Active mind of an insomniac

I STILL EXIST!!! (take this post as proof)

2008-04-30T11:46:00.003-03:00

Wow.

I apparently have become the ultimate digital blogging slacker. It appears that sometime in December was the last time I took 2 minutes to say hi via this little piece of heaven.

HI!

So, I should probably update the, oh, 3 people who might actually stop by here on what's been happening. Winter happened. We got some snow. Nearly 400cm all said and done. I kept some as a souvenir, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. Maybe I'll just keep it in the freezer until next winter and then set it free. Spring came and brought with it some melting of the afore-mentioned snow. Our beloved Saint John River is now at 8m flood level. Not good if you live along the river. Fortunately I'm not a sucker who bought a house in a spot that is well known to flood at least once every five years. (and now even more frequently).

Global warming 1, Flood plain dwellers no score!!!

No really impressive events to report. The boy continues to grow and learn and boggle the mind on a regular basis. I suspect that he will surpass my intelligence within two weeks.

Friendly Fire Fridays have been flowing like golden rivers of co-operative gaming goodness down a mountain of platinum hits. (I know that didn't make any sense but I'm tired and rambling now).

Summer will be here soon. That means my annual pilgrimage around the province checking the deteriorating condition of our province's provincial roofs. Good times to be had by all.

I'll end with a quote that I saw as part of a Sig (or signature for those not familiar with Internet shorthand, you know who you are)....

"God Was My Co-Pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him." - Unknown

The day is today

2007-12-13T08:52:00.000-04:00

Today is Thursday. It is the fourth day of the week. It is payday.

There is nothing special about today. It is nearly 9am which means my paycheck is gone. Oh well.

Tonight will be Thursday night. It is the fourth night of the week. It is nothing to celebrate.

You may continue your day.

This is over.

"...if short and sweet is good, is tall and sour bad...?" - Jeff King

Fredericton Chernobyl - an inward glance

2007-11-29T00:50:00.000-04:00

Today was a day. If there was ever an understatement, that was it. If Murphy was out to get me the last time (see last post), then his grand-daddy found me today... and then some.

I've been sick and in migraine hell for about a week, so today started off being a good day by not starting out with pain. Off to work I go. Work is normal throughout the morning and at lunch I'm planning to come home to get something to eat. END OF PLAN.

I get to the car and turn the key. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Apparently I left the lights on in the car this morning. I never do this, but it happens. My stress level is already at 9.5 as missing several days of work with sickness over the last week isn't good for me to do. I have limited time off. So I go get one of the maintenance guys to see if he can boost me and I figure I'll lose maybe half my lunch, tops. Stress level not really rising but I'm pissed at myself nonetheless.

Boosting the car is completely unsuccessful. I mean nothing doing at all. So here I am, at work, no money, dead car, already missed enough time from work, I need to pick up Jody and the boy in a few hours and I find out the starter is broken. I get money. I call a tow truck. He comes. Taps the damn starter with a hammer, charges me $40(service call) instead of $60(tow) and tells me that if I turn my car off it might not start again so I should go to the shop and get it looked at right away.

Off to the shop I go. Another day at work lost. My stress level is just about through the roof. I get there and they tell me they can look at it but they don't have a starter in stock to fix it today and it will have to wait until tomorrow. Groovy. How am I going to get everyone picked up tonight and dropped off tomorrow morning with a car that I can't turn off? Stress level rising. So I call my wife and I'm nearly hysterical (I know, sad isn't it?) because I just don't know what to do anymore. Fortunately, my wife is a rock. She just tells me what to do, I do it, and all is well. Mostly.

I'm glad that nobody actually reads this anymore because this is embarrassing as hell for me. For some reason, I have completely lost the ability to discard stress. The old phrase "...let it slide...", which I practically had tattooed on me for most of my life has apparently left me in my current state. I do not know why or how. I don't sleep and when I do it's not well, not that I ever slept much or well, but now it's to the point of "why bother".

I have so many conflicting emotions inside that I don't know how to deal with. Rage, loss, sorrow, grief, fear.... they haunt me at night when I'm alone. Keep me awake at night, wondering, asking questions in my head......

I have talked to professionals on several occasions, perhaps not the right ones, perhaps not for long enough, but these things cost money and money is not a luxury we have in great supply here. Perhaps someday I should spend some long term energy in having some of my questions answered. Perhaps there are no answers. Maybe I'm just screwed. Maybe I should just deal. That's what some have told me to do. "just deal with it".... "just let it go"......

I have no idea what that means.

Cathartic, this is. Helpful, it is not.

“Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.” - John W. Gardner

The Law of Murphy ... et al.

2007-11-16T09:01:00.000-04:00

Do you think the original Murphy sits around on a cloud or something looking down at the unsuspecting humans thinking...."hmmm... that one... let's mess with that one"... and then strikes down one of his inevitable "laws" upon the poor unsuspecting slob who's day just got gobsmacked?

I do.

I just got gobsmacked.

It was Murphy.

Nobody else could have produced the series of events that happened this morning.

I'll start you off after I drop Jody off at her office. I head home to pick up the winter tires (because they're going on today). I go to the garage, drop the keys. It's ok, no big deal. There's one little puddle (out of about 40 sq.ft.) beside the garage where the water drips off the eave, that's where they land. It's ok, no big deal. Wet keys happen all the time, right?

I get the tires loaded and head down to the shop to get the car dropped off and guess what? They don't have my appointment. Go figure, but it's ok because they have time to get it done today no problem. (Yay!) "Oh, you just missed the guy who drives people to their workplace, he'll be right back." Right back = 25 minutes.

At this point in the day you'd think I wouldn't try to do anything fancy like come up with an idea to get a snack before work eh? Wrong. I did. Unsuccessful attempt. So the guy is driving me to work and I ask him if he would mind stopping at the Irving for a minute so I can run in for a minute and grab a pop? He says no problem and I go in. While I'm paying I see him drive away!! Now I have to walk over to the office. Oh, did I mention that it's raining here today? No? It is.

So I get to the office and push the button for the elevator, doors open, I get in. Doors close, I push button for my floor and the friggin' lights go out!! The whole damn thing powers down. Apparently it was closed for repairs and the repair guy was going out to his truck to get his signs and stuff to close it off. I think maybe shutting it off should have been the first step here. I spent about 10 minutes in a dark box before I could get to my office. I think it's a good thing it was me and not some claustrophobic as that would have been bad for that repair guy. I almost took the stairs but I work on the fourth floor and my ankle still hurts if I walk up alot of stairs.

Since it's still the morning and I still have to pick up the car tonight after work, I can only assume that something terrible is still to come.

If Murphy is reading this. Lighten up dude. Stallone is Mr. I am the Law, not you.

"Everything takes longer than it takes." - Murphy

The trouble with Tribbles

2007-09-24T09:34:00.000-03:00

((Apologies to those of you with no Star Trek humor))

No doctor would ever consider it.
No specialist would ever agree to it.
Not even wacky "new-age" healer types would go there...

...and yet, it's the only possible solution.

All the problems in my head, the migraines, the annual autumn sinus infection (that I fought off this year I think), the insomnia, the sleep apnea, etc, etc....

...it's all caused by Tribbles. I mean, just look at this picture...

...if they can cause Kirk that much trouble, surely it's entirely possible that they somehow have gotten into my head. Quite possibly during one of my many drunken passed out nights of the mid-nineties.

According to Spock, it would take Cyrano Jones 17.9 years to clear the planet of Tribbles so, extrapolating (or possibly interpolating), I should be able to have them cleared out of my head (by this miracle Tribble-shooter{insert laugh here}) in a much shorter time.

"once upon a time i could control myself
once upon a time i could lose myself
oh try and mimic what's insane...
i am in it...where do i stand?" - Pearl Jam - Once

An Evolution.... of sorts.....

2007-09-16T00:11:00.000-03:00

It's been happening all my life....

I make friends, they like music, I like music, our musical tastes jive for a while and then.....
... I evolve. Always taking the genre farther than they are willing to go.

Some people (in fact, most people reading this) wouldn't agree that most of the music that I like to listen to would be considered evolutionary, or even good. Ha ha. I'm kind of funny that way. I like the hard stuff. Always have. Way back in the 80s, when people like my wife were rocking (albeit hard) to the likes of Poison and Motley Crue, widely considered metal of that era, I was listening to Metallica, Iron Maiden and White Zombie. Bands that were considered "harder" or more "metal" at the time.

And now, 25 years later, I'm hanging out with guys 10 years younger than me and my tastes are still harder than most of them. Only one of them appreciates the bands, the likes of Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot, Testament or even the classics like Maiden or Megadeth. There's just something about hard base and drums blasting at you that makes me want to shake my head and get energized.

I get alot of crap from people about listening to metal. Apparently it's still not cool to listen to your own thing in the world. I hear alot of "that's just alot of screaming, there's no talent there". To those people I say, just listen to Vermillion Pt2 by SlipKnot just one time. It's a haunting melody of guitar and singing that you wouldn't expect from a group like them.

I sometimes wonder if I would be out of place moshing at a Slipknot concert and then I realize that absolutely yes I would be, but nobody there would give a shit.

Perhaps I will someday get my opportunity.

Maybe I won't be too out of touch with music when my son becomes a teenager.

"....I'm a slave, and I am a master
No restraints and, unchecked collectors
I exist through my need, to self oblige
She is something in me, that I despise...." - Vermillion, Slipknot

The wonderful world of neglect...

2007-09-04T10:51:00.000-03:00

Dusty in here. Clean out the cobwebs......

There we go, good as new. Now if I can just remember how to do this.....

He....Hel....Hello...... Hello there.

Apparently, while travelling, I am incapable of updating two separate websites. You see, I had fallen under the dark spell of Facebook and well, OK, I have no excuse. Blogging isn't really all that much work and I could have paid more attention. I'm just lazy. Or perhaps, even beyond that. What's lazier than lazy? Lackadaisical? Comatose? Slothful? Remiss? Yes, that's the one. I've been remiss in my duties to the all important Blogger.

Well, I'm back in the office now. Trapped for the winter. Isolated in my cubicle. Praying for a lottery (or a fire) to set me free. Will it come? No. Do I have hope? Yes. "For without hope, we are lost." I'm sure someone important said that, so I thought I'd better quote it.

The summer has passed fairly quietly. We toured the province as usual. We had some adventures, although nothing particularly story-worthy comes to mind. I broke a bone in my ankle in July and sidelined myself for a while. It's better now but still hurts a little here and there. Made some money, played some Heroscape (cool board game) and watched a movie or two and now it's over.

I'll try to update my blog more often for anyone who cares to read it. If nothing exciting happens to me, then I won't have anything to write about, so, world, be exciting.

Back to work I go. Nose to the grindstone and all that rubbish.

"spider-pig, spider-pig, does whatever a spider-pig does, can he swing from a web, no he can't, he's a pig, look out, he is a spider-pig"

A Week in Edmundston

2007-06-23T23:05:00.000-03:00

Most weeks in Edmundston are just plain rotten. Boring, bad weather, nothing to write home about, other than to complain, but this week was somewhat different.

As mentioned before, we stayed at a spa instead of a regular hotel due to lack of rooms available. It turned out to be pretty good after all. Lots of eye candy for the guys to look at all week, Ryan and Jason got hour-long massages (and said they were great) and the rooms were reasonably priced too.

So Monday as we drive into St. Jacques to check-in and in the background you can see Mont Farlange, the ski hill. Jason speaks up and says "I bet we could drive this truck up those hills". Famous last words. Later that night he comes in and says he wants to go 4-wheeling. I say fine, but if you get caught or fined, I don't know anything about it and you just asked to borrow the truck to go to the store. He says fine and Adam goes with him. The boneheads don't bother to take a cellphone with them of course. Two hours pass and they don't return. The sun is setting and the temperature is dropping. I wouldn't go so far as to say I was worried, just wondering where in the fuck they were. So about 10 minutes to 10pm Ryan and I hop on the bikes and head down the road a little ways to see if we can see them up on the hill. We get down there, look around and see the two of them walking towards us, no truck. Not good.

Apparently, a 3/4 ton truck with long bed isn't good for going through really muddy areas because they had it buried right down to the frame in mud half-way up the hill. They were actually coming down to find some other sucker with a truck to go up and pull them out. It wasn't going to happen at 10pm in a totally french community, I can almost completely guarantee, since neither of them speaks much french. So the four of us trudge back up the hill and spend the next 2 hours working the truck out of the mud. Not to brag, but the final solution to the problem did come from me and I paid for it by being absolutely coated in mud from the tops of my shorts down. Thank god for 24h automated car washes.

The rest of the week was pretty tame by comparison. Scanning on Tuesday night, relaxed on Wednesday night, went to the movies on Thursday night in Grand Falls. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was quite good. That pretty much sums up Edmundston. Next week is Campbellton: Tons of work and strippers.

Not very good at updating

2007-06-18T16:56:00.000-03:00

Apparently even with lots to talk about I'm still not very good at updating my blog anymore. Facebook has corrupted me to the point where I hardly even bother with my blog anymore, but I will try to keep it updated as I feel it's still an important part of my life.

Previously, in my life.....

We were in Grand Falls, just starting our time there. The rest of the week went pretty normal, nothing out of the ordinary, until Thursday. (insert dum-dum-dum) Thursday night Ryan's friend George was staying at the Pres-du-Lac so we all decided to have some drinks and try out the night life in Grand Falls. Mistake number one.

So, around 11:30pm and many drinks later, we're all feeling no pain and we pile into a cab and head down to the Broadway area to see what we could find. There wasn't anyone anywhere so we decided to at least go into someplace and have a beer before going back to the hotel. We went into the Laid Back Pub. Mistake number two. We were the only 5 customers in the bar but we ordered drinks anyway and the bartender, whose name turned out to be Samantha, served us for hours as we entertained and chatted for the rest of the night. At some point, a woman (cougar) came into the bar and Adam, George and I were talking with her while she sat at the bar. Nothing underhanded, just chatting and being friendly. Mistake number three. At some point, Adam pulled Ryan out of the bar onto the street. Why? We're not sure, but it was just drunk guys doing stuff, not upset or mad stuff so I didn't worry about it and remained seated at the bar. A little later on Adam and Ryan come back inside and they are both bloodied, Adam has a broken nose and Ryan has a nasty cut on his lip and a good egg on his temple. Apparently they got jumped from behind and beat down and never saw who did it. Jason and I took off outside to see if we could find the guys who jumped our guys, but found nobody. Just as well, when I'm drunk and pissed off I'm like a locomotive. Absolutely nothing can calm me down. The police eventually showed up, wouldn't take our statements because we were so drunk, told us that they knew who likely did it (the woman's two sons) but that they basically couldn't do anything and then told us to go to the hospital. It turned out to be the most violent night in roof crew history, but it's certainly been a topic of conversation ever since.

The next week we were in Woodstock and I'm sorry to say that the week was much more boring and easy than the previous. The only thing really worth mentioning is that the people who do our expense cheques decided to fuck them up royally so we didn't get our money last week at all and most of our suppers were pretty light and cheap.

Father's Day passed us this past weekend and it was my second one. It simply amazes me that I'm a father and that my son will be 2 years old this fall. He's an amazing little guy.

