Saturday, December 31, 2005

Theo and Friends

Our friends came from Toronto for a visit the other day. Lots of kids with high-pitched squeals to be heard at every turn. They loved it. After our friend Kay had asked me to untie a bottle of ginger ale she proceeded to have a conversation with Theo and Bella.
Kay: So what did Santa bring?
Theo: I don't know.
Bella: What do you mean you don't know?
Theo: I don't remember.
Kay: You know who Santa is, right?
Theo: Of course I do. He's the fat guy who lives at the North Pole.
*Laughing*
Kay: No, Theo, you are Santa.
Theo: What are you saying? Are you saying that I'm fat?
And I pretty much chuckled through the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Boxing Day in Toronto

I cannot believe the news of innocent people shopping the boxing day sales in Toronto's downtown Yonge St. area being caught in the crossfire of bullets which shot six people one of whom died. The death was a fifteen year old girl out shopping with her parents. I feel such rage at the cowards who have done this that I feel quite capably murderous. I think of the girls parents who witnessed their daughter being murdered and feel so much sadness and compassion for them. I have two girls and I do not know what I would do if I lost one of them, especially in such a senseless way. To have to witness her death would be utter despair. A wound that will never heal. I have no trouble in meting out the death penalty for such a terrible crime. I fully do not know what to say about this hideous action. I am shocked, angry and saddened. Words cannot describe this fully.

Monday, December 26, 2005

60 Minutes

I used to look forward to watching the program every Sunday. I watched it tonight and was thinking about the last time they actually ran a story that investigated something with teeth. Tonight they ran pieces on the New Beirut, the Moken people who survived the sunami and Tina Turner. The Beirut piece added fuel to the American fire that the Middle East is unstable in all the Arab world. The Moken people had potential, but they took the low road and missed pursuing the real story. Tina Turner? Respect her, but she is on 60 minutes bi-annually. Every time I tune into the program I seem to catch some story about a pro football athlete or the hardships one man overcame to mate insects. Human interest stories of a light caliber seem to be the only fodder the program can run now. Missing are those stories bringing to light companies polluting waterways with DDT or how Coca-Cola killed 6 workers in Central America to prevent the workers from unionizing. Gone are the stories of how politicians covered up illegal arms shipments or waged wars on false pretenses. 60 Minutes has become much like the reporters who do the stories; geriatric, ineffective and beaten down by the system that feeds them. You sold out 60 Minutes. End it now so you leave some semblance of self-respect.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Christmas With TTFM

My Dad has driven down to be with us for Christmas. His moniker is TTFM which stands for Tommy Too Much. You can try to guess what the F stands for all on your own. Tonight while we were dining with Pops and the in-laws our neighbour Dave popped in dressed as Santa. Dave does this every year to all the houses with kids in the area. He gets home from Mass, dresses up and drops in on the neighbours to give the kids "magic cookies" that help the kids sleep (just ginger cookies that look like reindeer) and listens to what they want for xmas and tells them he's just checking that against his list. As Dave the Santa was leaving TTFM stops him and tells him a joke about Santa coming down the chimney and leaving gifts when he is surprised by a woman wearing a slinky outfit. The gist of the joke is that Santa can't get back up the chimney with his pole firmly fixed on the northerly direction and so stays awhile. And he tells this joke in the most animated way to a man dressed as Santa who just got out of Mass. Brilliant!

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Siblings

I was thinking back to a particular Christmas when I was fourteen with a little sadness. You see, my sister had written on her present to our grandparents "To: Gramma and Granpa" and I couldn't help myself (been de anail speeling champeen what I am) in correcting her. I remember how I stood there full of joy, feeling proud of myself for catching her miscue. I of course realized later in life that she had done it on purpose, being the nine year old prodigy rebel that she was, but she did not have the heart to tell her older and less gifted brother at the time. I could not at that moment see she was just trying to be cute. Oh woe is me. If only she had told me of the error I might have avoided similar incidents that now haunt me such as:
My Uncle to his son----> "To: My loving Sun"
My Ex to her Mother---> "To: My dearest Muhma"
My Wife to her Brother---> "To: My darlin Brudda"
and so on and so forth. Oh the shame I harbour to this day makes this holiday a cold cold time for a pour misanthrope such as I.

P.S. I love you too you freakazoid.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Thanks For Your Response

I want to take a moment to thank a few of the people who have responded to me over the last few months. A big shout out to Medsonline, ErEcTus and Peepeegrowth. What they lack in content they make up for in volume.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Christmas Is Coming

This is from my little Rain girl. I can now love xmas again like I did as a child. Oh joy.

