Well, it's pretty much official! It looks like I have torn my right rotator cuff! I have to go back to the doctor early next week to get another assessment, but I'm sure it will just confirm it. Also, the temp agency finally came through with their offer for "modified duties". What a joke! Actually, the offer is an insult, added to the injury! Our wonderful Ontario government has made it so that you have to be working for ages prior to an accident to get your full benefits. Since I was hurt 5 days into a new job, I only qualify for 12 hours a week of modified duties. That's only 1/4 of what I should be making! I'd like to see any of those bloated, government parasites survive on even 1/2 of their income, let alone 1/4 of it! I just can't figure out how they come up with the stupidity that they do! I almost refused the offer, but decided that 12 hours a week is still better than zero!
The duties I've been offered consist of photocopying, shredding and other office duties at the agency, until they can find a client company they can farm me out to. So, as of Monday morning, I'm a glorified errand boy for 3 1/2 days a week.
The thing that ticks me off the most is, the agency is making it sound like the accident was my fault, when in fact, if they had done their job right and sent me to a job that fit my abilities in the first place, this wouldn't have happened at all. I have a good mind to change agencies when my 3 weeks are up, but from what I hear, most, if not all, of the agencies are just the same as the one I am currently with.
So now I have 3 weeks to think about where I want to go and what I want to do once this situation clears up. We'll see where life takes me, I guess.
Have a great weekend everybody!
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Set-back Update
Crap again! After 7 days of unrelenting pain, I finally allowed myself to be persuaded to go see a doctor about my shoulder. It doesn't look good! The doctor says it's "most likely a rotator cuff injury." So I have a prescription for anti-inflammatories to take for another 7 days, and if the shoulder doesn't clear up, then I have to go back and get re-assessed. From what I've heard in the news, when baseball players injure their rotator cuffs, it usually means surgery! ICK!
Tomorrow I have to go to the employment agency that sent me to that job to fill out their accident forms and get set up for "modified duties", whatever that means! Probably some office/clerical stuff but we'll see.
Anyway, I'll keep posting updates here as I get 'em!
Tomorrow I have to go to the employment agency that sent me to that job to fill out their accident forms and get set up for "modified duties", whatever that means! Probably some office/clerical stuff but we'll see.
Anyway, I'll keep posting updates here as I get 'em!
Monday, May 14, 2007
More "getting to know me" stuff
Since my last post was such a downer of a rant, I thought I'd try to post something positive as well.
Here's yet another "e-mail" game that's been sent to me. Rather than "spam" all my friends with it once again, I thought I'd play the game here and hope that my blogger friends will voluntarily pick up the challenge and post it on their blogs too.
Here's how to play. Place an X by all the things you've done, or remove the X from the ones you have not. Simple, no? By the way, this is for your entire life:
( ) Smoked a cigarette.
( ) Smoked a cigar.
( ) Drank so much you threw up.
( ) Crashed a friend's car.
( ) Stolen a car.
(x) Been in love.
(x) Been dumped.
( ) Shoplifted candy.
(x) Been laid off.
(x) Been fired.
(x) Quit your job.
(x) Snuck out of your parent's house
( ) Party in the woods.
(x) Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back.
( ) Been arrested.
( ) Gone on a blind date.
(x) Skipped school.
( ) Seen someone die.
( ) Been to Mexico
(x) Been to Canada. (ummm.. I LIVE there! LOL!)
(x) Been on a plane.
(x) Been on a train for a long trip
(x) Been lost.
(x) Been on the opposite side of the country.
(x) Been to Florida.
(x) Been to Washington
( ) Lived in Boston
( ) Gone to the Grand Canyon
(x) Swam in the ocean.
(x) Felt like dying.
( ) Cried yourself to sleep.
(x) Played cops and robbers.
( ) Recently colored with crayons.
( ) Sang karaoke.
( ) Paid for a meal with only coins.
(x) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't.
(x) Made prank phone calls.
(x) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose.
(x) Caught a snowflake on your tongue.
(x) Made a snowman.
(x) Made a snow angel.
( ) Danced in the rain
(x) Walked in the rain.
( ) Written a letter to Santa Claus.
( ) Written a letter to the President. (As a Canadian, I don't think my voice would get much ear-time with the President! LOL!)
(x) Met a celebrity. (Richard Dean Anderson on the set of MacGyver... LOOOONG time ago)
(x) Been kissed under the mistletoe.
(x) Watched the sun set with someone you care about.
(x) Blown bubbles.
( ) Made a bonfire on the beach.
( ) Crashed a party.
(x) Gone roller-skating.
(x) Ice-skating.
( ) Rode a camel.
Any nicknames? Phoe, Hildie, Ghost
Favorite drink? Coke
Ever been in a Car accident? yes
2 door or 4 Door? prefer 4 (right now, that is)
Salad Dressing? Ranch
Favorite pie? Pecan
Favorite number? 5
Favorite movies? LOTR, Star Wars, Serenity, etc................
Favorite food? Pizza, Cheeseburgers
Favorite brand of body soap? Body Series
Favorite brand of deodorant? Axe
What do you enjoy receiving? Recognition, compliments, hugs...
So, that's it for this one! I look forward to visiting your blogs and reading your answers. I guess that means you'll need to leave me a comment to tell me when you have done so, doesn't it? LOL!
CRAP! Yet another set-back!
Most of you who read this blog will know that for the last few years, I've been struggling in the employment department of my life. About 5 years ago, (long before I started blogging) I was let go from a job (Graphic Consultant in a small commercial print shop) I had held for 7.5 years. I was glad to get out of that job, because my boss had been making my life a living hell there ever since he had taken over the business 2.5 years earlier. But, that was the start of a long and ongoing struggle to make a living. Last week, I had reported that I had finally, through a temp agency, found work that could lead to full-time employment, but, the Phoenix Curse struck yet again! This time, in a devastating way.
At the risk of repeating something I posted previously in this blog, I will try to explain what the "Phoenix Curse" is. When I was 22 years old, I fell while moving into my first apartment. I was carrying a very heavy box of magazines and while trying to navigate through some other boxes, tripped over the box containing all my college textbooks, and fell, tearing a muscle in the lower right side of my back. I think it's called the Trapezious or something. That injury took over a year and a half to "heal" but I still have trouble with that portion of my back from time to time. Just over a year ago, I started seeing a chiropractor for what I thought was an unrelated problem with numbness in my right hand. Being right handed, that was a big enough issue to get me to overcome my distrust of chiropractors and initial treatments were very helpful in allowing me full use of my right hand again. During my initial assessment at the chiropractor's office, x-rays showed I had TWO problem areas in my spine, both most likely stemming from that one fall about 15 years earlier. The first problem was my neck had "stretched out" putting major stress on my cervical spinal column, and the 2nd was a "kink" in my spine just above the area of the earlier injury. It seems that although the pain of that torn muscle had subsided, I had unconsciously "favoured" my right side and had forced my spine to bend sideways, pinching nerves leading to my stomach and upper GI tract. In order to stay balanced with this kink in my spine, I had, also unwittingly, compensated by stretching my neck forward and to the left, compressing and stressing my entire spinal cord. It's amazing how much damage one can do to one's body without realizing it! My chiropractor informed me that it can sometimes take years for these problems to make themselves known and a job I found after losing the print shop job was the trigger for my problems.
