as i travelled home i thought about how i could've used a twitter account over these last couple of weeks since i had all these zingers to fire out at the world. the thoughts themselves weren't all that spectacular but i thought they were of some importance perhaps only to me. it doesn't matter however since i don't own a cell phone to tweet off my little thoughts whenever they meander through my mind. i do have some impertinent things to say that may ruffle some feathers though so now that i'm a few days removed from the impact it may have on that world then i might just say them here.
as i flew over different countries and states of a different country i kind of wished things were like i'd see them on Bugs Bunny where the map would show the different states in different colours and big block letters showing me that i was about to fly over Illinois or any other state i was about to enter. also why doesn't my luggage have all those stickers on it like that time that Bugs threw the baseball clear around the globe?
yes i purposefully wore my Vancouver Canucks shirt in Chicago. yes i know you guys hate those guys. yes i'm just a bit contrary sometimes.
dad wants a golf cart for touring around the park but he can't seem to find anything under $1600 and that's just too much. interesting idea though.
no madame, that isn't a really big rock, that really is an actual manatee. see, she just moved to go eat that cabbage.
my mom has this really cool recumbent 3 wheeler that she takes around the park where they live. i was amazed when my 75 yr old pop went for a 2 mile bike ride with me at a pretty decent clip. really, dude's 75 and really quite active.
my mom watches "Dog the Bounty Hunter". wasn't expecting that.
can't believe i have to pay $20 to have FedEx send my baseball tickets. there's no way i'd get tickets if i went down there to buy them at the box office though. oh well.
there's a guy dressed up as the Statue of Liberty strumming on his guitar while trying to get people to turn into one of the We Buy Gold stores that you see every 2 miles on the way to Tampa. seriously, every couple miles someone wants to buy your gold off you and i wonder what sort of money they pay to a guy to stand in the 90 degree sun and try to get people to sell their gold.
i endured about 20 ambulance chaser billboards on the 1 hour drive into Tampa. sure is a different culture that focuses so much on hurting the other guy to get your "due".
there's an osprey that nests on top of one of the light standards in the ballpark in Dunedin. osprey's mate for life so i wonder how long they'll hang out at the ballpark.
aw man, a guy just mentioned that he'd rather be wearing his Expos jersey at the Jays game. if only i had thought of that i'd love to be doing the same thing.
Brandon Morrow thows 5 IP with only 1 hit and zero runs but all i hear about on ESPN is that Cliff Lee (the losing pitcher) threw 6 IP of 6 hits and 1 run. that's just not right.
Adam Lind is going to have a very big year. i saw him foul off about 12 pitches from Randall Delgado before Delgado finally made a mistake which was crushed so hard that there should've been a stewardess on something that travels that far.
Brennan Boesch will also have a big year for the Tigers. he's got a ton of protection in the lineup and he can be relatively incognito hiding in a lineup of stars.
Omar Vizquel will be LOVED in Toronto. he's a wizard with the glove, he's got 11 Gold Gloves for his defense over the course of his career and he's just what the Jays need on their bench. he'll have a great affect on other Latino infielders like Yunel Escobar and Edwin Encarnacion. plus he's all class.
"each day is as happy as you make it". thank you dad.
Wendy emailed me to tell me that the weather has been beautiful while i've been away. i'll still take 90 degrees here though.
you think your 20 yr old full time student, full time employed daughter should also cut the grass at your house? i don't know, maybe just buy some sheep, i think she's pretty busy already.
do i dare speak up as probably the only Democrat in a room full of vocal Republicans? out of respect for my parents i'll choose not to be the contrary one. maybe after dinner i'll be able to say something then i won't have to worry about getting thrown out of the house on an empty stomach.
you can't believe Obama killed the pipeline deal? i'm SO glad he killed it, the environmental devastation on hundreds of thousands of acres in Western Canada was VERY evident in that deal.
please tell me your reasons for basing your political opinions are more than the price of gas. we in Canada are paying about 40% more for gas but we also don't have over 10% of our population one infection away from foreclosure and homelessness.
my dad just confirmed my suspicion that he's a 9 on the Enneagram, mom is too. is it any wonder how i came to be a 9 also?
yes i realize that i'm wearing a Quebec Nordiques shirt in Denver. nobody seemed to care except for another Canadian flying out of there with me.
saw the mountains from the plane but there was next to nothing to see during the one hour on the ground in Denver as i waited for my connection.
it's rather odd that i had to fly 2 time zones west and then 1 time zone east. i feel like i'm covering the same territory twice. still no different colours or block letters on the ground beneath me.
misty and 3 degrees when i land in Winnipeg. i've already been awake since 230am Winnipeg time so i'm pretty bagged by mid afternoon. think i'll give Wendy a kiss, take a shower, eat some supper and go to bed. work starts up full bore in the morning.
