January 2007 — The Tugboat

January 31, 2007

This appears as if it will be my last entry for the month of January. To recount my life over the last few days, I'll begin at the ending of the last post. Saturday was tame and filled with driving as mentioned. In the evening I could have gone to some party or something but I chose to stay home and rest the night away. The next day brought the celebration of the Big T's birth, while not the actual day it was the chance we had to celebrate it. During the festivities I managed to beat pretty much anyone that dared challenge me at pool, that list includes Lance, two of his daughters, and the Mayor (I know he's not actually the Mayor anymore but I will forever call him that). It was fun times. I also showed the younger kids how I could play Sesame Street on the guitar and what black lights can do. After the party wrapped up at 7ish, I headed into town to catch the evening showing of the Departed with Anna and her friends. It was a good movie and I left for home right after, staying only long enough to make sure her van started. Maeghan, Anna's sister, was supposed to call me that night or the next night to play pool, I guess she wants a beat down. She didn't return my call either night and I called her both times and was stood up on both occasions. I used my wit and some clever word play to get her back for that one. She was mildly annoyed. It doesn't sound impressive in this arena but it was good. I also managed to talk to my old friend Hewett of the phone at some point too. Wednesday was the actual day of the Big T's birth so I had dinner with him and we watched some television until I took off to Anna's house for a visit. All the preceding events were over-shadowed by the cold that my whole house has developed. I feel that I'm almost over it but only time will tell. That pretty much brings me up to the current point in time, after 11 on Wednesday, January 31, 2007. My days have been spent reading Catch-22 and lounging in warm blankets trying to beat this cold. I watched the Sentinel and something else earlier in the week. That pretty much details my every move, that and the drama that Lacey hatched. I was called by my father to give her a ride home and when I got to town to get her she was gone and we never heard from her until that evening. I was not impressed and I think there will be some severe repercussions on this one. I salvaged the trip to town by going to see my co-advisor for my master's program and I let him know the status of my application and also that I graduated with honours. It's a matter of public record, look it up if you don't believe me. That's about all I can say about that. Phillips out.

January 27, 2007

My week in Guelph has finally ended. Finally shouldn't the right word since the time seemed to literally fly by. It seemed that I woke up at 8am and then I turned around and it was 2pm. Most of the time got away from me in the form of meetings with people at the school, internet research, and some sporadic Xbox 360 playing. We added another game to our line-up in the form of Blitz: The League. Probably one of the most intense football games ever. It invokes huge swings of emotion from elation to anger to despair in a matter of seconds. It is very violent and is rated M for mature. I first thought that was for language reason but quickly realized it was for the graphic nature of the frequent injuries that take place in the game and for the ethically questionable things that happen. It brought Rich and I much joy when we played it together. Brown hadn't gotten into it when I left, maybe he will in the future weeks. I just hope they don't get that awesome at it while I'm gone. The visit to see Dave in London was decent until it came time to drive home. Phil and I headed over as planned with Rich, who spontaneously joined our expedition. We managed to get a table at Jack Astor's and Dave had pre-purchased tickets to the film Smokin' Aces for us. That allowed us to skip the line and the brutal violence and gunplay that caused the film to be rated R allowed us into the theatre because of the lack of teenage riff raff. I was very thankful for that. It was not a real mind melter but it did get across the purpose of the movie and we four left entertained. You may have noticed that I've included some links in the post this time around and I may just continue that process even though it makes more work for me. My critics and fans have said that they like the links and feel that the site is almost not worth visiting without them. I feel that they are simply gimmicks but if they bring the people in then where's the harm. Maybe I've sold a small part of myself out in doing so but it can join the large parts that I've sold off in the past. Either way, back to the tale of fear and anxiety. The drive home from London sucked because of the climate, weather and road conditions. The roads were coated with not ice but transports and apparently they like to spray a whitish film on windshields. This film coupled with the beams of light coming from cars in the other lanes coming towards us made it difficult to see. The weather was warm enough to induce slush on the sides of the road which was also treacherous. It was an intense two hours that it took us to make the 1 hour drive. The ride home the next day was mildly better. I managed to make it white-knuckled up to North Bay where it got cold enough that the salty brine didn't coat my only means of seeing the road. So the tip of the day is bring lots of washer fluid on long trips. I went through 3 jugs in two days. It was wild but I made it back and I'll now comfort myself in that sterling fact. Phillips out.

