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.

slackin'

So it's been nearly a month since my last update. Man I've been slacking.

What's been going on?





Well, our degu has had pups. They'll be 2 weeks old tomorrow. Now we have 9 degus total, Itch (the mother) and 8 babies. They are getting a lot more active and it's quite funny to see them bouncing around the cage. No her eye isn't normally like that. We just forgot to turn the red-eye reduction on.





Carrie had a tubal ligation on the 12th. She's doing fine although still a bit sore. The incisions for the laparoscope are healing well. The one in her belly button is a bit larger than the one on the waist line so it's healing a little slower.

Carries computer fried a few days ago. Looks like some of the capacitors on the motherboard blew out. Luckily for us we managed to get one for free from Freecycle. It came with a 1Ghz AMD processor, 200Mbs of ram and a 20 GB hard drive. I ended up having to reformat Carries 10GB hard drive to get the system up and running but it's doing fine now. All that needs to be done is replace the exhaust fan. It's a bit on the noisy side but should hold out until we can replace it.

We finally got some snow. Late last week we had a "storm" that dropped about 4 inches of snow on us. It's actually stuck around for a while. Down side is it's brought the cold along with it. I guess it's okay seeing as we had temps averaging about +10°C

Logan has been doing well in school. He's had 2 spelling tests now. His first he scored a 7/8 and on his second 8/8. His reading is coming along very well too. He's reading this over my shoulder as I type. It's cute but annoying at the same time. Thankfully it's almost bed time for him. That means he can read a bed time story to ME! He's also gotten a new snowsuit. the last one we got him was a reversible jacket. The zipper tab broke off and then it wouldn't stay done up. With it being as cold as it is now he needed one that would stay done up.

Well it looks like I need to make some Kool-aid and get someone to bed.

Saddam executed?

It's 10:13 pm ET. Saddam was to have been executed about 15 minutes ago. CNN is saying that 2 TV stations in Iraq are confirm his hanging has taken place. Until I see a body, I have my doubts.

While they were looking for him I seem to recall several doubles having been found/killed. At this point I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he is still alive. Maybe I'm a bit cynical on this but something just doesn't feel right about this.

I'm only 35 but I've seen some interesting things happen in history: The fall of the Berlin wall, the explosion of 2 space shuttles, fall of the World Trade Center, various assassinations/attempts, the fall of communism in Russia, massive devastation caused by natural events. I saw the capture of Saddam Hussein and knew that I was seeing more history unfolding in front of my eyes. This should be the continuation of that.

I don't think I can really explain what I'm feeling, or more precisely what I'm not feeling. I think the closest comparison I can give is like when I was a kid and I was told Santa wasn't real.

Saddam was captured 3 years ago. They say his influence in Iraq has diminished significantly. I guess now is the real test. All we can do is pray for whatever troops are over there, be they US, British or anywhere else that they remain safe. May the new year and Saddam's death bring them home.

As I've been typing this out I've been listening to CNN about this. They just reported that on Iraq station pegged Saddam's death at 10:05 pm ET the other one is saying that it was before 10:00... But news is starting to spread through the streets of Iraq.

Why I Hate Christmas

I love my family. I love my friends and I appreciate the message of unity and peace that this time of year is supposed to represent. But I still hate Christmas.

I hate it because of the week before and the 2 weeks after.

I despise shopping under the best of circumstances but you add the sheer insanity of a thousand people screaming, "OH MY GOD! 5 days until Christmas and I haven't bought anything for anyone!" Jam them into a mall of any size where things are on "sale"(I have my doubts about some items). I'd rather swallow a live block of Semtex and detonate it in my colon. It's a lot less painful.

Last night was, thankfully, the last of my Christmas shopping. The only reason I need to go back to the mall between now and the 25th is if I'm being paid a shit load of cash to kill someone or if zombies attack. Frankly I'd rather take my chances with the zombies.

This morning I took Logan to school. On my way back home I ran into the mother of a friend of Logan's. Niceties demanded I ask if she had finished her shopping yet and she replied with a, "No, I still haven't figured out what to get my husband."

