monsterdiver

I don't know how I might have forgotten to mention this the other day, but I think I am getting (or have got) a hernia. This started a week and a half ago and got bad enough for me to go see my doctor, who then sent me to the emergency at the hospital (in order to confirm that was not having an attack of appendicitis). Six hours later and they discharged me with a 'non specific' finding that was not life threatening and instructions to come back if it got a lot worse. Oh, and instructions to go on a 24 to 48 hour liquid diet. Did that, still feeling the pain a week later.

Cheers,
S.

I guess when one chooses an online name/persona one must think of it like choosing a tattoo. Not as permanent, but close. I got tired of working out combinations of my names and initials and random numbers for various user accounts and found that MonsterDiver was relatively unused. Which seemed like a good idea at the time, since there are dozens of Sean Harrises (including a pro football player, a heavy metal rocker, a rally car driver, a debater, and JK Rowling's best friend). Unfortunately, since first using that name (I think for some webmail account that I no longer use) I have pretty much stopped diving. Which has me thinking that using a moniker that goes MonsterAnything is probably a bad idea unless you plan on staying that way for a really long time. MonsterSmith is too ambiguous, MonsterBlacksmith does not trip lightly off the tongue, and there is a small chance that in years to come I might move on to something else. Who knows?

At any rate, I should be celebrating tonight for I have delivered my first metal objects for sale. A small step in the process of starting a new business, but a fundamental one nonetheless. I now have orders for more stuff. Today, several dozen pot rack hooks, tomorrow the Eiffel Tower! Seriously, though, I have an order to do several sign brackets which is a step up from hooks, but I am willing to put my time in doing the little things until I have gained a certain mastery over the craft. Actually, I am reluctant to even call myself a blacksmith of any sort--although I have it on my business cards (it's easier than calling myself a "metalworker who uses blacksmithing techniques but doesn't think he is yet qualified to call himself a blacksmith"). Really, I think that far too many people happily label themselves as this or that whether or not they truly possess the qualification and I'd like to avoid being one of them.

On the blacksmithing front, last week I made myself a tumbler out of a salvaged motor, some scrap two by fours, an old arbor and a couple of pulleys and belts that I bought for the occasion. Total cost: around 30 dollars. Time saved wire brushing fidgety little hooks by hand: priceless. What I can't believe is that I read a suggestion that you use a 5 gallon plastic pail as the body and from that planned out and built the thing (along with the calculations for RPM reduction) and got the bloody thing to work on the first flick of the switch. I did have to change the tilt of the barrel and add a fin to keep the contents tumbling after the first 3 hours had started to smooth out the inside, but these were minor tweaks. Now I can throw 30 to 40 small pieces in and let it run for an hour, come back and find them polished. Life is good.

Other than that, I had my welding class again last night. This was our last evening of stick (arc) welding and an introduction to MIG, which I am so looking forward to. If Oxy-Acetylene is sewing by hand, then stick is a cast iron treadle sewing machine and MIG is a modern electric Singer with all the attachments. True, you can weld poorly with a MIG, but with a little attention to what you are doing it is twice as fast as stick, and twenty times faster than Oxy-Acetylene.

Rachel is late coming back from work tonight (actually she's at another meeting after work) and I am wishing she were here right now. She is going through a stressful time since changing jobs.

I think that that is it for tonight.

Cheers,
Sean.

Well, I don't seem likely to every update this thing frequently and continually. Life continues apace. Can't say that I am super busy, but on the other hand I'm always doing something. To catch up from the last entry, I should categorize things:

Home

Renovations continue. Lately we have been cleaning up outside in preparation for winter and fixing the mess that was left after I had a backhoe rip up the crumbling walkway in front of the house. Rachel and I placed down a dozen patio stones and built new steps to replace the old ones. We are also infested with mice again (they seem to like to come in here when the weather turns cold). Unlike last time, no more mister nice guy... we are setting little spring loaded traps, and I found my first victim this morning. This weekend we are finally tackling the basement.

