The New Floodgates of the Mind

It’s been a busy week considering it wasn’t supposed to be.

As I said earlier, James ended up catching ‘Swimmers Ear’ on Tuesday. Wednesday night, he awoke screaming in pain at half past midnight. Last night, he woke up at 3am and then 3:30am. And considering I’d been on-call/ working on finding ways to minimize the impact of Toronto’s blackout on the systems we work with (which meant further phone calls until midnight, at 4am, and at 6:30am), I was pretty dead tired this morning. I was called to pick him up yesterday because of the pain and, in fact, he wasn’t in shape to go to the party/ talent show the camp put on last night. Knowing how much he loved it last year and was looking forward to it this week, I know he wasn’t faking his pain. I just got back from giving his his medication and he is doing much, much better.

And right now, I have a migraine. Either that or a food headache. I’m testing if Chocolate Chunk Cookies can help relieve some of the pain.

Tonight, James goes to my in-laws so Chantale and I can go out on a supper date 🙂 I’m quite looking forward to it since (a) it’s been a while since we last dressed up for a date, and (2) we’re going to a new, but reknowned, restaurant. With all that’s going on around us these days, leading up to the Wedding in 2 weeks, you can bet we both deserve and NEED some quiet time to ourselves 🙂

Well, yes, Montreal’s not affected by the power outtage. But, Toronto is a “ghost town” according to someone I just spoke with. And considering we have systems hooked up to Toronto, our DR team is doing their “thang” even as we speak.

I’m peripherally involved and thus was doing my share of phone hopping and sharing, getting things moving and in place.

For now, though, I figured I’d hop online and get any news updates. No television hookup yet and I don’t want to go radio channel surfing 🙂

Later!

-Mikey Bilbo Baggins, King of the Wild Frontier
(darn you, )

showed me this when I last visited him in January. I had the bloody song stuck in my head the entire drive back to Montreal! And now, someone finally sent me the link and I couldn’t help but go take another look.

NOT… for the faint of heart. Here is Leonard Nimoy singing… The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins. Be afraid. Be very afraid…

I must admit, I was in my element last night.

After work, I headed to the gym for a good workout. Since I like saving the best for last, I started my workout as I usually do: a warm-up, a 5-minute sprint to loosen me up and get the sweat glands going, followed by some weightlifting. I ended off with 1300 meters on the Concept II rower. I loved it. Brought back the memories of being out on the Olympic Basin, water rushing around me, as I rowed to my heart’s content. *sigh* It’s too bad it’s so difficult to get there any more. If it were easier, it would be worth the cost (because the cost is high). As it is, it’s not cost-efficient. Looking for alternatives, I thought about Kayaking. I’ve got 2 Marinas close to where I live, and the Ile-Perrot Kayak Club meets at one of them. Perhaps it’s time to pay them a visit and see what their fees and hours are like. I *need* to be out on the water… as much as I’m an Earth Elemental, I am closest to Trees (Dryad!) and, as you know, trees need water to survive…

Anyhow, when I got off the train last night, Chantale and James were there to pick me up. When we got home, I realized Chantale was totally exhausted/ drained. I told her to go get cozy and let me take care of everything. With one hand I cooked the Herb Tortellini, with the other I whisked the Rose Sauce. With deftness and fluidity of motion, I had supper ready and we enjoyed a wonderful meal on our patio. Veggies, dip, olives, and pickles, brought some variety. For desert, some sweets. The meal leisurely consumed, I cleared the table and went to visit our new neighbors, presenting James to them. We spoke for a bit and I gave them contact numbers for the Grass and the Gutters. Afterwards, I got Chantale and James to come outside and throw around the Nerf Football with me 🙂 It was a lot of fun. From there, we went inside and I got James to get ready for bed and then he went to play on the computer for a bit. Chantale relaxed and finished watching Mr. Destiny while I ran a couple of loads of laundy and washed the dishes.

James was sent to bed and when I went to tuck him in, he complained of an ear ache. At first I thought it was “swimmer’s ear” from the pool at camp. But, upon inspection, it looked much worse than that. It looked like an infection. And so, I sent him to bed and headed online. The kids’ clinic is not only online, but hooked up to their appointment calendars. They have all our information and thus I was able to book an appointment for James for tonight at 6pm, letting them know what’s wrong. He’s actually seeing a doctor he’s seen before so that’s cool, too. I updated all our contact information and it was all ready. I absolutely love technology and must say that I’m very, very impressed with what this website is capable of doing.

