Popped the Big One

As many of you know I've been living with Mrs.Puzuma(Carrie) and that we have a mini Puzuma(Logan). We've been together for 8 years, April will be 9 years.

Well this morning the Mrs opened a box and in it was paper around another box. Inside that was another box. In that third box was something shiny. As we all know shiny's good.

As she was looking at the shiny thing I asked a simple little question, "Will you be my bunker monkey forever?"


She said yes.


The wedding is hoping to be 2010. Why? Well at that point our son will be legal age to play paintball. Yes, discussion of the wedding is around paintball.

We're hopping to have the proceedings at a local field, get married there, have the reception there and just have fun.... it's kind of like a shotgun wedding. :D

I hurt

Here it is, December 17, 2007. Eight days until Christmas and I've been wishing for spring for the last 4 weeks.

http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=821343&auth=Jordan+Press
Seems Kingston was hit with a pretty big snow storm. All I know is that yesterday I shoveled the driveway twice and again this morning. My arms feel like limp noodles. My back is stiff and I feel like I've been beaten with a stick.

To top it off we're supposed to get flurries all this week. Wee.... More shoveling.

Guess that means more snow to put in parking spot #2.

Yeah. There's 3 apartments in this building. I'm apartment 1. Last winter I shoveled the 4 car driveway and the bitch in apartment 2 had people parking in it. This year the driveway needed shoveling twice prior to the storm and SURPRISE! they didn't shovel at all. So I've only been shoveling from my door to the end of the first parking spot. Every scoop goes into that spot. Why should she reap the rewards for my work? Fuck her. And if the landlords come her to chew me out over it I'll tell them where to go, how to get there and what stop to get off at.

Well, Doesn't look like I'll be going into business anytime soon. Or at least I won't be converting the Memorial Center into a field. More information came in and it's WAY too cost prohibitive to try. Unless I win $40 million in the lotto and can buy the land it won't happen. I doubt the city would sell.

Last weekend Carrie and Logan decided to decorate for Christmas. I'd rather decorate 7 days before the big day and take it all down before the first week of the new year is over. I hate the cluttered feeling of having things decked out. Add to the fact we have low ceilings and I keep bumping into things....

Carrie's got some minor rib problems again. not sure if she cracked or bruised things the other day but her right side is swollen and tender. She's also had problems with her period again. She's never been regular and uses birth control to regulate it. The thing is it either doesn't work or it does for a year and then stops. Her body seems to adapt to it. She's been on 4 or 5 versions of the pill, all with different chemical compositions and has now been on the patch for a little over a year. It too has stopped working, she'd had her period now for about a month. The only "good" thing is it hasn't been as heavy as normal for her.

Carrie called her gyno yesterday to try and make an appointment. With the "snow storm" we had there were plenty of cancellations. Now Carrie has to call the hospital by the end of the week to set up a date for surgery. She's going to get a partial hysterectomy. That should end the problem once and for all.

Logan is driving me nuts lately. I know he doesn't mean to but it seems like he's doing everything he can to tick me off. Logan has always been attached to me. Doesn't matter where I go he follows. Carrie can be standing next to him at the refrigerator and he'll ask ME if I can get him a drink. Sometimes it makes me want to bash my skull in with a hammer.

This past Friday Carrie and I went to the Cataraqui Town Center to do our Christmas shopping for each other. I picked up a few things for her I know she'll like and she THINKS she knows what they are. I've neither confirmed or denied her suspicions.

Logan's school had a school store set up for the first time this year. It's a great little program. The school sets up a couple of days and some space to allow the younger kids to buy presents for friends and family. They were expected to earn their own money for this. Parents help list who they were to buy gifts for and a maximum amount for each person. Gifts range in price from $0.50 up to $15.00. They got to pick things out on their own and learn about budgeting money too. Today his teacher will be helping them wrap everything.

My back is starting to hurt again. Nowhere near as bad as in February thankfully. I've had to shovel the driveway 3 times now and will probably have to do it again soon. It kind of sucks living in the basement and having our own entrance since no-one else will shovel down to our door. It wouldn't be too bad if it weren't a 4 car driveway. What sucks even more is the fact we don't have a car. The bitch and he boyfriend on the second floor don't have car either but they have more vehicles show up as company in a week than any one else in the building does for a year and they DON'T shovel. Yet they have the fucking nerve to say we're inconsiderate if we leave our door open when we go to check the mail? Maybe I'll be lucky this Christmas and Santa will give 'em some really bad pot, bad enough it kills them, or that Social Services finds out they are defrauding the system.

Going into business?

It would be nice. Maybe someone reading this can offer me some help.



That's an over head view of the Kingston Memorial Center.

The Memorial Center is located near downtown and is within walking
distance to bus stops. It isn't really being used for much since the new arena is almost built.

The Memorial Center is on 23 acres of land, not quite a 50/50 split of
buildings/parking and field area, but close enough.



On the left are the buildings, on the right is open field circled by a
running track. The entire property is fenced in with an obvious entrance
at the Hockey building and parking between it and the livestock
buildings. The rink has a seating capacity of just over 3000 people.
There's room for roughly 200 cars in the main parking and another 50 or
so in the lower parking area. Parking "behind" the rink would be for
staff and can be accessed from the other road.

The rink obviously has change rooms, washrooms, snack bars and a meeting
room.

The yellow circle indicates an man door in the fencing that would be
permanently locked.

The area circled in purple is where the fall fair takes place including
parking for their vehicles. Since the city has a contract the fair would
still need to be accommodated.

Now using NPPL field dimensions as a base I'm figuring there could
easily be 15 speedball fields. Re-arrange the netting and you can have
bigger fields.

Modifications: Exterior- Fencing would need to have it's height
increased. I think it's 10' now but would prefer 12-14'. Multiple holes
would need to be sunk around the interior of the track to accommodate
removable safety netting posts, 18' tall for 16' tall netting. This
would allow the track to be used for safety vehicles and foot traffic to
reach various fields. Additional flood lights added for increased play
time/safety. I'm not sure where the fill stations would be set up though.

Interior- Retractable safety netting suspended from the ceiling to
allow for occasional ice usage.

Pool - None. Pool would remain open to the public during the summer
season with and paintballers would get a free swim with a game booking.

Aside from the fact that I have no business experience I think the
biggest huddle would be proper zoning to allow air guns to be used.

So... Do you think something like this would work? We have a university
and 2 or 3 colleges in town and were centrally located too.

Now some of my research has yielded some information.

For example: for the year of 2007 operation costs of the Memorial Center, as is, is $300,000.00.

Now there's no way I'm going to put 15 fields there right off the bat but it's nice to know what kind of expansion is possible.

I checked out Money Paintball for start up equipment and insurance. Insurance will be near the $2000.00 mark/year. They have a great "starter package" that would have enough stuff to put up 4 outdoor fields, all the rental gear and a compressor for $140,000.00. There's a Reball package that I could use indoors, so that paint doesn't cover everything, for $50,000.00. So $200,000.00 gets everything.

I'm still trying to find out the costs for bulk paint, but if I can get mid grade paint for $63.00/case and a skid has 48 cases I'm looking at $3024.00/skid. At one skid/month that's $36,288.00/ year.

That means monthly expenses would be about $45,000.00/month not including staff...
That means if I sell paint at a 15% markup ($73.00/case) and charged $20.00 field fee I'd need 2100 people to play a month.

I may have to just use a portion of the field only to reduce costs and run a store out of the Memorial Center.....

MY BRAIN HURTS!

Now that my inner Gumby has been released.....


It hasn't been very long but I've been working on a potential business project for the last 5 days. I'm not going to give any details until I have more information and a better grasp on the big picture. As of right now it's a HUGE picture.

Just for equipment for the start up I'm looking at at least $400,000.00. I still have to consider some other things yet but am waiting for more info to come in so that number could go up or down. Most likely up.

I knew it would be expensive. I know I won't make it rich, at least right away. I have some fantastic plans in mind that could prove to be massive money makers too.

What's pissing me off about this right now is several of the supply companies "only deal with businesses". What the fuck is that about? How is someone supposed to ensure he has the capital to start a business if he can't find out what shit will cost? See why my brain hurts?

Other than that not much else is really going on.

Carrie is doing well. Her back is still not that great but she is starting to do more walking.

