm. “Look!” she hissed. “Code red -- dark hair, 6 foot 5, great build, no ring. And cute!”

Sherri slowly turned around, looked past the busboy setting water on the table, pretended to look for a waiter, then gasped, froze, and stared.

“What?! What?!” Maddie whispered. “What’s going on? Talk to me or I’m going to have to--”

Sherri spun around, her face white, and proceeded to flip the menu up so that it completely covered her face. “Don’t let him see me, don’t let him see me!”

“Wh--? Uhh, okay. Well, what are you going to have?" Maddie picked up her menu and accidentally bumped her glass of water, knocking it off the table. Water flew everywhere, but it was, after all, just water so it wasn’t a big deal. “Oh god. Well, at least the glass didn’t break.” She bent down to pick it up just as the waitress headed over.

“You gals ready to order?” she said as she took the empty glass. “I’ll bring you more water right away, unless you’d like something else to drink.”

“Actually we’d like just another minute,” said Maddie, smiling up at the waitress who was just nodding good-bye to Code Red as he went past the table.

“I’m ready,” said Sherri who had seen the cute guy heading out and figured she was safe. “I’ll have a ...”

But just then Code Red glanced back at the waitress and happened to notice Sherri. He halted, then came back to the table. “You!” he said angrily.

vignette

“We coulda tooka the freight train, Manny. I don’ understand why we dint. And now I got all shot up.” He tried not to grimace as he clutched his stomach. “Manny, wh...what we gonna do now?”

Manny tried to keep his voice steady even though worry showed all over his face. “Charlie, you gonna be fine, I gonna be fine, everythin’s gonna be just fine so stop with the yammerin’ and be still. If those yard cops hear us there’s really gonna be trouble.”

Manny gently cuffed Charlie’s shoulder and stood up to look around. He didn’t think their chances were very good right now especially since Charlie wasn’t lookin’ too hot. And if The Big Bad happened to the kid, he was gonna feel like dirt.

“Look here, Charlie, I got me a plan. You just sit tight and I’m gonna take a quick and quiet look around, see. Just like we did back there in Chicago. You gonna be all right, Charlie, so just keep quiet and I’ll be right back.”

Manny looked down at Charlie, who was breathin’ kinda fast, and decided he couldn’t put it off any longer. Crouching behind the small switching shed, he looked both directions and under the wheels of the nearby train cars, then took off and hurried over to the bridge. It was a hell of a place to put a rail yard, right next to the river, but maybe it would make things easier this time.

Damn. Everything looked the same at night -- just one big black shadow. He stumbled down the shallow depression toward the water and hurried along the river bed. There’s gotta be a boat along here somewheres. After about five minutes of futile searching, he decided he better look upriver and see if his luck would turn.

Suddenly, plain as day, there was a boat. It even had two oars and a tarp. This’ll work. This’ll work. We’re gonna be okay.

Manny headed back up the rise and almost ran back across to Charlie except he realized at the last second there was a light over by the shed. Damn! He crouched down again and kept real quiet to see if he could tell what was going on. Suddenly he heard the crunch of rocks off to the right, then a flashlight came bobbing into view. And then a third one showed up from far down the tracks. Dangit all! Dangit! Well, at least now someone would get Charlie a doctor. Maybe the kid would make it after all.

And with that thought, he crept back to the boat, pushed it away from the bank, got in, and started rowing.

individual liberties

jules verne, ray bradbury, ayn rand, george lucas -- these people weren't just storytellers, they were visionaries. and you thought minority report was just science fiction.

well now, friends, the future is coming -- it appears that they are working on technology which can read your mind.

since it isn't quite here yet, i'll just say it up front: stay out of my head!

alice falls down the hole

as i was surfing, i came across an article which talked about things your real estate person would not tell you. that article lead me to three other web pages which present information you may wish to access at some time or other. to wit:

the national sex offender registry, which made me go 'hmmm' after i saw that our teeny tiny little town currently has three offenders, then i saw there are two offenders living within a couple of blocks of my son's big town in new york, yet none within an area comprising many blocks around my son in seattle. hmmm, again. it appears that to be safe from predators you should live in a high-priced area.