Finally, everything was settled, and I lay back on the couch with Chantale to watch an episode of Babylon 5 and enjoy some fruitcicles 🙂 I had promised at the beginning of the day that I would have her resting in bed by 10pm and I did. (I, of course, took care of a few small items before settling in myself). It ended up feeling like a really good, productive, filled evening. Normally, it feels like nothing gets done and the night comes too quickly, but that wasn’t the case yesterday. It was good to have it flow the way it did 🙂

Well it’s off. Chantale and I have finished our almost-last edits on our Wedding Liturgy and emailed it off to our Pastor for his review and comments. We made quite a number of modifications to the intial draft he sent us and are quite pleased with it 🙂 It’s going to be wonderful 🙂

Once we hear back from him and perhaps do a bit of fine-tuning, it’ll all be good for us to print up in a booklet for everyone to follow-along with. Making sure it was bilingual enough was quite the challenge, but well worth it. It’s going to be wonderful 🙂

Now, I can get to work on ironing out my speach… 🙂

Friday night was the first time in ages that I seriously missed The Savage Land BBS. Going to Picasso’s with Chantale and meeting up with Jeff and Dan was a lot of fun. Discussions/ conversations ranged the gamut of old TSLers and Comicopians and it has been AGES since we shared something like this. I really missed it. It was wonderful to be able to catch up and to reminisce as well. (and Jeff, you better get those photos sent my way!!!). While driving home after dropping Dan and Jeff off, I explained to Chantale how the evening had stirred in me the exact emotions I would always have after a Picasso’s GT wherein we’d all head home and go online to give our impressions of the night and continue any jokes we had started. Had TSL still been alive Friday, that’s what I would have done once we got home. What a bizarre, sad-but-happy, nostalgic night it turned out to be…

Chantale had a family bridal shower yesterday afternoon. Man, it was almost impossible getting her out of the house after she believed we weren’t doing anything at all. We had spent the morning working on our Liturgy and have almost completed it. But, I had to stop her near the end and get her to rush to get ready and go over to her parents. Boy, she was peeved 🙂 It all went well after dropping her off, though, as she was very happy to see everyone 🙂 Her mom hit upon a “wine theme” for the shower so all gifts were in relation to wine. You would think that you can’t go far with that… and you’d be wrong! So many beautiful gifts were given that our jaws dropped. At home last night, we carefully washed and dried all our new crystal glasses and decanters and placed them in our dining room hutch. Wow. Color us extremely grateful and touched; from the heart.

More life stories later…

“A man’s mind stretched by a new idea can never go back to its original dimensions.”

*Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

——————
How true that is. Imagine being introduced to a new concept, a new way of life, and then suddenly being expected to continue living your life as you did before you knew it… Ideas? Truths? Revelations of Secrets? How much does what we learn influence what we become? I would say it’s a huge part. The rest is Genetics. And pre-disposition.

After all, if you’re pre-disposed (from environmental influences through surrounding while growing up, or otherwise) to be an idiot with a closed mind, no amount of self-help books will change you into a better person.

Smile and the world smiles with you. Bitch, moan, and complain… and you’ll be left alone.

Well, yesterday was interesting. I went out at 1:30pm just to clear my head a little. I brought my wallet in case I got in the mood to purchase something. But, other than my sunglasses, I didn’t take anything else.

Within 10 minutes of walking around (and trying to understand just HOW the hell Metro Video can stay in business when its prices for DVDs are so expensive… and then wondering how the HELL HMV can stay in business when ITS prices are so expensive), I hear massive, screaming, shouting, Fire trucks.

“Hm. Wonder if they’re for us,” I say to myself. Stupid me.

I couldn’t get back into work because a gas main leak outside of the building on Stanley caused the evacuation. I met up with the main person in charge of DR and we went around trying to gather the troops. Our initial meeting place was also evacuated and there was no one at the secondary. We swung around the building and found people milling around and directed them to our Head Office. Once we all gathered, we waited it out. The Help Desk was quickly set up in their alternate site and folks were doing what they had to do. By 3:30pm it was decided that those who wanted to leave could since the building would only be opened at 4:30pm. Normally, I would have left. But, without my bag and glasses I couldn’t. Instead, I walked around town, had an Ice-Cap at Tim’s with a friend, and then came back.

Today… I’m just looking forward to going home. I can’t say I’ll ever talk about what happened this week, but I will say that it had a profound impact on my life and future. Thankfully, my belief that life is meant to improve eventually in all regards keeps me sane. Eventually is almost a mantra with me.

—Side Note on DVDs: As an example, Daredevil the DVD: Future Shop $24.99 – Metro Video $25.99 – HMV $27.99. The absolute best place? Wal-Mart $23.96. I didn’t even bother to go check at Archambault as I really have never seen their prices in the worthwhile range for mass-produced stuff… Again, I ask, how can these stores continue to exist and expand?

“We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise
we harden.”

*Johann Wolfgang von Goethe {1749-1832 German Poet & Scientist}

I spoke too soon.

It’s gotten even worse.