An early Update in reverse order... story before the week for those that have been e-mailed about the story who’d have no interest in the daily gibberish.
Season’s Greetings!
Tis the season to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. So from me and mine... well... no kids yet... umm... and the wife isn’t on the scene either... girlfriend... umm, no... girl I’m sort of dating?... well... no, not that either... and even if there were, wouldn’t that be the perfect way to end any possibility of more. Go to a movie with a nice young lady then include her in wishing my friends and family a Merry Christmas... "From me and the girl I just met..." I’m not crazy! Alright... so... from me and... the dog? Nope. Cat? Uh uh. Turtle? Fish? Hamster?... Plant? HD TV? Oh dear oh dear.
Alright, let’s start this over again. Merry Christmas to you and yours... from... ME... and... my... Surround Sound Stereo Home Theatre System (that’s as good as I’ve got. Crazy I may not be... but loser... here I am!).
It’s been a year of firsts and changes. I am still living in Ottawa. And I’m still in my cookie cutter condo out there in Orleans. Orleans... the land that’s at least twenty kilometres from everything. Where I’m able to go to a hockey game in Montreal quicker than Ottawa. Where you legally are obligated to drive to anything (as sidewalks have been removed for added driving space).
With all the Orleans dissing, there is still a pleasantness to my place. To be able to come home at night and hear the crickets chirp. To see the carefully cultivated ‘forest’ at the edge of my suburban pond getting destroyed by a beaver. And to walk the neighbourhood late at night, and only come across rabbits in my travels. This is all rather nice. Although beats me how on earth a beaver made it’s way into the Avalon subdivision and slipped into the man made pond. Either way, I’m routing for the beaver to hold on to his home and keep the interest for the neighbourhood on the upturn.
I’ve been looking at other homes. Houses in Vanier, Houses in the west end of town, and condos all over. Almost made an offer on a cool condo with a view of Parliament. I tried to be wise and responsible by talking to friends and family first. My talking cost me the offer as the place was gone hours before my call to the agent. Maybe I’ll be moved by this time next year... maybe not. We’ll have to see.
I’ve had changes at work. When the rest of the office rejoiced at the thought of ditching shift work for straight days, I asked to go straight evenings. And there I stayed for a good six months, working the evening shift happily. It didn’t do much for the social scene but it did wonders for the sleep routine. At the tail end of the straight evenings, I was joined by another. Annick kept the evening interesting and made me the envy of many a male co-worker. Dayshift almost came to an end from the male side of things when Annick joined the evening.
From there I put my name in to leave AFIS and go to CPSIC. To my surprise, they said “yeah, good idea.” And off I went to CPSIC. Don’t ask me what CPSIC means... I’m on holidays and have pushed such knowledge out of my brain. But it remains on the same floor in the same building and includes some work with fingerprints. Only now, where a mistake in AFIS was frowned upon with a little scolding, a mistake in CPSIC has the potential of execution or deportation. We deal with INTERPOL and the FBI. We even deal with America’s Most Wanted! Lots of phone calls about priority work... phone calls where us new guys can say “umm, let me see... I think... can you hang on a minute?”
In truth, CPSIC has been fun. I’m picking it up slowly but surly. I have gone from a member of a team in AFIS... to a loner in AFIS... to a partner in CPSIC. Phil, who I had spoken with probably six times in the last five years is now the closest thing I have to a wife. Poor Phil to be included in such a comparison. But he’s my partner and we have to co-ordinate time off and share daily duties. We’re together twelve hours a day, four out of every eight days. For yes, my week is now eight days long. CPSIC means you work four straight twelve hour days followed by four days off.
Enough work. I’ve traveled this year as well. Three times I’ve flown from Ottawa. Three times I’ve flown to Newfoundland. It may not be James Bond like excitement. Perhaps Cairo, Baghdad and Hong Kong would sound more impressive than St. John’s, Rocky Harbour and Red Bay... but it has still been good.
In May I was due for a ten day trip to St. John’s. Time to lay low in the home town with the parents. Air Canada decided ten days was too much and, after a cab ride to the airport with bags in hand, I’m told to go home for two days... then I can go. Bless Air Canada for taking care of me so.
In July I return to Newfoundland. This time to a house full of family. Edena, Duff and the girls are there awaiting me. And with mom and dad in tow, we take two cars and drive across the island, and up to Labrador. No summer road trip is complete without a cold. So while others wear shorts and t-shirts in mid twenties weather, I’m fleeced and jeaned with a fever. Drugs get me through and all I really miss is supper in St. Anthony. No disrespect meant for St. Anthony, but little, if any, sleep was lost over that sacrifice. I ended up losing a fleece on this trip though. Probably left it somewhere in a feverish daze. Poor fleece, I miss it so.
I return to the world of softball this year. Everyone around me calls it baseball... but it isn’t. It’s far from baseball. It’s very softball. Very slowpitch softball. Very recreational slowpitch softball. And five games into my softball comeback, even recreational slowpitch is too much for me. I sprain my hamstring legging out a triple.
The doctor told me that such an injury on an 18 year old would keep them off for two days. A 28 year old would miss two weeks. And a 38 year old would be out of action for two months.
Two months later, after a round of physio, I return to full time action. So I’m a 36 year old in a 38 year old body. Excellent. My wonky shoulder reminded me of age when my hamstring got better. But still softball in the summer was fun. Running around (or limping around in some games) the field was good. And the glove didn’t have too much rust after seven years away.
The fall has continued with softball. We played under a dome, on field turf... so it was a brand new game. My hamstring problems were well behind me and I was able to help guide the team to a 2 and 11 won/loss season. At least we get a good draft pick.
In other sports news, the Beijing Olympics gained a spot of worldwide dominance. I vowed to watch none of it. It seemed the torch relay was a sign of the horror to come. When torch relays include orders such as shoot to kill, you know the vision of peace among men that the Olympics is supposed to embody is long gone.
But watch much of the games I did. Swimming events and wild Chinese architecture drew me in. I’d sit there waiting for the next footage of an Olympic venue. The Swimming Cube, for one, was mesmerizing. So while others tuned in for national glory, I tuned in for Chinese architecture. Typical guy I am. I at least refused to watch the pretty Chinese girl lip syncing while the ugly Chinese girl was taped singing. Olympic Milli Vanilli... it’s what the dream’s all about.
In politics, Hillary Clinton made me cheer for Barrack Obama, and Sarah Palin made me cheer for Tina Fey. While, in Canada, Stephen Harper made me... well... he made me hate Stephen Harper. Most politicians lie. They’re mostly two faced. Stephen Harper has shown such a gift for lies and two facedness that it actually made Canadian politics interesting. What would Harper do next? Who would he slander and bully? Tune in to find out.
So that brings me to now. In Newfoundland on my third trip home in the year. Bringing the Ontario snow with me and taking it easy in my home town. Hoping this letter finds you and yours well.
Merry Christmas
Chris, and the Home Theatre System.
FRIDAY...
— Downtown for lunch and some shopping with mom and dad. Gifts bought for all... not much surprise involved for Christmas day as we all tried on things that ended up bought... but it’s still good and a nice day.
— Take it easy around the house in the evening. It’s cold for St. John’s... wind chill in the -20s.
— Only three spam e-mail today. New record as of late. Nice to hear the e-mail notification and have it actually mean a real person has gotten in touch with me.
SATURDAY...
— Pretty quiet day. Do some laundry and go with dad to pick up some A&W for supper. We play cards with Wince and Brenda in the afternoon and the just among the three of us in the evening. A fire in the fireplace as well... and a bit of hockey on TV to end the day.
SUNDAY...
— Lazy day... sleep until around 11:30... watch some TV... have a bath.
— Out to supper with mom and dad at their friend’s place. Good food and some cards to end it.
— 2nd straight 2 spam day... yee ha.
MONDAY...
— Pretty quiet day. Wake to snow and wind and rain... so it’s not a day that makes you want to go out doing stuff. Lunch with Morrissey is delayed to supper and the weather isn’t too bad by the time that happens. We go to Boston Pizza and catch up. He’s actually the first of my friends I’ve seen since coming home. I’ve been a hermit.
TUESDAY...
— Feeling a bit under the weather. Throat nearly scratchy... nose almost congested... energy slipping. The battle’s not yet lost but it feels like a fight is brewing when it comes to my health.
— Shopping... a little downtown... a little at the mall... a bit at Chapters... then home for KFC supper and some TV.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #350
THURSDAY...
— Feeling off today. Wake at 2:30 and don’t sleep anymore until 10:30. Stomach isn’t great either.
— Stay home from work, sleep much between 10:30 and 1:00. Feeling better soon after that.
FRIDAY...
— Sleep alright tonight. In to work in the morning and I’m on my own today... partnerless. Of course, having Debbie there supervising is good, she helps out when things get busy in the late morning and early afternoon.
— Nap for close to an hour at 9:00 tonight. But that’s fine as I need to stay up late to change over to night shift tomorrow.
SATURDAY...
— Lazy day around the house with a movie on DVD and some relaxing.
— Work in the evening. Get there before 5:30 today and am on my own until 10:30. Pretty quiet night. I do the gym around 1:00 and Phil and I hold down the fort for the rest of the night, with little incident.
SUNDAY...
— Sleep until 12:45. Not used to waking up in the afternoon... even if I don’t go to bed before 6:00 AM.
— Softball... we win??? We do, it’s weird. A bad team we play against though. Still, a nice way to end it for me as I miss the last game due to Christmas.
— Work alone. My first full shift by myself. Pretty slow night with one weird thing that I mostly take care of but leave some to go over with Keith at shift change.
— A 10 km line of traffic heading into the city when I’m heading out to Orleans at 6:00 AM. Bus strike is playing havoc with those on regular work schedules. It would be hell to be in that line of traffic.
MONDAY...
— Around the house day. I’m up around 11:00 and do some laundry, watch some TV, put on a movie, and get a pizza come in. Packing for the trip in the evening.
— Lowest spam day in years on the e-mail. 10! It must be the coming of the end!
TUESDAY...
— Travel day... leave Ottawa 4:30 PM Tuesday... arrive in St. John’s 2:15 AM Wednesday. You can get in to outer space quicker than that. Air Canada... oh my... oh dear... in Montreal, flight’s delayed due to mechanical problems and the fact that the pilots are stuck in Ottawa an extra hour... we board the plane an hour and a half late... annoyed. Then we find out that Air Canada didn’t realize that the trolley full of luggage was also meant to go aboard our flight. So after we get on board, the grounds crew slowly and deliberately put the bags on. One at a time on the conveyor belt... watching the bag go up and into the plane... and then on to the next one. We are sitting on the plane for another full hour while the sloth crew keep this up.
— Lots of turbulence out of Montreal and some more in Newfoundland.
— Dickheads (pardon the language... but sometimes it’s just right) sitting behind me. Two... yes, it’s right again... dickheads who have been working in Alberta (one on the oil rigs and the other in construction). They are yelling and laughing and swearing to each other all flight long. So much swearing that it doesn’t even make sense. “I f’n told her to f’n go the f home and then what f’n sh*t she said back made me f’n sh*t my f’n pants.” I’m not kidding... this is how they talked... and loud. It wasn’t even in angry tones though. Just all matter of fact like. And they’d laugh loudly when they’d finish each story. I hated them by... about... New Brunswick. Lots of flying left between New Brunswick and Newfoundland.
— See mom at the baggage carousel at 2:30 or so. We even got delayed getting off the bloody plane... the ramp didn’t work right away. So the dickheads behind me were then getting on their cell phones (lovely invention that cell phone... allows you to share every conversation you ever have... no matter how minuscule and insignificant, with a plane full of strangers. “WALLY”, yelled one dickhead, “WHERE the F are YA?” “I’M STUCK on the F’n PLANE!”
— Thanks to Air Canada, I now know what my own personal hell is.
— Bowl of cereal with a little chat to ma and pa after that. Odd to be up chatting with the parents at 3:00 AM... but there you go, another Air Canada Miracle.
WEDNESDAY...
— Up at 11:15 today. Woke up not knowing where I was. Go with dad to visit uncle Wince and Brenda... go for some groceries too... then hang around home where Wayne and Sylvia come for a visit. I’m tired today though... perk up as the night goes but hoping I have real energy tomorrow.
THURSDAY...
— Fairly lazy day. I sleep until 9:30 but snooze on the sofa until close to 1:30. Dad and I head downtown for lunch and take a look at the city from Signal Hill.
— Supper and the Christmas tree to put up... then mom, dad and I watch A Christmas Carol... or Scrooge... or whatever they call the 1951 movie.
Dorval
Montreal’s airport has a weird way with me. I’ve had some of my most frustrating times there. I’ve sat waiting for a plane staying outside of security for a good eight hours, tucked in a corner reading until being overrun by a great swath of middle easterners who seemed unimpressed with the idea of buffer space... they literally came on top of me.
Dorval Airport has also been the scene where I’ve been stranded by Air Canada... I was sent out from there to a hotel for two days before I could leave.
I’ve also had interesting, almost mystical times in Dorval. A delay one summer night, due to a great lightning storm outside. The terminal I was in at the time was mostly empty and I sat alone at a bank of seats, looking out at the night sky, watching the world light up and rumble for hours.
And I’ve had a lunch, alone on a soft winter’s night. Looking out the great windows as I ate, seeing the sky go from the light blue of day to the fuzzy purple of evening. Distant city lights flickered and the lights of incoming planes, brightening from star like specks to great headlights of incoming air ships, brought a peace with them. People were making their way to loved ones at a festive time of year.
This year, Dorval gave a bit of the good with a bit of the bad. There were the fools of the grounds crew. People acting as sloths as they deliberately loaded luggage on the plane, piece by piece... one at a time... not adding one til the other was gone. All this after they thought the plane was already loaded. Someone looked over and saw an airport train of baggage sitting there on the tarmac and they said “hey, what about that stuff?” So there we sat aboard our flight home, for an extra hour, as they wheeled up the bags and began the slow motion dance.
But there were also moments of insight and meditation that night as I waited for my plane home.
How often do we see people? The same people that is. Today my mind got going on this due to activities in Ottawa that took Montreal to percolate them.
When I check my bags at Ottawa, a woman checks my info, makes sure of the bags I’m checking, asks if I packed them myself... the basic run through.
Forty minutes later, passing from security to the gate for my flight, the same woman checks my boarding pass. She smiles and tells me “Don’t worry, I won’t be in Montreal.”
I chuckle at the comment yet find it odd. That’s because it takes me another twenty minutes to realize it was the same woman I had dealt with upon my arrival at the airport. Had she said nothing when checking my boarding pass, I’d have never placed her and would have sworn I dealt with two different people at Ottawa airport.
In Montreal, I sit and wait for my flight home. I get to thinking of all the people around me. Without the mind jogs like the one by the woman in Ottawa, how many strangers have I come across again and again?... each time thinking it was the first.
I’m sitting and waiting, looking out the large windows where I had previously been alone, watching lightling storms in the summer. Now the place is teaming with people. As I look out at the night’s activities on the runways, I’m getting the ghostly images of passers by behind me. I see all shapes and sizes reflected against the night... walking slightly blurred and translucent. Have I ever seen any of them before? I find myself occasionally turning and looking over my shoulder, making sure that the ghosts in the glass are actual people passing only a few feet behind me.
Three years ago, I sat in that café looking out at the purpling sky as planes drifted in for a landing. Today I sat there again. At the same window, in the same spot. Were some of the people who passed by me today passing by me then? I recognize noone, but I was also completely clueless of a woman I saw twice within forty minutes... twice in three years would be too much for me to comprehend.
Rarely I’ve seen individuality that stood out to me among the crowds. I remember a few weeks of driving to work along the busy highway from Orleans to Ottawa. And in those few weeks, there was a unique pick up truck. The pan was covered with a home made wooden molding. And in those few weeks, I drove past that truck four or five times. Meeting up with the same vehicle in a sea of cars. How many other cars do I pass by each day without knowing it... due to their lack of originality?
So I’m there in Dorval Airport, contemplating how alone we are. I’ve passed hundreds of individuals on this day, how many of them have I truly seen for the very first time? And how many have I passed, either here or in some other place before? A person I pass in Montreal’s airport, I may have stood behind in a line at Tim Horton’s in Ottawa.
In the grand scheme of things, we’re probably not surrounded by perfect strangers half as often as we believe. Sometimes, like with my oblivion regarding that Ottawa airport employee, our aloneness is just our own doing.
— Feeling off today. Wake at 2:30 and don’t sleep anymore until 10:30. Stomach isn’t great either.
— Stay home from work, sleep much between 10:30 and 1:00. Feeling better soon after that.
FRIDAY...
— Sleep alright tonight. In to work in the morning and I’m on my own today... partnerless. Of course, having Debbie there supervising is good, she helps out when things get busy in the late morning and early afternoon.