Work

I haven't had an IT contract since this summer, so I'm feeling very broke. I have started to put out a few feelers, and some things may come to fruition, hopefully.

Blacksmithing

I have a working forge! Alan and I ripped down the ceiling and JC helped haul the last of it to the dump. Then we made a box to fit the salvaged furnace blower and hooked it up to a vent hood hanging over the gas forge (In order to provide breathable air in there).

Since then (that was a couple of months ago) I have made a bunch of things to take around to the local shops to see if I can drum up some business. I have been asked to make a display rack for a local glass blower, and yesterday was given an order for a bunch of hooks.

I have also been taking a welding course at the local agricultural college and have been adding things to make the shop more functional. Right now I'm welding up a stock rack so I can move all of the metal from a pallet in the centre of the floor to a wall where it will be less in the way. Next, I shall need a layout table (probably 4' by 8') and a new stand for my post vice.

Other stuff

Rachel has started a two year term employment with National Defence. She is currently undergoing culture shock.

A couple of weeks ago, Rachel and I attended a one day course on solar and wind power. We came away with a strong message to reduce energy consumption through efficiency. Even if we never generate any of our own power, the course was well worth it for the energy saving aspect. We have replaced 95% of our lights with compact florescent bulbs. We are also going to engage a consultant to give us recommendations on reducing our heat loss through the winter.

There is a little chipmunk living in the back yard who now climbs up to my knee to take peanuts from me. I have named him buddy.

That should bring things up to date for now.

Cheers,
Sean.

Last Saturday Rachel and I went to an auction out past Lanark where I bought a number of small job lots that included some tools and four clocks (which we will pass on to JC). The rest of the week was taken up with slow progress in renovating the shop so I can breathe fresh air while working in there. Yesterday my friend Alan was up helping me to rip down part of the ceiling and remove bales of disgusting fibreglass insulation which we took to the dump.

My mom has been recovering from hip surgery and I've been driving into Ottawa every day or so. I bought her a Gameboy to help with the boredom of being laid up while she recovers.

Last night Rachel and I went to see War of the Worlds. It wasn't too bad and although I won't go out of my way to see it again I did enjoy watching it. I do have to wonder whether Spielberg has to have a screaming kid in every movie, and how is it that all of the people get turned to ashes along with their underwear, but not their pants and shirts?

Today we went to the North Gower farmer's market which turned out to be more of a crafts fair than a farmer's market. Not too much produce to be found, but lots of knick knacks, wood furniture, knitting, jewelry, pottery and the like. We really need to find a place near here where farmers sell the fruits of their labour.

Other than that, we are looking forward to having JC up for a week (there is a really good auction coming on the first Saturday that he'll be here).

Cheers,
Sean.

The gas (propane) forge works absolutely great... however it generates so much exhaust/fumes/bad air that I have definitely got to install a system to remove air from the shop. I have a large old blower from a furnace that I salvaged that would do the trick, so I went out on Friday to buy some ducting to go with it. I still have to set it up.

This weekend Rachel and I have been working around the house and yard. I've been mowing like mad, and Rachel has tackled all of the construction material/junk in the back porch. We are supposed to have a few people over on the long weekend for a BBQ (this was to motivate us into getting more stuff done) but we may put this off for a while as we are no where near ready to entertain a crowd of guests. Still, we are about 95% finished the main floor, which is over half the house (it's a bungalow). We don't even want to think about finishing the basement at this point!

Now we are off to see someone about a 20 quart mixer which will give us a bit of a break. (It is very hot out today!)

Cheers,
Sean.

PS. JC, we got your message and will be giving you a call when we get back.

Got back last night from my trip to North Carolina with my dad. It was a whirlwind tour of 3000 kilometers in three days and my father did all of the driving (he enjoys it). We Stopped at several places along the way, but the most important was Kayne and Son where I bought several hammers, some tongs, a flatter, a fuller, a hardie, an electric blower for my coal forge, and a brand spanking new gas forge. I am very pleased. My dad picked up a pile of hard wood from India (which had come over as packing crates and was destined to be firewood) that he will turn on his lathe, so he was pleased as well. Even though I was only gone for two and a half days, I was happy to get home. Now I'm off to the shop to set up my new forge and try out the tools.