forgot to reset my alarm so it woke me at 330am just like yesterday. it was a good thing i noticed Wendy's clock or i would've gotten up to start the day. i've done that before in the past.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
stream of consciousness
i'm on vacation, alone. well i'm visiting my parents which so far has been really good. there was a hangup when i didnt have my parents address when i came through customs but that got resolved ok and i caught my plane on time. i had a 2 hr stopover in O'Hare International in Chicago and that was a bit of an eye opener. the airport is huge and there were people everywhere. my gate of departure changed twice but i still made out just fine. i sat in a huge window and read "The Catcher in the Rye" while i waited for my connection. the book itself is fascinating but i had to make sure that i was paying attention enough to catch my flight. i set my alarm and there were no problems. my elderly parents picked me up at midnight and i got them all tucked in by shortly after 130am. i say that because i couldn't sleep for a bit, i was still reading.
my 75 yr old mother knows who Dog the Bounty Hunter is. how cool is that?
we got some tickets for a Blue Jay game this week although the price is unbelievably stupid. i'm hoping i can get tix for another game when i'm there for the first game and i sure hope i can get a good price on them. my first tix showed up by FedEx today.
my parents have been together over 50 yrs and my dad's parents were together 62 yrs before Grandpa passed. i come from a legacy of happiness together. i said to my dad today that i've always loved how they seem happy and content together and his best advice to me was "each day is as happy as you make it".
we went to church yesterday and the sermon was 3 sermons long. seriously it could've easily been broken into 3 sermons and he'd have nearly a month's work done. what do i know though eh? i'm just the new guy. i did meet a 94 yr old sprightly gentleman. he had so much energy that i just hope that i have that much energy when i'm 65, let alone 94.
the evening service was rather plain sounding but there were a lot of amen's in the crowd. there is a simplicity to faith that i like when i see it. the text on the evening was the parable of Lazurus and the Rich Man. i would've preferred that the focus would be on how treat the poor and how that affects us going forward but it went toward a salvation perspective. i suppose that's fine if you weren't preaching to the converted but that didn't seem to be the case and i'd like to see the church doing more reaching out to the Lazuruses sitting at the city gate.
my 75 yr old mother knows who Dog the Bounty Hunter is. how cool is that?
we got some tickets for a Blue Jay game this week although the price is unbelievably stupid. i'm hoping i can get tix for another game when i'm there for the first game and i sure hope i can get a good price on them. my first tix showed up by FedEx today.
my parents have been together over 50 yrs and my dad's parents were together 62 yrs before Grandpa passed. i come from a legacy of happiness together. i said to my dad today that i've always loved how they seem happy and content together and his best advice to me was "each day is as happy as you make it".
we went to church yesterday and the sermon was 3 sermons long. seriously it could've easily been broken into 3 sermons and he'd have nearly a month's work done. what do i know though eh? i'm just the new guy. i did meet a 94 yr old sprightly gentleman. he had so much energy that i just hope that i have that much energy when i'm 65, let alone 94.
the evening service was rather plain sounding but there were a lot of amen's in the crowd. there is a simplicity to faith that i like when i see it. the text on the evening was the parable of Lazurus and the Rich Man. i would've preferred that the focus would be on how treat the poor and how that affects us going forward but it went toward a salvation perspective. i suppose that's fine if you weren't preaching to the converted but that didn't seem to be the case and i'd like to see the church doing more reaching out to the Lazuruses sitting at the city gate.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
the whirlwind of life
one of my friends noted in the last week that i hadn't posted anything here in March yet ... and here it is the middle of March with this as my first entry of the month. the reason for that is that there is so much to say and yet so little to say. the whirlwind of life keeps you moving as you try to keep the spinning plates from shattering or the juggling balls from bouncing away.
i went to the Jets game last night. that was amazing. i love NHL hockey and the atmosphere at the MTS Centre is ELECTRIC. the Jets schooled the superior Stars last night and showed the league once again that they're a tough matchup no matter who they're playing so long as they have a little home cooking. they're a different team on the road apparently though. i was helping a friend with his fantasy hockey team over the past month and as payment he took me to the game. the only thing i had to do in the deal was to buy him a barley beverage and that was an easy deal to make. i got home late last night but thankfully i could pretty much go straight to bed.
we're house-hunting. this probably isn't well known at all by anyone who may read this but its true, we're seriously considering downsizing to a smaller place. there are a bunch of adjustments to our living space that Wendy will need as we try to address her ongoing medical sensitivities and it just seems to be a smart move to limit the adjustments required by having a smaller place. we'd have to find a place that is absolutely perfect though, it'll make no sense to move if the environment is such that Wendy can't live there. we'll have to be necessarily picky and unfortunately that adds another stressor to the pile of stressors put on us. Wendy isn't sleeping well so it's obvious that she is very stressed. one of the major factors is that there's a very good chance that Wendy couldn't just move into a new place just like that so that'll mean that we'd have to carry two houses for a bit. that's a scary thought for both of us.