Since we had seen her husband and son at the mall last night I asked if they were finished theirs. They were but her son was wanting to get his mom a special present. It seems he wants to get her a "Cemetery. That way you can see grandpa." That's a hell of a thought and a wish that can only come form a child.

I need a caffeine fix...

So I quit at Startek. I'm happy about that. Less stress. On the down side I'm unemployed again.
That's not all that bad. I'm looking into some of those work at home things. Maybe one of them will pan out. If it does I'll be sure to let people know.

Since I quit ODSP requires that I apply for Employment Insurance. Frankly I didn't want to because I knew I didn't have enough hours for it. But since they "require" that I do it, I did. The woman behind the counter thought I was nuts. Oh well. Lots of people think I'm nuts.

Logan got his report card the other day.
English: Read - B
Write - B
Oral - B


Math: Number sense and Numeration - B+
Measurement - B+
Patterning and algebra - B
Data Management and Probability - B


Science and Technology: B

Social Studies: B+

Health and P.E.: B

The Arts Music: B+

Visual Arts: C+

For his learning skills he got 6 Goods, 2 Excellents and 1 Satisfactory. The Satisfactory is for his conflict resolution. I guess drop kicking a kid doesn't work. Overall we're very happy with him. Hopefully he continues with his B average and quits drop kicking kids.

Santa comes in little more than a week. We got all of Logan's gifts, even if it means Carrie and I can't get anything for each other. We'll do what we can, but I'm not expecting much.

ODSP says they overpaid us because I was working even though all my pay stubs were submitted WELL BEFORE THEY WERE DUE. Fucking government. Two months in a row. First time was an overpayment of over $300.00, the second was over $400.00. Thankfully our rent is still getting paid.

I might quit.

I started my training at Startek on Sept 22 (or close to that date anyway). It was 3 weeks of classroom work, reading online lessons, doing role plays and testing. As I've said before I felt under trained.

After I started on the phones I was nervous of course. I struggled along with my classmates. I was getting used to how things worked and just starting to get a handle the Bell phone features. And that's about the time things started to change. I started to sleep less, eat less and began to feel sick to the stomach some mornings.

I was on the phones until Nov 8. That's when they pulled me aside and told me, not asked, that I was going to the sales cue. More training. And my stomach got worse.

As it stands right now I'm eating one meal a day (and it's a lot smaller than I would normally eat), I'm getting about 3 hours of sleep a night (sometimes less) and when I get out of bed in the morning I sometimes have a headache and always feel like I'm going to puke.

What's wrong with me? I have a good idea. My sister had the same problems when she was in school. She was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. I'm guessing my job is the source for mine.

I've worked in places I didn't like but I've never had this problem before. I've called in sick and today is the third day in a row. I'm going to the clinic today to talk to a doctor and I'm also going to call ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program). I think I'm going to quit but I need to make sure it's not going to mess with our ODSP payments. I doubt ODSP would cut us off, especially if I have medical reasons.

I spent close to an hour this morning crying. Worried how Carrie would feel about it. We talked and she's fine with it. On one level I'm worried about what the rest of my family will think. On another level I really don't care. If they want to bitch and moan and call me a quitter then they can all go fuck themselves. They don't need to speak to me at all or ever again.

On top of all that Carrie's got three cracked ribs. She was house cleaning a couple of weeks ago and slipped in he socked feet. She banged up against the rocking chair and we figured she'd just bruise a bit. She went to the hospital yesterday because she was still in pain and having some difficulty breathing, getting out of bed and just moving around. They x-rayed her and found lots of swelling and three cracked ribs.

My headache is coming back. I think I'll go have some toast and tylenol.

Emo?

A while ago on the Spec Ops forum a member asked, "Why don't people like Emo Kids?"

Several members commented on how annoying this group of kids are. How they walk around all depressed, wearing black (usually female clothes no less), complain about how no-one likes them and why the cut themselves. His response to this was, "We just want to be left alone. You're all pissed because I'm an individual."

That made me laugh. I fail to see how dressing, listening to the same music and acting like the rest of the Emo Kids makes you an individual, weather you are a "true" emo or a poser.

For a while I pretty much left it at that. Then someone at work made a comment that reminded me of the Emo.