Cheers,
Sean.

Last week (or the week before--I can't remember) I was rubbing my forehead when I noticed that the corners of my hairline had shifted by an inch or so. This has set me in a weird mood and has caused me to start rubbing the area from time to time as though I have to convince myself that it is really happening. The weirdness is caused by the fact that I never expected to experience male pattern baldness, which I always thought was too bad since I found the idea of men lamenting the loss of their hair to be silly and something that I would never do. Now, much to my surprise, I find that I am not only loosing my hair, but I am a little distressed over it and majorly distressed over being even a little distressed over it. Go figure.

I am planning a road trip with my father next week. We plan on heading south to North Carolina, visiting blacksmiths and blacksmithing supply stores along the way. I plan on returning with a gas forge and a swage block (among other things if I can find them).

Yesterday I spent some time wandering through a local scrap yard looking for some good blocks of steel to use for shaping things (found some nice and heavy round disks). After that I came back home and spent the better part of the day cleaning up the yard.

Today I'm going to see if I can get my forge blower working again and barring that I'll spend some more time cleaning things up.

Cheers,
Sean.

Man it has been a long, long time since I've put anything in this journal. What's worse, the last year has been one of the most hectic of my life. I don't think that I could even come close to writing an update on everything, so I will try to summarize:

House

We started renovations shortly after taking possession, and on the advice of some of my coworkers, we decided to tackle some heavy changes before we moved in. In short, we demolished the wall between the kitchen and dining room (making one big space) removed tones of solid wainscoting, all of the flooring except for one bedroom, half of the kitchen ceiling and more. We then put in drywall, stipple, 800 square feet of ceramic tile on a double layer of 1/2 inch plywood (with about 8000 screws in it), hardwood, Venetian plaster, new wiring, etc, etc...

What started as a reasonably livable space we trashed and redid in our own style. Renovations still continue and now that summer is upon us we have moved out doors to try to fix the rather neglected landscaping.

Job

Went the way of the Dodo in October... the company started to lay people off in August, and it was only a matter of time before I too was given an opportunity to explore new options. It did give me extra time to work on the house. Since then I have done some IT consulting, but have shifted my focus to metalwork.

Blacksmithing

Took another course with a knowledgeable, curmudgeonly sort of guy (Bryan Hughes) for one week in August. Learned a lot from him, but then shifted my focus to renovations and did not set up my forge at our new place until May. I have been banging about for a bit since then, but now I need to replace my electric blower (which was never quite adequate to begin with and has finally succumbed to over use/abuse). Now I am trying to make a go of it as a metal worker, but need to spend more time in the forge and should acquire a few more tools to help my on my way.

Other stuff

Rachel is overworked these days. She took on a new role with new responsibilities last fall and has been run off her feet ever since.

We took a trip to Cuba in February with some friends (on very short notice) which did a world of good, but the effects of which did not last.

We love living in the country (mosquitoes not withstanding) and spend time in the garden, or by the pond counting frogs. It's been hot and humid for the longest time, but now we've had a couple of good thundershowers with lots of rain to cool things off. We would not survive without our air conditioner.

Dial-up sucks. Part of the reason that I have not updated in so long has been the sheer amount of work involved in fixing up the house, but also the intolerably slow speed of our internet connection. I basically read mail, look up/do important things and then log off. It just takes too much time to do anything enjoyable.

JC has been a world of help... on several trips he's helped me buy power tools, set up the shop, get wood/supplies, design furnishings that we are starting to build, and work around the house and yard.

We still miss our cat and (despite my allergies) maybe are considering the possibility of adopting one or two more.

Well, that's enough for now.

Cheers,
Sean.