20 degree temperatures are on the horizon. they're forecasting it for tomorrow ... just in time for me to leave. i'm actually going on holidays for a little over a week. it'll just be me since Wendy still can't travel much and we couldn't afford to travel anyway (i got some help with the costs on this vacation). i'm going to the Orlando area to visit my parents and i'll have a two hour stopover in Chicago. we'll hang out, maybe i'll play the guitar a little, go play shuffleboard with my mom and take my dad to a couple spring training Jays games. i'm rather excited about the whole thing. ok, i'm really excited. i actually told Wendy that she's not allowed to buy a house while i'm away. you would think that's something that doesn't need to be said but you never know how things shake down over the course of a week. when i said that to Wendy last week ... it was a joke. now i wonder and tell myself that anything can happen. my wife is a world changer and i've learned it's best for me not to put limits on her possibilities. seriously, i've seen her do some incredible things. i trust you Wendy, just keep me in the loop.
Wendy has been taking a biology class this semester. she pours hours and hours into prep for this course and then gets all worried about whether she's ready for her midterms or whatever the case may be. she'll then walk through the door with a 95% and a "is that all you got?". classy. Wendy has always said that she's a really good loser but a very bad winner. that's one of the reasons that i love her. spunk is sexy.
my best man sent me an email today to say that his elder brother passed away recently. heart attack at 49 years old. Dale and Jodi have lived in Ohio for over a couple decades and actually it'd probably be close to that amount of time since i've seen them. they're wonderful friends who i miss and who i respect for how they choose to live out their faith journey. blessings on you my dear friend Dale.
well, that puts me up to date on the news of the whirlwind. pray about the stressy things or at least think beautiful thoughts and fire them my way.
blessings on your journey friends.
i went to the Jets game last night. that was amazing. i love NHL hockey and the atmosphere at the MTS Centre is ELECTRIC. the Jets schooled the superior Stars last night and showed the league once again that they're a tough matchup no matter who they're playing so long as they have a little home cooking. they're a different team on the road apparently though. i was helping a friend with his fantasy hockey team over the past month and as payment he took me to the game. the only thing i had to do in the deal was to buy him a barley beverage and that was an easy deal to make. i got home late last night but thankfully i could pretty much go straight to bed.
we're house-hunting. this probably isn't well known at all by anyone who may read this but its true, we're seriously considering downsizing to a smaller place. there are a bunch of adjustments to our living space that Wendy will need as we try to address her ongoing medical sensitivities and it just seems to be a smart move to limit the adjustments required by having a smaller place. we'd have to find a place that is absolutely perfect though, it'll make no sense to move if the environment is such that Wendy can't live there. we'll have to be necessarily picky and unfortunately that adds another stressor to the pile of stressors put on us. Wendy isn't sleeping well so it's obvious that she is very stressed. one of the major factors is that there's a very good chance that Wendy couldn't just move into a new place just like that so that'll mean that we'd have to carry two houses for a bit. that's a scary thought for both of us.
20 degree temperatures are on the horizon. they're forecasting it for tomorrow ... just in time for me to leave. i'm actually going on holidays for a little over a week. it'll just be me since Wendy still can't travel much and we couldn't afford to travel anyway (i got some help with the costs on this vacation). i'm going to the Orlando area to visit my parents and i'll have a two hour stopover in Chicago. we'll hang out, maybe i'll play the guitar a little, go play shuffleboard with my mom and take my dad to a couple spring training Jays games. i'm rather excited about the whole thing. ok, i'm really excited. i actually told Wendy that she's not allowed to buy a house while i'm away. you would think that's something that doesn't need to be said but you never know how things shake down over the course of a week. when i said that to Wendy last week ... it was a joke. now i wonder and tell myself that anything can happen. my wife is a world changer and i've learned it's best for me not to put limits on her possibilities. seriously, i've seen her do some incredible things. i trust you Wendy, just keep me in the loop.
Wendy has been taking a biology class this semester. she pours hours and hours into prep for this course and then gets all worried about whether she's ready for her midterms or whatever the case may be. she'll then walk through the door with a 95% and a "is that all you got?". classy. Wendy has always said that she's a really good loser but a very bad winner. that's one of the reasons that i love her. spunk is sexy.
my best man sent me an email today to say that his elder brother passed away recently. heart attack at 49 years old. Dale and Jodi have lived in Ohio for over a couple decades and actually it'd probably be close to that amount of time since i've seen them. they're wonderful friends who i miss and who i respect for how they choose to live out their faith journey. blessings on you my dear friend Dale.
well, that puts me up to date on the news of the whirlwind. pray about the stressy things or at least think beautiful thoughts and fire them my way.
blessings on your journey friends.
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