About a year or so after I lost the print shop job, I found work with an industrial control systems company building control panels for industrial machinery. The company was great to work for, the pay was fantastic and I really enjoyed my work. About 3 months after starting there, I began to notice my right hand was tingling a lot, and eventually numbness set in and I began dropping tools frequently. One of the managers noticed this and recommended I see a chiropractor, as he had had a similar problem and had been "cured" by a chiropractor. I took his advice and after finding out the information above, agreed to treatment. I was amazed when my hand returned to normal after only 3 weeks of adjustments (9 in total) and so I committed myself to "life-long" treatment! LOL! It was during this time, however, that I began to suffer from severe migraines with almost alarming frequency, and my chiropractor assured me that they were the result of my body trying to a) resist the changes he was forcing on it, and b) deal with the increased neuron flow along nerves that had been previously pinched off or severely constricted.
I worked for this company as a "self-employed contractor" for 4 years, but, each year was an "on again, off again" affair. I figure I probably only worked 6 - 7 months each year that I worked for this company, due to the cyclical nature of their business. I used the temp agency to find work that I could do during the frequent lay-offs, but after the first year, the temp assignments got tougher and tougher. For some reason, despite the fact that I had given the temp agencies all the details about my computer and electronic skills, the only work they would offer me was what I call "grunt work" - heavy factory labour. Unfortunately, last July, the company I was contracted to closed down their panel building shop and I started the hunt for employment once again. I suffered through a string of "one-night stands" at a couple of companies which required intensely physical work which "undid" all the work my chiropractor had been trying to do! I then found "light" work as a stained-glass assembler but that's when the curse really kicked in! I lasted about 5 weeks there thanks to return of my numerous migraines. The temp agency kept calling, but the jobs they were offering were all "grunt work" so I kept turning them down. Fortunately, my wife was working full-time at this point so we weren't completely without an income, but it wasn't enough to keep us in the black. I really needed to get back to work.
Just over a week ago, now, the temp agency called once again, this time offering a job consisting of "wiring fluorescent light fixtures." I put that in quotations, because that's what they told me! When I got to the company, I did absolutely no wiring, but was once again doing grunt-work, unloading parts from an automated painting line. I tried to stick it out, but it was not to be. Last Wednesday, after being ordered to move a pile of parts I had mistakenly (because I hadn't been told the proper way) put on a cart wrong, I pulled a muscle in my right pectoral area. The pain was so intense, I initially thought I had broken my collarbone! That night, I began to feel the dreaded tingling in my right hand again. I went to the chiropractor Thursday after work, and he adjusted my shoulder which seemed to alleviate the pain and tingling somewhat. However, that tingling returned Friday and got progressively worse during the day. By the end of Friday, I couldn't feel whether I had a grip on these parts or not and I was dropping far more than I should have been. I declined the offer for overtime on Saturday, hoping that rest would help my shoulder and hand recover enough to allow me to return to work Monday.
This morning, I woke up to absolutely no feeling in my right hand. I asked my wife to massage my shoulder, hoping that would stimulate the nerves. It worked. Boy did it work! Now, instead of no feeling, my hand felt like it was on fire! I had no strength in it at all as well. I couldn't even open a drawer with my right hand like I would normally do. As soon as I tried to do anything required the slightest bit of strength with my right hand, it would go numb and relax completely, followed by searing pain, similar to the pain I once felt after scalding my hand years ago! I called the temp agency at 5:30 am to tell them of my problem and then, as soon as my chiropractor's office opened at 8:00 am, I went there for treatment. That pulled muscle I experienced last Wednesday? Well, the muscle's swelling has completely pinched off my nerve cluster to my right arm and my chiropractor tells me this will take a while to heal. So, once again, I'm unemployed, and unemployable! To make matters worse, the agency is not returning my calls, so once again I am forced to try to find work on my own. This is going to be very hard without a right hand to rely on! And to add insult to injury, because I was considered "self-employed" for the past 5 years, I don't qualify for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, or even disability benefits! Yep! I am definitely cursed!
Well, that's my story of woe this gloomy, grey Monday! I'm sorry to have burdened you all with it, but as most of you know, getting it out in writing is a very therapeutic exercise! Besides, if you don't want to read it, you don't have to! LOL! Yeah, I know, NOW I tell you that! LOL!
I hope the rest of the week is a better one for all of you!
At the risk of repeating something I posted previously in this blog, I will try to explain what the "Phoenix Curse" is. When I was 22 years old, I fell while moving into my first apartment. I was carrying a very heavy box of magazines and while trying to navigate through some other boxes, tripped over the box containing all my college textbooks, and fell, tearing a muscle in the lower right side of my back. I think it's called the Trapezious or something. That injury took over a year and a half to "heal" but I still have trouble with that portion of my back from time to time. Just over a year ago, I started seeing a chiropractor for what I thought was an unrelated problem with numbness in my right hand. Being right handed, that was a big enough issue to get me to overcome my distrust of chiropractors and initial treatments were very helpful in allowing me full use of my right hand again. During my initial assessment at the chiropractor's office, x-rays showed I had TWO problem areas in my spine, both most likely stemming from that one fall about 15 years earlier. The first problem was my neck had "stretched out" putting major stress on my cervical spinal column, and the 2nd was a "kink" in my spine just above the area of the earlier injury. It seems that although the pain of that torn muscle had subsided, I had unconsciously "favoured" my right side and had forced my spine to bend sideways, pinching nerves leading to my stomach and upper GI tract. In order to stay balanced with this kink in my spine, I had, also unwittingly, compensated by stretching my neck forward and to the left, compressing and stressing my entire spinal cord. It's amazing how much damage one can do to one's body without realizing it! My chiropractor informed me that it can sometimes take years for these problems to make themselves known and a job I found after losing the print shop job was the trigger for my problems.
About a year or so after I lost the print shop job, I found work with an industrial control systems company building control panels for industrial machinery. The company was great to work for, the pay was fantastic and I really enjoyed my work. About 3 months after starting there, I began to notice my right hand was tingling a lot, and eventually numbness set in and I began dropping tools frequently. One of the managers noticed this and recommended I see a chiropractor, as he had had a similar problem and had been "cured" by a chiropractor. I took his advice and after finding out the information above, agreed to treatment. I was amazed when my hand returned to normal after only 3 weeks of adjustments (9 in total) and so I committed myself to "life-long" treatment! LOL! It was during this time, however, that I began to suffer from severe migraines with almost alarming frequency, and my chiropractor assured me that they were the result of my body trying to a) resist the changes he was forcing on it, and b) deal with the increased neuron flow along nerves that had been previously pinched off or severely constricted.