The easiest way to work through the myriad of changes in Rachel and my life is to work from the most recent events backwards.

Electra, 1990 - 2004

Very sadly, today we had our cat, Electra, put to sleep. She was very ill and had lost a lot of weight over the last few weeks. She was fourteen and a half years old, and I had had her since she was a little kitten. She had been an indoor cat for most of her life and had been in good health (except for being overweight) up until this year. She was showing signs of slowing down when she came down with what appeared to be a respiratory infection about three weeks ago. We owe a debt of gratitude to our cat sitters (Robert, Marc, Marc, and Karin) who over the last two weeks for took particularly good care of her while we were away. It was difficult to get her to take her antibiotics, and in the end she stopped eating altogether.

Electra was a good natured person who was highly affectionate, very well behaved, and seemed to love everyone unconditionally. We miss her very much and she leaves a void in our lives since (owing to my allergies) she is likely to be the last cat we have.

Rachel's mother's birthday

Earlier today we went to Cornwall to drop off J.C. and to take out Rachel's mom for her eightieth birthday. Her favourite venue switches back and forth between Burger King and McDonalds (both of which serve better food than the cafeteria at the nursing home). Fortunately we were able to go a little more highbrow and had lunch at the Riverside Restaurant--a small, ancient mom and pop affair that serves the best pizza in Cornwall.

Clean up

Saturday J.C. and I spent most of the day drying out tents, tarps, and gear while Rachel did a dozen loads of laundry. The van still has a bit of a whiff about it.

Maine

Rachel, J.C. and I spent the better part of a week on the coast of Maine, camping within a few feet of the beach on the south end of Penobscot Bay at South Thomaston. This is a trip that I have been doing every couple of years for the last fifteen summers, and where Rachel and I started our honeymoon last year.

Friday started with high winds and heavy rains. Spent the first part of the morning attaching lines to the tents (ours and those of our neighbors who's kitchen tents were collapsing). We headed into Rockport for breakfast during a lull in the weather. Could not find a useful weather forecast other than occasional showers and winds up to 15 mph. We decided to tough it out and spend the day shopping for antiques, postponing any decision to leave until Saturday. We bought some tarps and returned to the camp to cover most of the camp. After half an hour of slopping about in the rain we realized that both J.C.'s and our tent had significantly flooded and most of our bedding and clothing was soaked through. We then decided to throw everything wet into the van and drive home to Ottawa. We arrived back home around 10 PM.

Thursday was a beautiful day spent mostly at the camp recovering from the miles and miles of walking that we had accomplished over the first few days. Walked along the beach at low tide looking for sea glass and other bits of washed up stuff.

Wednesday started with a trip to the Rockland Cafe for breakfast (best fishcakes I've every had), after which we headed south, down Highway 1 stopping at a forge that was closed and then one that was opened, an antiques fair in Bath, the Maine Maritime Museum (also in Bath), and finally Freeport. We traversed the length of Freeport, stopping a many of the outlets and picking up some clothes, shoes, and a fancy propane/lantern adapter at L.L. Bean. By the time we returned to the campsite we were quite exhausted.

Tuesday started quietly around the camp, went hunting for crabs at low tide, eventually made our way up the coast to Rockport/Camden. I checked out a forge that turned out to be closed and J.C. had better luck with a clock shop that was open by appointment only. The owner was in the middle of some work, but consented to allow us to look around for a few minutes and answered some questions. In Camden we toured the shops (J.C. bought a hat to help protect his sunburned neck) and the harbour front. I took a number of pictures of some very nice forged iron work. In the end we stayed in Camden for a lobster supper right on the docks beside one of the day sail schooners.

Monday we began with a trip into Rockland, walked around the commercial harbour and then the Farnesworth Museum. We then drove to Cushing and looked around the Olson House (the place where Andrew Wyeth painted a great many of his early works including his most famous piece Christina's World). We made our way out to Permaquid Point where we had a fairly unobstructed view of the ocean and clambered over the rocks. I stopped at yet another forge that was closed.