Anyway, that pretty much catches everyone up on things that have happened in the past couple of weeks. We are now staying in Edmundston at Motel Cle O Spa. There weren't any hotel rooms available in town at all for this week but we got lucky to stay here at this spa. It's pretty nice too.

See ya on the flip side. I'll try to be more regular with my updates.

"...Mother
Tell your children not to hold my hand
Tell your children not to understand
Oh mother..." - Danzig

Ahh Grand Falls

2007-06-04T23:03:00.000-03:00

It was an interesting day.

It started out pretty typically, pack up for the week, get in the truck, pick up the guys, get everything we need and then head 'er for Grand Falls.

It started to get interesting when we got to Woodstock. As we were passing the construction, there was a hitchhiker on the side of the road, nothing out of the ordinary, but he had one of the funniest hitchhiker sign ever. See below.

We actually turned around at the next exit and came back to get this picture. He was worth the 15 minutes it took to come back around.

After we arrived, and then drove to Edmundston for a meeting, we found out the there are no hotel rooms available for the week we want to be in Edmundston due to the Jazz festival there in a couple of weeks. We spent a couple of hours checking everywhere until finally we found 2 rooms we could use for the entire week. At a spa, of all places. It should be an interesting week. Everything about this job is an adventure and we have been trying all kinds of new things this year and are going to keep trying new things instead of sticking to the old standbys. It will keep things popping.

We ate at a place called Kat 'n' Dan's tonight for supper. I had the large Deluxe Poutine with beef. It was monstrous. I'm talking huge. I ate over 75% of it. I'm very happy about that. While we were paying our bill, this woman was leaving and walked right into the glass wall beside the door. I'm talking hardcore crashing here. We thought she must have been hurt. We had a good laugh about it later when she wasn't hurt. There was some ribbing about hockey teams while we were paying as Ryan grabbed a free Bud light Stanley Cup winning hat from the bar (Carolina) so we got to talking and the woman brought me out an Oilers one and brought out a bunch of others for the other guys. It was a good supper.

Tomorrow will be another day. What will happen then?

We'll see.

"...Well, she talks to all the servants/About man and God and law/And everybody says/Shes the brains behind pa/Shes sixty-eight, but she says shes twenty-four/I ain't gonna work for, nah /I ain't gonna work for Maggie's ma no more..." - Rage Against the Machine

Updates take time

2007-06-03T00:23:00.000-03:00

Apparently I've been lax in my updating of my blog and I have received a nasty bump from my wife in the form of a "shake-down" post on her blog.

I will not be so long in updating again. Jeez. Ha ha.

To continue from the last post, the rest of Jody's conference went extremely well for my son and I. We played, ate and enjoyed our time to be together "just the boys".

Since then, my summer work program has started and my students have been hired on. Just this past week we started our travels around the province in St. Stephen. Only a few days last week but this coming week it will be the entire week in Grand Falls. Bad weather has made for a slow start to the summer for us, but that will change as we go along.

My son has made leaps and bounds in his development in the last month. Even at being only just over 1 1/2 years old, he has figured out how to open and close doors using the knobs, he can close up strap clips (the kind with the double squeeze release), and he has the ability to climb up onto all kinds of things including stairs. I'm just so impressed with the things he can do.

That's all for now. If you can imagine, it's late and I'm going to bed.

Go Oilers. The new hockey season is only a maximum of 4 games and 3 months away.

Single Dad Night one, Morning one

2007-05-10T08:18:00.000-03:00

Night one:

The pickup: went as it always has. He was very happy to see me. This means he ran up to me and gave me a giant hug. I gave him his new sun-glasses (he tore the arms off the old ones). Another huge hug. We gathered up his things and trundled off for home. No problem. Got home, banged his head on the car door (apparently Jody has a new technique), and went inside.

Inside: regular routine, shoes off, got changed, got supper (he ate more of mine than his), then off to play in the living room.

Playtime: not so good. apparently this is where the wheels fall off. this is where he realizes that mommy isn't here. he actually got down off my lap and tried to hide behind his toys. I'm not sure what message he was trying to send, but once i said "hey, wanna watch George?", he jumped up, ran over and literally tried to spring onto my lap. So we watched Curious George. Some kids have security blankets for years, some kids have the soother, my son has the movie Curious George. It settles him down like nothing else.

Bedtime: Pajama time (or jammer-time) and bedtime went off without a hitch. He even waved to me in traditional bedtime fashion when i put him down. He's such a cutie.

Morning One:

Apparently planning to get up early to prepare for problems was my first mistake. There were no problems. I got up, showered, got him ready, breakfast, got me ready and was ready to leave by 7am. This is way ahead of schedule. No traffic, we were at the babysitter at 7:20am. Way ahead of schedule. I was at work at 7:55am. WAY ahead of schedule.

Perhaps tomorrow, I'll sleep in a little more.

All said and done, it went well, as I was told it would. Deep down I knew it would, but my mind is trained (by me) to expect the absolute worst and then to worry about that until I'm a quivering mass of jelly. It's in my DNA.

"...Hold on to sixteen as long as you can / Change is coming round real soon make us woman and men..." - John Mellencamp

Home Surgery

2007-05-08T09:54:00.000-03:00

Yes, I'm a licenced medical practitioner. No, this won't hurt a bit. No, your health plan does not cover my services.

These are the questions a sane person would ask before performing minor surgery on themselves. By minor, I mean, very minor. The fool, as I refer to myself in this little story, turned on the (sigh) wood deck, cutting his foot and lodging a small but surprisingly painful little splinter along the outside edge of his foot in the cut. A few hours later, the fool aka me, with the aid of his beautiful and fortunately strong stomached assistant, proceeded to dig the splinter out with standard medical operating tools. These include tweezers and a Swiss Army knife. Without these specialized medical instruments, I would have surely died.

If it had been on just about any other part of my foot, it wouldn't have been a problem, but I couldn't turn my foot properly to get at it, so I had to bend my ankle around almost 180 degrees to get at it, adding to my torture and agony.

I know what you are thinking. Wuss. Yeah well, I've got a splinter with your name on it. Then we'll see. After some Internet browsing last night, I found that there is actually a product called "black drawing salve" that given a little time, will actually draw any foreign body out of your skin. You can buy it at any drug store. Well. Now they tell me. That would have been some useful intel last night.

I got the damned thing out eventually though. When you're clumsy and you have a history of getting slivers and such, you give up the right to be squeamish when it comes to digging them out. No eating your own cake. (paraphrasing brought to you by the letter G).

"Party on Wayne. Party on Garth" - Wayne Campbell & Garth Algar

One of those days....yes, another one.

2007-05-03T15:03:00.000-03:00

Today was just "one of those days".... one that I would gladly trade in for something different.

It didn't start well. I didn't want to get up. I didn't feel like shaving. Had to. Didn't want to shower. Had to.

First thing Jody asks me this morning? "Are your underwear on inside out?".... /sigh.... I suppose they were. Fortunately for me nobody found out about it, well, almost nobody. I guess that should be an indication that I should get more sleep. I probably won't though. NHL playoffs have me hypnotized even though I could care less who wins every game.

Onward we trudge through the day. By 10:15, I had already confronted my boss to tell her that the project that had somehow incredulously found its way into my hands again, was NOT going to get done by me. There just wasn't any hope. I didn't have enought time to do it. She took it quite well, assured me that it would not affect me or my performance record and we moved on. I guess I'll take her word for that.

Shortly thereafter I was in the car to pick up my son to take him to his 18 month doctor's appointment / needle update. He was in his usual chipper mood, he snacked in the waiting room, drank water from an Evian bottle like a big boy and was such a good boy. That was, of course, until it came time to go in to see the doctor. You see, my son is like anyone else, he doesn't like to be poked and prodded and then pig-stuck 3 times (4 if you count that he flinched and she had to stick him again) by his boosters and shots. He took it poorly, but he's on parole now until he's of age to go to school. No more needles until he's 4-6 years old. Yah for him!!

Yah for us!!

Holding him while he sobs and cries over something that we forced on him is one of the hardest things that I've ever had to do. It's for his own good, but that doesn't make it easier to take.

After that fiasco, Jody and I managed to sneak a quick run through the drive through of Rotten Ronnie's and rush back to work. Let me tell you, forcing fries and nuggets down then rushing to a seminar is no way to enjoy your afternoon. I'm still tasting it every few minutes.

With any luck at all, (which means it won't happen) I'll be able to just relax tonight, have a nice supper and go to bed early. What that really means is that my son will be in a terrible mood tonight, supper will be awful or get ruined and I'll get lured in by the siren's song of the NHL playoffs once again tonight.

Regardless of how tonight goes, or how tomorrow goes, the good news is that the weekend is almost here and I will get a chance to spend a little time with my family, rake the yard, take down those damn Christmas lights, and maybe just maybe relax a little bit this weekend.

One can only hope.

{This witty saying has been replaced by the letter W}

It's May, and you know what that means.....

2007-05-02T08:56:00.000-03:00

It means it's May. Don't look for hidden meanings.

Only 8 more work days (including today) until I'm done in this office for 4 months. Can I get a hallelujah??

The Roof Crew '07 starts its run on the 14th and we're all very excited about it. It's a ton of fun to travel the province and work out in the fresh air. Especially when you're the guy who sets the pace and the hours.

I finally got my new student hired. He was actually one of the ones from the original calling list who turned me down stating previous employment. Turns out to have fallen through and by means of many cosmic alignments, he managed to squeak through the narrow space left to get the job. I think he'll work out fine once he gets this job figured out.

I'm going to miss Jody and "the boy", but once the summer gets rolling I'll be ok, and it will be over before anyone knows it.

"...My future looks so bright / Now I think I've seen the light / Can't say what's on my mind / Can't do what I really feel..." - Tornado of Souls (Megadeth)

Square One...

2007-04-23T14:29:00.000-03:00

It's usually a negative thing to go "...back to square one...". It means you've landed on the really long snake, in snakes & ladders. Or you have to scrap everything and start all over.

In my case, it's much closer to the latter.

If it's even conceivable, both of my potential candidates for the roof crew this year, have accepted jobs outside of the one with me. Essentially leaving me with NOBODY!!!!!

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

I use that "nobody" loosely. I still have my usual guys back this year, but I'm skeptical as to whether I will have a 4th to complete the crew. It means that my list might have to be shortened, or *gasp* not completed.

Oh, we're going to try to find some other interviewees, but it's getting late in the job finding time, and most of the competent people have already got jobs.

I guess only time will tell, but it's definitely going to come down to the wire now.

A new roof crew for 2007

2007-04-16T13:05:00.000-03:00

Well, there will be modifications to the old one anyway. It's official, and old news to anyone who knows things about the roof crew, but Lee is no longer with us. He jumped ship, bailed, deserted, or just generally mutinied against us and took a job *gasp* in the office. He has moved on to greener pastures, or at least ones with different kinds of manure.

So it fell to me, the friendly neighborhood roof crew chief, to find a suitable replacement for him. After much government work, otherwise known as red tape, I finally received a list of 6 names to call and set up interviews. I perused the list first, just checking it out. Dear Lord, the first name was Leigh. That was a sign if there ever was one. "Could I replace one Lee with another Leigh?" I wasn't sure if I was treading on some crazy moral, ethical high ground, but I didn't care. At least I'd be able to remember his name. There was also an Adam on the list. I already have an Adam on the crew. Two Adams? Could it be done? I'm pretty sure I'd kill one of them before the summer was over.

Alas, most of the above paragraph is moot, neither Adam nor Leigh were in the final two. It's probably a good thing. Familiarity breeds contempt, or so they say.

It should be an interesting summer. If not, it will be a colossal failure and we'll all be miserable, but at least we'll go down in flames. Burn, baby, burn!

"....Kaylee: "Well, we're headed for help... right?"
Zoe: "Captain will come up with a plan."
Kaylee: "That's good. Right?"
Zoe: "Possibly you're not recalling some of his previous plans...." - Firefly

An interesting day and "the reminder"

2007-04-12T08:42:00.000-03:00

Today my boss and I made a road trip up to Sugarloaf Provincial Park to check out a roof on the lodge at the ski hill there. It's a four hour trip up there and when we arrived we found that the roof was completely inaccessible. The exterior was far too steep and slippery to climb up, and even if I could have gotten to the top, coming down would have been a nightmare and injury waiting to happen.

So naturally the solution is a snowmobile ride to higher ground right? Yes, I agree. I pointed out a higher area and asked if I could get up there. All that I meant was if I would be allowed to walk over there. It wasn't far, but before I know it, the guy was on the radio asking for a skidoo to come to the lodge. It was pretty exhilarating to go flying up the hill on the back of a snowmobile with a snow patrol guy just to take a few photos of a roof, but hey, it's all in a day's work for the roof crew chief. It's in our blood.

I am officially the first ever roof crew employee to use a snowmobile to inspect a roof for the province of NB. Score one for the good guys.

Now we move on the sad business of the day. It is once again NHL playoff time and this year we (Oilers fans) are on the outside looking in. After last year's incredible we're-invincible-nothing-can-stop-us-we're-the-best-team-ever run I adopted a false sense that the Oilers really were never going to suck again. Unfortunately, this is not the case. For many years before last year, we either didn't make the playoffs or were eliminated early, so I'll just go back to gearing up for next year and hoping that good things happen in the off-season.

Go Pens! Go somebody in the west (i don't care who). Just not the Wings, Flames, Stars, or Ducks. So I guess I do care who. I don't really like the Canucks or the Sharks and who can really cheer for a team in Nashville? All that leaves is Minnesota. Go Wild? Somehow I just don't think so. Go Oilers!!!!

It's a trick... get an axe...

2007-04-03T08:52:00.000-03:00

the flu shot is just propoganda.....

this is my belief now....

i got one for the first time this year and i was just as sick or more sick this year than any other year. it has been a pretty average week. we got the little man over his sickness with some bitter tasting medicine (although it smelled like red freezie, go figure), got through the work week, and weekend. Jody got really sick sunday night. i was worried as i always am when i can't help her. i hate being helpless.

fortunately, this week and next week are both short weeks and a long weekend might be a good thing.

...you give me FEVER....

2007-03-26T10:28:00.000-03:00

Wow.

My son really knows how to get a fever. He suffered with a minor fever all last week, but it really developed over the weekend. Saturday night at about 1am I picked him up and he was burning up. His skin was bright red and you could see all his veins in his forehead. Nasty.

I was thoroughly worried, but as a parent I must remain calm and not panic. So that is what I endeavored to do. Fortunately I have a wonderful wife who seems to know exactly what to do in all instances. What would we do without her? She's my angel, and I love her so.

Rough day

2007-03-22T15:42:00.000-03:00

Today is a day that I will be happy to turn the page on.

I don't feel well, as I'm still fighting hard against this bug that doesn't want to go away. I'm struggling to do my job, while also trying to do someone else's job while they're recovering from a medical procedure, while also trying to get my summer program up and running. I had to go to the dentist today with a minor headache and now I feel like absolute dog shit. Not to mention that the freezing that the dentist put in over 3 hours ago still hasn't come out.

AAARRRRGGGHHH!!!!

Tomorrow is Friday. I don't yet know if that's a good thing or not. All that I do know is that when 4:30pm tomorrow arrives, I'm out of here and neither hell nor high water will stop me.