I worked for this company as a "self-employed contractor" for 4 years, but, each year was an "on again, off again" affair. I figure I probably only worked 6 - 7 months each year that I worked for this company, due to the cyclical nature of their business. I used the temp agency to find work that I could do during the frequent lay-offs, but after the first year, the temp assignments got tougher and tougher. For some reason, despite the fact that I had given the temp agencies all the details about my computer and electronic skills, the only work they would offer me was what I call "grunt work" - heavy factory labour. Unfortunately, last July, the company I was contracted to closed down their panel building shop and I started the hunt for employment once again. I suffered through a string of "one-night stands" at a couple of companies which required intensely physical work which "undid" all the work my chiropractor had been trying to do! I then found "light" work as a stained-glass assembler but that's when the curse really kicked in! I lasted about 5 weeks there thanks to return of my numerous migraines. The temp agency kept calling, but the jobs they were offering were all "grunt work" so I kept turning them down. Fortunately, my wife was working full-time at this point so we weren't completely without an income, but it wasn't enough to keep us in the black. I really needed to get back to work.
Just over a week ago, now, the temp agency called once again, this time offering a job consisting of "wiring fluorescent light fixtures." I put that in quotations, because that's what they told me! When I got to the company, I did absolutely no wiring, but was once again doing grunt-work, unloading parts from an automated painting line. I tried to stick it out, but it was not to be. Last Wednesday, after being ordered to move a pile of parts I had mistakenly (because I hadn't been told the proper way) put on a cart wrong, I pulled a muscle in my right pectoral area. The pain was so intense, I initially thought I had broken my collarbone! That night, I began to feel the dreaded tingling in my right hand again. I went to the chiropractor Thursday after work, and he adjusted my shoulder which seemed to alleviate the pain and tingling somewhat. However, that tingling returned Friday and got progressively worse during the day. By the end of Friday, I couldn't feel whether I had a grip on these parts or not and I was dropping far more than I should have been. I declined the offer for overtime on Saturday, hoping that rest would help my shoulder and hand recover enough to allow me to return to work Monday.
This morning, I woke up to absolutely no feeling in my right hand. I asked my wife to massage my shoulder, hoping that would stimulate the nerves. It worked. Boy did it work! Now, instead of no feeling, my hand felt like it was on fire! I had no strength in it at all as well. I couldn't even open a drawer with my right hand like I would normally do. As soon as I tried to do anything required the slightest bit of strength with my right hand, it would go numb and relax completely, followed by searing pain, similar to the pain I once felt after scalding my hand years ago! I called the temp agency at 5:30 am to tell them of my problem and then, as soon as my chiropractor's office opened at 8:00 am, I went there for treatment. That pulled muscle I experienced last Wednesday? Well, the muscle's swelling has completely pinched off my nerve cluster to my right arm and my chiropractor tells me this will take a while to heal. So, once again, I'm unemployed, and unemployable! To make matters worse, the agency is not returning my calls, so once again I am forced to try to find work on my own. This is going to be very hard without a right hand to rely on! And to add insult to injury, because I was considered "self-employed" for the past 5 years, I don't qualify for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, or even disability benefits! Yep! I am definitely cursed!
Well, that's my story of woe this gloomy, grey Monday! I'm sorry to have burdened you all with it, but as most of you know, getting it out in writing is a very therapeutic exercise! Besides, if you don't want to read it, you don't have to! LOL! Yeah, I know, NOW I tell you that! LOL!
I hope the rest of the week is a better one for all of you!
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Tagged! And Tagged Again!
My friend Burfica, (you've probably noticed I mention her a lot! LOL! She's the reason I got into this blogging thing!) AND my new friend Canadian Flake both tagged me for this new game. So here goes!
The game asks the tagees to post 7 things about themselves that those that read their blog probably didn't know about them. So here are mine:
1) I am the oldest of 4 children. I have 2 younger brothers and a "baby" sister. One brother is a paramedic in a small town west of where I live and he and his wife have 6 boys, ranging in age from 1 year to 16 years. Yes, their house is total chaos! Next in line is my youngest brother who, at 32 still lives at home with my parents. He is a junior accountant and seems to have no interest in moving out of mom and dad's place! LOL! He did spend a year sub-letting his friend's apartment and really enjoyed it, but when he tried to find his own apartment after the friend returned, he decided the rents were too high and moved back home. My sister is the artsy one of the family and is a professional student. She is currently working on her Masters Degree in Renaissance History and has been excepted into the PhD program in Modern History at the University of Toronto. She lives just off campus in a tiny bachelorette apartment in downtown Toronto and just loves it there. Of all my siblings, she is the one I get along with most as we share a lot of common interests like history and music and singing. My youngest brother and I get along pretty well too, but I rarely talk to the other brother. He has ticked me off just a few too many times in the past couple of years and his boys are just too much to take at family gatherings.
2) I was a star track & field athlete in Grade 8. I ended up "officially" the 3rd fastest sprinter in my region, and "unofficially" the fastest. Unofficially because it was later found out that the 1st and 2nd place finishers were running in the intermediate race when they should have been in the senior race, but the school sports association refused to change the results. My unofficial best time for the 100 meter sprint was 10.8 seconds and my official best time was 11.2 seconds. Those are almost Olympic Qualifying times and I was only 12 at the time. In Grade 9, I ran against a number of black boys my age who beat the pants off me (figuratively speaking there) and later I found out that one of them was Ben Johnson, the Canadian sprinter who lost his gold medal at the Seoul Olympics because he cheated by using steroids. Considering my memories of him from Grade 9, he was cheating then too - I've never seen 13 - 14 year olds with arms and legs that big before or since! Sad that even in middle school and high school sports, you have to cheat to win!
3) I played trumpet for 8 years in middle and high school. (Back when I was in high school, Ontario schools had 13 grades - now they only have 12 - just like everyone else) In my senior year, I was invited to audition for Canada's National Youth Symphony Orchestra, but my parents refused to support that. By the end of high school I could play all the brass instruments and was actually teaching the junior grades as part of my "class work" as I was 1 of only 2 Grade 13 music students in the school. Like Flake, I wanted to study music in post secondary education, but again, my parents were not supportive and so I chose not to follow that path. Looking back, I really wish I had!
