This was Christmas, 2009 for us....

From Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The Christmas Trip

My daughter came home from Montreal on Saturday, after her last exam. We scheduled a train trip, although costing much more than the bus, it would be more assured of making it home in case of inclement weather. We had decided this was well worth it for us all.

On Saturday morning after a bit of a trial by transportation, she arrived safely at the train station only to have a delay due to engine trouble. Forty-five minutes later they were off, and it looked like smooth sailing.

There was some more mechanical trouble along the way and we would be off by about an hour and a half.

We planned that she would get off in Toronto at Union Station and get a GO train to Burlington where we could easily get her and avoid, if there was any, a Saturday before Christmas rush.

The wall plugs were not working on the train so her computer battery ran down and that communication died. The Wi-Fi was out as well. Her phone battery was on its way out and there was no way to rejuvenate that either. We used text to communicate at this point so we knew what was going on.

My wife had been ill and had ear infections and decided to take a nap before we had to go. We had a few hours left before we would have to leave.

I went to use the computer, having just reinstalled it into our partially restored home office when the phone rang. My daughter was calling. The train stopped in Oshawa, Ontario and could go no more as there was a fatality on the tracks! Basically, that was the end of the line for at minimum, two hours! It may continue after that but there was no assurance.

I woke my wife up, who had been sleeping for ten minutes, and told her we were going to Oshawa, even though I had no idea where it was or how far. My other daughter did a MapQuest while I went to get gas. We took the GPS and left.

It’s about 75 miles and the traffic was about what one could expect driving around Toronto on a Christmas Saturday, just awful! However, we never stopped for a minute! We were there in an hour and a half, about 15 minutes after the train left for Union Station!

A brief stop at Burger King and we were off to home, It was another hour and a half without incident, but our planned Chanukah dinner (belated) was put off yet another day.

It was an unforgettable journey to surely make for a more well rounded Christmas.

Holiday Gift 2013

My aunt called yesterday to get my mother-in-laws telephone number so she could thank her for the lovely holiday gift she received. It was a great box of special candy, chocolate and mint as well as some other candy items. I gave her the phone number but realized right afterwards that I had it wrong and actually had given my aunt her own number for at least the last 4 digits. My mother-in-laws number is XXX- XXX-0847 while my aunt’s number is XXX-XXX-0164. I gave my aunt the 0164 suffix with my mother in laws beginning numbers.

OK, this was screwed up enough, add to that I am old and getting older and my aunt is 95! It was a mess! I called immediately and corrected it, and thought for a moment, and called my mother-in -law (who is 85) and asked her if she had sent chocolate mint candy to my aunt. She had not, so I called my aunt back for a third time to tell her the chocolate mint candy came from me, as I thought it sounded familiar!

There was only one card that she saw with the two boxes (delivered on the same day) and assumed the card covered both boxes. Not so!

Since I didn’t pay for the extra card, my printed message must be printed on the address label and she never saw it. I explained that my mother-in-law had sent Turkish paste and we had sent Chocolate Mint Bark candy (which she liked best because she told me about it thinking it came from my mother in law).

This is way too complicated a story, and my daughter complained that I spent 45 minutes shouting into the phone, given no one hears that well anymore.

The Wedding Ring Saga...

(This is a ring, but not the original as it is 500 miles south of here.)

 

Among my mother’s possessions, my son found a mysterious ring.  It is 18k white gold, thin, faintly beaded at the edges.  I did not recall my father wearing it, although that remained a possibility. I believe it was his wedding ring, probably purchased for the wedding but not worn again, as he didn’t ever wear a ring. It looked more like a ladies ring but my mother had told me once it was my fathers.

My son liked it as a remembrance of his grandparents and wore it on his right hand ring finger.  It was most notorious for being the ring that he gave his infant son to distract him while I he changed his diaper.  My grandson promptly put it in his mouth and began to choke on it, which led to an ambulance being called.  He was fine (it being, after all, a ring -- with a big hole in the middle).  It went through his digestive tract and was recovered from his diaper some days later.  It sat in dish soap for a few days and was returned to its rightful place on his finger.  It’s been there for over 15 years.

A couple of weeks ago my son was washing dishes and didn’t realize the ring had slipped off his finger.  He discovered it when he turned on the disposal and heard the crunching sound.  He was distraught to find the ring fairly mangled.  He set it on his dresser and proceeded to mourn.  It was missed it both physically and spiritually but he never told me about it.  The indentation on his finger did not wane and was a constant reminder. He also had a bit of phantom ring syndrome.

Then, the other night, among his birthday gifts from his family, he found the ring, entirely restored. His wonderful wife had taken it from his dresser and brought it to a jeweler.  They did a fantastic  job – they could not replicate the beading, which is now missing from some edges, but that is not noticeable.  It is about the most wonderful thing – up there with his Top 100 all-time song favorites and his ultramod-13 inch B&W molded plastic bubble TV as all-time great gifts. 