Rant over. Resume normal operations...

Growing up fast

2007-03-19T08:53:00.000-03:00

My son is becoming a real boy.

Just yesterday we went to the new Walmart to get him some new pajamas and on the walk from the car to the store he did just that. Walk. Hand in hand with his mom and I, he walked, from the car, up the walkway, all the way to the store. In his little blue rain boots and raincoat, holding my hand on one side and his mom's hand on the other. A better Kodak moment there has never been. We got no such picture unfortunately.

He's such a well behaved little boy. I was so proud of him. It just filled my heart with joy to watch him do things like that and to know that he's my little boy and that I'm the one that will get to help teach him how to act and how to behave.

It was quite an awe-inspiring moment.

...and now it's over....

2007-03-14T10:17:00.000-03:00

Holy shit! What an exam! Hardest exam I've written in years.

I'm not entirely sure I passed it. After two very long days of instruction, not half of which was particularly helpful to the exam, and two very long nights in this shitty little room, at least I can say that I'm finally going home to my family and my normal life.

It was an interesting experience being here with people who all have alot of roofing experience. Most of them aren't "scholars" in the booksmart sense. I'm not sure all of them can even read, but they all know their trade very well. That part of them impresses me. I only have a small fraction of the knowledge that they possess and I am at quite a disadvantage in that respect.

Hopefully, I have retained enough of the good stuff, and managed enough luck on the ones that I had to guess, to gain me the elusive 70% to pass this sucker and get me my status as RRO. If for nothing else, than so I don't have to pay for this damn thing out of my own pocket. That's the biggest kicker of them all.

I'll be home tonight with a big smile on my face regardless though. I'm tired of this shitty town and I'm ready to go home.

It's all in the hands of the fates now anyway.

"...Fate is like gravity. You can jump up and down until your heart’s content, but the earth still falls into the sun, and the sun still courses through the galaxy, both indifferent to your short-lived and insignificant defiance..." - Unknown

Time and Tides

2007-03-09T09:30:00.000-04:00

Warning: This post contains bitching about my father.

They say that time heals all wounds. I believe it's answers. Some things can't be healed without knowing why. I believe a broken heart is one of them.

I've suffered most of my adult life wondering why I was not worthy of having a father who cared for me. Why I was shunned of the experience? Why I am now left with a big part of me wondering? The problem was only made infinitely worse when my son was born and I found out just how precious and important children are. How can someone just go through life discarding people who are SUPPOSED to be the most important to him?

Jody tried to explain to me last night (and many times in the past) that it doesn't have anything to do with me and that it's all to do with him, but, that just doesn't make me feel any better about how I've been treated or mistreated. Sometimes I think that I should try to talk to him and find out why, but every time I try to figure out what I would say, I get so angry that I can barely control the seething anger that burns just under the surface. I wouldn't get two words out before I blew up just like the last time I spoke to him.

I guess I'm just going to have to vent and deal with it until one of us is gone and try to spend the rest of my life making sure that my son doesn't ever have to ask these questions. I love him so.

Deep breath out. Move on.

Tough yet tough

2007-03-06T10:12:00.000-04:00

Howdy.

It's been a hard start to the week. Jody and I had a bad Monday. You know that crazy chick who comes in in Office Space and says ".. looks like someones got a case of the Mondays..."? Yeah. She's dead. I killed her and Jody buried the body.

After another very tough night of very little sleep (both from super-overtiredness and toddler-sleeplessness) coupled with some disturbingly repetitive disturbing nightmares disturbing me, I feel very "out of body" today. Everything feels far away today.

I did have a crazy zen moment in the car on the way over to work this morning though. Perhaps it was just my subconscious mind working as the rest was on sabbatical but as I was crossing the city bridge I thought to myself. I wonder how many of these people are listening to this same song. I live in a small city but rush hour in the morning probably brings 500 cars past me in the morning from when I leave home to when I get to work. As REM's Losing My Religion came onto the radio, I wondered, "how many other people are hearing this right now in their cars as they are doing exactly the same thing I am?" It's an interesting question to start your day with.

Unfortunately I don't have the brain power to take it anywhere interesting so I'll just let the masses who read this blog fight it out to figure out how many there were. It was more than two. That's your only hint.

"Bob Slydell: You see, what we're actually trying to do here is, we're trying to get a feel for how people spend their day at work... so, if you would, would you walk us through a typical day, for you?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
Bob Slydell: Great.
Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour.
Bob Porter: Da-uh? Space out?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work." - Office Space

Oh look! I'm upsidedown.....

2007-02-28T15:05:00.000-04:00

This world of ours.... it's pretty crazy. Things happen awfully fast in it and there doesn't seem to be any slowing down in the future.

Alot has happened since I typed out letters into this box. Some good, some bad, all a part of the thing I call me. And forward we go.....

Last Friday night.... BNL in SJ, NB. For those of you without your acronym filter working, that's Barenaked Ladies in Saint John, New Brunswick. I took my sweetie and we took in a good old fashioned rock concert? It certainly wasn't a rock concert in the traditional sense. No pyro. No half-naked, leather clad groupies running around. No pot... wait, there was pot! Surprising? Oh yes. I didn't think a crowd half full of children would start smelling like the sweet sweet herb, but I guess some people can't have a good time unless they are half-cut, or fully cut as some people there showed us. The last time I saw them live was in 1993 at the Playhouse in Fredericton, supporting their only album Gordon. They played the entire thing. This time, they had a much larger song base from which to pull and entertained the crowd for over 2 hours, 2 encores and 2 little improvised songs, one of which was about why you can't get the bread bowls with the chili at Tim Horton's anymore. A great time for Jody and I. I'm so glad we can have fun like that after over 10 years together.

The weekend was a slow and reasonably useless thing. We slept and tried to have a good time. We did alright. Sunday night wasn't good. I could start to feel it coming and that's never a good thing. I didn't feel right. My eyes were hurting, my stomach was upset and when that starts I know I'm in for some problems.

Monday and Tuesday were those problems. I was very close on Tuesday to accepting Jody's offer of dropping me off at the emergency but the thought of sitting there and waiting under those lights with that noise is almost more than I can bear some days. So I stuck it out at home and I'm glad I did. It faded by mid-afternoon and last night it vanished leaving only the hangover effect for me this morning.

Unfortunately, I seem to have slipped into a mini-depression over the past two or three days and I really took it out on Jody. For that I am truly sorry baby. Sometimes it's all just too much to handle at once for me. I'll try to do better. I try everyday.

As to the title, sometimes I feel like I'm upsidedown in my world and it's very difficult to function from that position. Sometimes it's impossible, but fortunately I have a loving wife and family who seem stubborn enough to keep trying to get me righted and on the path again.

Thanks.

A little note about Ryan Smyth. An Oiler icon traded away at the deadline in a very difficult and surprising way. We all love you Ryan. If the opportunity arises, come back to us. We'll welcome you with open arms. Good luck to you whatever happens. Go Oilers!

If my brother in law is listening to this, drop a line sometime. We never speak anymore. I miss that.

"....Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was..." - Richard L. Evans

A Day of Travel

2007-02-21T08:50:00.000-04:00

Travelling around my province is nothing new to me. I do it all the time. I probably travel around New Brunswick more than anyone else that I know, but that doesn't mean that it's boring. On the contrary, travelling can sometimes be downright fun.

Take yesterday for instance. Day trip to Bathurst. 3 hour drive up. 3 hour drive back. Work in between. Not a bad day. Got to drive the Dodge Charger again. Fun car. I recommend every guy get one. I just solved war.

Nothing particularly interesting happened yesterday to make the trip fun, but the little things that did happen make me laugh. My boss, who is a somewhat flighty woman sometimes, lost her glove at the school we were at, so instead of going back in and looking for it (we were in the parking lot) she said we'd just go buy more later in town. (shrug, what do i care?)

The other "terribly" funny thing that happened was that Margaret got a toothache. Funny eh? Well, we went to Jean Coutu in Newcastle on the way back to get something to help her out so she'd feel better for the trip back. For anyone who's ever used Ambesol, you know you have to cut the tip off first. We had no cutting implement. That was an interesting few minutes but we got it open. Then as I was reading the instructions to her she applied it. Oh dear did she ever. A rain drop sized dollop is all you need rubbed onto your gum for relief. She squeezed it like toothpaste and got about a quarters worth, or as she put it "enough to shampoo her hair". Needless to say, her toothache was GONE, as was the feeling in her mouth and throat.

I look forward to travelling in the summer with the guys. Talking to guys while travelling is somehow more fulfilling than talking to my 50 year old female boss. Oh well. Go figure.

"...A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving..." ~Lao Tzu

Bad to worse to smiling

2007-02-19T09:08:00.000-04:00

It amazes me how quickly attitudes can change.

Yesterday morning, from 7-11am my little boy was quite quiet and relaxed, he played mostly quietly even snuggled up with me on the couch and had a sleep. Shortly after that though, he became agitated though and his nose started running really hard, he started coughing, and he cried for the better part of 45 minutes straight. Unconsolable.

When Jody and I had reached the point of where uncertainty meets real concern we decided the doctor was the next step so we got him ready and off we went to the clinic. Once his coat was on, or rather while we were putting it on, his whole attitude changed. He stopped crying, he even smiled. I stood in the line for 45 minutes while Jody sat in the car with him before she called me to tell me that he hadn't made a single squawk and he'd been happy and had even eaten. We left without seeing the doctor. He was fine the rest of the day.

It will be so nice when he can speak a little more clearly and can respond to simple questions. Finding out what the problem is will make fixing it much much much much much much much easier. Much.

Much.

"...children and drunks always speak the truth..." - unknown

Pirrelvag

2007-02-14T09:13:00.000-04:00

A conversation with my wife this morning harkened back to my junior high days when I wrote a report on severe weather (always a fascination for me) and included an Inuit word for severe winter storm. For the life of me, I couldn't remember the word.

It is 'Pirrelvag' or 'to blizzard severely'.

Since Inuit is such a diverse language and has many dialects, this word may have different meanings from area to area and another word may be used here and there.

This however, was the word that I used in my report all those years ago. 20 years ago I would guess since I believe that it was in grade 7. Amazing.

It seems less and less important today as our "storm" has been consistently down-graded from 15-50cm to 15-20cm to who knows what. It's funny you know, when I was a small boy, we got alot of storms every winter. Lots and lots of big snowfalls. Bad storms. Perhaps the old idiom of "...when I was a boy..." isn't that far off. Maybe without global warming, there were snowfalls of 15 feet when my grandfather was a boy, although I'm still having trouble figuring out how it was uphill to and from school, and why he had no shoes.

Perhaps when my son is an adult with children of his own, he'll be thinking about things like this and wondering why they have to go and look at snowflakes in a special room in a museum. Either that, or there will be snow and ice everywhere and they'll be wondering why I wondered where it all was.

I've never really been a "soap-box" type person. Never really been one to stand up and say "Hey, this is what needs to be done", but I'm going to rant here for a minute. It was anounced either today or yesterday that the Government of Canada is going to dedicate $50 million to car companies to have them develop more "green" cars and for them to try to sell more of them. I believe this is the wrong approach. I believe one or more of the car companies needs to simply stop making petroleum burning cars. Period. Make all their cars green. Ethanol burning cars. There. Done. If enough of the car companies got together and did it, we wouldn't require all that oil, now would we? We'd need corn. Mmmmm. Corn. Think about it, you could have a corn boil and fuel party.

Anyway, drastic change is going to have to be made in order to make any differences. It's unfortunately, never going to happen. Doing so would cost money, and nobody would want to risk that for say, life.

Good luck to us all. Especially our children.

"...been through the desert on a horse with no name, it felt good to be out of the rain..." - America

Understanding = Never

2007-02-12T08:25:00.000-04:00

I'll never understand women.

Of course, that goes without saying, but in this case, it's particularly evident.

After a particularly shitty Sunday, I awoke this morning with *gasp* a bad headache. Yes, I know, you're stunned by this rare turn of events. Blah blah blah.

I know that my wife has a hard time dealing with my constant problem and the fact that she maintains a loyal wifehood with me is beyond my comprehension. But I digress. This morning, she basically ignored me 100%. She didn't check on me, didn't see if there was anything that she could do (not that there ever is), didn't cry at my feet wishing there was some way she could help, nothing. Other than the intermittent "yeah?" she directed at my son, she never even acknowledged my presence the entire drive to work either.

Then, just as I was about to say goodbye and go about my miserable day, she leans across the car, snuggles up against me, gives me the "hey baby", kisses me, and then give me a look that said both "i love you, everything will be ok"... and "i understand your pain".

Just that single look made me feel as though I might survive the day. I love those beautiful eyes.

Thank you baby. I love you. You're the miracle that makes me happy to be me.

"...A man is given the choice between loving women and understanding them..” - Ninon de Lenclos

New meds, new try

2007-02-07T08:27:00.000-04:00

Here we go again. New medication, new 2 month trial period to see if it works.

(raises glass) Here's to hoping it's better than all the rest.

If my last 2 nights sleep is any indication, it's going to be a long 2 months.

Yee....

....Haa?

Life

2007-02-05T08:15:00.000-04:00

Warning: This post is long and depressing. Don't bother reading it.

It's hard to be in my position. Everybody says that at some point in their lives I think. Everybody has highs and lows, and it's at the lows where we examine the things in our lives and try to make the right decision on how to proceed.

I wish it were that easy. When I was a young man, (16-21), very little bothered me. In fact, almost nothing bothered me. I had little regard for the worries of life and care even less for the feelings of others. Just look at the way I dated back then and you'll see that I was superficial and insensitive. I'm a guy. It's how most of us are anyway.

As I got older, I gradually (very gradually) began to see the need for responsibility and understanding. I met a wonderful woman, fell in love with her and, well, we all know that story. It's the "behind the scenes" that most people don't see. The struggle that my wife puts up with on a regular basis. The suffering that I seem to heap onto her already full plate, that just kills me inside. I'm a migraine sufferer and there doesn't seem to be anything that can be done for me. It's such a difficult thing to deal with that I guess I don't do a very good job.

To her credit, Jody doesn't let me wallow or suffer alone too long before she intervenes, but why should she have to? Why can't I take the responsibility for this myself and deal with it? I'll tell you why. It's because I'm lazy. I guess that doesn't make me a very good person. My doctor doesn't really have time to dedicate to me, and I'm very unwilling to switch to another doctor (if I even could), as I would be starting from scratch again. At least my doctor knows what's worked and what hasn't.

I wish there was something that I could do that would alleviate my wife's concerns and give her some peace of mind. I'm sorry Jody. I really am.

I'm trying. Trying to get more sleep. Trying to make sure my family time doesn't suffer too much. Trying to maintain good standing at work. I don't know what else I can do.

Sometimes it's just too much for me. Maybe I'm too weak to do this. Maybe.....

Chilled to the bone

2007-02-01T09:04:00.000-04:00

We've been having a pretty good cold snap for the past couple of weeks (only a handful of days warmer than -15C) and I'm having one of those bad days where I just can't seem to get the cold out of me.

I've been in here in the "WARM" office space for over and hour and I just can't seem to warm up. I'm literally shivering in my seat. My hot chocolate from "Timmy Ho's" (for you west coasters out there) isn't even helping.