Sunday picked up J.C. in Cornwall and headed for the coast. We stopped at a couple of places along the way (for lunch, antiques, and a farmer's vegetable stand). It rained for the latter half of the drive, but was remarkably clear when we got to our destination. We arrived with plenty of light to set up tents and get settled in. Went into town for provisions and wound up having supper a Denny's (all of the other restaurants had long lineups).

Haliburton School of the Arts

The week before our trip to Maine, Rachel and I and another friend, Karin, drove out to Haliburton, Ontario, for five days of study at the Sir Sandford Fleming Haliburton School of the Arts. Karin took plein air painting, Rachel took furniture decorating, and I spent the week blacksmithing. We rented a cottage and had a very good time overall.

We bought a house

The week before our vacation was set to start we found a house between Kemptville and Merrickville along Highway 43. The scramble to get things inspected, approved, and finalized was incredibly hectic and nerve wracking. In the end, we got the house and the mortgage and will take possession on 31 September. The place has 1.6 acres of land (part lawn, part bush) and has a two bedroom bungalow that is approximately 50 years old. It requires very little fixing up to make it livable (it's in good shape for it's age) but has a number of 'projects' that appear to be in state of partial completion. It has a detached but heated two car garage, a large man made pond and an odd 10' by 10' two story out building that we have to figure out what to do with. All in all we are very excited.

Well, I'm off to bed.

Cheers,
Sean.

No kidding it's been a long time. I keep putting off updating this thing because too much is happening in my world these days. Work is the same old thing. Married life is bliss (especially when you have a great wife). The blacksmithing goes exceeding well. I have my forge set up at my father's place and have been turning my hand at various small items. So far I've made a few hooks, brackets, two sets of flowerbox holders with decorative leaves, various fire pokers, a spring fuller, and part of a latch. I have been visiting various blacksmiths around this end of the province and have joined a couple of associations ABANA and OABA.

Things have been overly busy. (what else is new?) We are actively seeking a house down near Merrickville (a quaint little town on the Rideau water way, 45 minutes south west of Ottawa). So far we have seen a few good prospects, but nothing that didn't either require a fair bit of fixing up, or wasn't quite what we were looking for. We keep searching.

In a couple of weeks Rachel and I head out to Haliburton and a week later Rachel, JC and I head off to the coast of Maine for a week (mmmmm.... seafood).

Hopefully this entry germinates into a long and unbroken stream of entries.

Cheers,
Sean.

It's early but Rachel and I have a lot to do today-she has her course and I have to go help my cousin move (the problem with owning a van is that you are far too useful to other people at times, but I don't mind).

It's raining, but I might head down to my dad's place if it clears up. I'm getting closer and closer to having my smithy set up. I have everything I need to get started except the forge, which we will pick up in short order. I am debating taking up the offer of the blacksmith who taught me (to rent his smithy) because the price is steep and access is very limited. I would pay the price if I had a more flexible times (he wants me to use it only Wednesday mornings before noon) or I'd agree to the time if the price were much cheaper. As it stands, one or the other would have to change in order for me to accept.

In a related topic, Rachel and I are headed to the Haliburton School of the Arts in August where she's taking a week long furniture decorating course and I'm taking blacksmithing. We are both looking forward to this, big time. The following week we are headed to the coast of Maine with JC to enjoy camping, seafood, sight seeing, and generally romping around.

Cheers,
Sean.

Rachel is enjoying her course and has managed to foster a massive chocolate craving in me, which is entirely surprising since I have never been much of a chocoholic. She gave me the low down on what constitutes good chocolate and what is considered to be the best... we then went to a shop on Sunday and found some really good stuff (Valrhona) which, while fairly expensive, is really, really good.

Work trundles on... I'm still doing some final things for the project from hell... but I'm still not yet having to deal with our business partners. It may come to that, but I'm hoping to avoid it at all costs. Man, just hearing things second hand and reading a small number of e-mails from these guys is enough to get me ranting.

