MONDAY...
— Long day due to the weather again. Between traffic and me having to scrape ice off the car, I’m twenty minutes late getting in to the office.
— Work itself is alright and by day’s end, it’s above freezing and clear out.
TUESDAY...
— Sort of tired at work but get through it anyway. I cancel out on movie night. The weather tomorrow is supposed to stink and being tired today with tomorrow supposed to be trying, I thought stay home and rest up and we’ll do the movie Thursday instead.
WEDNESDAY...
— Loads of snow. The drive in and home isn’t as bad as it could be though... probably cause most cars are staying off the road. Probably close to 40 cm fell.
THURSDAY...
— Well yesterday was 28 cm of snow... not 40. But still lots on the ground.
— I stay home today. Just feel beat up and run down and sore. Sleep quite a bit today... I think 4 naps.
FRIDAY...
— Work is okay... snowy in the afternoon though and it keeps going all evening.
— To Melissa’s for supper and a movie. Nick and Isaac are also there and I have my first try of Guitar Hero. Not too good at it but it’s kind of fun.
SATURDAY...
— Home all day with the snow. Starts at 11:30 after we had another 15 to 20 cm yesterday... and it snows all day.
— There are several questionable things when it comes to what gets covered within sports. (1) how is a spelling competition among children worthy of broadcast on an all sports network? (2) dog shows? (3) poker? A fun game but a sport? (4) Why is it that fat guys who take off their clothes and paint their bodies at sports events are necessary for the fan at home to see? For Pete’s sake, these guys make the plays of the week all jiggling around.
— Ends up being about 50 cm of snow from Saturday morning to Sunday morning.
Landscapes
Summer landscapes and winter landscapes... how they differ.
In the summer, the land is lush and wispy.
Life crawls, flies and jumps about.
Molded fields roll gently.
Even a hill attempts to be flat.
In the winter, the land is frozen and bare.
Life remains hidden beneath.
Mouse and vol trails will appear in the melt.
Hills become hillier, interspersed with dug trenches.
Shoveled hills separate asphalt.
Neighbours in trench warfare with each other.
Lobbing white mortar over the mound
Shovels and blowers as weapons protecting auto prizes.
Summer neighbours wave and chat.
It’s peace time as they trickle water on flowers.
Children cross the lines as if they were never there.
Playing young, gardening adults, living in harmony.
Summer winds blow soft and warm.
A friend that shoos away mosquitoes.
The land whispers as plant life dances
rustling to go with local chirping, buzzing, croaking, and twitering.
Winter winds blow harshly and cold.
It whips speckled ice into faces.
Tenses muscles in defense against cold invasion.
It distantly howls through lifeless wood, cracking ice bound branches.
How many mosquitoes would you endure
in order to feel the warmth once more.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #309
MONDAY...
— Work is okay. I’m busy in QC doing all sorts of different tasks. Makes the day go by pretty quick that way.
— Forsberg coming back to the NHL... I hope he does well in Colorado... I’ve always liked that guy.
TUESDAY...
— NHL trade deadline and Montreal sells rather than buys. It’s frustrating seeing how well that team has done this year.
— Atlas comes over to check my old computer. It appears that the hard drive is dead. Now it’s a matter of seeing if I can get any of the stuff saved off of there. At least the most important files are on my laptop, but it’s still a pain.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work is slightly annoying. I find I don’t much like weeks in QC... I much prefer AFIS.
— Some playing around on the computer in the evening. And forcing myself not to nap in order to get a good night’s sleep.
THURSDAY...
— Work is alright... go to a pub for a drink and bite to eat afterwards. Home for the evening where I watch some TV and fall asleep during the Simpson’s before bed. I wake up a good half hour after I mean to go to bed... oops.
FRIDAY...
— Work is okay. Go to HQ for lunch with Janice and meet Kiyomi and Jason, among others, there.
— Groceries after work and a quiet evening around the house... with hockey, a movie and a nap.
SATURDAY...
