What a turn around!

My day started very slowly. I didn't want to get up. When I did I came to work and I didn't want to do anything. I eventually did, and cobbled together a specifications sheet for a new project. Interrupting that was what I thought was going to be a trip to Lanigan for another meeting (i.e. get screamed at again) but that was cancelled. Murray, as he is very prone to do, forgot to tell me it was cancelled. I think my boss does WAY too much. He needs to delegate more and just sit in his office and do boss stuff. He's taking meetings, making calls, answering requests, doing quotes. There's so much he does that he doesn't actually do a good job of all of it, and ends up forgetting stuff. Like, for instance, noting to me that a meeting has been cancelled. A trifling thing, I know, but its indicative of a larger problem.

Now its the afternoon and I'm filled with vim and vigor. I could take on anything right now. I am actually enthused about the rest of the day. Its like night and day in the cavernous interior of my mind. I'm just in love with everything. Maybe this is a good sign of things to come. I can only hope.

Toodles!

What a boring day its been today!

No one is doing anything interesting. Sean is researching water guns, after it came up in an email this morning. Melissa is playing solitaire on her computer. Kevin is making spreadsheets, and Greg and I are (were?) emailing back and forth about a Supercom order, and the price of monitors. Oh, and Candace is sick. Everyone seems to be killing time this afternoon. Its what I like to refer to as 'a slow news day'.

Melissa has suggested I write about Rainbow Brite in today's blog entry. She was even kind enough to send me a picture of Rainbow Brite, to refresh my memory and thus be able to write something about it. Alas, her efforts are in vain. I do remember Rainbow Brite. I have a sister, and I was thus exposed to Rainbow Brite in my childhood. However, I am a male, and Rainbow Brite did not impact upon my consiousness sufficiently that even with Melissa's heroic efforts, I am unable to muster any thoughts about Rainbow Brite. I'm sure the pre-teen girls of the 80's enjoyed Rainbow Brite, and all that she brought to the word but, I was more into fire trucks and Superman or Batman. I could probably even find my capes at my parents house somewhere. However, I would not find any Rainbow Brite stuff of my own.

Toodles!

I had the most peculiar dream last night. Unfortunately I don't remember much of the details. It has something to do with searching for, and protecting a God creature that was disguised as a child, and not aware of his full powers. There was a lot of it set in a basement apartment, much like the one I lived in when I went to university. There was also elements from my childhood, and the yard of a friend of mine who lived in the trailer court in Coronach. I wish I could write out the details of it for you but they slip my mind. The first coherent part of the dream had me on a mountain top with a flat plateau. This mountain top morphed into a city, as we travelled across to the right. Then we came across this half buried shrine that, after an interminable trip down steps in the dark, opened up into the apartment vista I mentioned earlier. Jerry O'Connell was guarding the God child as we (I don't remember who was in the group). Then some evil person attached the apartment and we fought it off. Water was involved in some way. The rest of the dream evolved as a mystery to figure out who was chasing the God child and what we could do to make it blossom into its full power.

That was my weird dream. Then I drove into work and had a really productive morning. I got some shop drawings and a full set of O&M manuals ready for shipment out. Except I need some electrical drawings for the manuals, then they are done. I plugged away very industriously all day. I just now too a breather to write this blog entry.

I also should mention that I attempted to revive my French skills. I was chatting for a brief time with our Winnipeg friends, en francaise. I had moderate success. I needed the help of the online translator a lot. I hope I'll get better the more I try it.

Toodles!

MSN sucks. Its really getting on my nerves. I wouldn't care so much if it would just tell me its signed me out. If you know, you can just sign back in, and all is well. The pain in the ass part is, sitting there thinking you're signed in and actually not be signed in. First you think everyone's being rude for not replying to you, then you find out you're the rude one for having gone offline without mentioning anything.

Maybe I worry about inherent rudeness too much. Everyone knows how MSN is, so its not really much of a shock when it screws you in the left ear and you get logged out like that. Everyone understands. I just hate being like that. If I'm leaving I say I'm leaving. Maybe its over-politeness but I think its appropriated.

Toodles!

The enemy has been joined. The Battle With SGI has been launched?

What is it with these people. I was on the phone with this guy who's doing the controls for the Souris plant this afternoon. I talked to him for quite awhile and as I was, this weiner from SGI called me and left an insolent message on my phone. I didn't look at my phone when I hung up and only noticed the flashing message sign around 4:00. I listened to the message and nearly flew into a rage.

From his words and tone it sounded like an accusation. The impression I got was, he thought I was trying to pull a fast one on him, and slip someone under. He repeated the same thing more than twice.