Logan is having fun at school. He's enjoying the running and reading club again this years. He's also starting to enjoy reading at home. He's been reading his book every day, 10 minutes or more at a time. He's currently reading The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat by Thornton W. Burgess. He's a little more than half way through the 120 pages. There's 20 books in the series and I think we have 5 or 6 of them.

In the 80's (I think)the Burgess books were adapted for television in a cartoon called the Green Forest. I remember watching that on a daily basis because my youngest sister Paula loved the show. I didn't mind it too much, the stories were pretty good and the animation was OK but it just wasn't Transformers or G.I. Joe.

Depressed

And rightfully so it seems. And it all has to do with my extremely small, string on muscle relaxer, limp penis.

At least according to my junk mail box. Carrie would say otherwise of course, but why should I trust my loving wife? She doesn't flood my in box with 500 emails a week saying how strong and virile I am. So it must be true. I'm told I NEED and extra three inches at least 4 times a day and that I need about 40 lbs of Viagra type meds a week.

Based on my email I should have a schlong that measures...(3" x 4 times a day x 7 days a week x 52 weeks a year)... That's 192" or 16 feet long. DAMN! No wonder the wife isn't sexually satisfied.

That also explains why I need so much Viagra. God help me if I missed a dose. I'd be hard at both ends and limp in the middle.

Mind you If I followed their advice I'd start getting emails about me having a pencil dick.

On the plus side though I'm not fat. I don't any emails screaming that I need to lose 30 pounds fast.

I think I'm going to take my teeny weeny to the bathroom and cry now.

That didn't last long...

Three days into the book he decided he didn't want a CCG. So now we've switched gears. 10 minutes of reading gets him his computer time for the day.

Friday one of the Degus had another litter of pups. Only 6 this time. The other female looks about ready to explode so we're thinking another litter within the next week.

I hate looking for work. It's depressing. I don't have a college degree so that kills a large chunk of jobs. I've got some rusty computer skills but no papers so I'm over qualified to flip burgers but under qualified to fix computers. I could go back into ware housing but lifting Logan hurts my back, how the hell am I supposed to be able to lift 50lb regularly through out the day and do it 5 days a week?

Reading

At the beginning of the school year Logan brought home a note stating that to improve a child's reading skill they need to read for 10 minutes a day. That sounds great in theory but has proven difficult at best in practice.

Like all kids, if he doesn't want to do something he makes it seem as if it's killing him. Logan's thing is he's "itchy". This allows him to squirm and whine and put the book down. Of course every 30 seconds he's asking if it's been 10 minutes yet. He also tends to like to "read" books he pretty much has memorized.

Last night I found one of my book I figure he might like. It's a novel by Marvel Comics, a Spider-man/X-men cross over. It's about 200 pages long and in the 10 minutes he read slightly more than a page. Towards the end he was dropping the tears to try and get out of it. GAH!

Then I had flash of inspiration. I'm not quite bribing him, I'm challenging him. If he gets the book read by Christmas then for his birthday we will get him a collectible card game. He was very interested in the deal.

I explained to him that he HAD to be able to read fairly well to play a CCG like Pokemon, Yu-gi-oh or any of the other games. He was curious about what other card games there were so we went on line and looked some up. I told him that we'd have to go to the stores around us because not all the games we found would be available here. So today after lunch we're all going downtown to the games shops.

Carrie had her dentist appointment in Belleville last week. The bone loss in the jaws isn't being caused by the osteopenia, it's being caused by gingivitis and another oral disease. Both are treatable and both should have been seen by the dentist here. So we are a bit pissed about that. Dr. Vepoorte in Belleville is going to take us back on as clients so we don't have a group of retarded monkeys putting sharp objects in out mouths anymore.

Carrie also saw our family doctor. Basically he told her to only use the chair for long walks. She needs to walk at least 30 minutes a day to help strengthen her back. It won't cure her but it will help reduce the pain.

The week before last we had a meeting with ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program). Basically they wanted to confirm our finances to ensure we were still eligible. We are for now.

They informed us about changes being made and that I now have to work(or prove I'm looking for it), even if it's part time. Failure to do so would mean I'm removed from the monthly cheque.

Now, I have been looking. I've been putting out several resumes on line a week, including to womens clothing stores. I just haven't bothered to keep a record. So of course I get the lecture from ODSP. Then a few days later from Carrie. A few days after that I hear it from my mother. Carrie gives me a second hand lecture from our family doctor. So I had a meltdown.

I snapped. Now I have everyone in the family terrified I'm going to do something stupid. They all want me to go in and get diagnosed to see if I suffer from depression. That's a great idea but how do i do that? A few months ago our doctor gave Carrie a referral for a psychiatrist. That went great, none of them here in Kingston were taking new patiences. So how the hell do I get to see one? I don't have a referral, not that would actually help. Maybe if I had a gun or a large knife?

I need to punch something...

As you know Carrie was diagnosed with Osteopenia last year, it's like a step below osteoporosis.

We managed to get a loaner electric wheel chair through the Oddfellows Hall and that's been great. Carrie would prefer a scooter since it's easier to put into a trunk should we need to take a car somewhere.

Sunday afternoon Carrie was munching on some leftover roast beef and found one of her lower front teeth had come loose. Monday and Tuesday she had some minor discomfort and yesterday it was bad enough for her to go to the dentist.

The dentist took some x-rays and pulled 2 of her teeth. Based on the x-rays he could see that the bone had deteriorated to a point where it could not support the tooth. Further x-rays showed that the rest of the lower teeth were not being supported properly anymore. Basically she has about 6 months before the rest of her bottom teeth fall out.

The Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) doesn't cover dentures. We sure as hell don't have the funds to pay for them out of our pocket either.

My stress levels aren't doing so well.

We called my mother to let her know what was going on and what we should do next. She suggested we contact her dentist for a denture consult/second opinion. Sine he knows mom so well he'd be able to set up a payment play.

Carrie had an appointment on Wed with him then on Thursday she sees our family doctor to talk to him about this. I'm guessing/hoping that he'll order another bone density test and make it more thorough.

9/11 balh blah blah

There are probably a thousand and one blogs yammering about "Don't for get those who died".

There's a thread on the forum following the same line.

Too bad a lot of these things are so damned hypocritical. For example one member effectively stated that the people who died in the Oklahoma Bombing back in April 19,1995 are less important because he was only a year old and didn't witness it.

Do I mourn for those that died? No. Should I? No. Should anyone? That's your choice. It could be argued that I don't care because I'm Canadian but that's not true. The dead are dead and mourning them changes nothing. "show some respect for the dead." Well I am. I'm not out there pissing on Ground Zero, I'm not digging up the dead and defiling the bodies am I?
When it happened I was in shock, not only at the attack but at the loss of life. I mourned them on that day and I felt sorrow for the families that were unsure for days after if they lost loved ones and I felt angry that something like that could happen. What do I feel now? Caution. I will never forget 9/11 But why should the significance of that one act deserve more remembrance than April 19?

People need to remember all the incidents. Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people, 19 of them Children, yet I haven't ANY blogs or threads on the forum asking to remember them. I would think it would be a much more important thing to remember than 9/11 because it was a HOMEGROWN TERRORIST.

What about Beirut and the Embassy bombing on April 18, 1983?

Why do you insist on remembering ONLY one incident? Jesus Christ, you have people in the Middle East fighting the "War on Terror".

If you want to honor those that fell at the hands of terrorists honor ALL of them.

So it's September 9, 2007. School has been in for four whole days! So far it's been a bit of an adjustment but it's been going well. I just don't know what to do while Logan is gone during the day.

We already have to go see the principal though. Not for something Logan did but what a kid in his class did. The little girl across the street has volunteered to walk Logan to and from school. Friday, on the way home, a kid in Logan's class (Connor) yelled from his bus window, "Logan you're a fucking retard!" This is the same kid from last year that was threatening to beat Logan up. Monday morning I'll be walking Logan to school so I can talk to Mr. Muncey.

A couple of weeks ago Carrie was in contact with Oddfellows about a wheelchair. They came through for her and we had a chair in excellent condition. Well, Thursday they called us again. They managed to get a power chair for her. Carrie's still learning to drive it with out killing those around her but she's getting better.