I have no problem with someone trying to express themselves. I grew up surrounded by punks and goths. I dealt with potheads, geeks, nerds and jocks. Preps and wannabes. I did things people thought I was nuts for doing. I was accused of being a skin head when I shaved my head the first time. But emos?

I have a hard time accepting a group that claims to be original when the first emo kids ever were seen around in October 2, 1950. Who are these kids? Everyone and their dog should know them. If you haven't guessed it's none other than Charlie Brown and the gang. Read the comics, you'll see what I mean.

You want people to like you? Then why the hell are you being an annoying ass clown and whining about it? I hate to break the news to you but the universe shits on everyone. You want proof? Try living in Halifax NS for 12 years and being deathly allergic to seafood. Quit cutting yourself. Maybe the extra blood that makes it to your brain will let you have an intelligent thought.

God.. "I'm just not happy. I'm just not happy. I'm just not happy because my life didn't turn out the way I thought it would." Hey! Join the fucking club, ok!? I thought I was going to be the starting center fielder for the Boston Red Socks. Life sucks, get a fucking helmet, allright?! "I'm not happy. I'm not happy." Nobody's happy, ok!? Happiness comes in small doses folks. It's a cigarette, or a chocolate cookie, or a five second orgasm. That's it, ok! You cum, you eat the cookie, you smoke the butt, you go to sleep, you get up in the morning and go to fucking work, ok!? That is it! End of fucking list! "I'm just not happy." Shut the fuck up, allright? That's the name of my new book, "Shut the Fuck Up, by Doctor Denis Leary. A revolutionary new form of therapy." I'm gonna have my patients come in. "Doctor, I.." "Shut the fuck up, next!" "I don't feel so.." "Shut the fuck up, next!" "He made me feel so much better about myself, you know? He just told me to shut the fuck up and nobody had ever told me that before. I feel so much better now." Whining fucking maggots.

Thank you Dennis Leary. I couldn't have said it better myself.

A title that means nothing.

Work has been going. Even though I work for the phone company I can honestly say that they SUCK. I can't say why until Monday. But I can say it will piss people off to no end.

I had one customer, a politician, call in totally pissed offed. It seems that he had no phone service and the repair crews had gone out to fix it. As if that wasn't bad enough. According to Mr. Politician the construction company doing work across the street from his office was run by the Mafia and they were out to get him. At this point I'm thinking that I've been to the town where he is and there's no way the mob would be after a useless jerk like him, unless of course he owes them drug money. His town is way to small to be of interest to the mafia. He then begins to rant about how the "street gangs" of "worthless teenagers" are out to get him as well. DUDE! There are only about 2500 people in your town! What's the gang consist of? Two high school students walking in your direction to get to the corner store?

Then there are the really stupid things that shouldn't happen. Things like people getting charged for the installation of 9 phone jacks, or having a $100 refund increase the bill, or people who wait a FUCKING MONTH! before calling in because no-one actually came to the door and said their new phone was connected. GAH!

Halloween!

Halloween has come and gone. Logan was dressed as Superman. We were only out for about an hour and a half. The best part of the night was the guy dressed as a scarecrow with a jack-o-lantern head. He was sitting in a chair in his driveway and his wife was handing out treats. As the kids would leave he'd make a grab at them and scare the bejeebers out of them. Logan bolted out of the driveway and down the sidewalk. We called him back and he was laughing, "He pranked me didn't he?" All we could do was laugh with him.

The worst thing about the night was coming home. Why? Because as soon as we got in and finished sorting the candy there was a Christmas commercial on TV. Carrie thought I flipped my lid when I started swearing for no apparent reason. Why the hell can't we have a day or two of quiet before the Christmas rush begins?

Other Stuff

I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of Call of Duty. The FIRST version of the game. There is a paintball mod for it. Even if it's kind of cheesy I don't care. It's multi player online and many of the forum members play. I think it'd be kind of fun to play against them. If you know of any place I can get a copy let me know.

THE BELLS! THE BELLS!!!

Well technically it's Bell and the ding, but what ever.

It's been a LONG week at the new job. I'm working for Bell Canada in the billing department. It's not overly difficult but it seems that I'm woefully under-trained. It feels like we "glanced" at all the tools we're supposed to use and "glimpsed" the information we need. Three weeks learning this stuff nad I'm spending more time with my hand in the air trying to flag down a "red-hat" (expierenced co-worker) and being taught how to do this shit.