— Quiet house day. Some movies, e-mails, hockey on TV and I count five years with of pennies and roll them. It probably takes an hour and a half to be done with the pennies and I get $7 worth rolled. Is there anything more useless than a penny?
The Sweater
Presents. We all give each other presents. Some give more than others and some ask for more than others. Some presents mean more to us and some don’t hold as much of our heart.
I have given and received some duds. And I have given and received some amazing ones. I also remember being there for moments when loved ones have gotten monumental presents. Some monumental for the happiness they created... others for the bizarreness in the reaction.
A bizarre moment that stands out to me is one Christmas many years ago. My mother opens a gift from my uncle and is obviously perplexed by the moment...
“Oh... its... an owl...”
You see, she has just finished unwrapping a foot high bronze statue of, quite obviously, an owl. She turns it over in her hands seeing if there is something more to it. Does the bird open up? Is there a switch to turn on some hidden light inside? No... it’s just a statue of an owl.
We all laugh at the moment. It’s a nice enough statue. I believe it remains somewhere within my parent’s home. But it was about as far from an expectation that any of us had. At the beginning of that Christmas day, we’d have been there for many an hour guessing if you’d expect any of us to come up with an owl as a gift to be opened.
I’ve given gifts that I didn’t think would cause as much of a stir as they did. I recently sent a stain glass wall hanging for my mother. My visiting cousin brought it with her and soon afterwards, I got a phone call of shocked surprise from mom. She didn’t seem to think I remembered her favourite flowers... and seeing them sitting there in the glass was, like the owl, unexpected.
Other presents have shocked family members and caused emotional reactions best not shared here. Although I remember a gift I did not receive some years ago, and emotions got the best of me.
The year our last dog died, I had asked for a collage picture to remember her by. I feared one day forgetting the animal that was one of my best friends for the past dozen years. I had looked through old photos and seen so many memories of her... I wanted to save some of these and be able to see them framed on a wall rather than tucked away in a box.
But that Christmas, I still felt the scar of the loss, and as I opened presents, I became ever more fearful of the possibility of the collage picture. Something I wanted but, on that day, no longer felt ready to see.
Opening my final present, I found something unrelated to our little dog. I think it was a hockey jersey... one I’d still have to this day and was happy to get. But still I broke down with tears of sorrow and of relief. I missed our dog, who for more than a decade previously would be poking through wrapping paper and looking up at us with a wagging tail. And I was glad I didn’t get the picture I had asked for.
Looking back, I still would love to get such a collage. She really was a sweet little dog.
A Christmas Story tells the tale of a little boy getting his greatest Christmas gift... a Red Rider Carbon Action B.B. Gun.
I believe I have previously written of my version of such a present. One I still have... although a worn out bulb means it no longer works... a portable arcade game called “Fire Away.” It’s basically a simplified version of Space Invaders and I picked that present out of the Sears Wish Book, eyeing it as the Holy Grail of Christmas gifts. My desire for that game went on over several months and my disappointment began to grow as with each gift I opened, I’d eye the remaining presents to see if they were the proper size and shape to possibly be my game.
And with the last gift opened, the game remained unaccounted for.
Just as in the Christmas Story movie, I seemed to have another gift left over in a corner. My father got it for me and I feverishly tore the wrapping off to find my Fire Away. It stands out as, from a child’s point of view, the greatest gift I ever received.
Other gifts hit you by surprise. An unexpected and previously unasked for desire that a loved one either guessed right or had superior intuition about. I’ve received several such gifts.
My mother once returned from a conference she was at and brought me back a Star Wars action figure. Little did she know at the time that the one she brought back was the very one I had been searching for on my weekly walks to the local K-Mart store. The figure was never there however and it almost took on a mythical air for me. The action figure of the robot bounty hunter, IG88, became my very own Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot. Until that day when mom casually pulled it out of her bag and handed it to me. My excitement, at that moment, knew no bounds.