All I want to do is crawl back into my nice warm bed in my nice warm sheets and think nice warm thoughts.

Perhaps if i started a fire in my office, and kept it small, nobody would notice.

"... heat is the warmth the keeps us toasty...." - Unknown (probably nobody)

Silence isn't always golden

2007-01-30T10:13:00.000-04:00

You know, it's strange. If people think you are doing something wrong, they will speak right up even if they don't know you. Anonymity is something that can be very useful.

However, I have worked in this office for the past 3 years straight and intermittently before that. I know everyone in this section and they all know me. Most of them have met my wife and son. I have had meals and events with them.

So can you tell my why, after all these years, they can't say things to my face? I had 4 conversations this morning with 4 different people. Not one of them mentioned the fact that my shirt was inside-out. Not one! I went to the bathroom at around 10am this morning and looked in the mirror. Instantly I could see that my shirt was inside-out.

Someone could have said something. Even making fun of me, something that some people do everyday as general conversation, would have been a good way to let me know.

It's distressing that in this day & age, people are still so close-minded that they can't even let someone know they have a problem.

It's a good thing that I didn't have an important meeting this morning.

On a completely different topic, I watched The Marine last night starring WWE's John Cena. Definitely Commando fodder. If John Cena could act just a little bit, it might have been Commando-esque. Unfortunately the only real saving grace was Robert Patrick, who played a crazy jewel thief. I give it a 7/10. It was very enjoyable in parts, but as a whole lacked enough to bring it down.

Another weekend concluded

2007-01-22T08:44:00.000-04:00

This weekend has provided many things for me. Change, celebration, warmth, pain and of course, insomnia..... always lots of that to go around.

Change is constant. That's what they say. Well something very impressive changed this weekend. My son went from taking a few little steps, to actual walking. Six, seven steps in a row. Getting up from the "downward facing dog" position solo. He's just learning and adapting at an incredible rate. It's so incredible to watch him do something new, praise him for it, and then listen to the excited squeal that comes when he knows he's done something great. Every day is a special day around that little man.

Celebration is something that is reserved for special occasions. We did celebrate our son's achievement, but only in the moment. Last night I celebrated the AFC championship game in the NFL by doing a little Indy Colts celebratory chair dance after their victory over the rival Patriots. It's nice to see someone who clearly deserves a trip to the big show, actually get a chance to go. Go Peyton!

Warmth, well, it was warm in the house this weekend. Cold outside. 'Nuff said.

Pain. Well, pain is something that I tend to bring on myself. at least half of the pain i feel in my life is self-induced or at least indirectly caused by me. We had pizza on Saturday night. It was quite tasty. by 10pm or so though, I wasn't enjoying it anymore as i developed a nasty migraine from it. Pizza is officially off the food list except for homemade which never bothers me.

What can I say about insomnia? It loves me. I might as well love it because it's not going anywhere. Maybe I could find a buyer for it somewhere. There's a sucker born every minute they say.

"...Trust I seek and I find in you / Every day for us something new / Open mind for a different view / And nothing else matters..." - Metallica

Jeff goes Curling

2007-01-19T09:10:00.000-04:00

Yes, you read that right, curling.

I got shanghaied into going curling for the day at a little bonspiel for the Fredericton Northwest Construction Association yesterday. Our team wasn't very good but it was just for kicks so we had a good time. We lost both of our games (3-2 and 5-0) but we played pretty well. Apparently our draw weight is not very good.

It turned out to be a pretty fun day, although tiring, but I did pick up a 135 piece drill bit/screwdriver accessories set as a team prize. Everybody got something. It was a pretty good time and quite a bit better than spending the day at the office.

In other Fredericton news, today is "Flag Day" here in town. At CFB Gagetown, they are creating the first ever Human Canadian Flag with 5000 people today at noon. It's also a fairly significant storm day here. What better way to say "Hi, we're Canada and we support our troops" than by making a huge Canada flag in a snowstorm. It's called pathetic fallacy and we love it. I would love to attend but I have to work. I'll be there in spirit though. Go Fredericton!!

I'm willing to bet that Coach's Corner tomorrow night on Hockey Night in Canada mentions something about it. I'll be watching.

"...Sound of the drums / Beatin in my heart / The thunder of guns / Tore me apart / You've been - thunderstruck..."

A collection of thoughts

2007-01-17T08:29:00.000-04:00

It's been an interesting morning.

I went to bed early last night (just worn out) and I was sure that through the night Jody asked me to get up with the boy and I refused. Apparently this never happened. She never woke me at all. The boy slept through the night. It was a dream. Ugh!

Woke up to -33ÂºC this morning. That is a cold day and it's supposed to get colder this afternoon before it warms up overnight. Monday I was home sick and as I looked outside at the snowstorm, I was thinking "it's beginning to looka lott like Christmas". Too bad it's the middle of January eh?

After dropping the little man off with our babysitter, we were listening to the radio and Susie-Q by CCR came on. I had the realization that my mother-in-law is Susie-Q. My wife then said "yeah, she's heard that one before." I may have had that realization before. I won't mention it again. Ha ha.

On the way to work, as I crossed the city bridge, there was an accident on the other side. Traffic, always being heavy coming that way in the morning, decided that it would expropriate MY lane. I had lots of time to switch lanes, but the police had not arrived yet and traffic was working with mob mentality. I'm glad that I don't go that way in the morning.

A lott can run through your mind in a short time I guess.

{Susie-Q lyric removed before request could be made}

Futurama

2007-01-12T09:58:00.000-04:00

For those few people out there... (ok, there's only one of you), who have seen Futurama... here's a little something to make you laugh.

The rest of you won't find this funny at all.

Hypno Toad

End of the week... finally

2007-01-12T08:44:00.000-04:00

T.G.I.F.

I've never really been one to use that acronym, but I'll use it today. It's been a long hard week and I'm overly glad it's almost over.

Haven't slept well all week.

Can't shake the cold I have, it just won't go away.

The boy wants nothing to do with me.

Work has been crazy.

Almost got killed in a car accident Thursday.

Did I mention not sleeping well?

Hopefully this weekend will involve a little bit of restful sleep, whenever I can get it. As Steve Miller Band would say.....

"... time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin' into the future..."

First storm of 2007

2007-01-08T08:34:00.000-04:00

It's really something to stand outside this morning. We're getting the first real storm of 2007, the first storm of the entire season really.

We're supposed to get 10-15cm of snow and ice pellets before it changes to rain tonight and makes a real mess. What has happened to the world that a perfectly good snow storm has to be immediately followed by rain?

I don't understand it and wish to announce that it is unwanted in my general area.

Other news? Hmmm. Well, my brother-in-law has announced his engagement this past weekend. What does this mean to me? I get a... a... ummm.... well, there's no title for it, but she's my wife's sister-in-law-to-be, and my brother-in-law's future wife. No title is required of course. Welcome to the family Holly! We're very happy to have you.

I think that 2007 is going to be a good year for all of us. It will have highs and lows but in the end, I think it will be more highs than lows.

Onward we go....

"...let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...."

Gold Medal Day

2007-01-05T08:46:00.000-04:00

It's gold medal day at the world juniors in Sweden today. Canada vs. Russia. As it has been for the past two years. We won both of those games. We intend to win today.

GO CANADA!!! YOU CAN DO IT!!!

WE BELIEVE!!

Insta-sleep = I want a refund

2007-01-03T08:07:00.000-04:00

I went to bed last night at just after 9pm AST. Unheard of, I know.

Just seconds after I laid down and fell asleep, my wife shook me awake and told me it was 6:40am AST.

This was not right. My entire night of more than 9 hours of sleep, over in an instant. It felt like I never slept at all.

I am sending out this petition to the higher power that controls sleep and time.

I would like a refund of my 9 hours please. A refund is not valid in the form of 9 hours of work.

Have a pleasant day.

"...sleep is the bane of my existance..." - Me

Brand new year - - - 2007!

2007-01-02T08:50:00.000-04:00

Well, the holiday season is over for 2006 and we have begun a new year.

Is this a good thing? No. Holiday seasons should be eternal.

There is no medicine for going back to work after a long holiday, it just sucks. On top of this, we didn't win the lottery at all on the holiday break. Injustice at it's highest level.

Christmas was good for everyone I think. We all had a great time, got nice things, got to spend time with family. I even played some Wii. Too cool.

This year promises to be a tough one, but some quality events will take place:

My son will turn 2 this year. TWO!!! That's just crazy.

My wife and I will turn older, and celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary in August. Only one more year to go before the big decade. Also too cool.

Here's to hoping that everything turns up roses for the Kings in 2007.

Here! Here!

"...New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights..." ~Hamilton Wright Mabie

The last work day of 2006

2006-12-22T08:22:00.000-04:00

It's been a long and rocky year at points.

The first 1/3 of the year, I didn't know if I would even keep my job or my health.

The middle 1/3 of the year, I worked with a crew of flaky university guys doing a job that's fun yet time consuming. Certainly an improvement over the previous 1/3.

The final 1/3 has been a bit of a hectic free-for-all of work, family and Christmas. A continual improvement over the year.

There's only one problem in my steady climb all year. WE HAVE NO SNOW FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!
What has the world come to when the Maritimes have no snow for Christmas, but it gets worse. For the second year in the past 3, it's going to RAIN on Christmas Eve.

Now that sucks.

Merry Christmas everyone. For the first time ever, all family will converge on our house for Christmas Day. Yay!! or Yay? We'll see.

Perhaps 2007 will be the year of world peace and joy throughout the world, eh?

"...Fire / Is the outcome of hypocrisy / Darkest potency / In the exit of humanity / Color our world blackened..." - Metallica

Standard time.... a good idea?

2006-12-20T08:19:00.000-04:00

The answer, of course, is no.

Whomever thought that seperating the oceans with 5 time zones would be a good idea obviously never had a brother-in-law move across the country. I mean, at 1am last night when he was just coming online, I was just going offline.

I have a solution though.

We will simply eliminate the Eastern, Central and Mountain time zones. Effectively reducing the time difference to only one hour. See how simple it is to solve problems. I'm in the Atlantic time zone. He's in the Pacific time zone. Divide the country right down the middle and there you go.

Now was that so hard?

"...Tempus fugit..." (time flies)

My son... the enforcer

2006-12-18T08:29:00.000-04:00

This weekend my son let me know who's boss. Apparently it's him.

On saturday afternoon, we were all sitting around playing and my son grabbed one of our rigid coasters from the end table (something he plays with all the time) and he swung it wildly. The hard edge of it caught me just above the glasses right on the top of my eye, just below my eyebrow. Le ouchie!! Insta-pain.

That's all well and good, i'm sure he didn't do it on purpose, ala Bart Simpson. Then this morning, he wasn't sleeping well so Jody brought him in to our bed to calm him down and he climbed over to me and bashed me in my eye socket (same one) with his forehead. He just lost his balance on the blankets, I hope. He won't be allowed to play with anything solid for a few days just so I am sure he's not trying to take me out. Only plush toys for him. Ha Ha!

It's been a rough couple of weeks for us, but it looks like we're starting to come out from under the cloud of sickness. That's good.

"...It's coffee time! Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee! Cappuccino, java, YES!..."

Still sick, plodding along

2006-12-13T08:18:00.000-04:00

We're still sick. Jody said this morning that she feels she might have turned the corner and is on the road to recovery. I hope I am too.

Today is the Annual General Meeting at work. They are taking us to the Crowne Plaze (formerly the Beaverbrook Hotel) for 3 hours of listening to them talk. Should be uber-boring, but I've heard there is usually a pretty good feed at lunch, so it might be worth it.

Only 12 days till Christmas.

Ironically speaking, our former premier Bernard Lord is "leaping" out of the leadership role for the Conservatives today. Coinsidence, I think so.

"...boy, was that the wrong answer!!!..."

Not Productive

2006-12-11T08:28:00.000-04:00

This weekend was almost a complete wash. The groceries were bought and the Christmas lights were put up on the house. That's it.

The lights only got put up because I wanted to have them up before Christmas Eve. The groceries only got bought because we would have had to feed the boy just crackers all weekend. That's it and that's all.

Our whole household is sick. The plague has got us. I can only hope that it ends someday soon so that we can be well prepared for the holidays.

Only 2 weeks until Christmas! Yay!

"...deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la... whatever."

Fredericton Police Assoc. Charity Hockey Game

2006-12-08T08:26:00.000-04:00

Last night Randy and I went to the charity hockey game between the Fredericton Police Association Allstars (?) and the Tim Horton All-Stars (?). Neither team was even close to the definition of All-Star. The game raised over $8000 for local charities and was a hoot for the kids.

However.

It quickly became obvious that the Police Allstars weren't really up to the challenge of playing against former pro hockey players and that the Tim Horton All-stars were clearly toying with them. The game was just a fun game and there were lots of stoppages for little events and fan giveaways.

In the first of two periods, the TH Allstar's goalie complained to the ref that he was thirsty. So they brought him some water. Then he said he was hungry, so they brought him some TimBits. Then they started throwing bags of TimBits into the stands. The kids went nuts. Every time the All-Stars scored, they threw a T-shirt into the crowd to the noisiest section. Etc.

The highlight for me was during the intermission when some kids from Fredericton Timbit hockey came out for a little scrimmage. This basically breaks down into 20 kids chasing down the puck in a huge scrum. A couple of the kids were obviously a little older or had been to power skating as they pulled away from the group several times and scored most of the goals.

I think a good time was had by all. The biggest name on the ice was Chris Simon, who played for the Fredericton Canadians and some time in the NHL. The rest were either old-timers who had glory years ago, or guys who never really made it to the NHL but were close. Oh well, farther than I made it.

"...Oh the good ole hockey game is the best game you can name
And the best game you can name is the good ole hockey game..." - Stompin' Tom Connors

First unexplained fever...

2006-12-05T08:23:00.000-04:00

Last night was somewhat terrifying for me. Absolutely nothing wakes you up faster than your wife saying "Jeff, I need you to get up to call TeleCare."

Instantly, I knew that it wasn't for her or me. It must be for my son. His fever had worsened and he was really burning up. We took his temperature (up to 103ºF) and I was pretty worried at that point. So I sat on the phone, talking to a very confident and polite nurse (excellent bedside manner, even over the phone), who walked me through all his symptoms and appearance. It took 20 minutes to find out that he'll be fine, make sure he keeps drinking lots of cold fluids and if it gets worse, to take him to see the doctor.

He didn't sleep well last night at all. At some point, Jody brought him in to sleep with us, something that doesn't happen any more. I was happy to have him there. His light cooing is quite good for the sleeping of others.

As it turns out it looks like he's getting a cold or flu. We'll just have to ride it out. When I left this morning to come to work, his fever appeared to be down, possibly broken. Thank goodness.

It was quite a night. I love that little guy.

"...Ain't no sunshine when she's gone.
It's not warm when she's away.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And she's always gone too long anytime she goes away..." - Bill Withers

We're getting there...

2006-12-04T08:24:00.000-04:00

Well, on friday night, the workers were there to finish hooking up the shower and complete the plumbing of the job. I'm happy to report that the shower works.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work properly. Not being able to select any cold water doesn't seem quite right to me. So, there's still some work to do, but hopefully it will be rectified today and by tonight, the job should be complete 100%.