So the ring is once again in its rightful place – having survived twice after wallowing in mashed up food.  The mystery of its origin remains, but it sure is great to have it back where it clearly belongs.

 

The Christmas Card

After a long day, we had come to the realization that we had to soon order our family photo Christmas card if we were going ahead with our normal order, usually 100 cards. Many of them are sent by email, so we do many more than the 100.

The photo had been selected during the year, from a visit to the Chautauqua Institution. The four of us along with my mother-in-law were included. We had a discussion about how to include my mother-in-law in the card and how we could explain her easily in the signature line. I played around with Photoshop and removed her, and it looks fine so we solved that problem. I hope she didn’t want to be there.

I received an email from Costco reminding me that it was time to reorder Christmas photo gifts etc., so I saved the email until the correct moment arrived. Although we were in a hurry, we decided to get it over as quickly as possible.

I opened the link from the email and started to use the site. It didn’t recognise me and I ended up stating over as a new customer, assuming they lost my account. I uploaded the one photo, but as a full size photo it seemed to take forever. Once there, we looked through the various options and had to try out at least six or seven combinations to see what worked. Than we had to select a type face, a color and something to say to get it all correct. It took forever but finally it was right.

We ordered and the prices were just not what we expected, a bit too cheap, but they could have lowered the price this year so while I mentioned it, there was no other recognition of a problem. Finally, as we were finishing the order, they ask us which state we live in! We don’t live in any state, we live in Canada, and so this damn thing won’t work!  Almost an hour spent doing this!

I went to My Favourites and chose Costco and got Canadian Costco, not the one that sent the email, and they had my original account, all my old photos and were ready to go as soon as I re-uploaded my new photo. The cards were of course, different. We had spent so much time already that this part took very little time and it 15 minutes later and we were done. The cards will be ready sometime today, and the 100 cards are still around $35.00, a bit more than the US cards, but still very cheap. The postage is more than the cards.

I may never figure out how I get email from the US Costco (I get Canadian as well) even though I’ve never been to one, except I may have done just the same thing before….

From December, 2010...A Christmas Story

From Tuesday, December 11, 2012

A Christmas Story

From December, 2010...A Christmas Story

I was standing in the postal line at Shopper’s Drug.
The Shoppers Drug chain has sort of replaced the traditional post office in many Canadian cities. A small, full service postal outlet exists in most of the stores around here.

There were several people at the counter; putting stamps on cards, filling out papers etc. and two women were in front of me in the line with several more people behind. I was watching the woman in front of me impatiently wait her turn. She was examining almost all of the items on the shelves on both sides of our line. She seemed determined to touch or handle in some way at least fifteen different products while we waited. In front of her there was a woman who should have blended into the background, but she caught my attention.

The woman must have been around 60, with stringy hair and older clothing. She was unkempt, but not looking homeless or out of place, just sort of disheveled. She had a medium to large mailing envelope with her and there was another one on the shelf next to us that looked like she could have put it there. The woman in front of me asked her if the envelope was hers and she said she had taken it, and was going to put it back when she got finished in line. I knew immediately she was lying, they came in packages of two!

She had an object she was fooling with, a pink belt like contraption that may have held books, or dogs or something, but it was something she had picked up in the store. She may have had other objects that I never saw in the envelope. She was trying out various ways of folding it so it made the smallest footprint in the envelope.

When she got it fixed, she pulled the tape on the envelope and stuck it together, it was closed! Next, from her purse,. She pulled a pen. She addressed the envelope she was prepared.

Her turn arrived and she went up, and had the attendant weigh the package, and she paid the postage! She did not pay for the gift or the envelope!

This is the perfect crime! You involve the post office as an unwitting partner!

What guts, she didn’t even bring in her own envelope! You just pick your “gift”, steal your envelope and mail it to yourself!

No store detective can find the missing item on you nor tamper with the mail to find it!

 

The Shoppers Adventure...

This one is complicated. It’s a simple story of standing in line yesterday at Shoppers Drugs waiting to make a purchase. The woman in front of me had a bunch of items to purchase, and it was a special day where one could get two gift cards at $10 each for any $75 purchase. One card was from Shoppers and one from Tim Horton’s.

I was purchasing a bottle of Tylenol on sale for $10.

The woman in front of me looked familiar, although she wasn’t, but I actually thought I knew her. She had one package, a gift item; she put aside after checking the price and decided to make her decision later on this item.
I offered, if she did not get to $75 to let her purchase my Tylenol to make up the difference. She thanked me but thought she’s made it. I think she thought I was offering my purchase to her and would give her the cash, but in all honesty, I only had $5 with me anyway.
By now the line was getting long and the cashier called for backup in the next isle.