Another gift I received that left me delighted with surprise is a VHS tape which I got one birthday. As a child, watching cartoons on CBC, there were few happier moments as those times when an old short would come on. It was never scheduled in the TV guide but, every now and then the 1980 short called “The Sweater” would come on. This is the telling of the tale when a French boy in small town Quebec needed a new hockey sweater... and, to his horror, Eaton’s sends him not the number nine, Maurice Richard Canadiens sweater... but a blue and white Toronto Maple Leafs one instead.
Well on a birthday of mine, back in my mid twenties, I open a gift and find this tape of the Sweater. I hadn’t expected it... didn’t ask for it... and actually largely forgot about it. But seeing this tape sitting in my hands, I was rushed back to childhood days.
The Sweater is actually the reason why I’m writing this piece today. For I’ve often looked at the tape, sitting on one of my shelves, and thought I’d like to get the DVD of it someday. I’d often check the Amazon website and it would never be available. But today it dawned on me... go where my mother had gone so many years before... so I checked the National Film Board website and sure enough, there is the DVD version of The Sweater just waiting to be ordered. Needless to say, I’ll be checking the mail with added vigor over the next week or two. My childhood luck with the TV, that turned to my happy reintroduction via VHS will soon make it to modern times by way of DVD.
Yes gifts are an amazing part of our interactions. Sometimes the biggest, most grand present is met with a sigh and the slightest little gesture is a moment that stays with us for a lifetime.
— Work is okay. I’m busy in QC doing all sorts of different tasks. Makes the day go by pretty quick that way.
— Forsberg coming back to the NHL... I hope he does well in Colorado... I’ve always liked that guy.
TUESDAY...
— NHL trade deadline and Montreal sells rather than buys. It’s frustrating seeing how well that team has done this year.
— Atlas comes over to check my old computer. It appears that the hard drive is dead. Now it’s a matter of seeing if I can get any of the stuff saved off of there. At least the most important files are on my laptop, but it’s still a pain.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work is slightly annoying. I find I don’t much like weeks in QC... I much prefer AFIS.
— Some playing around on the computer in the evening. And forcing myself not to nap in order to get a good night’s sleep.
THURSDAY...
— Work is alright... go to a pub for a drink and bite to eat afterwards. Home for the evening where I watch some TV and fall asleep during the Simpson’s before bed. I wake up a good half hour after I mean to go to bed... oops.
FRIDAY...
— Work is okay. Go to HQ for lunch with Janice and meet Kiyomi and Jason, among others, there.
— Groceries after work and a quiet evening around the house... with hockey, a movie and a nap.
SATURDAY...
— Quiet house day. Some movies, e-mails, hockey on TV and I count five years with of pennies and roll them. It probably takes an hour and a half to be done with the pennies and I get $7 worth rolled. Is there anything more useless than a penny?
The Sweater
Presents. We all give each other presents. Some give more than others and some ask for more than others. Some presents mean more to us and some don’t hold as much of our heart.
I have given and received some duds. And I have given and received some amazing ones. I also remember being there for moments when loved ones have gotten monumental presents. Some monumental for the happiness they created... others for the bizarreness in the reaction.
A bizarre moment that stands out to me is one Christmas many years ago. My mother opens a gift from my uncle and is obviously perplexed by the moment...
“Oh... its... an owl...”
You see, she has just finished unwrapping a foot high bronze statue of, quite obviously, an owl. She turns it over in her hands seeing if there is something more to it. Does the bird open up? Is there a switch to turn on some hidden light inside? No... it’s just a statue of an owl.
We all laugh at the moment. It’s a nice enough statue. I believe it remains somewhere within my parent’s home. But it was about as far from an expectation that any of us had. At the beginning of that Christmas day, we’d have been there for many an hour guessing if you’d expect any of us to come up with an owl as a gift to be opened.
I’ve given gifts that I didn’t think would cause as much of a stir as they did. I recently sent a stain glass wall hanging for my mother. My visiting cousin brought it with her and soon afterwards, I got a phone call of shocked surprise from mom. She didn’t seem to think I remembered her favourite flowers... and seeing them sitting there in the glass was, like the owl, unexpected.