Tomorrow I have off, so I'm headed back to see the blacksmith that I took lessons with. He called the other day and suggested that he might want to rent out his shop during the summer. This would be excellent, as he is a lot closer than my father's place and has far more equipment than I have managed to assemble so far.

Right now I'm avoiding the television (Rachel is watching, though) the Senators are losing to the Leafs in the final period of game seven of the first round of the playoffs. Blah. I'm really only a Senators fan during the playoffs, whereas I am an Arsenal fan for the entire season. Thank goodness the Gunners are going to clinch the Premiership this season. Happy, happy.

Off to bed to do some reading.

Cheers,
Sean.

Well, there has been a lot of water under the bridge since I last posted. And while some things were most excellent, others were not quite so good. Work stress boiled over in February, so I took a month's leave to try to gain some perspective.

( Read more if you are interested... )

While I was off I finally took a blacksmithing course. Only one day (split into two half days) it was really good to be able to pound on some metal again. I realize just how soft and weak I am, I had a monster blister on my thumb and the muscles in my right arm had turned to jelly half way through my fist day.

( More on blacksmithing... )

In other news, my good friend Colin and his lovely wife (I was best man at their wedding five or so years ago) gave birth to a happy, wriggling, little boy by the name of Alexander around three weeks ago. He is super cute, and has very large feet (he will probably make an excellent swimmer if the proportions stay the same as he grow up).

Speaking of things doing with water, I am trying to get back my enthusiasm for diving, but the cruddy weather keeps sacking my will to get wet. I had originally thought of hitting the water by the beginning of April, but now I might wait until mid may.

Rachel is off to Le Cordon Bleu school here in Ottawa for a short course (4 Saturdays) on Chocolate. Mmmmmmmm.... She is incredibly talented in the kitchen and enjoys cooking a lot. I hope she is having a good time there.

I must now run out and do some shopping.

Cheers,
Sean.

Where to begin? It's been almost a month since I last updated. Things have been very busy as of late. (When are they not?) Rachel's mom is sick right now but it looks like she's starting to recover a bit. When Rachel went down yesterday things looked pretty touchy, but when she called the hospital this morning she was told that her mom was now responsive and eating a little. Both of us will be going down tomorrow. When something like this comes up, all else seems quite trivial by comparison.

Hi JC, if you're reading this, good luck with the apartment hunting... keep at it (even if it's a drag) it's a good skill to have. Hope you find something reasonable soon.

Short update, but I hope to be back on before another month has passed.

Cheers,
Sean.

We went to visit Rachel's mom in Cornwall on Thursday and had a good, if brief, visit. Rachel's brother was there with his better half who were up from Landsdown. We then dropped by my aunt and uncle's place, unannounced, in nearby Long Sault where my cousins were down from Ottawa. I love my aunt--she uses cooking as form of relaxation. I felt bad about leading Rachel there since she can't have any starchy or sweet stuff. My aunt fixed us up with a salad (I don't think that you can go there and not get fed). After, I got to partake of my aunt's baked goods, of which there was plenty on hand. We were about to take our leave when my father called my aunt to let her know he was on his way, so we waited. Turns out he decided to cross over into the U.S. to fuel up only to find all of the gas stations closed and a line up at the border on the way back through customs. We ended up only seeing my dad for a few minutes before we headed back to Ottawa.

Boxing Day morning I went out to test my luck against the hoards gathered at a Future Shop. Our DVD player (one that we were given as an incentive to rent from our current landlord) died over a month ago. I had no idea what time the store was opening--I just showed up at 7:08 to find the parking lot filled with about 500 cars. I found out later that it had only opened at 7:00 and apparently some people started queuing outside the doors at 2:30 AM! Nevertheless, my accidental strategy worked out just fine... I managed to push through the crowd and get my hands on one of the advertised specials for only $88.99. I was out the door, trophy in hand, within half an hour. Unlike the previous player (an Appex?) this is a brand name (Toshiba) with a one year warranty... gotta like that.