but on to the next page -- the environmental protection agency's web site can tell you about pollution, watersheds, and the uv index.

and finally, and the one which really surprised me, was the pollution information site, curiously named, Scorecard. our sparsely populated county, in 2002, ranked as one of the diriest/worst 20% of all counties in the whole u.s. in terms of air releases. wha...?

the number one and number two offenders, releasing nearly exactly the same amount of pollution, are intalco aluminum and conocophillips refinery. following closely behind is bp cherry point refinery.

the really curious thing about the above statistic is that our u.s. senator sent a letter to the husband, answering his question about high gas prices in our state, which said that our gas prices are high because we aren't close to any refineries. again, wha...? and not only are our state gas prices high, but our tiny town has the highest of anywhere in the state!!! we locals feel this is because we are gouging the canadians when they come to visit, which by the way means we get gouged, too.

oh, but surely not. we aren't close to any refineries.

do do do do, do do do do...

i don't care for the french. it's a long-standing bias and probably isn't going to change. however...

i just read where the french space agency is putting its entire file of ufo sightings -- about 100,000 of them -- online. wow, cool! good for them! but, dangit they beat us to the punch. (not that our government would do anything except say "there are no ufo's.")

apparently about 28% of the reports truly cannot be explained. that's an interesting thought.

to read more, go here -- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17753893/

vignette

“So, Robbie,” Megan said across the top of the bar, “Did ye and Mollie fall out then?”

Robbie stopped drying the pilsner glass and stared at her. “Fall out? Fall out? What do yeh mean, fall out? Weir friends just like always, Meggie. Noobody’s been fallin’ out o’ anythin’,” and he returned his attention to the glass.

“Oh, weil then, it’s jes a wee misunderstandin’ on me then, seen us how MacTavish is inner bedroom as weir speakin’.”

Robbie froze and the pilsner crashed to the floor. “The MacTavish is inner bedroom?” he exclaimed. Then he took a deep breath, calmly drew his shotgun from below the bar, and softly spoke to the end customer on his way out the door. “Would ye be watchin’ things fur me a wee bit, Neil.”

Neil simply changed his position from in front of the bar to behind it, sipped from his mug, cast a glance at Rob heading down the front steps, and gave a wee bit of a smile to Megan. “Got tired o’ waitin’ fur him, did she?”

Seeing Robbie stalk his way down the street, Mollie turned away from her window and said, “It won’ be long now, Devon. Thanks fur doin’ me this favor then.”

“Ach, Mollie, ‘tis nothin’. Ye’d do the same fur me if I wiz havin’ trouble with muh Senga.” MacTavish took off his boots, then his shirt, and got under the covers.

Mollie, completely dressed, set herself about, tidying up the room, then glanced out the window as the front door slammed open. A few of the laoculs had gathered outside to watch.

“MacTavish!”

The bedroom door crashed open and Robbie stood in full fury. Then he calmly raised the shotgun to his shoulder as Mollie leaned back against the bookcase and politely said, “Robbie, ye’ve no right to come into muh home. And since ye want to continue as yer own man, I am deteirmined to be muh own woman.”

“That’s no what I said and well ye know it, Mollie.” He took aim. “I said I wiz happy with muh own things and muh own place and ye as muh own girl.”

“Ach no, Robbie. I am muh own girl, nae yers, and ye will leave here afore I take a maddy.”

He lowered the gun as he stared at her. “But Mollie-girl, I thought we fit together like leeks an tatties. I thought we were furivver.”

“Marriage is furivver, Robbie MacFarland, and we do nae have a marriage. We have yer own way and it’s no longer my way, so kindly get yer gun and yer self and go on aboot.”