These People Must Die

I was driving home from dropping my youngest at nursery school listening to the radio when I heard this advert for this Impaired Driving help. They are like XCopper and the like; helping to get you off charges or out of tickets or at least reduce fines and/or sentences. Look, if you get nailed for impaired you deserve whats coming to you. I can't believe these freaks are allowed to run this type of company. There was a case last fall in these parts where a young woman was hit by a drunk driver on the highway outside of town. The guy was so drunk he didn't realize he had hit her. The mother called the police that evening about her missing daughter, but they had no luck in finding her and had to wait to file for a missing person for the required time. The mother knew the route her daughter would have taken so she drove slowly along the shoulder of the road. About 5km down the road she saw a shoe laying on the shoulder. She stopped to investigate and saw it was the same type her daughter wore. She then looked in the field nearby and found her daughter. She had bled to death. If the drunk would have realized what he had done he might have been able to save her. Now tell me you can condone such a program. Every time a drunk gets behind the wheel it should be classified as attempted manslaughter or at the very least attempted assault with a weapon to cause bodily harm.

Monday, December 19, 2005

I Still Got It

I recently took my wife out for dinner at a restaurant in Simcoe. It was contained in an older home and was resplendent with its original woodwork and flooring. The restaurant was divided into two sections with the dining room contained in the older part of the house and a pub which was contained in an addition. Having left my credit card at home and with insufficient cash I was forced to pay by interact which meant I had to follow the waiter into the pub side. As we walked into the pub I did the quick glance around the room and a table on my right caught my eye. It contained four women, one of which was tugging on her friends sleeve and nodding towards me. It has been some time since I last noticed I was being eyed by a women let alone four of them. I began the procedure to make the debit transaction when my wife walked over to join me. I believe she has this uncanny sense in being able to sniff out competitors. We got outside and I related to my wife what had transpired. We laughed about it and she told me she didn't blame them and that she wholeheartedly agreed with them, but she was the one who had me. We giggled a little more and then I opened the car door for her and waited for her to be seated before I closed it. As I walked around to my side of the car I checked to make sure that my fly wasn't down or if I had something sticking out of my nose. The coast was clear. I then wondered if these women were just really desperate and got excited over the appearance of any man who didn't look like a biker, a farmer or a drug dealer, these being the main selections on the menu as it were. And then I thought what the hell did I care either way. I was in love with a very beautiful woman who was very in love with me. She still makes me sigh and smile at how lucky I am to be with such beauty every day. I know I know. You didn't figure me for a gusher did you.
On A Positive Note

We all have the ability to touch anothers life for the better, yet so often we find excuses not to. Perhaps we should all follow the Boyscout/Girl Guide philosophy of deliberatley doing at least one good deed a day. Life can be frustrating and we all too often choose to allow ourselves to get caught up in the negativity of others as a way of lashing out at those frustrations. Yet, this is a choice one makes. It is entirely up to each individual as to how they will react to a situation. The next time you are about to lash out at someone or react negatively to anothers attempts to sideline the good in you, stop for that split second and ask yourself if any good will come of it. Stop and think about where a negative reaction will most likely take you and weigh that against reacting in a positive way to the situation. Then again, why would you listen to me. I am no Guru. I am sure you have already figured this out long before my simplistic sermon. Amen to that brothers and sisiters.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

A Comment Borne From The Sidebar

I was re-reading the note written under "About Me" on my sidebar. The part that reads "...the ramblings of a middle-aged man who has no real sense of the world around him." got me thinking. I wrote that in a playful manner with no real thought given to any depth or seriousness. But, today those words have leapt out at me for I believe them to be true. I really do not get the world around me for the most part. I am a terrible player with regards to the games people play. I cannot for the life of me understand how people can be nice to a person outwardly while inwardly they harbour ill will. I remain amazed at how a persons jealousy can spurn on acts of maliciousness. I am awed by the ability some people have of feeling righteous in doing ill to others. The ability to fool themselves. The belief that they are not responsible or accountable for their spiteful actions. In fact it often seems to me we celebrate people who do these things. Here is a thought for you: If you need to create a world around you that is akin to "Dangerous liaisons" perhaps you need to examine yourself more closely and solve whats eating away at you. The misdeeds we commit throughout our lives only serve to eat away at our dignity, conscience and happiness. Bad deed begets bad deed begets bad deed. I do not pretend to be completely above these things, but I have met too many people who seemed to get trapped in these paths of folly. And so you have it. The middle-aged man has rambled and most likely proved he is correct in relating to you that he truly has no real understanding of the world around him.