***NEWS FLASH***

The guy just phoned me back. He is a dick. He just knows I'm lying to him, or so he thinks. The smug, arrogant, insolent asshole. I could just choke him to death right now. I would love to do that. Wrap my hands around his slimy, underworked, overpaid neck and just wring the life out of him. That would be so lovely.

I'm not lying. I quite honestly do not know how the damage to my bumper occurred. When Ken brought in my license plate, and dropped it on my desk, that was the first I knew of it. I didn't look or anything in the morning before I left, to see if it was damaged already. It was 6:00 in the freakin' morning. Who thinks about stuff like that. I drove back to Watson and worked until lunch. I think I even drove home at lunch and came back. If I remember correctly he brought it in after lunch. I don't know how it came to pass that my license plate ended up on the side of the road.

It finally happened.

The snow has begun in Watson. An almost two day long waiting for the wait stuff to descend was finally reached when it began snowing a few minutes ago. And its going hard at it too. The ground is nearly white after only a short duration of snow. I'm not really a fan of snow. Certainly not in April. By now we should be pulling out ball gloves, and thinking about golfing. Shoveling the white stuff should not even be contemplated anymore.

I do not want this. (That's a quote from somewhere. A song I think.)

Toodles!

I have news.

I'm not going to Brandon tonight for a meeting in Souris tomorrow. They rescheduled the meeting for April 10. I am at once happy about not having to travel, especially considering the storm that is supposed to blow into Manitoba tomorrow. While on the other hand I'm unsettled because it upsets the plans I had constructed for myself. I had everything set out for what I was going to do, and how I was going to accomplish stuff. There were things I was actually looking forward to. Oh well, we must adapt. Life is constantly in flux.

Now I need to make supper for myself. I have NO idea what I'm going to make. On the positive side, I get to work out today, when I didn't expect to have the opportunity.

Its a damn good thing I didn't leave at 2:00 like I was threatening to do. That would have sucked. If I'm bitter about anything in this situation, its being phoned this last minute. I'm a long way away. Make up your mind quicker. Again, oh well.

Toodles!

Good news, good news, good news!

I should have posted this earlier but, I get into a routine of posting at work, and if I don't, when I get home it slips my mind. No excuse, just and explanation.

My truck is getting fixed. The bumper, that was mysteriously broken around the license plate, will be repaired, probably by the end of the week. To all of you looking for autobody repairs for your vehicle, I heartily recommend Boyd Autobody & Glass. They have been super to work with, at the two separate locations, I have dealt with them. Quick, courteous and effective. I phoned this morning, Tuesday, and they expect by Friday I can be having my new bumper put on, painted and ready to go. That is efficient, in my books.

That's my good news for the day. Likely you didn't enjoy it as much as me but, that's okay. Its for me to enjoy!

Toodles!

Its interesting to note the variety of things that you think about, when you're stuck in a vehicle, by yourself, for a long stretch of time. I drove from Saskatoon to Watson this morning. Here's a smattering of the things that went through my mind.

Tara (When isn't she in my mind? She was kind of prevalent in my thoughts during the whole trip.)

Why didn't I get a paycheque at Sask. Place last night?

Would the tape I used for my GPS mount work to hold my CD changer controller and 4-1 12V adapter hub?

What kind of compensation are we going to get for our miserable hotel accomodations in the Dominican?

I should make a reservation in Brandon for Wednesday night.

Apparently driving back to Watson is a lot like dreaming. Once you stop doing it you can't remember most of the stuff you thought up while you were doing it. Like a dream, I have forgotten most of the details of my trip from Saskatoon. Which doesn't make for a very interesting blog entry. Oh well.

Toodles!

Murphy's Law is incredibly reliable. Of all the natural laws that exist, I think Murphy's Law is the most solid. Even better than gravity. Eventually they found cracks in the Law of Gravity too but Murphy never lets you down.

Nearly every weekend I come to Saskatoon and have no plans for Friday night, the guys want to go online and play video games. Invariably I'll have other plans for other parts of the weekend, so I won't bring my game CD's. They'll ask if I want to play, and I'll have to say no because I don't have my stuff. This weekend I took the initiative and brought my games and headset. What happens? None of them are available to game. Murphy's Law strikes again!!

On another note, I love my GPS. I drove in from Watson tonight and watched my track on the little screen, noted my speed, and distance travelled. For me its not a tool but a toy. But its fun, and why shouldn't I enjoy the fruits of my labor?

Toodles!