The purchases came to $75.34 and she was good for the two gift cards, and all was right. The second cashier came up and asked for the next one in line, which was me.

The woman behind me, an older woman (although probably not older than me) yelled out, “That’s me!” and grabbed her stuff and went in the new line. The woman behind her yelled out that it was me that was next, not her, and she yelled at all of us, inventing a new shopping rule, “He put his package down already on the counter so I’m next!”

The woman behind me now began to get worried because she thought I was in need, as I was buying Tylenol. I let everyone know I wasn’t in a hurry, and it was OK that the lady pushed her way in front of the new line.

The woman getting the gift cards started apologising because someone must need those Tylenols and she was holding up the line. I told her I was fine, and we were OK, and she decided to purchase her one gift item if she could use her new $10 Shoppers card, as long as I didn’t mind. I assured her I didn’t and let the line know that the old woman who pushed her way in was rude and beyond acceptance. However, The Tylenol was just a fill in and everyone was feeling better.

Besides, I said, I was going to put then whole story of the Shoppers line on my blog, it was so much fun.

The woman with the $75 bill begged me not to use her name. I yelled out to her as she left, “I can’t use your name, I don’t know it!”

She didn’t tell me her name so I can only leave you with the story. I thought that it must have been a full moon. It wasn’t, I checked.

But somewhere there is a very nice woman, in her late 40’s, wearing a stylish black leather jacket who has a gift for someone that cost $19.99 and she got $10 off.

Oops! I did it again…

Oops! I did it again… I played with your heart, got lost in the game…

I'm not that innocent…

I said I would stop falling (down, not an in love issue)

Here I was in the morning, on garbage day, going out (way past the garbage take out time, already done) to take Max for a walk. I had taken out the garbage in good, slip-on shoes but used my “regular” big shoes to take Max for a walk. Unfortunately, they had little or no soles left; in fact as they went into the garbage container later on after we saw they had holes in the soles.

I made it to the end of the driveway and here we go again, I fell! I went down on my very bad knee, the one that has its own doctor looking after it, and managed to twist my very bad, totally repaired ankle, broken 12 years ago and full of metal parts.

I lay there in the driveway, unable to get up, hoping nothing was broken and assessing my situation.

Max’s leash was in my left hand and secure. My cell phone was locked in my car (not good) and my wife and daughter were somewhere in the house. I looked around for help, it was 7:15 in the morning, and there was none. I screamed for my wife to no avail. I needed something solid to lift myself up.

I looked around and found “the green bin”. For those of you unaware of a green bin, it’s the raw garbage recycling container that has two wheels and goes out once a week. It is sturdy, and there is no way I can get up without something to hold on to, as my knees went away a long time ago. The green bin was it, providing that nothing was badly broken so I could stand.

The next problem was the bin has two wheels, and if it slides on the wheels, it would fall and would open and I would be hit with an entire bin full of wet garbage. I would be found, lying with my dog on the driveway, while he was eating a bad dinner of leftovers poured all over me!

I had to do something, I was wet and bleeding from my right knee, and I hurt! The green bin was my only choice, and I positioned myself in such a way that it should work. I had to open the top and get my hands over the edge to make sure the weight would hold the thing on the ground and the wheels wouldn’t get moving on me.

I sit here now in my office, hours later, with my knee and my ankle hurting, a bandage on the knee, trying to figure out how not to kill myself the next time I go out! I need to try and be careful. When I took out all the garbage and recycling I was very aware of all of the pitfalls. However, I guess walking Max was such normal activity that I paid less attention.

The doctor says it’s only soft tissue damage.

So, Oops! I did it again….

 

 

Little Black Box...

I like this thing and have taken most of the writing from the manufacturer’s web site. I have been really interested in Bluetooth audio delivery because it’s fun. I know regular radio works and am not fascinated by it, but delivering from my phone and my tablet is weirdly cool.

I have been trying these wireless speakers out as I wander from store to store looking for the best sound, but when I find good sound it’s also very expensive and since I have no need for this kind of thing I basically forget it.

I love the speakers but the $150 to $400 price tags leave me cold. The only use I have is in the back yard for barbeques, and as few as we have, I can open the door wall and listen to my Bose Cinemate pushing mp3’s through from my Smart TV with a hard drive plugged in. It’s hardly big tech stuff but for an old guy, this is rocket science!

I do have a pair of very small, golf ball sized speakers which are driven by lithium batteries and are very neat. I plug a very small mp3 player I got for very little (an earlier post about cheap stereo) and it’s great! Not too loud but very fine stuff and only cost $29.99.