Rachel and I then spent the rest of the day with good friends, Pat and Brian, where we feasted and drank (at least I drank, anyway) and played board games, and had a most excellent time. Pat's good friends Anne, Pierre and Zena (sp?) as well as Stephanie and Paul (Pat's son and daughter) were there. We started with brunch: a huge egg bake, sausages, bacon, ham, tourtière (meat pie), coleslaw, headcheese, bagels, toast, pickles, sauces, and on and on... orange juice spiked with champagne, coffee spiked with brandy... and then dessert: apple pie, blueberry pie, cheesecake, butter tarts, raspberry tarts, pet de soeur (nun's farts), and fudge, and more. All of this homemade by Pat. Such a wonderful, wonderful feast! After brunch we retired to the living room and sat in front of the fire while we played Trivial Pursuit, Cranium, Headbanz, and Scene It.

Today was a little more somber. Rachel and I went back to Cornwall to attend the funeral of a dear friend of Rachel's adoptive family (her former in-laws who are now simply a second mom and dad Roy to her). Mom Roy's cousin's husband passed away on Christmas Eve. Rachel knew Réjean, but I had never met him. We were in a rush to get out of here and found out while we were in Cornwall that JC and his mom were already here waiting for us. Agh.

Now we are all back and just about to have supper. I have just finished installing the new DVD player and we're all going to watch Finding Nemo afterwards.

Cheers,
Sean.

Set up the scanner yesterday and have been scanning old photos, slides and even negatives. This thing is really cool. The new picture for my LJ is from a slide taken on a trip to Curaçao a couple of years ago. I found some negatives of photos my dad took in 1951 of then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip of Greece on a royal visit to Cornwall.

I went for a good long walk and took a ride on the O-Train. It's pretty fast, and a damn good idea. But why did they set up the only light rail link in the city between an empty field in the south end of the city and a vacant industrial lot to the west of the downtown core when 90% of the daily commuters travel along an east/west corridor? Somebody isn't too clear on the concept in the city planning department. Every major, respectable urban centre in the world has light rail or a subway. We should have built one years ago.

Right now, I'm not feeling too good. I think I've been hit with a double whammy of food allergies... blah!

Tomorrow, if the roads aren't too bad, we're off to visit Rachel's mom. Otherwise we may end up having to spend the day watching soccer on TV. Ah well, her team is back on top and she's very pleased about that.

Cheers,
Sean.

Well, here I sit quite contented. I am off work from today until the 5th of January. No more worrying about the project from hell. There is much happiness indeed. I have a big mug of tea, and the whole day ahead of me. I have so many things that I should like to do, that I have no idea where to start. I have a scanner that I bought at least 8 months ago, which I have never set up. I have a web page to update, and another that I wish to create. I have books and books and books that I want to read, and things I want to make. All sorts of projects I could do, so much so that I fear that a week and a half is too little time to get them all done.

Last night I came home and dug the tree and decorations out of the back of our storage space in the basement. Anyone who knows me might be shocked, given my pronounced anti-x-mas stance of years past. It just seemed like the right thing to do for my wonderful wife, who still gets into the spirit of things. I think that I was beginning to rub off on her to the point where she was resigned to not bother putting up the tree this year. When she got home, I had the tree and lights up and all of the decorations ready to be placed with care. We put every single decoration on the tree, both the good and the ugly. When we take it all down, the ones that have special meaning shall go back into storage and the others will join our ever growing 'garage sale' collection.

It's very funny, but this sudden let up in pressure almost hurts. When you've been under so much stress for so long, it feels very odd not to be in a panic.

In other news, we (Rachel and I) committed a horrible gaff on Saturday night. Thinking that we were supposed to be going to my mother's place on Sunday for a holiday feast, we whipped up supper at home and were puttering around in our grubs when my stepfather called to ask where we were. My mother had other guests over, and had prepared a huge meal with turkey and all of the trimmings. Agh! I have apologized repeatedly to my mom, but that was a monumental goof on our part.