4) Tying in with number 3 above, I also am a singer. I developed a love of singing while in the high school choir and it's the only type of music performance I still actively pursue. I am a baritone (stuck between tenor and bass) so most of the singing I do is either for church or classical in nature. Unfortunately, 95% of all male pop singers today are either tenors or countertenors (higher than tenor) and I just can't sing their stuff! Too bad the Crash Test Dummies lead singer went so wacko... he was a bass and I used to love singing along with him on the radio, but when he showed up at a concert in Toronto wearing a bra, I decided not to support that band any longer! I also liked to sing along with Mark Knopfler of the Dire Straits as he was a baritone as well. My voice isn't rich enough to be an Elvis impersonator, but some of his songs are well within my range too.
5) I broke my right arm twice when I was young. Both times by falling after doing some stupid stunts. The first time I was 8 years old and fell off the metal roof of an old woodshed. Well, "fell" isn't the right word, since I was actually trying to JUMP OFF the roof! The wind tumbled me a bit and I landed on my back and shattered my elbow. I was supposed to have surgery to put in an artificial joint, but when the surgeon opened up my arm, he said all the pieces were big enough to put back together "like a jigsaw puzzle". So, lucky me was spared all the subsequent surgeries that would have been required to keep my elbow "caught up" with the rest of me as I grew. The second time I broke my arm I was visiting my grandparents in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I was 11 yrs old and I had flown from Toronto to Winnipeg by myself to stay with them for 2 weeks. I had gone to a friend's place the first weekend and we had gone bike riding in a large construction site nearby. I was riding a "BMX" style bike with the shocks and big knobby tires while my friends were riding the old 10-speed racer style bikes. THEY made it down the hill ok, but I hit a rock with my thicker tires and bounced out over an 8 foot cliff. I landed on my hands and knees, but my right hand had hit a rock and snapped my wrist like a dry twig. Needless to say, the rest of my stay with my grandparents was somewhat subdued! LOL! Later on in life I would fall yet again doing some free rock climbing and dislocated my left shoulder. Needless to say, after all that, heights now give me the major heebee jeebies! As my dad likes to say, "I now prefer Terra Firma, the more firma, the less terra!"
6) I used to be a professional portrait photographer, but quit because it was so hard to make a living from it. I still love to take pictures of scenery, trains, cars, planes, flowers, my kids, etc. I got a decent digital camera a year ago and have been having fun learning what I can do with it. I would love to be able to get an SLR digital camera and really go crazy, but I have to save for quite a while before I can afford one! I would really like to get back into professional photography and get my studio back off the ground. I did a bunch of commercial product photography while I was working in the printing industry, and found that I have a knack for it and I enjoyed doing it too! Easiest money I ever made, but since all my 35mm camera equipment was stolen several years ago, I haven't been able to rebuild. Right now I'm toying with getting some photos published in calendars and magazines, but I have a ways to go learning my digital camera before my pictures measure up to those lofty standards!
7) I am one of the world's worst pack-rats! LOL! I collect EVERYTHING! I have collections of ball caps (interestingly enough, not ONE baseball team cap in the bunch! LOL!) model trains, books, souvenirs, mugs, figurines from movies and video games, CDs, old calendars, magazines, lapel pins, old electronic junk (I MIGHT be able to use some parts from this...), and the list goes ever on. One of my favourite sayings is "The thing you call junk is the item I will need two days after it is thrown out!" My wife is very tolerant of my collecting, but every once in a while she gets ruthless and makes me throw out a bunch of stuff. Yep, I usually end up wanting something from that pile about a week after the garbage truck has taken it away! LOL! Oh well!
So there you have it. 7 things you might not have known about me. Thanks for tagging me Burf and Flake! I know I'm supposed to tag some people now, but I don't know all that many people in blogger land, so I'll leave it for now. I hope you enjoyed my expose!
The game asks the tagees to post 7 things about themselves that those that read their blog probably didn't know about them. So here are mine:
1) I am the oldest of 4 children. I have 2 younger brothers and a "baby" sister. One brother is a paramedic in a small town west of where I live and he and his wife have 6 boys, ranging in age from 1 year to 16 years. Yes, their house is total chaos! Next in line is my youngest brother who, at 32 still lives at home with my parents. He is a junior accountant and seems to have no interest in moving out of mom and dad's place! LOL! He did spend a year sub-letting his friend's apartment and really enjoyed it, but when he tried to find his own apartment after the friend returned, he decided the rents were too high and moved back home. My sister is the artsy one of the family and is a professional student. She is currently working on her Masters Degree in Renaissance History and has been excepted into the PhD program in Modern History at the University of Toronto. She lives just off campus in a tiny bachelorette apartment in downtown Toronto and just loves it there. Of all my siblings, she is the one I get along with most as we share a lot of common interests like history and music and singing. My youngest brother and I get along pretty well too, but I rarely talk to the other brother. He has ticked me off just a few too many times in the past couple of years and his boys are just too much to take at family gatherings.
2) I was a star track & field athlete in Grade 8. I ended up "officially" the 3rd fastest sprinter in my region, and "unofficially" the fastest. Unofficially because it was later found out that the 1st and 2nd place finishers were running in the intermediate race when they should have been in the senior race, but the school sports association refused to change the results. My unofficial best time for the 100 meter sprint was 10.8 seconds and my official best time was 11.2 seconds. Those are almost Olympic Qualifying times and I was only 12 at the time. In Grade 9, I ran against a number of black boys my age who beat the pants off me (figuratively speaking there) and later I found out that one of them was Ben Johnson, the Canadian sprinter who lost his gold medal at the Seoul Olympics because he cheated by using steroids. Considering my memories of him from Grade 9, he was cheating then too - I've never seen 13 - 14 year olds with arms and legs that big before or since! Sad that even in middle school and high school sports, you have to cheat to win!
3) I played trumpet for 8 years in middle and high school. (Back when I was in high school, Ontario schools had 13 grades - now they only have 12 - just like everyone else) In my senior year, I was invited to audition for Canada's National Youth Symphony Orchestra, but my parents refused to support that. By the end of high school I could play all the brass instruments and was actually teaching the junior grades as part of my "class work" as I was 1 of only 2 Grade 13 music students in the school. Like Flake, I wanted to study music in post secondary education, but again, my parents were not supportive and so I chose not to follow that path. Looking back, I really wish I had!
4) Tying in with number 3 above, I also am a singer. I developed a love of singing while in the high school choir and it's the only type of music performance I still actively pursue. I am a baritone (stuck between tenor and bass) so most of the singing I do is either for church or classical in nature. Unfortunately, 95% of all male pop singers today are either tenors or countertenors (higher than tenor) and I just can't sing their stuff! Too bad the Crash Test Dummies lead singer went so wacko... he was a bass and I used to love singing along with him on the radio, but when he showed up at a concert in Toronto wearing a bra, I decided not to support that band any longer! I also liked to sing along with Mark Knopfler of the Dire Straits as he was a baritone as well. My voice isn't rich enough to be an Elvis impersonator, but some of his songs are well within my range too.