So I did a bit of looking when I received an email yesterday about this little Memorex speaker for my back yard. It is a refurb, and was only $19.95. There must have been a flaw, so I Googled it and watched an old QVC video, 12 minutes long, describing this little gem. They loved it (of course, they were selling it). It was $50. Everything looked good so I went to factorydirect.ca yesterday after printing my coupon and purchased this item.

It is wonderful! The flaw (there was one of course) is that this came out before battery power was so important, so it can’t go to the beach, the woods etc. with you, which was not my problem, because I have power in my back yard!

It synch’s in Bluetooth with my devices and works great. I highly recommend it. Is it as good as the others, who knows? I’d need several together to test them but I don’t care. It sounds great and it can be loud and it may get used for barbeques if we have any warm days left this year.

"The Memorex MW212 Universal Wireless Speaker packs expansive sound into an exceptionally compact frame. This speaker is wireless and can easily fit into a handbag or backpack. It features full Bluetooth support, allowing it to sync with your mobile device for easy wireless audio streaming. The speaker also supports wired connections to a broad range of audio devices with its 3.5-millimeter input.

The MW212 Universal Wireless Speaker is an ideal accessory for music lovers. The speaker measures just over 7 inches across and can easily slip into a bag or backpack. It takes up very little space but can fill a bedroom, office, or dorm room with great sound. It also features intuitive controls, with an easily accessible panel providing instant control over power and volume.

The MW212 speaker can sync with any Bluetooth device that uses the A2DP profile, enabling wireless connections to smartphones, MP3 players, tablets, and other devices. You'll be able to wirelessly stream your favorite playlists, listen to podcasts, or even take phone calls on the speaker. The speaker pairs with your Bluetooth device at the push of a button so you can wirelessly sync without any hassle.

Equipped with high-grade drivers and components, the MW212 speaker offers crisp sound performance. It plays back your music in full stereo audio, delivering clear highs and well-defined lows. In addition, Bluetooth data is streamed to the speaker with near-lossless fidelity so you can enjoy wireless audio content without dropouts or static.

The MW212 speaker is outfitted with a 3.5-millimeter line-in input, enabling wired connections to MP3 players, phones, tablets, and a variety of other devices."

The Memorex MW212 Universal Wireless Speaker measures 2.55 by 7.56 by 3.6 inches (H x W x D).

 

Paranormal Blank Wall #2

On August 20 I wrote:

“In a lot of horror movies and paranormal TV shows, children and dogs seem to sense spirits and demons when no one else can see them or know about their presence. I can speculate as to why these simple creatures are psychic, and my guess would be that they are presumed innocent and without baggage.

In any case, I have been noticing that Max, our dog, is sometimes, not too often, found sitting in the dining room staring at the wall.

He is looking at a space between the bar and the wall, just a blank wall. He seems interested and is staying in place. My wife has noticed this as well. I’m not saying he’s seeing things but, he is looking at things I do not see.

In looking to debunk this problem, I did notice the wall has an air intake for the furnace, so it is possible that voices of my children travel through the ductwork, even though I can’t hear them, but dogs hear very well. This is at least an explanation. I haven’t tested the theory as I haven’t been paying attention to his actions too often.

My hope is that it’s just a fluke, or a little bit of sound traveling through the house. In a few weeks when my daughters move back to Toronto, I will see if he stays in place. At that point I think I need a ghost hunter.”

Over this last weekend the family was out shopping and we eventually came home. Max was waiting for us and was satisfied when we returned. He gave us a look and went back to what he had been doing. I walked into the dining room and here he was, in the almost complete dark, staring at the blank wall again! He made no effort to hide it or to move away. He just stared.

I spoke about it to the family and miraculously he stopped staring, as if on cue, and walked into the living room to contemplate his discoveries.

 

 

Just “keeping an eye” on me as I deteriorate a bit each year...

Yesterday I had an appointment with the arthritis clinic where I have grown to be a somewhat regular customer. I am a “look at” kind of customer, just “keeping an eye” on me as I deteriorate a bit each year, but so far nothing too bad.

The clinic, part of McMaster University Medical stuff is located in St. Joseph’s hospital. It’s a short trip downtown and a look for a street parking space because at no time have I ever been able to get hospital parking. So I try and find street parking which has gone from meters to machines that distribute tickets.

The good news is that street parking is one dollar an hour and you can get up to three hours parking in a space. For short term visits (appointments) this is great, the only bad news part is if you are in there for an injured leg or knee (as I was), you have to hobble from where ever you parked, However, since I was cured (a miracle of course) it was not a bad four block walk.

All this is background, as the story was in the message. I did remember to write down the appointment in my book at work, fearing to put these things in my computer or my phone as I use three computers and if they speak to each other, I have no way to know it or even care. I just want to write it down. I wrote 2:00 p.m. but since I write somewhat sloppy, I had to call and confirm the timing.