Monday was the last day of class room training. Tuesday we hit the floor and went live. It wasn't too bad but I had guessed we got off lucky. That night as I was taking the bus home I mentioned to Janet (one of the ladies that trained with me) that we'd see the shit hit the fan later in the week. I was right.

Wedensday it seemed like every crackhead in Ontario had called in. Thursdy seemed to be more of the same. I actually had one guy call in complaining that he was over charged by ONE FUCKING PENNY! Buddy, if you're THAT worried over one cent get rid of your damned phone. I spent 20 minutes trying to explain to one person that long distance is charged by the minute or any part there of. If you call your kids and ask them to call back, that 15 second call is billed as 1 minute.

Today was pretty mellow. The shitty part of today came from the slush that dropped out of the sky. Too warm for real snow but this stuff was still white and in piled up in a few areas. Nothing to shovel. Fortunately the rain god rid of most of it.

Thank god it Friday.

Man! Am I nuts or what?

So last weekend my sister, Paula, arrived from Halifax for a visit. It's always nice to see her, especially if she brings a treat with her. An boy did she bring a treat. Tickets to Paramount Canada's Wonderland.

It's an amusment park. Lots of fun stuff to do.

Right off the bat I headed for the Extreme Sky Flyer. It cost me $45.00 for the ride and anopther $23.00 for the video but it's well worth it.

Ride Stats:
Arch Height: 173 ft
Tower Height: 152 ft
Free Fall: 50 ft
Closest point ot he ground: 6 ft
Top Speed: 60 mph!


Now, I used to be afraid of heights. Not phobic about it, just never liked it.
As I was being winched up to the top of the tower it would tug at my waist and it felt as though I were going to tip over and fall out of the harness.

If you listen closely to near the end you can hear Logan, my son, say i did a good job! LOL!


After that we went over to ther Top Gun Roller Coaster.

Carrie and I were in the front seat. Keep in mind that this is only her second time at Wonderland, and her second time on this ride. Hell her first ride was seven years ago and her first time on ANY roller coaster! First time, 7 years ago, they took pics of each seat set and we were about 5 seats back. This time they had eliminated that option. It's now a video of the front seats only. As you'll see in the video it's based off of the movie Top Gun (duh!) and simulates the flight charactreistics of a fighter plane! WOOT!

I have to give Carrie credit for doing this. Even though she was scared she held up pretty damned good!




Other than that've been busy at work training. 5 am is still too damned early to be up, but I'm on my last week of training and on the phones soon.

BUSY!!!!

So last Tuesday we went to Ottawa to see WWE Smackdown . It was a pretty decent show, Carrie was thrilled that Batista was there. There weere only two problems though.

The first probelm was that on the way home I missed our exit and we almost ended up in Cornwall. The other problem was worse, at least from Carrie's perspective.

Before we left Kingston we stopped into Shoppers Drugmart to pick up a couple of single use cameras. The Life brand (Shopper's house brand) ones were on sale so we got two of them. Last Wedensday we took them into be developed. They didn't. We ended up with only 2 or 3 images on the film. No Batista pics.

This past Friday we went to the Queen's Univerity vs Ottawa University hockey game. We had dinner there with a couple of the djs from the radio station. Queen's lost 8-2.

I started work on Monday. That's the good thing.

What sucks is that I have to be up at 5 am for 3 weeks so I can do a 25 minute walk to catch a bus downtown so I can be at work for 7 am. Once I'm there I have to climb up 3 flights of stairs to get to the 4th floor where the training room is.

Yesterday was REALLY bad. I'm not used to being up that early so I was tired as it was. Now let's add reading a few hundred pages of company policy, signing pay information and reading more legal crap.

Today I'm still a bit tired but at least we started the actual traing. That kind of helped keep me awake. 5:00 am is still WAY too early though.

The Worm has Turned!

I had a job interview today at StarTek, a local call center. I left thismorning at 11:00 am and didn't get home untill 4:00pm. LONG freaking day! But I got the job.