Labor Day weekend Carmen and Steve came to Kingston to visit his parents and picked Logan up to go fishing.

As you can see he was allowed to drive the boat.
After that they took him to Chuck E. Cheese's for supper.

Unfortunately they brought Logan home... LOL!

So what else is going on? Well, Karen, our third floor neighbor, just found out she's preggers. Next Friday her twin boys are having a birthday party at McDonlad's and Logan is excited to go.
Tuesday Carrie has an appointment to see about going back to school. She only needs 3 or 4 more credits to get her grade 12. On the 19th we go to the optometrist for a contact lens thing. Carrie wants to get them. I wouldn't mind but I'm concerned about allergies and I don't think ODSP will cover them for me unless there's a medical reason that I need them. If they give free samples then cool.

On the paintball forum there's a thread asking "Is Puzuma going weak?" I was listening to music and it displayed the song on MSN. Nelly Furtado was in the playlist and a member noticed this. A few posts later I'm now in a rock band and I wrote our first song. The post is more like the start of a concert:

** walks on stage with a sledge hammer in each hand. starts banging them together**

-Death metal Riff-

You type like a (expletive) freak
Text type is for geeks!

YOU'RE BANNED! YOU'RE BANNED! YOU'RE BANNED!

You think it's cool to flame?
It's weak, proves you're lame!

YOU'RE BANNED! YOU'RE BANNED! YOU'RE BANNED!

Whining on the forum like wuss
I wanna puch you right in the puss!

YOU'RE BANNED! YOU'RE BANNED! YOU'RE BANNED!

Wanna plot a DOS attack?
Time for me to lay the smack!

YOU'RE BANNED! YOU'RE BANNED! YOU'RE BANNED!

-drum solo-

REPEAT Lyrics

**pitches hammers into the crowd**

I have no life. LOL

Head cold!

Yup. Here it is August 14 and I have a head cold. No idea where I got it from but I wish it would go back. If anyone wants it I'm more than happy to mail it to you.

All the baby degus are gone now, all to the pet store. So it's just the 3 adults again. For a little while any way. I wouldn't be surprised to we have more by the end of October.

My mom is moved into her new home. We went for a visit last week. It's a bit out of the way for my tastes but it'll be nice next year for Logan to go camp in their back yard. The place is infested with frogs. I managed to catch one . It was cool enough for me to catch, hold and for Logan to look at but NOT cool enough for him to touch.


Last week I got a note on here from my Aunt Debbie. It was pleasant surprise, especially since I almost forgot I had an Aunt Deb. According to my mother I haven't seen her since I was 3. Other than that all she's been to me is a faceless name. She and Carrie seem to get along great and form the sounds of it Debbie may be planning a visit out this way sometime.

I also got a card from my dad, Greg, last week. It was nice to hear from him but I wish it had been better news. Back in May Grandma Viv passed away and I gave dad a call. He seemed to be doing ok but had mentioned some health problems and that he was waiting for some tests. Well, his note explained that for more than a year he's been aspirating.

Main Entry: as·pi·ra·tion
Pronunciation: "as-p&-'rA-sh&n
Function: noun
1 a : audible breath that accompanies or comprises a speech sound b : the pronunciation or addition of an aspiration; also : the symbol of an aspiration
2 : a drawing of something in, out, up, or through by or as if by suction: as a : the act of breathing and especially of breathing in b : the withdrawal of fluid or tissue from the body c : the taking of foreign matter into the lungs with the respiratory current.

From the sounds of it he's been sucking food into his lungs. Not good. He's tried different exercises with no luck. Now he's waiting to hear from a neurologist. He's also got a tube going to his stomach. That means he doesn't get to eat. It gets blended up and poured in. I was hoping that he'd be able to come for a visit next summer but I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

As for more good news.....

Our friend Sherry is pregnant. She's 5 or 6 weeks along and I'm getting teased that it's mine. She had come by one evening because of computer problems and wanted me to take a look and it was then I got her knocked up(that was 3 weeks ago). I suppose there are worse things I could be accused of. LOL.

Logan is looking forward to school starting. He's been going through every flyer that comes in for his school supplies. What the hell would he need in grade 2? I know he'll need 2 pairs of sneakers, one indoor and one out. Hopefully the school send out the supply list soon. I'm looking forward to him going back to school too.

Eight down. Seven to go.

Today we took Itch's babies into the pet store. Man were they noisy on the way there, squeaking up a storm. At least there's room for the others in the tank.

We put ads out for the others, so far no one has responded. If we still have them by Aug 9 then we call the pet store again and see if they can take them.

Yesterday we walked down to Montreal Street where Berry's Pets is located. Berry's has 5 cu ft bags of shavings for $9.99 so that should last us quite a while. We also picked up a nice large bag of feed too.

Logan has been grounded for the last week and he hasn't been too happy about that. Last Thursday he smucked a 3 year old in the face with a swing in our back yard. He saw the kid coming but still went ahead and tried to wrap the swing over the cross bar. Saturday Logan hucked a toy truck at Issac and cut his forehead. For that Logan was grounded to his room for a week. He's out tomorrow,thank god, and I think he's finally figured out that punishments are not fun.

Carrie and I are in the process of looking for a a wheelchair for her. Our walk to Berry's just about killed her. Seems the bad days for pain are becoming more frequent. It totally sucks. What's worse is it's affecting our sex life. It's not like we were little bunnies to begin with but now even taking it slow causes her pain. She feels bad because she has to stop. I feel bad because I'm hurting her. What can we do though?

Bad back and Buskers

Two week ago Carrie went to Hamilton to visit her friend Danielle, who she hasn't seen in a couple of years. The day before she came home she had called to ask if I was ok with having Dakota, Danielle's 3 year old daughter, spend a week with us. Seeing as Danielle had watched Logan so much when he was younger I said sure.

Thank god the seek is over. Having Dakota here reminded us why having another kid wasn't what we wanted. LOL. She's 3, she's stubborn and she's more than a handful. I hope Danielle and Dennis enjoyed their "week off".

This past Tuesday Carrie returned to Hamilton with Dakota. This morning I get a call saying Carrie was in the hospital last night. She seems to have thrown her back out. So now Carrie's return home may be delayed a few days while she recovers. I talked to her this morning, she sounded really tired. They gave her a prescription for Tylenol3 and for some muscle relaxers. She's was going to come home on Tuesday but we'll see.

Thursday the Kingston Busker's Rendezvous started. Logan and I went downtown to check some of it out. We got there in time to catch the last bit of Slackwire Sam. Next we watched a bit of Pandora Pink (who I just found iritating) who did cigar box juggling. Up the street though Arizona Jones was just starting his show.

	Arizona Jones - NEW! Join this archeologist adventurer extraordinaire in a satirical tribute to one of pop culture’s greatest icons, Indiana Jones. He’ll amaze you with ship-cracking, animal traps, magic, fire bullwhips and humour and a 14 foot golden pole! (Australia)

At one point he was trying to get the audience to cheer. He pulled out a squirt gun and threatened to shoot Logan. The first volunteer was pulled from the audience, given some dried spaghetti, bent over and positioned so the pasta was being held near his ass. Out comes the whip, snap goes the spaghetti. A few jokes later he pulled 8 more guys out of the audience, I was one of them. 6 were aked to hold support ropes for the "golden pole" the other guy and I were asked to hold the pole, then used as step stools so he could get up there. Before that though he took a couple of minutes to poke fun at me and the other guy. I ended up doing a primal scream and the other guy was fluttering around the pole like a bird. Logan thought it was great.

After that we watched DynaMike, a juggler/unicyclist. He dragged kid from the crowd and was going to ride the unicycle with the kid on his shoulders. The kid chickened out and his mom was used instead. At the end of the show the kid got $5.00. The finally though was Mike on a 12' tall unicycle juggling knives.

Tonight, if it doesn't rain, we're heading back down there. They are doing a fire show. Fire juggling, fire eating, fire breathing. Should be fun. I'd post pics but Carrie has the camera with her.

Baby Degus out the wahzoo!

So on Tuesday June 25 our Degu, Itch, gave birth to her second litter pups.

Her first litter was on January 8th and, as you may recall, the father (Scratch) died on Christmas eve. From that litter we kept 1 male and one female. We named the male Splinter and have as yet to name the female.