5) I broke my right arm twice when I was young. Both times by falling after doing some stupid stunts. The first time I was 8 years old and fell off the metal roof of an old woodshed. Well, "fell" isn't the right word, since I was actually trying to JUMP OFF the roof! The wind tumbled me a bit and I landed on my back and shattered my elbow. I was supposed to have surgery to put in an artificial joint, but when the surgeon opened up my arm, he said all the pieces were big enough to put back together "like a jigsaw puzzle". So, lucky me was spared all the subsequent surgeries that would have been required to keep my elbow "caught up" with the rest of me as I grew. The second time I broke my arm I was visiting my grandparents in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I was 11 yrs old and I had flown from Toronto to Winnipeg by myself to stay with them for 2 weeks. I had gone to a friend's place the first weekend and we had gone bike riding in a large construction site nearby. I was riding a "BMX" style bike with the shocks and big knobby tires while my friends were riding the old 10-speed racer style bikes. THEY made it down the hill ok, but I hit a rock with my thicker tires and bounced out over an 8 foot cliff. I landed on my hands and knees, but my right hand had hit a rock and snapped my wrist like a dry twig. Needless to say, the rest of my stay with my grandparents was somewhat subdued! LOL! Later on in life I would fall yet again doing some free rock climbing and dislocated my left shoulder. Needless to say, after all that, heights now give me the major heebee jeebies! As my dad likes to say, "I now prefer Terra Firma, the more firma, the less terra!"
6) I used to be a professional portrait photographer, but quit because it was so hard to make a living from it. I still love to take pictures of scenery, trains, cars, planes, flowers, my kids, etc. I got a decent digital camera a year ago and have been having fun learning what I can do with it. I would love to be able to get an SLR digital camera and really go crazy, but I have to save for quite a while before I can afford one! I would really like to get back into professional photography and get my studio back off the ground. I did a bunch of commercial product photography while I was working in the printing industry, and found that I have a knack for it and I enjoyed doing it too! Easiest money I ever made, but since all my 35mm camera equipment was stolen several years ago, I haven't been able to rebuild. Right now I'm toying with getting some photos published in calendars and magazines, but I have a ways to go learning my digital camera before my pictures measure up to those lofty standards!
7) I am one of the world's worst pack-rats! LOL! I collect EVERYTHING! I have collections of ball caps (interestingly enough, not ONE baseball team cap in the bunch! LOL!) model trains, books, souvenirs, mugs, figurines from movies and video games, CDs, old calendars, magazines, lapel pins, old electronic junk (I MIGHT be able to use some parts from this...), and the list goes ever on. One of my favourite sayings is "The thing you call junk is the item I will need two days after it is thrown out!" My wife is very tolerant of my collecting, but every once in a while she gets ruthless and makes me throw out a bunch of stuff. Yep, I usually end up wanting something from that pile about a week after the garbage truck has taken it away! LOL! Oh well!
So there you have it. 7 things you might not have known about me. Thanks for tagging me Burf and Flake! I know I'm supposed to tag some people now, but I don't know all that many people in blogger land, so I'll leave it for now. I hope you enjoyed my expose!
Sunday, May 06, 2007
OW! OW! OW!
Man! I hurt in more places than I knew I had! It's always amazing to me how fast one can get completely out of shape! Equally amazing is how fast it can take to start hurting like you never felt before too! Let me explain what I'm "whining" about! LOL!
Last Wednesday, I received a call from the temp agency I am registered with asking me to consider taking an assignment at a local light fixture manufacturer. I was told the position was for "wiring" which I am very good at. The assignment was a temporary one, but "might lead to full-time employment if the 'fit' is right". I accepted, so on Thursday morning, oh so bright and early, I reported to the company as directed. Lo and behold, as seems to be the standard MO of these companies who use temp agencies, no one knew I was coming! So, instead of wiring, I was assigned to the paint line. There I found myself hanging parts onto hooks to be painted then baked. About an hour into my shift, I was moved from the loading side to the unloading side of the line. This meant that I was now unhooking painted, baked and mostly still warm parts from the hooks and putting them into racks or bins, depending on the size of the parts. Right off the bat, no problem. The parts being painted were the outside frames for light boxes and very light. Unfortunately, the painters weren't doing a very good job, so most of the parts had to be put aside and spray painted - lovely! To paraphrase an already over-used movie line, "I LOVE the smell of aerosol in the morning!" NOT! Just when I thought the line was going to get ahead of me because the other guy I was working with was now spray painting almost the entire time, I caught a lucky break... sort of. The parts changed from two small, light, aluminum boxes per hook to two 8 foot long extruded aluminum fluorescent fixtures per rack. Lucky in that it now took about 2 minutes for each rack of fixtures to fully clear the ovens, and unlucky because, as they were extruded aluminum, they were quite a bit heavier than the boxes! Then came the 12 foot fixtures! Oh man, I guesstimate that they were about 30 pounds each, and very awkward! Since I was still unloading the line solo, you guessed it, my back started protesting mightily! By lunch time, I was feeling VERY sore and starting to lose the last of my strength. It was actually embarrassing the way I felt after just 4 hours on the job! There were women smaller than me who were working twice as fast and I hate feeling like I'm the slow coach of a group! Fortunately, after lunch, my co-worker was able to return to the line which was a real blessing since we were now unloading 6 - 9 parts per hook and the hooks were spaced about 10 seconds apart! We had to hustle to keep up with the line, but the parts were light enough to enable me to keep up. After a while more heavy parts arrived, but with the two of us, we managed to keep up - just barely!
When I got home Thursday afternoon, I was in extreme pain and could barely move. My wife graciously volunteered to give me a rub down with A-535 before I went to bed and I awoke Friday stiff and sore, but at least able to function!
Luckily the paint line was shut down on Friday (the company only runs it 2 days per week - I understand it costs them over $2,000 in natural gas to just fire it up in the morning!) so I was assigned to the Metal Finishing Department for the morning. After using an orbital sander to sand down burrs and imperfections on unpainted aluminum fixtures all morning, (yes, again some 8 foot and 12 foot beasties) my right hand still hasn't stopped tingling! My afternoon was spent riveting end caps to sections of louvers that probably weighed less than a pound in total, so I was able to enjoy that part of the day!
So you can see, after spending the last 7 months sitting at home playing games online, doing the occasional load of laundry and cooking a few meals, my muscles had gotten pretty soft, pretty fast! And then, WHAM! all this heavy work all at once! Can you blame me for complaining just a little bit?