— Nap for close to an hour at 9:00 tonight. But that’s fine as I need to stay up late to change over to night shift tomorrow.
SATURDAY...
— Lazy day around the house with a movie on DVD and some relaxing.
— Work in the evening. Get there before 5:30 today and am on my own until 10:30. Pretty quiet night. I do the gym around 1:00 and Phil and I hold down the fort for the rest of the night, with little incident.
SUNDAY...
— Sleep until 12:45. Not used to waking up in the afternoon... even if I don’t go to bed before 6:00 AM.
— Softball... we win??? We do, it’s weird. A bad team we play against though. Still, a nice way to end it for me as I miss the last game due to Christmas.
— Work alone. My first full shift by myself. Pretty slow night with one weird thing that I mostly take care of but leave some to go over with Keith at shift change.
— A 10 km line of traffic heading into the city when I’m heading out to Orleans at 6:00 AM. Bus strike is playing havoc with those on regular work schedules. It would be hell to be in that line of traffic.
MONDAY...
— Around the house day. I’m up around 11:00 and do some laundry, watch some TV, put on a movie, and get a pizza come in. Packing for the trip in the evening.
— Lowest spam day in years on the e-mail. 10! It must be the coming of the end!
TUESDAY...
— Travel day... leave Ottawa 4:30 PM Tuesday... arrive in St. John’s 2:15 AM Wednesday. You can get in to outer space quicker than that. Air Canada... oh my... oh dear... in Montreal, flight’s delayed due to mechanical problems and the fact that the pilots are stuck in Ottawa an extra hour... we board the plane an hour and a half late... annoyed. Then we find out that Air Canada didn’t realize that the trolley full of luggage was also meant to go aboard our flight. So after we get on board, the grounds crew slowly and deliberately put the bags on. One at a time on the conveyor belt... watching the bag go up and into the plane... and then on to the next one. We are sitting on the plane for another full hour while the sloth crew keep this up.
— Lots of turbulence out of Montreal and some more in Newfoundland.
— Dickheads (pardon the language... but sometimes it’s just right) sitting behind me. Two... yes, it’s right again... dickheads who have been working in Alberta (one on the oil rigs and the other in construction). They are yelling and laughing and swearing to each other all flight long. So much swearing that it doesn’t even make sense. “I f’n told her to f’n go the f home and then what f’n sh*t she said back made me f’n sh*t my f’n pants.” I’m not kidding... this is how they talked... and loud. It wasn’t even in angry tones though. Just all matter of fact like. And they’d laugh loudly when they’d finish each story. I hated them by... about... New Brunswick. Lots of flying left between New Brunswick and Newfoundland.
— See mom at the baggage carousel at 2:30 or so. We even got delayed getting off the bloody plane... the ramp didn’t work right away. So the dickheads behind me were then getting on their cell phones (lovely invention that cell phone... allows you to share every conversation you ever have... no matter how minuscule and insignificant, with a plane full of strangers. “WALLY”, yelled one dickhead, “WHERE the F are YA?” “I’M STUCK on the F’n PLANE!”
— Thanks to Air Canada, I now know what my own personal hell is.
— Bowl of cereal with a little chat to ma and pa after that. Odd to be up chatting with the parents at 3:00 AM... but there you go, another Air Canada Miracle.
WEDNESDAY...
— Up at 11:15 today. Woke up not knowing where I was. Go with dad to visit uncle Wince and Brenda... go for some groceries too... then hang around home where Wayne and Sylvia come for a visit. I’m tired today though... perk up as the night goes but hoping I have real energy tomorrow.
THURSDAY...
— Fairly lazy day. I sleep until 9:30 but snooze on the sofa until close to 1:30. Dad and I head downtown for lunch and take a look at the city from Signal Hill.
— Supper and the Christmas tree to put up... then mom, dad and I watch A Christmas Carol... or Scrooge... or whatever they call the 1951 movie.
Dorval
Montreal’s airport has a weird way with me. I’ve had some of my most frustrating times there. I’ve sat waiting for a plane staying outside of security for a good eight hours, tucked in a corner reading until being overrun by a great swath of middle easterners who seemed unimpressed with the idea of buffer space... they literally came on top of me.
Dorval Airport has also been the scene where I’ve been stranded by Air Canada... I was sent out from there to a hotel for two days before I could leave.
I’ve also had interesting, almost mystical times in Dorval. A delay one summer night, due to a great lightning storm outside. The terminal I was in at the time was mostly empty and I sat alone at a bank of seats, looking out at the night sky, watching the world light up and rumble for hours.
And I’ve had a lunch, alone on a soft winter’s night. Looking out the great windows as I ate, seeing the sky go from the light blue of day to the fuzzy purple of evening. Distant city lights flickered and the lights of incoming planes, brightening from star like specks to great headlights of incoming air ships, brought a peace with them. People were making their way to loved ones at a festive time of year.
This year, Dorval gave a bit of the good with a bit of the bad. There were the fools of the grounds crew. People acting as sloths as they deliberately loaded luggage on the plane, piece by piece... one at a time... not adding one til the other was gone. All this after they thought the plane was already loaded. Someone looked over and saw an airport train of baggage sitting there on the tarmac and they said “hey, what about that stuff?” So there we sat aboard our flight home, for an extra hour, as they wheeled up the bags and began the slow motion dance.
But there were also moments of insight and meditation that night as I waited for my plane home.
How often do we see people? The same people that is. Today my mind got going on this due to activities in Ottawa that took Montreal to percolate them.
When I check my bags at Ottawa, a woman checks my info, makes sure of the bags I’m checking, asks if I packed them myself... the basic run through.
Forty minutes later, passing from security to the gate for my flight, the same woman checks my boarding pass. She smiles and tells me “Don’t worry, I won’t be in Montreal.”
I chuckle at the comment yet find it odd. That’s because it takes me another twenty minutes to realize it was the same woman I had dealt with upon my arrival at the airport. Had she said nothing when checking my boarding pass, I’d have never placed her and would have sworn I dealt with two different people at Ottawa airport.
In Montreal, I sit and wait for my flight home. I get to thinking of all the people around me. Without the mind jogs like the one by the woman in Ottawa, how many strangers have I come across again and again?... each time thinking it was the first.
I’m sitting and waiting, looking out the large windows where I had previously been alone, watching lightling storms in the summer. Now the place is teaming with people. As I look out at the night’s activities on the runways, I’m getting the ghostly images of passers by behind me. I see all shapes and sizes reflected against the night... walking slightly blurred and translucent. Have I ever seen any of them before? I find myself occasionally turning and looking over my shoulder, making sure that the ghosts in the glass are actual people passing only a few feet behind me.
Three years ago, I sat in that café looking out at the purpling sky as planes drifted in for a landing. Today I sat there again. At the same window, in the same spot. Were some of the people who passed by me today passing by me then? I recognize noone, but I was also completely clueless of a woman I saw twice within forty minutes... twice in three years would be too much for me to comprehend.
Rarely I’ve seen individuality that stood out to me among the crowds. I remember a few weeks of driving to work along the busy highway from Orleans to Ottawa. And in those few weeks, there was a unique pick up truck. The pan was covered with a home made wooden molding. And in those few weeks, I drove past that truck four or five times. Meeting up with the same vehicle in a sea of cars. How many other cars do I pass by each day without knowing it... due to their lack of originality?
So I’m there in Dorval Airport, contemplating how alone we are. I’ve passed hundreds of individuals on this day, how many of them have I truly seen for the very first time? And how many have I passed, either here or in some other place before? A person I pass in Montreal’s airport, I may have stood behind in a line at Tim Horton’s in Ottawa.
In the grand scheme of things, we’re probably not surrounded by perfect strangers half as often as we believe. Sometimes, like with my oblivion regarding that Ottawa airport employee, our aloneness is just our own doing.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #349
Next write up should be coming from Newfoundland. I’ll try to stick to the time frame... so expect it up around December 18th. But with travel and times back home, it may be off a day or two one way or the other.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work day. I’m alone for part of the day and it goes fine... busy but fine. And I sleep okay before work too, which is good.
THURSDAY...
— Work is sort of busy but not too bad... Phil did more than me though, so likely a busier day from my partners point of view.
— Spaghetti with Ruby after work and some TV for the night. I’m trying to stay up late now to get going for night shift. I’ll be alone part of tomorrow night... so it may get boring.
— I’m hating politicians. They should never be called “the right honourable” ever again... these clowns don’t deserve that kind of respect.
FRIDAY...
— Lazy day, sleep much of it to adjust to shifts... meet Laura at Grace O’Malley’s for some drinks and a snack before work. Cara Lee is there with us... it’s good to see Laura again.
— Work much of the night alone. Phil goes after 9:00 and then it’s just me until 5:45. Not a bad night either. Nothing blew up on my watch.
— Could have had an accident on the highway on the way to meet Laura. Slick roads and the cars in front of me broke hard to look at the flipped over car in the ditch. I had to break hard not to hit them and the anti-lock breaks and snow tires saved the day.
SATURDAY...
— See Ruby when I get home, say goodbyes and go to bed. Wake up around noon, with her and Lee gone. Watch a movie in the afternoon (Cloverfield... I kind of like it... some holes in the realism they try to create but a pretty cool horror movie). Off to bed again after that and sleep about an hour. Get some stuff ready and head to work.
— Work is half and half. Not a very good start to it... makes it annoying for a while... but it seems to settle as the night goes. I do the gym at 11:30 and Phil leaves for the night after I get back... so from 12:30 to 5:40 I’m on my own.
— Drive home is slow with snow on the ground... it’s neat to see the fresh rabbit tracks around the building going to the car... but the drive isn’t so nice.
SUNDAY...
— Up around 1:00 with the power out. It’s back at 2:00 and I’m lucky... several in the area were out until 7:00 tonight.
— Cold... -15 without wind... likely -25 with it... to -32 with the wind tonight.
— Softball stinks. Our team is probably the worst team I’ve ever been on. I’ve enjoyed making plays on the field and I like the guys but I’m tired of being on a bad team that’s willing to talk positively about a 23-5 loss against an average team. Looking forward to adding some new people for the winter league... and really looking forward to getting outside again this summer. Maybe I’ll look at getting on with a more competitive league as a single player... I’ll see but I don’t want to be accepting of lopsided losses as if we did alright. It’s a lousy attitude and helps create the losses in my mind.
MONDAY...
— Very lazy day. I watch a movie and snooze several times. Watch some of that True Blood show in the evening. It’s too cold out to go outside the door... around -17.
TUESDAY...
— Bad weather day. I stay in all day and watch much of the True Blood series on On Demand. Pretty good.
Christmas Travel
A week away from family time
With food and hugs and chats,
Or will Air Canada mess it up
And send me to Iraq.
A week away from the sea
With salty moisture on the air,
Or will Air Canada screw it up
And fly my west of here.
A week away from familiar hills
Places I’ve often been,
Or will Air Canada muck it up
And send me to the city of sin.
A week away from home cooked food
Where weight will pack right on,
Or will Air Canada botch it up
And send me to Hong Kong.
You never know with Air Canada
Every trip is so uncertain,
You may not even go anywhere
And wind up back where you’re startin’
I’ve been on trips that take two days
It’s really not that far,
But Air Canada can find a way
To make flights like drive by car.
So a week from now I’ll try it out
I’m hoping to get lucky,
If not I’ll spend the Christmas cheer
In an airport in Kentucky.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work day. I’m alone for part of the day and it goes fine... busy but fine. And I sleep okay before work too, which is good.
THURSDAY...
— Work is sort of busy but not too bad... Phil did more than me though, so likely a busier day from my partners point of view.
— Spaghetti with Ruby after work and some TV for the night. I’m trying to stay up late now to get going for night shift. I’ll be alone part of tomorrow night... so it may get boring.
— I’m hating politicians. They should never be called “the right honourable” ever again... these clowns don’t deserve that kind of respect.
FRIDAY...
— Lazy day, sleep much of it to adjust to shifts... meet Laura at Grace O’Malley’s for some drinks and a snack before work. Cara Lee is there with us... it’s good to see Laura again.
— Work much of the night alone. Phil goes after 9:00 and then it’s just me until 5:45. Not a bad night either. Nothing blew up on my watch.
— Could have had an accident on the highway on the way to meet Laura. Slick roads and the cars in front of me broke hard to look at the flipped over car in the ditch. I had to break hard not to hit them and the anti-lock breaks and snow tires saved the day.
SATURDAY...
— See Ruby when I get home, say goodbyes and go to bed. Wake up around noon, with her and Lee gone. Watch a movie in the afternoon (Cloverfield... I kind of like it... some holes in the realism they try to create but a pretty cool horror movie). Off to bed again after that and sleep about an hour. Get some stuff ready and head to work.
— Work is half and half. Not a very good start to it... makes it annoying for a while... but it seems to settle as the night goes. I do the gym at 11:30 and Phil leaves for the night after I get back... so from 12:30 to 5:40 I’m on my own.
— Drive home is slow with snow on the ground... it’s neat to see the fresh rabbit tracks around the building going to the car... but the drive isn’t so nice.
SUNDAY...
— Up around 1:00 with the power out. It’s back at 2:00 and I’m lucky... several in the area were out until 7:00 tonight.
— Cold... -15 without wind... likely -25 with it... to -32 with the wind tonight.
— Softball stinks. Our team is probably the worst team I’ve ever been on. I’ve enjoyed making plays on the field and I like the guys but I’m tired of being on a bad team that’s willing to talk positively about a 23-5 loss against an average team. Looking forward to adding some new people for the winter league... and really looking forward to getting outside again this summer. Maybe I’ll look at getting on with a more competitive league as a single player... I’ll see but I don’t want to be accepting of lopsided losses as if we did alright. It’s a lousy attitude and helps create the losses in my mind.
MONDAY...
— Very lazy day. I watch a movie and snooze several times. Watch some of that True Blood show in the evening. It’s too cold out to go outside the door... around -17.
TUESDAY...
— Bad weather day. I stay in all day and watch much of the True Blood series on On Demand. Pretty good.
Christmas Travel
A week away from family time
With food and hugs and chats,
Or will Air Canada mess it up
And send me to Iraq.
A week away from the sea
With salty moisture on the air,
Or will Air Canada screw it up
And fly my west of here.
A week away from familiar hills
Places I’ve often been,
Or will Air Canada muck it up
And send me to the city of sin.
A week away from home cooked food
Where weight will pack right on,
Or will Air Canada botch it up
And send me to Hong Kong.
You never know with Air Canada
Every trip is so uncertain,
You may not even go anywhere
And wind up back where you’re startin’
I’ve been on trips that take two days
It’s really not that far,
But Air Canada can find a way
To make flights like drive by car.
So a week from now I’ll try it out
I’m hoping to get lucky,
If not I’ll spend the Christmas cheer
In an airport in Kentucky.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #348
TUESDAY...
— Crazy day. Work and car to the garage for winter tires... walking to the car after work and walking back again after finding the car still isn’t ready... then a ride back again from Annick and finally get the car and home a mere 15 hours after I left.
WEDNESDAY...
— Wake at 2:45 and don’t get back to any real sleep. I’m exhausted at work... the last few hours being a struggle.
— Groceries and crashing after work.
THURSDAY...
— Sleep until around 10:00. Some TV and then to Mazda for 1:00. There until close to 3:00 for a service... which gets annoying.
— Straight home for nap time... up by 4:45... then time to get ready for work.
FRIDAY...
— Work was alright last night. Had pizza with Melissa and kept steady but not super busy through the night. Even had company as a homicide happened in Ottawa and a police officer came by with prints of one of the victims for us to ID.
— Up around 11:15 this morning. Ruby and Lee arrive about an hour later. We chat a bit before they go to visit other friends until Sunday... then it’s nap time for me and work to follow.
— Work goes fine. Hit the gym around 2:30. And forget my pizza in the fridge when I leave... so it’s probably a trip by the office to pick it up tomorrow. I’m supposed to go to the movies near there anyway.
SATURDAY...
— Quiet day around the house (sleeping until about noon). Then off to supper and a movie with Sheila and Janice. Religulous is pretty good.
SUNDAY...
— Up around 8:30 this morning. Kind of tired but still up.
— Ball at 5:00. We lose again... mostly some fun still but I’m tired of the idea that we’re accepting of a loss like we’ve gotten.
— Ruby and Lee are here when I get home. We have supper and watch a little TV.
MONDAY...
— Around the house... get some groceries with Ruby... and watch lots of politics on TV. Looks like Harper may get tossed and a coalition government will take over. But who knows. It’s the biggest political mess I’ve ever seen but it’s all Stephan Harper’s fault. He got stupid and greedy and backed the other parties into a corner. The result was either he’d be the equivalent of a dictator, or they’d push back.
Oh Canada!?!?
Never have I seen politics in such a sorry state. I don’t even mean in my own country... any politics. George Bush and the boys look professional compared to this lot. And the problem is, there’s no right answer to any of it.