On Sunday we went out to play ball hockey as usual. We shoveled snow for over half an hour before playing a very vigorous game--I think I may have overdone it at the time, but I felt great the day after. I was in a lot of pain, but I recovered fairly quickly. While we were playing someone from the New RO (local Ottawa TV station) showed up and filmed us playing and interviewed one of our players for the 6:00 newscast. We completely forgot to switch on the set to see if we were on. Oh well.

Now I'm going to set up the scanner (if I can find a spot in this office to put it--we have two desks and a table with four computers, a printer, a spot for sewing/painting/whatever and tons of paper). I really need to build some large shelves for stacking equipment.

Cheers,
Sean.

Well, the flu lasted almost exactly 24 hours--thank goodness. Started work at home and didn't go into the office until noon. I find that I get a lot more done when I'm not being pulled in several different directions, however my colleagues have learned to hound me while I'm at home, so it makes little difference in the end.

Picked up two new fish on the way home this afternoon (corydoras catfish). They seem to be settling in well.

Rachel is working on her painting (gifts) while I plug away on the computer.

Not much of an entry... off to bed now.

Cheers,
Sean.

A lot has happened in the past 16 days... mostly to do with work. Lots of work. I'm now working on two projects full time and analysis for another two proposals. I am soooo looking forward to the holidays. Our company is closed from the 24th to the 2nd and I hope to take the first two days off next week to extend the whole thing to a fortnight.

Today I'm sick with flu, but since I have my computer at home I worked anyway. The project from hell continues unabated.

Rachel has been doing a fair deal of baking... I can't believe that I ate a whole (middling sized) container of walnut-chocolate chip cookies today... on top of being ill. Sometimes I am an idiot.

I now have some new fish in the aquarium... 8 zebra danios. Much more peppy and have no problem gobbling up the food I feed them without me having to net out any excess. The tank seems to be back in good working order.

My football team (Arsenal) are back on the top of the premiership tables and finished top of their group in the champions league group round... much happiness there. Too bad my wife supports Manchester United!

Went and saw my father and stepmother on the weekend. The gave us a huge painting as a wedding gift. I'll have to take a picture and find a host that I can upload it to.

Showed up for ball hockey on Sunday, but there weren't enough of us to have a serious game (and it was bloody cold). We passed a ball around for a bit, then headed off to Tim Hortons for some coffee. Love that THC.

Still reading The Overspent American. This is a good book and has really motivated Rachel and I to curb our spending (and our desire to spend). A good thing at the beginning of the spending season.

Well, that's all I can remember right now.

Cheers,
Sean.

Last night I had a very odd dream. I seemed to be reflecting on the arbitrary choice of the ubiquitous arrow as an indicator of direction. I was wondering, why use arrows particularly? Now, I am fully aware of the fact that our current global civilization is probably far too attached to certain symbols to be likely to migrate away from them to another set..but it struck me as odd how we came to use a representation of a weapon to act as an indicator of where we should go or which way things lie. What if a society that did not use bows and arrows had given the world our current symbol set? I dreamt that the symbol for direction could just as easily have been a stylized depiction of a hand in the form of a walking pair of legs instead of an arrow. It looked something like this:


On an unrelated topic at work today I had this thought:

When people look back at the so-called information age they will remark that the greatest disappointments involved philosophers who thought they were scientists, scientists who thought they were philosophers, leaders who thought they could manage, managers who thought they could lead, and software engineers in general.

Today I managed to set a personal record for distant communication. In the morning I chatted with one of my colleagues who is now visiting Tehran (8.5 time zones to the east), and this afternoon I chatted simultaneously with Heimo in Helsinki (7 hours east) and Mike up in Whitehorse (2 hours west). I'm sure there are people who have friends around the globe who would think this old hat, but it was a first for me.

Changed the water in the aquarium tonight, made a very good pork stir fry for supper, and now I'm off to bed.

Cheers,
Sean.