The upside of this job is, there is no shift-work, and the plant is operational Monday to Friday, so no weekend work either. The downside, a 7 am start which is very tough for this nighthawk to transition to! Hopefully it won't take me too long to adjust to the new schedule and that my muscles get used to the workload real soon too! I was asked to go back next week by the plant supervisor (actually, TOLD I was coming back is more like it, LOL!) so, I'm hoping that I can adapt to their working conditions and find myself gainfully employed full-time for the first time in over 5 years! I heard a rumour that a full-time employee there gets $17.00/hour which would be fantastic! Right now, as a temp I'm making $11.50/hour which, while not great, is way better than the $0.00/hour I was making as Mr. Mom! hehe! It also beats the minimum wage jobs that I had been applying to but being rejected for because I was "too qualified"! Best thing about it is, if something goes wrong at this job, I have the option of walking away without hurting my chances at being assigned to another employer! Let's hope I don't have to exercise that option!
I am very much enjoying our weather this weekend too! In fact, this entire week has been very nice! Sunny, warm (temps between 13 and 23 degrees Celsius, 55 - 73 for my American friends) with a nice breeze to move the air around. I love it! The early mornings are still a might nippy, but by mid-afternoon, it's t-shirt weather baby! WHOOO HOOO! So far, the forecast calls for the same weather until Wednesday when it is supposed to cool off and rain a bit. That's great too, as my spring bulbs are starting to look a little withered around the edges and I really don't want to break out the hose just yet! The long range forecast for next weekend has the temps going up to the mid 20s (mid - high 70s) and loads of sun! Can't wait!
Have a great week everyone!
Last Wednesday, I received a call from the temp agency I am registered with asking me to consider taking an assignment at a local light fixture manufacturer. I was told the position was for "wiring" which I am very good at. The assignment was a temporary one, but "might lead to full-time employment if the 'fit' is right". I accepted, so on Thursday morning, oh so bright and early, I reported to the company as directed. Lo and behold, as seems to be the standard MO of these companies who use temp agencies, no one knew I was coming! So, instead of wiring, I was assigned to the paint line. There I found myself hanging parts onto hooks to be painted then baked. About an hour into my shift, I was moved from the loading side to the unloading side of the line. This meant that I was now unhooking painted, baked and mostly still warm parts from the hooks and putting them into racks or bins, depending on the size of the parts. Right off the bat, no problem. The parts being painted were the outside frames for light boxes and very light. Unfortunately, the painters weren't doing a very good job, so most of the parts had to be put aside and spray painted - lovely! To paraphrase an already over-used movie line, "I LOVE the smell of aerosol in the morning!" NOT! Just when I thought the line was going to get ahead of me because the other guy I was working with was now spray painting almost the entire time, I caught a lucky break... sort of. The parts changed from two small, light, aluminum boxes per hook to two 8 foot long extruded aluminum fluorescent fixtures per rack. Lucky in that it now took about 2 minutes for each rack of fixtures to fully clear the ovens, and unlucky because, as they were extruded aluminum, they were quite a bit heavier than the boxes! Then came the 12 foot fixtures! Oh man, I guesstimate that they were about 30 pounds each, and very awkward! Since I was still unloading the line solo, you guessed it, my back started protesting mightily! By lunch time, I was feeling VERY sore and starting to lose the last of my strength. It was actually embarrassing the way I felt after just 4 hours on the job! There were women smaller than me who were working twice as fast and I hate feeling like I'm the slow coach of a group! Fortunately, after lunch, my co-worker was able to return to the line which was a real blessing since we were now unloading 6 - 9 parts per hook and the hooks were spaced about 10 seconds apart! We had to hustle to keep up with the line, but the parts were light enough to enable me to keep up. After a while more heavy parts arrived, but with the two of us, we managed to keep up - just barely!
When I got home Thursday afternoon, I was in extreme pain and could barely move. My wife graciously volunteered to give me a rub down with A-535 before I went to bed and I awoke Friday stiff and sore, but at least able to function!
Luckily the paint line was shut down on Friday (the company only runs it 2 days per week - I understand it costs them over $2,000 in natural gas to just fire it up in the morning!) so I was assigned to the Metal Finishing Department for the morning. After using an orbital sander to sand down burrs and imperfections on unpainted aluminum fixtures all morning, (yes, again some 8 foot and 12 foot beasties) my right hand still hasn't stopped tingling! My afternoon was spent riveting end caps to sections of louvers that probably weighed less than a pound in total, so I was able to enjoy that part of the day!
So you can see, after spending the last 7 months sitting at home playing games online, doing the occasional load of laundry and cooking a few meals, my muscles had gotten pretty soft, pretty fast! And then, WHAM! all this heavy work all at once! Can you blame me for complaining just a little bit?
The upside of this job is, there is no shift-work, and the plant is operational Monday to Friday, so no weekend work either. The downside, a 7 am start which is very tough for this nighthawk to transition to! Hopefully it won't take me too long to adjust to the new schedule and that my muscles get used to the workload real soon too! I was asked to go back next week by the plant supervisor (actually, TOLD I was coming back is more like it, LOL!) so, I'm hoping that I can adapt to their working conditions and find myself gainfully employed full-time for the first time in over 5 years! I heard a rumour that a full-time employee there gets $17.00/hour which would be fantastic! Right now, as a temp I'm making $11.50/hour which, while not great, is way better than the $0.00/hour I was making as Mr. Mom! hehe! It also beats the minimum wage jobs that I had been applying to but being rejected for because I was "too qualified"! Best thing about it is, if something goes wrong at this job, I have the option of walking away without hurting my chances at being assigned to another employer! Let's hope I don't have to exercise that option!
I am very much enjoying our weather this weekend too! In fact, this entire week has been very nice! Sunny, warm (temps between 13 and 23 degrees Celsius, 55 - 73 for my American friends) with a nice breeze to move the air around. I love it! The early mornings are still a might nippy, but by mid-afternoon, it's t-shirt weather baby! WHOOO HOOO! So far, the forecast calls for the same weather until Wednesday when it is supposed to cool off and rain a bit. That's great too, as my spring bulbs are starting to look a little withered around the edges and I really don't want to break out the hose just yet! The long range forecast for next weekend has the temps going up to the mid 20s (mid - high 70s) and loads of sun! Can't wait!
Have a great week everyone!
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Questions from Burfica
Ok, here's the deal. Burfica got asked 5 questions from a friend and she posted the answers in her blog, then challenged us to get 5 questions from her and answer them in our blog. So here goes!
1. You wake up one day and you're a woman, what do you do for the week??
Wow, Burf! You don't pull any punches, do you? LOL! Ok, let me see...
First of all, I'm making certain assumptions here, one, all my male clothes also mysteriously changed to female ones, and two, my mind hasn't changed inside me. ;-) Ok, now, what would I do? (Physically wrenching my mind out of the gutter, hehe) I don't think I would be that much different, as right now my routine usually keeps me in the house as it is. I would probably renew my job search, this time capitalizing on the fact that companies hire women more frequently than they used to, to conform to "Equal Opportunity" obligations. After finding work, I would expand my social network. Hopefully my wife hasn't run off screaming upon finding a woman in her bed! LOL! But all in all, since I don't normally do the "guy thing" as a rule, I don't see my life changing all that much.