Stephen Harper has been and now has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, to be a lying, arrogant and stupid man. He may have book smarts but politics is as much about being wise in your dealings with people. It’s probably more about being wise with people than being intellectually intelligent. And Little Stevey Harper is a six year old who thinks he knows better than the adults in the room. He’s mean spirited and vindictive... the man’s a bully.
And because of the traits that make Stephen Harper who he is, we’re left with a laughing stock country.
The other three political parties are now looking at cooperation in order to wrestling the government away from the elected party without another election. It sounds undemocratic. Maybe it isn’t. In the last election, 65% of Canadians who voted didn’t want Harper. But it’s at least a very different spin on democracy. Forever is it changed, the idea that because you got more votes than anyone else, you win. Now it’s possible that the losers can come together and overtake the winner.
It’s a dangerous ball to start rolling. Governments in Canada have been dysfunctional for a long time now, this just brings on a new tool to be used in maintaining the dysfunctionality.
So we have a party that’s heading by a man who has tried running a dictatorship accusing the other parties of a coupe. I feel like I live in some Central American nation where the president dresses in military garb and only his top generals can be trusted.
El Presidente Harper, lock yourself in your room... they’re coming to get you.
Only in this case, rather than a strong and rebellious Rambo type soldier, the leader of the revolt is a mild mannered university professor type. How far can you push... how much sand can you kick in the face of Stephane Dion before he fights back? Harper has found out.
So we have the mild mannered professor who has already announced his departure joining with the Socialist with the support of the Separatist. And they all are trying to take down the Dictator. It’s the most bizarre political game in the world today. Over the top movies making fun of political dramas would be tagged as too unrealistic and too over the top if this was fiction. But it’s real. It’s really happening.
Personally, I’m for giving the coalition a try. Why not? Harper as proven, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he can not be trusted. He can promise the world now and there’s no reason to believe him. And I fear the possibility of that man ever having a majority government. He really will become dictator.
If we don’t go with the coalition, what option remains?
God I wish Canada had an Obama.
— Crazy day. Work and car to the garage for winter tires... walking to the car after work and walking back again after finding the car still isn’t ready... then a ride back again from Annick and finally get the car and home a mere 15 hours after I left.
WEDNESDAY...
— Wake at 2:45 and don’t get back to any real sleep. I’m exhausted at work... the last few hours being a struggle.
— Groceries and crashing after work.
THURSDAY...
— Sleep until around 10:00. Some TV and then to Mazda for 1:00. There until close to 3:00 for a service... which gets annoying.
— Straight home for nap time... up by 4:45... then time to get ready for work.
FRIDAY...
— Work was alright last night. Had pizza with Melissa and kept steady but not super busy through the night. Even had company as a homicide happened in Ottawa and a police officer came by with prints of one of the victims for us to ID.
— Up around 11:15 this morning. Ruby and Lee arrive about an hour later. We chat a bit before they go to visit other friends until Sunday... then it’s nap time for me and work to follow.
— Work goes fine. Hit the gym around 2:30. And forget my pizza in the fridge when I leave... so it’s probably a trip by the office to pick it up tomorrow. I’m supposed to go to the movies near there anyway.
SATURDAY...
— Quiet day around the house (sleeping until about noon). Then off to supper and a movie with Sheila and Janice. Religulous is pretty good.
SUNDAY...
— Up around 8:30 this morning. Kind of tired but still up.
— Ball at 5:00. We lose again... mostly some fun still but I’m tired of the idea that we’re accepting of a loss like we’ve gotten.
— Ruby and Lee are here when I get home. We have supper and watch a little TV.
MONDAY...
— Around the house... get some groceries with Ruby... and watch lots of politics on TV. Looks like Harper may get tossed and a coalition government will take over. But who knows. It’s the biggest political mess I’ve ever seen but it’s all Stephan Harper’s fault. He got stupid and greedy and backed the other parties into a corner. The result was either he’d be the equivalent of a dictator, or they’d push back.
Oh Canada!?!?
Never have I seen politics in such a sorry state. I don’t even mean in my own country... any politics. George Bush and the boys look professional compared to this lot. And the problem is, there’s no right answer to any of it.
Stephen Harper has been and now has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, to be a lying, arrogant and stupid man. He may have book smarts but politics is as much about being wise in your dealings with people. It’s probably more about being wise with people than being intellectually intelligent. And Little Stevey Harper is a six year old who thinks he knows better than the adults in the room. He’s mean spirited and vindictive... the man’s a bully.
And because of the traits that make Stephen Harper who he is, we’re left with a laughing stock country.
The other three political parties are now looking at cooperation in order to wrestling the government away from the elected party without another election. It sounds undemocratic. Maybe it isn’t. In the last election, 65% of Canadians who voted didn’t want Harper. But it’s at least a very different spin on democracy. Forever is it changed, the idea that because you got more votes than anyone else, you win. Now it’s possible that the losers can come together and overtake the winner.
It’s a dangerous ball to start rolling. Governments in Canada have been dysfunctional for a long time now, this just brings on a new tool to be used in maintaining the dysfunctionality.
So we have a party that’s heading by a man who has tried running a dictatorship accusing the other parties of a coupe. I feel like I live in some Central American nation where the president dresses in military garb and only his top generals can be trusted.
El Presidente Harper, lock yourself in your room... they’re coming to get you.
Only in this case, rather than a strong and rebellious Rambo type soldier, the leader of the revolt is a mild mannered university professor type. How far can you push... how much sand can you kick in the face of Stephane Dion before he fights back? Harper has found out.
So we have the mild mannered professor who has already announced his departure joining with the Socialist with the support of the Separatist. And they all are trying to take down the Dictator. It’s the most bizarre political game in the world today. Over the top movies making fun of political dramas would be tagged as too unrealistic and too over the top if this was fiction. But it’s real. It’s really happening.
Personally, I’m for giving the coalition a try. Why not? Harper as proven, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he can not be trusted. He can promise the world now and there’s no reason to believe him. And I fear the possibility of that man ever having a majority government. He really will become dictator.
If we don’t go with the coalition, what option remains?
God I wish Canada had an Obama.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #347
MONDAY...
— One of the rare times that Monday is actually Monday for me. I work the day shift and, for some reason, the 12 hours seem longer. I’m exhausted once home and actually fall asleep on the sofa from 9:00 to 10:00 even though I struggle to stay awake. Even then, I’m soon to bed after waking.
TUESDAY...
— Well I was soon to bed... but not to sleep. Despite being tired when I went to bed Monday night, I tossed and turned until just past midnight. Not good when wake up is 4:45.
— Work is tough. Tired and it’s busy there. The busiest I’ve been in the new job. Phil, the partner has been good and patient anyway.
— A bit of a snooze after I get home and up late to get into night mode.
WEDNESDAY...
— Finally get in touch with Mazda for the service. I’ll be skipping them for winter tires though... yikes on the cost of that with them.
— Easy day around the house with a good nap in the afternoon. All set for night shift.
— Shift goes well. It’s pretty busy until about 2:00 AM and then we coast to the end. I’m alone from 6:00 to 7:30... go to the gym at 1:00. The downside was it took 45 minutes to get to work (thanks to an accident on the highway) and I was 15 minutes late relieving the dayshift. Steph wasn’t too thrilled with that. But nothing much can be done about it.
THURSDAY...
— Not a load of sleep this morning. Bed by 6:15 and up around 10:30. The afternoon nap is again a good thing before work.
— Work goes alright. Chinese food for supper. Talk with Megan some. Do the gym again... and come Friday morning, I’m off. -15 with the wind tonight though... brr.
FRIDAY...
— Up just before noon and off to look at a house at 1:00. It’s not bad... tempting for an offer... I could see it as a long term kind of place... I don’t know.
— Groceries in the evening and a little TV plus chat times with mom and dad... then Edena on the phone.
SATURDAY...
— House day. It’s too cold to go out without a purpose. Around -13 with the wind.
— Some naps, movies, and hockey. Patrick Roy’s number retirement in Montreal is good to see. He belongs within the Montreal Canadien family. But parts of it were kind of tacky in the doing. Not the ceremony I’d have wanted... but still, the ovation he got from the fans made it for me.
SUNDAY...
— I’m getting really tired of the advertising for war video games. It’s all about worldwide Armageddon with these adds. I think, in this day and age, with the United States taking part in two military conflicts at the same time, glamourizing military video games is sending the wrong message. I really fear that war has become an excepted part of North American society. As accepted as any other occupation and glamourized as much as any pro sport. Times of war should be exceptions to the norm... not a part of it.
— Lose softball by default. Not enough girls show for us today. So we play a scrap game... lose that too but have fun doing it.
— To a pub after the game for supper, a few drinks, and three quarters of the Grey Cup. Get home to see the end.
Action On the Side
RCMP Deals. There are some out there. Little perks with working with Canada’s national police agency.
Yes you see the deals the cops get in the movies. Where they walk their beat, stop by the bakery and get handed a free bagel by the appreciative baker. Then they head on down the street, pass by a fruit stand, and come away with a free apple.
Donut shops have always been portrayed as the cop hangout where free donuts and coffee perk them up while on duty.
And in those darker cop movies, you have the free sack of cash from the local, mop run gambling joint... just to help the law look the other way.
I’ve been told there are several discounts available to the RCMP employees. Although I will say I’m too bashful to try it out. I don’t know which places are friends of the RCMP and which ones aren’t. Do I go in to Sears, pick out some clothes and a TV, head to the checkout and whisper “Yeah... umm... I work with the RCMP you know.”
It could go either way, in such a scenario...
“Yes sir, very good sir... and 50% your discount, have a nice day.”
Or...
“I see, that must be nice... that’ll be $2200.”
I have once dropped the RCMP line. I had a throat problem and decided to get to the doctor. Being in Canada, and being relatively new to this city, I had no actual doctor of my own. It’s the Canadian thing now. If you haven’t kept the same doctor since the day you were born, you’re out of the loop. 90% of the doctors around here aren’t taking new patients. Not only that, they even seem to get annoyed at the audacity of even asking them if they would consider such a request. You’d call the office and get the receptionist giving a cheery “good morning, Dr. Smith’s office.” But when they realize what you’re calling about... the change is amazing.
“Hi, I was wondering if the Doctor is...”
“No, he isn’t” (click).
“taking new... hello?... hello?”
So anyway, with that said, it’s to the walk in clinics for me. These are those doctor offices you go where you see large men in wife beater shirts holding a cloth to their skull in order to keep the blood from running into their eyes... while still making sure not to actually dislodge that fork that’s embedded up there. It’s also the place where older women who seem to have lived three lives for your one (that’s how worn down they look) leave their shopping carts just outside the door. No, there’s not a grocery store in the vicinity. They just always take their shopping cart with them... just in case they come across something of interest.
So this is where I go when death is upon me. And a few days before I go, I’m told that at this particular doctor’s clinic, the RCMP gets preferential treatment. Let them know you work with the RCMP and you will be the next to be seen... so the story goes.
So at the counter, feeling sickly and slightly afraid of the large man in the wife beater with the forked skull, I drop the little nugget of info. “By the way, I work with the RCMP.”
“Very good, take a seat and the doctor will see you shortly.”
So I sit nearer the shopping cart ladies and further from forky and I scan the room. Several down and out elderly people are sitting... too defeated by illness to even pick up a magazine... they stare off to a distant place I can not see. And small children are being caressed by desperate mothers.
I can see no more than this quick scan of the room as I hear the calling of my name... that is fast!
I rise sheepishly. Last one to sit and first one to be summoned. I go straight for the open door without looking. I feel the stares of the elderly. I feel the stabbing pain of hatred from Giant Forked Man. But I’ve gone too far, I can’t go back now... and in I go.
I still get the bad doctor. RCMP privileges only go so far. The guy even offers to take me on as one of his regular patients! I mean how bad can a doctor be if he’s asking you “wanna be my patient?”
So I give him a look, think to myself “thank you know... leech doctor” and tell him I’ll think about it. I run through the lobby, hoping to avoid detection by the masses as I depart.
I now hear that cell phones are another perk for the RCMP. There is an RCMP plan, supposedly. So I’ll have to look into this and possibly join the cell phone age. Unlimited calling and text messages for a dollar a month!
It’s like walking by fruit stands... and I’m ready for my apple.
— One of the rare times that Monday is actually Monday for me. I work the day shift and, for some reason, the 12 hours seem longer. I’m exhausted once home and actually fall asleep on the sofa from 9:00 to 10:00 even though I struggle to stay awake. Even then, I’m soon to bed after waking.
TUESDAY...
— Well I was soon to bed... but not to sleep. Despite being tired when I went to bed Monday night, I tossed and turned until just past midnight. Not good when wake up is 4:45.
— Work is tough. Tired and it’s busy there. The busiest I’ve been in the new job. Phil, the partner has been good and patient anyway.
— A bit of a snooze after I get home and up late to get into night mode.
WEDNESDAY...
— Finally get in touch with Mazda for the service. I’ll be skipping them for winter tires though... yikes on the cost of that with them.
— Easy day around the house with a good nap in the afternoon. All set for night shift.
— Shift goes well. It’s pretty busy until about 2:00 AM and then we coast to the end. I’m alone from 6:00 to 7:30... go to the gym at 1:00. The downside was it took 45 minutes to get to work (thanks to an accident on the highway) and I was 15 minutes late relieving the dayshift. Steph wasn’t too thrilled with that. But nothing much can be done about it.
THURSDAY...
— Not a load of sleep this morning. Bed by 6:15 and up around 10:30. The afternoon nap is again a good thing before work.
— Work goes alright. Chinese food for supper. Talk with Megan some. Do the gym again... and come Friday morning, I’m off. -15 with the wind tonight though... brr.
FRIDAY...
— Up just before noon and off to look at a house at 1:00. It’s not bad... tempting for an offer... I could see it as a long term kind of place... I don’t know.
— Groceries in the evening and a little TV plus chat times with mom and dad... then Edena on the phone.
SATURDAY...
— House day. It’s too cold to go out without a purpose. Around -13 with the wind.
— Some naps, movies, and hockey. Patrick Roy’s number retirement in Montreal is good to see. He belongs within the Montreal Canadien family. But parts of it were kind of tacky in the doing. Not the ceremony I’d have wanted... but still, the ovation he got from the fans made it for me.
SUNDAY...
— I’m getting really tired of the advertising for war video games. It’s all about worldwide Armageddon with these adds. I think, in this day and age, with the United States taking part in two military conflicts at the same time, glamourizing military video games is sending the wrong message. I really fear that war has become an excepted part of North American society. As accepted as any other occupation and glamourized as much as any pro sport. Times of war should be exceptions to the norm... not a part of it.
— Lose softball by default. Not enough girls show for us today. So we play a scrap game... lose that too but have fun doing it.
— To a pub after the game for supper, a few drinks, and three quarters of the Grey Cup. Get home to see the end.
Action On the Side
RCMP Deals. There are some out there. Little perks with working with Canada’s national police agency.
Yes you see the deals the cops get in the movies. Where they walk their beat, stop by the bakery and get handed a free bagel by the appreciative baker. Then they head on down the street, pass by a fruit stand, and come away with a free apple.
Donut shops have always been portrayed as the cop hangout where free donuts and coffee perk them up while on duty.
And in those darker cop movies, you have the free sack of cash from the local, mop run gambling joint... just to help the law look the other way.
I’ve been told there are several discounts available to the RCMP employees. Although I will say I’m too bashful to try it out. I don’t know which places are friends of the RCMP and which ones aren’t. Do I go in to Sears, pick out some clothes and a TV, head to the checkout and whisper “Yeah... umm... I work with the RCMP you know.”
It could go either way, in such a scenario...
“Yes sir, very good sir... and 50% your discount, have a nice day.”
Or...
“I see, that must be nice... that’ll be $2200.”
I have once dropped the RCMP line. I had a throat problem and decided to get to the doctor. Being in Canada, and being relatively new to this city, I had no actual doctor of my own. It’s the Canadian thing now. If you haven’t kept the same doctor since the day you were born, you’re out of the loop. 90% of the doctors around here aren’t taking new patients. Not only that, they even seem to get annoyed at the audacity of even asking them if they would consider such a request. You’d call the office and get the receptionist giving a cheery “good morning, Dr. Smith’s office.” But when they realize what you’re calling about... the change is amazing.
“Hi, I was wondering if the Doctor is...”
“No, he isn’t” (click).
“taking new... hello?... hello?”
So anyway, with that said, it’s to the walk in clinics for me. These are those doctor offices you go where you see large men in wife beater shirts holding a cloth to their skull in order to keep the blood from running into their eyes... while still making sure not to actually dislodge that fork that’s embedded up there. It’s also the place where older women who seem to have lived three lives for your one (that’s how worn down they look) leave their shopping carts just outside the door. No, there’s not a grocery store in the vicinity. They just always take their shopping cart with them... just in case they come across something of interest.