It sure will be nice to have our bathroom fixed. I also fixed the leak we've been having at the ceiling fan. I plugged it up with a product called "Great Stuff". It actually is.

It was a pretty good weekend. Relaxed some, got the Christmas tree up and decorated the rest of the living room. The exterior will have to wait until this weekend I think.

"...Cry wolf, given mouth to mouth
Like a movin' heartbeat in the witching hour
I'm runnin' with the wind, a shadow in the dust
And like the drivin' rain, yeah, like the restless rust
I never sleep..." - Animal, Def Leppard

PROGRESS!!!

2006-11-30T08:16:00.000-04:00

Thank God for small miracles.

The bathroom saw progress yesterday. It was glorious.

I went home at lunch and the shower (all 3 pieces of it) were piled in the living room and into the kitchen. By the time Jody and I got home they had much of it installed and when they left for the night, the shower was assembled but not plumbed yet.

I would imagine that by the time we get home tonight, the project will be mostly complete. We were without a toilet upstairs last night, but fortunately we have one downstairs and after a small repair process (I put a bucket under the leak), we were good for the night.

It'd say we're over the halfway mark. It's gonna be sweet.

"...Marge: Homer, a man who called himself You-Know-Who just invited you to a secret wink-wink at the you-know-what. You certainly are popular now that you're a Stonecutter.
...Homer: Oh, yeah. [reads from a book] "Beer busts, beer blasts, keggers, stein hoists, A.A. meetings, beer nights..." It's wonderful, Marge! I've never felt so accepted in all my life. These people look deep within my soul and assign me a number based on the order in which I joined. [sniffs tearily]..."

Ahh...the craziness continues....

2006-11-28T08:10:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that things can piss you off so much so fast, but they can.

Take yesterday for instance. I come in to work, sit down and work hard on a report for my boss, that she "had to have for tuesday". I was sick with a migraine on thursday and out friday to meet with the contractors for the house, so monday was the only day that I had left to finish it. I got it all done, printed and set it on her desk. She comes in about 30 minutes later with a "report" that Jason just printed off from our database (crap), and says "I got this report from Jason, it's all I need for my meeting".

I just about lost it. She's been preaching about this meeting and needing this report for 2 weeks, and now she got some crap listing from Jason and it's fine????

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!! But I digress.....

At lunchtime, I came home hoping to find the contractors working hard, or at least evidence that they had been working hard. What did I find? NOTHING!!! They came by the house, tore open the envelope with the key in it, and then left. I was furious. Nothing had been done and they put the key back in the mailbox when they left instead of taking it for the duration of the job, as was agreed.

When we got home, the key was still there (after calls to their office asking that they pick it up) and nothing had been done all day. After a call to the owner, it was learned that they came and couldn't find the bathtub/shower and since they couldn't find our work numbers (which they clearly had), they did nothing.

I'm not overly confident in their abilities right now, but I can say one thing: there had better be something substantial done at the end of day today, or i'm pretty sure that Home Depot is going to get a very negative phone call from me.

It's going to snow tonight, so I'm hoping they get the rest of the demolition done and get my outer walls, insulated and drywalled so that all they need to so is install the tub.

Lord help them if they fuck around too much. Doing a poor job for someone who works in construction branch of the government won't get you a good reputation around here. I guarantee.

"...How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterward..." ~ Spanish Proverb

Mr. Don Cherry... icon...

2006-11-22T08:31:00.000-04:00

I received this link from my brother in law yesterday.

ESPN - Don Cherry

I think everyone should read it.

I will always be a firm supporter of Don Cherry. He speaks his mind, something that most of us are afraid to do. His opinions aren't always politically correct, but you know what, why is that a bad thing?

Why do we have to worry about making everyone happy by making sure everything we say is so tightly policed? If I say something and someone takes offense to that, well, why don't they just say so? If I feel it necessary I will apologize. If I don't, then you're too damned sensitive.

Don Cherry is a man to be admired, respected and honoured as a great Canadian.

Whether you love him or hate him, his message is clear: We are Canadian. We love hockey. We love our country. If you don't, too bad.

Go Don.
Coach's Corner forever.

"...Never mind lasting 25 years, I didn't think he'd last 25 minutes," says Mellanby, who is fond of repeating the oft-quoted line that Canada has two official languages, French and English, "and Cherry is the biggest star on Canadian television who doesn't speak either of them...."

Good Evening, Mr. Bond.... Wiiii!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-11-19T22:29:00.000-04:00

Apart from a sore back, this has been a very good weekend.

Saturday afternoon, my good buddy Marc and I spent time following in a time honored tradition. We went to the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale. New movie, new Bond, same great experience. Daniel Craig did an absolutely incredible job as the British superspy. I look forward to more great outings from him. 9.3/10

Today, was a bit of a different story. I woke up early to greet our little man, and before Jody could get up I managed to really hurt my back when I bent over awkwardly to grab the boy. As it turned out I ended up going to the mall this morning to pick up my Wii. First attempt: Future shop. 15 Wiis. I was the 16th person in line. No dice. Second Attempt: EB Games Prospect. 10 Wiis. I was the 12th person in line. Arg! Third Attempt: EB Games Regent Mall. Unknown number of Wiis. When I got there, they said they didn't have enough to give me one. Then on a recount (thankfully before I left), they said that they DID have enough for me to get one. The wait began in this particular line at 10:35am this morning, ended at 1:10pm with a very happy Jeff walking out of the mall with his Wii. The only downside? I have to wait until Xmas to play it. Oh well, a small price to pay for guaranteed fun in the future.

"...Bartender: Shaken or stirred?
James Bond: Does it look like I give a damn?..." - Casino Royale

...health care for fictional spirits...

2006-11-17T08:18:00.000-04:00

I think that we may need to put Mother Nature in the home. Obviously she's ill.

We have received twice the normal rainfall for this time of the year and it's November 17, 2006 and it's 17ºC! That's just not right. It should be near zero with risk of frost and snow. At the very least, I should need a jacket of some kind when I go out to the car in the morning. Even our son went with just a light sweater this morning.....

Perhaps a palative care unit for seasonal spirits should be set up. Please send all checks to me and I'll make sure something gets set up for the old gal.

"..Bart: And God bless Mom and Dad and Lisa and Maggie. And please, God,
kill Sideshow Bob. [Homer and Marge react with alarm]
Marge: Bart, no!
Bart: It's him or me, O Lord. [Marge struggles to unclasp Bart's
hands]
Marge: You can't ask God to kill someone.
Homer: Yeah. You do your own dirty work...."

First day on the new system...

2006-11-16T08:25:00.000-04:00

I don't know if it was just the switch to getting up at 6:30am or if it was dealing with nagging back pain all day, but I crashed yesterday at 8:30pm. Really, really crashed. Off to bed for the night at 8:30pm. Oh the shame of it.

Ha ha. It's not really that big a deal. It just feels like I gave up last night. Maybe that's exactly what I did.

"...People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one..." - Leo J. Burke

...another first....

2006-11-14T22:18:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that today was the first day that I've spent the entire day solo with my son. It's not that I wasn't up to it or that I didn't want to do it, the opportunity just hadn't come up where it was required.

I'll be the first to admit it. I was nervous about it last night. I've spent time with him before, lots of it. Just not for an entire day, breakfast till bedtime.

I had nothing to worry about. The little man slept in until 8:45am. Much later than the average. We played, then lunch, more playing, nap, supper. No problem.

He's such a perfect little man. He behaves himself so well, always smiling and giggling. I love him.

I'm looking forward to the next time.

"...“Son, a woman is like a beer. They smell good, they look good, you'd step over your own mother just to get one! But you can't stop at one. You wanna drink another woman!...” - Homer Simpson

...how many roads?....

2006-11-13T02:27:00.000-04:00

Warning: This post may be deep/depressing. Read at your own discretion.

Life sure does set us down some interesting roads doesn't it?

I have always wondered what would possess a man to leave his family. To abandon everything and start fresh without so much as a backward glance. I have often thought (although mostly in my subconscious) that perhaps when I get older and have a family of my own (something I didn't know if I'd ever have), it would give me better insight. As my wife so aptly put it the other night, I know understand less and have even more questions than answers.

I look at my son and he's just the most impressive, lovable little thing I've ever seen. Even if my marriage just disintegrated, I wouldn't ever just abandon my son. I know that I have abandonment issues, it's not hard to tell when you really get to know me, but how will I ever understand these events?

Perhaps one day I will have a "moment of clarity" where all my questions are answered, but I doubt it. I will just have to live with my scars and deal with them (with the aid of my wonderful wife) whenever they happen to rear their ugly heads.

I love my family.

"...Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad..." ~Author Unknown

Anniversary... of sorts.

2006-11-09T08:45:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been nearly a year since I got sick last fall and as I look back on the last 12 months, I realize that it's been more good than bad.

Last winter was, for lack of a better word, "the suck". Migraines and depression do not a good winter make. However, with the loving support of my wife, I have moved past it and am doing much better. I truly feel that this winter will be much better.

"Human self-reflection is the capacity of humans to exercise introspection and the willingness to learn more about our fundamental nature, purpose and essence." - Dictionary.com

In other words, I think about myself and realize that I'm not all that bad. Sounds like a plan to me.

I hope everyone out there is well, as we are all doing fine down here. Hunkering down for the winter. Preparing for the snow and ice. Building our igloos and preparing our teams of hunters to protect us from the polar bears. Oh, wait! None of you are american, so you know that's just bull.

Ha!

"...By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest..." - Confucius

The 5th of November....

2006-11-05T22:26:00.000-04:00

It was quite a day today. Nothing spectacular happened, but alot of little things add up over time.

Firstly, and most importantly, the boy got up at 5:30am this morning. It was my morning to get up with him and he just wouldn't go back to sleep. He wasn't a handful, but he just couldn't quite rest enough to fall back asleep. I was relieved at 9:30 hours and was happy to see the bed again. Saturday night Hockey Night in Canada eliminates alot of my sleep saturday night. Nothing can be done though.

Mom came over after a while and Jody and I went out to do some shopping. I got a great deal on an angle grinder, unfortunately I can't get it until sometime in late December when my rain check is good and the product is in stock.

After returning home, the poor little man lost his balance while crawling and fell face first on the carpet in the living room. Fortunately he had a soother in his mouth or the cut would have been worse. He split his lip a little and it bled a little, but 2 minutes after it happened, he was smiling and carrying on. He'll survive.

Much later this evening, I absolutely smashed my elbow on the edge of my desk. Serious pain and a nice insta-bruise to match. I will also survive.

Overall, not a super day for the males in this house. Tomorrow is another day though.

"...remember, remember, the 5th of November..." - V

The Day After.... yesterday...

2006-11-01T17:01:00.000-04:00

It came and went, but it was something that won't soon be forgotten.

For the first time in the history of Jeff & Jody, we had trick-or treat-ers. We had a grand total of 76 little costumed monsters. That's 7600% more than we have ever had. Quite an improvement.

I even took the little man around to the family and collected some Halloween goodies for him. He cried like it was going out of style most of the time, but was very well behaved when we arrived at each spot. We got some good photos of him and I and it will be memories, more for me than him, for years to come.

Travelling again today, and a roofing seminar tomorrow. I can't wait to get home. I'm literally falling asleep in the chair here in my hotel room. Best Western Dieppe. Not bad, but it's no more special than any other hotel that I've ever stayed at. Home tomorrow night.

Keep on truckin'.

"...Owner: Take this object, but beware it carries a terrible curse!
Homer: [worried] Ooooh, that's bad.
Owner: But it comes with a free Frogurt!
Homer: [relieved] That's good.
Owner: The Frogurt is also cursed.
Homer: [worried] That's bad.
Owner: But you get your choice of topping!
Homer: [relieved] That's good.
Owner: The toppings contains Potassium Benzoate.
Homer: [stares]
Owner: That's bad..." - Treehouse of Horrors II

Halloween 2006

2006-10-31T08:57:00.000-04:00

It's come again. Halloween.

It's always a good time had by all. This will be first year on record that Jody and I will be actually getting "trick-or-treat-ers" (it's a word, look it up). According to our neighbor, we should be seeing around 100 or so. Wow, quite a change from our previous total of one in the past 10 years.

Last night, I carved out our Jack'O'Lantern (also a word) and instead of a scary face or something equally traditional, I got a nice pattern of a spider and carved out a pretty sweet arachnid. A picture of it will be shown here in a time and place indicated on the wall beside you. Please turn to the left and look closely.

You didn't turn did you?

Also, our little boy got dressed up in his first "official" costume this year and will go out to make some rounds at friends and family's houses tonight. He's quite the little "devil". (I'm so funny)

I'll update again later tonight or tomorrow night to let you all know how it went. I'm sure it will be a scream

Mwah ha ha ha ha!!!!

"...YOU TURNED ANOTHER PAGE! You do not know what you are doing to me! now...STOP TURNING PAGES!!!..." -
Grover, the Monster at the End of this Book

Hockey Night in Canada

2006-10-29T01:50:00.001-04:00

I love it.

Few things in this world entertain me as much as the late game on Hockey Night in Canada. It's probably because I'm an Oilers fan and they rarely play on the early game.

I watch it nearly every weekend and love when the Oilers play at home because After Hours usually an event that I stay up to watch. Tonight they interviewed Roloson and there was a crowd of fans behind the glass cheering "Roly Roly!!". I would have loved to have been there to see that and participate. Someday, I'm going to make it out to Edmonton to see them play in their own building.

I recently read that HNIC was in contract negotiations with CBC to get a new contract finished. I heard (nasty rumors) that if they couldn't work out a new contract that HNIC may be forced to move to another national network like CTV or TSN. I beg you, please don't let this happen!!!!

CBC is as much a part of HNIC as the hockey. My son deserves to have the opportunity to watch the same wonderful show that I grew up watching.

Long live Don Cherry!!

“I can't tell you how many people said, 'I'll never watch hockey again, I'm done with it,' once the lockout began, ... I just laughed. I knew it wasn't possible. It's a religion here, a way of life. We love the game too much. People were starving for it. When the season starts, they will all be back. They can't help themselves.” - Don Cherry

We meet again.

2006-10-23T08:46:00.000-03:00

I had high hopes that I would never have to do it again. Alas, it just was not meant to be.

I have been re-introduced to my arch nemesis, the Ventolin inhaler aka. "the Puffer".

We had an intimate relationship when I was young, but drifted apart as I grew stronger and more independant. Now, unfortunately, in order to stop coughing and even just to breathe, I have had to become re-acquainted.

Oh how I loathe him!!

He is the devil.

His name is Puffer. (doesn't he just sound like a drug dealer?)

"...what the hell is going on?.. cruelest dream: reality!!..." - The Offspring

The Big 01

2006-10-22T01:52:00.000-03:00

The day has arrived.

My son has arrived at his first birthday and we had a nice little party for him this afternoon. Both sets of grandparents made it over today which is an event all in itself. Everybody had a great time and the little man made off with quite a haul of loot.