Well it looks like splinter has been a busy beaver. Not only did he knock up his mother but his sister too. This morning she's given birth to 4 new pups. She may have more through out the day.

I had been planning on cleaning the cage as it was. With 3 adults and 8 pups in there the water gets dumped regularly and the shavings stink after while. Carrie noticed some blood on the shavings, after birth, and commented.

I'm loathe to cause them stress by cleaning the cage but it reeked and I cleaned it as carefully as I could. I left their hose where it was for as long as possible and cleaned about 90% out. I added the new shavings, lifted the house and we could tell there more than 8 pups in there. Carefully moving them to where the house was we found the 4 newborns. Once they were safe I cleaned the remainder of the cage.

With Itch's pups we have (as far as we can tell) 5 males and 3 females. In a week well try sexing ALL of them again.

So.... Want to buy some Degus? We sell them in pairs ONLY, 2 for $20.00

Itchs second litter!

People need to be bitched slapped and kicked in the groin.

Canada Day has come and gone. Overall it wasn't horrible but it wasn't exactly good either.

Sunday morning arrived with a cool wind and a want to put on pants and a sweater. I HATE wearing sweaters. Logan and I went downtown to the A&P grocery store to be in the Red and White Parade. No it's not whites and communists, you wear red and white to show National pride.

While we were waiting Logan got his picture taken for a local paper called the Heritage. Hopefully he'll be in the paper but we're not expecting it.

One the parade started (only 5 minutes late) it took about 25 minutes to get to City hall. There the Speaker of the House ( The Honorable Peter Milliken, M.P), Edward Davey (Kingston M.P), and Mayor Harvey Rosen made speeches and handed out a few awards.

After that we wandered around the park looking at the different sales tents. Everything was over priced as is normal for any kind of "fair ground". With prices that high I don't see where fair comes into play. Logan got his face painted, Toronto Maple Leafs. That was supposed to cost $5.00 but she gave him $2.00 change so he could get an ice cream.

After that we went home. There was nothing really to do down there. No games, not entertainment for kids. We had supper and headed back downtown at 8:30 for get a spot for fire works.

We get back to the park with about a 40 minute wait. We look around for a spot to sit and find one. Logan is being friendly and keeping everyone around us updated with a countdown every time he'd ask me, "how long now?" People were walking back and forth on the path in front of us and that was OK since that's what it's for and the fire works hadn't started yet.

The city hall clock tower began to chime 10:00. Most people hurried off of the path to their seats. But right in front of us was a group of about 15 people. They weren't a single large group but a few clusters of 2- 5 people. For the first 3 minutes of the fireworks we couldn't see squat and I was asking, then telling, and finally yelling and these idiots to either get down or move. The response from all but 1 was " Well why don't you stand up?"

When I did several of them shut up and wandered off, The res shut up and hunkered down. Now I'm in a foul mood and ready to kill someone, just waiting for some stupid drunk to come along and just breathe on me. We saw a spot in front of where people had been standing and moved for a better view.

Logan had a good time but the show sucked. The effort the city put in was weak. The show only lasted 15 minutes and the "finally" was mediocre at best. Hell I've seen better shows with the packs you can buy at the corner store.

In conclusion if you insist on standing up in front of kids watching fire works you need a beat down. The City of Kingston needs for for the fireworks display. I'm going to toss a few of the Special Ops forum members in the list because they lack simple common sense. And lastly anyone that calls a store and asks, "Are you open?" because it's just damned annoying. Call the day before a holiday and ask if they will be open, it'll save you waiting on a ringing phone if they aren't.

Elitie Weekend ROCKED!!!

YEEEEEEEEEAAAH BABY!!!

I'm not going to lie. Over all it was a blast but there were a fair number of problems.

First problem was my flight on Thursday was an hour late getting off the ground. What that means is I was late for dinner at Rodizio's. I heard all about it and it sounds like it was a blast on it's own.


The next problem was the altitude. Kingston is approximately 300 feet above sea level. All the paintball events took place between 5400 and 7800 feet. I felt like I was breathing through a damned straw. Running up and down the sides of a mountain didn't help that much. lol

The only other difficulty was the fact that we were constantly behind schedule. Generally the tour buses left the hotels about 20 minutes late and that just cascaded into all other events being delayed.

That's it for problems though.

Everyone seemed to have a great time. We all played a phenomenal game, with honor and integrity. It was a huge pleasure to play with/against everyone.

So let's see..... Friday we arrived at the Spec Ops store, met the sponsor(Atomic Ordinance, Stiffi, Draxxus, Vforce, Tippmann, Tiberius Arms, Engler Customs and Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball. Next the players were broken in to 6 groups of 10, given their free gear and tours of the facilities. Myself and the rest of the Special Ops forum Mod Squad were given out red shirts, free camo and badges, and then put to work making ghillie cloaks.

We then headed off to the field. Since it was time for the positional clinics the Mod squad was given the option to attend the clinic of their choice. I selected the Sabre clinic. We marched down into our section of the field where our own mod Rob "Tyger" Ruben was in charge and we found out Greg Hastings was co-teacher.

The clinic was 10 minutes of "classroom", a 10 minute game, 10 minutes "classroom", 10 minute game, 10 minutes "classroom", 10 minute game. It was a blast even though I got shot out each time.

We then headed back to the staging area for a snack and to wait for the SPPL style game to start. By that time though the altitude was starting to affect me as was the heat. I think it was 106F/41C. All I know is I was sweating pools and I decided it was healthier to sit out for a bit.

After that it was BBQ for supper followed by the nightvision game. The Mod Squad wasn't needed for that so we took the shuttle back to the hotel and went for a swim.

Saturday morning arrived with temps over 100F/37F. We returned to the Retribution field for the team challenge. I woke up sick to the stomach and had to bow out of participating as the opposition in the Down Pilot scenario. The Mod Squad was to be enemy forces and one was to be the down pilot. The players were supposed to come in, locate and rescue the pilot and/or retrieve a data CD. Collecting both was big points, collecting just the CD was OK but not worth as much. I took some photos of the first game then wandered of to try and check out some of the other stuff.

I found the zipline challenge next. 500 feet across and 100 feet down. The objective: Shoot all 10 targets while crossing the valley. Even though I didn't use the marker it was still cool to go across.

After that the team I met up with headed up the mountain to the rifle range. Sadly I didn't get to shoot anything but I did get to see the Barrett 82A1 get fired. To quote the Mad Bomber What Bombs at Midnight; "BOOM BABY! YEAH! HAHAHAHHAHAHA!" (Tick reference. Geez, read a damned comic book people!)

I was starting to feel the altitude again so I walk the 3/4 mile down to the staging area, just in time for lunch. I managed to eat a hot dog and was waiting to see if it would say down.

The announcement came that if everyone hit the field in 10 minutes we could be back on schedule. The Mod Squad protested because they had JUST got in for chow. They ate and left while I felt my stomach gurgle a bit. 20 minutes later I wasn't feeling overly bad and was trying to decide what to take pics of next. That's when Rob "Tyger" Rubin conscripted me into officiating the Tiberius Pistol Challenge. I was supposed to follow the player down a short course with 30 targets. The player had 3 minutes and 32 rounds to complete the challenge. 1 point per target and 1 point/second left on the clock at the end of the course. Several players ran the clock out with out getting to the end. Those players ended up with a higher hit ratio (12+). The others ended up little difference. They would hit fewer(6 to 10) targets but time left on the clock brought them up to average. The high score for the day was 21 points.

We were supposed to leave for the hotel at 6:30 to shower and change before heading to Jason Orvis' (owner of Spec Ops) house for a pizza party. Since we were late pizza was diverted to the field, then we went back to the hotel to change and finally to Jason's place. There was a lot of chatting about the day and what to expect on Sunday. some of us got to play Greg Hastings Paintball on PS2 against Greg Hastings himself. It was a blast! At midnight we wnet back to the hotel.

Sunday Morning:
We were supposed to head to the Spec Ops store before the game but since it was a 2 hour drive to the Elite mountain field that didn't happen. I was hopping it would since my pod pack and pods disappeared. We arrived 7800feet above sea level. Just getting out of the bus had me trying to catch my breath.