My wife called to remind me to stop at the library and pick up something for her, and I responded that it may not be possible because I was “going to the hospital”. To me this meant I had a clinic appointment for a check of my knee. My wife had no idea I had an appointment made months before, and she heard what I said.

Panic was in her voice! “What’s wrong”, she shouted into the phone and I started to laugh! “Your dear husband is fine, I have an appointment”, I exclaimed. The breathing returned to normal at her end. I was feeling bad for doing that, and I never even thought of the consequences. She married this old man years ago who keeps telling her he’s going to die any moment and suddenly I’m off to the hospital in the middle of the week in the middle of the afternoon! My bad!

I have planned this “surprise” which is hilarious, but I have never had the guts to pull it off. I was going to wait for a time when my wife was out and I was able to predict a return time, and a few minutes before her return I would drape myself down the stairs head first, and wait “unconscious” for her return. She would find me “dead”. She would scream and I would laugh.

I don’t think I’ll ever do that as I could become the widower and never be able to explain what killed her.

The Very Long Weekend Part Two

We were out at a special event last night, with plans for dinner afterwards, and arrived at 7:00 p.m. After a bit we were able to get a couple of glasses of wine and settled into talking to other guests when we saw our old friends, the poisoners.

These were the couple who, as I said in the last post, “Friends insisted we join them for dinner on Wednesday evening before we left.  Although we were busy we agreed, as it was going to be fun. There would be six of us for a barbeque. One person was unable to attend, so five of us had dinner and the hostess failed to mention her illness of a few days before, as she was over the sickness and was capable of doing dinner. Had we known we may have made another decision.”

We were greeted warmly and joked around a bit when the hor d’œuvres  were passed around and I was told to try these great things. I did, and he explained that they had made all of them.

I froze!

 

I was “forced” to try another and stopped after that one.

 

Was I walking into the shadow of death once again?

Would I end up in the morning once again throwing up in the sink?

My wife had the look of horror on her face as she looked in my direction.

Luckily the speeches started and the eating stopped for a while, and for us, it stopped forever. We left a bit after an hour of speeches and we escaped to dinner.

I was fine this morning, and hopefully the entire incident is behind us……

 

The Very Long Weekend

We planned on a long weekend vacation, a little after Labour Day, after the kids were back in Toronto.

Discussing the possibilities, we settled on Prince Edward County Ontario, a place we could get to by car in less than three hours, that had beautiful beaches and interesting galleries, shops and wineries. It was all set for a great weekend away for just the two of us, something we seldom do. We found a small resort hotel with a pool and a beach, the pool right off of our room, and looked forward to a quiet, fun filled romantic weekend.

Friends insisted we join them for dinner on Wednesday evening before we left.  Although we were busy we agreed, as it was going to be fun. There would be six of us for a barbeque. One person was unable to attend, so five of us had dinner and the hostess failed to mention her illness of a few days before, as she was over the sickness and was capable of doing dinner. Had we known we may have made another decision.

Our vacation started on Thursday with a carefree drive past Toronto out to the country, and a nice ride to our hotel. We relaxed, and went to the hotel pub and sat on the patio and watched the sun go down on the water, sipping great wine and dining on Caesar Salad, mussels and garlic bread. It was fun and even though it became a bit chilly, we enjoyed the view and the food.

At 6:00 a.m. I awoke, ran to the sink across the room, and began to throw up!

The rest of the weekend was filled with four major activities; projectile vomiting, diarrhea, flatulence and extreme gas pains for both of us. We had breaks of course, and we slept often. We were able to go out shopping so I could buy new underwear (I can leave that to the imagination!).

We texted the one other guest attending the dinner to see if he was ill, or if it was the mussels that was killing us. His wife texted back to us to let us know he had been throwing up since 5:00 a.m. We knew who the culprits were!

We did get to go out to a late breakfast; at least some tea and cakes, and my wife had to excuse herself to go throw up in the bathroom of the lovely little tea shop. We also went to the beach, and my wife threw up on her feet and used the lake to rinse them off.  

We did get to a few wineries and taste and purchase wine, as I was able to use the bathroom in each winery

We continued to laugh thank God, as it could not have been funnier. We planned so hard to make it all be so perfect, and it could hardly have been worse. On top of it all, we were committed to the reservation so it was an expensive rest home as well. Being Canada, the hospital would have been free!

We are on the mend. We will be much more careful about where we eat from now on. I believe we have ended pot luck dinners as part of our lifestyle.

I will go back to work today, staying away an extra day so as not to infect our staff.

 

Moving On....