So this is where I go when death is upon me. And a few days before I go, I’m told that at this particular doctor’s clinic, the RCMP gets preferential treatment. Let them know you work with the RCMP and you will be the next to be seen... so the story goes.
So at the counter, feeling sickly and slightly afraid of the large man in the wife beater with the forked skull, I drop the little nugget of info. “By the way, I work with the RCMP.”
“Very good, take a seat and the doctor will see you shortly.”
So I sit nearer the shopping cart ladies and further from forky and I scan the room. Several down and out elderly people are sitting... too defeated by illness to even pick up a magazine... they stare off to a distant place I can not see. And small children are being caressed by desperate mothers.
I can see no more than this quick scan of the room as I hear the calling of my name... that is fast!
I rise sheepishly. Last one to sit and first one to be summoned. I go straight for the open door without looking. I feel the stares of the elderly. I feel the stabbing pain of hatred from Giant Forked Man. But I’ve gone too far, I can’t go back now... and in I go.
I still get the bad doctor. RCMP privileges only go so far. The guy even offers to take me on as one of his regular patients! I mean how bad can a doctor be if he’s asking you “wanna be my patient?”
So I give him a look, think to myself “thank you know... leech doctor” and tell him I’ll think about it. I run through the lobby, hoping to avoid detection by the masses as I depart.
I now hear that cell phones are another perk for the RCMP. There is an RCMP plan, supposedly. So I’ll have to look into this and possibly join the cell phone age. Unlimited calling and text messages for a dollar a month!
It’s like walking by fruit stands... and I’m ready for my apple.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #346
SUNDAY...
— Work is fairly slow paced but goes by fairly well. Just when you’re done one thing, you get a chance to breath and then move on to the next thing.
— Softball is brutal. 27-2 we lose. Perhaps we should start using gloves! I’m enjoying the field... playing the ball and all... but man... we have to play better.
MONDAY...
— Work goes pretty well for a fairly busy Monday.
— Supper and a movie with Melissa after work. I bring Field of Dreams on DVD. Great movie.
— Finally get a flash drive for computer storage. And it works like a charm. I get all the pictures on my computer... plus all my writing and many other records and such... all backed up with room to spare. And with that, the pictures are finally removed from my camera. I’ve had some pictures on there for more than a year.
TUESDAY...
— Another condo look in the early afternoon. Pretty interesting place in a great location although the financial aspects of things may make it a no go.
— Afternoon nap before the night of work. I get extra time off in the future because of today’s shift on Remembrance Day.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work the night again. Alone for a few hours. Tired by the end of it and home to find messages about condos... deep breath.
THURSDAY...
— Rainy day. Talk to the agent and considering the condo from Tuesday again. Dentist and some groceries... and I’m tired. Nice to be off.
— Talk things through with mom and dad... and via e-mail with Edena... and I think I’m just going to stay away from that condo. There’s an uneasy feeling about it.
FRIDAY...
— Warms up. Around 15 degrees today. I’m really tired though. Lazy... bordering on unconscious... for most of the morning. Go for a walk in the afternoon.
— Things that bug me... Friday edition...
(1) crap in the mailbox. I am sick to death of opening my front door to see so many fliers jammed in there that the lid won’t close and it’s an effort to lift the junk out. All this in the name of getting cheap prices on toothpaste! I’m seriously tempted to remove my mailbox entirely. Any real mail I get is going in that stupid Superbox anyway (the mailman’s lazy box).
(2) roudy kids. I went for two laps of the pond today. One lap takes 15 minutes... so you’re a good 500 yards from any point along the way at any given time. I heard two kids yelling at each other the entire time. And they’re “adult supervision” sat by like a zombie... not moving. I have no issues with play and kids being energetic outside. But if I can’t escape the screams from anywhere other than inside my own home, they’re being too loud for too long.
(3) tires. Four weeks ago some dick neighbour decided that the best idea for their worn out tires was to put them out on garbage day. Four weeks gone by and they’re still sitting there on the corner. My condo corporation has often sent out warning letters to not put out garbage too early and to quickly take in your recycling bins and what not... otherwise the guy they hire to keep the grounds clean will have to take it away. FOUR WEEKS of discarded TIRES! Where do I live? A dump?
(4) Mazda. Two weeks ago I got mail from them saying I’m due to get the car serviced. Three times in two weeks I’ve called them and left messages... three times my message has gone unanswered. Is it the plan of business to bend over backwards getting your business only to then piss on you once they’ve got it? See Rogers for the answer to that one. Scum bags.
SATURDAY...
— Rainy day. I sleep off and on in the morning. Watch a movie... then some football on TV.
— Then it’s time to read some of a book I recently got about one of my all-time favourite albums, Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea”.
— From there it’s time to listen to my Neutral Milk Hotel collection while I do my weekly writing.
Suburban Darkness
Life in Avalon is normal. And normal, in this sense of the word, is mostly characterless. There are some unique lives. The old Asian couple who come out to walk the pond, her shoulder acting as a crutch for his laboured steps.
Then there is the older lady whose husband died shortly before her move to the neighbourhood. This move was a downsizing for her and she now remains alien to her neighbours... only leaving her home when her son comes to pick her up and take her back to where life doesn’t sit in a holding pattern.
For the most part, however, the rest of the neighbourhood is made up of boredom. However suburban boredom is the worst kind because the people don’t realize how mundane their lives are. Husbands and fathers put on cut off jean shorts that would be best served discarded. Instead, they spend hours in their driveway, hosing down the asphalt or wiping down the minivan... all the while bits of pocket spill out from underneath the denim which was cut a good three inches too short.
Women pluck at small stands of flowers, occasionally pulling their husbands away from the television long enough to get him to lug out a bag of soil. With a sigh, he returns to the innards of his house while she gently pats new soil underneath suburban shrubs.
The night brings out what little interesting bits that exist. And apart from a few teenagers who gather along the edges of greenspaces, smoking pot and keeping a suspicious eye on any passer by, the majority of that which is interesting isn’t even human.
Rabbits come out and hop along by those same shrubs the women were patting dirt around those few hours before. The women have no idea that the rabbits were ever there... they’re oblivious in their garden shows when the rabbits begin the invasion.
Skunks pass under windows on their way to open fields. Owls sit atop roofs in a lookout for a tasty critter. And over at the pond, muskrat and beaver swim around, busy with night.
However one of the homes hold dark originality. When others are sitting watching their sports on high def, this one stands in the darkness of a bedroom window, looking out. He is just as alien to his neighbours as the old husbandless woman is. Only where she carries sadness and the hope of her son’s arrival to carry her away, he holds anger and resentment.
A month before, he decided it was a good idea to discard his old summer tires at the curb for garbage day. He brought them out while the rest of the neighbourhood was sleeping and was pleased to be rid of the dirty clutter they created.
To his horror, the tires remained where he left them once all the other trash was taken away. And there they sit for weeks now. An eyesore that annoys the others of the area, they sit as a reminder to him. A reminder that society doesn’t accept him. Each time he looks out at the curb, he feels more isolated, more embarrassed, and more angry. If he goes to retrieve the tires, a neighbour will see. And then cold glances will come his way at the mailbox. Pond walkers will meet with their dogs, and while the animal drops smelly things that need to be plucked in plastic, the people will whisper about the guy who lives in the upper corner unit of the building across the street... how they saw him pulling tires into his front door and how they had a good mind to tell him what he should do with his tires.
Then they scoop the poop and continue around the pond, oblivious of the beaver and in love with the ducks.
So with such visions, the man leaves the tires where they lay. When he goes out at night, to wander the pond alone, he glares at the mound of dirty rubber and curses his misfortune.
One time, at the pond, he spots the white of a rabbit’s tale. He picks up a rock and hurls it towards the creature. To his horror, the rock strikes it’s target. A one in a million shot that drops the fluff where it stands. A few leg twitches spell the end.
The man doesn’t know what to do. First tires left to declare his stupidity to all and now a dead rabbit here at the pond.
Unable to think rationally, the man pulls out his pocket knife and crunches through the flesh and bone of the rabbit’s neck. He splays out the body on a rock. Leaving it there under the rose bushes as a sort of suburban sacrifice. And he pockets the head along with his knife. Returning home with a reminder of his continued bad luck.
Now from his bedroom window, the man can look out to still see the tires. They blare out to all like waving spotlights outside a cinema at a movie premier. Proclaiming how out of touch one is with the rest. And when he turns from his window, he looks to his bookshelf a the far wall. Where the fuzzy head sits with ears a gardening wife would stroke gently as she “aw’s” over the cute softness.
He curses himself for the rock and curses his bad luck that his aim was so perfect in the emotion of the moment.
Outside his window and here on his shelf sit reminders of how alone he is. Others walk dogs and spray the dirt from their driveways or spend the night watching high def sports or gardening shows. In this neighbourhood of sameness, he hides behind his door, only venturing out in the night for hopes that people don’t see his uniqueness. As he drifts off to sleep, his greatest wish is that he saw the world as they do. He longs to wake from his life and start living a dream.
Note:
Most of the things around this story are true. The tires, the jean shorts, the gardening, and yes the poor rabbit. The circumstances around the rabbit is a mystery to me.
— Work is fairly slow paced but goes by fairly well. Just when you’re done one thing, you get a chance to breath and then move on to the next thing.
— Softball is brutal. 27-2 we lose. Perhaps we should start using gloves! I’m enjoying the field... playing the ball and all... but man... we have to play better.
MONDAY...
— Work goes pretty well for a fairly busy Monday.
— Supper and a movie with Melissa after work. I bring Field of Dreams on DVD. Great movie.
— Finally get a flash drive for computer storage. And it works like a charm. I get all the pictures on my computer... plus all my writing and many other records and such... all backed up with room to spare. And with that, the pictures are finally removed from my camera. I’ve had some pictures on there for more than a year.
TUESDAY...
— Another condo look in the early afternoon. Pretty interesting place in a great location although the financial aspects of things may make it a no go.
— Afternoon nap before the night of work. I get extra time off in the future because of today’s shift on Remembrance Day.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work the night again. Alone for a few hours. Tired by the end of it and home to find messages about condos... deep breath.
THURSDAY...
— Rainy day. Talk to the agent and considering the condo from Tuesday again. Dentist and some groceries... and I’m tired. Nice to be off.
— Talk things through with mom and dad... and via e-mail with Edena... and I think I’m just going to stay away from that condo. There’s an uneasy feeling about it.
FRIDAY...
— Warms up. Around 15 degrees today. I’m really tired though. Lazy... bordering on unconscious... for most of the morning. Go for a walk in the afternoon.
— Things that bug me... Friday edition...
(1) crap in the mailbox. I am sick to death of opening my front door to see so many fliers jammed in there that the lid won’t close and it’s an effort to lift the junk out. All this in the name of getting cheap prices on toothpaste! I’m seriously tempted to remove my mailbox entirely. Any real mail I get is going in that stupid Superbox anyway (the mailman’s lazy box).
(2) roudy kids. I went for two laps of the pond today. One lap takes 15 minutes... so you’re a good 500 yards from any point along the way at any given time. I heard two kids yelling at each other the entire time. And they’re “adult supervision” sat by like a zombie... not moving. I have no issues with play and kids being energetic outside. But if I can’t escape the screams from anywhere other than inside my own home, they’re being too loud for too long.
(3) tires. Four weeks ago some dick neighbour decided that the best idea for their worn out tires was to put them out on garbage day. Four weeks gone by and they’re still sitting there on the corner. My condo corporation has often sent out warning letters to not put out garbage too early and to quickly take in your recycling bins and what not... otherwise the guy they hire to keep the grounds clean will have to take it away. FOUR WEEKS of discarded TIRES! Where do I live? A dump?
(4) Mazda. Two weeks ago I got mail from them saying I’m due to get the car serviced. Three times in two weeks I’ve called them and left messages... three times my message has gone unanswered. Is it the plan of business to bend over backwards getting your business only to then piss on you once they’ve got it? See Rogers for the answer to that one. Scum bags.
SATURDAY...
— Rainy day. I sleep off and on in the morning. Watch a movie... then some football on TV.
— Then it’s time to read some of a book I recently got about one of my all-time favourite albums, Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea”.
— From there it’s time to listen to my Neutral Milk Hotel collection while I do my weekly writing.
Suburban Darkness
Life in Avalon is normal. And normal, in this sense of the word, is mostly characterless. There are some unique lives. The old Asian couple who come out to walk the pond, her shoulder acting as a crutch for his laboured steps.
Then there is the older lady whose husband died shortly before her move to the neighbourhood. This move was a downsizing for her and she now remains alien to her neighbours... only leaving her home when her son comes to pick her up and take her back to where life doesn’t sit in a holding pattern.
For the most part, however, the rest of the neighbourhood is made up of boredom. However suburban boredom is the worst kind because the people don’t realize how mundane their lives are. Husbands and fathers put on cut off jean shorts that would be best served discarded. Instead, they spend hours in their driveway, hosing down the asphalt or wiping down the minivan... all the while bits of pocket spill out from underneath the denim which was cut a good three inches too short.
Women pluck at small stands of flowers, occasionally pulling their husbands away from the television long enough to get him to lug out a bag of soil. With a sigh, he returns to the innards of his house while she gently pats new soil underneath suburban shrubs.
The night brings out what little interesting bits that exist. And apart from a few teenagers who gather along the edges of greenspaces, smoking pot and keeping a suspicious eye on any passer by, the majority of that which is interesting isn’t even human.
Rabbits come out and hop along by those same shrubs the women were patting dirt around those few hours before. The women have no idea that the rabbits were ever there... they’re oblivious in their garden shows when the rabbits begin the invasion.
Skunks pass under windows on their way to open fields. Owls sit atop roofs in a lookout for a tasty critter. And over at the pond, muskrat and beaver swim around, busy with night.
However one of the homes hold dark originality. When others are sitting watching their sports on high def, this one stands in the darkness of a bedroom window, looking out. He is just as alien to his neighbours as the old husbandless woman is. Only where she carries sadness and the hope of her son’s arrival to carry her away, he holds anger and resentment.
A month before, he decided it was a good idea to discard his old summer tires at the curb for garbage day. He brought them out while the rest of the neighbourhood was sleeping and was pleased to be rid of the dirty clutter they created.
To his horror, the tires remained where he left them once all the other trash was taken away. And there they sit for weeks now. An eyesore that annoys the others of the area, they sit as a reminder to him. A reminder that society doesn’t accept him. Each time he looks out at the curb, he feels more isolated, more embarrassed, and more angry. If he goes to retrieve the tires, a neighbour will see. And then cold glances will come his way at the mailbox. Pond walkers will meet with their dogs, and while the animal drops smelly things that need to be plucked in plastic, the people will whisper about the guy who lives in the upper corner unit of the building across the street... how they saw him pulling tires into his front door and how they had a good mind to tell him what he should do with his tires.
Then they scoop the poop and continue around the pond, oblivious of the beaver and in love with the ducks.
So with such visions, the man leaves the tires where they lay. When he goes out at night, to wander the pond alone, he glares at the mound of dirty rubber and curses his misfortune.
One time, at the pond, he spots the white of a rabbit’s tale. He picks up a rock and hurls it towards the creature. To his horror, the rock strikes it’s target. A one in a million shot that drops the fluff where it stands. A few leg twitches spell the end.
The man doesn’t know what to do. First tires left to declare his stupidity to all and now a dead rabbit here at the pond.
Unable to think rationally, the man pulls out his pocket knife and crunches through the flesh and bone of the rabbit’s neck. He splays out the body on a rock. Leaving it there under the rose bushes as a sort of suburban sacrifice. And he pockets the head along with his knife. Returning home with a reminder of his continued bad luck.
Now from his bedroom window, the man can look out to still see the tires. They blare out to all like waving spotlights outside a cinema at a movie premier. Proclaiming how out of touch one is with the rest. And when he turns from his window, he looks to his bookshelf a the far wall. Where the fuzzy head sits with ears a gardening wife would stroke gently as she “aw’s” over the cute softness.
He curses himself for the rock and curses his bad luck that his aim was so perfect in the emotion of the moment.
Outside his window and here on his shelf sit reminders of how alone he is. Others walk dogs and spray the dirt from their driveways or spend the night watching high def sports or gardening shows. In this neighbourhood of sameness, he hides behind his door, only venturing out in the night for hopes that people don’t see his uniqueness. As he drifts off to sleep, his greatest wish is that he saw the world as they do. He longs to wake from his life and start living a dream.
Note:
Most of the things around this story are true. The tires, the jean shorts, the gardening, and yes the poor rabbit. The circumstances around the rabbit is a mystery to me.
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #345
SATURDAY...
— Saturday feeling like Monday all day long. Even as I get ready for bed I’m thinking it’s Monday night. This shift is mind blowing.
— Watch a movie after work with Melissa and Nick.