2. What is your favorite part about being a father?? Explain one of your favorite memories of that.
One of my favourite things about being a father is the unconditional love and acceptance I now enjoy as a father of two daughters. I have several fond memories of this and I'd like to share two of them. The first one happened at the birth of my first Daughter, J. When she was born, she, like most babies, started up a healthy wailing. I was still uncertain about what had all happened and was feeling very uncomfortable there in the delivery room. The nurses professionally went about their given tasks, all the while J's cries were gradually increasing into screams. She did NOT like what was being done to her as they weighed her, took the blood sample, put in the eye drops and so on. After they were finished with all the post-birth tasks, I thought they would give J to her mommy to settle her down. Instead, the nurse brought her to me and said, "Here, Dad, meet your daughter!" I was very uncomfortable about holding such a tiny baby, but took her and started talking to her. I said "Hi, J! Welcome to the Real World!" Immediately J's crying stopped and she looked up at me calmly. The nurses all exclaimed about how quickly J had calmed down and they said she must be a Daddy's Girl. I can still remember the feelings of love and pride filling my entire being and, still to this day, J is "Daddy's Girl" and if given a choice, would rather spend time with her dad than doing other things.
The other memory involves both my daughters and is more recent. I was feeling very down not too long ago after I had been let go from yet another job. I came home and was talking to my wife about what had happened when my daughters came home from school. Both of them realized very quickly how badly I was feeling, and without saying a word, both came and gave me a big hug. Then the youngest one said, "Dad, do you think J and I can get a job delivering papers to help out?" They were both willing to work and sacrifice their earnings to help replace my lost wages. No matter how many times I have screwed up and yelled at them, they have always wanted to spend time with me and to help me whenever they could. I didn't have that kind of relationship with my father and I am so thankful my two daughters think so highly of me!
3. You go back in time to work in an Castle...what would your job be?
Oh, I like this one! LOL! My job, if you could call it that, would be Baron! LOL! I am descended from nobility and one of my original ancestors was a Baron in Northern Germany. So, by hereditary right as the firstborn, I would be Baron! What a job that would be! LOL!
4. Tell us how you met your wife and use the words. "Pomegranate", "goldfish", "jedi" and "enema"
Ok, I was preparing for this question, but not for THESE words! LOL!
Interestingly enough, I met the girl, who would be my future wife when I was 5 years old! My family had just moved to Ontario from Nova Scotia and started attending a church in a nearby town. There my parents met a family that had just arrived from North Ireland and they became friends. Shortly afterwards, though, that other family moved away to another town and I never saw them again for many years. My mother however, kept up a correspondence with the other woman. About 12 years later, the other woman succumbed to cancer and since her husband wasn't much of a letter writer, my family lost contact with theirs. I personally don't remember any of this, but that's what my mother has told me.
A few years later, a small group of young adults and older teens from my church decided to drive to a large church conference in Akron, Ohio over Labour Day Weekend. So, we piled into 3 cars and drove the 7 hours from Oakville to Akron. Once there, I saw some old friends from the Toronto area and our group joined up with them. In that group was a pair of sisters from the Peterborough area and we exchanged greetings and introductions. After the workshops and seminars had finished for the day, my friends and I went back to our hotel rooms. My best friend turned to me and said, "Hey! O likes you, you know!" I looked at him like he had a pomegranate for a head. "What are you, a Jedi, or something? She didn't say two words to me!" I refused to believe that the extremely shy girl I had met that evening had any feelings for me.
Of course it didn't help that I had gone to that conference hoping to cement a relationship with a girl I had been "courting" from my own church. But, I soon found out that weekend that my dream girl approached the idea of being my girlfriend with the same enthusiasm she had for giving an enema to one of her patients! She was much more interested in my younger brother and had been humouring me to get to know him better! I went home after that weekend in somewhat of a daze and returned to college, somewhat depressed.
Fast forward 3 months and one Sunday just before Christmas, I walked into my church to see O and an older couple sitting there! It turns out that O's father's cousin lived north of Milton, where our church was, and was the host of an annual Christmas "Gathering of the Clan" which was held the previous Saturday. O's parents had wanted to attend church services on Sunday morning and had asked O whether she wanted to go to the church in Milton, or to one in Toronto where they had other friends. O chose Milton, much to their surprise, and so that's how they came to be sitting in my church when I walked in! After the first service, O immediately approached me and started talking a mile a minute! I was stunned, remembering her as an extremely shy girl who wouldn't say anything to anybody! Of course, most of the mothers in my church noticed this pretty girl chatting animatedly with me and soon I started feeling like I was in a goldfish bowl! Everywhere I looked I saw women watching me and whispering to each other! They had me married to O right then and there! LOL! No one beats out church women for gossip! LOL!
To make this long story a bit shorter, we exchanged addresses and I agreed to come up to Peterborough to meet her family. A year and a half later, we were married and the rest, as they say, is history!
5. You are throwing a big bash at a fantasy writing convention. You are in charge of the goodie bags, and what the cake looks like, explain what everything is.
WHOO HOOO! Let's PARTY! LOL!
First of all, the cake; It's in the shape of the convention logo, a shield with a crossed axe and sword behind it. The shield is white with a red dragon coiled around a green tree. Beneath the shield is a scroll with the convention city and date in calligraphic writing. The cake itself is chocolate with a caramel layer through the middle - think Turtle cake! MMMMmmmmm!
Now the goodie bags; The bag itself is one of those "Green Bags" made from recycled pop and water bottles. It's black in colour and has the convention logo silk screened on both sides.
Each bag contains the following items:
1 pad of 8.5" x 11" paper, 10 sheets thick with the convention logo screened as a false watermark,
1 Rollerball pen with the convention info printed on the barrel,
1 presentation folder with the convention logo printed on the front, containing sheets of paper with various publishing house contacts and their manuscript requirements,
1 CD-ROM with a demo version of a soon to be released fantasy Role-Playing-Game,
1 Mini-DVD with trailers of several fantasy movies slated for future release,
1 Novelty necklace with a LED light up figurine of a dragon,
1 Pewter keychain featuring the convention logo,
1 plastic water bottle silk screened with the convention logo, and
1 flyer promoting the next fantasy writer's convention!
How's that? I had fun answering these questions, and I will admit it took me a long time to get them all answered, too! I hope you enjoy reading my answers and I look forward to receiving your comments! Can't wait for the next game!
Have a great day!
1. You wake up one day and you're a woman, what do you do for the week??
Wow, Burf! You don't pull any punches, do you? LOL! Ok, let me see...
