Making It Up As I Go Along #566

Once again... From the freezer... MAGNETIC POETRY!!!

Joy moments

Joy moments

Sing beneath light showers

As if almost alive

But essentially brings little things

Blossoming with every whisper

Of barefoot kisses

Which smile comfort songs

Where no friend lives

TUESDAY...

--- Alone at work and pretty busy with the phone. Seems a new call every fifteen minutes or so. Blah to the phone. 

WEDNESDAY...

--- Alone again and maybe the busiest I've been all year at work. Pretty much didn't stop all day with tires to deal with and shoe impressions as well. 

THURSDAY...

--- Back with a partner for the nights. Not so busy tonight. 

FRIDAY...

--- DNA work and then relatively quiet after that's wrapped up. A staff email out today about a bunch of things, including appropriate cell phone use at work. Appropriate seems to be basically only use it on break time. This doesn't say much for my department... With no official break times. And it seems only a few specific issues are being addressed. Personal phone calls at work... Texting... Internet time... All picked on. Drop by desk chats, smoke breaks, trips to the coffee machine... Go for it. I've said it before, I'll say it again... I should take up smoking. 

SATURDAY...

--- Awake way to early considering bedtime. Three and a half hours sleep should mean I can go to bed fairly early tonight I suppose.
--- See Toad Homes in the Lee Valley catalogue.  Now that's a neat ol' thing.  Basically a shallow clay pot turned upside down... with air holes and two entrances/exits (so cats can't corner the poor toads).  What does it say about me that, in a catalogue full of tools and manly instruments for building stuff, my eye is caught by a home for toads? I did have several of them in both my front and back yards this summer.  Perhaps I'll have to invest in their well being.

SUNDAY...

--- Nice winter day. Yes it's still fall but it's bright sun out with a coat of white over the land... And it's -18 with the windchill. So I stay in. 

--- Indoor ball ends in a tie. Good game. I play much better than last game... But I'm doubled off at first base cause I thought there was already two out. Still, hit the ball well and played solid enough at third. 

MONDAY...

--- Spending money today. Drop the car at Mazda for a fluid change, break check and snow tires installed. There goes $400. Have lunch with Melissa while waiting for the car, then get groceries after that's all done. More than a $500 day all told. Oh well. 

TUESDAY...

--- 35 minute walk has me encountering a fox. He's pretty curious of me but keeping his distance. And I see a nice arcing jump as he clears a stream. 

--- Bring in the BBQ from the back deck. We are due 30 cm of snow tomorrow so I figure get it in now. I left it out and covered all last winter but come spring, there were all kinds of mice poop and torn up foil inside. No need to make my BBQ a mouse retreat. 

--- Rogers continues to take over the world. It now basically owns the NHL... From a Canadian point of view anyway. Interesting talk of no more black outs or regional games (two things I've always hated in hockey coverage). But to reduce CBC to virtually nothing. And to cut TSN out entirely... That's not good. Rogers has always been third, by a lot, in how they present a hockey game. 

Making It Up As I Go Along #565

Paths
They lead the way
Haphazardly formed
Guiding you through woods
Marking the way along meadows
Taking you over rolling hills.

Those of Signal Hill and Cape Spear
Historically followed
By lighthouse keepers and soldiers
And now by you
Maintaining the wear
Stomping away growth.

Those of Tor's Cove
Leading you through wild grasses
Wandering around glacial rock outcrops
Bringing you to the sea
To sit with family
Watching masses of Spring ice drift by.

And those of homes
Of childhood wanders
Through the backyard woods
To secret forts
And bubbling brooks.

Of grownup meditations
Venturing off the manmade trail
Worn with grooves from tires
And continuing on towards the setting sun
Through long grasses slept in by deer
Following in their footsteps across a creek
Continuing into the underbrush
Seeing what they see
Wondering where they would pause
Imagining them up ahead
Looking back wondering
"What is he doing here?"

The path in Tor's Cove

MONDAY...

--- Holiday for many but it's work for me. Pretty busy day really. 