— I miss out on a nice condo downtown. I decided to put an offer on it but missed out by a matter of hours. The place was on the market for 12 days and I happen to go look at it and decide to make a bid the same day someone else does. It’s disappointing.
SUNDAY...
— Second dayshift. Not as quiet as yesterday but not a busy day either.
— Ball after work. We lose again. I get some hits and have some plays to make in the field, but many of my hits are weak and I’m tired of losing games to teams of stiffs. Tonight we lost to stiffs.
MONDAY...
— Sleep from 4:30 to 9:30 this morning... up for a while getting groceries and watching some TV... back in bed from 1:15 to 3:00. The sleep is working pretty well on these shift changes... so far.
— In to work for the night shift... it goes well. Sort of busy for a few hours, not busy at the end of the night. I do the gym around 12:30.
— Newfoundland is no longer a “have not Province” and now Ontario is! Craziness to see my home province make the leap. I guess no more stupid Newfie jokes... and bring on the Ontario ones! First one... What is there to do in Ontario other than drink? There... see how witty those Newfie jokes weren’t. Blah.
TUESDAY...
— Up just before noon. Warmer day today... it’s nice. And walking the pond I see the beaver is still at work. A good 7 to 10 trees were dropped since my last walk a week ago.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work last night was nasty busy... but I need some busy times to test myself. Phil and I take turns breaking for the gym. I go at 2:00 AM... and some guy shows up to jog on a tread mill... kinda weird.
— After work, I actually take a few minutes to walk the pond at 6:20 AM. It’s quiet and the muskrat are all over at that hour. Ducks are everywhere too. Lots more still here than I thought during the day.
— Obama is President. Should be an improvement by a great margin.
— Do an afternoon pond walk too. Didn’t sleep much this morning so I’m a zombie after supper.
THURSDAY...
— A home day. Watch some movies and not much else.
FRIDAY...
— Out for a few hours looking at condos. Not much comes of it... interesting but nothing that’s going to get an offer from me.
— Walk to the grocery store for a few things and get a pizza and salad in the evening and watch some more movies.
Have You Seen My Have Province? It’s About Yea Tall...
Don’t let Quebecers sway you... I come from the most unique province in the country. Quebec’s uniqueness is there, don’t get me wrong. And in many ways the Quebec and Newfoundland are similar in their uniqueness. But Quebec’s uniqueness is a bit of a lazy person’s version of unique. The most obvious trait of uniqueness is in Quebec’s favour... a different language.
And obvious works for the lazy man’s analysis. So the result is a Québécois “nation” and exaggerated importance for one province. Despite the fact that a small minority of the country are predominantly French speaking, the French language gets equal status. And it only takes a federal election to see how worried politicians are about gaining favour among the Quebecers.
The other interesting oddity around the Quebec issue is that language seems to signify a type of race. It’s politically incorrect to make fun of the French. A Quebec joke will get you into trouble pretty quickly around these parts. I’ve even heard talk of racism against Quebecers. A fairly over sensitive and outlandish proclamation.
The other province which shares the power of the Nation with Quebec is Ontario. Alberta is close, and in some ways it’s right there. But going back to a federal election, the areas that get the royal treatment from those looking for votes are Quebec and Ontario. A political leader who can gain the majority of seats in these two provinces is well on his or her way to winning the election.
So it strikes me funny to see the most powerful province in the country, a province that exudes supreme confidence among the group... the quarterback of the political football team known as Canada... Ontario... has become a have not province.
And guess who has passed Ontario in the rankings. Lowly ol’ Newfoundland. Going back to the football team analogy, this is like taking the quarterback out of the game and replacing him with one of the punt return special teams players.
Newfoundland is, in my experience here in Ontario, the most misunderstood and underappreciated province in the country. I even have friends who laugh and joke with me about Newfoundland’s patheticness. In their minds, Newfoundland is the likable province of yokels. The people of Newfoundland aren’t bright enough to have ideas. They’re too unsophisticated to breed leaders. And they’re too lazy to be counted on. They’re only really good for party entertainment. That guy who drinks too much and starts falling over the furniture... in the National party, that guy is the Newfie.
Too many times I’ve heard the same old stereotype of the drinking prowess of the Newfoundlander. After all, we must be good at drinking... what else is there to do in Newfoundland?
Most mainlanders who have never been to Newfoundland figure the only reason to go there is to party. Hit the bars... drink bad rum with a crazy name... kiss fish... and not understand a word anyone there says... that’s Newfoundland.
So this week, it did me some good to see the big and cocky Ontario being relegated as have not while the goofy Newfoundland joined the ranks of have.
To be honest, I don’t understand a thing of this have not versus have distinction. I still don’t think I could go home and get a job doing anything other than waiting tables for minimum wage and for twenty hours a week. And it still seems that Ontario’s unemployment isn’t skyrocketing (although I suppose the car manufacture industry would argue that point). But I love the irony of the situation. And I hope it clears the way for Newfoundland to get the respect and understanding it deserves.
I’d like to see an end to the Newfie joke. I know these jokes are usually told in good natured ribbing attitudes, but they’re a sign of the complete lack of knowledge people have about the place. They think of Newfie jokes when Newfoundland is brought up in the same way as the CN Tower or Maple Leafs come to mind when Toronto is mentioned.
The fact is, Newfoundland is completely unique. Cape Breton Island comes close to it. It’s the closest thing I’ve seen to Newfoundland without actually being there. But even Cape Breton doesn’t do it.
Newfoundland’s isolation brings part of the appeal. The fact that the province is cut off from the rest of the world brings it it’s uniqueness. There are times when you just can’t get to Newfoundland. Rough seas stop the ferries and winter storms or spring fog can keep out airplanes. Even a misplaced moose can keep you out of Newfoundland (a moose once got loose on the runways of St. John’s airport and couldn’t be corralled before the arriving planes had to be diverted back to Halifax). Newfoundland’s isolation makes it as specialized and unique as a village in the Amazon rainforest. From a people standpoint, Newfoundland is a little like the Galapagos Islands. The people there have been allowed to develop without many of the outside influences.
And it’s this same power of nature which isolates the island that also creates the uniqueness of the place. Family and friends take on an added importance to the Newfoundlander. After all, if the winter winds are howling with snow drifting up your door, it’s friends that come to dig you out. And before the storms, family gather in one place, to ride out the weather together with a pot of soup on the stove and winter boots against the heater, ready for the shoveling out that will soon follow. A fire in the fireplace and a deck of cards help pass the time between soup and shovel.
It’s not sophisticated... this image. But the assumption shouldn’t be made that it’s dumb either. It’s okay to accept time outs due to the weather. It keeps you humble as a person to know that sometimes you don’t have control. And the comradery that comes from shoveling out after a storm shows the generosity of the people. Only a few short decades ago, if you didn’t work in cooperation with your neighbours, you may not make it.
My wish is that being a have province will act as a catalyst for Newfoundland gaining respect on a national level. On a political level, Newfoundlander’s greatest qualities are sure needed. A little cooperation and humbleness on a federal level would go a long way.
— Saturday feeling like Monday all day long. Even as I get ready for bed I’m thinking it’s Monday night. This shift is mind blowing.
— Watch a movie after work with Melissa and Nick.
— I miss out on a nice condo downtown. I decided to put an offer on it but missed out by a matter of hours. The place was on the market for 12 days and I happen to go look at it and decide to make a bid the same day someone else does. It’s disappointing.
SUNDAY...
— Second dayshift. Not as quiet as yesterday but not a busy day either.
— Ball after work. We lose again. I get some hits and have some plays to make in the field, but many of my hits are weak and I’m tired of losing games to teams of stiffs. Tonight we lost to stiffs.
MONDAY...
— Sleep from 4:30 to 9:30 this morning... up for a while getting groceries and watching some TV... back in bed from 1:15 to 3:00. The sleep is working pretty well on these shift changes... so far.
— In to work for the night shift... it goes well. Sort of busy for a few hours, not busy at the end of the night. I do the gym around 12:30.
— Newfoundland is no longer a “have not Province” and now Ontario is! Craziness to see my home province make the leap. I guess no more stupid Newfie jokes... and bring on the Ontario ones! First one... What is there to do in Ontario other than drink? There... see how witty those Newfie jokes weren’t. Blah.
TUESDAY...
— Up just before noon. Warmer day today... it’s nice. And walking the pond I see the beaver is still at work. A good 7 to 10 trees were dropped since my last walk a week ago.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work last night was nasty busy... but I need some busy times to test myself. Phil and I take turns breaking for the gym. I go at 2:00 AM... and some guy shows up to jog on a tread mill... kinda weird.
— After work, I actually take a few minutes to walk the pond at 6:20 AM. It’s quiet and the muskrat are all over at that hour. Ducks are everywhere too. Lots more still here than I thought during the day.
— Obama is President. Should be an improvement by a great margin.
— Do an afternoon pond walk too. Didn’t sleep much this morning so I’m a zombie after supper.
THURSDAY...
— A home day. Watch some movies and not much else.
FRIDAY...
— Out for a few hours looking at condos. Not much comes of it... interesting but nothing that’s going to get an offer from me.
— Walk to the grocery store for a few things and get a pizza and salad in the evening and watch some more movies.
Have You Seen My Have Province? It’s About Yea Tall...
Don’t let Quebecers sway you... I come from the most unique province in the country. Quebec’s uniqueness is there, don’t get me wrong. And in many ways the Quebec and Newfoundland are similar in their uniqueness. But Quebec’s uniqueness is a bit of a lazy person’s version of unique. The most obvious trait of uniqueness is in Quebec’s favour... a different language.
And obvious works for the lazy man’s analysis. So the result is a Québécois “nation” and exaggerated importance for one province. Despite the fact that a small minority of the country are predominantly French speaking, the French language gets equal status. And it only takes a federal election to see how worried politicians are about gaining favour among the Quebecers.
The other interesting oddity around the Quebec issue is that language seems to signify a type of race. It’s politically incorrect to make fun of the French. A Quebec joke will get you into trouble pretty quickly around these parts. I’ve even heard talk of racism against Quebecers. A fairly over sensitive and outlandish proclamation.
The other province which shares the power of the Nation with Quebec is Ontario. Alberta is close, and in some ways it’s right there. But going back to a federal election, the areas that get the royal treatment from those looking for votes are Quebec and Ontario. A political leader who can gain the majority of seats in these two provinces is well on his or her way to winning the election.
So it strikes me funny to see the most powerful province in the country, a province that exudes supreme confidence among the group... the quarterback of the political football team known as Canada... Ontario... has become a have not province.
And guess who has passed Ontario in the rankings. Lowly ol’ Newfoundland. Going back to the football team analogy, this is like taking the quarterback out of the game and replacing him with one of the punt return special teams players.
Newfoundland is, in my experience here in Ontario, the most misunderstood and underappreciated province in the country. I even have friends who laugh and joke with me about Newfoundland’s patheticness. In their minds, Newfoundland is the likable province of yokels. The people of Newfoundland aren’t bright enough to have ideas. They’re too unsophisticated to breed leaders. And they’re too lazy to be counted on. They’re only really good for party entertainment. That guy who drinks too much and starts falling over the furniture... in the National party, that guy is the Newfie.
Too many times I’ve heard the same old stereotype of the drinking prowess of the Newfoundlander. After all, we must be good at drinking... what else is there to do in Newfoundland?
Most mainlanders who have never been to Newfoundland figure the only reason to go there is to party. Hit the bars... drink bad rum with a crazy name... kiss fish... and not understand a word anyone there says... that’s Newfoundland.
So this week, it did me some good to see the big and cocky Ontario being relegated as have not while the goofy Newfoundland joined the ranks of have.
To be honest, I don’t understand a thing of this have not versus have distinction. I still don’t think I could go home and get a job doing anything other than waiting tables for minimum wage and for twenty hours a week. And it still seems that Ontario’s unemployment isn’t skyrocketing (although I suppose the car manufacture industry would argue that point). But I love the irony of the situation. And I hope it clears the way for Newfoundland to get the respect and understanding it deserves.
I’d like to see an end to the Newfie joke. I know these jokes are usually told in good natured ribbing attitudes, but they’re a sign of the complete lack of knowledge people have about the place. They think of Newfie jokes when Newfoundland is brought up in the same way as the CN Tower or Maple Leafs come to mind when Toronto is mentioned.
The fact is, Newfoundland is completely unique. Cape Breton Island comes close to it. It’s the closest thing I’ve seen to Newfoundland without actually being there. But even Cape Breton doesn’t do it.
Newfoundland’s isolation brings part of the appeal. The fact that the province is cut off from the rest of the world brings it it’s uniqueness. There are times when you just can’t get to Newfoundland. Rough seas stop the ferries and winter storms or spring fog can keep out airplanes. Even a misplaced moose can keep you out of Newfoundland (a moose once got loose on the runways of St. John’s airport and couldn’t be corralled before the arriving planes had to be diverted back to Halifax). Newfoundland’s isolation makes it as specialized and unique as a village in the Amazon rainforest. From a people standpoint, Newfoundland is a little like the Galapagos Islands. The people there have been allowed to develop without many of the outside influences.
And it’s this same power of nature which isolates the island that also creates the uniqueness of the place. Family and friends take on an added importance to the Newfoundlander. After all, if the winter winds are howling with snow drifting up your door, it’s friends that come to dig you out. And before the storms, family gather in one place, to ride out the weather together with a pot of soup on the stove and winter boots against the heater, ready for the shoveling out that will soon follow. A fire in the fireplace and a deck of cards help pass the time between soup and shovel.
It’s not sophisticated... this image. But the assumption shouldn’t be made that it’s dumb either. It’s okay to accept time outs due to the weather. It keeps you humble as a person to know that sometimes you don’t have control. And the comradery that comes from shoveling out after a storm shows the generosity of the people. Only a few short decades ago, if you didn’t work in cooperation with your neighbours, you may not make it.
My wish is that being a have province will act as a catalyst for Newfoundland gaining respect on a national level. On a political level, Newfoundlander’s greatest qualities are sure needed. A little cooperation and humbleness on a federal level would go a long way.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #344
FRIDAY...
— First 12 hour day. I get up with not much trouble this morning and it’s busy enough that I’ve had 8 hour days in the past that felt more dragged out than this 12 hour one. So not too bad overall.
— Go to Paddy’s Pub for a drink after work and grab a sub sandwich for supper on the way home.
SATURDAY...
— Get through the second 12 hour day. I sort of run out of gas by about hour ten... but make it none-the-less.
— Little nap around 7:00 but I’m ready for bed by 11:30. Needing to try to get ready for the night shift tomorrow, I do a little dosing but push myself to stay up. Rain delayed, late night baseball is at least something to keep me up.
SUNDAY...
— Busy day... pick up Sylvia at the airport and go to lunch with her in the Market.
— Drop her at her hotel and head home for a nap.
— Softball at 5:00. We lose bad but I do have some fun in the field so it’s not horrible... not good all the same, I’m not a fan of the losses.
— Straight to work after ball. It’s night shift. I get through it without being too tired and am home by 6:30 Monday morning.
MONDAY...
— Sleep until 11:45. Hope that will get me through tonight... I guess we’ll see, maybe a nap at 2:00 will happen again.
— Had the nap and it did help although I’m still pretty tired by 6:00 AM Tuesday.
TUESDAY...
— Around the house. I sleep until just before noon and then watch the weather get worse. Snow by the evening and it’s just too depressing.
WEDNESDAY...
— Up around 9:00 and pretty much back on regular sleep mode. It’s still white and grey outside... not nice... cold and windy. Laundry and movies today sound like the best way to go.
THURSDAY...
— Meet Kiyomi for lunch today. First time in a while we’ve done that. Then I check out the location of a condo for sale... interesting spot.
— Out with Sylvia for the evening. It’s a pain getting downtown in the early evening. Between traffic and construction I end up taking an hour to get there... about 30 km from home. Blah!
— We do supper and the Imax movies. The Grand Canyon movie is really good.
FRIDAY...
— Condo looking in the morning. See a really good one in the downtown area that’s not too small. May be too good to pass up.
— Pick up Sylvia and go back to Orleans in the afternoon. We have burgers at The Works and I drive her to the airport. So it’s a busy day driving all over the place.
Traveling Through Time and Space
A work cycle is now over. I was off for a while... did the twelve hour days, forty-eight hours in four days, and had the four days off afterwards. Tomorrow I begin all over again and it seems pretty good but very bizarre.
By the end of my previous shift, my internal clock was totally out of wack. Going to work Monday evening... going home Tuesday morning... sleeping the morning away and waking up, ready to start a new day at noon on the day you got home from work... all very mind blowing.
More than once last week I’d tell someone that “yesterday I did this...” when yesterday was actually the morning of the same day. Or to talk to people at shift change at 6:00 AM and talk about “the storm will come tomorrow afternoon” when the afternoon in question is actually this afternoon.