MacTavish said, “Sorry, Mollie, but I need to pick up Davy from school now.” He got out of bed, slipped on his shirt, gathered his boots, and walked around Robbie out the door.

“Tell Senga I’ll bring the recipe to the paintin’ class tonight, Devon,” said Mollie.

Robbie, not even realizing MacTavish had left, stared at Mollie and then sighed, resigned to the inevitable. “All right girl, I take yer meanin’. And if it has to be, it has to be.” Resolutely dropping to one knee he took a deep breath and said, “Will ye marry me then, Mollie muh heart?”

cool!

the hubby has undertaken a new endeavor! he is volunteering at Peace Arch Park as a groundsman. his thought is that in volunteering, it might give him some brownie points when the summer hiring starts. he really only wants to work, for pay, for about six months so he can finish up his social security credits.

so far he is very much enjoying his new job. one of the guys who works there also works at semiahmoo -- his old workplace. so, little by little, the husband is feeling better about living here. it usually takes (an introvert, anyhow) one to three years to really feel comfortable in a new location and it can take awhile to put a social network in place, especially if you don't have a job.

his plan is to volun-work 40 hours a week, just as if he were getting paid. he's more enthusiastic than i've seen him in a long time so i'm delighted about this new direction. and it will be fun to see if the things he picks up translate into differences in our yard. not that our yard needs a lot of help, of course, just that it will be interesting if he comes home with new ideas.

salud!

food safety tips

things to remember when buying food:

chicken -- "a color more brown than pink signifies the bacterial and chemical changes wrought by poor refrigeration"

hamburger -- "should be a vibrant cherry red; pass if you see even a touch of gray"

fish -- "the skin — shiny, good; dull, bad ... poke it. It should bounce back rather than staying indented"

eggs -- "flip the lid to examine every egg for cracks"

produce -- "Pass on produce that looks bruised or damaged in any way ... if you're planning to buy fruit that's been precut by your market, make sure it's been kept cold ... always place my hand on the top of wrapped, precut melons on display ... should feel pretty cold"

refrigerator -- "it should be set at 40°F or lower to keep food safe"

to read about cross-contamination and more info, go to http://health.msn.com/dietfitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100157058&GT1=9145

whoa, horsie

time marches on. right past those of us who may want to stand still.

i was looking at scotland on google earth and decided to check out my old haunts. the sleepy little berg in missouri has changed. i used to be able to walk downtown (about 3 blocks), walk through town, walk around town -- no biggee. our house lived about a block from the country. now, the house i used to live in, though still close to downtown is faaaaaarrr away from the country. the town looks like it has expanded by 3 or 4 times.

so i checked out the tiny little town i used to love in western nebraska. it was around 5 blocks by 5 blocks, outskirts to outskirts. now, although not as changed as the place in missouri, it has also grown bigger.

in my alternate universe, i am going to pick out the things i liked about all my favorite places and make them permanent. and only my favorite people can be there. yes, that includes you!

can't we all get along

it used to be that immigrants were ultimately accepted in this country because they assimilated. they were eager to reap our benefits, so they learned our language, worked hard at our jobs, made an effort to fit in.

nowadays everything's all up in a heaval.

phone calls to businesses require listening to spanish options. hmmm ... what if i want to listen to gaelic, french, or japanese offerings?

if you want to take a cab from the minneapolis-st. paul airport and you happen to be lugging booze, you better not get into a cab with a muslim driver 'cause you won't go anywhere. they don't take such fares.

and if you want to shop at target in minneapolis, don't try to take bacon to a muslim check-out person. they won't ring it up.

in my experience around the seattle area, an inordinate amount of traffic tie-ups, slow-downs, and fender-benders involve asian women.

several religious groups have driver's license photo issues.

illegal immigrants from mexico, muslim immigrants from east africa, asian immigrants from japan and china, religious intolerance -- it goes on and on and on.

i was brought up to believe we are all equal, we all deserve the same respect, everyone deserves to be accepted.