First of all I want to say I am VERY IMPRESSED with the service I got from GPS City Canada. I ordered my GPS unit from them yesterday afternoon and by this morning at 11:00 I had it in my grimy little hands. I consider that very good service. The price was right, they sold me all the little doo-dad's that I need to make it go and here it is Thursday evening and I'm just about ready to put the little thing to use. Maybe buying one was a good idea, maybe it wasn't. End of story, it doesn't really matter. The money's spent and I've got the calculator looking thing on my desk. I'm happy. (And it really didn't cost that much either)

I hate the photocopier. It hates me. We have a mutually symbiotic hate/hate relationship. There isn't an ounce of goodwill between me and that infernal beast. Somehow I got another set of shop drawings out of the creature this afternoon but it took me nearly all afternoon to do it. I lost count of how many times I had to stop to clear a paper jam out of the thing. The less photocopying I have to do, the better. One thing about working for a small company, there's no one down the food chain to delegate menial tasks.

Back to the GPS thing for a minute. Another benefit of this nifty, new purchase is, I took the bull by the horns to do something that has frustrated me for some time. I carved up my ashtray at lunch today, and removed the cigarette lighter plug from its molded plastic. In so doing, and by removing the tray part, I was able to get the plug, and an adapter, into the fold up tray, and well, fold it up, and out of sight. That makes me very happy. Having to have that stupid thing half open because I had an adapter in it, has bothered me for some time. And for $20 I bought this converter box and now I can plug four things into my truck instead of one. That is a major bonus!

Toodles!

I was sitting here watching the end of the Edmonton-Phoenix hockey game when I realized a very gratifying thing. They played this commercial, from the Safeway Club, and the person won a trip to Cancun, Mexico. I sat here thinking, you know, I've been there! That was a neat feeling. I saw some pictures from a model's trip to Cancun and it was neat to recognize the place she had visited. It was the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. I saw in the background the remnants of buildings that I'd seen myself.

I was exceptionally pleased with the realization that I got from this. I've travelled. I've seen part of the world now. Okay, I'm not some massive traveller but at least I've been a few places. I couldn't have said that a couple years ago. Since then I've been to Edmonton and Calgary a few times, east to Winnipeg and as far as Dryden, Ontario. I made it to Vancouver and saw a bunch of things there. And there was the two big trips, to Cancun, Mexico, and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. I'm not a great tourist. I don't have good tourist instincts but there's been new, different, interesting things that I've seen just by going other places. I also went to Tampa Bay, Florida this year. I think I can take some comfort in having seen some of the world now.

If there was any one place that I'd have like to have visited, and didn't, or haven't, it would be New Jersey. Whatever has gone right or wrong with Tara, I would have liked to have visited her town, and seen the sights of her state, with her. For all the traveling I have done, that is my one regret.

Toodles!

I had a peculiar dream last night. Not peculiar in the sense of, I had a rutabaga for a head or anything but, the content of the dream is something that a guy would never, ever want to dream about.

I dreamed that I got kicked in the nuts.

Why on earth would I dream that? Furthermore, if I did dream it, why wasn't the trauma that should go along with such a remembrance enough to wake me up? Maybe I did wake up but I stayed close enough to sleep that I didn't think I woke up. Anyway, that's what I dreamed last night. Which is troubling because who wants to dream about that? I'd rather dream about the Swedish Bikini team stopping over at my house for a barbeque. Unfortunately I never dream about stuff like that. My dreams are more typically jarring, psychotic images forced together into a narrative that quite obviously has to exist outside of the bounds of normal reality. I dream stupid stuff, like that flying dream I had, that I still remember. I couldn't put together the details for you anymore but that dream was peculiar.

Perhaps I need to change my daily pattern to stimulate more exciting dreams. Unfortunately my life is boring and I know not what to incorporate to achieve better memories. Suggestions are always appreciated.

Toodles!

What do you do when you see the world going to hell? What do you do with the level on which it is going to hell is so far removed from your sphere of influence that you are powerless to affect, change or even register an impact on it?

I'm trying not to think about this war going on. Thinking about it, acknowledging it, or following it in any way depresses me on a level that disturbs me very profoundly. I'm finding that the only way to deal with it is to ignore it, hope it ends quickly, and the powers that be get distracted by the country they are conquering for a sufficiently long enough amount of time that another American election rolls around. I pray, in a way that I don't often do, or to a diety I don't fully recognize, that the people of the U.S.A. come to their collective senses and elect a new president. It's my opinion this one is not doing a good job and is endangering us all with his zeal for attack.

I'm left with praying because I'm not an American, and can't vote on it. Even saying something about it is useless. There's only one hope left for the world and its the citizens of America. The rest of us have to hope that, when they get the chance to vote, they do the right thing.

Toodles.

I saw some losers today. There is really no doubt in my mind that they were losers. Which is an odd realization to come to, when it actually hits you. At least for me it was. I'm not usually someone that makes a qualitative decision about someone based solely on a few moments. But I did today. I got one look at these guys and my mind immediately said, loser.