I have felt like I traveled to Australia. Taking off on Tuesday morning and arriving Wednesday afternoon the week before! Perhaps it isn’t quite like that... but there is a time travel feel about it all.
So that’s the new work schedule. Where today is Friday but it feels like Sunday since tomorrow will be my Monday. And Wednesday morning will become my Friday evening leading into a four day long weekend. It takes much getting used to but is kind of fun as well. As long as I sleep enough time before working a twelve hour stretch, it’s all good.
The time off has been excellent. Each “weekend”... I say “weekend” instead of weekend because of the fact that I’m just as likely to be off Tuesday to Friday as I am Friday to Monday. So the actual weekend has little to do with it. But my “weekends” are now like an Easter long weekend every time. Yes, the first day off is like a day of jet lag after a long trip. You’re not really functioning until the afternoon. But even still, it’s a good three and a half days off every four days. Not half bad.
So time has been crazy this past eight days. Another thing that’s crazy... space. More specifically, the space in which I’ve been driving. My aunt, Sylvia, has been in town this past week. She’s stayed in a nice enough hotel right downtown. The problem with that is it’s in the middle of one way streets with virtually no parking and lots of local construction.
Thursday my plan was to meet her between 4:30 and 5:00. I left home at 4:10, figuring I’d get there with no problems. Thirty kilometres in thirty minutes isn’t unreasonable. Except in Ottawa.
Traffic caused detours. Sitting on the highway for twenty minutes, only moving two kilometres in that twenty minutes, seems unreasonable. Then, when I finally got the right route, I run in to construction. I figure I can make my left hand turn a few blocks after I’d like to. That’s no big deal. I soon realize that this is not the case... as I’m driving into Quebec! So through Gatineau I have to go and turn about back onto another bridge. In the end, it takes me almost an hour and a half to go those thirty kilometres and actually meet Sylvia.
Even today, when I go back to pick her up... I drive by the hotel, with noplace to stop the car. It takes me a half an hour to reach her even though I’m already there! If only I could stop the car in the middle of the street, and leave it there for ten minutes.
But alas, that is not to be. And in the end, my week was full of days where it felt like I was time traveling... along with days where it felt like I’d never get to where I was trying to go.
A crazy eight days... and now tomorrow... Saturday... it begins... Again.
— First 12 hour day. I get up with not much trouble this morning and it’s busy enough that I’ve had 8 hour days in the past that felt more dragged out than this 12 hour one. So not too bad overall.
— Go to Paddy’s Pub for a drink after work and grab a sub sandwich for supper on the way home.
SATURDAY...
— Get through the second 12 hour day. I sort of run out of gas by about hour ten... but make it none-the-less.
— Little nap around 7:00 but I’m ready for bed by 11:30. Needing to try to get ready for the night shift tomorrow, I do a little dosing but push myself to stay up. Rain delayed, late night baseball is at least something to keep me up.
SUNDAY...
— Busy day... pick up Sylvia at the airport and go to lunch with her in the Market.
— Drop her at her hotel and head home for a nap.
— Softball at 5:00. We lose bad but I do have some fun in the field so it’s not horrible... not good all the same, I’m not a fan of the losses.
— Straight to work after ball. It’s night shift. I get through it without being too tired and am home by 6:30 Monday morning.
MONDAY...
— Sleep until 11:45. Hope that will get me through tonight... I guess we’ll see, maybe a nap at 2:00 will happen again.
— Had the nap and it did help although I’m still pretty tired by 6:00 AM Tuesday.
TUESDAY...
— Around the house. I sleep until just before noon and then watch the weather get worse. Snow by the evening and it’s just too depressing.
WEDNESDAY...
— Up around 9:00 and pretty much back on regular sleep mode. It’s still white and grey outside... not nice... cold and windy. Laundry and movies today sound like the best way to go.
THURSDAY...
— Meet Kiyomi for lunch today. First time in a while we’ve done that. Then I check out the location of a condo for sale... interesting spot.
— Out with Sylvia for the evening. It’s a pain getting downtown in the early evening. Between traffic and construction I end up taking an hour to get there... about 30 km from home. Blah!
— We do supper and the Imax movies. The Grand Canyon movie is really good.
FRIDAY...
— Condo looking in the morning. See a really good one in the downtown area that’s not too small. May be too good to pass up.
— Pick up Sylvia and go back to Orleans in the afternoon. We have burgers at The Works and I drive her to the airport. So it’s a busy day driving all over the place.
Traveling Through Time and Space
A work cycle is now over. I was off for a while... did the twelve hour days, forty-eight hours in four days, and had the four days off afterwards. Tomorrow I begin all over again and it seems pretty good but very bizarre.
By the end of my previous shift, my internal clock was totally out of wack. Going to work Monday evening... going home Tuesday morning... sleeping the morning away and waking up, ready to start a new day at noon on the day you got home from work... all very mind blowing.
More than once last week I’d tell someone that “yesterday I did this...” when yesterday was actually the morning of the same day. Or to talk to people at shift change at 6:00 AM and talk about “the storm will come tomorrow afternoon” when the afternoon in question is actually this afternoon.
I have felt like I traveled to Australia. Taking off on Tuesday morning and arriving Wednesday afternoon the week before! Perhaps it isn’t quite like that... but there is a time travel feel about it all.
So that’s the new work schedule. Where today is Friday but it feels like Sunday since tomorrow will be my Monday. And Wednesday morning will become my Friday evening leading into a four day long weekend. It takes much getting used to but is kind of fun as well. As long as I sleep enough time before working a twelve hour stretch, it’s all good.
The time off has been excellent. Each “weekend”... I say “weekend” instead of weekend because of the fact that I’m just as likely to be off Tuesday to Friday as I am Friday to Monday. So the actual weekend has little to do with it. But my “weekends” are now like an Easter long weekend every time. Yes, the first day off is like a day of jet lag after a long trip. You’re not really functioning until the afternoon. But even still, it’s a good three and a half days off every four days. Not half bad.
So time has been crazy this past eight days. Another thing that’s crazy... space. More specifically, the space in which I’ve been driving. My aunt, Sylvia, has been in town this past week. She’s stayed in a nice enough hotel right downtown. The problem with that is it’s in the middle of one way streets with virtually no parking and lots of local construction.
Thursday my plan was to meet her between 4:30 and 5:00. I left home at 4:10, figuring I’d get there with no problems. Thirty kilometres in thirty minutes isn’t unreasonable. Except in Ottawa.
Traffic caused detours. Sitting on the highway for twenty minutes, only moving two kilometres in that twenty minutes, seems unreasonable. Then, when I finally got the right route, I run in to construction. I figure I can make my left hand turn a few blocks after I’d like to. That’s no big deal. I soon realize that this is not the case... as I’m driving into Quebec! So through Gatineau I have to go and turn about back onto another bridge. In the end, it takes me almost an hour and a half to go those thirty kilometres and actually meet Sylvia.
Even today, when I go back to pick her up... I drive by the hotel, with noplace to stop the car. It takes me a half an hour to reach her even though I’m already there! If only I could stop the car in the middle of the street, and leave it there for ten minutes.
But alas, that is not to be. And in the end, my week was full of days where it felt like I was time traveling... along with days where it felt like I’d never get to where I was trying to go.
A crazy eight days... and now tomorrow... Saturday... it begins... Again.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #343
A much shorter weekly portion this time, due to the work schedule and all. The next writing, after today, will be in 8 days... Halloween.
MONDAY...
— Quiet house day. I’m off this week until Friday, when the new shift starts. Today I do a little walk of the pond and watch some movies... not much else.
TUESDAY...
— Rainy day. I clean out my closet... ditching some old clothes. Also go to the movies. See the latest Batman movie finally. Great movie. It makes you miss Heath Ledger to know that he can’t make anymore movies. It was an amazing final performance.
WEDNESDAY...
— Laundry day. And did three laps of the pond as well. A couple of dozen Canada Geese were hanging around the pond. And a bit more clothes ready to be ditched.
— Some hockey and baseball in the evening.
Time Off
Last day off. Six days away from work with no travel plans and no visitors. I think it’s the first time I’ve just been in Ottawa. That is to say, to just be.
I could get used to it. I rarely get bored with my free time. A few walks, going to a movie alone at the Mayfair, some house cleaning, movies on TV and a little reading.
And I have done it differently than usual. Usually, I’d stay up until the wee hours and sleep in until 10:00 or so each morning. Today was the latest I slept and I was out of bed by about ten to nine. Bed around midnight or one each night and up before nine... it’s been nice.
Last days off are always a little unsettling. You feel the coming schedule of life. The structure is on the horizon. Alarm clocks must be set... meals prepared the night before... bedtime must be followed as the morning will come all too soon.
Tomorrow I begin the first day of my new shift. My first twelve hour day. I’m sure it’ll feel long and I still don’t know a whole lot in the job, so I’ll probably be ready for bed pretty early tomorrow.
Ah tomorrow. Me the single guy still and rather than going out on a Friday night, looking for someone, I’ll be aiming for bed by ten o’clock. The plan is for a drop by a bar after work... to wish Nick a happy birthday and all... but when they all run off to a hockey game, I’ll be heading home preparing for another early wake up on Saturday.
Traffic will at least not be a big issue on this new shift. Being to work for 6:00 will mean a fairly quiet drive in.
So what have I seen over the last six days?
— Canada Geese make my pond a fall home. Two dozen of them just quietly bobbed about the pond yesterday. They are the kings of the pond on their arrival. The remaining ducks shoot off into the reeds and hang by the shore.
— Heath Ledger had so much more to offer. His role as Joker, in the last Batman movie, was amazing. He just drew all your attention when he was on screen.
— I miss the old style goalie masks. See the next subject below for a taste of some of my favourite masks and why I’ve been thinking about them lately. But here is the mask that brought me to hockey...
Richard Sevigny
MONDAY...
— Quiet house day. I’m off this week until Friday, when the new shift starts. Today I do a little walk of the pond and watch some movies... not much else.
TUESDAY...
— Rainy day. I clean out my closet... ditching some old clothes. Also go to the movies. See the latest Batman movie finally. Great movie. It makes you miss Heath Ledger to know that he can’t make anymore movies. It was an amazing final performance.
WEDNESDAY...
— Laundry day. And did three laps of the pond as well. A couple of dozen Canada Geese were hanging around the pond. And a bit more clothes ready to be ditched.
— Some hockey and baseball in the evening.
Time Off
Last day off. Six days away from work with no travel plans and no visitors. I think it’s the first time I’ve just been in Ottawa. That is to say, to just be.
I could get used to it. I rarely get bored with my free time. A few walks, going to a movie alone at the Mayfair, some house cleaning, movies on TV and a little reading.
And I have done it differently than usual. Usually, I’d stay up until the wee hours and sleep in until 10:00 or so each morning. Today was the latest I slept and I was out of bed by about ten to nine. Bed around midnight or one each night and up before nine... it’s been nice.
Last days off are always a little unsettling. You feel the coming schedule of life. The structure is on the horizon. Alarm clocks must be set... meals prepared the night before... bedtime must be followed as the morning will come all too soon.
Tomorrow I begin the first day of my new shift. My first twelve hour day. I’m sure it’ll feel long and I still don’t know a whole lot in the job, so I’ll probably be ready for bed pretty early tomorrow.
Ah tomorrow. Me the single guy still and rather than going out on a Friday night, looking for someone, I’ll be aiming for bed by ten o’clock. The plan is for a drop by a bar after work... to wish Nick a happy birthday and all... but when they all run off to a hockey game, I’ll be heading home preparing for another early wake up on Saturday.
Traffic will at least not be a big issue on this new shift. Being to work for 6:00 will mean a fairly quiet drive in.
So what have I seen over the last six days?
— Canada Geese make my pond a fall home. Two dozen of them just quietly bobbed about the pond yesterday. They are the kings of the pond on their arrival. The remaining ducks shoot off into the reeds and hang by the shore.
— Heath Ledger had so much more to offer. His role as Joker, in the last Batman movie, was amazing. He just drew all your attention when he was on screen.
— I miss the old style goalie masks. See the next subject below for a taste of some of my favourite masks and why I’ve been thinking about them lately. But here is the mask that brought me to hockey...
Richard SevignyRemembering the goalie mask
I miss the old style goalie masks. Looking through my Hockey News issue that focused entirely on the masks brought back lots of childhood memories. There’s something magical about seeing a goalie playing with the old style masks... with the eye holes instead of a cage... the simple painted designs... the placement of air holes. The shape. Seeing Gerry Cheevers’ stitch mask... Roggie Vachon’s smiling mask... Ken Dryden’s red and blue bullseye mask. And the masks of Michelle Dion, Mike Palmateer, Tony Esposito, Gary Bromley, Murray Bannerman and Grant Fuhr. I wish a modern day goalie went back to those old masks.
More to write in eight days.
And now... bring on the masks...
Gerry Cheevers
Murray Bannerman
Gary Bromley
Mike Palmateer
Ken DrydenSunday, October 19, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #342
Well this is the last Sunday update. That is to say, updates will not be set aside to be done simply on a Sunday. Starting this coming Friday, I begin a new shift at work where I do twelve hour days followed by twelve hour nights, followed by four days off. I may be just as likely to work on a Sunday afternoon as I am a Tuesday night. For instance, for Sunday, October 26, I’ll be working a twelve hour night shift after having already done two twelve hour days. I doubt I’ll have the energy or desire to try to create something to write down on that day.
So here is how it will now be. I am going to write something within every eight day stretch. My plan right now is to do my writing on the fourth of my four days off. But if I feel the desire to do it on my first day off instead, it’ll be done then. So if you’re interested in seeing if there’s writing on the blog, know that something will be there within eight days. The current plan after today is to have something posted on Thursday, the 23rd. After that, I’ll be into the new shift so the next posting would be for Friday, the 31st (my last of four days off).
MONDAY...
— Mom and dad’s last day in town. This feels like the quickest trip they’ve had here... it just flew by.
— We hang around the house in the morning with mom working on some food for me (soup and turkey for the freezer). We walk the pond and have some lunch.
— Later, we drive to Paula and Eddie’s for a little visit and I drop them at the airport on the way home. Drive home on the country roads. It’s more relaxing and shorter milage but probably a little longer time wise.
— I walk the pond again at dusk. Don’t see the beaver but catch a few muskrats and am there to see about 25 Canada Geese land on the water some 30 feet in front of me. I’m really growing to like this pond... it gets more and more a piece of nature.
TUESDAY...
— I’m pretty foggy at work today. Just one of those times when you feel like nothing is clear in your head. But I get through.
— Vote after work. Do two laps of the pond and see two neat things there... the biggest moon I’ve ever seen... and about 50 geese landing in the dusk.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work is pretty hectic and I make it through. Could have been smoother but I got through.
— After work walk and some laundry.
THURSDAY...
— Long and busy day... and I’m under the weather for it. Sinuses are a bit blocked and I’m pretty dazed... a bit of a morning cough too.
— Lunch at A&W with Janice, Devin and Bill.
— To Atlas and Karen’s after work to go over some work stuff and visit some.
— Stuck at the airport for an hour or so. Supposed to pick up Christie for her visit/wedding... but her flight is canceled on her end (although shows as being there on my end). Whatever the story, she’s not in town and I’m hanging at the airport for nothing. She left a message at home but I didn’t check there... I need a cell phone!
— Almost hit three deer on the drive home from the airport. The disadvantage of the country road route. All three were there together and I had to break fairly hard to avoid them. Kind of neat.
FRIDAY...
— 2 hour day at work thanks to feeling crumby. I pack it in shortly after 9:00 and get home with an orange juice and NeoCitran stop along the way.
SATURDAY...
— Quiet day around the house. Still feeling under the weather. I watch some hockey and a couple of movies and go for one lap of the pond. I actually don’t feel energetic enough for it but thought I could use some fresh air, so I go for the lap. See the beaver out there this evening. He swam up near his lodge and dove down ten feet away from it, not to come back to the surface. I assume he went in the lodge.
— Part of the shoreline of the pond has been dug up by developers. Not sure what they’re planning on putting there and I’m not too pleased by the intrusion.
— Spam e-mails are dying down more and more after those weeks of 200 a day. Today it’s down to 34... who knows what the difference is.
Here Comes Santa Claus, Here Comes Santa Claus, Right Through the Windshield
Driving home from the airport along the country roads is a pretty relaxing thing. It’s no faster than taking the highways but there are many fewer lights and virtually no traffic to deal with. Just a bit more winding and a bit darker when doing the drive in the evening.
This week, I took the drive in the darkness and it was, as the time before, relaxing. Anything to keep the torments of city traffic down is good by me.
One thing that happened caught me a bit off guard though. Something that wouldn’t be an issue on the city streets and highways. I almost hit some deer.