TUESDAY...

--- After work, go to get drinks and a meal with Laura and Janice. Go to Patty's Pub. Seems fitting as this was where I always went with Karl and he died a year ago today. 

WEDNESDAY...

--- Thai food at work. Fairly regular night shift. 

THURSDAY...

--- Up just before 1:00. Lounge around the house some before work. The afternoon nap just doesn't work if you only got up about an hour before the nap was to occur.

FRIDAY...
--- Average first day off.  Groceries.  Walk.  Catch up on some TV.

SATURDAY...
--- Out walking in the woods and along the power line corridor for an hour and a half.  Check out what the beaver has been up to... take pictures of the sunset... Do some tramping off trails, in the woods... following a deer path at dusk.

SUNDAY...
--- Rainy day keeps me inside until going to softball.  We lose.  I don't play as well as I should.  It's good to get out and I like throwing the ball around... but I'm starting to wonder if it's time to move on away from it all.  I generally get more enjoyment from things like yesterday's walk with the camera than ball games.  That all said, I also pay up for the winter season.  Not much else to do in January and February... I may as well keep it up.  But maybe the winter season will be my last for indoor softball.

Making It Up As I Go Along #564

First Snow
The snows come on a Saturday
Falling as I nap
Laziness upon the sofa
Weekend laziness
The type felt only at home

A rising stretch brings casual gaze
A glance towards the window
Finds white frosting atop the green
A thin layer atop the outside world
Brings me near to assure my wake

Over the stairs I bound
A child on Christmas morning
Rushing to see the sight
Out front the lawn is whitening
Beyond lawn the leafless birch
Camouflaged in the silent falling

It's church snow
Gentle and quiet
dancing slowly
Purifying the land
As it feathers down

And so it goes through the evening
No cars intrude the silence
Only a dog walker calmly stands
Waiting patiently as the pet
Sniffs and snuggles the cool white

Nighttime brings the streetlight
A spotlight upon the play
Revealing the continuing ground-ward dance
Bringing images of Christmas
Of that quiet night time
Between the excitement of evening family
And the silence of bed
Where pulses slow
"Silent Night" whispers distantly through the house
And the world continues to whiten
Slowly, Quietly, Peacefully

SUNDAY...

--- Dayshift is quiet. System was down for half the day for maintenance. 

--- Softball after work. I'm feeling not very mobile as my calf remains tight, but strong enough to go. And now my other Achilles' tendon area feels tight. I assume from working harder to compensate for the calf muscle. Still, I do fine in the field and beat out a single to first, with the bases loaded in the 8th. It drives in the winning run for an 8-7 game. 

MONDAY...

--- Days again. It's a fairly normal day at work really. Catch up with a few people I haven't seen in weeks. 

TUESDAY...

--- Up after 10:00. Take it easy resting up for nights. 

---  Hit the shoe impressions for night shift. Works out alright. 

WEDNESDAY...

--- Night is pretty quiet and easy going. I do some. Louis' Pizza for the night. So that helps.

THURSDAY...

--- Typical first day off. Some groceries and hang around the house catching up on the PVR. 

FRIDAY...

--- Eaves troughs installed this afternoon. I hang in the house while it gets done. 

--- Mom and dad have summer vacation booked. A family trip to England will be quite the adventure next summer. 

SATURDAY...

--- First snow of the year. It snows pretty steady from around 3:30 on. Less than 5 cm though. A 45 minute walk and hanging out around the house are it for today. 

Making it up as I go Along #563

Halloween
I have few memories of Halloween.  For instance, I wouldn't be able to name anymore than a few of the costumes I wore over the trick or treat years.  I think I was a dog two years in a row.  With a big, full body furry costume and a mask, fairly hood like, that was hard to see out of.  A big sheep dog or something of the like.  I think I spent much of the night, wandering neighbourhood streets, calling for friends to wait up... as I adjusted my face, in hopes of seeing where, on earth, I was.