I'll start training on Sept. 25 at 7 am and that will take 3 weeks. So I'll be up at 5 am YUCK! After that though I'll be starting at 8am the earliest and done around 5:30. Pay is $10.00 an hour. Not the most I've ever made, but better than a kick balls.

When I finally got home I found out that St. Lawrence College sent me a letter of acceptence. If I take it I'd start school in January. I think I'll stick to work for now.

I think it's time to buy me a lotto ticket. Good things happen in 3's. Maybe I'll get REAL lucky.

Curse the luck!

The local radio station was doing a contest for the summer, 96 days of summer. Twice a day they would annouce "Be caller X". If you were lucky enough to be the right caller you won a gift certificate and a ticket to the radio party at the bar. Winners to the party had a chance to win a grand prize worth $10,000.00.

A few weeks ago my wife lucked out and was the right caller. She got a $25.00 gift certificate at a nice restuarant and her ticket to the party.

Two weeks later I got in as well. My gift certificate wa for a women's clothing store. GAH!

Last night was the party. We arrived at 5:30, if you weren't registered by 6:00 too bad for you. We register, watch them put our names in the ballot box, fill out the stub for door prizes and look for a seat.

They announced that through out the evening they would draw door prizes and a "Final 10" for the grand prize.
during the second set of door prize draws I won. This time a Gift certificate for home furnishings. As the night wore on I ended up being the LAST name for the big prize.

They called the 10 of us up on stage did the last of the door prizes. The wife won $100 certificate for rustproffing of a car, we don't have one.

Now the way the Grand prize was decided was all 10 names go into a bag. First person called draws a name and that person is out, pick your own name too bad. I was the 5 make pulled out. But I still got a parting gift......

$50.00 for any auto repair at a local garage. I still don't have a car

Hopefully my parents can use them before they expire.

End of the Summer

Yeah. I know, it's not that original, but I don't care.

It's the last long weekend of summer vacation. At least here in Canada it is. Many of the paintball forum members have been back to school for a few weeks already.

Logan is looking forward to his first day of Grade 1 tomorrow. As are Carrie and I. More for the bit of piece and quiet it means. Don't get me wrong, we do love him but 3 months of "Can we go to the park?" 95 times a day can wear you down.

Carrie's looking forward to her first day back as well. She's only 4 credits short of getting her grade 12. She's got 2 books left in her English and World History before she gets those 2 credits. She plans to take Co-op and Art: Photography for her last 2 credits.

What am I going to do? Well, since Logan is in school full-time I'll keep looking for work.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to Wed. Carrie and I won tickets to a party by a local radio station. There are going to be prizes handed out, grand prize is worth $10,000.00 total. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Corrupted?

One of the guys on the paintball forum, Tyger, produces a FPS of paintball.
I was trying to watch them on line one day and Logan asked if he could watch too. Silly me I said sure. Next thing I know he;s asking ot watch them over and over again. So I burned some to SVCD and he wathes them regularly.

I thought that was the extent of the "corruption." I was wrong.

This morning as I'm checking my emails Logan is busy running back and forth from his room collectng army ment and other bits and pieces. Eventually he comes out with acouple of astronaunt figures. He asked me one question about them, "Are thses the refs?"

Good thing I wasn't drinking my coffee yet, I'd have a big mess to clean up from laughing.

Here's a couple of pics of him playing paintball.


Setting up 

Playing "paintball" with army men! 

Ready for the next game! 

Notice the slightly larger white figures? They are the refs! LOL

Time keeps on slipping, slipping slipping into the future.....

Tuesday Aug 15 was Logan's last soccer games. Yes games.

It was finals. For the first half they played one team, had half time then wne on and played a second team. The kids had no idea who actually one, but as parents go Logan's team lost and won. Not that it matters. It's more fun to watch them out there then anything else.

At the end of the game each player on every team got a trophy.

Logan's Soccer Trophy! 

On won hand I think it's a bad idea to give them a reward jsut for playing, but since no official score was kept you can't really deny them a reward either. Logan is very proud of himsefl for getting the trophy.

He's also super proud of himself for learning to ride his bike and scooter. The training wheels are off and he just goes!