Now to say I almost hit deer doesn’t mean I screeched the tires and drove into a ditch. No rubber was left on the road behind me and I stopped a good thirty feet away from the living speed bump that is three deer walking single file across a road.
But it did get me thinking as I watched them continue on in single file, the last one taking a little stuttering hop as if he was embarrassed to be left there alone on the asphalt. What if I did hit them? Me without a cell phone and deer carnage all over the road in front of me. And then I thought even further. What if this wasn’t any simple line of deer? What if this was closer to Christmas and this was Santa himself with his sleigh of reindeer?
The fact that Christmas would not come that night would be obvious. It’s hard enough to comprehend the idea of one man, a sleigh, and eight reindeer delivering toys to every child across the world. To do that in a year seems incredible. To do it overnight is a miracle. Santa’s miracle is equal to any water for wine or sea parting that you may hear tell of. It’s awfully impressive.
So imagine the guilt one would feel if you put an end to such a miracle by simply wiping out the whole shebang of reindeer over the hood of a Mazda. Cell phone or no cell phone... either way you’re screwed.
There would be the heartbreak of children everywhere. The lack of gifts are one thing. They’d freak out over the lack of gifts. But the reindeer. Well, I don’t want to have Rudolph blood on my hands. I don’t want to attend the funeral of Dancer, with millions watch on TV and the cameras focusing in on my face... with the caption reading how I was the one responsible. And poor Dasher may survive, but I’m afraid his dashing days will be far behind him with an artificial reindeer hip in place.
So there’s the gifts and the reindeer guilt I’d have to deal with. But there would also be the bad karma. If you get seven years of bad luck for simply breaking a mirror, well I don’t even want to think about the eons of lucklessness that would follow the deaths and disablement of Santa’s tiny reindeer.
Legal matters would obviously ruin me. Set aside the criminal courts... because I’ll be swearing on every bible that it was all an accident, a horrible accident. But think of the civil trials. America alone would be looking for trillions of dollars from me. The broken hearts I’d have caused the children. The parents thumping desks and demanding my hide because my carelessness would have made them bad parents. For when little Billy doesn’t get his Transformers and little Suzie has no doll, the parents will be looking to lay blame on me for breaking their promises.
And we’re talking about a nation that will sue you for hundreds of millions of dollars because the coffee you gave them to sip on was hot.
Yes, if those deer I missed were actually reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh... and if I obliterated them rather than stop some thirty feet in front of them... my life would be in shambles and the world would be out a miracle worker. Who knew drives home from the airport could have so much repercussions.
So here is how it will now be. I am going to write something within every eight day stretch. My plan right now is to do my writing on the fourth of my four days off. But if I feel the desire to do it on my first day off instead, it’ll be done then. So if you’re interested in seeing if there’s writing on the blog, know that something will be there within eight days. The current plan after today is to have something posted on Thursday, the 23rd. After that, I’ll be into the new shift so the next posting would be for Friday, the 31st (my last of four days off).
MONDAY...
— Mom and dad’s last day in town. This feels like the quickest trip they’ve had here... it just flew by.
— We hang around the house in the morning with mom working on some food for me (soup and turkey for the freezer). We walk the pond and have some lunch.
— Later, we drive to Paula and Eddie’s for a little visit and I drop them at the airport on the way home. Drive home on the country roads. It’s more relaxing and shorter milage but probably a little longer time wise.
— I walk the pond again at dusk. Don’t see the beaver but catch a few muskrats and am there to see about 25 Canada Geese land on the water some 30 feet in front of me. I’m really growing to like this pond... it gets more and more a piece of nature.
TUESDAY...
— I’m pretty foggy at work today. Just one of those times when you feel like nothing is clear in your head. But I get through.
— Vote after work. Do two laps of the pond and see two neat things there... the biggest moon I’ve ever seen... and about 50 geese landing in the dusk.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work is pretty hectic and I make it through. Could have been smoother but I got through.
— After work walk and some laundry.
THURSDAY...
— Long and busy day... and I’m under the weather for it. Sinuses are a bit blocked and I’m pretty dazed... a bit of a morning cough too.
— Lunch at A&W with Janice, Devin and Bill.
— To Atlas and Karen’s after work to go over some work stuff and visit some.
— Stuck at the airport for an hour or so. Supposed to pick up Christie for her visit/wedding... but her flight is canceled on her end (although shows as being there on my end). Whatever the story, she’s not in town and I’m hanging at the airport for nothing. She left a message at home but I didn’t check there... I need a cell phone!
— Almost hit three deer on the drive home from the airport. The disadvantage of the country road route. All three were there together and I had to break fairly hard to avoid them. Kind of neat.
FRIDAY...
— 2 hour day at work thanks to feeling crumby. I pack it in shortly after 9:00 and get home with an orange juice and NeoCitran stop along the way.
SATURDAY...
— Quiet day around the house. Still feeling under the weather. I watch some hockey and a couple of movies and go for one lap of the pond. I actually don’t feel energetic enough for it but thought I could use some fresh air, so I go for the lap. See the beaver out there this evening. He swam up near his lodge and dove down ten feet away from it, not to come back to the surface. I assume he went in the lodge.
— Part of the shoreline of the pond has been dug up by developers. Not sure what they’re planning on putting there and I’m not too pleased by the intrusion.
— Spam e-mails are dying down more and more after those weeks of 200 a day. Today it’s down to 34... who knows what the difference is.
Here Comes Santa Claus, Here Comes Santa Claus, Right Through the Windshield
Driving home from the airport along the country roads is a pretty relaxing thing. It’s no faster than taking the highways but there are many fewer lights and virtually no traffic to deal with. Just a bit more winding and a bit darker when doing the drive in the evening.
This week, I took the drive in the darkness and it was, as the time before, relaxing. Anything to keep the torments of city traffic down is good by me.
One thing that happened caught me a bit off guard though. Something that wouldn’t be an issue on the city streets and highways. I almost hit some deer.
Now to say I almost hit deer doesn’t mean I screeched the tires and drove into a ditch. No rubber was left on the road behind me and I stopped a good thirty feet away from the living speed bump that is three deer walking single file across a road.
But it did get me thinking as I watched them continue on in single file, the last one taking a little stuttering hop as if he was embarrassed to be left there alone on the asphalt. What if I did hit them? Me without a cell phone and deer carnage all over the road in front of me. And then I thought even further. What if this wasn’t any simple line of deer? What if this was closer to Christmas and this was Santa himself with his sleigh of reindeer?
The fact that Christmas would not come that night would be obvious. It’s hard enough to comprehend the idea of one man, a sleigh, and eight reindeer delivering toys to every child across the world. To do that in a year seems incredible. To do it overnight is a miracle. Santa’s miracle is equal to any water for wine or sea parting that you may hear tell of. It’s awfully impressive.
So imagine the guilt one would feel if you put an end to such a miracle by simply wiping out the whole shebang of reindeer over the hood of a Mazda. Cell phone or no cell phone... either way you’re screwed.
There would be the heartbreak of children everywhere. The lack of gifts are one thing. They’d freak out over the lack of gifts. But the reindeer. Well, I don’t want to have Rudolph blood on my hands. I don’t want to attend the funeral of Dancer, with millions watch on TV and the cameras focusing in on my face... with the caption reading how I was the one responsible. And poor Dasher may survive, but I’m afraid his dashing days will be far behind him with an artificial reindeer hip in place.
So there’s the gifts and the reindeer guilt I’d have to deal with. But there would also be the bad karma. If you get seven years of bad luck for simply breaking a mirror, well I don’t even want to think about the eons of lucklessness that would follow the deaths and disablement of Santa’s tiny reindeer.
Legal matters would obviously ruin me. Set aside the criminal courts... because I’ll be swearing on every bible that it was all an accident, a horrible accident. But think of the civil trials. America alone would be looking for trillions of dollars from me. The broken hearts I’d have caused the children. The parents thumping desks and demanding my hide because my carelessness would have made them bad parents. For when little Billy doesn’t get his Transformers and little Suzie has no doll, the parents will be looking to lay blame on me for breaking their promises.
And we’re talking about a nation that will sue you for hundreds of millions of dollars because the coffee you gave them to sip on was hot.
Yes, if those deer I missed were actually reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh... and if I obliterated them rather than stop some thirty feet in front of them... my life would be in shambles and the world would be out a miracle worker. Who knew drives home from the airport could have so much repercussions.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #341 story
The Beaver's main area. The lodge can be found just down the slope from here.
Looking across the pond, through the cottony reeds towards the beaver's area.Beaver Pond
For months I’ve been looking at moving. Wanting out of the suburbs and into the urban world. Getting a place with character and ditching the Canadian Tire commercial world I live in. And still I want to be in a different place. I was at my cousin’s yesterday and sitting in her basement thinking “I miss basements.” When you miss a basement, you know you’re not fully content.
And then there is the stupidity of the suburbs that comes smacking you in the face. I drive to work in the mornings right now. The cost of training in a new job... weeks of day shift. 6:30 departure times should be a quiet trip in with nary a car to be seen.
But my neighbourhood has Orleans Adventure Boot Camp to deal with. This is an idiot training suburbanites in how to become less pudgy. When I say “idiot”, I mean one of those people who doesn’t really accomplish much in life so they look for some sort of cheesy gimmick to get money from somewhat unhappy homebodies. For only $300 a month, you get to skip rope in a public pathway or run around on a hill in the suburbs.
So I’m driving out each morning while these fools are crossing the street at the pond, looking to get in their cars.
Sometimes, in the evening, these people return while I’m doing a walk. The idiot’s truck is parked on walkway... blasting out cheesy 80s music that some feel may inspire them to work harder. Songs such as “Eye of the Tiger” upset the tranquility of the evening’s walk.
That said, if the walk of the pond is timed to avoid the Boot Camp Adventurers, it becomes something rather special.
The years of the pond have created a more natural situation. Man may have made it but nature is taking over.
This year especially has made the pond something of a treat. Muskrat have ventured in and paddle around in the evenings, diving here and there for food and hanging in the shore reeds for those who look closely. At one point, I rounded a corner and found one sitting by the path sunning itself. It took a second for the muskrat to see me but, when he did, he shot off into the undergrowth at a speed that nearly gave me a heart attack, even though I expected it to happen.
Fish have appeared. Where fish come from to get into a manmade pond, I don’t know. But they are here now. Little ones... the biggest being about an inch in length... hang in schools alongside the shoreline.
Ducks are all over the pond. In an Andy Jones voice I’d say the pond is maggoty with ducks. Early in the year, you find adults... soon after little ducklings are scurrying about the water, chasing mom and pop... and late in the year, only young adult couples remain while the old folks have flown south (possibly to Florida) for the winter months.
A variety of birds inhabit the reeds and bushes near the shore. Some blast bird obscenities at you when you get to close to their nests. Others chirp love songs over the waters to those birds these birds have developed bird crushes on here from a distance.
Loons paddle and dive about the pond. The older ones staying distant from those areas people may be close while young ones venture closer, not knowing there could be any danger.
In the summer, frogs come out at night and act as living obstacle courses for the walker. What was thought to be a rock turns out to be a frog and your step may have to veer suddenly in order to avoid squishiness.
The fall brings geese. Canada geese honking from miles away to announce their impending arrival. They then splash down in the centre of the pond, oblivious to those poor ducks who, until moments before, thought themselves the kings and queens of Lake Avalon.
Now that the name has been breached, I shall speak quickly on the matter to avoid confusion. Bodies of water must be about the size of a small sea in order for a Newfoundlander to call it a lake. Anything smaller than the Mediterranean is a pond. In Ontario, the rule doesn’t seem to apply. I know bath tub sized water bodies that are dubbed “lake”. So let it be known that the pond outside my house is officially called “Lake Avalon”. However, because of this years star resident, I have renamed the place. It is now simply known as Beaver Pond.
That’s right, the land suburbia claimed is being overtaken by the beaver invasion.
I first saw it several months ago. A giant muskrat I first though. It sat there near the path, ignoring me and staring towards a set of trees. I should have known right away, as the creature was staring with that same glimmer in it’s eye that dieting fat people get when they happen upon a cheese burger. The look a stereotypical construction worker has when a tall, leggy blonde girl strides by. This animal was staring at the trees as if trees were his religion and he had just reached the most holy of temples.
After passing by, I was sure I had just seen a beaver. But the days after brought doubt into my mind and I wondered if it was simply a muskrat or stripeless skunk I saw instead. A week after that, however, my initial thoughts proved correct. Two trees were downed in the pathway. And sure enough, beaver teeth marks could be found near the trunk. It didn’t take brilliant detective work to conclude who the guilty party was. Although that may be giving people too much credit. A discarded beer can, seen nearby the fallen trees, could lead the Orleans Adventure Boot Camp people to believe rowdy teenagers had gnawed the trees down as a dare over cans of Coors Light and Labatt Blue.
Still, I was convinced and somehow, excitement grew in me. In this dead world where things are created to look just right... in this subdivision which trumpets itself as “A Perfectly Planned Community”... a beaver has taken over.
As weeks went by, more trees fell and I became all the happier for it. Paths in the grasses have been beaten down by the beavers. A little lodge has slowly begun to rise from the shoreline. And I keep finding myself wanting to venture to the pond more and more. I want to see what’s happening next.
And so the predicament presents itself. I’ve been tired of my location and wanting to move. I’ve talked with an agent and viewed homes in places with more of an urban feel. And now I find this pond grabbing me more than it ever had. If I were told I could own a home on the edge of a wildlife preserve, where I had easy walking access to a natural setting with ducks and geese and loons... muskrat, frogs and beavers... I’d jump at it. I’d think it would be so relaxing after a long day at work.
Now I wonder if I’ve found such a place right here next to me? I began walking the pond many years ago. Doing it with headphones on, listening to the lyrics of songs as I lapped the shoreline. But this year, any time I decided to go to the pond, I’ve left the headphones behind. I’d rather have open ears for the rustling in the bushes and chirping from the reeds.
Will I move? Eventually I’m sure. I’d like a place that isn’t attached to my neighbours. Someplace with a basement would be nice. I’ve even thought of wanting a yard. But right now, my favourite neighbour has got me tempted to stay a while. The beavers may keep me in the suburbs just a little bit longer than I originally planned.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #341
Just a weekly portion at the moment. Too busy a weekend with the parents in town for more... Story to come on Tuesday or Wednesday.
MONDAY...
— Work goes alright today... pretty busy. Talk mortgages with the bank after work... and do a walk of the pond before supper.
TUESDAY...
— Tiring day at work. Just a bit of information overload. Some evening cleaning in preparation for mom and dad’s arrival.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work is fine... working all day with shoe print impressions.
— Out with Karl for a drink and supper.
— Chat to Del after I get back... talking a little Ottawa road trip thing... for him... obviously. Hardly a road trip for me.
THURSDAY...
— Work goes alright. Kind of tired though. End of work is the end of the week for me. I’m off Friday and Monday.
— Pick up mom and dad at the airport in the evening. Drive home the back way with country roads and sunset. Supper at the Barley Mow and a few groceries before they have an early night to bed and I watch Survivor on the late feed.
FRIDAY...
— Bit of a shopping day. Go to the mall near my place as well as another mall in order to go to Sears. Drove the scenic way to the west end of town (along the Ottawa River) and we have lunch and go to Mountain Equipment Co-Op there. Home for a bit before getting burgers at the Works for supper... and then take it easy at home for the rest of the night.
SATURDAY...
— Quebec day. Mom, dad and I go to Gatineau Park... hike around and site see there... then drive to Wakefield to have lunch and walk around. It’s all very busy. Lots of people everywhere.
— Go home, and dad makes macaroni and cheese for supper... then we watch a movie.
MONDAY...
— Work goes alright today... pretty busy. Talk mortgages with the bank after work... and do a walk of the pond before supper.
TUESDAY...
— Tiring day at work. Just a bit of information overload. Some evening cleaning in preparation for mom and dad’s arrival.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work is fine... working all day with shoe print impressions.
— Out with Karl for a drink and supper.
— Chat to Del after I get back... talking a little Ottawa road trip thing... for him... obviously. Hardly a road trip for me.
THURSDAY...
— Work goes alright. Kind of tired though. End of work is the end of the week for me. I’m off Friday and Monday.
— Pick up mom and dad at the airport in the evening. Drive home the back way with country roads and sunset. Supper at the Barley Mow and a few groceries before they have an early night to bed and I watch Survivor on the late feed.
FRIDAY...
— Bit of a shopping day. Go to the mall near my place as well as another mall in order to go to Sears. Drove the scenic way to the west end of town (along the Ottawa River) and we have lunch and go to Mountain Equipment Co-Op there. Home for a bit before getting burgers at the Works for supper... and then take it easy at home for the rest of the night.
SATURDAY...
— Quebec day. Mom, dad and I go to Gatineau Park... hike around and site see there... then drive to Wakefield to have lunch and walk around. It’s all very busy. Lots of people everywhere.
