An unusual day last Sunday. Driving in to work… and see a young moose on the side of the road. A few hundred yards beyond was a wild turkey. Wild turkeys are barely worth noticing when they follow up a moose. After work, I met Bev for supper downtown. First time I’ve seen her in several years, and it was good to catch up. Then, on the way home from that, I spot a deer on the side of the road.
I still find it hard to think of Trump as the American President. It jars me when I hear people call him President Trump. He’s also the first president that, when he speaks, I don’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth. I’ve seen politicians lie before. But Trump is the first that I don’t think he’s necessarily lying about the things he says. Rather, I don’t think he has any idea what he’s talking about. And I think I’d rather think a world leader is lying than be totally ignorant of the facts of the matter.
The Yellow Jackets are around again this spring. Last summer I thought they were nesting in my siding, in the back yard. Now I wonder if they just like the warmth and sun in the back. I got one of those paper imitation nests to see if that will make them steer clear… but it’s been Newfoundland like windy since I bought it and that’s really best out there in calm weather.
The city of St. John’s is officially out of the AHL again. And this time, probably for good. AHL hockey was played in my home town for twenty years and dad and I partook in much of it. I really like the Mile One Stadium as a facility but my main memories of the hockey come from old Memorial Stadium. It was small and had the character that only an old arena can have. Narrow corridors, dimly lit corners… a closeness to the ice surface from no matter where you sat. Modern facilities are just more generic now. They’re like box stores… the same layout of feel no matter what city you’re in. I haven’t been to a game in St. John’s for several years. And haven’t been to one with dad in probably five… if not five, fifteen. But I’ll miss the idea of AHL hockey in St. John’s. It was always good knowing it was there. Knowing that each season may allow for me to get to a game on a winter trip home.
I never dreamed the Blue Jays being this bad this year. But it also shows how much more of a baseball fan I now am compared to hockey. Despite the 6-17 record, I’m quick to turn on a Jays game. Even when the Montreal Canadiens were playing a playoff game at the same time, I found myself more often drifting back to the baseball game. I find myself thinking GM strategy now. Wondering what can be done to improve things. Or what should be done as the record continues to slip. I actually got the release of the backup catcher dead on. I went to bed thinking “maybe now is the time to let him go and go with a younger backup”… and then I woke to find they did just that.
Wind Wimpy
I once tolerated it
When there was hair to dishevel
I’d endure the gusts
Accounting for a street hockey head wind
Jogging five feet away from a fly ball in softball
Knowing the wind would close the gap
I’d turn my childhood coat into a kite
Hoping the blowing would lift me up
As my pocketed hands stretched out my fabric wings
But now it drives me indoors
A sunny, warm walk gladly ended
As I look forward to getting out of the heavy breeze
Watching the sway of the treetops
I see it as I would rain
The price for having lost the wonder
If only my jacket really could grant me windy flight.
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Friday, April 21, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #678
Well, skipped out on the blog last week in favour of working on organizing my photos. I should have been able to do both… but just got deep enough into the photos that I didn’t want to multitask. Almost 13,000 photos in my library. And I decided to buy the extra iCloud Drive storage for added backup protection. It took about three days for my photos to transfer to the cloud, but it all looks good now.
Cheering for sports teams can be pretty difficult. Montreal on the verge of playoff elimination… and the Blue Jays have fallen off a cliff. I knew they may take a step back this year… but 3-12? Never saw that coming.
Got a new car. Had to get out of my lease early on the old Mazda 3 but I didn’t want to deal with two more winters of it getting stuck in the snow. They don’t do a great job snow clearing in my neighbourhood and two or three times, each of the last two winters, I either couldn’t move the car and had to shovel it off the road… or I didn’t even bother to try, knowing the car wasn’t going to go anywhere if I did. So an all wheel drive CX-5 has taken over. My first automatic transmission since leaving Newfoundland… and my first SUV/Crossover. I have to admit it’s a nice thing to drive.
Favourite Places
Sometimes while I sit
I think of other places
Far off favourite spots
I wonder how they are
The nature reserve in Florida
Is the sun glistening off the lake?
Is a gator sunning on the shoreline?
Does an anole patrol that tree?
The costal trail of Cape Spear
The crook in the rocks where I have sat
Watching the seas while tucked from wind
Is it snowy and ice covered?
Can I hear the churning waters below?