We took the obligatory birthday hat and cake, and eating cake pictures. They turned out great. He's just so damn cute and photogenic. He crashed pretty hard from his sugar high, not long after everyone left, and he wasn't difficult to get to bed tonight. It's hard to believe that it's been a year already. He's grown and learned and figured out alot of things in the past year. He's gone from a tiny 8lb newborn, that couldn't hold his own head up.... to a (roughly) 25lb nearly-walking, nearly-talking, bundle of energy and enthusiasm. I'm very much looking forward to many more years of watching him grow and develop. Wow.

On another positive note, Hockey Night In Canada featured the Oilers and Redwings at Rexall Place in Edmonton tonight. Oilers win. Of course. I get so much satisfaction from watching the Oilers beat Detroit. I wonder why?

"...it's your birthday, the day you were born....
it's your birthday, the day you were born....
it'll happen every year,
and you'll always get a cheer,
on your birthday, the day you were born..."

On the road again....

2006-10-17T08:22:00.000-03:00

It seems that I can't stay away from going away. I'm up in Edmundston, Campbellton, Bathurst this week for a couple of nights and it's just wonderful. (sarcasm)

Yesterday was a very interesting day. It started perfectly with me forgetting my travel bag. I swear I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached. Somedays that would be nice.

I'm not really a big fan of Edmundston, as anyone who knows me can tell you. It smells, it's full of rude people and everything is closed when you want to go there.

First we stopped at our first school. Steep stairs take you up to the mechanical room to access the roof. No railing on one side because of the proximity of the wall so Margaret braced herself with her elbow going down the stairs. Instant injury. I swear, if she had said she couldn't do anything again this trip, I was going to pop. She took some pain relievers and she was fine. Lucky for her.

Then we stopped at Subway for dinner and it was full. No seats. So I said there's a little cafe in the middle of the mall we could probably sit there. Apparently not, as Margaret "claims" that they gave her a dirty look and she bailed. Lunch was eaten in the truck.

Spilly's was closed again for this trip, so we ended up eating at the BelAir. Nice family restaurant, but it's the best of a bad lot.

Then we went scanning. Everything was going well until we decided to check a window in the front of the school. After I came down, I was lowering the ladder when it slipped from the wall overhang and nearly fell on Margaret's head. I only caught it with the rope and my foot mere inches from her head. That would have really sucked. Fortunately, I use proper safety techniques or Margaret would probably be in the hospital or at least done for this trip.

The funniest part of the day was when I got back to my floor at the hotel after scanning. I get off the elevator and there are 4 or 5, 40-something women in bathing suits and towels waiting to go down to the pool. I think they must have been drinking because they started taunting me in french and giving out the wolf-whistles. It was pretty funny, and yet horribly disturbing at the same time. These people where old enough to be my mother. Ha ha.

It was Randy's birthday last night and I couldn't go by and wish him the best. An E-card and phone call was the best I could do. Happy Birthday Rand!

"...Titanic cannot sink.... she's made of iron, sir, I assure you, she can!..."

Thanksgiving...the Canadian way

2006-10-12T11:42:00.000-03:00

We do it in October. It's just better that way.

Quite a weekend. So many things to report that I don't even know where to start...

We finally got to meet the elusive Holly. I knew what her feet looked like and that was all. She's very nice and fit in very nicely with the family. I think that she and Sean are a pretty good match. She cooked up some fantastic pasta on Sunday night and we ate like kings (pun intended for some of us) all weekend. They must be doing well together to fly 12000km in a 5 day span. That's alot of plane time.

Speaking of elusive things, I finally confirmed the existance of the white cat known only as "Billy". Some say that he only comes out if you spend the night. Well apparently there's some truth to this legend, as after the first night, he appeared with more frequency until finally... I touched him! It's like finding Bigfoot. Still not photographic proof though.

What else? Well, my boy has figured out how to climb things and he's only going to get more difficult to control his movements. On Sunday he climbed up on a two-step step-stool all by himself. I was spotting him, just in case, but he didn't need it at all. I was very proud and very impressed. He's growing up awfully fast though. Soon he'll be driving and bring home cheerleaders. Oh well, it could be worse....

Other than that, we had a fantastic turkey dinner, followed by the infamous pot pie, spent lots of time with family, relaxed, did photos (groan) and generally had a great time.

Oh, yes, the pony. My son received a rocking horse early for his birthday. He loves it and when you squeeze it's ears..... it plays this truly terrible LOUD bad yodling country song. I'm sure it will quickly become worn out and we'll attempt to "quiet" it, or something to that effect. Ha ha.

"...Many times I've lied
Many times I've listened
Many times I've wondered
How much there is to know..." - Led Zeppelin

Happy Birthday to me......

2006-10-05T08:47:00.000-03:00

I turn 32 today, at around 6pm i think.

It's not all it's cracked up to be. People were saying crazy things like "it only gets better after 32!" and "god, i wish i were 32!". To tell the truth, I don't really feel the elation that they seem to feel with the age of 32.

I do, however, think that I'm doing quite well for 32. I'm on my way to owning my own home (although it's a shitty rats nest), I own my own car (although it's 6 years old), I have a (nearly) one year old son (he's awesome) and I have a permanent good government job (although I can think of 1000 places I'd rather be today).

It's not all roses, but it's dandelions at least.

After today, a few vacation days is a welcome treat. 4:30pm is coming, hooray!

"...Getting old ain't for sissies..." - Betty Davis

Forced renovations

2006-10-03T08:30:00.000-03:00

It's a shame really that I didn't just leave well enough alone. If I'd never touched the shower at all, perhaps my guests would have been just disgusted with the shape of it, but I could say "that's just the way it was, haven't been able to fix it yet".

Unfortunately, I didn't want to spend another winter cooped up in the house with a rotting bathroom so now my guests will look at it and say "damn, what a mess you've made Jeff". It's true. I've created a renovations monster. The bathroom can't be remodeled until the mould guy comes and does an assessment. The mould guy can't give a definate answer when he'll come. AAAHHHH!!!!!!!

All I want for Xmas is my bathroom fixed up. (and a Wii!!)

Thanksgiving is just around the corner now.
Then it's Halloween and kiddies everywhere.
Then it's Christmas, I love Christmas.
Then a lottery win.
Then retirement.
Then gaming.

"...A good home must be made, not bought..." - Joyce Maynard, "Domestic Affairs"

...it never rains....

2006-10-01T00:54:00.000-03:00

I'm sure you've all heard the expression, "it never rains but it pours". Truer words were never spoken.

It seems that if that were true, we are in bloody hurricane, monsoon, typhoon, cyclone, tsunami season around here. Things just seem to be falling from bad to worse around the old King household.

The bathroom project, which originally was just supposed to be a quick remove problem/fix problem with new stuff, has become a total tear down and rebuild. Well beyond my scope at the beginning. These things happen, nothing you can do.

It's ok, but then at hockey last night, I pulled a muscle in my calf. First time that I'd ever pulled a muscle before. I thought it was a charlie horse, but it just went right on hurting when I tried to walk. It wouldn't work out by stretching, so I retired from hockey early last night.

Added to that pile of crap, I'm upstairs tonight looking after the boy while Jody is cleaning up the downstair tub so we have a place to shower, and I hear this..."can you and Sawyer come down here, I have a big problem..." That's never good.

It seems... that after our tenant left, (in FEBRUARY!) and we checked the fridge downstairs, we missed the chiller drawer. I have absolutely no idea how this happened because I'm sure that Jody and I checked it seperately at different times. Apparently there were some onions in there. It wouldn't have been so bad, but that fridge has been unplugged for weeks and it defrosted all over the place down there. Try to imagine the PUTRID smell of rotting onions in warm stagnant water and you're almost there. Now the hole rancid mess is out in the driveway tied up so it won't open, just waiting to go to the dump. Gonna go monday night with the truck.

Isn't life a wonderful experience? Not always. I can still smell rotting onions.

"...you're overstimulated, let's get some beer in you and then it's straight to bed... woohoo, beer, beer, beer, bed, bed, bed"

Working at night / Dodging death

2006-09-28T08:52:00.000-03:00

You read that right. Dodging death.

I used to be one of those people who occasionally bitched about bad roads. "This road should be redone... it's too bumpy".

No longer. A bumpy road may have saved my life.

I was returning from Canterbury, NB. Small town. Other than the High School there's not other reason to go there. Ever.

So I'm coming home from doing my evening work there, (thermographic roof scan, yippee!!) and it's damned near pitch dark, as it gets out in the country. For those of you who've never been to the country, there are no street lights. At all.

Anyway, (can i get off on a tangent or what?... there was this one time.....), I'm coming over this little crest of a hill and there's a bump and my headlights "bounce" with the car, and I see this weird shape moving. IT'S A MOOSE!, and it's close. I brake, and everything is fine, but if my headlights hadn't "bounced", I don't think that I would have been able to distinguish it from the hazy black background. The lights sort of "focused" it for me.

The lesson here is "bumpy roads save lives". I'm having T-shirts made up. They will be available here on my blog for $2000 each. (like my get rich quick scheme? bet you wish you'd thought of it?)

"...quotes are for people who have time to think up something clever..."

A full night's sleep?

2006-09-27T08:44:00.000-03:00

It made the tiniest bit of difference, but it did make a difference.

I went to bed last night at the same time as Jody (11pm) and remarkably enough, slept the entire night without interruption. That hasn't happened in weeks/months.

The dreaming, however, continued. My back and shoulders and legs feel like I ran a marathon last night. I remember something about Jody and I in Paris, but I don't remember many of the other details. Something about a pawn shop. Oh well, if Jody and I went to Paris, I highly doubt that I'd be hitting the pawn shops.

Ha Ha!!

Scanning tonight. Overtime is fun when it's not inconvenient. This isn't one of those times.

"...Tree Trimmer: Now that's a real shame when folks be throwin' away a perfectly good white boy like that..." - Better Off Dead

Who's clumsy??

2006-09-26T08:38:00.000-03:00

I'm pretty sure that the clumsy gene is hereditary. I'm really hoping it's not though. I'd hate to think that I've given it to my son.

I know what you're thinking. There's no clumsy gene. That's just an old wives tale.

No.

It's not.

Last night, Jody says "would you go down and get the laundry for me?", a fairly innocent question. Little did I know that the clumsy gene was waiting in the wings for me. I'm walking down the stairs to the basement, minding my own business, not even rushing, when I'm senselessly attacked by the clumsy gene. SOMEHOW, I missed one of the stairs and "leapt" to the next one, catching the arch of my foot on the metal stair guard and lightly twisting my knee. It's fine now, but it really hurt then and ached for most of the night.

Is that fair? Should the gene be able to just select instances like that to attack?

I don't think so.

I'm beginning to believe that the baby gate across our stairs isn't just for the baby. Ha!

"...The other day upon the stair, I saw a man who wasn't there, He wasn't there again today, I think he's with the CIA..."

Closing in on October

2006-09-25T08:35:00.000-03:00

It seems that time just keeps on marching along.

My brother-in-law just had his 27th birthday (2 years over the quarter century mark!! oh my!!). My 32nd is rolling up here pretty quick (18 short of half a century buddy!!!!) and to be honest, I'm not all that impressed. I mean sure, I'm older, but am I wiser? Not really.

Bathroom got slightly delayed. Weekend migraines tend to sidetrack all other things. Stupid head. I can't wait until brain transplants are quick and easy.

My son is also creeping up in age. He'll be one on Oct.21. (1% of a century). I guess we're all getting old.

"...I'm getting too old for this shit..." - Danny Glover

TV Shows get my attention

2006-09-21T08:23:00.000-03:00

It doesn't seem like long ago that I watched X-files and a couple of sit-coms and that was all. That was all there was to watch anyway. I wasn't into the Melrose Place/90210 kind of drama so it was sit-coms or nothing. Stark Raving Mad comes to mind. Tony Shalhoub is hilarious. Never forget that.

...but now....

There's so much to choose from that I find myself wanting to actually start watching new shows and see if they are good. For instance, last night, during the 9pm time slot, Jody wanted to watch Bones. I don't like this show at all, so when I saw that Jericho was premiering at the same time, I went to watch it. Wow! It got my attention alright. I think that it might just be a show I could find myself watching.

It's really amazing how you can find yourself with something to watch every night and what's even more amazing is that they are all quality shows. Mind you, it won't be long before we'll have to censor what we're watching while Sawyer is up, but most of the stuff we watch is on after 9pm or 10pm at night, so it's not really an issue yet.

Monday: CSI: Miami (Horatio is the man)

Tuesday: NCIS / The Unit / Smith (they call it Action Tuesday)

Wednesday: CSI: NY / Jericho / Criminal Minds

Thursday: Survivor / CSI / Shark (possibly)

Friday: nothing (it's hockey night)

Saturday: HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA

Sunday: The Amazing Race

Some people would say that I watch alot of TV, but it's a couple of hours each night and it's time that Jody and I usually spend together. How can that be a bad thing?

"...the sea was angry that day my friend, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli...." - George Costanza

Good business...

2006-09-20T08:30:00.000-03:00

Yesterday I had mail at work. Real mail. With a stamp and everything. It was a Thank You card from Premiere Executive Suites in Moncton. They just wanted to thank me for my business and say "see you next summer". It's nice to know that you can take three young guys and myself, stick them in an apartment for 3 weeks and the place is just as good as when we left. A tribute to my supervisory skills. (haha).

On a completely separate topic, The Unit premiered for its second season last night. It's just so good. How can people not watch this show?

I hope everyone's wednesday goes as nicely as I hope mine goes.

Keep on truckin'

"...No more living trapped inside
In her way I'll surely die
In the eye of the tornado, blow me away..." - Megadeth

Dream A Little Dream.....

2006-09-19T08:35:00.000-03:00

We all love to dream. It can be a wonderful escape to do things that simply aren't possible. Apparently it can also be quite a workout.

For about 6-7 nights in a row, I've dreamt for the entire night. Coupled with going to bed early due to my little head cold, means that I wake up in the morning sore, as if I had been working out for hours. A few nights, Jody has commented that I "kicked" alot more that night.

So. If I stay up late every night, I'm exhausted at work and I remain sick and I gain nothing. If I go to bed early, I'm fatigued in the morning at work and I remain sick (because it doesn't seem to be improving much) and I gain nothing. If anything, I lose precious gaming time.

I'm really not sure what path to choose.

Perhaps there is not correct option and I must choose the lesser of the two evils. Anyone know which that is? Ha.Ha.

"...tastes great! less filling! who cares? it's beer!...."

Nearly 3%.... 1/34 weeks completed.

2006-09-15T08:31:00.000-03:00

It's probably not the best way to look at the lockdown that I face this winter, but there are 34 weeks (including this one) until the guys come back and I'm free of my cubicle prison.

Perhaps on Fridays I will update how the struggle is going to stay motivated.

At least this way I have a real tangible goal to work towards.

Only 97% of my work to go. Yay!

"...when will I be a man?... when i say so!..."

Lukas Rossi??.....(sigh)

2006-09-14T09:24:00.000-03:00

It's official. Lukas Rossi will front Supernova for their world tour.

But why???????

After watching the show for weeks and seeing all of the talent they had to choose from, how could they pick Lukas? There are many questions surrounding this decision. Many rumors already floating around the internet: was he a friend of Tommy's? was it fixed from the beginning? could the band just not handle a woman fronting them? etc etc.