First of all, I'm making certain assumptions here, one, all my male clothes also mysteriously changed to female ones, and two, my mind hasn't changed inside me. ;-) Ok, now, what would I do? (Physically wrenching my mind out of the gutter, hehe) I don't think I would be that much different, as right now my routine usually keeps me in the house as it is. I would probably renew my job search, this time capitalizing on the fact that companies hire women more frequently than they used to, to conform to "Equal Opportunity" obligations. After finding work, I would expand my social network. Hopefully my wife hasn't run off screaming upon finding a woman in her bed! LOL! But all in all, since I don't normally do the "guy thing" as a rule, I don't see my life changing all that much.
2. What is your favorite part about being a father?? Explain one of your favorite memories of that.
One of my favourite things about being a father is the unconditional love and acceptance I now enjoy as a father of two daughters. I have several fond memories of this and I'd like to share two of them. The first one happened at the birth of my first Daughter, J. When she was born, she, like most babies, started up a healthy wailing. I was still uncertain about what had all happened and was feeling very uncomfortable there in the delivery room. The nurses professionally went about their given tasks, all the while J's cries were gradually increasing into screams. She did NOT like what was being done to her as they weighed her, took the blood sample, put in the eye drops and so on. After they were finished with all the post-birth tasks, I thought they would give J to her mommy to settle her down. Instead, the nurse brought her to me and said, "Here, Dad, meet your daughter!" I was very uncomfortable about holding such a tiny baby, but took her and started talking to her. I said "Hi, J! Welcome to the Real World!" Immediately J's crying stopped and she looked up at me calmly. The nurses all exclaimed about how quickly J had calmed down and they said she must be a Daddy's Girl. I can still remember the feelings of love and pride filling my entire being and, still to this day, J is "Daddy's Girl" and if given a choice, would rather spend time with her dad than doing other things.
The other memory involves both my daughters and is more recent. I was feeling very down not too long ago after I had been let go from yet another job. I came home and was talking to my wife about what had happened when my daughters came home from school. Both of them realized very quickly how badly I was feeling, and without saying a word, both came and gave me a big hug. Then the youngest one said, "Dad, do you think J and I can get a job delivering papers to help out?" They were both willing to work and sacrifice their earnings to help replace my lost wages. No matter how many times I have screwed up and yelled at them, they have always wanted to spend time with me and to help me whenever they could. I didn't have that kind of relationship with my father and I am so thankful my two daughters think so highly of me!
3. You go back in time to work in an Castle...what would your job be?
Oh, I like this one! LOL! My job, if you could call it that, would be Baron! LOL! I am descended from nobility and one of my original ancestors was a Baron in Northern Germany. So, by hereditary right as the firstborn, I would be Baron! What a job that would be! LOL!
4. Tell us how you met your wife and use the words. "Pomegranate", "goldfish", "jedi" and "enema"
Ok, I was preparing for this question, but not for THESE words! LOL!
Interestingly enough, I met the girl, who would be my future wife when I was 5 years old! My family had just moved to Ontario from Nova Scotia and started attending a church in a nearby town. There my parents met a family that had just arrived from North Ireland and they became friends. Shortly afterwards, though, that other family moved away to another town and I never saw them again for many years. My mother however, kept up a correspondence with the other woman. About 12 years later, the other woman succumbed to cancer and since her husband wasn't much of a letter writer, my family lost contact with theirs. I personally don't remember any of this, but that's what my mother has told me.
A few years later, a small group of young adults and older teens from my church decided to drive to a large church conference in Akron, Ohio over Labour Day Weekend. So, we piled into 3 cars and drove the 7 hours from Oakville to Akron. Once there, I saw some old friends from the Toronto area and our group joined up with them. In that group was a pair of sisters from the Peterborough area and we exchanged greetings and introductions. After the workshops and seminars had finished for the day, my friends and I went back to our hotel rooms. My best friend turned to me and said, "Hey! O likes you, you know!" I looked at him like he had a pomegranate for a head. "What are you, a Jedi, or something? She didn't say two words to me!" I refused to believe that the extremely shy girl I had met that evening had any feelings for me.
Of course it didn't help that I had gone to that conference hoping to cement a relationship with a girl I had been "courting" from my own church. But, I soon found out that weekend that my dream girl approached the idea of being my girlfriend with the same enthusiasm she had for giving an enema to one of her patients! She was much more interested in my younger brother and had been humouring me to get to know him better! I went home after that weekend in somewhat of a daze and returned to college, somewhat depressed.
Fast forward 3 months and one Sunday just before Christmas, I walked into my church to see O and an older couple sitting there! It turns out that O's father's cousin lived north of Milton, where our church was, and was the host of an annual Christmas "Gathering of the Clan" which was held the previous Saturday. O's parents had wanted to attend church services on Sunday morning and had asked O whether she wanted to go to the church in Milton, or to one in Toronto where they had other friends. O chose Milton, much to their surprise, and so that's how they came to be sitting in my church when I walked in! After the first service, O immediately approached me and started talking a mile a minute! I was stunned, remembering her as an extremely shy girl who wouldn't say anything to anybody! Of course, most of the mothers in my church noticed this pretty girl chatting animatedly with me and soon I started feeling like I was in a goldfish bowl! Everywhere I looked I saw women watching me and whispering to each other! They had me married to O right then and there! LOL! No one beats out church women for gossip! LOL!
To make this long story a bit shorter, we exchanged addresses and I agreed to come up to Peterborough to meet her family. A year and a half later, we were married and the rest, as they say, is history!
5. You are throwing a big bash at a fantasy writing convention. You are in charge of the goodie bags, and what the cake looks like, explain what everything is.
WHOO HOOO! Let's PARTY! LOL!
First of all, the cake; It's in the shape of the convention logo, a shield with a crossed axe and sword behind it. The shield is white with a red dragon coiled around a green tree. Beneath the shield is a scroll with the convention city and date in calligraphic writing. The cake itself is chocolate with a caramel layer through the middle - think Turtle cake! MMMMmmmmm!
Now the goodie bags; The bag itself is one of those "Green Bags" made from recycled pop and water bottles. It's black in colour and has the convention logo silk screened on both sides.
Each bag contains the following items:
1 pad of 8.5" x 11" paper, 10 sheets thick with the convention logo screened as a false watermark,
1 Rollerball pen with the convention info printed on the barrel,
1 presentation folder with the convention logo printed on the front, containing sheets of paper with various publishing house contacts and their manuscript requirements,
1 CD-ROM with a demo version of a soon to be released fantasy Role-Playing-Game,
1 Mini-DVD with trailers of several fantasy movies slated for future release,
1 Novelty necklace with a LED light up figurine of a dragon,
1 Pewter keychain featuring the convention logo,
1 plastic water bottle silk screened with the convention logo, and
1 flyer promoting the next fantasy writer's convention!
How's that? I had fun answering these questions, and I will admit it took me a long time to get them all answered, too! I hope you enjoy reading my answers and I look forward to receiving your comments! Can't wait for the next game!
Have a great day!
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