Friday, December 16, 2005

ASPOJD09QWE7T809WREUGIOJH

I just finished a piece I had as a draft and went to spellcheck it. Everything that was typed after the saved draft disappeared. FUCK!!!!!!!!
Haunted By My Absent-mindedness

I woke up the other morning from a dream (a very vivid dream) of a girlfriend from my past. Its coming on twenty years since we spent roughly nine months on our emotional rollercoaster. This was no kiddie ride; it was the corkscrew, the bluestreak, the Topgun of emotional rollercoasters. In the dream she was calling out to me for help. It seemed she was very alone and was regretting letting me go. My male ego seems to kick it up a notch in my dreams. When I awoke I went over the dream and then remembered the last time I had seen her. I was at York University taking my first course and was writing an essay for which I had only 30 minutes to pen. A couple of my classmates and myself went to the cafeteria downstairs to work. After about ten minutes I looked up to see her walk past our table and take a seat with a friend. At first I just thought it was an uncanny resemblance until after a few moments when she looked up from her table and nodded in my direction to her friend who in turn looked back towards me. I then knew it was her, but I didn't (couldn't) go say hello due to this paper I was writing. My friends left the table before me and I continued writing until the latest possible moment. I then ran up to the class to submit my paper which, coincidentally recieved the highest grade in the class (that ego again). I wholeheartedly meant to return to the cafeteria after class to say hello to her and enquire as to how she was, what she was doing etc... After handing in my essay I had to read a previous work out loud to the class as this prof. always had the top two essays orated. I get so flustered and nervous when it comes to public speaking that I was still edgy after class. My mind was still on public speaking when I got home and realized I had missed my opportunity to return to the cafeteria. What a fool I can be. I don't believe either of us has ever had closure on the relationship and I regret that lost opportunity. JZ, if you are out there, I just wanted to thank you. You showed me so many things about myself and even though the lows were difficult and very painful, the highs were sublime and some of my best memories. I am not bitter about the way you handled yourself at the end of our relationship and truly hope you found the happiness you deserve. As blind as some may think me to be, a part of me will always love you and hope the best for you.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Another Sault Ste. Marie Skill Put to the Test

Living in this county of 68,000 people makes snow removal a bigger problem than in major centres where they have more resources. We got a significant amount of snow today which made driving a little more difficult, but as a fellow Saultite intimated to me earlier in the day "This is no big deal for us northerners. These southerners are pussies." I most likely would not have used that terminology, but I can't say that I disagreed with her.
Crows

I just think they are the funkiest birds. They are given a bad rap in media, always portrayed in ominous ways, but really they are quite clever and known for their trickster qualities. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Bonsai Kittens

Hmmmm. I received another one of "those" emails. You know the ones. "Forward this email to everyone on your mailing list and you will receive big money from Bill Gates as Microsoft tracks this..." or (more pertinent to this commentary) "Pass this petition on to everyone you know. A Japanese man in New York is giving kittens muscle relaxants and then placing them into bottles where they are fed through a straw for the rest of their lives unable to clean themselves". As appalling as this may seem at first glance, any serious thought on the matter should definitely set off a few alarms to this being a hoax. Please, for your own well being, ignore chain mail letters. They will always make you look the part of the village idiot.

Colbert vs. Colbert

Watching the Colbert report last night I was impressed to see that Colbert faced off against himself on the issue of performance enhancing drugs in sports during his segment entitled "Formidable Opponent". Both Colberts' made stirring arguments to support their cause, but I believe it was Colbert defending the use who made out the best.
Colbert: I want to see my athletes clean and out there giving 110%
Colbert: Where do you think that extra 10% comes from

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Baby Got Back

Well, I have returned. Not that anyone has missed me or anyone knows I have this blog. I am but a speck of blog in a blog blog world. I have been very fortunate this year. The biggest news being that we finally moved out of Toronto and bought a home in Port Dover. I love it here and am so relaxed. The girls are taking to it quite well too. Sunday, amidst all the snow, we took the girls out to toboggan at the end of our street. Along the way we ran into our neighbours two girls (Autumn and Kiki) and brought them along. It is so much fun watching kids play (and being a big kid as I tobogganed as did Theo). After, we all went back to our home and I made the girls hot chocolate and lit a fire. They played dress-up and blocks and computer games. Rain is seven and Cassidy is four now. I know it has been awhile huh. At one point Cassidy turned to Kiki while on the hill and instructed her on how to properly climb back up the hill without ruining the sled run. As Kiki complied I heard Cassidy say to Kiki "This way Kiki. This way. Ohh thats fandasdic, Kiki. Thats my girl". Rain is constantly asking Theo or I to play with her. "Lets pretend we're Pumas dad. I'll be the girl Puma and you can be the daddy Puma." Sounds good to me.