Everyone wandered around for a bit and had something for lunch. Tyger called us all together for the safety briefing and team assignments. Basically the 6 10 man teams were split into 2 groups, one red one blue. There were also 40 or so invited "walk ons", local players, and the Mod Squad left. We were split into two groups green team and mercenaries.

Red team was Russians, Blue Chinese and Green Kazakhstan. Green was split into 2 sub groups one was given red armbands the other blue. They were then sent to opposite sides of the field to act as the first objective of the scenario.

The overall theme was a satellite went down and both Chinese and Russian governments wanted it. Points were earned for holding various bases for your respective team. Bases included 2 communications buildings(one on the blue side, one on the red), hospital, artillery base and training camp. Green held the Com bases to start. I was on Green/Blue.

After we were converted to Blue Kole "Cpt. Obvious" Maxewell, John "Maj Tom " Abeli and a couple of the other Mod Squad wandered of to do our own thing. We headed up the hill and noticed some barrels to our right and we decided to check them out in case they held some sort of secret. We moved into the woods just pass them and started taking fire shortly after. I took a hit in the left should, called myself out and headed to the re-spawn point. It was there I found out it had been a bounce.

Re-spawns were every 15 minutes and by that time there were 5 of us there. We had noticed a path across from us and decided to follow it. It only made sense since the Mod Squad had no map. Turns out it went to the Artillery camp. Looking back the first big bang should have been an easy clue. As we got closer we saw some other Blues hunkered down. They had been taking sporadic fire and we came under it too. We traded paint with out barely visible opponents for a good 5 minutes. That's when I got hit in the side of my mask. On the way back to the re-spawn I saw a group of 4 or 5 Reds coming up from behind. Too bad dead men can't talk. Five minutes in the dead box more blues arrived. That's when I found out I'd been hit with friendly fire! NO-ONE had bothered to see who was shooting whom.

While waiting to reinsert we saw a squad of 10-12 red go by towards the Blue Com Center. We decided to sneak up behind them . We crossed over the woods and paralleled the road so we had some cover. We got to the bottom of the slope below the Com Center, took a bit of fire and were reduced to 3 from 6. We did eliminate 2 or 3 of the reds though. At that point it was decided we should RUN across the road, hit the field boundary, haul ass up a 70 foot long hill at a 16 degree grade. Did I mention that this was at 7800 feet? By the time I got to the top I was huffing and puffing like a 90 year old with emphysema after running a marathon. At the top I was seeing stars and only had 10 feet to go to get some cover. I saw 2 paintballs sail past my face and felt one go past the back of my head. I just couldn't move.

THWACK!!! Hit in the ribs. I left the field. I was done after an hour and a half. I sat in the air fill station barely able to breath. Does that qualify as irony? Thirty minutes later I was better able to breathe and headed down to the staging area. I drank three bottles of water, two cans of Sprite and had a slice of watermelon.

It was about 20 minutes or so before the first wave of players started to come down. The game was winding down and players were hungry.

The rest of the Mod Squad began to congregate and Jeremy "redleg_64" Barnby came to me asking my help in grenading French toast. All I had to do was get French toast on his knees and make like I was hitting him with my inflatable hammer. French got HOSED! Everyone laughed including toast.

Ten minutes later I'm waiting in line for chow when I feel the back of my shirt lift up. I though it was a breeze until I felt 8oz of orange paint ooze up and down my back and rear end. I turned on him pretty quickly. Too bad I didn't get a shot of toast's face. He looked really relieved when I started laughing.

After everyone was done eating Jason Orvis announced the prizes and winners. I'd list them but I can't remember who won what. Then they thanked the sponsors and we all headed back to the hotel.

The Mod Squad managed to get a swim in. Lots of cannonballs, chicken fights and lounge chairs in the pool! Good times!

Half of me wanted the weekend to keep going. The other half was screaming, "WHAT?!?! Are you on glue? Go the hell home so you can breathe again!!!"

It was absolutely awesome being part of the FIRST EVER Elite Weekend. I'd love for Spec Ops to invite me back next year but I'm not holding my breath for them to pay my way again.

Here's all the pics I took. Carrie took pics of the bruises today.
These are pics from other sources.

He died...

Last night at 9:30 I went to check on the little bird. He was dead.

I guess the 14' foot fall onto pavement did more damage than we thought.

I got shit on.

You're probably thinking I mean bad news or got into some trouble. Nope you're wrong.

This morning Carrie went for her smoke and found a sparrow chick on the ground. We have a corner piece missing on the buildings siding and birds have nested in there, heck we found 2 dead chicks in the last week already.

She called me out to clean it up. I was about to toss it in the trash when she noticed that it was still breathing. I would have put it back in it's nest but it's 14 feet up the side of the building and we have no ladder here. So she decided to bring it in and help it out.

We called the humane society, but they won't take it and now we have a new house guest. They did tell us to feed it oatmeal though.

The little guy was slow to start eating, but now he's all for food from the tip of a straw. He starts cheeping loudly when he's hungry. Since 9:00 am we've tried to feed him every 20 to 30 minutes, and he's getting stronger each time.

Well with it being after 9pm now I figured it would be his last meal of the day. I'm holding him and he craps on my hand. All I can think of is that stupid joke...

Here are a few pics of him(or her):

OOOOWCHIE!

So early last week Carrie's CPU fan crapped out. It didn't kill the entire computer, or so we thought. We called around to see about a new fan/heatsink for a Socket A motherboard. We found one place that had one. For $40.00.

We brought the computer in too see if they could remove the old one and confirm if it was in fact Socket A that was needed. This is owchie number 1. It's about a 20 minute WALK to the computer place. I carried the computer case there and back only stopping for them to open the case.

Opening the case was owchie number 2. It seems that the extra heat caused by the fan failure assisted 3 of the capacitors to expand/blow. Basically we need a new computer.

On the plus side though I can build her a system for about $325.00. Now we just need the $$$$.

Some additional good news: My Passport arrived on the 13th! So that means I am DEFINITELY going to the Elite Weekend in Utah! WOOT WOOT!!!

I leave Thursday at noon fly from Kingston to Toronto and have a 3.5 hour layover. Then it's 4 hours and 15 minutes to Salt Lake City. I'll arrive there are about 6:40 MDT. After I checkinto my hotel I'll be heading over to Rodizio's for "All you can eat" Brazilian BBQ meal! I hope I can move afterwards. :D

I hate painting.

There are only 2 types of painting I like to do: with paintballs or body paint a woman. For the last week I haven't done either but I have been painting.

We talked to our landlords awhile ago about us getting rid of the 3 walls that were painted red. As long as the colors weren't too dark they were fine with what we picked and gave us a $200.00 giftcard at Canadian Tire.

With the heat and humidity we've been having the latex paint hasn't been drying quite right and has peeled off in a couple of spots. So we have some touch ups to do. This blows. Thankfully all we have left to paint are the doors and a second coat in our bedroom.

Logan had his last Running and Reading Club even this past Saturday. 7 schools met at York University in Toronto for a 5km run (3.1 miles). Everyone got a medal of course but trophies were given to top male and female in respective grade groups and the top overall male and female each won Nintendo Wii. Logan was upset he didn't get one but is proud that he finished the race with a 43:30 time. Logan has said he wants to win the Wii next year and is willing to train. So I guess that means over the summer we go to the local track and he runs 5 laps.

I'm waiting for Friday to roll around. Not because it's Friday or Father's Day weekend, but because my passport should be arriving. You know what that means? Yup! SIX DAYS UNTIL I LEAVE FOR UTAH AND THE ELITE WEEKEND PAINTBALL BONANZA!!!!!!!!!!!

Think I'm anxious for it ?

If you haven't noticed I have joined up with Facebook. I like it better than Myspace. Because of the photo album section I'll be adding pics in there. You'll be able to see thumbnails in the facebook bar in the upper right. If you can't the the white box then you need better glasses. :D

The Wedding

No. Not mine. My sister Carmen.


The wedding was this past Saturday in Belleville, Ontario. The service was at the St. Thomas Anglican Church.

With the day being warm and humid I wasn't looking forward to being in an un-air conditioned building.
Thankfully the service wasn't excessively long.

Carmen and Steve had decided to use bubbles instead of rice/confetti.

Logan was the ring bearer and he did an excellent job, aside from blowing a few bubbles during the service.

