IBeen a while since I’ve posted. Overly busy one weekend… A death in the family (one of my uncles) another weekend. Together, they made writing on a blog not a high priority. So, as for what’s been going on…
Dad lost a brother a few weeks ago. I won’t go into it much because I know how much this uncle hated social media and I don’t think he’d want to be discussed in a blog that’s linked to Facebook. But he fought for many years and will be missed. Times like those are when living away from home is hard. You feel a million miles away from family in such times.
My good neighbours are moving. Harley and family put the house up for sale and will likely be gone by August. I’ll miss having them around. They’ve been good neighbours… And friends. Today, I happened to see the first of the potential buyers coming through to have a look at the place. Both pulling into the driveway and leaving, they drove over my lawn… And the dad walked over my lawn with no thought when he took his child out of the backseat. Not a good first impression.
To compound the neighbourhood issue, my other neighbour put his garbage out for Thursday. The problem being that Thursday was only a cardboard recycling day. Today is Sunday… The garbage bags remain. This is the same dirtbag that I saw open a letter as he walked back from his mailbox… He just tossed the strip of envelop he tore off onto the ground. Honestly… The wrong neighbours are moving. I’m suddenly left wondering about another possible move myself. I always thought that, as long as I’m living alone in Ottawa, I’d likely be staying here. Now I’m not as sure. Hopefully Harley’s replacement will end up good.
My CPSIC return date is official. I finish in Latents on August 4… Start in at CPSIC on the 9th. Back to the twelve hour shifts and overnights… And those wonderful four days off. At that time, the blog will return to an eight day cycle instead of Sunday posting.
Hopping a plane in four days. Flying home Thursday evening for two and a half weeks. This will be the first I actually see my sister and family in two years. I think it’ll be the longest stretch we’ve gone since being together. A bit of Gros Morne Park… Some Fogo Island… And eight or nine days around town… Looking forward to it. Though still not sure how to pack. Looks like a lot of 14 degree days and possible single digit nights in the near future. Will I even need a pair of shorts? I love my homeland… But come on… It’s summer already.
I’m slowly integrating to Ottawa in my sports watching. I now enjoy watching two local teams and cheer them on. Though the Senators remains as not being one of them. I aim to watch football whenever the Redblacks are on TV… And I went to two games last year. And the Champions baseball team is a fun time as well. Been to two games there so far this season and watched another game on TV the other day. Plus I bought a Champions ball cap and jersey this season. Perhaps a football jersey isn’t far behind. The one that surprises me is that I’ve never gotten too excited about the junior hockey here. I’ve been in Ottawa for thirteen years now and I think I’ve gone to only three 67’s games in that time. They’re a historic OHL team playing in a nice stadium but I’ve just never caught the bug. And my ignoring of the Senators remains largely based on the fan base rather than the team itself. So many Senator fans are petty and whiny about their team. Every loss is due to bad refs. Every win is a sign that the Stanley Cup is near. Every Senator player is a budding star and every opponent is dirty and evil. I know there are dumb fans for every hockey team… And there are good fans for every team as well (even the Sens). But there’s an insecurity and unwillingness to see reality here, with this team, that I haven’t seen in any other hockey market.
I haven’t written since the Orlando shooting and all the fallout around it. The truth is, in America, the gun debate has already been won. When small children were the main victims of a mass shooting, in Sandy Hook, and nothing came of it from a gun control point of view, that’s proof that Americans have made up their mind about how things stand with gun control. But there’s seriously something wrong when 90% of a democratic country’s population support a bill on some level of gun control… And the president of that country supports such a bill… Yet still, nothing is done. And honestly, I don’t mind if somebody is pro gun. I don’t own guns nor have any interest in having anything to do with them, but if someone else has an interest in them I don’t want to be the one to tell them they’re wrong in that. But that said, if there’s just been a mass shooting and a community is in mourning… That’s the time for pro gun people to just shut up. Don’t post on social media trying to make yourselves some sort of victim as you fear losing civil rights. Little kids were killed just a few years ago and you lost no rights at all. Let the mourners now be angry and let them vent. You won’t lose anything over it and may in fact come off as a little classy and reasonable. Really, I haven’t seen a more insecure and frightened group of people in this world as those that fear their guns are going to be taken away. Anti-gun people would probably not be so anti-gun if the gun nuts simply didn’t act so nuts about their guns. And this constant fear from white North Americans that someone bad is going to break into their house in the middle of the night… It’s paranoia. You’re more likely to be struck by lightning as you walk to the lottery office to claim your million dollar win than be needing an AR 15 propped up next to your night table for protection while you sleep. It’s a threat that’s so infinitesimally small that it isn’t worth worrying about.
So in the end, I do think there should be a level of gun control. I don’t think people should be allowed machine guns or bazookas. I think any weapon designed for use by marines in a war zone should not be available for soccer moms in the suburbs. And not only should there be background checks on anyone looking to buy a gun, but there should be regular psychological exams for anyone owning anything more than a hunting rifle (because even a good and reasonable person who owns a gun isn’t guaranteed to remain good and reasonable for the rest of their lives). But even though I believe that’s what should be… I saw the fallout from the Sandy Hook shooting… And I know gun owners have won.
Anyway, that’s it for today. I will bring the iPad and Bluetooth keyboard to Newfoundland so I hope to update the blog at least once while there… Though I can’t guarantee that it’ll be next Sunday. Whenever the chance comes up, I’ll do it.