Yesterday we were in a sweaty operation, moving our second daughter to Toronto, into a three bedroom condo she is renting with friends.

Our U-Haul truck was full as was my car, and we had rented the freight elevator for two hours to get all the stuff moved in. I had moved a full shopping cart into the elevator at ground level; and was waiting for my wife and daughter who were carrying a desk from the truck down the street.

I heard a loud conversation going on and it was my wife and someone else. I had no idea who it was but they were both clearly struggling with the desk but moving forward. It was a man’s voice, and when they came into view I laughed, as my wife was on one end and Mike, a local character it seems, rounded the bend. What Mike lacked in teeth he made up for in enthusiasm.

What he said was priceless, “I wouldn’t have offered to help if I weren’t half in the bag!”  He smiled, waved and moved on into the sunset…..

Pretzel Surprise...

It was in the late 50’s and a group of us were sitting around a friends kitchen. We were all over at a girl’s house and I can’t remember how many of us were there or what the circumstances were, just that we were there and it seems to me it was in the daytime.

There definitely was a group of teenaged boys and girls sitting in the kitchen doing nothing.

My friend Edgar was sitting up on the side of sink and next to him was a box of pretzels. He absentmindedly put his hand into the box and pulled out a pretzel and ate it. He reached in and pulled out another and continued to eat. The third time he reached in he pulled out a piece of salami!

It seems, as he looked hurriedly inside, with all of us watching his look of horror, that the mother of the house had been using the pretzel box next to the sink as a “green bin” (not a term of the 50’s, but a gross garbage container none the less).

Our friend Edgar had been snacking on the garbage!

Paranormal Blank Wall

In a lot of horror movies and paranormal TV shows, children and dogs seem to sense spirits and demons when no one else can see them or know about their presence. I can speculate as to why these simple creatures are psychic, and my guess would be that they are presumed innocent and without baggage.

In any case, I have been noticing that Max, our dog, is sometimes, not too often, found sitting in the dining room staring at the wall.

He is looking at a space between the bar and the wall, just a blank wall. He seems interested and is staying in place. My wife has noticed this as well. I’m not saying he’s seeing things but, he is looking at things I do not see.

In looking to debunk this problem, I did notice the wall has an air intake for the furnace, so it is possible that voices of my children travel through the ductwork, even though I can’t here them, but dogs hear very well. This is at least an explanation. I haven’t tested the theory as I haven’t been paying attention to his actions too often.

 

My hope is that it’s just a fluke, or a little bit of sound traveling through the house. In a few weeks when my daughters move back to Toronto, I will see if he stays in place. At that point I think I need a ghost hunter.

 

 

 

 

 

Teacher!!

It was a required course for all Education Graduate students, and the only choice you had was when you were taking it. It was Developmental Psychology, and I was not eager,  but of the academic subjects required in my Art Education program, this was the one I was looking forward to.

The funny thing was that in the years yet to come at the time, I would end up teaching all of the courses at the graduate level that I didn’t want to take, and tried to do a much better job than had been done for me.

The course was taught by a young PhD who had recently completed her degree and had just obtained this part time teaching position. It was probably her first class. She had come from New York as I remember, and I kind of liked her. She was interesting and of course I enjoyed the subject.

There were about 20 or so students in the class from all different education programs, but clearly, all of us were classroom teachers. This program existed, as it was offered part-time, for working teachers at Towson University in Baltimore.

Somewhere during the mid-point in the term the teacher told the class that she was unhappy that several of the students had reported her to the Dean for not doing her job. I was shocked as I enjoyed the class and could not imagine what was wrong.

Being young and naive at that time I didn’t see it coming.

She had not listed the dates for a mid-term and a final, as well, she had not given out the term paper assignments the disturbed students were waiting for. I cringed! I was so happy not to have to do a term paper I was floating on a cloud. But the disturbed ones needed structure to exist!

I could have guessed who had done it, but they managed to let us know who they were as they were proud that they had forced the teacher to comply with the rules! They didn’t need to learn Developmental Psychology; they were the embodiment of some form of psychosis that we all now understood!

We had our tests and our paper, albeit a bit nicer done as I remember than a formal process envisioned by our tattle-tales (whistle blowers they surely thought).

I learned about Developmental Psychology and never did see the teacher again but she tried to do a good job and almost succeeded.

If memory serves me I did write the Dean (in the teacher evaluation form) to say what a good teacher she had been and how unfairly a few had high jacked the direction of the class.

 

Disaster narrowly averted!

It wasn’t late, just after 8:00 p.m. and I was on the computer when the phone rang. “Arthur, I think I forgot to unplug a glue gun when I left the studio today!”

OK, what was I to do? The only close persons with a key and the ability to circumvent the security systems were out of the country. The two women who might help were one, not home, and the other, without a visible phone number. I had no car as our cars were commandeered by a daughter and a wife.