The bride, ring bearer, mother & father of the bride arrived via horse and carriage. I'd have taken pics of the arrival but was delegated to hand out bubbles and programs.





The Horse and carriage before leaving for the church.












The Nervous Bride.

The Ring Bearer!

The Bride being given away by her step-father Jim.

The Vows.











The Kiss!



Mr. & Mrs. Steve Payne leaving the Church.


The Ring Bearer and Groom.


The Wedding Party.

The Bride and Groom with their Parents.

Head table at the reception.

The First Dance.

Father Daughter dance.

Mother Son dance. The fog machine was in overdrive.

The Cake. Cut with our grandmother's 50th Anniversary Knife.

Cutting the cake!

Everyone Dancing and having fun!

Bouquet toss!

Steve going for the Garter.

Waiting for the garter toss.

Over all I think everyone had a good time. Logan had a blast and left an impression on everyone. I made a speech about Carmen and embarrassed the hell out of her. Carrie gave a speech and even though she was nervous as hell she did a great job at it. Even Logan gave a little speech!

Confirmation!

Earlier today Rob "Tyger"Ruben posted on the Special Ops forum that we were to contact a certain person via email/phone to book rooms and flights. So I did.

I received an email response with flight options and asking me to select a roommate. So I made my choices. I'll be leaving from the Kingston Airport at noon on June 21 and returning on June 25. I also chose to room with Kole "Cpt. Obvious" Maxwell.

Seems one of the other staff called "dibs" on him and I sent the travel agent another email explaining that. Her response was to ask if I wanted my own room. Well, DUH!!

So now everything is booked but I still need to get my passport... Hopefully there's no problem with that.

In other news, Logan was sent home today with a fever and a cough. He's got a flu bug 10 days before he's the ring bearer at Carmen's wedding. He'll be staying home this week to recover.

Carrie is doing Ok. Her back is still bothering her, but with Osteopenia I guess that's to be expected.

Fear.

So here's the deal.

A little over 10 years ago I read my grandpa (mom's dad) Frank's tea leaves and saw that he wouldn't see the spring. Come early February the following year we got the call. He passed in his sleep while his favorite show was on.

In 2002 I got the call grandpa(dad's dad) "Doc" passed away. His wasn't so pleasant. He had been in the hospital being eaten away by cancer. The meds had him messed up.

This year my dad's mother passed away. She was 84 and in the hospital with a broken hip, or that's what I knew anyway. When my half sister Erika informed me grandma has died this past Monday it was the first time I had heard that she had 2 tumors. I don't know what kind or where but she was a smoker so I'd expect them to be in her lungs.

I called my dad to see how things were going. He sounded like he was holding up ok and told me that they were packing up grandmas stuff. I also found out that he was "having health problems" of his own. What's disturbing about that is the fact that a few years ago he beat throat cancer. Now he's waiting to hear back from some specialist. He used the word specialists but at the same time I heard him say Oncologist.

So here's the score, grandpa Frank beat his prostate cancer, dad beat his throat cancer. Grandpa Doc lost to cancer. My mom's sister, Agnes, was taken by cancer. Grandma Viv and cancer? No real idea.

My mom's mom, Agnes, is still alive and seems healthy as a horse. I'm definitely worried about her.

I'm worried about myself too. Can you blame me? I think it's time I set up an appointment to get a complete physical.

Good bye gandma Viv

I just found out my grandmother(on my dads side) passed away on Monday.
I wish I could go to the funeral but I can't . My dads side of the family isn't what I'd call tight so over the last 10 years we'd all pass letters/emails maybe every 6 months or so but it's still a shock and it still hurts.

She'd been sick for a while, 2 tumors. She broke her hip and was in the hospital. She was having trouble recognizing people due to the amount of painkillers she was on and she passed away in her sleep.

She never got to meet her great grandson or her granddaughter in-law.

At least she passed peacefully and can join grandpa Doc.

WOOOOOOT!!!!!

As I mentioned last time (yesterday) Special Ops is having the Elite Weekend. I was so hopping to go. It looks like I am!!!

As a gift to the forum staff they have set 10 special slots aside. I'm not going into cost details because I'm still not sure what info that they want made public. But I will say it's a wicked awesome deal.

All I need now it to get my passport, and even that seems to be falling into place. I was disheartened to hear that it would be 10 weeks to get it if I mail all the info in. It doesn't take a math wiz to see that won't work. So I made some calls. If I apply in person I can have it in 10 DAYS. Carrie has a doctors appointment on the 14th so I can get him to sign the last two things. Then on May 30 my sister, Paula, is going to arrive in Ottawa for my other sisters wedding. Mom is picking her up. When she does that I'll be going for my passport!

Do I get a Tippmann X-7 like the regular players? Sadly, no. But that's OK becasue of some of the other benefits I get( again not going into detail). But I do get some other stuff I can mention:

• Most meals provided by Special Ops
• Free Elite camo set
• Free Elite tee-shirt
• Play in the big game on Sun. w/free paint

I spent most of last night in a bit of a fog over this. Today I'm nearly vibrating with excitement! I'm almost as thrilled about this as I was when Logan was born.

To those of you that are going, I will see you there (barring passport problems). Those that aren't, keep your fingers crossed for the web cams. Don't worry, I'll be bringing my digital camera and there will be LOTS of photos. I've got a 1GB card in the cam and can take over 8000 pics!

No news is good news I guess.

It's not that things haven't been happening, just nothing major.

My back is slowly recovering. My doctor said I should get into physiotherapy and prescribed me some Novo-Cycloprine (muscle relaxers). I'm not keen on taking them, I dislike taking meds unless I absolutely have to, but at least they are better than the morphine. I've also applied to receive disability support. I doubt I'll get it but it would certainly help us financially.

Carrie has been diagnosed with some kind of osteoporosis of her spine. There's another name for it but neither of us can remember what it is. She's been put on calcium supplements and vitamin D. Hopefully that will fix her up. It explains her back/hip problems.

Logan has been enjoying the nice weather we've finally been getting. He's spending more time outside playing with kids in the neighborhood, flying (trying anyway) his kite, riding his bike and scooter. Lately he's also taken to watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. Being in grade one he has no real clue what any of the answers are but is fun to listen to him try. His answers tend to be things he's heard in commercials or something Carrie and I have said while he's watching.

Special Ops Paintball is hosting an Elite Weekend game on their new field. Details about the weekend can be found here. If you have Google Earth (or something similar) the coordinates are 40°26' 42"N 112°24'02"W. Forum members have been making suggestions on what to put into the field. It looks like they may put up some web cams for the weekend. That would be so freaking awesome for the thousands of us that can't go.

It's too bad it's such a small game. 60 spots total, and only 30 were available for purchase. The other 30 are up for grabs in a draw. I'd love to go this year but time, my back and the cost won't let me. To buy a spot it's $2700.00 US for non Special Ops Brigade members. Because I'm a member it's would only be $1700.00. But I still need airfare, accommodations, food and a passport. Total bill for me in Canadian funds is about $3600.00. It could take up to 10 weeks for my passport to be processed which is well after the weekend.

Easter rant

I'd like to know what assclown decided that giving kids gifts on Easter was a good idea? Seriously. Christmas is bad enough with kids screaming "I want" all day everyday for the 90 days prior to December 25. I'd like to find the son of a bitch and kick him square in the balls.

It's bad enough that the religious folk will get the kids a new set of dress clothes to attend church functions/family gatherings. But giving a kid a baseball glove or a new bike? Blow it out your ass!

When I was growing up we got chocolate. That was pretty much it. Hell I think we were afraid to ask for anything else. The day after easter was always fun in school though: "What did you get?"

"I got a bike and a bat."
"I got a remote control car and $50.00"
"I got a puppy, some clothes, a kite, and a bajillion jelly beans."
"I got some chocolate." - me
"That's it? Are you poor or do your parents just hate you?"

At that point I wanted to kill them. As I got older I learned to ignore them. Now I want to kill them again. Why? They are now parents that insist on giving their children presents from the Easter Bunny.

On the Spec Ops forum one of the members is a tad miffed that he didn't get the paintball gear he asked for. BOO FUCKING HOO TO YOU! Be glad you had family to be with. I've spent several holidays on my own, Christmas, Easter, Thanks Giving... And you have the balls to whine because you didn't get a damned HPA tank?