i also thought you could never change such basic inculcations.

the suspense

oh noooooooooo ....

we've been watching this great hamish macbeth, you ken, and tonight we encountered an actual cliff hanger!! yes!!

at the library we checked out the first two dvd's which were boxed into the first set. we're on the list for the second set, but in the meantime we have to wait!! and i'm THIRTEENTH on the list! gaaahhhhhhhhh....

waiting is awful. i haven't seen a cliff hanger since flash gordon in the 50's!

what is the cliff hanger, you ask? well, there's a local girl who's just admitted her love for hamish and they ended up kissing until they got back to town (no, someone else was driving) and then his old girlfriend turned up and publicly asked him to marry her (she didn't know about the other girl). what will he do? what will he do???

update: ah, yes -- netflix.

oh come on

surely these people can't be serious ... i mean, do they really believe that???

how not to be

courtney love -- what can a person say ... it amazes me she is still around. talk about self-destructive ... this gal has MAJOR problems and i really feel for her daughter.

and come to think of it, britney seems to be heading in that same direction. i feel bad about britney -- i think she's a sweet kid who is hurting soooooo much that she may do herself in before she finds help.

i wonder why i don't feel any sympathy for courtney?

dream 3, remnants

we had moved to a new place -- lots of rolling hills and country lanes. for some reason i was having a hard time learning the layout of the new area, even as i thought back to issaquah and knew how confusing that area had been and this new area was much more straight forward.

regardless, i had gone walking in the country just outside the new town which brought to mind my grandmother's little town in oklahoma. i found myself going back into town a different way and came to a stop at a busy street with a boulevard and a traffic light.

i was dressed in walking shoes, hose, a skirt, blouse, jacket, and scarf. the light changed and i started out but when i got half-way across, the light changed and i had to wait on the boulevard. there was a protected area that i stood within -- a metal framework with canvas tarps on the sides and top.

while i was waiting, a huge long truck pulling steel girders started to turn around the corner and i could tell he was going to brush into the framework i was waiting under. i quickly darted outside and into another waiting area closeby. the truck went on and a second truck started turning. as it went around the corner and picked up speed, i realized i was on that truck, along with several other people who were calmly discussing their jobs. but of course it was part of the truck -- that canvas-enclosed metal-framework area had seats.

we were probably up to 35 mph by now and i leaned out past the canvas trying to decide if i could easily jump off onto the beautiful treed boulevard, but decided not since i had on hose and would probably fall and roll along, getting my clothes all messed up. so i started waving toward the driver, trying to get his attention before we got out of town (in the next block) and picked up some serious speed. i mean, where would i end up and how would i get back??

he must have seen me because the truck started slowing and as i prepared to jump off as efficiently as i could, i woke up.

ach nao

as i've mentioned before, we've been watching a lot of foreign movies -- Poirot, Miss Marple, Islands At War, Foyle's War, Midsommer Murders.

oh sure, they aren't exactly foreign, i mean they do speak english. but sometimes it's hard to tell it's the same language i speak.

the latest movie to catch our interest was suggested by our in-laws (son's in-laws actually) -- a scottish series called Hamish Macbeth. this light-hearted and often very funny series about life and crime in a small scottish hamlet usually causes us to sit on the edge of our seats. that intense? no. we simply cannot tell what they're saying. for example: "ach mon, et'l bey a bluidy hairdship bet weel bey doon whut we mest, yeh ken?" only it's said a lot faster, sort of like this: "akmnelbbludhrdshpwlbdnwtwmsykn?" ahh ... right.

i have to say i totally love the two episodes we've seen so far, but it leaves me exhausted -- all that straining to understand the language. and we constantly have to back it up to re-listen. but, all-in-all i get a real kick out of it. it's nice to have a change from the intensity of the other series. yeh ken?