You only have to go as far as the forums on the above mentioned website to see that many many fans are not happy with this decision. Go to Ebay and see how many sets of tickets for their tour are currently on sale there. Apparently, many people thought, as I did, that they would pick a truly good singer and bought their tickets early thinking the show would rock. This is not going to happen now. Dilana is going to front the House Band, but I feel that this is not enough for me to drive to Montreal for in January. I'll check out her album when it's released though, that's for sure. I don't believe that I'll buy the Supernova album unless they do some pretty spectacular things in the studio. I have my doubts.

In closing of this micro-rant, I feel that they would have been better off with Storm, Magni, Toby or Dilana. Check out Toby's band, Juke Kartel. It's pretty good.

"...Well, on with the show
Going on with the show
Come on baby
No, no, no
Oh my, my, my . . ." - Motley Crue

Great weekend... SUPER start to the week

2006-09-11T08:42:00.000-03:00

Wow.
I had a pretty good weekend gone by. I got two more lights changed out in our house, got the movie shelves finished, got the place cleaned up AND made "supper of the gods" for Jody. She gave my "famous" (read: experimental) stir-fry an 8.5/10! It would have been higher, she said, but it really is quite hot (pepper) and that brought it down a notch. I guess I'll have to cook more often.

Now on to the best part of the week. This has only happened in the past few minutes but I WILL BE KEEPING MY JOB!!!! For those of you who didn't know, which of course is everyone except Jody, my probationary period at work was extended to the maximum one year after last winters injury/sickness. They had a meeting in May to determine whether I would be fit to continue through the summer, due to safety concerns, and finally decided they would let me tour with the boys. The summer went well, as summers always do, and my ENDGAME date was rapidly approaching. They had a meeting on wednesday last week just to tell me that a decision hadn't been made yet and that they still had to make their recommendation to the Deputy Minister.

They had to let me know either way today, because in two weeks my probation is up and they have to give me two weeks notice. This morning Margaret came in to tell me "just so you aren't stewing here all day sweating it out, the decision came down to keep you on". HOORAY!!

I guess that now Jody and I can rest a little easier that the winter and spring won't be a financial disaster and that we are going to be OK.

Overall though, I'm most happy for Sawyer. This means that we will be able to continue to buy him all the things we want to get for him. He's such a little cutie.

Until we meet again.

"...I'm not questioning your powers of observation, I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is..." - V

End of summer travel...... (sob)

2006-09-05T10:55:00.000-03:00

Wow. It's been more than 2 weeks since I last posted something. Lots has happened, that's for sure.

Our trip to Campobello Island: 5 hours of travel to do 15 minutes worth of work. We did see a porpoise while on the ferry, ate at the "legendary" bakery (the only place to eat for 15km) and had a very interesting time on the way back. We came back through Maine (after warnings that we couldn't do that!) and came through a little construction on the way. I ran over a pylon, just because it's what we do. We weren't even out of the construction area when a truck pulled out of nowhere, and a guy jumped out and fixed the pylon!!! It was a sight to see, believe you me. I think that guy's whole job was to set up and maintain the pylon line. Ha ha, and I thought our job was slack.

On the way back from St. Stephen that day, we stopped at McKay's Pie Shop in Pennfield. Mmmmmm, good pie.

Inspection of Saint John Regional Hospital: Biggest building in the collection. 140+ roofs. Each one gets a sheet. You do the math. Took the four of us most of a day to do it. Overtime is always welcome to the roof crew.

Movie: Beerfest. Laugh out loud funny. Not a chick flick. Don't take a date. Definately guy humor from start to finish, but well worth a few bucks to see. 9/10

Movie: Talladaga Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Definately one of Will Ferrell's funniest movies to date. It was definately a part he was born to play. Not even Jim Carrey could have pulled that off. Not goofy, just downright funny. 8.5/10

What else?.... hmmm...

Can't really think of anything else that comes to mind as worthy of recording digitally for all time, so I guess I'll sign off by saying that:

"[british accent]...we're not that drunk.{laughs}... cheeky bastard!!!"

Snakes on a Plane.... oh yes... that's right....

2006-08-18T00:41:00.000-03:00

Samuel L. Jackson has done it again. Solidified himself as the "king of cool".

We went to the early screening of Snakes on a Plane tonight and I have to tell you, this movie was everything a B-movie fan could ever ask for. It had A-movie acting and special effects with that nice sprinkling of excellent one liners and sweet snake attacks.

The only problem with it, wasn't in the movie at all, but in the movie theatre itself. We saw it in Saint John. I would never have thought that people from here would be insane, but apparently they are. They clapped. Alot. Not just when it started (which is to be expected at an advance screening), but everytime something good happened and after any one liner by Sam. It was ridiculous. I've never seen such a thing, and frankly, it was rather annoying after the first five or six times.

Even the guys with me were annoyed, and that's going some.

Out of 10, this movie gets an 8.9..... very enjoyable with plenty of eye candy and gross outs. Excellent thriller. A must see for B-movie fans.

"...i'm tired of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane..."

... sleepy, yet, sleep is an enigma

2006-08-17T16:39:00.000-03:00

Hey everyone!

It's your friendly (sort of) neighborhood (not really) roof inspector. Your roof sucks, get a new one.

I guess that I've been slacking in my duties as a blogger, but I really haven't had too much to report. I was going to update on my anniversary (this past tuesday), but by the time I thought of it, I was too tired to type. Eight wonderful years with my baby! I'm looking forward to many more.

Other than that, not much has happened. We're working in Saint John now, finishing off the summer. Market is awesome here, as usual...Sagrati's has the best sandwiches anywhere. I highly recommend them.

On a super positive note, Betty Crocker has returned their most awesome of awesome Hamburger Helper Potato Stroganoff to it's original recipe...or so it would seem. I bought a box last night and ate it and it was great. Sorry baby, stinky socks is back.

"...damn...i hope that guy was a zombie..."

20 years in the making...

2006-08-08T20:08:00.000-03:00

It was an unprecedented event. Jody and I made the trek to the south of Boston to see.... POISON live and in concert.

We left early on Saturday morning (9:30am) and began the long (but exciting) drive to Boston. It was mostly uneventful.... lots of funny signs that pointed out the obvious, bathroom stops, stops for state maps, etc etc. As we approached, Mansfield, MA, (site of the concert), we looked for the hotel but didn't find it. It was nicely tucked away behind a large row of trees and very difficult to see from the road.

While checking in, I asked the attendant how long it would take to get a cab to take us to the Tweeter Center. She recommended this company called Great Woods Car Service. They guaranteed a seat on a return trip from the concert for $15 each way. It was a old cargo conversion van that picked us up and the guy was DEFINATELY from Boston. Craziest accent ever! He got our room number and dropped us off.

The concert completely rocked. Apparently, I know more Cinderella songs than I thought I did, as they played alot of songs, and there was only one that I didn't know the lyrics to. After they were done their set, we went in search of t-shirts. We each picked up a Poison shirt and I grabbed a Cinderella shirt as well.

It was then Poison's turn to rock the house, and they didn't disappoint. It was such a good concert, that it now ranks in my top 5 concerts of all time. They sang both Ride the Wind and Fallen Angel, so my experience was complete about halfway through the set. The highlight of the show was when CeCe was singing a song and in the middle of it he says "take it CeCe" and he runs away from the mic and lays into a crazy solo. Classic crazy CeCe.

(we second hand smoked so much pot......)

...and then it was Great Woods time again. We wandered out to the van and after my offer to give Jody the front seat, the guy driving said, "i got two seats up here", indicating the passenger seat and the Coleman cooler sitting between the two front seats. It was a classic moment. I sat on a cooler all the way back to the hotel. It totally completed the experience. It truly gave me a complete appreciation for being Canadian... it was such an illegal move that I was happy to be a part of it.

Overall, Saturday was an extremely positive and uplifting experience that I hope to have more of in my life.

As an aside, we ate a hurried meal at the Pike's Peak, but the food was extremely fantastically awesome. I had the Bourbon Apple Chicken. It was by far the best piece of chicken that I've ever eaten. I am hoping to re-create it sometime in the near future. Also, we had a complimentary breakfast with our room ($169 US) and it was buffet style. It was the most impressive hotel breakfast ever, and there were even little birds flying around inside the lobby/breakfast area. Tres cool.

In closing, I hope to have more fun and exciting concert trips with my wife. After 8 years of marriage, it's easy to see why we are still together. We love spending time together and we are able to enjoy events like this.

"...the reality of this is blowing my mind..." - Jody King

Things that make you go.... hmmmm?

2006-08-01T19:06:00.000-03:00

Or.... how I killed three people and got away with it....

Oh what a day!
It's hard to believe that I woke up this morning and thought today would be a good day. It started out so innocently.... wake up, eat, shower, go to work.

So far, no problem.

Then lunch time came and a very strange event occured. My three employees wanted to eat at Jungle Jims (again!!!) and I didn't feel like shelling out $15-20 for lunch, so I dropped them off and went to the mall food court for a cheap lunch. After I was done eating, I went to the bank machine and while standing in line, a female teenager (15-17 years old I would wager) got into a heated argument with a man (who I believe was her father). He was literally screaming at her and telling her that she looked "like a tramp" for dressing like that. She was wearing one of those button-up summer dresses. Quite revealing, but not anything that isn't completely the teenage fashion these days.

Then, out of the clear blue sky, she yells..."I'll show you who's a slut!!!" and proceeds to tear open the dress. She wasn't wearing anything under it and everyone in the immediate area got a very intimate look at "the goods". It was quite a shock, but a female security guard was there almost immediately to escort her outside and cover her up. Never in my near 32 years, have I seen gratuitous nudity at the mall. Since I wasn't with anyone I knew, it was the first time in my life that I wish I'd had a camera phone. HAHA!!

...and then we worked some more....

...and then we came home. It all goes to shit from here. Apparently, some good natured tom-foolery can't be tolerated by the others. My glasses went missing and after I clearly got pissed, they just continued to laugh and not help me find them. I was just seconds from punching Lee in the face. Then, after using the internet all night last night, and unplugging it from my computer without asking me last night (which killed my download of pictures of my son), Adam had the nerve to demand the internet while I was talking to Jody for the first time in two days.

I have never been closer to quitting this job than I was shortly after that. I talked to my wife, went for a drive over to Riverview, parked down by the water, and just relaxed and tried to let my temper (which was about to completely boil over) simmer down. I grabbed some fast food supper, and came back. There's still some tension here, but I'm just going to play it low key tonight, and tomorrow work very hard all day.

If my buttons get pushed any more tonight, someone could die, or at least, a serious beating. ARRGGHH!!!!

"...will you shut up, i know what i'm doing...NOT EVEN GOD KNOWS WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!..."

Supper of the Gods

2006-07-25T19:17:00.000-03:00

Wow.
I just had the absolute best stir-fry that I've ever eaten. Made by me of course.

I had this big plan last week...make a huge amazing stir-fry and eat it all week. It sort of worked. I made it and I ate a bunch. I have enough left to eat a light supper tomorrow or perhaps dinner. Oh well, I'll just have to make it again sometime.

Here's the recipe:

Jeff's Uber Stir-Fry

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 package stir-fry beef
1 bok-choy
4 peppers (rainbow)
2 large handfuls of bean sprouts
1 medium sized broccoli head
1 handful of snow peas
4 green onions
1 white onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 package of Lee Kum Lee - Sauce for Black Pepper Chicken
(the sauce is found in the chinese food section of your supermarket)

Chop up chicken breasts and beef into small stir-fry sized pieces. Chop up peppers into long thin strips. You will only need 2 full peppers, but I like the 4 different color peppers. Cut up broccoli heads up into bite sized pieces and seperate onion layers so you have little "half-spoon" sized pieces. Dice green onions and mince the two garlic cloves. Keep garlic and meat seperate from everything else.

Cook up the chicken and beef in a little oil and about halfway cooked, add garlic. Once meat is cooked, add the sauce for Black Pepper Chicken. Once the mix is starting to cook up, slowly add vegetables excluding bean sprouts. Continue stirring until sauce is covering everything and you are getting a nice glaze going. Add a few splashes of soya sauce for flavor. When you think it's almost done, add the bean sprouts.

Consider adding water chesnuts and serving stir-fry over a bed of rice. This recipe makes enough for two people. Here's what it should look like:

Mmm(kiss)wah

Enjoy. You won't be disappointed if you make it exactly like I did. If you vary the recipe, I take no responsibility for whatever you make.

"...i'm not an addict baby... that's a lie...."

Life, algebra and you....

2006-07-25T08:40:00.000-03:00

Let's define some things... shall we.

A = Insomnia is characterized by an inability to sleep and/or to remain asleep for a reasonable period. Insomniacs typically complain of being unable to close their eyes or "rest their mind" for more than a few minutes at a time.

B = Migraine is a neurological disease, of which the most common symptom is an intense and disabling episodic headache. This may include sensitivity to light and sound and may include nausea.

C = A nervous breakdown, also known as a mental breakdown; is a sudden, acute attack of mental illness such as depression or anxiety.

D = Mwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.... (cough)... .ha ha.

E = Survival, a state of surviving; remaining alive

F = Joy, an intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness.

Good. Now that we know what we are dealing with.... here are some handy formulae to help you understand just how my life works.

A + B = C
(obviously)

A - B = E
B - A = E

- A - B = F(D)

B(over time) = C

A(over time) = C

E = F (only if A and B = 0)

and finally.....

A + B + C = ?????(D)
(we're nearly here.... oh yeah....)

...anyway, this is how my life works... it's certainly not perfect, but we're surviving. My hope is that someday the migraines will actually be controllable. Doesn't seem likely to me, but one can dream. They are wrecking entirely too much of my free time and the insomnia is fucking up my weeks. I was so tired yesterday having not slept the night before...and then last night.... I couldn't sleep. SIGH!!!

"...i'd be too afraid to fight a man that big.....and that's why nobody will remember your name...."

Fleeting memories contaminate......

2006-07-24T23:11:00.000-03:00

Today's activities remind me of days of yore. When we got to the apartment today, Adam produced his router so we could split our internet connection among two laptops. It produced feelings that reminded me how much I love configuring stuff like that.

Every once in a while I dream that I could get myself back up to speed with computers and software and go back into the computer industry. Then I wise up and remember how much I hated what I was doing back in those days.

All in all, I think that I need to just win the lottery and give up on this whole crazy "work" thing. I'm almost sure it's a fad anyway. I mean, who would come up with such an idea and have us do it for 50 years of our lives? Crazy people... that's who.

Keep on truckin'...

"...zombies... they freak me out...."

My most dreaded foe....

2006-07-20T23:56:00.000-03:00

Today I tangled with my arch-nemesis.... the hornet. He buzzed me and buzzed me and buzzed me and then he stung me on my arm. I think it must have been a baby hornet or something, because while I did immediately start feeling sick, the effects didn't really escalate too harshly too quickly.

It hasn't really been a very good day overall because of that, but tomorrow is another day.

Fredericton tomorrow. Back to my family and some time with my son. Maybe he just misses his daddy.

I'm a coming buddy!!!!

"...give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire...."

Disappointment, confusion, PAIN & Anger

2006-07-20T01:31:00.000-03:00

The past 24 hours have been something of an enigma wrapped in a mystery surrounded by a crazy attack dog. It has been both awe-inspiring and blood boiling.