That Ancient Greek track
Atop the climbing trail
Hidden from those not venturing
I imagine a lone bee
Patrolling the stadium’s edge
Inspecting mountain top flowers
For a tasty, historic treat.
I even think of nearby places
Of that spot in my woods
Where the trail arcs around a tree
And I wonder if there’s a sniffing dog
Or sunning snake.
I wonder if a robin’s there
Building a nest
With a trailside view.
And while I am left to wonder of the far off places
It is this near one I should go
To see if I can find that snake
Or get a scolding from the robin
For pausing too close to it’s springtime home.
Cheering for sports teams can be pretty difficult. Montreal on the verge of playoff elimination… and the Blue Jays have fallen off a cliff. I knew they may take a step back this year… but 3-12? Never saw that coming.
Got a new car. Had to get out of my lease early on the old Mazda 3 but I didn’t want to deal with two more winters of it getting stuck in the snow. They don’t do a great job snow clearing in my neighbourhood and two or three times, each of the last two winters, I either couldn’t move the car and had to shovel it off the road… or I didn’t even bother to try, knowing the car wasn’t going to go anywhere if I did. So an all wheel drive CX-5 has taken over. My first automatic transmission since leaving Newfoundland… and my first SUV/Crossover. I have to admit it’s a nice thing to drive.
Favourite Places
Sometimes while I sit
I think of other places
Far off favourite spots
I wonder how they are
The nature reserve in Florida
Is the sun glistening off the lake?
Is a gator sunning on the shoreline?
Does an anole patrol that tree?
The costal trail of Cape Spear
The crook in the rocks where I have sat
Watching the seas while tucked from wind
Is it snowy and ice covered?
Can I hear the churning waters below?
That Ancient Greek track
Atop the climbing trail
Hidden from those not venturing
I imagine a lone bee
Patrolling the stadium’s edge
Inspecting mountain top flowers
For a tasty, historic treat.
I even think of nearby places
Of that spot in my woods
Where the trail arcs around a tree
And I wonder if there’s a sniffing dog
Or sunning snake.
I wonder if a robin’s there
Building a nest
With a trailside view.
And while I am left to wonder of the far off places
It is this near one I should go
To see if I can find that snake
Or get a scolding from the robin
For pausing too close to it’s springtime home.
Wednesday, April 05, 2017
Making It Up As I Go Along #677
First writing in a while. Back from a successful Florida trip and a round of work straight after that. And with changes afoot regarding my car. This time next week, I should no longer have my Mazda 3… but a new CX-5 instead. Yes, it’ll cost more… but it’ll be a better car. A better ride and easier to get around in the snow next winter.
It has left me a bit nostalgic though. Once the switch happens, who knows when I’ll drive a standard again. I may be in my final days of a stick shift. And I’ve always been one to be against SUV’s. But my last two winters have been tricky with the smaller car. My road is often not well cleared for days after a snowfall and I’ve gotten stuck several times over the last two winters. Oh well… I’m looking forward to the new ride and I don’t drive enough to be playing a big roll on the environment. In two years with the current Mazda 3, I’m still at less than 15,000 km.
But on to Florida. This was my longest time there and with the least amount planned… and that was nice. We went to St. Pete’s Beach for a few days early. Stayed in an old style hotel that was pretty neat and only a block from the beach.
After that, there was two baseball games. The Jays beating Boston in Dunedin and then winning against the Tigers in Lakeland. And I had a ball bounce off the heal of my hand in the Lakeland game. That makes two times in the last five games of baseball I’ve been to where a foul ball has touched my hand, but I never make the catch.
The rest of Florida consisted of a round of golf with Lee (my first round in two years went well. Shot a 107 with a 49 on the back nine and no lost balls). And then there was the trip with mom and dad to the Circle B Bar Reserve. The reserve has become one of my favourite places anywhere. Last year I saw my first armadillo there. This time I see my first Eastern Coral Snake. And on any trip there you’re assured a load of gators and a multitude of birds and turtles. Plus it’s just a nice nature reserve to walk through.
Other than that, the rest of the two weeks was just fly by the seat of our pants stuff. Stroll to the pond in the gated community mom and dad have been staying at. Watch the anole lizards scurrying about the place. Family meals. A few walks about some of Lakeland’s lakes. And some time in the downtown shopping area of Lakeland.
I got a much better feel for the city of Lakeland on this trip. And it’s a pretty nice place. And, after two weeks of Florida… where you start to get into a bit of a routine… I can actually see the appeal for retiring there for part of the year. It’s surely pretty easy to get used to sun and 25 almost every day in March.