I'm pretty sure, late in my trick or treat career, I did the unoriginal punk get up.  That consisted of moused hair, torn jeans, and a jean jacket.  I was a small enough kid that I got the candy... but I think I had some paused looks from those that opened the doors... wondering if I was holding to the spirit of the night or just in it for a sugar rush.

I think I also went in my Spider-Man suit when I was young.  The suit that mom made herself and that needed a coordinated effort just to get on... like deep sea divers or astronauts. The blue tights that made up the underneath of the costume... followed by the red material that snapped together under the crotch (in later years, the snap would come undone when I dropped into a squat).  And topped off with the skin tight Spider-Man mask.  Eyes barely able to look out... the smell of the material still embedded in my mind.

But I think when I trick or treated with the Spider-Man suit, it was too cold outside for the tights... and I was basically walking the streets in snow pants and a winter jacket... an arctic Spider-Man.

I remember the time when I was too sick to go out on the candy run.  How my teacher, at the time, made a trip to the house to give me a care package of halloween treats... done up much more special than the handful of wrapped toffees and rockets that would be hucked into bags by those tired adults that manned the doors.

I remember it seemed the neighbourhood was swarming with children in those days.  That twenty could all make their way to a door at the same time.  To the point where kids would be perched on the steps, awaiting to ascend to the mountain's peak of sugar goodness.  Little draculas and princesses having to cling to railing in order not to be toppled over by those coming back down from the summit.  Yes, back in those days, trick or treating was as a summit attempt of Everest. Where teams would get backlogged along the narrow path to glory.

And it seemed as though we were out all night.  It feels like we got out there just after supper and didn't return home until near midnight.  Though I'm sure that's just the memory from a small boy's point of view.  In reality, we must not have been out there more than a few hours.

I have no memory of how my gang of friends would come together at Halloween.  We always went around together... though I do remember I sometimes would lose one group and continue on with another.  Perhaps starting out with the kids I played with in the neighbourhood but losing touch with them among the summit throngs and running into some of my elementary school friends in the process.  But how I would start out those nights is a memory I simply do not have.  There would always be five or six of us together.  And I can't imagine leaving my home alone and trick or treating by myself until latching on to the gang.

Most Halloweens, in St. John's, were a battle against the elements.  Rare was it that a clear, still night supplied the backdrop for our adventures.  No, our journey was much like an Everest expedition in this regard much as the stairs to the front doors were summit climbs.

Gales would whip hats and wigs off clown heads.  Freezing rains would smear makeup down faces until, a mere half hour into the night, carefully made up vampires and zombies were dripping children... fragile and shaking with the cold.  And some snowy evenings would force Frankenstein monsters and cackling witches to don wool hats and mitts.  

This week in Ottawa was as those years back home.  Rains blown against the houses. Dead leaves plastered to the street and a few of the brave ghouls hunched and leaning against the wind as they wandered up the street.

I stood in the darkness alone.  Watching from an upstairs window.  Remembering Halloweens of years gone by.


SATURDAY...

--- Rainy cold day. Quiet at work for the most part. Then some hockey on tv in the evening. 

SUNDAY...

--- More days at work. And more quiet. Go to ball after work but don't play. Giving my calf an extra week since we have a full roster there anyway. We win 17-5. So I'm not missed. 

MONDAY...

--- Nights. Fairly busy. I am at the shoes for much of the night. Not bad. I get a shwarma for supper. First one in quite a while. 

TUESDAY...

--- Quiet second night. Plug away at some DNA work. 

WEDNESDAY...

--- Up around 10:00. Groceries. Walk. Some tv. Some hockey pool stuff. 

THURSDAY...

--- Halloween spent in the house. Rain and wind much of the day. I pity the kids... But since I didn't really prepare for them too much... And with bad weather and just me... I went lights out and in the basement. Something feels wrong about single guy alone at home handing out candy to children. 

FRIDAY...

--- Windy day. One of the windier ones I've seen in Ottawa. Do a walk about the woods and ponds. See some small trees down and 6-9 inches of water up on the ponds and creeks. It really was a lot of rain yesterday.