I was at the 7-11 in Yorkton. I needed a drink, and a brief rest, so I pulled in there. Already in the parking lot were three teenage guys, the losers in question. They were around, or inside, of a beat up old hatchback car. I don't know exactly why my mind screamed, loser, immediately. But I pulled into the lot and just sat there for a few minutes. I'd been very sleepy on the road and I wanted to get my wits about me. I kept getting the sense I was being watched. I'd look over and one of this group of three guys was invariably watching me.

Maybe it was the smoking. That's a definite strike against you, in my book. But they seemed really fake about that too. It was like they were smoking, not for the experience itself but for the illusion of cool. The same with the way they were dressed, and their carriage of being. Everything about them seemed just a little bit 'off', like they were attempting to be something they were not. The crappy car didn't help them much in the status department either. Okay, having a car is better than not having a car, but this jalopy wasn't much better than no car at all. I hope they didn't pay much money for it.

I hate being vain but I do have my moments. Today was one of them. I watched these three idiots and I couldn't help feeling relief that I wasn't one of them.

Toodles.

I have a problem. The stupid, damn wireless ethernet antenna that I had my boss purchase, so that we could have the shop, a few blocks away, on our network, doesn't have enough range to reach the other shop. I'm not amused. I bought an antenna that is way more powerful than I need, specifically so that I'd have enough range to reach the other shop. 3 km worth of range when I'm only 300 meters away. I go a hundred feet up the street and I lose 40% of my signal strength. Something is not kosher here. Blog readers, if any of you know something about wireless ethernet, PLEASE contact me at the email address provided. I am desperate for some assistance.

Thank you.

Toodles

Oh did I come up with a good one tonight!

I was in a silly mood and I was jabbering at my Mom. At one point I went to say something to her, but forgot what I was going to say. So, I blurted out, 'I can't control my liver.'

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Toodles!

I've been having the strangest dreams at night, over the past few nights. Every so often during the day I'll remember a snippet from one of them and I'll be thinking to myself, whatever in the world made me dream that!?! I will give you an example.

Last night I dreamed that they wanted to host the American Music Awards in the auditorium of Central Butte School. Everyone in the school was really excited, and was doing their best to accomodate the dignitaries, and make this happen. My dad was a mess and wanted nothing to do with it, and sat in his office in the school, behind his desk, without the chair, so he couldn't be seen if you looked in the door. He was reading a newspaper and eating peanuts.

To compound the weirdness, the people of Montreal were pissed that Central Butte was chosen over them, Montreal, to hose the American Music Awards. The travel agent I went to visit, during the dream, did not recommend continuing with my plan of going to Expos games this summer, because of this fracas.

But the concluding thought that we have to consider about this is, Why were the AMERICAN Music Awards going to be held in CANADA!?!?!?!?!

Just something for you to ponder. Toodles!

I have this fantasy. I have it every time I go up from the office to one of the bars at the open end of the arena. You step through the door at the bottom of the stairwell and you're hit by it immediately. The fetid stench of cigarette smoke. And before a game there is inevitably a couple of people standing by the exit doors smoking.

It comes to mind immediately. I see myself holding my tray with one hand while my other hand, usually the left one, reaches around behind my back. The fingers of my hand grip cold steel and I smile. Then next part comes on slow motion. My hand comes back around from behind my back, a 9 mm pistol gripped in my fingers. I point at the first one, a stupid-ass woman than is nearly always there. I pull the trigger. A loud retort echoes in the tall chamber. A smoking hole appears in her head as a shocked look appears on her face. Then my aim going to the next person, this mustached man this is equally there before a game. A hole appears in his forehead, right between the eyes. The two dead people fall slumped to the floor by the door, their disgusting habit bearing acute reminder of why they had to be killed.

I smile widely as I climb the stairs, my deed done.

Thanks my fantasy. I wish I could make it reality.

Toodles!

I have this fantasy. I have it every time I go up from the office to one of the bars at the open end of the arena. You step through the door at the bottom of the stairwell and you're hit by it immediately. The fetid stench of cigarette smoke. And before a game there is inevitably a couple of people standing by the exit doors smoking.

It comes to mind immediately. I see myself holding my tray with one hand while my other hand, usually the left one, reaches around behind my back. The fingers of my hand grip cold steel and I smile. Then next part comes on slow motion. My hand comes back around from behind my back, a 9 mm pistol gripped in my fingers. I point at the first one, a stupid-ass woman than is nearly always there. I pull the trigger. A loud retort echoes in the tall chamber. A smoking hole appears in her head as a shocked look appears on her face. Then my aim going to the next person, this mustached man this is equally there before a game. A hole appears in his forehead, right between the eyes. The two dead people fall slumped to the floor by the door, their disgusting habit bearing acute reminder of why they had to be killed.

I smile widely as I climb the stairs, my deed done.

Thanks my fantasy. I wish I could make it reality.

Toodles!