I think my body is also telling me I need to do away with winter. By February, I had several dry patches on my face that were irritating me. The cold and dry is just rough on the skin I guess… though I never had much issue with it before the last year or two.
But within a few days of being in Florida, my skin was pretty well cleared up. Not a problem for two weeks. And then, the first two days back in Ottawa, the dryness picked up again. Though with moisturizer and the warming going on here, it settled back down fairly quickly. Still, problems before Florida followed by a bit of a flare after getting back… makes you think your body is telling you something.
Finally, the melt is on. Walking today, I saw more water in the ponds and creek than ever before. The creek in front of my house is basically now part of the pond, actually. What is normally a six foot wide stream is currently a good thirty feet wide, body of water covering much of the bottom of the valley leading into the ponds.
A path going from the woods is more like a small stream as well. Melting snow flowing in the middle of the path and draining down to the ponds.
And ducks and geese are back. I saw a pair of each milling about where the water is open. I’m expecting there’ll be chicks of each before too long.
So that’s the catch up. I should be back on schedule with my writing now and will likely have a new car with the next update. That, and watching mom and dad’s condo slowly going up a short walk away… I think this year will promise to be quite different from recent ones.
And bring on Spring.
It has left me a bit nostalgic though. Once the switch happens, who knows when I’ll drive a standard again. I may be in my final days of a stick shift. And I’ve always been one to be against SUV’s. But my last two winters have been tricky with the smaller car. My road is often not well cleared for days after a snowfall and I’ve gotten stuck several times over the last two winters. Oh well… I’m looking forward to the new ride and I don’t drive enough to be playing a big roll on the environment. In two years with the current Mazda 3, I’m still at less than 15,000 km.
But on to Florida. This was my longest time there and with the least amount planned… and that was nice. We went to St. Pete’s Beach for a few days early. Stayed in an old style hotel that was pretty neat and only a block from the beach.
After that, there was two baseball games. The Jays beating Boston in Dunedin and then winning against the Tigers in Lakeland. And I had a ball bounce off the heal of my hand in the Lakeland game. That makes two times in the last five games of baseball I’ve been to where a foul ball has touched my hand, but I never make the catch.
The rest of Florida consisted of a round of golf with Lee (my first round in two years went well. Shot a 107 with a 49 on the back nine and no lost balls). And then there was the trip with mom and dad to the Circle B Bar Reserve. The reserve has become one of my favourite places anywhere. Last year I saw my first armadillo there. This time I see my first Eastern Coral Snake. And on any trip there you’re assured a load of gators and a multitude of birds and turtles. Plus it’s just a nice nature reserve to walk through.
Other than that, the rest of the two weeks was just fly by the seat of our pants stuff. Stroll to the pond in the gated community mom and dad have been staying at. Watch the anole lizards scurrying about the place. Family meals. A few walks about some of Lakeland’s lakes. And some time in the downtown shopping area of Lakeland.
I got a much better feel for the city of Lakeland on this trip. And it’s a pretty nice place. And, after two weeks of Florida… where you start to get into a bit of a routine… I can actually see the appeal for retiring there for part of the year. It’s surely pretty easy to get used to sun and 25 almost every day in March.
I think my body is also telling me I need to do away with winter. By February, I had several dry patches on my face that were irritating me. The cold and dry is just rough on the skin I guess… though I never had much issue with it before the last year or two.
But within a few days of being in Florida, my skin was pretty well cleared up. Not a problem for two weeks. And then, the first two days back in Ottawa, the dryness picked up again. Though with moisturizer and the warming going on here, it settled back down fairly quickly. Still, problems before Florida followed by a bit of a flare after getting back… makes you think your body is telling you something.
Finally, the melt is on. Walking today, I saw more water in the ponds and creek than ever before. The creek in front of my house is basically now part of the pond, actually. What is normally a six foot wide stream is currently a good thirty feet wide, body of water covering much of the bottom of the valley leading into the ponds.
A path going from the woods is more like a small stream as well. Melting snow flowing in the middle of the path and draining down to the ponds.
And ducks and geese are back. I saw a pair of each milling about where the water is open. I’m expecting there’ll be chicks of each before too long.
So that’s the catch up. I should be back on schedule with my writing now and will likely have a new car with the next update. That, and watching mom and dad’s condo slowly going up a short walk away… I think this year will promise to be quite different from recent ones.
And bring on Spring.
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