At this point I'd like to thank Corporate America for turning another family based holiday into a "gimmiefest". Thank you for decaying good family values.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure as hell not a "Charlie Church" but I do have my own brand of spirituality. I believe that love cannot be wrong regardless of age (with in reason) or sexuality. I understand the difference between right and wrong and try my best to live by what's right. There's more but for me it's something I feel and can't put into words.

What I don't believe in is all this Capitalism/Consumerism that warps the minds of the nations youth. I'm not against Capitalism/Consumerism. I'm against the fact that they takes days that are considered sacred and turns them into cash cows.

What really chaps my ass is that all these "money days" are based on Catholic/Christian holidays. When's the last time you saw a 60 day sales campaign targeting Chanukah, Ramadan, or Cinco de Mayo?

The church doesn't like gays? Well I don't like your gimmie holidays.

Almost completly mobile!

Yup. I'm a lot better now. I can walk Logan to and from school. Mind you I'm still having pain when I put socks and shoes on. The bending isn't the problem, it's the straightening out and of course some quick movements.

When I stand up it feels as though I have a major ass cramp. My right butt cheek is the worst and feels like I've been shot with a nail gun. The pain moves into my thigh and cramps my calf too. The left side isn't as bad. It feels like a cramp but stops about mid thigh.

Logan broke his glasses on Friday. We needed to pick up some paperwork at ODSP so I (stupidly) walked up there. Normally the walk takes me about 45 minutes round trip. This time it took me 90 minutes. I was good on the way up there, aside from a dog biting me. Nothing major, it freaked out at my coat blowing in the wind, tried to get the "monster" and ended up getting my pant leg. All I felt was a pinch.

Three quarters of the way home the pain in my back and in my leg was enough to bring me to tears. When I got home I took 2 Tylenol with codeine and laid down for an hour and a half. I spent the rest of the weekend feeling like I'd run back to back marathons.

I got an email from my sister Paula a few days ago. Looks like she's coming for a visit. She'll be in the area for about a week. It'll be good to see here again.

There's also a rumor that my mom's brother may be coming for a visit as well.

I've been jotting down some ideas on how to expand my little story. The only thing that seems consistent to all of them is that what's written is a dream. I suppose that's ok but a part of me feels it's a bit of a cliché. Kind of like Snoopy and "It was a dark and stormy night".

Happy Birthday to me!

Yup I'm another year older as of today. And I am definitely feeling it. On Feb 26 I ended up in the hospital due to a severe muscle spasm.

I went in around 8:45 pm and was out by 4:30 am. When I arrived I was assessed and given 2 needles, one in each ass cheek, or what I think was Demerol and 3 percocetes. They left me be for an hour or so and tired to get me into a sitting position. It didn't work. So between 10 pm and 4 am they took some x-rays and said I was fine and I was given a total 4 shots of morphine.

I am still sore but I'm mobile. I can't put my socks on with out help. My back stiffens up if I'm sitting or standing too long. My right thigh has had a "Charley horse" for the last two days and I can't lift heavy objects.

I think I made the doctors nervous that night. I had a shit load of drugs in me and I wasn't even drowsy.

Tomorrow we celebrate mine and Logan's birthdays. He's having some of his friends over. Me with a bad back and ten kids in the house... Where did I put the morphine?

Leave a review...

Nearly another month since my last post.

What's been going on? Well, the Degus came of age yesterday and we took 6 of the babies to the pet store. So now we have the Mother (Itch) one baby female and a baby male. So we could have more Degus in the future.

We got a call from Logan's school today. He scraped his arm on the fence playing at recess. Nothing serious but it's about 5 or inches long. His teach cleaned it up and bandaged it. Took a few minutes to find is booster records and it looks like he shouldn't need a tetanus shot. We have a doctors appointment tomorrow so we'll get the cut looked and and a shot done if needed. Logan is still doing well in school. His last 2 spelling tests he's gotten 8/8! He was also selected as one of 50 kids to participate in the "Running and Reading Club". Every Tuesday they meet in the gym to read books and run laps. The goal is to get everyone to do a 5Km run as a "graduation".

Carrie's been doing ok. Her incision was and still is infected. She also had a kidney and bladder infection. She's very excited that WWE Smackdown is doing a house show in Kingston in May. Batista is supposed to be there so we'll be trying to get a pic of him signing the doll she got for her birthday.

Speaking of birthdays... It's only 15 days until Logan's and 16 until mine. Man I'm getting old.

Someone started a "short story" on the Special Ops Forum. Well, I tossed something based on a dream into the thread. Some asked me to develop it more and I did. With a size 10 font it's about 4.5 pages long in MS Word. My mother has read what I have and is telling me to keep going with it. I'm jotting down some ideas on where to go with it but so far nothing feels like it fits yet.

So... Here's what I have, any comments would be appreciated.

There was very little electric light, not because things needed to be hidden but because resources for such luxuries were hard to come by. The giant shape loomed out of the gray like the body of a dead bloated animal. Davis stared at it with a mixture of awe and terror wondering if it would actually fly. This and the other "savior" ships had been built as quickly as possible. He wasn't sure if they should bother with it though.

Davis had seen the footage with his own eyes several times and, like the others that had watched it with him, couldn't believe people could be that stupid. Nobody knew what branch of the government had made the video. What they did know was that it was real. The time stamp gave the date as 9.26.2001 and research confirmed that events seen in other areas of the footage had taken place.

He shook his head in disbelief and began his climb to his work section. His ship should be done some time around noon. After that a few final checks would be made and they'd try to leave the Earth behind. They'd be lucky if they didn't blow up on take off. Davis reached his section, grabbed his torch and began welding. He could see that some of the welds in this area couldn't even be called welds. He'd like to fix them but speed is what matters now according to the powers that be.

The footage was of Ground Zero. You could see the devastation everywhere you looked. Broken building, twisted aircraft, body parts. The cameraman panned and zoomed over the entire scene. You could hear people in the background yelling instructions and heavy equipment moving wreckage. Most people you could see were wearing coveralls and hard hats. But there was another figure that wore what appeared to be a hazmat suit.

The figure carried what looked like a GPS and a shovel. "It should be right about here", a slightly muffled voice said. The GPS disappeared into a bag and he began to dig. Several minutes passed before a clunk was heard. The figure began to enlarge the hole and stopped forty-five minutes later. "I need a hand", is heard from the figure and a second hazmat suit steps from behind the camera. They grunt and strain until a hiss of air is heard. A metal plate is lifted into view; it looks like it could be a door. There is witting and a logo on it. The wording can't be made out but the symbol for biohazard is easily recognized, even though it's damaged.

Davis is startled out of his reflection when he feels a hand placed on his shoulder. When he looks up form his work Davis can see it's is foreman.

"Davis, take a ten. We need to get a few more plates up here. It's bad enough to have a doctor welding but we don't need to lose you in an accident."

All Davis could do was reply, "Right". He headed off to grab a coffee. The sun was coming up and in many ways he wished it wouldn't. Regardless he knew it was going to be his last sunrise on Earth. He sipped his coffee and watched it.

Everyone knew what had happened on 9/11/01. What no one knew was that the US Government had a bio lab under the towers. The video proved that. Both the figures disappeared into the ground. Five, ten, then twenty five minutes passed before they re-emerged, both carrying a different canister. They approached the camera and you could see the biohazard warning again. Both appeared to be completely intact. The camera switched off.

That was over eighty years ago. Things seemed fine for the first twenty years. Saddam had been captured and hanged in 2006, Osama Bin Laden was captured and imprisoned in 2010. The truth was that things were about to go very wrong.

The video resumed in a lab. They inspected the canisters and could see the seal on one was damaged. As a safety precaution they exposed a rat to the canister. They observed the rat for weeks and it seemed perfectly healthy. They thought it was safe, they were wrong.

Davis knew now that the rat had become a carrier for the disease. The disease was designed to attack humans only with certain genomes, specifically anyone of Middle Eastern origin. The first real victim was a doctor of the lab. His symptoms were similar to SARS. It spread through New York quickly; anyone could be a carrier for it. Air travel was strictly monitored to try and stop the spread. No one seemed to notice only one group of people was affected. It wasn't until 2022 that other people began being affected. It had mutated to affect more people. In the beginning it had an 80% mortality rate in just one group of humans; the 2022 version was 85% globally.