bigger not always better

wow -- what an exercise in frustration. when we decided to get our wonderful mattress, we opted to open a macy's deferred account to pay for it. that was an absurd experience -- i had to listen to the gal ask me if i had ever lived any of five different addresses. and since i had lived part of that time in seattle, the question went something like this: have you ever lived at 22133 ne 136 ave? have you ever lived at 213234 ne 631st place street avenue? it was so weird and seattle's streets are sooooooo screwed up, i simply blanked and had absolutely NO recollection of any address i'd ever lived anywhere in my life.

well, we got past that and bought the mattress. then it had a problem and we asked for someone to come out and examine it. she did and said if we didn't hear from macy's in 10 days, to call customer service. trying to call to talk with someone at customer service was a joke. the first call had us talking to someone who sounded like they were in new delhi. the next couple of calls netted us automated voices who didn't offer the options we wanted. finally we got it all sorted out and a new mattress delivered.

they picked up the mattress but forgot to pick up the extra-special mattress pad. not long after, we got a bill for the new mattress which we were expected to pay until the credit came through. no biggee, just a couple of thou here and there...

but the credit showed up right away and we didn't have to do anything except call and get the credit transferred from the deferred account to the regular account (even though they both had the same account number!?!). the gal took care of everything just fine and we called the automated thing later that day to make sure everything was square.

which it wasn't. there was a credit balance which started out being one thing, then increased to another, and increased to another. what??? i finally called them, waded through the automated crap, spoke to a real new delhian, and said i wanted a refund. after that bit of paperwork, i said i wanted to close the account. the hell with aggravation.

and i hate automated, choose-the-following-options corporate interfacing. it's easier for them; it wastes my time. i'm going to shop with the little guy downtown.

au revoir

well, the drafting table is gone. we sold it yesterday to a nice young christian family. apparently the dad (who we didn't meet) is quite tall and has his own welding business in which he needs to do a lot of drawing with a compass. needless to say, we hope they are happy with their new purchase.

a side note -- yesterday, for the first time in decades (i swear), i saw a young girl skipping down the sidewalk.

pretty flowers...ahh...ahhh..

the word for the day is: allergies. the second word for the day is: laid-low.

curiously, science has shown the two are related. in spite of my non-scientific background, i can attest that to be true. therefore, i have formulated a plan to cope: many cups of constant comment tea. and the occasional benadryl.

two birthdays

we drove down to the Young Married's house yesterday to help them celebrate their birthdays -- J's was on the 6th and L's was on the 7th -- her parents and sister arrived shortly after we, and we all proceeded to have a really good time!

after snacking and catching up for several hours, we seven piled into our new odyssey and drove over to The Keg for an excellent meal!!! apparently they don't take reservations so we had a bit of a wait (45 minutes) and then after we were seated we had another bit of a wait for our meal (25 minutes) but it was worth it! i had the filet mignon with blue cheese and garlic, and a twice-baked potatoe. oh. my. god. it was sooooo excellent, which was the opinion for everyone else and the selections they were served.

afterwards we returned to the house for lemon cake and strawberry cake, and the opening of presents. i lamented forgetting the camera so i didn't get any pictures of our fun. L's tummy is actually starting to pooch out a little bit (it's 8 weeks), and in spite of her ever-present nausea she held up real well. and it was good to see lulu again since she's had to work everytime the other six of us have gotten together. we finally said good-bye then drove home in the rain, but it was a pleasant drive in our new car.

what a really excellent day!!!

good grief!

i was happily listening to my favorite music station -- http://groovera.com/ -- when i noticed a new blurb on their home page. it seems the evil republicans have once again come up with an absurd plan to make more money, this time at the expense of music.