January 22, 2007

I'm back in Guelph again as my yo-yo existence continues. By the end of the week I'll be up north. I had a good time up there this past week. I took my grandma to town twice (Tuesday and Friday) and I got to get out of the house and see some people too. I hung out with Anna and her friends on Saturday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday again. Good times had each time. I'm glad I know people there now, it was getting pretty boring for a while. I've been playing pool regularly still and doing housework and odd jobs. I enjoy doing that. There is no pressure to get things done by a certain time and working without a deadline is better now that I do the work first and play after. Our car is getting fixed this week and should be road ready soon. I hope it is not too costly. I actually got to drive the van down here as the Big T didn't feel that the Rooster was road worthy enough, or that I wasn't Rooster ready enough. Either way. I'll be spending my week getting my application to grad school finalized and hopefully can get it all sorted out and sent in by the end of the month, that would be my goal I suppose. I have to meet with a variety of folks to get that done but I think I can manage. Jumping around a little, the ride down yesterday was fast and smooth except for one hiccup in Barrie when the accelerator stuck to the floor while I was passing cars. Going almost 140 km/h with no way of stopping can be a real rush. I managed to get to the right lane was planning on exiting and decided to stomp the pedal in disgust and lo and behold it started to function normally again. I took the back way just to be safe and ended up peeing on a lawn. Always exciting times in Guelph. I made it though. I still have to take Megan out for supper tomorrow and go see Dave on Friday before I head back on what is looking more and more like it going to be Saturday. Originally I was going to go on Sunday and make a week of it but I miss the north for some reason, I felt strange driving away from it, like I was missing something. I haven't had that feeling for years so I chalk it up to the amount of time I've spent there recently, maybe its starting to feel more like home again. I don't know and I don't pretend to want to know. I'll make my hasty and hopefully tasty retreat now. Phillips out.

January 18, 2007

Almost through the week home, soon I'll be heading back south for a week or so. On Monday our little car was involved in an incident, a driver other than myself managed to drive off the icy road into the ditch and, by the looks of the aftermath, with a little flip or spin. I have some pictures and you know they're good. Nobody was harmed in the incident although the car managed to sustain some pretty solid damage. It was carted off by a wrecker where they will decide whether or not it is worth fixing. I'm concerned either way, this is going to be costly on the folks. In the meantime we have a rental provided to us by our insurance assumedly. It is a nice sturdy auto, a 2007 Hyundai Sonata in silver. It gets from A to B and with some quickness, I haven't fully explored the speed and I doubt I will since it is winter and the reason we have it is due to bad road conditions. To speed is pretty much pushing my luck. I don't push the boundaries of distance over time like I did in my youth, I imagine I had a bit of a reputation among the neighbours as a speedster and rightly so. I used to drive well over the speed limit under any and all conditions. Looking back I'm surprised mildly that I came out clean, not really though, I am a good driver in extreme conditions, or at the very least I have confidence that I can drive in them [extreme conditions] <- ( I saw that in magazines, just trying it on, bear with me). Last night I went to Maeghan Reid's home in Haileybury. There was some kind of dinner gathering there. I didn't really know many people there but I knew of some and it was alright. Everyone was gone by 9 except Maeghan and I, we watched the Break-up. I still think Vince was in the right overall even though he was wrong on many smaller issues. She thought otherwise which made for interesting debate. I got home around 11 and spent an hour shoveling snow in the driveway so I could park the van. It had drifted in with the wind and even though no new snow materialized there was a massive shift in the placement of the snow. I also spent 45 minutes this morning trying to dig out the red rooster (1989 red Toyota truck). Then I drove it to the farm and got the tractor (ie a bigger shovel) and moved snow in many driveways. Tomorrow night I'm scheduled to go to the Reid ranch for some kind of party and Sunday Anna is supposed to come over and cut my hair and play pool. I'll probably insist the hair-cutting happen before I beat her at pool, just in case. Should be good times. She was happy to learn that I was coming back north after only a week. In all cases I'm done typing for today. Phillips out.

