Dear Blog Readers

For some reason I can't think of anything to blog about.

This Blog Is About me

I must seem awfully vain posting pictures of myself all the time.

Catch-22

Yesterday was yet another Monday. On one hand I look forward to them because I usually go to Jenna's house to watch Heroes. On the other hand I dread Mondays - I have to go back to work, and I am always tired. I usually stay up too late on the weekend, so by the time Sunday night arrives I can't sleep until around 2 or 3:00am, making Monday a very long day. I normally go to bed quite early in order to make up some sleep, but last night I fought off sleepiness and watched The Bourne Ultimatum instead.

This morning my alarm went off as usual, but I slept right through it. When my Backup Alarm rang I woke up, but I assumed it was my first alarm, so I shut it off. When the Last Chance Alarm finally woke me up I couldn't believe how late it was. I struggled out of bed and into the shower. I was so tired I pretty much stood there under the water with my eyes closed. In terms of washing up, one could say I did the bare minimum. (get it?)

If there was ever a morning I needed coffee, it was this morning. There was a time when my favorite part of drinking coffee was drinking out of a fantastic travel mug, but nowadays I have a deep appreciation for the drink as well. I don't know if it is all due to caffeine or if it is part psychological, but it really does wake me up in the morning. Some mornings if I don't drink coffee I find it very difficult to work. Without coffee this morning I'd be asleep at my desk in no time.

I walked like a zombie to the kitchen and I pulled out the coffee press and my favorite mug. I took the coffee grounds and the coffee-mate from the cupboard and put the appropriate amounts in each vessel. I boiled water and added it to the carafe and 5 minutes later I filled my mug and sat down at the computer to work.

I let the coffee sit for a few minutes to cool down, and then I picked up the mug, closed my eyes and took a healthy sip. Imagine my shock when I realized my mouth was full of grit. It is amazing how quickly coffee turns into 'water with coffee grounds floating in it'. In that instant I couldn't even recognize what had happened, and I messily tried to quickly spit the coffee back through the little sip-hole in the travel mug. I went back to the kitchen to wash some spilled grounds off my thumb and I realized what the problem was. Normally I put coffee grounds in the press, then I put coffee-mate in the mug. Apparently this morning I was so sleepy that I put coffee grounds in BOTH. Yeah, there's a catch-22 when you need coffee in order to make coffee.

Thanks to Debbie for the ending!

Hi

I just wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive and kicking.
I've been neglecting this blog and I feel guilty. I'll be back soon.

P.S. Thanks for everyone who has mentioned that they miss reading it.

"Where is he now?" / "There he is!"

My mom has been away for a few days, so I've been taking care of her house. It isn't hard, I just bring in the mail and water the plants. The hardest part is getting there. I would just rather be going somewhere else I guess. This evening though I decided to make the trip to mom's house my entire evening's activity. I grabbed a book, my mp3 player and I started walking. Along the way I read, I sat on the grass in a couple parks, I bought a cold drink to sip along the way, and I chatted on the phone with some friends. Basically I just enjoyed the evening over the course of a 15 kilometre walk.

A block from mom's I had to pass by my ex-friend Rob's parent's house - this is where Rob currently lives. As I walked by I had a few minutes to wonder what he was up to these days. I wondered where he was in life, if he has a girlfriend, if he is working, if he is happy... It seems weird that as a kid I wasn't supposed to knock when I visited, I was told to walk right in, but now as adults I'm completely shut out. He hasn't spoken to me in a civil tone in almost three years.

I gave up on wondering what he was up to because my attention shifted to some of the things we used to do as kids. It was probably about 22 years ago that we used to play a game called "Slingshot vs Pellet Gun". It was a game a lot like hide and seek, but once you found the person... well, the goal of the game was pretty simple: the first one to shoot the other player wins.

We weren't that dumb though. We didn't actually shoot each other, we'd just shoot near each other. Still... more than once I heard the sound of a pellet as it whizzed too too close past my ear. This particular night though we called the game without a winner because we had some unexpected players show up.

It was snowing that night, probably the first snow of the year. I gave Rob a head start and shortly after I went looking for him. According to our rules, you could go anywhere you wanted on the block I lived on, and I mean anywhere. It is only a city block, but when you consider the back alley, the front yards, back yards, up trees and on top of buildings, this is a pretty big area. Luckily it was proving easy to follow Rob's tracks in the freshly fallen snow.

I followed cautiously. Rob was crafty and it would have been just like him to backtrack down his own tracks, jump off in some other direction, and wait behind a garbage can until I walked by. When I saw his tracks stop at a fence, it took me a minute or two to determine it was safe for me to approach. I looked over the top of the fence and saw that Rob had climbed it, and then walked balance-beam style down the length of it between two yards.

I did my best to walk on top the fence too, and I saw his tracks move to the roof of a shed, and from the shed on to a garage. I went where they led, up over the crest of the garage roof. When I looked over I saw the tracks went halfway down the other side, then it looked like he sat down and creeped towards the edge so that he didn't slip and fall off.

I again followed until I was sitting on the edge of the garage with my feet dangling down. I saw tracks 10 feet below indicating Rob had jumped off and ran down the block. I guess I didn't notice there were several sets of tracks going off in the same direction because I was too busy making sure Rob wasn't waiting in ambush. Suddenly I heard people coming out the front door of the house that was attached to the garage I was sitting on.

I looked over and saw three men standing on the doorstep looking up at me. One of them pointed and said, "There he is again!!" One of the others said, "Get him!"

I jumped off and ran like the wind. They came after me, but thankfully my Slingshot vs Pellet Gun experience meant I had the home-field advantage and it didn't take long to lose them. I went a round-a-bout way back to my house and found Rob there waiting for me. We decided we should just stay in and play video games rather than end up in another foot chase with angry neighbours.

I didn't win our game that night, but I ended up with a pretty good memory. I'm glad. Rob doesn't talk to me anymore, so memories like that are all I've got.