"... music royalty rates were recently determined by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) which, if enacted, would certainly silence most or all of my favorite online listening services. For most webcasters, this royalty rate represents more than 100% of their total revenues ... the CRB rate decision is retroactive to January 1, 2006 ..."

for the full story, go here. if you would like to sign a petition stating that you disagree with the rule, go here.

the money-grubbers in this country totally disgust me.

wooo... wooo... wuhwooo...

i just got back from a neat trip! i took THE TRAIN from bellingham to seattle -- what a blast from the past! i think the last train ride i took was back in the late 50's when we went from st. louis to oklahoma city. trains had bigger seats back then, but today's amtrak isn't too shabby.

i met up with my girlfriend, R, then we ran errands and had lunch before heading over to the Bodies exhibit. what an intriguing bunch of stuff to see! i understand there's controversy surrounding the acquisition of some (one? all?) of the bodies, but controversy seems to be everywhere these days, so pass me the salt.

at any rate, the exhibit was very interesting, particularly the display about blood vessels! wow! pure art! and the body has 62,000 MILES of blood vessels! whooooaa...

anyhow, it was interesting, overwhelming, and educational -- i recommend it to anyone who has ever thought, "Hmmm, just how big is my liver?"

on the train ride home, it was dark outside. the seats were comfortable (two per side, unlike the airlines), the leg room, er, roomy, the food very reasonably priced, the bathrooms bigger than the airlines, and the ambiance peaceful. there were tv monitors overhead and after the movie, the train route with our position on it was posted and updated as we flew down the track, along with tidbits like, "You can see Chuckanut Bay off to the left" which i took at their word since it was dark.

the car ahead of mine was dimly lit and i could fairly clearly see two of the three monitors -- the connecting doors were clear glass with white cross-hatches. all of a sudden i noticed the monitors in that car were slowly sliding away to the left. seconds later we made a shallow turn. seconds after that the monitors slowly slid back to the right. it was hilarious and i enjoyed watching the whole scenario several more times before i arrived at my destination.

all-in-all ... grab a book and take the train!

truth or dare

we watched An Inconvenient Truth the other day. you know the one ... Al Gore's presentation on global warming. it was by turns interesting, scary, poignant, and curious.

i checked out some of the reviews on netflix to see what others thought. hmmm. either there are some very narrow-minded, short-sighted, juvenile people out there writing reviews or a lot of republicans are ranting.

regardless of one's political beliefs, does it hurt anything to try to be conservative and follow practices which enrich the earth? on the other hand, does it hurt anything to continue as we have the last x-years? well, duh ... let me try to figure this out.

ooooohh, scary...

http://www.stuffonmycat.com/ -- almost as effective as zoloft and not nearly as pricey.

the most intimidating of all dinosaurs --

i'm not hungry right now

breaking away from the british meant we left a number of traditions behind ....

oops...

did you read about Lichtenstein being invaded?

hilarious!

cosmopolitanality

we have recently discovered craigslist. we successfully sold our king-size box springs (from our mattress set in which the mattress was defective and returned to the factory) and put our heavy, sturdy, well-kept drafting table up for sale.

we only had one query and subsequent visit from a nice young mother (pretty pale brown skin and short, neat dreadlocks) with her young 5 year old in tow. the little one was tired and hungry but very well behaved, having taken his shoes off without prompting from mom as soon as they came in the front door in addition to being quiet and polite while the grownups talked. we went to the garage to look at the table, but he soon got cold so i took him back in and offered him apple cider and a couple of kids books to look at.

i went back to the mom to ask if he could have some mashed potatoes and she said, "i don't know. he's never had any." immediately i found myself in an alternate reality and as i made my way back again, i tried to cover up my stunned disbelief while she continued, "he thinks potatoes are french fries." i smiled, trying to gracefully move past my faux pas and went back in to offer him food. he didn't want any, but was extremely interested in the picture encyclopedia which, of course, i sent home with him.

but ... never had mashed potatoes? whoooooaa dude .....

pay attention

we've been watching dvds that are british -- foley's war, midsomer murders, poirot. one episode had a young detective interviewing a lady in her home with her offering tea and pastries. as she handed him a plate of what looked like small muffins, she asked if he'd like some nipples.

uhhh ... ??? ... what??

husband finally decided she must have said nibbles.