Last night's promised thunderstorms didn't really live up to the billing. Sure, the lightning was spectacular, but the bulk of the rain passed south of us so the temperature and humidity didn't lessen at all... not to mention that the thunder was super low-grade. Nothing that made me quake in fear.

The bed I slept in last night consisted of sheet, blanket, comforter. Somehow I managed to remove the sheet from the bed without disturbing the rest of the covers. It's not a talent that every person has. I'm just special I guess.

...and then... it was off to the beach this afternoon. Everything was going fine... there was plenty of eye-candy, no clouds, nice hot sun...etc. Then we had to participate in the initiation ritual of swimming out to the far buoy. Ryan needed to complete this task in order to officially be a part of our group, so we all went. Unfortunately on the way back in, we were ambushed by swarms of crazed jellyfish. We were all stung many times and I'm not entirely happy about the situation.

Unfortunately, the fun just kept on coming. We went scanning up in Miramichi tonight and on the way home we were met by the friendly neighborhood asshole cop. He decided that the 3 feet away from the 60km/h sign was too far and gave me a ticket for speeding. It made me so angry that I may actually contest the ticket in court. He never would have stopped me if I had been 10 feet further.

Anyway, it's been a fairly interesting 24 hours. I'm not sure if I can handle anymore crazy excitement this week without some sort of compensation.

Take care all, bad karma is contagious. Just by reading this you have doomed yourself. Ha ha... suckers.

"...spam.... do you have a can opener?...no... well it's got it's own key, so don't knock it..."

What a start!!!

2006-07-17T19:36:00.000-03:00

It's the first week in moncton. First day in moncton. First 5 minutes in moncton.

Normally, all we get is standard events and occasionally we get something half-way cool. We weren't in moncton for 5 minutes when we came across a tractor fire on Mountain Road. You read that right, TRACTOR FIRE!!!

We must have come upon it just as it started because it was a minute or two before we heard the sirens of the fire department. It was quite a welcome to moncton for us. We were even in the traffic (we turned around) for when the fire department began to put it out. Just as the fireman was beginning to open up the hose, the large tire exploded. It scared us and the fireman hit the deck like a gun had gone off. Quite a welcome indeed. It was topped off by the quote from our neighborhood emotionless man, "well, we've been here for five minutes and we've already seen a tractor fire". It was so totally well timed that I give it a 9.5/10 for delivery.

Our apartment is excellent, just like last year, with a balcony large enough to barbeque on. That's all that really matters. The beach was good today. Overall, a good start to our time in moncton.

"...hey, you check that tractor for heat?..."

A night out on the "town"...???

2006-07-14T02:53:00.000-03:00

Miramichi... an old stomping grounds of mine.

We lived here for a while early on in our relationship and I have to say... little has changed. Sure, they have a Walmart now, and a Bulk Barn... but really, it's the same old Chatham and Newcastle that I always knew.

The boys decided that tonight would be a good night to go out on the town and go to the "legendary" bar.. the Opera House. Having been there many times, I bragged up this particular place as three floors of drinking, dancing, exciting goodness. Unfortunately, since the days of living here, they have changed the nights in which the bars operate up here. Apparently, Thursday night is not Opera House night, but Choo Choo's night.

We walk over to the Opera House.... closed. We continue on to the Tide...super dead. After inquiring "what in the hell is going on here?" at the Tide, I was informed that Thursday nights are Choo Choo's night. So it's off to Chatham we go. Appparently it costs the cabbies $12 friggin' dollars to take the four of us from Newcastle to Chatham. Wow. Pricy.

It was very entertaining to sit back and watch the young guys to try to find a woman to spend the night with. Choo Choo's (aka the Whooper for those of us from Chatham) was pretty good tonight with plenty of choices. Unfortunately for those single guys in the group, there was nothing doing. No females fell for the crazy pickup lines or casual requests for dancing. So... four guys alone in a cab on the way back.

It just reinforces the notion that I've been through that all before and I'm pretty lucky to have what I have. My wife is by far, the most amazing woman that I've ever met and I wouldn't even want to have to go through that song and dance act at the bars like I did when I was young.

If I sound like I'm rambling, it's because I'm still pretty drunk. As I said, it was good times in Miramichi. Next week Moncton.... watch out folks... it gets wild from here on out.

"...one bourbon, one scotch, one beer....."

It's a brand new week...

2006-07-10T21:51:00.000-03:00

Ahh Miramichi....

Everytime I come here, it reminds me of the great times we had living here. I think that I could live here again and be happy. Most of the people were very friendly here and we had some good times starting our lives.

Now, we own a house and have a child. We should have come a long way.

Not much happening this summer... the weather gods have been shitting on us all summer. We left Fredericton in a beautiful 30 degree day, sunny and clear. By Renous, it was lightning, thunder and heavy rain. Sigh. When are we going to get our nice weather?

Onward we trudge towards Christmas. Only 168 days until Christmas. Yay!

"...are you not entertained?.... is this not why you are here?..."

The end of an era....

2006-07-04T07:29:00.000-03:00

I feel the need to say something about the departure of Steve Yzerman.

I've never been a Red Wings fan... that much is obvious, but Stevie Y was more than just a Red Wing. He was a class act, a champion, a Canadian, and most importantly a role model for how to be a hockey player. The announcement of his retirement is a sad day indeed, although not unexpected.

After 22 seasons in the NHL, he ranks 6th in points. The youngest player ever to be named captain of a hockey franchise, the longest reign as captain, a gritty defensive forward who played the game the way it was meant to be played. A three time Stanley Cup champion, an Olympic Gold medalist in 2002 and winner of many of the NHL's top trophies for points, sportsmanship and value to his team.

He will be missed flying down the ice in Hockeytown, not just by Red Wing fans but by all hockey fans because he represents the very essense of what a great hockey player can be.

Steve Yzerman, I salute you. You inspired us all. You will be missed.

(moment of silence for my brother-in-law)

...on another sad note... my beloved Oilers have fulfilled Chris Pronger's request for a trade, and he's off to Anaheim. I have to wonder what impact that will have on next years run for the cup? I have always enjoyed watching him play, even as a St. Louis Blue. His calm demeanor on the ice has always been an example of how I attempt to play my defensive role at hockey. Hopefully Edmonton can continue to have success without him on our blue line.

Hockey has been a huge part of my life for a very long time and these players have helped shape my love and understanding of the game. I eagerly await the 2006-2007 season and simply cannot wait for the Zambonies to begin churning out fresh sheets of ice.

"Hockey captures the essence of Canadian experience in the New World. In a land so inescapably and inhospitably cold, hockey is the chance of life, and an affirmation that despite the deathly chill of winter we are alive." - Stephen Leacock

The age old question....

2006-06-29T09:18:00.000-03:00

Work or play?

You would think that for most people this would be a no-brainer. Play.

The strangest thing happened last night. As a responsible supervisor, I went to my employees and said "do you guys want to go scanning (work) or go see Superman (play) or just sit around (also play)". It was as close to rhetorical as you can get. I just assumed that the answer would not be work, but as we all know, assumption is the mother of all fuckups.

THEY CHOSE WORK!!! UNANIMOUSLY!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!

So we went scanning. No big deal, it's overtime in the bank. That's always good. On the way back from Balmoral (don't ask where it is), the bugs were so bad on the drive that it actually looked like it was snowing. It was amazing. We actually struck 2 bats on the trip as well. No evidence on the truck when we stopped, but they definately make a nice "smack" on the truck as we drove.

All in all, an entertaining way to spend the evening. Not as good as Superman would have been I'm sure, but it will be in theatres for weeks to come.

"...humanity has evolved... yes Charles, into US!...."

The tip of the Acadian iceberg.....

2006-06-28T15:30:00.000-03:00

It's week one of our Bathurst excursion. Nothing like jumping right into the Acadian mosh pit and trying to absorb it all. There are more backyard swings, trampolines, and decoratively painted Acadian flags up here than you can shake a stick at.... and we have a big stick.

It's remarkably hot today and I think that the beach is the best place for us. We worked all day and our reward will be an opportunity to sear our flesh with UV. What else could we ask for?

Nothing terribly interesting has happened up here this week, although, we stopped at the crazy seafood/fried chicken/pizza spot in Beresford. I've driven past there at least 50 times in my life and always said..."we should eat there"... but never did. Well that's a thing of the past. We ate there and for $8 we got a great two-piece fish and chips with gravy and drink. Very good deal, moderately good food. Well worth the stop. I recommend it. Decker Boy Restaurant in Beresford. Go there. Now.

Over the next 2 weeks, we will be delving deeper and deeper into Acadian territory... pray for our souls.

Off to the beach we go. Ahhh... i can feel the bug bites and salt taste already....

"...i am jacks colon.. haha... i get cancer... i kill jack...."

Pain, pleasure and roof inspections...

2006-06-23T01:14:00.000-03:00

It's been an interesting couple of days. The great city of Campbellton has hosted the roof crew this week and it has been both kind and cruel.

Kindness....

The weather has been fairly good to us, so work went "swimmingly".... and speaking of swimming... we went swimming every day this week. Twice at an ok beach down the road, swimming in the Bay of St. Laurent. Then, the past two days, we went and swam at the huge Canada Games aquatic pool, complete with springboard, 3m board and tarzan rope. Also, the traditional adult entertainment which makes its appearance every year was partaken of.... or some such. We all had a good time, got drunk and got an eyeful.

Cruelty....

Time. It's a cruel taskmaster. 15 years ago, i would spend huge amounts of time diving and swimming at Queen Square. I could easily and with some amount of talent, perform a 1 1/2 flip dive, spearing into the water with little splash and rising out of the pool to the accolades of my friends. However, I weigh about 80 pounds more than I did then, and my center of gravity is SO not in the same place. I'm still quite athletic, but I just don't have the performance skill anymore. I did manage to get around for a few of them on wednesday, but they weren't pretty. That's for sure. So much of my skin slapped the water on wednesday that I got bruises on my back and my thighs. Added to which the senseless abuse of my body, while drunk, I hurt everywhere this morning. After work today, swimming seemed to be the idea again. It was not a good idea. We went and dove and swam for a while and then I did one last dive before we left. It sucked. Arms too far apart, shoulder got jarred and I'm pretty sure I've pulled or torn a muscle or something. It hurts to raise my arm above my shoulder and it's super sensitive to touch. C'est la vie!

I'm going home tomorrow so it's all good. Hockey tomorrow night and then, weekend. Ahhhhh...

I'll see you soon family.... very soon.

"...what do you do when you live in a shoe? Move to a boot and get laced..."

The dream ends but life must continue....

2006-06-21T00:23:00.000-03:00

What a sad night it was last night.....

The Stanley Cup Finals come to a close and the Edmonton Oilers, do not come away with the Cup. I almost cried when it happened. After all the struggle, the unbelievable victories over clearly superior opponents, the injuries, the flu and the lack of respect and belief by non-Oiler fans, it's just a shame to come so far only to fail.

It has been 16 years since I could cheer my Oilers while they hoisted the cup, but I salute you all as the heroes that I've always known you are. To all the Oilers players, coaches, staff and fans, I say, "We are proud to love the Oilers".

So, after the loss, and my natural funk today, we go to the mall near our lunch spot today and we're just walking along, when we spot NHL mugs, in those little plastic bubbles in the vending machines. Adam says "you should get one, i'll laugh so hard if you get Carolina".... so i figure it's worth $1 to try to improve my mood....

... and what do I get?.....

Nothing could be sweeter than getting an Oilers player hoisting the cup. It was almost a little eerie, as there were no other player toys in the machine. A little karma for me after a very bad night.

Not much else going on up here. We went swimming again today at Eel River Bar. It was much colder and there were some serious thunderstorms throughout the day, but the water was really nice once you got used to it.

I can't wait to get home to my family. I miss them terribly. I love you baby. I love you, little man.

Friday is only a little ways away.

"...According to the karma of past actions, one's destiny unfolds, even though everyone wants to be so lucky...."

A messed up week with some strange events...

2006-06-16T02:23:00.000-03:00

What a week!

It's been a rather eventful week, although to be honest, non of the events were particularly spectacular. There just seemed to be alot of things that happened this week that haven't really happened before, or are perhaps, noteworthy.

It all started on Tuesday morning. The previous week, while staying at the Pres-du-Lac Inn in Grand Falls, NB, a couple of us went down to the restaurant and had continental breakfast. It was free and delicious. This week, not only was there no continental breakfast, but they adamantly refused to admit that it had ever occured. This lead to us going into town to seek sustenance....

An old joke on the roof crew is that when someone gets dropped off at McDonalds in Fredericton, we generally wait until they're in there and then drive around the other side and park and wait for them to come looking for us. Low brow humor to be sure, but funny. So, in a tried and true way, we did this to Adam in Grand Falls. It didn't go over the same way, he decided to just sit in there and eat his breakfast while the rest of us sat in the truck and were hungry. So instead of going to get him, we left him there and went to the banks and Tim's for our breakfast. Only problem was, when we came back for Adam, he was long gone. We found him, like 5km away, almost back to the hotel and pissed. It wasn't a very good morning and into the afternoon, but as with all things roof crew, it was quickly forgotten later that day and we went on our merry way.

After all the rain we got the past weekend, the falls at Grand Falls were really roaring, here's a pic to give you an idea.

So, on we go to Thursday. Our day started off with a trip to Madawaska Correctional Facility. I'm not keen on inspecting jails because they aren't the most inviting or accessible places for our kind. We can't just walk up and throw up our ladders, but we had an appointment to be there and they were pretty helpful, although somewhat skeptical of us i think, as the guy up there barely left my side the whole time. That song from Capital One comes to mind..."hand in my pocket...."

Then, in the afternoon, we decided to go for a bike ride. I figured, a good sweat, some sun... sounds good. I suggested that we go across the bridge to Maine on our bikes and check out a little bit of the sights of the old US of A. It was a good time and the border guards were pretty gentle with us.

The biggest problem came when we went to supper. The only redeeming feature of Edmundston is Spilly's. A greek restaurant that has great food and the craziest, most verbally abusive owner ever. He's great. Only problem..... a retirement party was there with 35 people and the wait was 2 hours for food. We decided to stay and wait, but after a beer and 45 minutes and still no menus, we decided to bail. Next year, we'll go again and I'll talk to Spilly about how his restaurant was too busy to feed the roof crew. They'll hear him in Montreal... haha. So off we go to the BelAir Restaurant, a pretty good family restaurant. Unfortunately, once you get a taste of (or smell of) Spilly's, all other food pales in comparison. The pictures in the menu actually turned us off eating there and we left there too. Too frustrated to think clearly, we ended up at the last resort of a desperate man.... McDonalds....it was surprisingly good, although I'm sure that the people who work there are friggin' numb from the shoulders up. I don't know what part of "can i get some sweet n' sour sauce?" they didn't understand, but i asked 3 times and then had to go ask a completely different employee so i could finish my meal. Sigh.

I think that's about it... Oh!... we went and saw Cars on Tuesday night in Grand Falls. That movie was great! Fantastic! Incredible! ...and we caught it on cheap night and it only cost $5.50. Bonus.

I miss my family, but i'm going home in the morning so all is good.

The adventures of RC'06 continue....
We'll see you soon.

"...why won't you die?... you first...."