January 14, 2007

I made it back north. It was dicely due to non cooperation from the weather. Oh and the fact that we had a pool table tarped and hanging over the closed tail-gate. Ya, picture that. We had initially planned to use rope to hold the tarp and table down with other things underneath. The ropes were useless in that they stretched and loosened. I did come up with the genius idea of sewing the tarp to the table using the grommets and rope. I guess it would be more of sewing the tarp to itself under the table. In all respects it managed to hold the tarp down much better. We ended up buying straps before leaving and strapping it down hard. There was minimal tarp movement and that part of the journey went better than expected. We got it set up pretty quickly. I thought we left the bolts and other hardware pieces in Guelph but T-Bone found them under the seat. We played for hours after it was all leveled and ready. The next night I had Anna over to play. It turned into a short visit as she had leave to look after her dog who had not been fed in some time. I whiled away the evening with the Big T and the tube. Sunday was spent playing around in the basement. I got it all cleaned and got all my old audio visual stuff set up. It's starting to turn into a nice little basement. If I could get the couches were I want them it would be even better but the "owners" of the house (aka Mom & Dad) won't have it. I fully anticipate playing a lot of hours of pool this coming week, its enjoyable. I just wish I had my CDs to listen to on the stereo rather than Dance Mix 2001 repeatedly. No, it's not mine. Not much else to say other than I got everything done in Guelph that I needed to get done while I was there. It was a lengthy list and I'm glad it all got done. Hopefully my next visit is more enjoyable and less costly. Speaking of costly, I'm off my parents dental plan for the time being and I have to pay for my last visit. It's going to cost a whooping $257 for less than an hour's work, if you can call that work. I was not impressed by that price, the rest better not be so pricy. Money is not tight yet but it's going to be so I'm trying to make some cost saving moves, living at home being one. In return for food and board I'm becoming more of a domestic, which I don't really mind. Hopefully I can get my taxes done and get the money I missed out on last year as well as the money coming to me this year. That would be nice. That is about all I need to mention at this juncture. Phillips out.

January 11, 2007

It has been some time since I've posted. Firstly I had to wait until I was back in Guelph to access the proper files and channels to make the switch over at the end of the year. Secondly, I've been rather busy working with and more often for the Big T. He's got me cleaning grain and now I'm happy to do it cause I could certainly use the money. My funds have been depleted by Christmas and the dentist. I've been doing a good job of stopping the leak. Thirdly, the first day or so that I've been here, I've been frantically making moves and running errands to try and get everything done that I wanted to while I'm here for this brief stay. I will be back in the near future I realize but in the meantime I'd like to make some strong moves. I've nearly got everything done, the last major thing is to go and pick up my pool table. I'm hoping like a bugger that it all works out. I've been keeping busy by playing on the new Xbox 360 in our home. We bought a couple of games yesterday and it is highly enjoyable. Our next step is to buy an HDTV. Brown and I were in Best Buy yesterday and we were ogling them. He works full-time now and can possibly afford one. We'll see what happens soon enough. The summer should be a good time. So in that covers the past week. Going back further will just lead to monotonous recollections of mundane events. Hardly worth my precious time. I've made the necessary change-overs and I should be able to continue my posting quest from my remote station now. I doubt I'll have any major updates in the near future but I will make more of an effort to get the word out to the people. Over the past few years I seem to have developed a solid fan base of trusty, loyal supporters who I've let starve over the past weeks. Some are even mildly compulsive in their checking for updates but that is encouraged. I formally apologize for my neglect and hopefully I haven't soured anyone from continuing to check up on me. Good tidings to you and to me a good night. Phillips out.