His grandfather had been brought in on a cure attempt in 2025. Four years of work yielded some very promising results. There were protests that it needed further testing but the governments of the world demanded it be put into production immediately. In June of 2030 people lined up for miles waiting for the injection.

A staccato of gunfire came from the south east corner of the compound. Davis’ hand instinctively went to his hip for the ancient Colt 45 as he stood up to see what was happening. A small band of obviously deformed beings were trying to get in. Shamblers. He could see the snipers moving along the wall to deal with the situation. Davis counted 7 distinct cracks of the rifles and then the silence.

“I think you can relax now. They got all of them. Time to get back to work; the last five plates are in place. If you have a few minutes clean up any welds you thing need be fixed. But only if it isn’t going to take all day. I’d like to get off this dying rock today.”

Doesn’t he ever have anything different to say?, thought Davis. “We should be gone by 2 o’clock. If things check okay”, was all he could, and was expected, to say.

The steel looked like they fit together nicely. It would make the welding so much easier since he wouldn’t have to hunt for scraps to fill larger gaps.

Shamblers. They were becoming more aggressive and seemingly more intelligent. Davis wasn’t surprised about that, they were human after all.

The first reported Shambler sighting was in 2037. It was called a zombie at first. No one knew the truth back then and now those that do refuse to acknowledge it. Its source was the vaccine.

By 2032 approximately 15% of the population had been inoculated and the governments could see a change in the death tolls. They could also see a change in the births. Of those vaccinated less than a quarter would have a perfectly normal child. The majority had various degrees of deformities and defects. Significant numbers of which needed to be put to death, or died, shortly after entering the world. The few that survived lacked normal human intelligence. Most parents tried to deal with them; others abandoned them in deserted areas. They were ignored and left to themselves. The vaccines were stopped but the births continued.

These “non humans” began to reproduce on their own. They had become more like vermin than human, living in the dark unpleasant areas of the cities, eating garbage. They had the advantage of being immune to the disease. Nature decided to torture man a little bit more.

It was assumed by most that the “non humans” had devolved into the Shamblers. Years of study had shown otherwise. The vaccine had an effect on necrotizing fasciitis the Flesh Eating disease. It allowed the disease to take over the body without killing them. Their intelligence seemed to drop further; they were nearly mindless. The body required food and the virus wanted to spread, both are drawn to warm bodies. It was easy to see them as zombies. The infection spread fast, the “non humans” were easy targets for their own kind.

Davis looked over his handy work. The welds were good and he was making good time, he thought he’d be able to make some repairs in some other sections. First, though, it was time for a break and to get more welding rods. He climbed off of the ship and headed of to the break/supply room. He didn’t like going there even though there was a TV and a radio. They never played anything except the status of the Savior ships.

Davis sat down, looked over the boards and noted that one of the ships at his location, near Toronto, was going to be delayed by two weeks. Somehow the coolant for the engines had gotten in to the air system. The scrubbers had been destroyed and a new one had to be built from scratch. Stupidity or sabotage, Davis didn’t really care.

There was a news flash on the TV. The first ship from the New York facility had completed its final checks, was loaded with passengers and cleared for lift off.

Others came in to watch and pray for their safety. The countdown finished, the engines fired and slowly Savior Liberty lumbered into the sky. Shouts of joy rang out and people congratulated each other on a job well done, though they had no hand in the Liberty’s construction. Forty seconds later they were forced back to the reality of things when the first flash of fire erupted two thirds of the way down the ship. A second and a third fire was seen. An explosion ripped the belly of the ship off and the image went blank. In the silence of disbelief a voice was heard to say, “It could have been worse. They could have been on the ground”. Davis agreed, it was better to lose two thousand in one ship than everyone in the 15 ships at the facility.

Davis grabbed his rods and headed back to work, more melancholy than before. These ships were hope and that hope was shown to be a fragile bubble. Just as he was about to start work again word came to double and triple check everything and that Vancouver had a successful launch.

“Non humans” were still being born and discarded even though the laws stated they must be killed. That allowed the number of Shamblers to grow slowly. The big growth spurts came when they managed to get into a populated area.

Shamblers weren’t very fast but they did seem to display a pack like mentality. Once in a populated area, coincidence or not, they managed to separate the infirm, small children or the elderly. Fences and walls started to surround smaller towns’; large cities had problems with that. Aside from being impractical to wall in a major city Shamblers seemed to get into the sewer systems and storm drains. They took extra precautions, set up heavily armed patrols, installed heavy grating in the drainage systems. It worked for a while.

Then a little more than 5 years ago they suddenly became intelligent. They were still well below average human intelligence but they had learned some basics such as how to work door knobs and elevator buttons. They could get up the stairs but it was a slow process. They also figured out humans slept at night.

Patrols were increased in the cities. Populations condensed and moved to one corner of the city for defensive purposes and walls were erected. Populated areas were in constant communication with each other trying to track the larger groups of Shamblers. Things were getting bad, smaller towns fell as groups of several hundred attacked smaller out posts. The worst attack was eight months ago. It was estimated that a group of 1500 Shamblers took down a population of four times that size. With previous attack figures showing only twenty percent of people were killed out right this attack was a bad sign.

The lunch whistle blew. It’s about time, Davis thought. He stood up and stretched; his back popping. Looking around he could see that skin of the ship was almost done. As long as the internal checks were going well they might make the scheduled lift off time.

Davis sat at the lunch table chewing on his stale peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich. Scraps of conversation floated through the air. Some were talking about the attack this morning, others had heard the Texas facility had been wiped out by Shamblers or claimed it wasn’t true. People discussed how well the ships were progressing and how they looked forward lift off. No one mentioned the New York incident, acknowledging it would be tainting hope. It would take a lot of hope for 2100 ships, over four million people from Canada alone, to hit space.

Each country had decided on how to leave on its own. Both Canada and the US had similar plans, large quantities of smaller ships. The idea was it’s better to lose a small portion of the population in a single ship. India had chosen to use four ships to save their 150 million people. Two of their ships exploded, one on the ground.

Some of the inspectors had made their way into the lunch room and over to the status board. Everyone could hear clicking as status markers were moved around. The inspectors moved off to have their lunch and people swarmed the board. The majority of responses were groans and curses, few cheered. Davis waited and finished his lunch before checking the board, no point in getting banged around. Forty-five minutes later it was time to go back to work and that’s when he took a look. Ship 12, the one he had worked on for the last ten weeks, was listed as complete and cleared for boarding.

He headed back to his section to clean up his gear. People were already lining up for boarding. Protocols dictated that construction staff was to be boarded first to ensure a repair crew was available. With Davis being a General Practitioner as well he’d be among the first no matter what. He picked up his gear and handed it through the closest hatch for storage then went to his apartment for his suitcase.

As the ships neared completion they were loaded with equipment and provisions. It was like getting ready for a massive family camping trip. Roughing it would be an understatement and everyone knew it. The destination was Mars and the actual conditions there were still a bit on the harsh side.

Terraforming was still in it’s infancy in 2035 and it was expected to take eighty years for it to be complete. With barely fifty years having passed there should be enough water and oxygen there to support the scraps of the human race. At least that’s what the Government said. No one had been back to Mars since the project had begun but the equipment kept sending back regular reports. Things were progressing as they had been predicted.

It was closer to three o’clock before the passengers were loaded. Ears popped as the cabin pressurized, smaller children cried at the discomfort. The crew walked the aisles and ensured that harnesses where done up correctly and were as snug as they should be. Once out of the atmosphere people would be free to move around and use lap belts only during the six month flight.

The Captain announced that it was two minutes to lift off and the engines would be starting. A growl surged through the ship and the passengers yelped. The beast was awakening. Davis’ knuckles turned white as he gripped the armrests of his seat. Small screens around the cabin showed the countdown timer. With fifteen seconds left the growl became a roar and Davis closed his eyes.

The Captain announced liftoff. Davis felt himself pressed deep into the seat and gasped for air. His left arm began to hurt. He opened his eyes to see the woman next to him had grabbed on, tears on her cheek, terror in her eyes. It would be ten minutes before they broke through the atmosphere before it was quiet enough to try to console her, if they were lucky.