The instructor picked me up at home in about 10 minutes and off we went, on the wild goose chase. To do nothing risked a phone call from the fire department at midnight and a guilt filled sleep. To act only meant taking a ride to school and trying to see if she had unplugged the glue gun.

We determined it was not sitting on a hot pad or trivet, but placed on a piece of paper on a table. This was an accident waiting to happen.

We arrived in a few minutes with no smoke in sight and opened the doors, switched off the alarms and found that someone, either an assistant or the cleaner or the teacher herself had in fact unplugged the glue gun!

Disaster narrowly averted!

 

Todays Drama Queen...

I’m in the last two minutes of a documentary on TV, and my daughter, who had just left for work, comes storming back in yelling at me that her mother’s car is stuck in Park and she can’t get out of the driveway and needs the keys to my car immediately. She is nervously walking around trying to find the additional set of my keys, and proceeds to find mine. She tries to remove my car keys from the ring. I tell her that the car will release from park if she just steps on the brake when she does it, but she has no time for my nonsense.

I drag myself away from the documentary and go for my keys and offer to drive her to work, and of course pick her up at 10:30. She huffs and puffs for a bit and decides to believe me so we drag out the door after she chastises me for not wearing shoes and therefore taking more precious time to get shoes and get to the car.

On her way out she jumps into her mother’s car again and tries out my stupid idea and lo and behold, the car starts.

No thanks you given of course, but with a very red face she sheepishly backs out if the driveway.

Gio's Giant Feed

 On the way to DC, we have to pass by Gio’s Barbeque in Clearfield, PA. It was 1:00 p.m. when we arrived at the gas station and restaurant. Lunch was in high gear, a huge event. The most wonderful stuff one would ever like to see.

I was going to the bathroom so I asked my wife to order for me please. She would be angry with me if I ordered anything fattening, and since that’s pretty much all they have, I thought she could give it a try and find something ”healthy”.

When I returned I was handed a salad. It started with a plate of iceberg lettuce, followed by tomato slices, followed by thin sliced onions, followed by America’s favorite salad ingredient, a handful of FRIES!

This amazing surprise was covered by PULLED PORK! I topped it off with ranch dressing and I had a salad to die for (or because of).

My daughters roast chicken was pretty much the same although my wife somehow avoided the fries.

It’s a great place with a great menu.

 

The Puffy Coat

 

We were in Buffalo dropping my mother-in-law off at the airport last week, on her way home, and decided to go shopping at the big off-retail mall. This is always a treat for us, as we don’t really have such a thing locally, and it gives us all a thrill.

It was the week of 4^th of July so all the big sales were on. My oldest daughter was with us and wanted to go to Adidas.  Now as a guy without a workout mentality, Adidas is not usually my kind of place but given my choice of sitting on the bench outside the store or going in I opted for a trip through the store.

Most of the stuff, even well priced was slick and not for me. However, there  was a clearance rack, which will always draw me in, and they had a rack of winter down coats, puffy coats! I love those and they were great.

As I looked through the rack I realized there were a number of different styles and colours, including my favorites, navy blue and black. I tried on the blue but my daughter didn’t like it and the black one won out. It is puffy, shiny and says Adidas on it. It has a retail price of $150 (I even checked on line) or it did in the winter. The company is selling it on line for $90.

The blue one was marked $29.99 and the black was $19.99. However, if you bought two clearance items, the cheaper one was reduced by 50%, and as my daughter had found some other amazingly cheap thing my new puffy coat cost me $10!

Did I need a new winter coat? Of course not, I had tons of them. However, one of the local charities will get several now that I have this one. My $10 coat made me happy.

I am the hunter/gatherer. I am fulfilling my destiny.

 

Just looking on the Internet....

My thanks to Ingmar Bergman for the still...

 

I looked up an old girlfriend in Michigan on Google thinking I'd try and email her. We were "together" so many years ago, and we were good friends afterwards. My wife and I visited with her and her first husband several times.

She would now be about 56 or 57, the same age as my wife.  When she met her new (second) husband and decided to get married, she called me to talk about it, but that was 1989, just as we were leaving Michigan for Boston. We talked for a while but that was the last time we communicated. I have other stories about her elsewhere on this blog.

 I looked for her the other day and found out she is deceased! She is listed as “the late” in her father's obituary from earlier this year. I could find out no more information, but in reading her father’s obit it was clear I had found the correct woman.

 This would have been sad although not completely unexpected if she were my age, but mid-50's!

 I could find no other info about her. I had her new name and knew it was her for sure.

It left me very sad.