Other presents have shocked family members and caused emotional reactions best not shared here. Although I remember a gift I did not receive some years ago, and emotions got the best of me.
The year our last dog died, I had asked for a collage picture to remember her by. I feared one day forgetting the animal that was one of my best friends for the past dozen years. I had looked through old photos and seen so many memories of her... I wanted to save some of these and be able to see them framed on a wall rather than tucked away in a box.
But that Christmas, I still felt the scar of the loss, and as I opened presents, I became ever more fearful of the possibility of the collage picture. Something I wanted but, on that day, no longer felt ready to see.
Opening my final present, I found something unrelated to our little dog. I think it was a hockey jersey... one I’d still have to this day and was happy to get. But still I broke down with tears of sorrow and of relief. I missed our dog, who for more than a decade previously would be poking through wrapping paper and looking up at us with a wagging tail. And I was glad I didn’t get the picture I had asked for.
Looking back, I still would love to get such a collage. She really was a sweet little dog.
A Christmas Story tells the tale of a little boy getting his greatest Christmas gift... a Red Rider Carbon Action B.B. Gun.
I believe I have previously written of my version of such a present. One I still have... although a worn out bulb means it no longer works... a portable arcade game called “Fire Away.” It’s basically a simplified version of Space Invaders and I picked that present out of the Sears Wish Book, eyeing it as the Holy Grail of Christmas gifts. My desire for that game went on over several months and my disappointment began to grow as with each gift I opened, I’d eye the remaining presents to see if they were the proper size and shape to possibly be my game.
And with the last gift opened, the game remained unaccounted for.
Just as in the Christmas Story movie, I seemed to have another gift left over in a corner. My father got it for me and I feverishly tore the wrapping off to find my Fire Away. It stands out as, from a child’s point of view, the greatest gift I ever received.
Other gifts hit you by surprise. An unexpected and previously unasked for desire that a loved one either guessed right or had superior intuition about. I’ve received several such gifts.
My mother once returned from a conference she was at and brought me back a Star Wars action figure. Little did she know at the time that the one she brought back was the very one I had been searching for on my weekly walks to the local K-Mart store. The figure was never there however and it almost took on a mythical air for me. The action figure of the robot bounty hunter, IG88, became my very own Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot. Until that day when mom casually pulled it out of her bag and handed it to me. My excitement, at that moment, knew no bounds.
Another gift I received that left me delighted with surprise is a VHS tape which I got one birthday. As a child, watching cartoons on CBC, there were few happier moments as those times when an old short would come on. It was never scheduled in the TV guide but, every now and then the 1980 short called “The Sweater” would come on. This is the telling of the tale when a French boy in small town Quebec needed a new hockey sweater... and, to his horror, Eaton’s sends him not the number nine, Maurice Richard Canadiens sweater... but a blue and white Toronto Maple Leafs one instead.
Well on a birthday of mine, back in my mid twenties, I open a gift and find this tape of the Sweater. I hadn’t expected it... didn’t ask for it... and actually largely forgot about it. But seeing this tape sitting in my hands, I was rushed back to childhood days.
The Sweater is actually the reason why I’m writing this piece today. For I’ve often looked at the tape, sitting on one of my shelves, and thought I’d like to get the DVD of it someday. I’d often check the Amazon website and it would never be available. But today it dawned on me... go where my mother had gone so many years before... so I checked the National Film Board website and sure enough, there is the DVD version of The Sweater just waiting to be ordered. Needless to say, I’ll be checking the mail with added vigor over the next week or two. My childhood luck with the TV, that turned to my happy reintroduction via VHS will soon make it to modern times by way of DVD.
Yes gifts are an amazing part of our interactions. Sometimes the biggest, most grand present is met with a sigh and the slightest little gesture is a moment that stays with us for a lifetime.
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