Carrie and I are stressing a little right now. September 5 is the first day back to school. Logan starts grade 1. He's very excited about, it means he's a big kid and can cross the street on his own. We've been trying to get him to be more street safe. He's getting there but sometimes i think I'm having a heart attack. trying to get him to look both ways doesn't seem to be a problem. It's getting him to do it properly and all the time. just as often as not he'll just snap his head back and forth and say it's safe to cross, meanwhile there's a freaking city bus 10 feet away and closing! GGGGGGGAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

My mother's been stressing a bit too. They've got thier house up for sale. Seems that the realtor has set up views form the place a couple of times and has shown up 2 to 3 hours late. It wouldn't be so bad but the idiot doesn't keep thier cell on. If the parents don't sell soon they'll be taking it off the market untill next spring.

Oddness

So yesterday was Tuesday. My mother came down to see Logan's soccer game. She arrived around 10:00 am to take me golfing.

Golfing was fun. It was a 9 hole course, par 36. I shot a 55. I might have done better except for a few inhibiting factors.
1- this was my second game of golf. EVER.
2- I was using borrowed clubs. From my mohter. Yes, ladies clubs. They were about 4 inches too short.
3- I had no practice time. If I had hit a bucket of balls at the driving range I could have gotten used to the clubs and maybe did better.

On the other side of the coin I could have had a higher score if we included the loss of 5 or 6 balls.

I also "broke" a club. it was on the 7th hole. I was using the 3 iron. I head the crack of a perfect hit and lost sight of the ball as I tracked the club head in a mild hook.

Grandma alos bought Logan a new bike which was nery much needed by Logan. His old bke is way too small.

I also came across a face recognition website thanks to one of the guys on the SpecOps forum (link is on the right). Face Rcognition The results will vary depending on the quality and expression on your face.

I used the 2 pics below and got the following results:


Do I really look like Chretien? 
Jean Chretien 66%
Hugo Weaving 62%
Robert De Niro 62%
Hary Houdini 61%
Alfred Jodl 59%
Alexander Lukashenko 59%
Terence Stamp 58%




Or do I look like Mr. Bean? 
Rowan Atkinson 66%
Leonardo DiCaprio 60%
Carl Nielsen 60%
Stanley Kubrick 58%
Karl Szymanowski 57%
Ingrid Bergman 56%

I think my underwear melted....

Yeah it's that hot. As I write this it's 31°C, and withthe Humidex it's 43°C.

What's the Humidex? {quote}A calculation combining air temperature and relative humidity, given in degrees Celsius. It represents the heating effect felt due to a lack of body moisture evaporation, and gives the average person a "feeling" for how hot and stuffy the air is. Humidex is reported only during the summer months.
In Canada the area most affected by this combination of very high temperature and high humidity is southern Ontario and Quebec as moist tropical air pushes up from the Gulf of Mexico in the summer.{unquote} Think of it as the opposite of the Wind Chill Factor.

For those of you that aren't familiar with the Metric System 32°C is 87.80°F, 43°C is 109°F
Here's a quick refernce table:

C	F
0	32
10	50
20	68
30	86
40	104
50	122

So not only is it damned warm but it's sticky. Add a smog warning into the mix and the weather is down right shitty. All I can say is I'm glad I have an air conditioner. It's not too bad inside, but that instant sheen of sweat all over the second you walk outside is annoying.

Logan was supposed to go to his soccer game tonight but we said no. With his asthama this weather is a huge concern for his health.

This morning we all had appointments at the eye doctors. Logan needs new weaker lenses, carrie and I both need stronger one. On the plus side none of us show signs of eye disease.
What REALLY sucked is the fact that Carrie and I ended up getting those stupid eyedrops. You kow, the ones that dilaite your pupils? Not fun on a sunny day.

I also found out I have "dirty eyeballs", at least that's what Logan says. Seems the redness under my eye is caused by clogged pores at the base of the eyelashes. All theses years i thought it was because I had allergies!

Basically my tears aren't mixing properly. So to fix that I need to use a warm compress on each eye for about 5 minutes, to loosen the guck, then I need to use water and a bit of baby shampoo to clean it and a good rinse. After doing that for the next 2 weeks I should notice my eyes being less light sensitive and no more redness. WHEEEEEEEEEEE!!! No more itchy eyelashes!