— Go home, and dad makes macaroni and cheese for supper... then we watch a movie.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #340
MONDAY...
— Tired day... again. But I get through okay. Have my first toasted tomato sandwich ever... Janice offers up some tomato for it. Not half bad.
— Watch some baseball in the evening. White Sox and Twins will have to have a one game playoff tomorrow... should be good.
TUESDAY...
— Groceries on the way home.
— Pizza Hut does a commercial tonight advertising a particular pizza that’s available any day of the week for $6. What makes the ad less effective is the fact that there’s a spoken disclaimer, at the end of the ad, saying “prices may vary.” Corporations must really think people are stupid.
— Watch baseball again tonight. Sox beet the Twins... too bad but a pretty good game.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work’s alright. The training is going a bit better after the initial feeling of being tossed into the deep end.
— Watch some baseball playoffs tonight with a walk around the pond in the middle of it. Cool fall day but fine enough for a pond walk with few others.
THURSDAY...
— Spam e-mails are dropping again. Yesterday I was under 90 and today, it’s under 60... much better than the 200 of a little while ago.
— Feeling a touch off health wise today. Not sure if it’s me being paranoid after hearing that Debbie (the trainer/supervisor) was off with the flu... or if it’s me fighting what she has.
— Some after work baseball on TV and some politics as well.
FRIDAY...
— Work... lunch is Chinese food with Chris, Phil and Bruno... after work office hockey pool draft... I think my team is pretty good. And Laura shows up as the surprise drop by guest of the day.
— Visit a little with Annick and Larry after the draft... get some pizza on the way home... watch a movie and some baseball while falling asleep in front of the TV.
SATURDAY...
— Quiet day... around the house, watching hockey and going for an evening walk. Sunset walks at the pond are pretty good for the wildlife action... ducks, muskrats and a beaver sighting.
Fifteen Bucks
I have read books on adventures in walking. Rory Stewart writes of walking across part of Afghanistan. He got shot at and had to deal with tribal leaders and the whole story was fascinating.
Then there are more famous stories of cross Canada journeys by the likes of Terry Fox and Rick Hansen. Those treks were mostly to raise awareness and money for cancer research, but I often found myself thinking of the things they passed by... the mundane things like a particular tree along the side of the road, or a pond where people have pulled over their cars to cast a line into the water in search of trout.
Many a squirrel and crow, in all likelihood, sat on a branch watching Terry Fox limp by.... wondering “what’s up with this guy?”
I’ve since thought of doing a walking adventure of my own. The one that has stuck in my imagination is the cross Newfoundland trek. I’ve heard of one other going from St. John’s to Port aux Basques along the old rail bed (which has now become a part of the Trans Canada Trail). I’ve thought time and time again of taking leave from work to make the journey for myself.
Not that cancer research would gain much from my trip. I’ve always thought of it as more of a personal venture that would make for a good story. Something more in line with Rory Stewart in Afghanistan... minus getting shot at of course... which would mean avoiding the trip in the fall, when hunters may mistake me for a moose or goose.
But I imagine the trip. Going 900 km across the island. Walking in on small towns. Stopping at relative’s homes for a bit of laundry and a nice night’s sleep. Tenting in the middle of nowhere with winds rustling the fabric that is my bedroom.
I’ve thought of foggy mornings with a chill in the air and a moose looking up to see me approach. I’ve thought of soaring osprey and cawing crows. And I’ve thought of the ideas that could pop in my head.
Not that I have any idea what ideas would come to me. But long walks can bring clarity to life. Give new perspective on things that become confusing in the urban environment.
So that’s my wish. To make the journey that so few can attest to and write about the adventure. A chapter a day... each day bringing a new encounter or perspective.
In preparation for such an adventure. I often go walking around my little suburban pond. And yesterday, I was paid to do it.
Hence I became a professional adventure walker. As of yet, the glamour has not been great. A half dozen people saw me go and I collected my pay along the route with suspicion of a gag racing through my mind.
The money came in the form of $15. A ten and a five laid out on the asphalt for anyone to see. At the time, only a slow moving older couple was sharing the pond with me. I’ve seen them before and they’ve never taken the fork in the road that would lead them to the money.
I look around, hoping to see a hidden camera that films to see what kind of person I’d be. A thief? A good Samaritan? Every moment is a test. On this occasion, with nobody nearby and a light breeze blowing, I decide to take the money. If not me, then it will be blown into the bushes to be used for nesting for a family of birds or mice.
So onward I go, keeping my guard up in preparation for a yelling neighbour accusing me of theft. I’m completely prepared to give up the money. If someone comes by asking me if I may have happened to see some cash on my journey. I’d ask them how much they’re missing and in what denominations was it in. And if the test is passed I’d gladly hand them over my loot.
But as I go it becomes plain that there is no searcher for lost fortunes. And I ease my conscience and pay less attention to the money details and more attention to my surroundings.
Just before sunset is an ideal time to make the walk at this time of year. Most people are indoors getting supper ready. And I find, if timed just right, the first lap can be done watching the colour in the western sky... and noticing the daytime animals preparing to tuck away for the night.
On lap two, more activity can be seen from the nighttime creatures and darkness envelops with only a light purply orange to be seen on the horizon... and only that can be seen when you reach the pond’s highest point.
One end of the pond is dominated by ducks. They paddle along the shore in the fading light and then venture out into the middle of the water once darkness falls completely.
You see them in small packs. At one point, I happened by when one pack of ducks ventured to far into the waters of another pack... and a duck showdown takes place right there in front of me. The two biggest birds flap and splash in the water for a few seconds. One loses nerve and retreats and the other calms and is soon joined by the rest of his flock. I don’t know if this is the claiming of new territory for a powerful flock... or the maintaining of traditional duck boundaries after an attempted invasion... but either way, peace soon returns with one final triumphant duck quack echoing out across the waters as I turn the corner.
The other end of the pond takes on a whole new wildlife feel. During the night, the ducks are at a minimum here. Maybe a lone one drifts in for a look. Perhaps a young duck just passing duckling status and entering duck adolescence has been dared to explore this great unknown after dark. But generally, you see no ducks at this end.
Instead, it becomes the territory of mammals. Muskrat can be seen paddling through the calm waters. A little head and section of back stand out as blackness against the water which still reflects the last bits of daylight. A trail V’s out behind... becoming less distinct as it branches out like the wake of a passing ship. Occasionally, the blackness of the muskrats disappears beneath the surface. I imagine them diving down for water insects and bits of water plants... ducking and weaving in and around the bottom vegetation and rocks.
A friend recently told me that the deepest part of the pond is fourteen feet near the centre. I wonder if muskrat dive this deep and wonder further about the muskrat treasures they may find at such depths.
Among the muskrat is a beaver. I saw him again on this walk. Hanging near the area where, just up on shore and over the sloop towards the pathway, trees have been downed in beaver fashion. First a couple, then a few weeks later a couple more. I now can count a good eight or nine gnawed stumps.
And on this walk I see an old couple. I’ve seen them many times before. It’s the Japanese couple I mentioned earlier. The ones who never venture down the path the money was located at. In fact, the couple never even make it around this little pond. They never get a chance to take in the different wildlife environments of the area.
He has a bad leg. I’m not sure if it’s arthritis or an artificial limb or some other ailment. Maybe he fell over the winter and broke a hip. But now he walks with a cane in his right hand and his left lodged upon his wife’s right shoulder. Together, with cane and wife, he can stumble with his bad left leg. They stop sometimes and sit on a bench. I can make a full lap of the pond in about the same time as it takes them to walk a tenth of it. And by the time I do a second lap, they’re returning from whence they came.
Last night I was left thinking of them. Of how the man would likely be stuck in a senior citizen’s home without his wife there by his side. Maybe he wouldn’t even be alive today without her. If he had fallen, maybe he’d have laid there too long and succumbed before help could arrive. Or maybe he’d just lose the will to go on with bed and a chair in front of the TV as his only source of daily activity.
I hope their walks grow longer and his leg becomes stronger. That soon you’ll see them walking side by side with her shoulder not being needed as a form of a second cane.
In the movies, love is shown in moments of drama. Fireworks blaze the sky as the silhouettes of two come close and embrace. Great proclamations gush forth as one bares all in front of another asking for another chance to make them happy. These moments bring forth tears from the audience and end in cheesy lines such as “you had me at hello” or “I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”
But in real life, love can be far less showy. Somewhere along a pond in Suburban Ottawa... between the territories of muskrat and ducks... I witnessed it in an old couple where a man tries to walk a little bit further and his wife shuffles alongside him, offering her shoulder for support.
— Tired day... again. But I get through okay. Have my first toasted tomato sandwich ever... Janice offers up some tomato for it. Not half bad.
— Watch some baseball in the evening. White Sox and Twins will have to have a one game playoff tomorrow... should be good.
TUESDAY...
— Groceries on the way home.
— Pizza Hut does a commercial tonight advertising a particular pizza that’s available any day of the week for $6. What makes the ad less effective is the fact that there’s a spoken disclaimer, at the end of the ad, saying “prices may vary.” Corporations must really think people are stupid.
— Watch baseball again tonight. Sox beet the Twins... too bad but a pretty good game.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work’s alright. The training is going a bit better after the initial feeling of being tossed into the deep end.
— Watch some baseball playoffs tonight with a walk around the pond in the middle of it. Cool fall day but fine enough for a pond walk with few others.
THURSDAY...
— Spam e-mails are dropping again. Yesterday I was under 90 and today, it’s under 60... much better than the 200 of a little while ago.
— Feeling a touch off health wise today. Not sure if it’s me being paranoid after hearing that Debbie (the trainer/supervisor) was off with the flu... or if it’s me fighting what she has.
— Some after work baseball on TV and some politics as well.
FRIDAY...
— Work... lunch is Chinese food with Chris, Phil and Bruno... after work office hockey pool draft... I think my team is pretty good. And Laura shows up as the surprise drop by guest of the day.
— Visit a little with Annick and Larry after the draft... get some pizza on the way home... watch a movie and some baseball while falling asleep in front of the TV.
SATURDAY...
— Quiet day... around the house, watching hockey and going for an evening walk. Sunset walks at the pond are pretty good for the wildlife action... ducks, muskrats and a beaver sighting.
Fifteen Bucks
I have read books on adventures in walking. Rory Stewart writes of walking across part of Afghanistan. He got shot at and had to deal with tribal leaders and the whole story was fascinating.
Then there are more famous stories of cross Canada journeys by the likes of Terry Fox and Rick Hansen. Those treks were mostly to raise awareness and money for cancer research, but I often found myself thinking of the things they passed by... the mundane things like a particular tree along the side of the road, or a pond where people have pulled over their cars to cast a line into the water in search of trout.
Many a squirrel and crow, in all likelihood, sat on a branch watching Terry Fox limp by.... wondering “what’s up with this guy?”
I’ve since thought of doing a walking adventure of my own. The one that has stuck in my imagination is the cross Newfoundland trek. I’ve heard of one other going from St. John’s to Port aux Basques along the old rail bed (which has now become a part of the Trans Canada Trail). I’ve thought time and time again of taking leave from work to make the journey for myself.
Not that cancer research would gain much from my trip. I’ve always thought of it as more of a personal venture that would make for a good story. Something more in line with Rory Stewart in Afghanistan... minus getting shot at of course... which would mean avoiding the trip in the fall, when hunters may mistake me for a moose or goose.
But I imagine the trip. Going 900 km across the island. Walking in on small towns. Stopping at relative’s homes for a bit of laundry and a nice night’s sleep. Tenting in the middle of nowhere with winds rustling the fabric that is my bedroom.
I’ve thought of foggy mornings with a chill in the air and a moose looking up to see me approach. I’ve thought of soaring osprey and cawing crows. And I’ve thought of the ideas that could pop in my head.
Not that I have any idea what ideas would come to me. But long walks can bring clarity to life. Give new perspective on things that become confusing in the urban environment.
So that’s my wish. To make the journey that so few can attest to and write about the adventure. A chapter a day... each day bringing a new encounter or perspective.
In preparation for such an adventure. I often go walking around my little suburban pond. And yesterday, I was paid to do it.
Hence I became a professional adventure walker. As of yet, the glamour has not been great. A half dozen people saw me go and I collected my pay along the route with suspicion of a gag racing through my mind.
The money came in the form of $15. A ten and a five laid out on the asphalt for anyone to see. At the time, only a slow moving older couple was sharing the pond with me. I’ve seen them before and they’ve never taken the fork in the road that would lead them to the money.
I look around, hoping to see a hidden camera that films to see what kind of person I’d be. A thief? A good Samaritan? Every moment is a test. On this occasion, with nobody nearby and a light breeze blowing, I decide to take the money. If not me, then it will be blown into the bushes to be used for nesting for a family of birds or mice.
So onward I go, keeping my guard up in preparation for a yelling neighbour accusing me of theft. I’m completely prepared to give up the money. If someone comes by asking me if I may have happened to see some cash on my journey. I’d ask them how much they’re missing and in what denominations was it in. And if the test is passed I’d gladly hand them over my loot.
But as I go it becomes plain that there is no searcher for lost fortunes. And I ease my conscience and pay less attention to the money details and more attention to my surroundings.
Just before sunset is an ideal time to make the walk at this time of year. Most people are indoors getting supper ready. And I find, if timed just right, the first lap can be done watching the colour in the western sky... and noticing the daytime animals preparing to tuck away for the night.
On lap two, more activity can be seen from the nighttime creatures and darkness envelops with only a light purply orange to be seen on the horizon... and only that can be seen when you reach the pond’s highest point.
One end of the pond is dominated by ducks. They paddle along the shore in the fading light and then venture out into the middle of the water once darkness falls completely.
You see them in small packs. At one point, I happened by when one pack of ducks ventured to far into the waters of another pack... and a duck showdown takes place right there in front of me. The two biggest birds flap and splash in the water for a few seconds. One loses nerve and retreats and the other calms and is soon joined by the rest of his flock. I don’t know if this is the claiming of new territory for a powerful flock... or the maintaining of traditional duck boundaries after an attempted invasion... but either way, peace soon returns with one final triumphant duck quack echoing out across the waters as I turn the corner.
The other end of the pond takes on a whole new wildlife feel. During the night, the ducks are at a minimum here. Maybe a lone one drifts in for a look. Perhaps a young duck just passing duckling status and entering duck adolescence has been dared to explore this great unknown after dark. But generally, you see no ducks at this end.
Instead, it becomes the territory of mammals. Muskrat can be seen paddling through the calm waters. A little head and section of back stand out as blackness against the water which still reflects the last bits of daylight. A trail V’s out behind... becoming less distinct as it branches out like the wake of a passing ship. Occasionally, the blackness of the muskrats disappears beneath the surface. I imagine them diving down for water insects and bits of water plants... ducking and weaving in and around the bottom vegetation and rocks.
A friend recently told me that the deepest part of the pond is fourteen feet near the centre. I wonder if muskrat dive this deep and wonder further about the muskrat treasures they may find at such depths.
Among the muskrat is a beaver. I saw him again on this walk. Hanging near the area where, just up on shore and over the sloop towards the pathway, trees have been downed in beaver fashion. First a couple, then a few weeks later a couple more. I now can count a good eight or nine gnawed stumps.
And on this walk I see an old couple. I’ve seen them many times before. It’s the Japanese couple I mentioned earlier. The ones who never venture down the path the money was located at. In fact, the couple never even make it around this little pond. They never get a chance to take in the different wildlife environments of the area.
He has a bad leg. I’m not sure if it’s arthritis or an artificial limb or some other ailment. Maybe he fell over the winter and broke a hip. But now he walks with a cane in his right hand and his left lodged upon his wife’s right shoulder. Together, with cane and wife, he can stumble with his bad left leg. They stop sometimes and sit on a bench. I can make a full lap of the pond in about the same time as it takes them to walk a tenth of it. And by the time I do a second lap, they’re returning from whence they came.
Last night I was left thinking of them. Of how the man would likely be stuck in a senior citizen’s home without his wife there by his side. Maybe he wouldn’t even be alive today without her. If he had fallen, maybe he’d have laid there too long and succumbed before help could arrive. Or maybe he’d just lose the will to go on with bed and a chair in front of the TV as his only source of daily activity.
I hope their walks grow longer and his leg becomes stronger. That soon you’ll see them walking side by side with her shoulder not being needed as a form of a second cane.
In the movies, love is shown in moments of drama. Fireworks blaze the sky as the silhouettes of two come close and embrace. Great proclamations gush forth as one bares all in front of another asking for another chance to make them happy. These moments bring forth tears from the audience and end in cheesy lines such as “you had me at hello” or “I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”
But in real life, love can be far less showy. Somewhere along a pond in Suburban Ottawa... between the territories of muskrat and ducks... I witnessed it in an old couple where a man tries to walk a little bit further and his wife shuffles alongside him, offering her shoulder for support.
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