 

Symphony Fantastique

My daughter just recently graduated with a Bachelors of Music degree, and has been living home for the last few weeks. We had all gone down to the Chautauqua Institution for dinner with their mother and grandmother, and were driving home, a three hour trip. My oldest, the music person, had on her iPod and was listening to Rap. My youngest one seemed to be texting friends etc. I was listening to the radio.

Public radio was on from Buffalo9 and they were broadcasting the Pittsburgh Symphony concert. They were about to play Berlioz’s  Symphony Fantastique: (Fantastic Symphony: An Episode in the Life of an Artist, in Five Parts) Op. 14 is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period.

The first performance was at the Paris Conservatorie in December 1830. The work was repeatedly revived between 1831 and 1845 and subsequently became a favourite in Paris. The author imagines that a young vibrant musician, afflicted by the sickness of spirit which a famous writer  has called the vagueness  of passions  and sees for the first time a woman who unites all the charms of the ideal person his imagination was dreaming of, and falls desperately in love with her. The piece relates to an exploration of a drug overdose.

My daughter says  that she knows about this piece as they studied it in music history.

Twice during the ensuing ride, my daughter asked me to turn up the radio and she removed her iPod.

This has never happened before!

I thought with a wry smile upon my face, “$80,000 has gotten me this moment!”

 

It was only a slip of the tongue…

I hadn’t “dated” since I was 19, and here I was almost 42 and about to move away from my home and be single again after 20 years of marriage. This was moving unhappily into uncharted territory for me. I had never done anything “not appropriate” so I was going out into virgin forest.

I had great relationships with women and had lined up a “girlfriend”, or at least someone who seemed to like me and we got along just fine. We had made a few “moves” on each other already but none too serious. I had planned to leave in the beginning of March as my apartment lease was starting at that time. I was still living at home but with the agreement that I would leave ASAP.

I often spent time after work at the small bar on the first floor of the apartment house at the corner, with their incredible happy hours.  I was there and it was my 42^nd birthday and I was with friends having a good time and feeling a bit sorry for myself, as the weekend was here and would be basically alone.

We all walked to the parking lot to retrieve our cars and I was with a few people including the probable girlfriend and another woman, a bit of an “over the top” young woman. I knew she was too young and basically wrong for me but was a fantasy woman.

We all said good night, and the men shook my hand and the women kissed me and wished ma a happy birthday. The kisses were not normal, but it was my birthday. The potential girlfriend lingered her kiss a bit long which indicated her potential. The younger woman leaned up and kissed me and slipped in her tongue!

I was dumbfounded!

I could not get a clear thought! I was confused! What do I do?

It was just the slip of the tongue!

I smiled at them all and got into my car and drove home in a daze! Nothing like that had ever happened to me. Of course I’d had a normal puberty; I had kissed a woman before and already had three kids! Still, a bit of tongue from a very young woman was unsettling.

I worried all weekend. I started to call her several times but what would I say? I’d never called her before and had no excuse for the call except to ask very dumb questions. Was that kissing a mistake? Was that kiss common in our new world of the 80’s? Did I just not understand?

Worry became fear as Monday approached. As well as I remember that kiss, that’s how little I remember Monday. I don’t know what I said or what I did. Over the next few weeks the potential girlfriend disappeared and the young woman became my obsession. It changed my life.

 In hindsight, it helped me to become who I am. It made me not fall out of one relationship directly into another like some textbook case. Or maybe it helped me become a different kind of textbook case.

After all, it was only a slip on the tongue…..

 

Gillette Fusion Proglide Power and Manual Razors

 

This is another one of those razor stories that I have written before, but I’ve added a new chapter to the saga. I know I’ve complained about the cost of the razor cartridges on these before, but they do seem to last a long time. While the company says they last “up to five weeks”, in my experience I can get two weeks (or almost two weeks) out of a cartridge and I do like it.

However, lately I’ve been looking at the Power version wondering what it does. I mean, a battery in a regular razor seems superfluous. What could it do?

Shoppers Drugs finally did it for me! They sent me a coupon for the Proglide Power, which was a free one. I was so happy, as it simply bothered me that it had a battery, and it seemed so useless.

I took my coupon to the store and got a new one, but in the end the battery was missing from the case and I had to take one from my collection of batteries in my freezer, as going back to the store seemed like way too much trouble for one AAA battery.

I always have a collection of AA and AAA batteries in the freezer plus a collection of those little round ones that fit in watches. I always seem to be In need of one when I least expect it.

This morning I put in the battery and tried the razor.

First, the little blue light on top lights up! As well, the whole thing vibrates! It does not however get the internet, Wi-Fi or use Bluetooth! It shaves pretty well, as good as the manual one, but seemingly no better and is a lot more scary as it buzzes and shakes.

I used it twice and now have put it away in favour of my non-power version which works just fine!